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Ahmadinejad Meets O.J.
By Robert Dreyfuss
In a distinctly Orwellian turn of events, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ("Mr. Sixty-Three Percent") has pledged to investigate the death of Neda Agha-Soltan. It reminds me of O.J. Simpson's pledge to leave no stone unturned in the search for his wife's killer.
In a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, Mr Ahmadinejad described Neda's death as "suspicious," reported the official IRNA news agency on Monday. (67) Comments
June 30, 2009
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Little to Celebrate in Iraq
By Robert Dreyfuss
There's little to celebrate about the US pullback in Iraq.
More than six years after the US invasion, Iraq is shattered. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead -- far more, incidentally, than even the largest estimates of the number of Iraqis who died during 35 years of Saddam Hussein's rule -- its social fabric is utterly destroyed, its economy is in ruins, and its dominant political faction is in hock to neighboring Iran.
And now what?
(174) CommentsJune 30, 2009
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Talking to Ahmadinejad, Part II
By Robert Dreyfuss
President Obama has gone about as far as he should go in condemning the government of Iran for its crackdown and repression of a popular movement for change in Iran. Since the election on June 12, his rhetoric has become harsher by the day. Yesterday, he said:
The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions.
Don't we all! But it's one thing for a Nation columnist to call the actions by the current Iranian regime disgusting and despicable, as I've done many times, and it's another thing for the president of the United States to do it. Because in the next few months, Obama may very well have to send emissaries to sit down and talk to that very regime. Now that he's condemned the repression, let's hope Obama goes back to his original plan of trying to get Iran to the table.
(88) CommentsJune 24, 2009
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The Next Explosion in Iran
By Robert Dreyfuss
Gunfire, tear gas, and water cannons used by baton-wielding security forces in Iran have forced an uneasy calm on Tehran and other cities, but Mir Hossein Mousavi isn't backing down. And the next explosion could come when the Guardian Council, the twelve-member clerical body assigned the task of reviewing the results of the June 12 election releases its report. By all accounts, the Council -- half of whose members are appointed by, and loyal to, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the other half is nominated by Iran's Parliament and approved by Khamenei -- will ratify President Ahmadinejad's reelection.
In today's post I want to focus on the election itself. A newly released statistical study of the rigged election by Chatham House raises enormous questions about the validity of the Interior Ministry's reported vote totals. And Mousavi himself is making the point, in detailed fashion, that the vote was bogus.
The Chatham House analysis, while wonky and full of detailed charts, provides the clearest evidence yet that Ahmadinejad and Co. rigged the vote.
(54) CommentsJune 21, 2009
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The Showdown Builds In Iran
By Robert Dreyfuss
Tens of thousands of people appeared on Tehran's streets today, again, despite Ayatollah Khamenei's clear warning that they'd be met with force and violence.
According to reports from various quarters, the demonstrators have added a new chant to their repertoire: "Death to Khamenei!" If so, another red line -- and an extremely explosive one -- has been crossed.
Thousands of troops from the Revolutionary Guards, the police, and the Basij paramilitary force -- the mosque-based, devout followers of Khamenei -- blockaded Revolution Square in Tehran today, the proposed site of the main opposition gathering, and they used tear gas, metal batons, and water cannons to keep people out of the square.
(51) CommentsJune 20, 2009
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The Ayatollah Throws Down the Gauntlet
By Robert Dreyfuss
Speaking to a government-organized throng bused in from around Tehran and as far away as Qom, Iran's religious capital, and other cities -- a crowd, no doubt, vastly inflated by dutiful members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the fascist, mosque-based Basij thugs -- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threw down the gauntlet against the Green Wave.
He said:
"Nothing can be changed. It's finished, the Presidential campaign."
