When this sort of thinking takes hold, as it has, you can hear the bells tolling for Khamenei, Ahmadinezhad and their ilk. For absolute power, in the hands of the supreme religious leader, is the short definition of the Islamic Republic.
The stench of panic is now widespread in Iran. Indeed, recent reports suggest that there have been larger and more violent conflicts outside Tehran than the ones we’ve seen on video from the capital. I’ll have more on this in future blogs. In Tehran, the major signs of the regime’s approaching downfall are political, the most recent of which is the hilarious battle over Ahmadinezhad’s top aide, one Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who, as luck would have it, just happens to be the father of Ahmadinezhad’s daughter-in-law. Mashai was officially fired on the 21st by Khamenei, but Ahmadinezhad has insisted that he will not comply. Funnily enough, the major criticism of Mashai is that he is soft on Israel. So here we have one of the world’s leading antisemites, Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, defending his deputy against an even more important antisemite. It all reminds me of the Pete Seeger song about Masoch and de Sade: “Delightful, Dr.Masoch? “ “Delicious, Count de Sade.”
Finally, my personal thanks go to S.L. Khamenei and his loyal henchman, Hossein Shariatmadari, the managing editor of the regime’s official newspaper, Kayhan. While I was recuperating in a local hospital from hip replacement surgery, Shariatmadari came forth with the novel proposition that I am the puppet master pulling the strings of former President Khatami, who had called for a national referendum on the legitimacy of the regime.
The hardline principle-ist Kayhan daily, published in Tehran today, attacked former president, Mohammad Khatami, saying that when he spoke of “the need for a referendum”, he was “carrying out the instructions” of Michael Ledeen, prominent member of the American Enterprise Institute (NOT; I am at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies) and special aide to former US defense secretary, Ronald (sic!) Rumsfeld (NOT), and to former deputy (sic!) president, Dick Cheney (NOT again).
On Sunday 28 Tir [19 July], Khatami said at a meeting held in the office of the Combatant Clerics Society in Tehran with the families of a number of detainees, that the way to overcome the current crisis was to rely on the votes of the people by holding a referendum.
Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the leader of the Islamic Republic [Khamenei] to the Kayhan Newspaper and the managing-editor of that paper, strongly criticized Khatami and his referendum suggestion today in his editorial, which was entitled: “Khatami’s proposal or the instructions of Michael Ledeen?!”
Actually, Khamenei has only the vaguest glimmering of understanding of the true dimensions of the plot that now threatens him. After all, I have managed to galvanize Rumsfeld, Cheney and Khatami without ever once discussing Iran with any of them, or their superiors. You can best get a sense of the diabolical cunning at work when you consider that I was one of the first to call for Rumsfeld’s resignation (late in the first Bush term), to criticize Cheney for his near-total absence froim the public debate over Iran policy, and that I have long branded Khatami a phony reformer who was guilty of ordering the massacre of the Iranian students ten years ago.
I did it all by cleverly saying, over and over again, “faster, please.”
As I do again today.
Thanks for finally confessing that you personally run Iran.
Even though the shadowy AEI still denies you work for them.
Meanwhile, we wait for effective leadership in Iran’s freedom movement.
I hope your feeling better and soon will get back to normal walking.
Re. Your question of: “serious question right now is what form the next challenge to the regime will take.”
Iranians will win this battle just the way they won over the Arabs, Mongols and Alexander. Iranians ALWAYS did this by wearing down the enemies. This is now happening in the frequent demonstrations. I just read a very nice report about the demonstration that took place at Hafte-Tir Square, which basically showed how foot soldiers were running out of breath running after demonstrators from one side of the street to the other, while carrying heavy loads of tear gas and other protective gears.
People must know and remember this: the very SAME MOUSAVI HAS CHANGED since the time he was the PM then. What changed him? Iranian people. Iranian people have been shafted and HATE these people so much for so many years, yet they’ve been working on these A. holes for so many years that got so many of them to this point.
