Current Events

Shah an absolute dictator?!!!

Dear boy either you have got no clue who the Shah was or you have taken Charlie Chaplin's "Great Dictator" for real.

(or maybe both) LOL 

Amir seeks another dictator

Iranians haven't even ousted the despicable Supreme Leader yet and you are busy trying to divide the opposition so that the Shah can rule again. Propaganda like yours is one reason that won't happen.  Iranians have had enough xenophobia.

You sure have a bee in your bonnet when it comes to the West and USA. How are you different from the mullahs in this area?. Why not just  continue the "Death to America" celebrations annually once Your Boy is in power?   

Popular regimes and popular leaders don't need to artificially hype up suspicion of foreigners but you are obscessed.  The mullahs find it useful  which is why they persist.  I'm not sure the Good Old Technique will be welcome when they are gone. 

That you hope to thrive the same way is  a bad sign.  It suggests your intended policies won't be popular with many Iranians and that calls for cheap diversion.  Perhaps you plan to restore the old aristocracy (ancien regime), like French kings after Napoleon's ouster.   

Encouraging paranoid-style nationalism is a standard characteristic of fascism.  Your rhetoric reminds me of Chavez in Venezuela (a populist demagogue who--like most West haters--praises the Islamic Republic).

I claim again that the Shah was an absolute dictator at home. He surrounded by a new aristocracy of yes men and became highly insulated from popular opinion.   The problem of isolation is one of DEGREE when it comes to absolute rulers.  It is not something any ruler can avoid entirely.

Western democratic leaders are only partly insulated by comparison.  Obviously no leader can function without cabinet members and advisors who have more imput.  Wealthy types have too much influence on ALL countries and the cure I recommend for democracies is lobbying restrictions, limits of media monopolies (Rupert Murdoch), and curbs on political spending and contribtutions.  . 

Nevetheless democracies have at least SOME checks on insulations--opposition newspapers, free and open elections.  Politicians constantlyworry over their popularity in the polls, unlike absolute dictators.  To go too far in any direction, no matter under whose influence, will likely cause defeat on election day--a la Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Sadness and horror at the same time

...... that mother's sorrow and the young Ebrahim's story.

About the technology

I think we may be pretty much sure the British government approved it. I mean this was a firm related to William Hague. It would be impossible they did not approve it. However I would not stretch it to US involvement.

That is why more tight sanctions are important. It will keep these firms from wiggling around it. Yes there are elements who want to support IRI but not all.

No such danger in British monarchy

Niavite is an unlimited hole through a body of Ignorance... FG

For the intelligent people that know high tech companies CAN NOT provide sensitive tecnology like what IRI received without the government approval and that because of the work they do they have to work closely with the foreign office please disregard my comment below its only for FG.

Your comment to me "If Amir limited himself to blaming certain western companies for providing technology to spy on Iranians" sounds like the propaganda Iranians are facing from the media in general to keep them deceived.  When the Telegraph says, "A British technology firm with links to William Hague, the Foreign Secretary,
has sold a product to Iran which could be used to track down protesters."  It is because it can not be impartial when its purpose is first to fool intellectuals in the UK, who then come over and fool our intellectuals. Every part of that statement needs to be changed to be truthful.

A more accurate title would have been, "A technology firm with sensitive technologies that are only provided after being given authorization by the government, supported the UK national interests by providing a technology that would be knowingly used to track down protestors, kill and torture them while helping keep the islamist regime in power and this is exactly the purpose for which it was used." (not could be used) This is not an issue of me falsly blaming anybody, just pointing out the obvious, which is when it was provided with full govt knowledge, the UK govt knew that people were being executed without trial and torture was going on, on a massive scale.

FG you think too much, have you ever wondered if your thoughts are based on something with a basis, my hallucination is it would serve you alot to go beyond questioning yourself, taking a critical step beyond that and picking up the phone and asking qualified people in the field their advice on certain issues before you embarrass yourself publicly.  Also to make matters worse, You know that there is not a  single case or example of the Shah using absolute power, you also know "self-enriching "yes" men with a vested interest" is one of the core big problems with democratic government that relies on money for winning elections, not to mention the case with the UK foreign office helping secure the IRI is an example of that, so why all the childish comments?

Resorting to demagoguery, Amir shows danger of secular monarchy

If Amir limited himself to blaming certain western companies for providing technology to spy on Iranians, I would have no quarrel with him nor would most of us here who can't abide theocratic rule.   He would be correct and the criticism deserved.

If Amir understands the limits of governments in western democracy--and I have no doubt he does--he surely knows perfectly well that DEMOCRATIC governments have no role in corporate decisions, cannot "bug" hundreds of board meetings to find out in advance what they intend so as to thwart it.  Democratic governments, having limits of their capacity to snoop and hand out orders, learn about it afterwards just like the citizenry. In a democracy goverrnments are restricted constitutionally. They can't do whatever they please when they please--like the Shah and the mullahs. 

