Rafsanjani's friday sermon on video

[bigwinnman]

Oct 29 2009
Iran: The Mousavi-Karroubi Meeting

Posted by: Scott Lucas in Uncategorized

Iran: The Mousavi-Karroubi Meeting | Enduring America

We noted in our updates yesterday the emerging news of a recent meeting between Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Khordaad 88 has now provided an English translation of the account from the Mousavi-linked newspaper Kalemeh:
At the start of the meeting, Mehdi Karroubi recalled the events in the exhibition for Journalism [Tehran Media Fair]. He expressed his disappointment about some of the wrong and undeserved reaction against him and Alireza Beheshti [a close advisor to Mousavi, and son of the martyr Ayatollah Beheshti] committed on behalf of an organized minority. He added: “It saddens me to see how bans on newspapers have ‘blessed’ the exhibition. An exhibition for journalism that should be the place for thought and dialogue has turned into a lifeless environment. In addition, some act so boorishly and with such a behavior who knows where they are leading the country to.”
On the same subject, Mir Hossein Mousavi pointed to the clips that he has seen from the exhibition and said, “Despite the bans on journalism, I saw a great crowd of enthusiasts attending the exhibition who were supporting you and the Green movement. Apparently, this annoys the minority to an extent that has made them commit such reactions.”
Mehdi Karroubi alluded to the era when Mousavi was the Prime Minister, “You are well aware of the things I have done. Because of the responsibilities I have had in the Outreach Committee (Komitte Emdad), the Martyrs Foundation (Bonyad Shahid) and the Parliament, I have always been and will remain in contact with people. I can see that people are at a very devastating condition. Poverty, corruption, and fraud have increased. These are consequences of the wrong and inappropriate organization and planning on part of the executive and administrative branches.
Mehdi Karroubi continued by comparing past and present and said, “Unfortunately, financial fraud of some of our officials is one of the main drivers of corruption within the country. I remember the days when government was so clean a bureaucrat would not have the money to pay for his family expenditures in a hospital. Today it’s different. My concern is that the new generation sees this and suspects that it has been like this ever since the early days of the revolution. This generation must know that such widespread economic corruption is a very new phenomenon.”
Based on this concern, Mahdi Karoubi added, “I grow even more sensitive when I hear the claims that this government has revived the discourse of the revolution and of the Imam Khomeini. This is a disgrace to the way of the revolution and the Imam. People, and especially the new generation must understand that we, the siblings of Imam, are against the conditions that govern the country today.”
Mahdi Karoubi also added, “Exaggerations that are common these days about some people and places could cause doubts in religious beliefs of some people, especially members of the newer generation. For instance, I have heard that they talk of the ‘Jamkaran mosque’ as though it is as holy as Masjid-Al-Haram mosque (in Mecca, Saudi Arabia) and Masjid-Al-Aghsa mosque (in Jerusalem, occupied Palestine). Such acts would only help ruin the trust of people even in their own beliefs. I have no idea what motivates some of these ‘honorable’ gentlemen to displace all the values and strip people of their beliefs in anything from their religion to their national history.”
Alluding to the current problems in running the country, Mir Hossein Mousavi said, “Our painful concerns are mutual. I too am aware of the problems you alluded to, as well as many other issues. We are in agreement. For instance the outcomes of talks on the nuclear issue in Geneva are shocking. If we do commit to the promises they have given in Geneva we would be undermining the efforts of thousands of the scientists across the country, if we don’t we would open up the door for collective action against us in the form of sanctions. This outcome is the result of an adventurous foreign policy that has no regard for rules and national interests. The ‘interesting’ point here is that while they openly, and repeatedly pay homage to the Americans, they accuse the children of the revolution and experienced public servants of relations and tendencies toward the west and the east. People should be told of affairs so that they would know what is going on in the executive management of the country. When I was the prime minister I used to emphasize that military forces must not involve themselves in the financial affairs of the nation.”
Mir Hossein Mousavi, referring to the mismanagement in the country and to the incidents in the internal and foreign affairs, added: “I have two suspicions. Either some of the gentlemen are on a mission to ruin the country and obliterate the establishment or they are very short-sighted and only think of today. They would only do that which takes them from today to tomorrow. I think the latter is closer to reality. These men only think of today. What happens in the future as a result of their actions is of no importance to them. Otherwise, no other reasoning could explain and defend the risks of this magnitude in the internal and foreign affairs.”
Mousavi also pointed out to the trials and detention that take place and the confessions that are broadcast and said, “Some think that such acts can change the things back to the way they were. But they are dreaming the impossible. They do not understand that no threats, detentions, trials, and even forced confessions can change today’s society to that of a year ago.”
Mousavi added, “Freedom of the political prisoners is a national demand. Their freedom can help resolve our situation.”
At the conclusion of this meeting Mahdi Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi discussed ways to improve on the communication between themselves and with people despite closure of most communication channels and information bridges.