So I tell people: Iranian were ALWAYS in fight with this regime, since the time these dictators (including Mousavi and Rafsanjani) broke their promise to provide a fair referendum shortly after the revolution. They broke their promise and they are now paying for it.
As far as near term, the way I see it, and as other Ayatollahs coming out against this government, they have total credibility problem. Ahmadinejad has Z E R O balls now to attend any REAL Intl. forum and brag about Iran and other nations. He looks so worthless and PHONY for anyone to believe him. That is why he is not going anywhere, but places like visiting President of Russia!
The baseej and the associates will wear down. Fear of going out and demonstrating will become more coordinated and these people will lose their edge. The so-called “Red Line” as it relates to Khamenei has been cross, spit on, pissed on and so much that such things no longer have their meaning. And that is why even Mousavi keep saying that we have to solve this problem under the current system. He knows people are willing and craving for the day to sink them. Situation is so bad that even Ahmadinejad that was told not to have Moshaei as his VP STILL he looks like he has hearing problems and not hearing what Khamenie has asked him!!! These are “Red Lines” that are now meaningless even among the oppressors.
they are all characters of the master scenarist Rafsandjani
one day they get the part of the “good”, the next day, of the “bad”
I don’t trust any of them
what I know, they killed american and french soldiers in Lebanon, they blow up Lokerbee and Tenere planes, they sponsored the ambush attack last year in Afghanistan, also they are linked to the rapt of the 2 french agents in Somalia, they keep in custody 1 yound innocent french girl…
so where are the iranian moderate voices that apologize ?
in the contrary, the expats greens in the US, still insult us, copying the ol discourse that was launched to subjugate France in 2003 (ie the gang Paul wolfovitch,Rumfeld… & Cie
so for me they all can go to Hell, I am sorry for the innocent Iranians
In the words of Jack Hawkins to William Holden in “Bridge on the RIver Kwai,” “…there’s always the unexpected.” I had prayed for the take-down of the mullah-ocracy but never dreamed it might actually happen. The possibility of removing an existential threat to us, our alllies, the region and western civilization in general with minimal bloodshed (the victims of the past 30 years sadly notwithstanding) is a godsend.
My concerns would be what sort of government will form after the revolution? What will its attitudes towards Israel be? Will it still pursue nuclear weapons? Will the White House support the rebels or will they act as they did towards Honduras?
We are assuming that whatever the future holds, it will be a nuclear-free democratic Iran that no longer supports global jihadist terrorism. My earlier quote of “Kwai” fits here. I can’t really imagine anything worse than what’s there now, but sadly, history has a way of proving me wrong. I hope I’m right.
A bloody revolution about to topple the government in Iran? It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people. I hope that when the government finally does fall, the people string Ahmadinezhad up in a public square, just like they did Mussolini towards the end of World War II. It just seems incredible that the Obama administration is still silent about supporting the anti-government movement. It makes us look very weak and indecisive, but I’m sure Hilary Clinton is loving this, as she eyes running against Obama in 2012. Hard to believe, but on a foreign policy level, Obama is starting to make Jimmy Carter look good. I think Obama had better start looking for a new home in Chicago in 2012.
Ledeen is head of a superpowerful cabal of falafel distributors whose existence is yet to be verified, but whose machinations have convulsed the Middle East for centuries.
Michael Ledeen’s analysis of the Iranian civil conflict is something to anticipate. His insider knowledge of the interplay between the combating parties is second to no one I have seen writing on the subject in the western media. Pajamas Media out performs the mainstream media by a wide margin when it posts one of Mr. Ledeen’s pieces. I always learn something important when I read his writings. Michael Ledeen symbolizes why the New York Times, Time, Newsweek and the other old media bulls are in such deep trouble. They just don’t deliver this kind of quality anymore.
Mousavi words might soon fit America: “You are facing something [renewed]: an awakened [America],an [America] that has been born again and is here to defend its achievements.”
