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RedditThe two leaders of Iran's not-so-loyal opposition will appear together tomorrow at Tehran University, when Mir Hossein Mousavi, the challenger to President Ahmadinejad, makes a public appearance alongside Ayatollah Ali Akbad Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president and billionaire who supported Mousavi's campaign. Rafsanjani, who's boycotted his turn at leading Friday prayers since June 12, will deliver a closely watched sermon that is expected to lay out a direct challenge to Ahmadinejad. The fact that Mousavi will attend the event means that it's likely that other leading reformists will be there, including former President Khatami and cleric Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of Iran's parliament who also ran against Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.
It's likely that the event will attract a huge crowd, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands.
Iran's intelligence minister, a close ally of President Ahmadinejad and a follower of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, has already warned the opposition about tomorrow's event. "The vigilant Iranian nation must be aware that tomorrow's sermon should not turn to an arena for undesirable scenes," said Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei. "Hopefully we will not have a security question in Tehran in the coming days."
Neither Rafsanjani nor Mousavi, who isn't expected to speak, will call for a revolt. But they haven't abandoned their opposition. Rafsanjani, who hasn't spoken directly about the election results since June 12, has reportedly been mustering clerical and establishment opposition -- including the business community -- behind the scenes, and a political party that he leads has called the reelection of Ahmadinejad illegitimate. Mousavi continues to reject the election results, and he's announced plans to create a nationwide political party. Through his web site and in a limited number of public appearances since the crackdown, Mousavi has spoken out forcefully against the rigging of the vote, presented a detailed challenge to the result, and visited with relatives of those killed or arrested.
The pro-Mousavi Web site mowjcamp.com said reformist leaders will hold street protests after attending the Friday prayers.Thursday night, several hundred supporters gathered, some chanting "death to the dictator," as Mousavi and his wife visited the family of Sohrab Aarabi, 19, who disappeared during a June 15 protest, according to mowjcamp.com. Footage from the visit posted on the Web showed Mousavi moving through a crowd of well-wishers inside Aarabi's family home to his parents to express condolences.
Aarabi disappeared during a June 15 protest, and his family searched for weeks for news of his fate. They were finally notified on Saturday that he had been shot in the chest and died during the crackdown on postelection protests. Aarabi was buried Monday in the vast Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery on the outskirts of Tehran.
The report added:
"We won't let the blood of these youth go in vain," Mousavi told Aarabi's family during the visit, according to the Web site norooznews.org.Aarabi's mother, Parvin Fahimi, said she would take the case of her slain son to domestic and, if necessary, international courts, the site reported.
Hundreds of candles were lit in the streets of the Tehran neighborhood where the family lives, mowjcamp reported. Inside the home, the walls were hung with pictures of Aarabi wearing a green scarf over his shoulders -- the color of Mousavi's opposition movement.
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Robert Dreyfuss
A chronicle of America's adventures in foreign policy and national security.
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cheney/bush for Iranian dictator!
Posted by Tiger2Lover at 07/16/2009 @ 09:23am
Mr. Dreyfuss, is there something you'd suggest/recommend President Obama do? There is clear sympathy from you for Iran's "not-so-loyal opposition", but....so?
Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 10:01am
Happy, I'm going to blog about that tomorrow. i.e., what Obama should do. The bottom line, for me, is that Obama should continue his policy of offering to talk to Iran's government (both on the nuclear program and other issues, such as Iraq and Afghanistan). He should avoid any direct support for the Iranian opposition. It was precisely his message of engagement that helped to spark the Green Wave movement. Countless Iranians told me so, when I was there. Offering to engage with Iran confuses the hardliners, who want to portray America as the Great Satan. It undercuts their message, and it inspires the opposition.
Posted by RobertDreyfuss at 07/16/2009 @ 10:18am
Offering to engage with Iran confuses the hardliners
Posted by RobertDreyfuss at 07/16/2009 @ 10:18am
An excellent summation. I would add:
Offering to engage with Iran confuses the hardliners in Iran and in America.