[bigwinnman]

Oct 29 2009
Iran: The Supreme Leader’s Threat — Strength or Weakness?

Posted by: Scott Lucas in Middle East & Iran

Iran: The Supreme Leader’s Threat — Strength or Weakness? | Enduring America

I had just returned from a 2 1/2-hour roundtable on “Obama: The First 300 Days” when I read of Ayatollah Khamenei’s Wednesday statement, via an activist on Twitter:
“Questioning the principles of the election is the biggest crime….The very next day after election without any proof or evidence some PPL called the election a lie….The enemy exploited this & those who from the beginning were not supporters of the state joined them….Within the first hours I sent a private message telling them what they R starting will be used by enemy….I told them what they are doing will be exploited by the enemy & this is exactly what has happened.”
Getting the news via 140-character bursts heightens the impact, yet as I found the articles, inside and outside Iran, narrating the Supreme Leader’s message, the initial reaction did not fade even as it evolved. Evolved from surprise to concern and then hope.

Surprise because I had not expected such a direct assault on the opposition leaders. This is the most pointed warning that the Supreme Leader has put out since his Friday Prayer address a week after the election. Since then, he has spoken more generally about the “foreign threat”, letting others shake the fist against internal challengers.
And Khamenei’s timing is intriguing. Why raise the stakes so publicly a week before the demonstrations on 13 Aban? Why not let the protest play out, expecting that, for all the efforts of the Green wave, the regime’s restrictions on movement and communications would keep mass gatherings (or at least news of those gathering) below the numbers on 15 and 20 June? Of course, a threat may be intended to back down movement leaders keep people off the streets, but it can also have the opposite effect.
The concern is that the Supreme Leader’s message is not rhetoric but the portent of action. It is more than the threat that “something will be done” if the protests materialise on 13 Aban; it is a signal that in the next six days moves will be taken to break up opposition.
Some Iranian activists are going even farther, claiming that the Supreme Leader is also intervening against the compromise of the National Unity Plan. The speculation is that Khamenei has decided there will be no reforms in the system; instead, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the architects of that Plan, has gotten the message and warned the opposition that the hammer blow is imminent.
Perhaps. But that is not my reading of the situation. Indeed, after the shock of those initial Twitter flashes had eased, I found concern giving way to an optimism. The Supreme Leader’s message is not one coming out of the decision for a coordinating response to knock down the opposition before it can mobilise; it is one forced by the fragmentation and uncertainty within the regime.
First, a personal belief. It is no more than a belief because I cannot verify this assertion, but the more I look at Iranian decision-making over the last month, the more I suspect that the Supreme Leader has been quite ill. The twists and turns of the Iranian tactics in the nuclear talks; the muddled responses to the Sistan-Baluchestan bombings (remember, Khamenei did not issue a statement until days later, after the over-the-top reactions of the Revolutionary Guard and the more measured deliberation of the Ahmadinejad Cabinet); the lack of any evidence that there has been a critique of and response to the National Unity Plan, supposedly sent to the Supreme Leader weeks ago.
If (and I know it’s a big if) that is true, this is not just a question of Ayatollah Khamenei reasserting the authority of the regime. It is an issue of reasserting his personal authority, showing strength not only to opponents but to allies.
Yet I return to the point that this was not just a general declaration of Khamenei’s firm hand and mind, it was a specific challenge. And it is a challenge issued not after a period of relative calm in the political situation, but after days of resurgent opposition — the Karroubi statements, the Media Fair episodes, the Mousavi-Karroubi meetings, the signals from senior clerics the university protests.
This, in short, was not a statement which had long been planned by the Supreme Leader to top off the political reality: I’m Back, All is Well. This was a speech which was quickly prepared because the regime is shaken.
Shaken does not mean crumbling. But I think the greater concern this morning is not with the Green movement but with Ayatollah Khamenei. Far from shutting down the movement on 13 Aban, the Supreme Leader may have just indicated that this movement is very, very alive.
It is six days to the demonstrations of 4 November.