Sadly, the POTUS and members of his administration appear to be the only ones disappointed in these events.
Michael, as both of us know, there are some things that never change. It made more sense for the countries who earned glory in the Second World War to deal with Konrad Adenauer after the war, than with Adolf Hitler before or during the war.
The same logic applies today: it is better to deal with the Persian Adenauer (whomever that person is), rather than the current Persian approximation of Adolf Hitler.
For updated reporting from the People of Iran, may I suggest the web site: http://iran.whyweprotest.net/
The Green Brief is a daily publication of confirmed, sort of confirmed activities all over Iran.
I’ve been following rather closely since just before their ‘elections’, I started following persiankiwi on Twitter, until there was a need for that person to go underground.
Many are in prison, many getting tortured in prison, and many have been killed. You have a large cloud of different agencies doing the dirty work for the government of Iran.
I doubt we’ll ever hear an accurate death toll of this ‘people’s revolution’, but this ‘revolution’ is still going ‘full speed ahead’. And we may yet see a Democracy form in Iran.
I’m quite respectful of the bravery the people have put on display.
But we have enough revolution taking place, that there is turmoil even within the ruling cleric regime. We may just see the complete governmental meltdown in Iran that many of us would like to see, if the anti-people Iranian agencies aren’t able to get a grip on this soon.
-Pat
er ummm
they are all characters of the master scenarist Rafsandjani
one day they get the part of the “good”, the next day, of the “bad”
I don’t trust any of them
what I know, they killed american and french soldiers in Lebanon, they blow up Lokerbee and Tenere planes, they sponsored the ambush attack last year in Afghanistan, also they are linked to the rapt of the 2 french agents in Somalia, they keep in custody 1 yound innocent french girl…
so where are the iranian moderate voices that apologize ?
in the contrary, the expats greens in the US, still insult us, copying the ol discourse that was launched to subjugate France in 2003 (ie the gang Paul wolfovitch,Rumfeld… & Cie
so for me they all can go to Hell, I am sorry for the innocent Iranians
Congratulations!
The Death Spiral of the Islamic Republic
Works for me. I read recently that Khamenei (aka the exalted one, supreme leader, who is “above politics”) has really blown his so called spiritual cover with machinations around the illicit election of his handpuppet, A’jad.
The dude’s feet of clay have been exposed, exactly as when I saw those feet at Khamenei’s glee in a speech he gave just after September 11.
Dear Mr. Ledeen
Here is an Iranian prespective
As one who has been reading your articles over the years – I must say you have always been one of the very few western analysts who have never been fooled by the Islamistsin/Hezbollah Iran. Thanks for the article and thank you for always siding with the people of Iran – who are very different than what the mullahs stage on their Friday Prayers. On you next article maybe you can give us a brief rundown on who this Russian Character “Shamir Sultanov” is. From the reports we get – he is heading a team of 30 Russian special agents, helping the mullahs to break the demonstrations.
The repeated attempts of A’jad (& other Khamenei cohorts) to pin events in Iran on the United States really demonstrate how pathetically lame these individuals are.
It’s like the Russians trying to pin assassinations of regime critics on “unknown assailants” or Barack Obama trying to convince the American people that he is reducing the deficit by printing money and ordering up the spending of another trillion.
Don’t go getting a big head on us, Micheal. They will be singing your praises from the rooftops of Tehran soon.
“Ledeen is great!”
I just cannot contain my laughter another minute. The axis of evil will lose a founding member-Iran. However, all is not lost: the axis of evil has a new member-the USA.
Dr. Ledeen, congratulations for your promotion to the rank of Supreme Foreign Agitator, and may your new hip measure up to the number of asses that have been so distressingly under-kicked for so long.
I don’t know much about Persian matters, but not a lot of expertise seems required to sense that something of tectonic proportions is afoot in the underworld of
squaring the circleislamic republicanism.Please, Honorable Cyberspace Ambassador of the Jeffersonian Hell, keep illuminating us. I promise to try to keep up with the accelerating velocity you have been advocating over the years.