There it diffuses their bogeyman, upsets their triangulation of the redneck brain:
'I(Iranian hardliner)-protect-you-from-them=bad, making me=good, making me+you=we/good'.
Almost same with Limbaugh/neocons. They work super hard at this part of the cognitive loop: Obama=Iran=bad.
via: Talk w/Iran= Talk w/Bad = agreement / friendship / soft / appeasement / lots o' FORMS OF BAD
Propaganda over and over and over strengthening this: Obama=bad
thereby completing the chain
'I(neocon hardliner)-good-protect-you-from-them/Obama (because he talks with Iran)=bad, making me=good, making me+you=we/good'.
Each loop around makes the redmeaters salivate more and more and more!
Posted by winyahn at 07/16/2009 @ 10:33am
To help round out the BIG picture:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article
/0,8599,1910669,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
How Iran Might Beat Future Sanctions: The China Card
By Vivienne Walt Thursday, Jul. 16, 2009
.....On July 13 Iran's Oil Ministry announced that it had China's agreement to invest about $40 billion in refining Iranian gasoline....include financing the major new Hormoz refinery...able to produce about 300,000 bbl. of gasoline and kerosene a day...China would also overhaul Iran's aging Abadan refinery in the south so that its production could increase by 29%, according to Iranian oil officials, who provided no deadline for that project...
Iran's ties with China, which have steadily grown over the past decade, have accelerated rapidly in the past 18 months. In December 2007, the Chinese oil giant Sinopec Group signed a $70 billion deal to begin drilling in Iran's Yadavaran field, which has estimated reserves of about 17 billion bbl. In January of this year, China's...CNPC, agreed to develop a medium-size oil field called North Azadegan -- a deal worth about $2 billion. And last month, while demonstrators were fighting pitched battles with paramilitaries on Tehran's streets, Iranian oil officials flew to Beijing to negotiate a $5 billion deal with CNPC for the newest phase of Iran's huge South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf....
And China is awash in cash. Furthermore, having invested tens of billions of dollars in Iran's energy sector, China -- a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council -- looks almost certain to veto any new tough sanctions against the country. In contrast, in the U.S. and Europe, there are growing anxieties over Iran's nuclear program as well as outrage over last month's violence....
Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 6:08pm
There is a fascist coup going down in Honduras, the workers' resistance is rising and practically paralyzing the country. And The Nation is still throwing love at the Iranian "opposition"? Dreyfuss speaks as if Mousavi or the billionaire scumbag Rafsanjani would offer any meaningful changes for Iran. The Nation needs to support the REAL freedom fighters right across our border.
Posted by Communard115 at 07/16/2009 @ 6:28pm
There is a fascist coup going down in Honduras, the workers' resistance is rising...
Posted by Communard115 at 07/16/2009 @ 6:28pm
You're just wrong!
My cleaning lady is from Honduras (but firmly established here for almost 20 years) and just delayed her family's annual summer vacation back home....at a cost of hundreds for rebooking (or maybe cancelling).
She's from the working class and she told me, since I asked her expressly about the "coup", that everybody hates the deposed El Presidente. I don't believe her, at least, not "everybody"!
Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 6:37pm
Should President HusseinO really talk to the ?Re-Elected? regime in Tehran? Tune in tomorrow to Mr. Dreyfuss' posting!
========================= http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/
07/16/rupture-of-the-regime-irans-nuclear-chief-quits/
Rupture of the regime? Iran's nuclear chief quits
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, a former deputy of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, led the country's nuclear program for more than a decade.
By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer 07.16.09
JERUSALEM – The man who heads Iran's nuclear program has stepped down...Thursday, prompting speculation that the key Iranian official's departure may be related to the turmoil following the contested presidential election last month.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who has led the country's nuclear program for more than a decade, tendered a resignation that was accepted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency), a semi-official newswire. He also resigned his post as vice-president of the country.
