Editor: Myself

The myth of Revolutionary Guard's strategic ties with Ahmadinejad

I encourage everyone to read the extensive interview that Financial Times has done with Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, one of the closest friends and advisor to Ahmadinejad. The following part is particularly important because it reveals how the entire story of Ahmadinejad and Revolutionary Guards (Sepah) is nonsense which was created by Rafsanjanists before the elections in order to discredit this guy. After he won, they also continued with these lies in order to imply that the election was manipulated by the Sepah.

The interesting thing is that among all other candidate, it was Baqer Ghalibaf and then Ali Larijani who were official members of the Sepah and has had the strongest ties. Especially Ghalibaf who was until a few years before the commander of the Sepah air forces. So how come he couldn't use the Sepah network to win or manipulate the elections, but Ahmadinejad could?

FT: Where were you during the Iran-Iraq war [1980-1988]? Were you in the war fronts?

SH: We have to talk about the Cultural Revolution in more details later because it was the origin of many developments in universities and culture in the country.

After the Cultural Revolution, a council was formed upon Imam Khomeini’s order. The Cultural Revolution Council spent two or three years so that a new system would take place in the universities to review the content of university courses and re-write new one based on the Iranian society’s needs and necessities.

This led to closure of universities for two years, during which a very big potential of students was released from universities. Many students were drawn to Jahad-e Sazandegi [Construction Jihad by which ideologically-motivated forces embark on social services to poorer and rural areas], some were drawn to the Revolutionary Guards [the elite military force] and some went to deprived areas to be of service [to people]. We [Mr Ahmadi-Nejad and myself] chose to serve people in poor areas.

We went to West Azarbaijan province [northwestern Iran] in 1359 [1980] together with some other students and accepted some executive responsibilities in the province.

At that time I think Mr Ahmadi-Nejad was Maku local governor and later he became Khoy local governor. After a year or a year and a half, I left Azerbaijan for Kurdistan province, which was during the war and Kurdistan as a border province was under the attack of the Baath regime. Mr Ahmadi-Nejad stayed in West Azarbaijan province.

I stayed in Kurdistan almost from 1981-1988. Meanwhile, in 1986 I continued my studies part time at the university.

During these years, we were active in separate [places]. I was active in Kurdistan province and he was in West Azarbaijan. Later he returned to university for continuing his studies.

FT: You were in contact with each other?

SH: He was busy with his own work, but friendships have always continued. Always

FT: Weren’t you involved in any war activities?

SH: In Kurdistan I was deputy governor for political affairs till 1985 and then became advisor to the provincial governor general to be able to continue my studies. I was in charge of Sanadaj municipality for some time, too.

FT: Was Mr Ahmadi-Nejad in the war fronts during the war years?

SH: Considering that his course of study was civil engineering he helped engineering [in war fronts], but not as an official member [of the Revolutionary Guards] rather like other people in the form of Basij [ideologically-motivated voluntary forces].

FT: Was he a member of Basij organisation?

SH: I don’t know.

FT: But you know Mr Ahmadi-Nejad is introduced, in particular in the western press as a former Revolutionary Guards commander.

SH: No. He has never been a member or an official member of the Revolutionary Guards.

FT: And you say his presence in was only voluntary?

SH: It was when necessary.

FT: How long did this “necessity” last during the war? Did he spend years or months?

SH: I don’t know precisely. He would help when necessary. Considering that time [has passed], I don’t remember exactly. He used to help for logistical support, engineering, war engineering and was present in war fronts. But how long it lasted and in what form it was are the questions that you must ask him.

FT: What was Mr Ahmadi-Nejad doing after the war?

SH: Mr Ahmadi-Nejad continued his studies during this time and fortunately he was very talented and successful in his studies. Although he obtained a scholarship to study PhD abroad, he preferred to continue his studies in Iran.

It's great to see the American-made 'champion' of human rights in Iran, Ahmad Batebi, has returned to those who created him in the first place: The U.S. government.

Read the rest | July 3, 2008

I'm in Budapest for the 2008 Global Voices summit.

Read the rest | June 27, 2008

Abdolkarim Soroush's intellectual project was basically reversing and undoing Ali Shariati's discourse. Shariati had located and crystalized the great potentials within the (Shi'a) Islam in resistance to Capitalism, Neocolonialism, and monarchy. Soroush, despite his rhetorical admiatinos for Shariati, destroyed all those possibilites and no wonder many of his closest students (From Mohsen Sazegara to Arash Naraghi) have ended up in the most dangerous neocolonial American institutions such as Hoover, WINEP, NED, etc.

However, I like how he has consistently fought against essentialism that has been so dominant on the intellectual scene in Iran for the past few decades. Read his recent good article in Shahvand-e Emrooz, for instance.

Read the rest | June 23, 2008

Ahmadinejad a neoconservative? Nonsense.

It's sickening how a bunch of Iranian reformists turned exiled-opposition are calling Ahmadinejad a neoconservative, to justify themselves and make their puppet masters at the State Deprtment and Hoover Institute happy.

