Babak Namdar

Mousavi has written one, so has Karroubi — and no we are not talking about execution orders.  It seems every current and former Islamic Republic regime official is preoccupied with how to absolve themselves of crimes they’ve committed while jockeying for power and position.

Even former regime officials living in exile are jumping on, expanding on their reformist colleagues list of demands.

The demands the reformists are making are not particularly breath-taking nor revolutionary, however they do shed light on their line of thinking.

Mousavi’s “top 5” starts by demanding that the administration be responsible for the problems it created for the country.  Mousavi has been previously asked about his role in the execution of over 30,000 prisoners in the summer of 1988, to which he has replied that he was not aware that these executions were taking place.  So in short, Mousavi wants Ahmadinejad’s administration to be responsible for its actions, but conveniently excludes himself.

Additionally, Mousavi also demands free and fair elections to “restore the people’s trust”, as if there were free and fair elections prior to the 2009 [s]election.  This notion that you can swear allegiance to the Islamic Republic and its constitution, while at the same time demanding free and fair elections just sounds for lack of a better word – retarded.

Not to be outdone, Karroubi released his own “top 5” list, with the most interesting demand being that “Oppressors, those who committed crimes in the aftermath of the election and made people’s lives difficult, should confess to their crimes and ask for forgiveness.”  So according to Karroubi logic, you are only a criminal if if you murdered, raped and tortured after the 2009 [s]election.  Very interesting.  We shouldn’t be surprised however, after all if Karroubi wanted to apply his logic without bias, then he too would have to “ask for forgiveness.”

Karroubi’s “top 5” also includes a point regarding the need to to revert back to the “golden days” of the Islamic Revolution during which Khomenei ruled.  For those that were spared those truly horrific years, suffice to say that it was not exactly “heaven on earth” as many reformists claim. During the “purging years” hundreds of political dissidents were executed on a daily basis – yes “golden days” indeed.

Manifesto-mania even gripped  regime officials, such as the architect of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) Mohsen Sazegara, former Intelligence Ministry officer Akbar Ganji and former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Ataollah Mohajerani, to write their own manifesto.

The manifesto of the “criminal 5” consists of 10 points instead of 5, but more importantly, one of the demands is the “Persecution of torturers and murderers for recent crimes”.  The consensus emerging from reformists looks something “alright, we all have blood on our hands, so lets not implicate ourselves and focus on crimes committed post 2009 [s]election”.

The “criminal 5” also try to speak on behalf of Iranians demanding “prosecution of those involved in murders and torture of recent months in a public court of law with retribution to the victims and their families.”  Those who have lost loved ones in the hands of Islamic Republic will determine who they will forgive and who they want prosecuted not five murdering criminals living in exile.

It seems the international media are of the opinion that if you’re protesting then you must be pro-Mousavi.

Here are some pictures with their respective captions labelling protests as pro-Mousavi.  There are many more then the pictures I’ve cited here, but this is just to give an idea about the spin media are putting on protests in Iran.  I wouldn’t doubt it if they have pictures from this years July 9 uprising (18 tir) with a caption claiming protests support Mousavi.

Perhaps AFP thinks anyone who is out on the streets protesting against the regime is actually pro-regime… er I mean pro-Mousavi.

Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi throw stones at Iranian police during a violent demonstration in Tehran on June 20. Iranian opposition leaders have called for the immediate release of hundreds of people arrested in a crackdown on post-election protests and denounced the “brutal attacks” by security forces.(AFP/File)

Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi run past a burning bus in Tehran. Mousavi plans to unveil a new political grouping which will keep up a protest campaign against last month’s disputed presidential election, an aide said on Wednesday. (AFP/File/Olivier Laban-Mattei)

Again, the same formula is used:

Protester = supporter of regime reformists

A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi holds a stone as he stands with fellow demonstrators during riots in Tehran in June 2009. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday renewed a limited US offer to talk with Iran despite its post-election crackdown and defended the principle of engaging anti-American regimes. (AFP/File/Olivier Laban-Mattei)

How can someone holding the Lion & Sun flag be branded pro-Mousavi?  Mousavi is a creature of the regime, he is by no-means anti-regime having served as the regime’s prime minister.  It is therefore difficult to understand how an icon for resistance like the Lion & Sun flag can be associated with the Islamic Republic reformist to which Mousavi subscribes to.  Difficult to comprehend for you and I, but not for Associated Press.

Demonstrators wave Iranian flags outside the Iranian embassy in Brussels, Saturday June 27, 2009, protesting the outcome of the presidential election in Iran. The demonstrators are expressing solidarity with Iranian opposition leader Hossein Mousavi. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Very interesting.

When there is talk of Iranian opposition being helped financially that’s bad - very very bad; but when reformists want to receive financial backing it’s good - very very good.

FDI has a great write-up of the developments taking place to the run-up of the Islamic Republic’s [s]election.