Although no official reason was given...analysts say they see Mr. Aghazadeh's stepping down as a clear sign of ruptures in the upper levels of the Iranian regime.
"If he was a pro-Ahmedinejad man, he would have been happy, and he's obviously not," says Meir Javedanfar, an independent Iran analyst and coauthor of "The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran."
"Judging by the decision and the timing, he's unhappy about the way nuclear program is being managed," says Mr. Javedanfar, an Iranian-born writer who specializes in relations between Israel and Iran.
"Without a shadow of the doubt, the legitimacy of the regime has been damaged after the recent presidential elections, and with it, so has the nuclear program's legitimacy," he says....
Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 6:46pm
Posted by Communard115 at 07/16/2009 @ 6:28pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Dreyfuss is a Middle East expert that The Nation maintains as their editor on the region's politics. It is unsurprising that he is not talking about Honduras.
For my part, I think that the focus on the "opposition" may be a bunch of people misleading themselves. The "opposition", in particular, figures like Mousavi et al are all historically hardline Iranian revolutionaries with relationships with various Mullahs and Ayatollahs. Mousavi himself apparently was only Prime Minister as a result of his close relationship with the ranking Ayatollah at the time.
Given the apparent likelihood that Ahmadinejad was going to win the election - the only credible and professional Western poll predicted almost exactly the turnout and percentage numbers that the election produced - he really should have avoided any appearance of election fraud. If he had, the odds are good, I think, that he would be in power today, without any "opposition".
And I think tomorrow we'll see that the "opposition" is hardly to going to rise up and cripple the Iranian government. The most likely outcome of continued public protest will be worse crackdowns. Iran, like our friend nations Israel and Saudi Arabia, is very good on officially allowed public expression but is very, very bad on actual anti-government public expression.
For my part, I'd just like to see fewer dead Iranians.
Posted by syfriendly at 07/16/2009 @ 6:46pm
Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 6:37pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Your cleaning lady would tell you the moon is made of green cheese if she thought that would endear you to her, your servant. In the feudal system, where the wealthy have house serfs, the serfs generally maintain whatever outward presentation they believe will make master happiest.
Posted by syfriendly at 07/16/2009 @ 6:48pm
Oh God, I just can't continue. Someone is claiming that he has some sort of insight into Honduran politics and popular reality because his Latin American cleaning lady told him something. It's just too much.
Posted by syfriendly at 07/16/2009 @ 6:49pm
...because his Latin American cleaning lady told him something. It's just too much.
Posted by syfriendly at 07/16/2009 @ 6:49pm
And of course, you believe Obamanomics is working....because he said so..."Working as planned" and he wouldn't change anything....righto!
Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 7:21pm
My cleaning lady is from Honduras (but firmly established here for almost 20 years)----Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 6:37pm
He had to add the parenthesis part...in case of an immigration thread.
LOL
Posted by Mask at 07/16/2009 @ 7:27pm
And China is awash in cash. Furthermore, having invested tens of billions of dollars in Iran's energy sector, China -- a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council -- looks almost certain to veto any new tough sanctions against the country. In contrast, in the U.S. and Europe, there are growing anxieties over Iran's nuclear program as well as outrage over last month's violence....
Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 6:08pm
well, the u.s. was iran's best friend at the beginning of the 20th century.
funny how greed messes things up.
Posted by frosty zoom at 07/16/2009 @ 8:26pm
"Someone is claiming that he has some sort of insight into Honduran politics and popular reality because his Latin American cleaning lady told him something. It's just too much."
And you are claiming to have more insight into Honduran politics than a Honduran woman who regularly travels to Honduras BECAUSE she happens to be a cleaning lady and you "know" she is just trying to "please" her employer (how, I'm not sure, since she wouldn't know her employer's political views). You "know" this because... well, uh:"In the feudal system, where the wealthy have house serfs, the serfs generally maintain whatever outward presentation they believe will make master happiest."
