I’ve of course been following the story of the French release of Ali Vakili-Rod, the Iranian assassin of former Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar. If you like assassinations, that one — in Paris in early August, 1991 — is a real masterpiece. The three-man killer team beat an elite force of Parisian police, and cut Bakhtiar’s throat so efficiently that no one heard a sound, and they got away so quietly that the body wasn’t found for three days.
Vaili-Rod was the only one of the team to be captured (in Switzerland), and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Now he’s back in Iran, where he received a gala reception. The assassin had lunch with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei yesterday, and is now officially defined as a “historic national hero.” He has been given a beautiful villa in north Tehran.
Bakhtiar was a fine man, the sort who is entitled to be called a national hero. As my friend Potkin puts it,
(Bakhtiar) fought in the Spanish Civil War as an International Brigadist against General Franco’s Fascism. Later, he volunteered and fought in the Orleans battalion and in the French Resistance against Hitler. He spent a total of six years in Shah’s prisons and was the only significant opposition figure to the Shah, who had the foresight to warn Iranians in 1979 that mixing religion and state will have tragic consequences. This mountain of man fought against despotism and tyranny all his life to the very end, and this is how a Western democracy betrayed him…
Bakhtiar survived an earlier assassination which resulted in the death of two French citizens and the permanent paralysis of a French policeman. His assassin then, Enis Naqash, was also returned to Iran after some lucrative contract. Bakhtiar’s murder and that of his secretary Soroush Katibeh was with the lucid collusion of the Mitterand government at the time with the Islamic Republic. France’s betrayal and collusion with the terrorists is therefore not a one off event.
As the world press has abundantly reported, at the same time the killer was returning home, Clotilde Reiss, a French teacher who had been in jail in Iran for several months was released, and flown back to Paris. A swap, it seemed. And yes, there was indeed an exchange, but Clotilde was not the primary object of French concern. Sarkoz et al were instead profoundly concerned about a different woman. A real spy, codenamed Lily.
Her real name is Nazak Afshar, of mixed Iranian/French background. About 16 years ago she was transferred to Iran to act as one of the top spies for France. “Lily” was arrested last summer. This arrest – and what followed – is still top secret. Lily knows a lot, and the French did not want her tortured by the mullahs.
After Lily’s arrest there were special concessions by the French to Iran–according to a generally reliable source, involving a multimillion dollar cash payment — Lily was transferred from jail to house arrest at the Syrian Embassy in Tehran.
The deal was brokered by former President Jacques Chirac, in Istanbul, where he had gone to receive an honorary degree. It was an elegant bit of misdirection. The whole world analyzed the “meaning” of the release of the French schoolteacher, while the real swap went unnoticed.
Until now.
I just hope that the strike against Iran is launched without warning and comes in the dead of night with the bedroom window of every mullah given its very own
cruise missle.
Since the “West” has unconditionally surrendered to Iran, do not hold your breath.
The terms include us (USA) offering up thousands of Americans to be human sacrifice to Islime: Iraq/Afghan.
And the slow but methodical imposition of Sharia in the “West”, including the USA!
You think I am wrong, but I am not.
I figured out the basic script of the “Long lasting War and sell lots of weapons”(c 1991) by 1978;
When you see the USA impliment the “draft” (shortly), you will not only know you have been sold out, but that the number of human sacrifices demanded to be slaughtered has increased.
I figured out the basic script of the “Long lasting War and sell lots of weapons”(c 1991) by 1978;
When you see the USA impliment the “draft” (shortly), you will not only know you have been sold out, but that the number of human sacrifices demanded to be slaughtered has increased.
Uhmm..”implementing the Draft?”..in this country??? Do you pay any attention to
the news? The population of the USA is so befuddled they would rather commit
suicide so as not to offend Islam. Hell, a Mosque..is going up on the site of the
World Trade Center..and no one is outraged. Our President cant even say the word
Islamic Terrorist ..let along fight them. And the TV fed public is incapable of
believing in anything…or any cause, let alone submit to a draft.
France generously freed and delivered Majid Kakavand to Iran as well.
This is meaningful part of a piece of news on France 24 :
“A Paris court on Wednesday asked for additional information before deciding on a request to extradite Iranian engineer Majid Kakavand (pictured on the right) to the US. The outcome could affect the case of French national Clotilde Reiss.”
http://www.france24.com/en/20100217-paris-court-mulls-extradition-iranian-engineer-kakavand?quicktabs_1=0
17/02/2010
Iran has perfected the business of hostage swap, it has done it so many times with the French, US, and others so it is not fair to single out the French remember the Oliver North or so called Iran Gate/
Strike against Iran does not solve any problems and will add more fuel to the problems and will create new ones my proposal is isolation of the regime by barring the leaders ( down to middle managers) and expelling of one of their embassy staff at a time for human rights abuses I believe if we bring the atrocities to the front line it will be an easier sell both inside and out side of Iran. This is really Iranian people want against the IRI, and they will rally around this issue
The west missed the best chance to do this last year. I was disgusted that Obama and the EU were largely awol on this issue.
Nice site, by the way. You may like a video I posted on my blog just yesterday.
http://wearegovernment.blogspot.com/2010/05/youve-come-long-way-baby.html
Homayoun, what is your opinion of Fuad Ajami’s believe that the government in Tehran has support of the lower middle-classes, supports them and coopts them through the Basij etc. (if ‘basij’ is correct)? I have been reading for years on various websites comments by supporters of MeK and other dissidents that the regime was ripe to fall, that anti-regime subversion was ongoing, and that the only thing lacking was international support (to me it looks like internal revolution will not occur).
In any case, Israel can not wait for this promised counter-revolution. The world has been waiting for it for a long time – by this I mean those that are sympathetic to average Iranians.
My own view is that many of those promising early collapse (or is it ‘very late’ collapse) of the regime are intellectuals, and permanently emigrated or exiled.
I am sorry – Ajami’s ‘belief’ – not ‘believe.’
The Basiji are the government’s street thugs, but according to some reports, they weren’t enough to keep Iran quiet last year. Many people reported that the Hizbullah were imported and dressed as Iranians to help suppress anti-government riots. There are some Basiji who don’t like the current regime but still support the original Islamic Revolution and feel that it has gone astray. There are also many Iranians who would love to be rid of the Islamic Republic altogether, and indeed many of these people have emigrated. The most serious worries for the government are the abundance of young, unemployed discontents. After all, the middle-aged don’t usually take part in revolutions; this is a task for the young, and a large percentage of Iranians know only the Islamic Republic. As far as signs that it is over, many cracks have been appearing for the past few years. Perhaps one of the clearest signs that inner support for the regime has dwindled is the massive transfer of funds outside of the country by the solidly middle-class and upper-class Iranians. In 2006 or so, up to 1/3rd of all the oil money started going unaccounted for. This is a sign that the people stealing it don’t believe the government will be around long enough to catch and prosecute them and is one of the first signs of inner collapse. Before the regime collapses, they will obviously hit Israel to distract from its problems; I personally believe the regime would have suffered far more last year had Obama supported the Iranians instead of dawdling.
I am afraid, Mr Ledeen, that your sources aren’t reliable
and that Azadandish and Homayoun Mobasseri have it right.
Vaili-Rod finished his legal sentence to jail, and we had no legal means to keep him anylonger on our territory.
Also I find it funny that you’re making the eloge of Mr Bahktiar, a communist. I’m not saying he wasn’t a fair person, but consiering what are the political tastes on this board, generally communists never find a good appreciation.
If you need relevant sources, I advise you “Iran-Resist”
m-c, i love criticism, but at least spell my name correctly, ok?
uh, cant see where is my error !
Not ‘right’ if it means forever telling the US and Iran NEVER to strike against this regime when it is clearly lethal and wishes to control, yes, the world.
It astonishes me that nearly every would-be or self-described Iranian dissident ‘forbids’ especially Israel from acting. Often this is preceded – though not here – by a statement of how much Iranians like Jews and Israelis. Then the instruction is given to sit tight, and in many cases the dissident actually threatens Israel implicitly or explicitly if it should fail to wait for the ‘revolution’ to occur.
We are past that point. The lives of French intellectuals or exiled Persians are not greater in value than those of seven million Israelis. Bibi will not sit on his hands forever.
Going on what those most in the know already know, does this shed light on why Khomeini was in France for as long as he was? For, before the Shah was overthrown, Khomeini
was in France, and it was there that he flew in after the Shah fled.
Or, does this shed light on other things?
Heidar Moslehi, Mimister of Information ( intelligence) of the mullahs regime proposed a swap of American hikers with “Iranian” prisoners in the US. This means they are quite happy with the way they have blackmailed France and they know that their system works because the West, including the US, is actually no more than a toothless tiger ( is it really a tiger at all? I doubt)and can be cheated, attacked, and blackmailed easily.
It is interesting that they are apparently no more afraid to show what they are.
Given that Khomeini was in France for a period of time, before he returned to Iran after the Shah fled, I suspect some very interesting details combining into quite the picture are being kept under wraps.
How long will this be the case is very interesting, for all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are not in place.
Well at least we are going to begin secret military operations in Iran. Problem is Obama leaked this fact to show how tough he is toward Iran. How many people will this leak kill? More than the Valerie Plame leak I’ll bet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/25military.html
OK thank you that helps quite a bit actually.