Here’s a excerpt:

According to Saeed Behbehani of MihanTV, a U.S. government emissary met in Dubai two weeks ago with Mehdi Khazali, campaign manager for Mir Hossein Mousavi, bringing assurances of U.S. government support for his campaign. So far, organizations such as “One Million Signatures” inside Iran, which is funded through NGO’s getting State Department fnding, have been mobilized in favor of Mousavi in the election. For 30 years, Iranian women have been knocking their heads on the doors of Western “feminist” organizations, seeking - if not help, at least sympathy. Until now, they have been given the brush-off. But with a “reformist” in the White House, “reformists” in Iran have access s to campaign war chests, VOA Persian Service, National Endowment for Democracy grants, and more.

May 31, 2009

The Islamic Republic’s 2009 [s]election is shaping up to be just as it has been before; a “hardliner” wanting to curb “westernization” of Iran and an enlightened “reformist” promising liberal policies. And just as previous [s]elections, the theocracy has put its propaganda machine into overdrive, arguing that to boycott the [s]election means the enemy, which is defined as anyone who is against the Islamic Republic, will win.  In keeping with tradition, the various factions within the regime are receiving various forms of support from foreign forces.

Rafsanjani has gone so far as to spell out explicitly the Islamic Republic’s fears, stating that if less then 40 million Iranians vote, the legitimacy of the regime will come under question and if more then 40 million participate, the regime has insured itself for another four years.  The regime has even lowered the legal voting age to 15 to help bolster voter turnout.  The theocracy’s king, Khamenei, has declared that Iranians must vote so as to provide legitimacy to the ruling clique.

Out of the more then 475 applicants only four were vetted to run for the presidency by the Guardian Council.  In other words, less then one percent of the applicants were allowed to run.  Unsurprising, all the women applicants were disqualified.

The four candidates that were approved by what Khamenei referred to as the regime’s “microscope” are Ahmadinejad, Karoubi, Mousavi and Rezaei.
One just needs to look back in these last four years to get a good idea of Ahmadinejad line of thinking, however the histories of the other three candidates is much more obscure to the world.

Mehdi Karoubi is currently campaigning on a platform of human rights and women rights, though he supports gender apartheid, such as Shariah laws that states a woman’s word is worth half a man’s in the court of law and a woman’s life and limb being worth half as much as a man’s.  When Karoubi was the head of the Foundation for Families of Martyrs he became famous for the various sexual scandals involving widows of the Iran-Iraq war and the sheer amount of corruption in the said foundation.  When Karoubi was the speaker of the majority-reformist parliament during Khatami’s presidency, Khamenei issued an edict that the bill to ease censorship in the press should not be brought to a vote, and Karoubi obliged and removed the bill, even though Karoubi had campaigned on easing of press restrictions.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a cousin of Khamenei has worked in the Expediency Council for last twenty years or so.  Mousavi was also responsible for closing the universities immediately after the hijacking of the revolution of 78, to conduct cultural re-education.  During the Iran-Iraq war he served as the Islamic Republic’s prime minister, helping extend the war for 5 long years  even though at a point Iran had taken back all its cities from Iraq and the Arabs were willing to end the war and make huge financial compensations.  Mr. Mousavi presided over mass executions of 80-81 and the dark summer of 1988 where over thirty thousand political prisoners were executed and buried and mass graves.   Given the amount of blood on his hands it’s difficult to not to laugh when Mousavi speaks of creating a human rights council if [s]elected.  As far as his anti-West views go, he stated in 1981 in the magazine Payameh Enghelab that “We are ready to participate within an armed force to fight Israel… We have repeatedly announced that we are ready to have an actual, real and  military presence in Southern Lebanon and on the borders of the occupied Palestinian lands…we believe that with the support of the popular forces in Lebanon we shall be able to gradually find effective and powerful bases in the area for fighting Israel …we believe if the flow of oil in Muslim Lands is in the hands of Muslims and if the ideology of Islam controls the opening or closing of the oil valves we shall be able to bring the World Arrogance to its knees, to strike Israel and to destroy it.”

Mohsen Rezaei is a former chief commander of the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) and currently serving as Secretary of Expediency Council.  During his reign as the head of IRGC, he ordered the bombing of Iranian Kurdistan Province in western and north-western Iran.  He even boasted about how he didn’t have room for three Iranian Kurds POWs, and thus simply beheaded them and traveled back with their heads.  Rezaei is wanted by Interpol for connection to the Argentine Jewish center bombing in 1994.

With such a candidate roster, one has to wonder what type of government would let people who have committed crimes against humanity run for public office.  But then one remembers this is the Islamic Republic, having blood on one’s hands is a prerequisite for holding high public office.

As with previous regime [s]elections, we reiterate that the Marze Por Gohar Party does not recognize the Islamic Republic as the legitimate representative of Iran and therefore we will not take any part in the regime’s [s]elections and encourage others to do the same.  Even within the theocratic framework of the Islamic Republic, Iranians have the right to boycott the [s]elections.

The freedom Iranians have earned during the reign of this regime have not come about from working “within the system” and thus voting only serves to give legitimacy to a government which is only answerable to God not Iranians.

Long Live Iran.

Marze Por Gohar Party