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Entries in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (808)

Wednesday
Sep212011

The Latest from Iran (21 September): The In-Fighting Over the US Hikers

See also Iran Interview: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Runs Circles Around ABC News' Stephanopoulos
WikiLeaks & Iran Special (June 2009): The Election Was "A Power Grab by Mojtaba Khamenei"
Iran Interview: Ahmadinejad Defies the Judiciary over the US Hikers


2015 GMT: The US Hikers. The flight carrying US nationals Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, freed on bail this afternoon, has landed in Oman.

Waiting for them were their families and Sarah Shourd, their companion who was also arrested in July 2009 on the Iran-Iraq border and was freed last September. She and Bauer are now engaged.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And how is this being played by Iran media? Well, here's a clue: the pro-Ahmadinejad State news agency IRNA has posted a set of 26 photos:

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Wednesday
Sep212011

Iran Interview: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Runs Circles Around ABC News' Stephanopoulos

Another forum in New York for President Ahmadinejad to put out his talking points --- "Show me one dictatorship in the world that has not been supported by the United States government or some European governments" --- while knocking back any thought of violations of political, civil, and legal rights after his disputed 2009 re-election: "Don’t you distinguish between those protestors who have something to say and who have some demands, and those who set buildings on fire?"

Like NBC News' Ann Curry in Tehran a week ago,  ABC News' George Stephanopoulos gets his prize in the opening exchange with the prospect of a release of the US hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer --- this time, it actually came true in the following 24 hours --- and then the rest of the interview is a broadcast wasteland.

Stephanopoulos is ill-prepared to follow up on some questions, such as the repression in Iran, and unable to to catch up with an evasive Ahmadinejad on others, such as Syria. While for once, this is an interview that doesn't put a priority on the nuclear issue, Stephanopoulos cannot even get the Iranian President to respond meaningfully on the US call for military communications with Tehran to avoid an accidental conflict --- Ahmadinejad shows his interviewer up, "You mean the US is in a Cold War with Iran? Is that what you mean?"

And there is even a gift tied with a bow for Ahmadinejad with Stephanopoulos' presentation of foreign-supported "regime change": "The Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier this year that it’s just a matter of time before this revolution hits Iran.  What did you make of that?"

THE INTERVIEW

STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thank you for joining us again.  I want to begin with a topic that  many Americans are interested [in], of course, the Americans, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer.  Last week you raised a lot of hopes here in the United States saying they would be released in a couple of days as a humanitarian gesture.  Many expected them to come back here with you.  Yet they’re still imprisoned in Iran.  Why?

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Wednesday
Sep212011

WikiLeaks & Iran Special (June 2009): The Election Was "A Power Grab by Mojtaba Khamenei"

Ali and Mojtaba KhameneiLast week we featured a cable, released by WikiLeaks, in which Ayatollah Syed Salman Safavi --- four days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election --- told Western diplomats in London that a person "very close to the Supreme Leader...working in the Supreme Leader's office" had orchestrated the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Safavi's implication was that the Supreme Leader's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, even if he did not direct the manipulation, was fully supportive of it and that the operation was backed by the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mohammad Ali Jafari. Safavi further claimed that the IRGC had been split by the decision to rig the election in favour of Ahmadinejad, whom he said had the backing of only one senior cleric, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi.

And now, in another cable from WikiLeaks, the other half of this intriguing tale....

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Tuesday
Sep202011

Iran Breaking: Ahmadinejad Defies the Judiciary over the US Hikers

Shane Bauer and Josh FattalWe act upon whatever we say. And if we don’t want to act, we won’t say it. We didn’t make this decision under pressure. It’s a humanitarian decision. Although, a lot of people are in jail or in prison in American prisons, inside the United States, in Europe, on ships unfortunately there are a lot of people without having had the opportunity of a fair trial. And there are some Iranians who are imprisoned in the United States and did not have the opportunity of a full judicial review. But when we said we will release them, we will release them, as a humanitarian gesture.

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Tuesday
Sep202011

Iran Feature: So What Would You Ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? (Sadjadpour and Milani)

There is evidence that your chief adviser, [Esfandiar] Rahim Mashai, helped secure loans for the leading suspect in a $2.6 billion bank fraud case, the largest embezzlement scandal in Iranian history. You came to office vowing to “cut off the hands” of the corrupt; how will you deal with Mashai?