[bigwinnman]

The latest from Iran

October 29, 2009

Lebanon news - NOW Lebanon -The latest from Iran

October 29, 1:30 p.m.
A British embassy employee was reportedly received a four-year prison term in Tehran this week, accused of spying and inciting unrest after the June election, the BBC reported on Thursday.
Hossein Rassam, 44, worked as a political analyst at the embassy and was arrested in June.
Foreign secretary David Miliband, in a statement, called the reported sentence “wholly unjustified” and urged Iran to overturn the sentence, according to the BBC.
London’s Guardian reported that the statement also said:
"Reports that Hossein Rassam has been sentenced to four years in prison are deeply concerning. Such a decision is wholly unjustified and represents further harassment of embassy staff for going about their normal and legitimate duties.
“We understand the sentence can be appealed. I urge the authorities to conduct this quickly and overturn this harsh sentence. We are in close touch with EU and other international partners, who continue to show solidarity in the face of this unacceptable Iranian action. This will be seen as an attack against the entire diplomatic community in Iran and important principles are at stake."
Miliband’s statement added that the British ambassador in Tehran had spoken to Iran's deputy foreign minister and that the Iranian ambassador in London had been called in to explain the decision, the Guardian reported.
According to AFP Rassam has been out on bail since August. It is unclear whether he will have to return to prison immediately or remain free pending his appeal.
He was arrested along with eight other local employees of the embassy. The eight were later released, but Rassam was put on trial along with an employee of the French embassy and a French lecturer.
Diplomatic ties between Britain and Iran have deteriorated since the June election and Iranian officials have accused London of involvement in the post-election unrest.

[bigwinnman]

Green Movement, Hijab and Ending the Death Penalty

Sun, Nov 01, 2009 | Dhu al-Qidah 13, 1430
Year Six, Day 255

Middle East Views | Green Movement, Hijab and Ending the Death Penalty

Asal Akhavan

In all the months following the June 12 coup, Iran has been engulfed in a massive movement and while this real people’s movement has become known as the green movement, it is in fact a kaleidoscope of colors portraying all political and social movements in it, which under normal and stable political conditions would have probably been facing each other rather than standing next to each other.

The goal of this movement, as its leaders and spokespeople inside and outside Iran have said is the establishment of some democratic rights of the people, such as freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of parties, syndicates, and associations, freedom in elections, press freedom, and freedom of association. It is clear that these democratic rights are the minimum requirements for a civil life for all political and social groups which is why these minimum rights can constitute the basis of an effective political coalition, which may only be temporary.

The most recent movement of the Iranian people, while different from the 1979 revolution, carries with it three decades of bitter experience from that revolution. During the last three decades, the death penalty has been one of the most common words in the political literature of the country and the Islamic republic has created a new record in the number of political executions not only in the history of Iran but the whole Middle East. “Must be executed” was the one of the main slogans of the 1979 revolution, something that in time gradually began to include those that advocated it.

This is something that the Green Movement is aware of and has experienced. But how does a movement that has been created to build the future stay away from its bitter past and damage?

There is no doubt that this movement must succeed. But as we currently focus on winning, we must also be conscious and sensitive to possible future deviations and harm. The very fact that “must be executed” has been eliminated from the slogans of people is a hopeful sign but we need greater guarantees about the future ahead of us.

For example, the views of many individuals and groups in the movement regarding two important issues are still unclear: the death penalty, and forced Hijab.

One cannot use the battle against Ahmadinejad’s administration as an excuse to ignore these two and other important issues that concern fundamental human rights. It appears that the manner by which intellectual and political groups look at these two issues is a good criterion to see their practical commitment to human rights.

The groups in the Green movement, ranging from right to left, from new religious and liberal thinkers to national-religious groups and the Marxists must expressly respond to the question of their views regarding banning the death penalty. They must also specify their position regarding forced Hijab. Specifically, does the government have the right to impose and dictate what women must wear?

Those groups that dominate this movement have a larger duty to clarify their views, and specifically Messer Mousavi and Karoubi, and those who inside and outside Iran act as their spokespeople and have specific views in this regard must express their views categorically so that we can remain a bit calmer and more trustful, in view of past experience and events.


* Published in Iran's ROOZ on Oct. 30.

[bigwinnman]

Clerics to tend to praying, answering religious questions
Iran to appoint clerics in all schools: report

Mon, Nov 02, 2009 | Dhu al-Qidah 14, 1430
Year Six, Day 256

News | Iran to appoint clerics in all schools: report

TEHRAN (AFP)
Iran's government is planning to appoint a cleric in every school, a reformist newspaper reported Sunday on a move that could radicalize education in the Islamic republic.

