FG

According to Parsineh, it is not clear whether the Khomeini family had decided on an indefinite immigration or a temporary one. The report said Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Hassan Khomeini and the rest of the Khomeini family have decided to relocate to Najaf and have informed some of their close friends about the decision.  Supposedly principalists and reformists are trying to persuade the Khoumeni's to stay.

The last straw may have been a standard raid by Khnamenei's usual thugs on the Khoumeini mosque to interrupt a speech by former president Mohammed Khatami and beat up those attending.  Other mosques and clerics have also been targeted. The Khamenei regime has even been arresting familly members of high Ayatollahs critical of the regime, such as Ayatollah Taheri's son.  Another Ayatollah has been placed under house arrest and blocked from travel, as Khamenei once did to Montazeri. 

In my opinion, the Khoumeini family would be wise to leave Iran whle they can, or they will end up under house arrest or worse (dead or suffering gulag-style hospitality).   Anything can happen if the regime moves further in its hardline crackdown: Mass execution of dissidents as done previously by so-called "revolutionary courts" in the early eighties, huge concentration camps that could hold tens or hundreds of thousands?  We've all heard demands for a repeat by so many regime spokesmen recently.  So have the Khameneis I'm sure.

Threats of arresting members of the Khoumeini family specifically have previously been made in the regime's hardline press. The family hasn't an ounce of doubt that the Founder's younger son, a regime critic, was murdered by Khamenei's death squads on March 17, 1997.  

The Supreme Billionaire has a brutal way of removing obstacles.  For three decades he exhibited no moral qualms whatsoever in preserving his power and newly acqured wealth.  Thus, any hesitation on his part at present is strictly due at prsent is due solely to strategic concerns (doubts about whether he can get away with it once again). The regime's thugs could not operate as freedly as they do without Khamenei's full approval.

Whatever happens, the regime stands to lose if the Khoumeini family is forced to emigerate.  Who knows what they might say in Najaf?   Yet to block a visa is tantamount to putting the Khoumeini family under house arrest. How will that go over with Iran's pious?  But to allow the exit also undermines the regime's legitimacy, especially if its bruality worsens.  If the Khomenei's flee to Najaf, why shouldn't other persecuted high Ayatollahs (Taheri, Sanei, etc.) follow. 

Tehran Bureau has three other interesting items today that I found interesting:

--THE INFAMOUS JAIL 59: Approximately 500 protesters who had been arrested during the Ashura demonstrations have been jailed at the infamous Jail 59 at Eshratabad military base in central Tehran, according to a source.

--SUPREME LEADER'S RELATIVES REPORTEDLY ARRESTED IN MASHAD

Divisions in the regime have gotten so bad that they've apparently reached Khamenei's own family.  So how bad can they be elsewhere.  Not long ago a newspaper owned by Khamenei's brother was shut down about  a month or so. 

One thing is clear, Khamenei and his Caligula-like son Mojtaba have falledn totally under the malign influence of the untraconservative Yadzis.   You might say that Khamenei had decided to "yadzize" the Islamic Republic.  The people now have a new verb.

--TURMOIL IN QOM:

The decision of Mohammed Yazdi's Quo Theologial Association to oust Ayatollah Senei as a source of revolution was apparently issued by Mohammed Yadzi without consulting without the knowledge of members of the association.   Members who protested have been warned, however. 

A member of the Theological Lecturers Association said anyone who questioned the Jameh-e Modarressin statement demoting Ayatollah Yousef Sanei as a Source of Emulation, was dead wrong.

The unnamed JM member told Parleman News that "whoever thinks that the JM action was political or extreme, ghalat kardeh [has no damn right to think that way]."

For further details, check the Headlines section at Tehran Bureau:

//www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/01/selected-headlines-102.html