Steady drip of leaks corrodes the core of the Iranian regime
New York Times / Michael Slackman
07-Jan-2010 (2 comments)

...They began in December. Leaks about private meetings of the intelligence services and Revolutionary Guards; an embarrassing memo from state-owned television on how to cover the protests; a note about how the security services have been using PETTY CRIMINALS to fill out the ranks of pro-government demonstrations.

...The leaks could be a symptom of disillusionment and, perhaps, of the supreme leader’s decision to marginalize all but the most loyal. Yet, while the leaks provide evidence of divisions, they cannot answer questions about how deep the rifts go or what they say about the trajectory of the crisis or the stability of the government.

...“Since June, there has been much anecdotal evidence that suggests deep divisions between the hard-line commanders of the Guards and between the Guards and members of the regular armed forces who are dissatisfied with the election and its aftermath,” said Alireza Nader, an analyst with the RAND Corporation. “The extent of these divisions are hard to gauge, but they have the potential to weaken Khamenei’s grip at a critical juncture.”

...Apparently in another leak, at the end of December, the Jaras oppos... >>>

FG

Repression is alienating everyone

by FG on

Here's another sampler of growing divisions caused by offending virtually everyone except extremists like the Yazdis: 

"Iran move to defrock dissident ayatollah opens rifts in theocracy"

//www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0106/Iran-move-to-defrock-dissident-ayatollah-opens-rifts-in-theocracy

Neither Muhammed Yazdi's organization nor the Khamenei regime have any legal precedent or authority to disqualify any high ayatollah.  In fact Khamenei's only religious creditials are miniscule.  Iran's Supreme Cynic believes in Islam about as deeply as Stalin believed in communism--not an ounce.   For both men, an ideological was gradually transformed into a useful device for acquiring wealth, power or both in the Khamenei's cae ($36 billion plus for him and his family). 

Not bad at all for a guy who started out in a large family in a one room house!   Islam--at least his interpretation of it--has paid off big for Khamenei and kin.

A regime like Khamenei does need and legal rights or historical precedents to "disqualify" a high cleric any more than it needs pay attention to other objects of contempt (search warrants, open trials, a free press, fair elections, human rights, legal precedents and constitutional guaranteers). 

Khamenei's megalomaniac view can be summarized thus, "I have the right to rape,beat,  torture, murder, imprison anyone I choose any time I choose.  I also have the right to set up secret jails, mask my interrogators and create death squads in order to accomplish my noble goals.  Allah supports me in this.  Anyone who says otherwise, is a guilty of crimes against God."

Recent attacks on dissident clerics, their homes and mosques, committed over and over by the same thugs, obviously could not happen without Khamenei's approval and his full protection afterwards for those who carry out such assignments. Meanwhile, everyone sees one of his shameless forms of intimidation:  Family members of clerics are just as likely to be arrested as family members of journalists, politicians and human rights spokesmen.  with the perpetrators protected afterward--have angered the pious in the heartland as well as the high clergy.   Sometimes, family members are tortured next door to an arrested dissident.  Khamenei's tactic is to encourage bogus "confessions" by having victims hear the screams of their dear ones.

Yes, a very moral man this Supreme Billionaire is!



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FG

Khamenei gives IRCG thug control over judiciary, sentences

by FG on

For Khamenei and his ultraconservatives, the Revolutionary Guard is a control device much like the Nazi SS and the Soviet KGB in its limited loyalties.  Yet neither of the latter ever acquired so mjuch power over so many areas of life. 

Why should a military organization tied to a small fraction of ultraconservatives have any say in a nation's judicial system? Since June 12th, the move toward totalitarianism has accelerated and the regime's unpopularity grows in direct proportion.  

Apparently the Supreme Billionaire has decided the justice system isn't unjustice enough.   The Revolutionary Guard has already been given full control over so many aspect of Iran's life--the economy, parliament, the jails, the media, so why not the courts too--not that the latter didn't stink of injustice already?  

//www.irannewsdigest.com/ 

EXCERPT:

The appointment of a top IRGC commander with a security background to the position of Adviser to the Judiciary has created concern among human rights activists who believe such action would lead to radicalization of the Judiciary and distortion of its independence.