The US has a feudal system? Only the elite rich can afford a cleaning lady? She "knew" that her employer ("master," as you put it) would be "made" as happy as he could be if she mentioned that Hondurans generally did not like their ousted leader? How did she "know" this? Tell us, Happy, elite feudal master, were you filled with happiness when she told you this?
By the way, syfriendly, what insight do you have in Honduran politics to use in forming an opposing view to the one Happy expressed based on facts and evidence? Presumably your comments are, after all, motivated by your leftist viewpoint, so what insight do you have that shows the intellectual superiority of your position? What makes you think you "see farther" than the rest of us if Happy's evidence cited in one offhand remark was not sufficient to justify his assertion? Happy actually did not claim "special insight" into Honduran politics (if you read his posts, you might know this), but since you think that people cannot hold opinions without "special insight," and you hold an opinion on the coup, tell us, what makes you...
Posted by libertyfortheoppressed at 07/16/2009 @ 9:31pm
...personally believe that your "insight" is "special" on the subject here of debate? Don't appoint yourself. Of course, maybe you are actually modest and do not claim "special insight" but rather argue that the trait in quotes is not found in anyone here, in which case you would be arguing that none of us should bother having opinions on anything due to our ignorance (perhaps you are right; why bother posting here then?). When did Happy claim to be unique in his comprehension of "popular reality" (as opposed to unpopular reality?)?
Posted by libertyfortheoppressed at 07/16/2009 @ 9:38pm
"Given the apparent likelihood that Ahmadinejad was going to win the election - the only credible and professional Western poll predicted [such a result]."
If you could "find" only one unlinked, unnamed, unsourced poll that gave you the results you wanted and EVERY OTHER POLL said something entirely and markedly and dramatically different from what the one you wanted to believe in expressed, especially given the agreement in the findings of every other poll and the overwhelming evidence of Ahmadinejad's unpopularity, it may be entirely plausible that the poll you mention (or rather don't mention, but allude suggestively to the existence of) may well not be the "ONLY credible and professional Western poll" (he of course mentions "Western," by which he means no evidence branded with that name has merit for to be Western is to be a Zionist imperialist racist oil-stealer.)
"he really should have avoided any appearance of election fraud." The "appearance" of election fraud as opposed to the actual thing? But only a moment ago you were telling me that the opposition was but an "opposition," because, after all, Mousavi was approved by the theocracy, which decides in Iranian elections who can and cannot run. Very fair indeed. By the way, why then did the theocracy ban Mousavi websites? Also, if you are sincere in saying that the vote was free and fair, would you care to explain why the election's result was announced BEFORE all the votes were cast, and without any being counted, and with numbers of votes "counted" being fabricated and then discredited while the actual result's evidence was being hidden away? Actually, if you are sincere in such a belief, you quite literally MUST believe that all the votes in an election actually can be counted before the...
Posted by libertyfortheoppressed at 07/16/2009 @ 10:07pm
...polls close, although this is logically as well as actually impossible. Why was the theocracy afraid to, you know, COUNT the votes if they were so overwhelmingly and indisputably in their favor? Why did they refuse to allow in any international election monitors who could have told the world just how free and fair Iran's election was if only they had been invited?
"For my part, I'd just like to see fewer dead Iranians."
Ahmadinejad stands for FEWER dead Iranians? What an odd belief.
Posted by libertyfortheoppressed at 07/16/2009 @ 10:16pm
My cleaning lady is from Honduras.Posted by Happy at 07/16/2009 @ 6:37pm
How quaint. So you employ a cleaning lady? Are you so fat and lazy that you can't even clean your own house?
What a ditz. Jesus. No wonder you are constantly supporting the oilgarchy. And here I thought Repugs were all about personal responsibility and self reliance.
You make me sick..
