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How the Iranian Election Was Stolen
With this power, one Iranian Ayatollah, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi -- the spiritual leader of President Ahmadinejad -- seems to have stolen the Iranian election, to have justified the now-ongoing arrests of reformers, and to be trying to eliminate such democracy in Iran as now exists.
According to an open letter of early June by a group of employees who work on elections in the Interior Ministry -- after May polls showed that Ahmadinejad would lose the election -- Yazdi gave the Interior Ministry employees a Fatwa, a religious degree, authorizing the changing of votes.
The Ayatollah told them: "If someone is elected the president and hurts the Islamic values . . . it is against Islam to vote for that person." After harshly criticizing the other candidates (Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rezaie) he went on: "You should throw away those who are unqualified, both morally and lawfully."
The letter reported that the elections' supervisors subsequently became "happy and energetic for having obtained the religious Fatwa to use any trick for changing the vote and began immediately to develop plans for it." (The letter indicated that the same thing had been done in March 2006 to help fundamentalists allied with Ahmadinejad in that election. But when the Interior Minister at that time, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, reported these irregularities to the Supreme Leader, he was fired by President Ahmadinejad.)
Among other things, the election supervisors reduced the number of voting stations, increased the number of mobile voting stations, reduced the number of eligible voters, insisted that vote-containing boxes must have two official seals, and printed 12,000,000 more ballots than were necessary.
Yazdi has been called the most conservative and influential cleric in Qom. He espouses complete isolation from the West and proclaims nonliteral interpretations of the Koran to be heretical. He is said to have great influence with the Revolutionary Guards and the Basiji paramilitary force. In 1997, he is said to have encouraged them to use any means, including violence, to stop reform agitation. In 2006, he said to use atomic bombs had religious legitimacy. Above all, he would like to eliminate the democratic element in the Iranian system.
Now, following four years of appointments made by President Ahmadinejad, Yazdi has many loyal supporters in the Government, including the head of the election commission.
A perfect political storm has arisen in Iran. Ironically, May polls showing that democracy might prevail in Iran have created conditions that could lead to the loss of such democracy as exists in Iran.
A weird president, mentored by a fundamentalist Ayatollah, may now use ongoing arrests to eliminate, politically if not physically, his reform opposition and then govern by repression. Recent unconfirmed reports suggest that Mohammad Asgari, an interior ministry official who had reportedly leaked evidence that the elections were rigged, has been killed in a suspicious car accident in Tehran.
Nonviolent opposition is the only answer. And protests are, after all, widespread and not only in Tehran. They have spread to Isfahan, Ahwaz, Shiraz, Gorgan, Tabriz, Rasht, Babol, Mashhad, Zahedan, Qazvin, Sari, Karaj, Tabriz, Shahsavar, Orumieh, Bandar Abbas, Arak, and Birjend. Many of these cities do not have riot police. The revolutionary guards and the Basiji have to be dispatched to many sites -- and an order to crack down everywhere could be more than the authorities would dare.
The Iranian reform movement is trying to seize the high ground, to avoid violence, and to appeal to the forces of repression not to use force. With the world watching, and with so many new techniques of communication, it may be that the reformers can give the authorities a run for their money. But it will take an awful lot of Iranian courage and ingenuity to make it work.
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A few more years of Bush, Cheney and Co. and we would be fighting our own revolution. Haliburton would be hitting us with batons and AKs. They were on their way.
They already stole 2 elections and trashed our Constitution. They own strong propaganda media outlets and have a following of fundamentalists and nationalists. They had a private army that is well armed and funded. The banks were in their pockets. They did everything in the name of God and to defy them was to defy the will of God.
Scarey wasn't it?
Can we now, finally, dispense with the oft-heard-on-these-fora opinion that Iran is somehow a democracy?
They have spread to Isfahan, Ahwaz, Shiraz, Gorgan, Tabriz, Rasht, Babol, Mashhad, Zahedan, Qazvin, Sari, Karaj, Tabriz, Shahsavar, Orumieh, Bandar Abbas, Arak, and Birjend.
Not mentioned enough. I would love more evidence though. I've been wondering what been going on outside of Tabriz, Shiraz, Mashhad, and of course, Tehran (Karaj sorta counts there, kinda). It especially makes sense among the ethnic minorities, which Mousavi was courting.