Ahmadinejad has courageously reversed 16 years of disastrous free-market economic policies of Rafsanjani and Khatami which were gradually destroying the entire dream of the Iranian nation who revolted against the tyrannical and dependent regime of the Shah and basically selling Iran to the American corporations, IMF and the World Bank.

These are the same people who, in their Persian-language media, have been crying foul the whole past three years that Ahmadinejad has driven out the senior Rafsanjanist corrupt businessmen/politicians out of office and have been calling him a socialist and comparing him with Chavez. And they sell Ahmadinejad to the American democrats as a conservative.

One should ask them what is really conservative about Ahmadinejad. Econimically no one has ever cared more about the distribution of oil income than him. Politically, he has done the most radical reforms in the bureaucratic structure of Iran. (One example is decentralising the central budgeting organization and distributing across each province.) Culturally, he has given permission to the first Western pop musician (Chris de Burgh) to come to Iran an perform publicly. Socially, he has tried to allow women into the stadiums which Khatami and Rafsanjani never had the balls to do so. And these are just a few examples.

If despite all these things, they still dare to call this guy a (neo)conservative, then what can one label Khatami and Rafsanjani? How can get away with such nonsense without showing even one single factor that Ahmadinejad has in common with the American neoconservatives?

I wonder how far they are going in bashing this man and disrespecting millions of people who chose him against Rafsanjani, the true reincarnation of the Shah.

Shirin Ebadi advocates sanctions against Iran

Shirin Ebadi tells the 'progressive' Nation magazine:

The only sort of sanctions she is willing to support are direct, political sanctions that target Iran's leaders, from those involved in the Iranian nuclear program to the country's highest officials. Such sanctions, she suggests, could restrict these officials' travel abroad and could order the seizure of privately held assets. In addition, Ebadi believes, the world's countries could collectively shun the Iranian state. "What I mean is that all the countries of the world should reduce or lower the level of their political relations with Iran, so that they convince Iran to improve the situation of human rights. This was you can isolate the government of Iran without really damaging the people," she says.

But the best course is one of dialogue. "The political sanctions should be used as a last resort," she says. "Dialogue has to take place at three levels: at the level of people and civil society, among members of parliament of both countries, and by heads of government of both countries. And negotiations have to be direct and public."

After all, she has to give them at least something back for all the financial and political support she has recovered in the past few years. This also includes her utter silence about the savage treatment the people of Gaza are getting from Israel.

Shirin Ebadi constantly raves about the U.S. 'democracy promotion' funding, but her own daughter closely works with Payam Akhavan, whose Iran Human Rights Documentation Center is one of the main recipients of the same funds. Does she really think Iranian people are stupid?

Read the rest | June 21, 2008

Israel has waged a full-scale psychological war against Iran and much of it is being done on the internet. Aside from being careful not to fall for it, I have a suggestion: To deny access to our websites from any IP address that comes from Israel. Any other idea?

Read the rest | June 20, 2008

Palizadar's interviews with Radio Farda (which has become the unofficial medium for the Israeli government after Jeff Gedmin has come to RFE/RL) and its continuous support for him is very suspicious. Things do not appear the way they are these days. We should be very cautious. The plan is to divide the ruling elite so that it would affect Iran's decisions over the EU offers.

Read the rest | June 20, 2008

The terrifying experience of seeing black British Air Force fighter jets flying so shockingly close to me while I was in an Anthropology conference on Iran in St. Andrews was an awakening reminder : The knowledge we all help produce in the neo-colonial academia is only a senior policy-maker away from the lethal and naked sources of power. Maybe that's why the Pentagon has hired a group of Anthropologists in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read the rest | June 18, 2008

I'm planning to go to St. Andrews' conference on Visual representation of Iran. Anyone else is going?

Read the rest | June 11, 2008

Khomeini's love letter to his wife (and the only woman in his entire life) four year after their marriage from Beirut is amazing.

Read the rest | June 11, 2008

Abbas Plizadar's speeches seem to be genuine to me, especially since all pro-Rafsanjani media (BBC Persian, Rooz, Kargozaraan) are really pissed off about it and have openly called for his prosecution. But it's understandable why the pro-Ahmadinejad media would like to distance themselves from him, even tough they have gone a bit too far by questioning his claims as well, which in most part, is common knowledge and Palizdar have only gathered them and named some names. But I don't rule out the possibility of something really dodgy and nasty behind it either, even though it is very unlikely. The guy seems a genuine Edalatkhah to me and it's been the Basijis who has invited him for these speeches. So they must have been convinced too and I don't think of them as anything close to stupid.

Read the rest | June 11, 2008

Recently surfaced video of Abbas Palizdar, a pro-Ahmadienjad member of the parliamentary group investigating the corruption in the Iranian judiciary, is a great example of why I'm saying that the revolution is revived by Ahmadinejad and whoever wants to fight these corrupt bastards, many of them senior clerics or political figures close to Rafsanjani, should help Ahmadinejad. He is terribly lonely in this fight.

Read the rest | June 9, 2008

I have been busy with work and also a conference at SOAS with some interesting guests from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikestan.