"We are now defining the details of a plan called 'permanent appointment of clerics in schools'," the daily Hayateno quoted education ministry official Ali Asghar Yazdani as saying.

"As per this plan, clerics will take care of issues such as collective praying and answering religious questions and ambiguities in schools," Yazdani said.

Currently teachers themselves address such matters, although soon after the country's 1979 Islamic revolution, special teachers used to impart religious values in schools.

[bigwinnman]

What the People Think in Silence

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01/11/2009
By Abdollah Nouri



Regarding the recently held elections in Iran, we are confronted with two views.

According to the government, the 12 June 2009 presidential election mobilized 40 million of the 46 million citizens who are eligible to vote. Of these, twenty-five million are supposed to have voted for the incumbent [president] while Mir-Hussein Mussavi is credited with 13 million votes. Mr. Karrubi's vote is set at around 300,000, fewer than the number of cancelled ballots.
However, a vast section of our society has a different view. Here, people wonder whether the number of those eligible to vote was not closer to 52 million. They also wonder whether 40 million did really take part in the polls. They ask: was the difference of votes between the president elected by the government on the one hand and Mr. Karrubi, on the other, so great?
There are dozens of other questions. For example, why is it four and a half months later, the popular movement is not fading away?
I believe that, both in imposing the results of the election and in dealing with the popular movement, the government has not achieved its desired results.
The government's argument is that the election has proceeded in accordance with the law, from the process of nomination to that of dealing with the protests through the Council of the Guardians of the Constitution. However, this narrow, legalistic approach weakens any government, including the government of the Islamic Republic.

The government should know that the trust it has lost cannot be restored by forcing its critics into silence or even "confessions" and taqiyyah (dissimulation) under pressure.
One of the golden rules of government is to make sure that the people's outer and inner realities are the same. If people hide their true feelings out of fear, we would have a society in which an explosion is being prepared behind a calm surface.
The government claims that its critics are violating the constitution. However, a closer examination would show that it is the government that does not respect the constitution. Our constitution allows for peaceful demonstrations. However, the authorities regard such demonstrations as "threats to national security".
It seems that, 30 years after the revolution, some people have decided to create a one-party system – one based on a single armed party. In such a system they would then divide citizens into "those who are with us" and" those who are against us."
The same logic is used to prevent the release of political prisoners. However, filling the prisons with opponents is always a sign of desperation. It is also possible that some people are thrown into prison for settling personal scores. Such acts of revenge are contrary to the national interest. A successful ruler in any system of government is one who reduces the number of his opponents and increases the number of his supporters each day.
My guess is that if Mr. Khatami had become a candidate, he would have drawn very few votes from among the conservatives. Mr. Mussavi, however, was able to appeal to many conservatives and fundamentalist voters, thanks to his electoral platform. The way the elections have turned out has disappointed many of those who came forward to revive the values of the first decade of the revolution.
There was a time when opposition to the regime was limited to the monarchist movement and some terrorist groups. Today, however, even some of the closest forces to the system are classified as opposition. Those who do this do not realize that the system, by constantly losing supporters, may one day find very few people on its side.
We see people being arrested and accused of working with this or that foreign personality and power. Does this mean that our government is so repulsive that so many forces that were in the service of the people have become alienated and attracted to foreigners?
Has our regime become so weak that it fears even the color green? Is it so weak as to consider peaceful marches, without any slogans, a security threat?
The government claims that the opposition has lost its popular support. If that is, indeed, the case, why don't you allow them to organize peaceful public marches? If the ban is lifted, we shall soon find out whether or not the opposition has really lost popular support.
It is natural that many should suspect that the real reason for the ban is that the government knows that the opposition is the majority.
The events of the past few months have had a heavy cost for the country. However, they have also helped change the way our people see the nation's internal and external problems.
The government should think of its long-term interests and its own survival by changing its behavior in accordance with the wishes of the people.
* Ayatollah Abdollah Nouri served as the Minister Interior in the administrations of Presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Muhammad Khatami. Many regard him as the most popular leadership figure in the so-called "pro-reform" movement.

[bigwinnman]

Nov 02 2009
Latest from Iran (2 November): The World Takes Notice?

Posted by: Scott Lucas in Middle East & Iran

Latest from Iran (2 November): The World Takes Notice? | Enduring America

0700 GMT: 48 hours to go before the demonstrations of 13 Aban (4 November), and what we sense is growing excitement inside and outside Iran is making its way into international news coverage. The New York Times rather staidly notes, “Opposition in Iran Urges Continuing Challenge”, while The Observer of London announces, “Iran Students Plan Return to Street Protests”.