Private corporations like this make despicable decisions in pursuit of profits NOT because democratic governments ordered them to do so.  You can't bug board rooms without a warrant and good luck getting one from a judge.  Like the rest of us, governments find out about outrages like you describe only after the facvt.  They tend to be just as pissed off as most Iranians and most western citizens and YOU KNOW IT. 

So what do Amir's lies tell us about what he REALLY wants?  Fascist nationalism, just like clerical fascism, depends on shamefully provoking xenophobia and blame everything on outsiders.    Accept Amir's arguments and you must accept the undesired but logical corollary: Any Iranian who would disagree with certain decision of a "secular monarch" is a foreign agent or influenced by such. 

From whom have both Iranians and Arabs heard that before?   Can't you see the same intent to isolate Iranians from the outside world so the new rulers can more easily control them (not that it works except initially in an age or modern technology)? 

Amir might as well blame individuals like me (you all know how much I despise Khamenei and his tyranny) for corporate decisions as blame western governments.  It would be just as silly. Virtually every western governments despises the mullahs as well.  A HONEST man would never confuse their timidity and constraints on action with "love of the mullahs" or any desire to help them.  There's a big difference.  Again, Amir know it but persists anyway. 

Note the contradictions such types offer us. On the one hand folks like Amir accuse western governments of "helping the mullahs."  On the other they plot war against the mullahs.  The latter charges are true of right wing neocons but they are not "the government" as Amir also knows.   He takes advantage of the fact that such types enjoy the same freedom of speech and press as everyone else and express their ideas publicly.

At one time I thought a defanged secular monarchy, similar to Britain's, might not be a bad idea.  Having read too many Goebbelian posts by its supporers like Amir I now believe its a bad idea.  Folks like Amir, so reminiscent of Savak, apparently dream of coming back by the dozens with the young Shah and introducing the same old, same old. 

Amir can't grasp that Iranians no more yearn for Savak, isolation and xenophonia than they yearn for the Basilj, the IRCG or idolize Khamenei.  Having one revolution stolen, Iranians must be careful not to allow folks with their own AGENDA to steal another by poisonous conspiracy theories.  To spread them now, while the mullahs still rule, suggests the hard his type may intend afterward.

I credit the Shah with attempting to introduce certain secularizing reforms before their time and it cost him dearly.  I even believe he started as a decent and likable man, a would-be reformer who became isolated and out of touch with the people.  Holding absolute power, one becomes surrounded by self-enriching "yes" men with a vested interest in telling a ruler what he wants to hear and keeping him misinformed. 

The great irony of clerical rule is that the mullahs unintentionally secularized Iranian society beyond the Shah's wildest dreams--so deeply that no country in the Middle East more likely to welcome a western-style democracy without needing an Erdogan.

The Poor Doctor volunteer at kahrizak, who

will get justice for Ramin who refused to go with the governments lies? 

We are One Nation against this heartbreaking cruel force imposed and aided over us.  Shame for those that compare the late Shah with this Regime, who unlike the IRI ordered all forces to never have their weapons armed and gave them no permission or order to shoot on the people. 

Now the uk/usa/france through special assistance supports their IRI which continues to run Iran based on lies.  If the west had not stolen our Freedom how many days would it be before the Shah would have returned to Iran.  Instead he died in Egypt, labelled a dictator and crook, for an Iranian leader who never used absolute power who left Iran wishing to avoid greater harm to Iranians! And to add insult to injury and humiliation, we have RP II not able to hold speeches, while the MEK is free to do all of the above. This was a great video at reminding us all how disturbing the west has acted towards Iran, for those who see who organized the destruction of the Shah & Iran and who keeps these mullahs in power.  Unity is the only power we have in opposing those who benefit from our collective misery.    

It Is SO VERY Important for Iranians to know that USA/UK/France

supports these IRI thugs.

They want To Keep Islam imposed over our heads by force and they prevent RP II from holding Mass Rallies or giving speeches to Iranians.  They gave the Regime the technology to identify who the protestors were and their exact physical location, which they knew the regime would use to murder thousands with out trial and torture tens of thousands. We can slowly fix this living nightmare for Iranians by getting everyone informed and doing our best to fight this enemy with no face/the policy with no soul.

//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/william-h...

living nightmare

... .

this is good to know - thanks, mehrdad

.

A very well done documentary of the sad and criminal events….

That our country men and women have to wrestle with every day.

My heart goes to all the mothers, fathers, brother and sisters of these young individuals who are giving so much to have their opinion expressed openly and to build a better/free Iran. 

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad