Vancouver Forum: Mullahs leave little room for optimism in Iran - Vancouver Forum

Mullahs leave little room for optimism in Iran Posted: June 15, 2009, 11:02 PM by NP Editor Peter Goodspeed A heavy darkness is descending on Iran as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad backs his claims of victory in last Friday’s elections with a crackdown on opponents.


Plainclothes policemen roam the country, riot police block the roads, newspapers have been censored, mobile phone service interrupted, Internet sites blocked, opposition leaders arrested.


Instead of celebrating the successful conclusion of their 10th presidential elections, Iran is being rocked to its foundations by its worst crisis of legitimacy since the Islamic Republic was founded 30 years ago.
Despite Monday's defiant demonstration by tens of thousands of Iranians in downtown Tehran, another revolution is unlikely. Severe repression is far more probable.


All the levers of power — control of the police, the military, the courts and the media — remain in the hands of the existing regime. And there is every indication they intend to use them to stay in power.


Mr. Ahmadinejad canceled a state visit to Russia yesterday, where he was supposed to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of a regional summit, in order to supervise government handling of the current crisis.


A day earlier, during a victory rally in Tehran, he had dismissed opposition protesters as “a few weeds that are making problems” and icily warned there will no longer be a place for them in Iran.


Iranians who continue to protest the election received a faint flutter of hope yesterday, when Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instructed Iran’s Guardians Council to review all allegations of election fraud.


The move came a day after Ayatollah Khamenei met with leading opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to discuss the election.


The Iranian opposition optimistically portrayed Ayatollah Khamenei’s demand for a Guardians Council investigation as a stunning turnaround, but state-controlled news agencies also reported Ayatollah Khamenei sternly warned Mr. Mousavi “issues must be pursued through a legal channel.”


A day earlier, the morning after the election, Ayatollah Khamenei quickly embraced Mr. Ahmadinejad’s election, calling the result “a divine assessment” and urging Iranians to rally behind Mr. Ahmadinejad.


Iran’s 12-member Guardians Council traditionally endorses the results of Iranian elections. It also vets potential candidates for all elections, eliminating those it regards as “unqualified,” and it has the power to veto all laws deemed inconsistent with Islam.
The council members are all appointed directly by Ayatollah Khamenei in consultation with the head of Iran’s judiciary.


In past conflicts between Iran’s reformers and conservative clerics, the Guardians Council has repeatedly sided with the conservative mullahs and frequently banned reformers from even running for public office.


The current chairman of the Guardians Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, endorsed Mr. Ahmadinejad before the election.
Last night, he appeared on state-run television and promised Iranians a quick decision, saying, “I hope it will not take long for the noble people to see that the question has been examined in the best way and we will give the result to the people.”
Technically, the Council has 10 days in which to rule on the validity of the election.


Judging by past experience, it seems unlikely the Council will side with the reformers.


During the 2005 presidential election, Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of the Iranian parliament, who also ran for president this year, mysteriously found himself squeezed out of a presidential run-off election when he unexpectedly finished third. He immediately complained of “bizarre interference” in the polls and suggested money changed hands to push Mr. Ahmadinejad past him into a run-off against former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, which Mr. Ahmadinejad unexpectedly won.


The Guardian Council all but ignored Mr. Karroubi’s claims of fraud and rapidly endorsed Mr. Ahmadinejad’s victory.
In a similar vein, the Guardians Council allegedly ignored complaints of possible election fraud before last Friday’s voting began.


Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karroubi appointed their own Election Supervision Committee to monitor the voting and during the final days of the campaign the chairmen of that group sent the Guardians Council a letter of complaint warning of possible election manipulations.


The reform watchdogs complained the number of ballots printed exceeded the number of voters by 2.6 million; they said there were twice as many ballot box seals as were needed and they reported rumours soldiers in the military had been asked to surrender their identity cards ahead of the voting.


Senior officials in the Interior Ministry, which supervised the elections, were also said to have sent the Guardians Council a letter warning of election manipulations within their own ministry.


Apparently nothing was done in either case. Not a good omen for any post-election investigations of fraud allegations.


Over the weekend, Mr. Mousavi’s campaign newspaper Kalameh Sabz (Green Word) tried to document some fraud claims by publishing a report that more than 10 million votes in Friday’s election were missing national identification numbers, which made the ballots “untraceable”.


Government censors refused to let the newspaper appear on the street.


Mr. Mousavi then turned to his Web site to complain about interference from the security forces and asked the Guardians Council to nullify the election.


“I believe this to be the only way to return the general trust and support of the people for the government,” he declared.


His Web site is now blocked in Iran.
National Post
pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com

Iran is a clear example of how Radicals run islam. What happened there was seen on our news, an eyeopener to all those who say

1. "but there are so many moderates"

2. "there are so few Radicals"

3. "I know one (or more) who is sooooo nice"

Bottom line in that the "NICE" ones do NOT run islam.

Botom line is the "Radicals" DO run islam.

Iran is merely a clear example of the case everywhere in the world.

In UK, deadly Deobandis RUN the majority of mosques now.
Their even deadlier cousin, Tabliege Jamaat, runs most of the remaining mosques.

Their even deadlier cousin, Tabliege Jamaatt is now taking over many in Canada, more every week, and right here in town.

The "NICE" folk you all know do NOT run anything,

nor do they fire hate espousing deadly imams,
nor do they speak out and change ONE SINGLE THING inside of islam ...... they do NADA!!! to change anything,
thus, giving the Radicals free reign to run all of islam their own way.

.