Letter from Tehran: Iran’s new hardliners

Who Is in Control of the Islamic Republic?

Iran’s disputed election marked the rise of a new power elite. Now, with more protests looming and a nuclear program facing international pressure, can the Revolutionary Guard and its allies sustain their tightening grip on the Islamic Republic?

(Jerry Guo | Foreign Policy | 30 September 2009) - The headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are in a European-style palace, replete with Greek columns and a grand staircase, in the eastern suburbs of Tehran. From here, the IRGC orchestrated the crackdown that followed Iran’s disputed presidential vote in June, beating protestors on the street and torturing those behind bars. More ominously, the IGRC and other extreme hard-liners have sidelined fellow conservatives in the Iranian government, carving out their own power base in a regime that is becoming increasingly insular, reactionary, and violent. Read the rest of this entry »

Sanctions, War, or Support?

Why after four years does Ahmadinejad reclaim “his disbelief” about the Holocaust?  Why  has the news of another nuclear site been “leaked?”  Are these  really accidental?

(Mahmood Karimi-Hakak | Iranian.com | 28 September 2009) - In reaction to Ahmadinejad’s recent visit, a number of groups, organizations and government agents have called for more sanctions against and/or military intervention in Iran.  While the efforts of such groups in discrediting Ahmadinejad is appreciated, and indeed, this man and his ruthless, barbaric, and coldblooded backers must be stopped, I have few concerns with their message.  I believe that these well-intentioned groups and organizations are playing into the hands of the dictatorial regime in Iran.  They are asking for exactly what Ahmadinejad wants; more sanctions and/or possible war with Iran! Read the rest of this entry »

Iran Continues with Missile Tests

(Online NewsHour | Part 1 | 28 September 2009) – Iran continued with missile tests for a second straight day Monday, firing mid-range missiles capable of hitting Israel, parts of Europe, and U.S. military bases in the Middle East. Lindsey Hilsum of ITN reports.

Iran Seeks Image of Defiance With New Missile Tests

(Online NewsHour | Part 2 | 28 September 2009) – Iran has test-fired its most advanced missiles, demonstrating its ability to strike targets as far away as Europe, and increasing tensions over its nuclear program. Analysts break down the details of the development.

Iran declares it’s running another uranium enrichment plant

(Russia TV – 25 September 2009) - Iran has officially declared it’s running another uranium enrichment plant.  The announcement comes shortly before Barack Obama presented evidence of this previously secret facility to the G20.

Iran Continues to be Attacked by Imperialist Powers of the West During G20

Armed with the disclosure of a secret Iranian nuclear facility, President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain demanded Friday that Tehran fully disclose its nuclear ambitions “or be held accountable.”

(Ed Hale | Transcendence Diaries | 25 September 2009) - CNN the most rusted name in fake-news reported today that the United States, France and Britain have presented “detailed evidence” to the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog that “Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility,” President Obama said Friday before the start of the G-20 economic summit here.”

What’s ironic of course about this sudden announcement is that those same three countries — in a covert CIA-led coup d’etat never reported by Western media but largely known about now after the fact — invaded and then ousted Iran’s democratically elected president, Mosaddeq, in 1953 after they became a democracy in the early nineteen-fifties. Those same three countries — United States, France, Great Britain — then installed ‘the Shah’ as a puppet leader against the people’s will and split Iran’s oil up three ways for themselves, paying the Iranians pennies a barrel for it for nearly thirty years; they called their new “company” British Petroleum, or BP – you might have heard of it. This led of course to the extreme ‘Islamic revolution’ of 1979. (Religious fervor as the powers that be would have dumbed-down TV guzzlers believe had nothing to do with the American Embassy hostage “crisis,” but rather thirty years of rage and frustration over imperialist domination and their oil being stolen from them.)

Next up came the eight year US-led Iran-Iraq war where the Reagan administration funded a young CIA operative named Saddam Hussein, giving him millions of dollars and chemical and biological weapons to use against the Iranian people, where over 20 million of them died. And then when Iraq proved unable to defeat the strongly proud and patriotic Iranians, Reagan decided to play both sides against the other in the infamous Iran-Contra Affair and started illegally selling weapons of mass destruction to Iran as well, thinking one assumes that if both countries destroy each other in the process with US money and weapons that the US and Britain could walk right in and grab at all the oil in the region. Of course the plan didn’t work. The United States added yet another fallen hero to its shelf of publicly shamed and sham presidents. Iran and Iraq eventually called a truce.

The Iranian people sit at a crossroads now. Read the rest of this entry »

March with the Green Scroll Across the Brooklyn Bridge

Join us in New York City as we raise our Voices for Iran and demand Ahmadinejad be held accountable for crimes against the Iranian people. March with the Green Scroll across the Brooklyn Bridge this Thursday, September 10:30 (ET). Gather at Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn.

Please find more information at Voices for Iran.

Ahmadinejad attacks Western “hypocrisy”

(Mike Hanna | Al Jazeera English | 23 September 2009) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, launched a scathing attack on Western powers, accusing them of spreading “war, bloodshed, aggression, terror and intimidation” in the Middle East and Afghanistan.  He called for the “awakening of nations” worldwide to counter the “hypocrisy and vicious attitudes.”  Iran’s leader did not directly address the issue of its nuclear programme but called for the “eradication of arms race and elimination of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons to pave the way for all nations to have access to advanced and peaceful technologies.”

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reports from New York on the speech that prompted a walkout by several delegations, including the US one.

Obama charts new world order

(Mike Hanna | Al Jazeera English | 23 September 2009) — US president, Barack Obama, outlined his vision of a new world order in which the US would participate fully – during his first address to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. His vision was rooted on four basic principles: Non proliferation and disarmament, the promotion of peace and security, the preservation of the planet, and a global economy that advances opportunity for all people. Among the speakers that followed was the leader of Libya – Muammar Gaddafi, and the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reports from New York on the days events.

The Human Screen Protest Against Ahmadinejad

New York City, 22 September 2009

Against a  symbolic human screen of protesters images, news footage, and Iranians saying “Ahmadinejad is not my president” captures the struggle of Iranians to have their voices heard since the June 12 presidential elections.  We share the complete video footage above.