Read the rest | June 8, 2008

I wonder if Radio Farda belongs to the U.S. or Israel government. they seem to get angrier than the Israelis themselves whenever Ahmadinejad says anything against Israel. It's time for its patriotic Iranian staff to leave Jeff Gedmin's Israel propaganda outlet. I'm sure soon they are going to publically call for military attack against Iran, as WINEP has already started with its leaked policy report.

Read the rest | June 4, 2008

ُWeekend's song: Shajarian sings in Raast Panj-gaah with Lotfi's Taar and Farhangfar's Tonbak.

Read the rest | June 1, 2008

Where is John Pilger when New Statesman published NED-embeded anti-Iran propaganda of the Amnesty International

I have to say I'm very disappointed that my favourite British weekly, the New Statesman, has started selling its credibility to the U.S. government's embedded 'activists' at the Amnesty International. Especially after seeing its first instalment which was about the NED-backed or at least NED's favourite labour activist in the whole world (Mansour Ossanlu or Osanlou or Osanloo) who, as you can guess, is from Iran.

Interestingly, the author of the article, David Cockcroft, has never written for the News Statesman before and has not disclosed that as the secretary general of the NED-funded International Transport Federation (in addition to funds though the Solidairty Center) has followed Osanloo's case for the past couple of years.

http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=694

This week it was about China and I'm sure when in one of the coming weeks it's about Venezuella, John Pilger would be very angry at them.

To be honest, even though I really admire Pilger's unconditional objection to foreign intervention, i wonder why he doesn't apply the same standards when it comes to Iran. Is he too frightened of the 'Islamist extremist' label that the Foreign Office's embedded 'leftist' and 'activists would put on him?

If that's the case, it's entirely understandable, but it would reveal a major inconsistency in his positions. But I'm not ruling out that he is not knowledgeable enough about what is really happening in Iran.

P.S: Would it be lovely if the Amnesty International would take me to court because I said they have been hijacked and utilized by the Foreign Office, NED etc.? I am way ready for that.

Masoud Behnoud's performance on VOA the other night was great. He crushed the State Department's propagandist, Bijan Farhoodi, with his great and nuanced responses. I don't think they would have him again.

Read the rest | May 29, 2008

Abbas Abdi says that Khatami has lost much of its brand value compared to ten years ago when he presented something new and different at the time. He says Reformists fail to understand this and doing some big political mistakes that make them look unethical to the voters.

Read the rest | May 29, 2008

Khashayar Beigi has started a wonderful and much needed debate about the 'Human Rights' discourse on Iran. This is a crucial critique of the hegemonic forms of this discourse, promoted (and articulated) by the foreign-backed (and -funded) advocates of these forms, such as Abdolkarim Lahiji, Shirin Ebadi, Mehrangiz Kar and our beloved physicist turned human rights activist, Dr. Hadi Ghaemi. Read Khashayar's recent posts and participate in the debate.

Read the rest | May 28, 2008

Dedicated to Ebrahim Nabavi: Sexy Lebanese girl with Hezbollah t-shirt attends Nasrallah's speech. Resistance belongs to all Lebanese, no matter what religion they have. that's important to show in Iran.

Read the rest | May 27, 2008

Why not to use Gene Sharp's methods of non-violent resistance against the corrupt capitalists such as Abdollah Jasbi who has brutally ruled the Daneshgah-e Azad (Open University) more than two decades only with the absolute backing of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Read the rest | May 26, 2008

Weekend's music: 'Ye Mosht Sarbaaz (A Bunch of Soldiers)", from Hich Kas.

Read the rest | May 25, 2008

Ahmad Batebi has the right to leave Iran and live anywhere he wants. But if he cares about the little dignity and respect he might have among Iranians, he should not join the American war machine against his own people.

Read the rest | May 23, 2008

Read my take on Satrapi's 'Persepolis' in The Guardian, as well as a recent interview I had with the German website, heise.de.

Read the rest | May 21, 2008

Does anyone know which of Ernesto Laclau's works are translated into Persian?

Read the rest | May 21, 2008

A panel discussion on blogging in Iran with Parastoo Dokouhaki, Mahmoud Enayat and Hossein Derqakhshan, at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Read the rest | May 18, 2008

Music of the week: 'Iron Sheikh' raps for the Palestinian resistance.

Read the rest | May 18, 2008

Satrapi's 'Persepolis': Good versus evil, again (The Guardian)

Finally I sat down and wrote about 'Persepolis', Marjane Satrapi's anti-Iran's Spielberg-backed piece of propaganda. Here it is:

Marjane Satrapi's 'Persepolis': Good versus evil, again (The Guardian)

Persepolis is a black-and-white film which also adopts a very black-and-white view of Iran, Hossein Derakhshan writes.

May 15, 2008

Marjane Satrapi's film, Persepolis must have made George Bush and his new ally, Nicolas Sarokzy, quite happy. After all, despite Satrapi's rhetoric against the two leaders, her film's core argument is one that Bush and Sarkozy have long been busy constructing: the evil state versus the wonderful people.

Read the full article