Marie Claude, hello!
You still do not understand that mullahs do not equal people.
That Rafsanjani & Mousavi do not equal Green Sea.
That this movement is bigger than any of the them.
That people are protesting because they want a change and not because Rafsanjani or Mousavi or Khatami tell them to protest.
You think that tail wags the cat, but you are wrong. It is the cat who wags the tail.
Ella
I know what I am talking about, and I didn’t included the population that is paying for the mullahcraty manipulation and its relay through lobbies in the US (and or France…too)
you have not the same clues (that I get via informed sites), I am afraid your”s are of the MSM
Welcome back from your surgery. I hope you are recuperating nicely.
i think it is the same spirit in Honduras. the same ol tired powers that be, want to keep the world status quo. the people are just tired of the poke in the eye and the excuse that they caused it. seems to be an universality to these words “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“Yes, “faster, please”.
Respectfully disagree… I’d say organized resistance is slowly dissipating and getting more sporadic. The world’s media has moved on to the next news cycle… It’s Tiananmen, Persian style. It’s all about who has the monopoly of force…
http://www.bloggybayou.com/2009/06/ya-say-you-want-revolution.html
Gary Ogletree;
Your ad hominem attack on the author offers nothing educational for him or the rest of us who took the time to read Mr Ledeen’s piece. If you have a criticism of the writer why don’t you save us all some time and lay it out in detail? You read like a complete horses behind when you reduce yourself to personal pot shots. It also makes me wonder if you are working for the dictator and his theocracy. Tell us what is missing in Ledeen’s analysis. Either that or stop wasting our time.
Another excellent piece. I’ve talked to so many pro-reform people in Iran over the past few weeks. None of them want reform any more. They want to get rid of the system. I think regime has lost his pro-reform wing supporters massively inside of the country and the clock is ticking for the system. It’s only a matter of time.
Marie Claude:
I am concerned that if this present protest movement gets too close to Rafsanjani, his influence will cause it to wither and die. I strongly suspect there are many Iranians who voted against Musavi (and Khatami and Rafsanjani), seeing Ahmadinejad as the least bad among the candidates. I suspect that many of those who really did vote for Ahmadinejad like neither him nor the clerical regime. Ahmadinejad is probably loathed by many of his own supporters; they merely loathe Rafsanjani even more.
If the alternative to Iran’s present regime were liberal democracy, I think most Iranians would want that alternative. If the alternative to Iran’s present regime were Rafsanjani – oh yuck. Hashemi Rafsanjani is the Hermann Goering of the so-called “Islamic Republic”.
And what example to the Iranians have right next door. Most will ignore it now because it suites their politics but the Iraq equation was the tipping point in the middle east and the domino effect could continue if the Iranians are successful.
Well i certainly hope so.And not a moment to soon for the Iranians.
Very FISHY and SUSPICIOUS news came out that allegedly states majority of Assembly Experts members are in support of Khamenei and his absolute power, as we get close to Ahmadinejad 2nd term swearing. HOWEVER this phony news release does not say which one of the Experts member signed this letter and supported such news release!
This letter is FAKE and MADE UP by the same Shariatmadari gang in Tehran to portray that Assembly of Experts are 100% behind Khamenei!!!???? This fake news in REALITY proves the opposite by making such false claim!
I bet Assembly of Experts majority are already pissed by learning about this false news release and for sure this make them more determined to take action.
I think VERY SOON we’ll be at the point that EVERYONE will know that small minority is holding up to power without much base and zero room to land on solid ground, and they will sink the moment they look beyond their noses.
Alexis
Président de la République, Président du Conseil, M. Mahmoud AHMADINEJAD (06.08.05)
Vice-président chargé des Affaires Parlementaires et Judiciaires, M. Ahmad MOUSSAVI
So Moussavi was responsible of the countless condamnations for hanging…
precisely that is the man that is flattered by the western mobs suddenly converted to the green revolection !