The coverage, following Reuters’ initial lead, is still troublesome with its distortion of the impending rally. The New York Times, perhaps unwittingly, links Green opposition to hostility to the US: “The occasion is the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the United States Embassy in Tehran by hard-line students on Nov. 4, 1979. The day is marked every year with anti-American rallies.” And both newspapers are bizarrely cautious about the open challenge of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi in recent days: “Mousavi appeared to back the protests yesterday….Although the opposition leaders…did not openly call for street protests, their remarks were widely seen as a call to arms on a day of considerable symbolic importance.”
And “Western” journalists will still be distracted by even the slightest of remarks on the nuclear issue. This morning, for example, all have jumped on the comments of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that Iran has requested a technical commission to review the “third-party enrichment” proposal from the Vienna talks. (America’s ABC News and even Fox News, which have not printed a word about 13 Aban, have seized on Mottaki’s statement as a top story.)
Still, I cannot recall the “Western” media anticipating the last big marches on Qods Day (18 September), and it is interesting to note that The New York Times writes in retrospect, “Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets.” With the possibility that 13 Aban will bring out even bigger marches, news organisations — print and broadcast — will be on alert Wednesday. Their coverage does not reply or supersede the rallies, of course, but it may support the Green movement in a way not seen since early in the post-election crisis.
It is two days to 13 Aban (4 November).

[bigwinnman]

Government shuts down business daily Sarmayeh

November 2, 2009

niacINsight

Citing “repeated violations of the press law,” the Iranian government’s press advisory board shut down Sarmayeh, one of the country’s leading business dailies, today. According to Reuters, further details were not given.

Sarmayeh editor Saeed Laylaz, an outspoken government critic, was arrested shortly after Iran’s disputed election in June.
In August, authorities shut down Etemad-e Melli newspaper of pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came fourth in the poll. He had angered hardliners with his allegation that some detained opposition supporters were raped, a charge officials deny.

Sarmayeh is known for it’s criticism of the Ahmadinejad Administration’s economic policies.

[bigwinnman]

Opposition calls for rallies on 13 Aban (Nov. 4)

November 2, 2009

niacINsight

Opposition leaders in Tehran, including Mir Hossein Mousavi himself, have called for peaceful protests on 13 Aban (Nov. 4), as the government stages one of it’s most prominent anti-Western rallies to date – the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy officials. The government has responded by threatening to take action against any who participate in “illegal” activities. Here is more from Reuters:

In a statement posted on his www.kaleme.com website, Mousavi said he would press ahead with his efforts for political change in Iran following a disputed June presidential election, which he says was rigged in favor of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
An Iranian MP, Hasan Malek-Mohammadi, also issued a stern warning to the opposition, IRNA news agency reported.
“Those individuals and groups that act against the revolution’s pillars and the views (of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei), will be considered as Mohareb (fighting against God) and corrupt on earth,” said Malek-Mohammadi, referring to a crime which could be punishable by death in Iran.
“On this day, political groups … should act in line with the country’s national interest,” he said.

Anti-Western rallies are normally staged outside of the old American embassy but some opposition websites have called for people to rally in front of the Russian embassy, continuing their policy of protesting Moscow for accepting the result of the June 12 Election so quickly.

[bigwinnman]

Protesters ask themselves- “Where do we meet?”

November 3, 2009

niacINsight

Tomorrow is a much anticipated for Iran watchers- but for the protesters taking the streets, it is filled with uncertainty. They don’t know how the police will respond but the bigger problem that has plagued the opposition since their mass arrests is uncertainty of where to protest.
Facebook, Twitter, e-mail communication and telephones are all off limits as the government is thoroughly monitoring them. Students at Tehran University turned to what now seems like an ancient form of organizing- flyers. Each night, they put up flyers, only to see the police clean them up in the morning before class started. Teachers have been put in an uncomfortable position as the police have asked them to turn students who have been engaging in anti-government activities. Although as one teacher jokingly responded when asked by an officer if she knew anything, “Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.” Pleading ignorance seems to be the best excuse for teachers.
So, despite the opposition’s best attempts to organize and inform supporters of where to meet, people are still confused. The police have given permission for people to protest in front of the old US Embassy and have warned that they will arrest gathering anywhere else. Mehdi Karroubi is planning to make an appearance at 10:30 am, supposedly at Haft-e-Tir Square…but who knows obstacles may thwart his plan.