Posted by chaoszen at 07/17/2009 @ 05:10am
"What a ditz. Jesus. No wonder you are constantly supporting the oilgarchy. And here I thought Repugs were all about personal responsibility and self reliance. "
What?! Are you kidding me. Him having a claning lady has nothing to do with personal responsibility. If your argument is that he is not taking responsibility for his mess, he is. He pays her. Which means he works to earn the money to pay someone to clean his house.
"Are you so fat and lazy that you can't even clean your own house?"
Also this is a gross overstatement. I know many people who have people who clean for them because they simply don't have time. I would if I could, because when you get off a 12 hours shift at work the last thing you want to do is come home and work even more to keep your house clean. I think everyone would have a cleaning person if they could. It has nothing to do with laziness it has everything to do with long work days and being busy.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/17/2009 @ 05:32am
It has nothing to do with laziness it has everything to do with long work days and being busy.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/17/2009 @ 05:32am
Another excuse making lazy bastard. Listen up chump. I work 6 1/2 days a week. I drive truck 3000 miles a week. And even though I could afford to be an elitist prick and hire someone to clean my house. I take care of my own mess. I don't sit around by the pool collecting the dividend check. And for sure I don't flaunt a sick desire to appear as an elitist pig.
"You know Howard, it is so hard to find decent help these days"
Fuck You.
Posted by chaoszen at 07/17/2009 @ 06:09am
Happy is a dick. And everyone including himself knows it. Maybe Cccomfo wants the opportunity to apply for the job of wiping his ass. Buffing it up, powdering it and then giving it a kiss. Happ would probably like that, and might pay a premium wage for a lackey to perform it.
Ask him for an application, Coccmfo.
Posted by chaoszen at 07/17/2009 @ 06:58am
Let's all calm down. The world is not America. Re: housekeeping services: I enjoyed (and will undoubtedly be criticized for it) reading The First Ladies Detective Service about some people of Botswana where the point is made that, if one has the disposable income, it is selfish NOT to employ domestic help - providing income for another
Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 07/17/2009 @ 07:31am
Re Iranian pols speaking out
Is the tail only wagging the mongoose here or does it reflect familial, collegial, or even islamo-corporate rivalry at a higher level?
Man, I wouldn't get myself beaten for just any pol... And the ones I would are mostly long gone
Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 07/17/2009 @ 07:55am
Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 07/17/2009 @ 07:31am
I think that might be The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Great stuff. I have not read the novels but have watched the HBO series.
In any case this is not Botswana. In some countries domestic service may be respected as a noble occupation. And so it should be. But here people like Happ would more likely view it differently. In my experience these types view it more in the arena of social superiority. Lord and Master type nonsense.
You have to remember that most right wing psychos believe in a caste system, or class system. Where a person who is born a certain class must remain there and be subject to their superiors.
Notice that Happ refers to the cleaning lady as "My cleaning lady", this indicates a sense of ownership of another human being. That is disgusting and indicates that he probably has a cleaning lady in order to express his sense of superiority. He should be horse whipped.
Nuff said.
Posted by chaoszen at 07/17/2009 @ 08:08am
I like liberty for the oppressed.....:)
Posted by Happy at 07/17/2009 @ 3:13pm
]I think that might be The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Great stuff. I have not read the novels but have watched the HBO series.
In any case this is not Botswana. In some countries domestic service may be respected as a noble occupation. And so it should be. But here people like Happ would more likely view it differently. In my experience these types view it more in the arena of social superiority. Lord and Master type nonsense.
You have to remember that most right wing psychos believe in a caste system, or class system. Where a person who is born a certain class must remain there and be subject to their superiors.
Notice that Happ refers to the cleaning lady as "My cleaning lady", this indicates a sense of ownership of another human being. That is disgusting and indicates that he probably has a cleaning lady in order to express his sense of superiority. He should be horse whipped.
Nuff said.