“There’s nothing less true because Ahmadinejad is not the equivalent of the president of the Republic in France or in the United States and Khamenei is far from being the number one of the regime. The one who disposes of every power is the for life president of the Expediency Discernment Council of the Regime -of the Supreme Guide’s guardianship (EDC). Rafsanjani who is in control of this organization that was created for him by Khomeini -his half-brother- decides of each main lines of the Islamic Republic in every field.
The EDC includes every founding members of the regime such as the so-called moderate Mussavi or even Jannati, the mullah in charge of validating the candidates for the several elections of this so-called republic. Everything is decided at the EDC : who can be a candidate, who will be declared as the winner.
Whatever remains is a politically correct decorum in which the president, ministers and members of Parliament play to the democracy and give a popular and democratic aspect to the decisions that are taken in a collegial way by Rafsanjani and those who were considered in 1988 as worthy of being part of this discrete and fixed decision-makers’ club”
http : // www .iran-resist.org/article5483 .html
“By refusing to dismiss his first vice-president, Ahmadinejad has in fact broken the law! It is even doubly outlawed because he refused to submit to the advice of a religious Khamenei, the No 1 of a regime which is officially known as the Guardianship of the expert in Shariah.
Normally, Ahmadinejad himself is liable to immediate dismissal without appeal or prosecution But it will not happen: they will leave do so because this is a scenario! This scenario is aimed at Westerners who know nothing of Iranian laws. In the absence of explanation of the law, that refusal is an expression of a simple misunderstanding between the president and his biggest fan displayed a misunderstanding which implies a loss of legitimacy of the president in his own camp.
That is exactly what the regime wants to convey. This has a useful life for its future.
The objective is to collect evidences against Ahmadinejad to dismiss him at a time deemed appropriate. This moment will come when Ahmadinejad accepts a compromise on nuclear power to turn off the sanctions against Iran. When the lifting of sanctions will be effective for not respecting its part of the contract, Tehran will dismiss Ahmadinejad to dismiss this kind of for insubordination
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad will have carte blanche to taunt the Guide and other major ayatollahs to the chagrin of the latter, very unhappy with the choice of political tactics embodied by the powerful Council of Discernment.”
It is the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a veteran of the Islamist war against the Soviets, who claimed responsibility for the ambush of August 18 during which ten french soldiers were killed. It is a great friend of the mullahs!
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is even intermittently in Iran since 1996, when the fall (opposed to the Taliban) of Islamic government headed by Rabbani, Hekmatyar and Commander Massoud. Hekmatyar has lived continuously in Iran until 2003, sympathetically invited by Khatami !
It is as drugs trafficant and aquainted with bin Laden that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has concerned the mullahs in 1990. These have benefited from the war chaos with the Soviets to finance a dozen paramilitary Islamic groups in the western regions of Afghanistan, including the Northern Alliance of Commander Massoud.
During his stay in Iran, Hekmatyar rallyed the Taliban. He returned to Afghanistan and would always run off towards Tehran after the U.S. attack in 2001. This time he took with him 24 senior Al Qaeda who had found refuge in Iran (among them the son of Sayf Ben Laden and Al Adel, the Egyptian, that the mullahs wanted to impose as the general in Al Qaeda).
These alliances between representatives of the Afghan Sunni Islam and Shiite mullahs are further evidence of the unfounded theory of a simple incompatibility between Islamist Shiites and Sunni Islamists.