(59) CommentsJune 19, 2009
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Battle Lines in Iran
By Robert Dreyfuss
Amid scattered deaths and rising protests, the showdown in Iran continues to build. The Iranian regime's crackdown is gathering momentum, with reports of sweeping arrests of opposition figures, militia raids on university campuses, and threats from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps that protestors are liable to be executed. (A contingent of pro-Ahmadinejad backers marched in Tehran yesterday, chanting: "Rioters should be executed!") According to Reuters, the Guard statement said:
"We warn the few elements controlled by foreigners who try to disrupt domestic security by inciting individuals to destroy and to commit arson that the Islamic penal code for such individuals waging war against God is execution."
Of course, the "elements" are hardly "few," they are not "controlled by foreigners," and their actions have been overwhelmingly nonviolent, dignified, and restrained rather than trying to "destroy" and "commit arson." Yet the threat is plain.
(76) CommentsJune 17, 2009
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Talking to Ahmadinejad
By Robert Dreyfuss
Now comes the hard part.
When I left Tehran early Monday morning, I felt guilty. Guilty because I was leaving behind the faces of the hundreds of people I talked to, met with, had tea with, and interviewed who were backers of the failed presidential campaign of Mir Hossein Mousavi. In their faces, in their eyes, I saw the hope of a new Iran. They told me, passionately, that wanted freedom -- yes, freedom from the requirement of the hijab, but more important, freedom of expression, to speak freely, to have an independent media, to create works of art that don't have to be reviewed by the know-nothings of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
So what's the hard part? The fact that the United States is going to have to talk with the regime of President Ahmadinejad. And not only talk, but make a deal.
(67) CommentsJune 16, 2009
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Iran's Ex-Foreign Minister Yazdi: It's A Coup
By Robert Dreyfuss
It's Saturday afternoon in Tehran, and the streets are generally quiet. But the aftermath of Iran's rigged election, in which radical-right President Ahmadinejad and his paramilitary backers were kept in office, has left Iran's capital steeped in anger, despair, and bitterness.
Last night, after the polls closed, heavily armed troops from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were in evidence in the streets. In one area of north Tehran, where backers of opposition challenger and reformist ex-Prime Minister Mousavi are concentrated, I saw a convoy of at least fifteen military vehicles filled with armed guards idling along the side of the road. The street in front of the Interior Ministry, where votes are counted, is blocked and heavily guarded after rumors that Mousavi supporters might gather there to protest the election count.
Mousavi himself has pledged to fight the verdict, using words like "tyranny" and adding, "I will not surrender to this dangerous charade."
(137) CommentsJune 13, 2009
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Iranians Poised for Change
By Robert Dreyfuss
I went off in search of Ahmadinejad voters today in Tehran. They are not easy to find.
It's perfect election weather in Iran, relatively cool today with a nice breeze and clear skies, and at polling station after station, the turnout was huge. I began my day at the 7th Tir Technical School in central Tehran. It is a relatively prosperous, middle class area, and scores of people were on line this morning, ID cards in hand, waiting patiently to vote. A dozen election officials were milling around, and when they noticed that I was a reporter, out of nowhere appeared a tray with tea. An official checks my press credentials and says, "Welcome."
The people in line were solemn, men and women, some with kids. I do a straw poll, quietly asking voters who they plan to cast their ballots for, and why, and it's clear that at this station at least, it's Mir Hossein Mousavi country. Tarandeh, 38, a teacher with an M.A. in English, says, "I'm someone who has never ever voted before in the Islamic Republic, not once. I was the first on line today, at 8 am. And the gentleman looked at my voting book and asked me, 'Where are your other votes?' I told him, today is my first." Tarandeh's father was an admiral in the Iranian Navy, and he knows Mousavi from his days as prime minister in the 1980s. "I am sure he will not insult and disrespect the beliefs of others around the world, for instance, by talking about the Holocaust." She notes than Iran has a Jewish minority.
(0) CommentsJune 13, 2009
Robert Dreyfuss
A chronicle of America's adventures in foreign policy and national security.
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