Posted by chaoszen at 07/17/2009 @ 08:08am
You're an idiot chaos. I'm sorry but there are no two ways about it. You basically just said, it's ok when people in other countries do it because it's not lazy but HERE it's lazy. Do you know how many poor immigrants are employed by cleaning peoples houses in this country? The stereotype is true. I have never met a single white, black or asian cleaning person in LA. Everyone I have met is poor and either legal or illegal.
You make vast assumptions about people you know NOTHING about. I never thought myself about the cleaning lady we had. She was a nice lady who my mother employed just like the many other people she employed with the buisness she owned. It had nothing to do with superiority. Maybe YOU fee superior to them but I never did and don't. Maybe you should stop making stupid assumptions about things you can't know.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/17/2009 @ 5:13pm
Happy is a dick. And everyone including himself knows it. Maybe Cccomfo wants the opportunity to apply for the job of wiping his ass. Buffing it up, powdering it and then giving it a kiss. Happ would probably like that, and might pay a premium wage for a lackey to perform it.
Ask him for an application, Coccmfo.
Posted by chaoszen at 07/17/2009 @ 06:58am
Anyone who has bothered watching these blogs knows that what you are saying here is another stupid assertion. Why don't you try reading my posts towards Happy. I called you out because what you said was stupid, not because of anything about Happy. Happy has me blocked and has for a while because too often I call him out on his stupidity. It's just that Icall it like Isee it. I don't feel like I should defend stupid assumptions made by people who think the know things they don't.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/17/2009 @ 5:15pm
Posted by chaoszen at 07/17/2009 @ 06:58am
This is why I dislike your fringe as much as I dislike his. You are just as much of a biggoted person as he is. I make the assertion that having a house keeper doesn't make you lazy or elitist. You then claim that in other countries it doesn't and then commence to make a sweeping generalization about people you know nothing about. I guarantee you with every fiber of my being that many of the poeple you consider liberal paragons have help around the house, does that make people like Bernie Sander elitist and lazy?
It is your attitude that makes you elitist not the things you have. I would contend that you are the elitist one here. Because you believe yourself to be better than a rather large group of people and you feel you can make broad generalizations about people you know nothing about. You are the definition of elitist liberal. Just as bigoted as the people you claim to stand against and you are precisely the element of the party I dislike. You don't stand for anything but your own ego and the false sense of grandeur you have built for yourself.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/17/2009 @ 6:03pm
"You don't stand for anything but your own ego and the false sense of grandeur you have built for yourself."
Sounds to me like you hit the nail on the head on the subject of Chaoszen.
"Notice that Happ refers to the cleaning lady as "My cleaning lady", this indicates a sense of ownership of another human being."
So what SHOULD he refer to her as? "The cleaning lady who I currently happen to employ as an equal at this specific moment in my life"? And because in one comment on a message board he referred to her (as everyone who has a cleaning lady does) as "my cleaning lady," as opposed to "the cleaning lady who I currently happen to employ as an equal at this specific moment in my life," you believe that you can deduce with absolute certainty that he feels "a sense of ownership of another human being"? As a result, though you cannot apparently muster up any disgust at all for mass murders perpetrated by Iranian mullahs against their own citizens, you find Happy "disgusting" and say that he "should be horse whipped". Why should he be whipped over and over due to an offhand remark on a message board? What about free speech? Note the use of the word "should". This implies that in an IDEAL world, Happy should lose his rights under the law of the United States, according to Chaoszen, because something he said on a message board offended Chaoszen. So, Chaoszen, what should happen to neo-nazis who really say things that actually ARE offensive? No free speech for them? Since repeated whippings are the punishment to which you would subject Happy for his remark, what torment would THEIR remarks warrant were you dictator of our country? Surely nothing as awful as (gasp) water boarding?
Posted by libertyfortheoppressed at 07/17/2009 @ 11:11pm
It sucks when two people who's opinions you take seriously go at it.
I hope you guys work it out
Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 07/18/2009 @ 11:49pm