I would be interested to hear a realistic scenario from you, since you seem to have a lot of insight into the daily events of protests in Iran. My question to you is: What do you actually believe is going to happen with all the Iranians who have been in strong support of the regime and where will they go? I do have a hard time believing that the baseej and the members of the “revolutionary” guards are not ideologically schooled, which makes me doubt that people who were, are and most likely are still going to be convinced that the rule of a supreme leader as the absolute ruler of the entire country and its people is absolutely vital in order to ensure the survival of Islam in a society that quite openly yearns for secularization. As much as I applaud your enthusiasm to overthrow, topple, end this theocracy (or how ever you would like to call it), as much do I wonder how are these people to be convicted and by whom? Not to mention the question of who is going to replace the current political class of Iran? Everybody, who was working for the government, to a more or lesser extent, must have blood on their hands. Who do the Iranian people trust at all to hand their democratic sovereignty over in order to get a constitution, which is acceptable for every Iranian?
Marie Claude, you would want to look at “The Blood of Lambs” by Kamal Saleem. Yes, Sunni and Shia co-operate, but those who do so are defiled. Therefore, they will do it, but at a high price.
Kamal Saleem was a Lebanese citizen who got protection from other Muslims, and Armenians, from the Muslim Brotherhood. I don’t know if the book has been translated into French, but it would be worthwhile for that to be the case.
Merci beaucoup,
Michael Ledeem is on the right side of this issue but history will prove him wrong. Dictatorships can last a couple of generations.
I don’t think that this book was translated into french.
Anyway, I suppose that our renseignments services know well Lebanon and HBZ fighters
just a historical note: keep in mind that none of this interesting confusion in Iran would be happening if Saddam were still running Iraq.
Why not just fly a plane over Iran, push out Pelosi, Reid, King Hussein Obama, and Teddy Kennedy (all with parachutes, Teddy with a snorkel). The whole place will be in shambles in six weeks.
Did you see this list?
http://www.amnesty.org/en/node/11522
Plot gets thicker every minute!
Yesterday Ahmadinejad fired the Minister of Culture and according to BBC the minister of Intelligence was also let go today. Now here is the interesting part: According to BaHonar who is one of the right-winger leader parliament, given the firing of the two makes the total firing of the ministers over 50%, which by law Ahmadinejad must obtain a new confidence vote for his entire cabinet from the parliament. So according to him, all government decisions and orders are illegal, since he has nt seek confidence vote from parliament!!! And these things are said by his own supporter camp!
Now comes the backfiring of the Assembly Experts members by coming out and denying such a letter in support of Khamenie was ever issued and one source mentioned maximum of 8 members might have signed such letter!!!!
Now I wonder why Ahmadinejad decided to fire two of his most hated ministers just a week before his illegal 2nd term. Any ideas?
OK, now the news is that there was a big fight among ministers with Ahmadinejad in the cabinet meeting and many of the ministers were protesting his decision to have Moshaei as his next term first VP. So Ahmadinejad got so pissed and angry that he left the cabinet meeting and then he asked Moshaei to run the meeting!!!!! And that got many of the ministers so pissed that some of them left the meeting!!!
So it looks like his firing of the two ministers might be result of his extreme anger and being upset for his lack of power to decide whom he wants to hire. And then again, this very POOR nature of his leadership proves how sloppy they decided to believe by easy fraudulent action to cover up serious vote fraud to their own favor!!!
Thank goodness for Michael Ledeen who is quite right with “Faster, please!”
I am basically an insignificant satirist, who happens to be concerned about the global spread of the Islamists and the half-black-half-white Neville Chamberlain, Jimmy Carter, or worse American president.
Hence, businesses with courage should cut off Iran, first with gasoline. And help the people through sanctions to force the mullahs to give in or cave in on themselves.
Iraq was a strong example… Iran will be different… a revolution… perhaps…
http://onwardjames.blogspot.com/2009/06/iraq-was-strong-example-iran-will-be.html
I hope people’s relative optimism is warranted. I am not at all certain that those who hold power in Iran aren’t above slaughtering 1000s of their fellow citizens to maintain power. I think the world got lucky in Eastern Europe when the Soviet empire unraveled. Alas, those in power in Iran seem more like Stalin than Gorbachev.
One can hope and pray.