Also not mentioned enough, the lunatic Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi. Watch out for Comoros, he also mentored that president!
It wasn't an election in the first place; it was a popular referendum on which pre-selected candidate would hold an office that has relatively limited power. Its kind of funny that the Ayatollahs weren't even willing to allow the masses the placebo of a "fair election."
You are right. Take a look at these videos which show a meeting of the inner sanctum of govt in Qom. They show the insanely dangerous direction Ahmadinejad wants to take the country.
http://news.gooya.com/didaniha/archives/2009/06/089379.php
None of the news orgs have translated these yet.
You are absolutely right. These videos of a meeting of the inner sanctum of govt in Qom show the insanely dangerous direction Ahamdinejad wants to take the country
http://news.gooya.com/didaniha/archives/2009/06/089379.php
None of the news orgs have translated these to English yet.
NEOCONS AND MULLAHS TO THE TRASH HEAP OF HISTORY!
Nobel Peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi just said the Iran election was a fraud and is null and void.
New America Foundation, AEI and other neocons just love meshugge Ahmadinejad so they can threaten to bomb Iran. The last thing they want is an open Iran. It would severely undercut both the Israeli defense establishment and the American military-industrial complex.
true
Iran IS being bombed on a regular basis anyway, courtesy of Congress's $400 million Iran destabilisation fund.
Yazdi in Qom -Falwell, Robertson, Oral Roberts, Weyrich, Hagee-the same religious impostors in Iran and America. May the Iranian uprising show Americans the absurd nature of their own stone-age Protestant fundamentalism!
Similar to the Fatwa that took place in Florida and Ohio here
Bpeirce, you've hit the nail on the head. Difference is that unlike the Iranians, we Americans went along with the bloodless coup in our nation like sheep to the slaughter house.
Lots of speculation, little to no facts. Actually, polls DID predict the result and nobody outside the uninformed says otherwise. Try watching Al Jazeera, you might learn something.
If a teacher says "No one in the class cheated on the test," but a student says "I cheated, two others cheated, and I can tell you how we did it," you have two opposing sources of information. You can doggedly believe the teacher, but it's possible there's stuff he just doesn't know.
This article shows us the problem when there is no separation of church and state. These poor people in Iran still don't know that they have been brainwashed by superstition in order to be controlled. Until they rid themselves of being a theocracy, they will never, ever progress. It is really, really sad. Those in power use religion to control the thoughts of people and then use religion further to exploit the people. Instead of reading the Qur'an, these people need to be reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine. They are reading the WRONG books.
This post shows the problem when people still don;t know they have been brainwashed by the media into believing they have an insight into what the Iranian people believe and want. It is really, really sad. Those in power who control the media use stale stereotypes and propogandised images to exploit the ignorance and intellectual laziness of viewers. Instead of watching TV these people need to be reading publications by prominent Iranian intellectuals. They are getting their information from the WRONG sources.
When you read the writing of a "prominent intellectual," how do you know if that's the right source?
Because they tell you so?
Why are conservatives world wide so angry? Could it be because the young people of the world won't put up with having their human rights trampled on by the old power elite made up of male conservative thugs and crooks? 50% of the Iranian population is under 30 years old. Demographics alone suggest the election was stolen.
65-70%, actually.
"Conservative" parties in other countries are not the same as ours. Their platforms are often opposite that of our conservatives.
How the election was stolen? Hmmm, AkaMiniJob had a few drinks and laughed it up with a few of his Ayatooluh friends for a few hours and then said he won?
Those who obeyed are moral and intellectual children.
Religion is the strongest tool the politician has to control the masses. But, the Iranian population is young and is reasonably well educated. Therefore, many urban Iranians know the politician's deceptive tricks and don't allow themselves to be controlled by the fakery. And, the same group is also smart enough to be skeptical of a vote that is very much at odds with the most recent political polls. But, small village and rural people fall for the chicanery just like they do in the USA and otherr countries. And they make up a large portion of the citizens. So, the angry small-minded dictator that hates the USA and other Western countries will probably be dictator for the next twenty years.
There, but for the grace of God, go we. We came very close and remain so with our 'fundamentalists' wanting to push their beliefs on others. We all need to watch our backs.
That's why most conservatives go to religious colleges where their beliefs won't be challenged. Those that go to secular schools learn to think on thier own.
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