Michael, would you tackle one of the newer postings over at Ryan Mauro’s website about the Revolutionary Guards and their dog in the fight that is taking place in Iran.
For, this is something that had better not be ignored.
Thanks.
heathermc, you might want to check with Fouad Ajami as to the impact of getting rid of Sadly Insane (my favourite moniker dating from 1991 Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, of the mustachioed one).
It will take time, and there is no silver bullet, to deal with the gap between what happened at the Gates of Vienna, and the invasion of Afghanistan by Coalition members.
Hmm. I have heard that people who shout “allah o akbar” are going to pay steep penalty. But that’s not the best thing. Because many Iranians together powered their home appliances during the Ahmadinejad speech there was an electricity blackout at that time. Revolutionary Guard did not forgot that. And I could not stop laughing when I have read that general Seyed Mohammad Hejazi has announced, “The plugging in of irons at 9 pm every night is an act of subversive sabotage.”
It seems that Ahmadinejad and others are ……………worried.
I think MEK people in Iraq are at the top of the most traitor and anti Iranian people one can know and find. I think their leadership must face fair and independent trial for their crimes against people of Iran. Since my time in Iran after revolution, I came to believe that they are truly a cult than a political organization. If I want to compare the oppressive regime in Tehran that is currently fighting and torturing my countrymen, I still prefer to see this oppressive regime in power than a SATANIC group like MEK in power in Iran.
Having said all these things, I still think what happened yesterday to these MEK people at Ashraf camp in Iraq was indeed a criminal act against defenseless MEK people in Iraq. While I view them as traitors, I still believe when people take a refuge in a country, that country MUST DO all it can to protect those lives. Yet, I watched the Maleki government hand-in-hand with the Badr group going after these people who are growing old with no place to go.
SHAME ON THE IRAQI government for kissing the asses in Tehran to attack these people. SHAME SHAME.
Maryam Rajavi the leader of this cult asked a fair request from Iranian regime, and I think if they can guaranty their safety in Iran, as they stated by guarantees of Intl. bodies and as well as 4 recognized and respected Ayatollahs in Iran to guaranty their safety, some of these people want to go back to their families.
I know some of the old members that long time ago got out of prison, after months of torture and hearing many executions taking place at Evin. Tey promissed not to get involve with the MEK, and since that time they have lived a very successful lives both in Iran and U.S.
While Dr. Ledeen is resting, I have somewhat of good news! It appears in the last 24 hours of protests across Tehran and other cities, one EXCELLENT new pattern of demonstration began to take shape. I’ve been proposing this new way—of course many others also brought up this approach also—for a long time, and now we are seeing it happening.
Basically, the idea is to have MULTIPLE demonstrations AT THE SAME TIME in different parts of the city. This way the thugs have limited resources and this makes them to spread too thin to cover different locations. So I hope the same approach will expand further in the coming days.
I just watched Khamenei and his mentally sick president put together the most sick and most gross abortion of justice by showing the first VP of former president Khatami as one of the anti regime on Iranian TV. Khatami was/is a very popular president and now showing his VP looking like being tortured and lost weight on TV will INDEED BACK FIRE and makes Khamenei and Ahmadinejad much more hated than they are already.
This is indeed an EXCELLENT new phase for these people to lose power much faster, as more people will see how such respectful people are tortured and then they sing like crazy!!!!
They did the same circus show with Maziar Bahari and Tojbaksh on the same day, but I think the major media outlets decided not to cover them given their FALSE message they intend to do.
In Tojbaksh case, it was easy to ask him to sing and show step by step how he can bend and kisses Khamenei’s ass! He did not need any more convincing, since this poor guy was arrested before and went through the torture before, so I guess all he asked was how much he needed to bend and how deep should he kiss Khamenei’s ass.
This is BIG NEWS! And this will make Khamenei and his Mafia much much much more hated that what they do to these people in prison. These mother f..kers don’t know what is waiting for them, as Iranians start to buildup their hate for these mother f..kers.
Yes you are totally correct.