Your opponents in 2009, Mir Hossein Mousavi, 69, and Mehdi Karroubi, 73, have been held incommunicado for nearly a year. On what basis are they confined? If they have no influence, as you have said, why are they under house arrest?

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Tuesday
Sep202011

The Latest from Iran (20 September): Ahmadinejad's Warm-Up Act

See also Iran Feature: So What Would You Ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
Iran Interview: Azerbaijani Activist Fakhteh Zamani Explains the Lake Urmia Protests


Basij commander Mohammad-Reza Naqdi1720 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. So why did Iranian authorities arrest six filmmakers on the allegation that they worked for BBC Persian (see Monday's LiveBlog)? Here's a clue....

One of the six, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, was already being targeted: he was barred less than two weeks ago from travelling to the Toronto International Film Festival to screen the documentary This Is Not a Film, about a day in fellow Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s life. Mirtahmasb's offence was to work with Panahi, who has been sentenced to six years and a 20-year ban on filmmaking for supposed activities against the State, on the project.

BBC Persian has said that it has done no more than purchase the rights to documentaries and other projects of the six filmmakers and that it has never employed any of them.

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Monday
Sep192011

The Latest from Iran (19 September): Ahmadinejad Leaves An Embezzlement Behind

See also Iran Interview: Azerbaijani Activist Fakhteh Zamani Explains the Lake Urmia Protests


1900 GMT: The Supreme Leader's Son and the "Election Coup". On Friday, we published the WikiLeaks-released cable in which Ayatollah Sayed Salman Safavi, the brother of the Supreme Leader's military advisor, told Western diplomats --- four days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election --- that there had been a "coup" orchestrated by a prison "close to the Supreme Leader".

The story is now in the Persian-language Digarban, with a link to the document and Safavi's assertion that the coup had split the Revolutionary Guards.

1645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. 1535 GMT: BBC Persian has denied that it employed six people arrested by Iranian authorities (see 0630 GMT) for supposedly working for the service, saying they are independent filmmakers. BBC Persian said, as is common in the industry, that it had paid for the rights to show documentaries and programmes produced by the detainees.

Opposition websites identified the six filmmakers as Naser Saffarian, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Hadi Afarideh, Mohsen Shahrnazdar, Katayoun Shahabi and Mehrdad Zahedian.

A source involved in the arrests said, "This network of anti-Iran people were collaborating with the BBC in a cover-up to fulfil the needs of the British secret service in exchange for big sums of money. The anti-Iran intentions of the channel and its collaborators are clear."

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Sunday
Sep182011

The Latest from Iran (18 September): The Supreme Leader's Grand Claim on the Region

See also Iran Feature: Is Civil Disobedience Taking Off?


1905 GMT: Peyke Iran reports that Thai airports have stopped the refuelling of some Iranian aircraft.

1900 GMT: CyberWatch. Iran has achieved the distinction of being ranked 170th out of 170 countries for Internet speed by Net Index.

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Saturday
Sep172011

The Latest from Iran (17 September): Re-Visiting the 2009 Election

See also Iran Feature: Is Civil Disobedience Taking Off?
WikiLeaks & Iran Special (June 2009): Brother of Supreme Leader's Military Advisor "The Election Was a Political Coup"


2045 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Iranian authorities have freed Vahik Abramian, a Dutch-Iranian national detained for a year for "spreading the Christian faith". He is now back in the Netherlands.

1700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kurdish student activists Mehdi Dohago, Milad Karimi and Soran Daneshvar --- have been arrested in Sanandaj in northwestern Iran.

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Friday
Sep162011

WikiLeaks & Iran Special (June 2009): Brother of Supreme Leader's Military Advisor "The Election Was a Political Coup"

Released in this month's mass "drop" of US documents by WikiLeaks, this may be the most explosive document I have seen about the disputed 2009 Iranian Presidential Election. That is not just because of the content --- a graphic description of an election stolen under the direction of a member of the Supreme Leader's office (his son, Mojtaba Khamenei?) amidst a divided establishment, with the Revolutionary Guards split over support for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad --- but because of the support.

The claims are not made by a foreign agency or by the Iranian opposition. For the first time, they come from a source close to the highest levels of the regime. It is the brother of the military advisor to the Supreme Leader who outlines:

1. The election was a "political coup", with disruption of Mir Hossein Mousavi's organisation and communications, an exaggerated vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a very quick announcement of the supposed results. The fraud was orchestrated by someone "very close to the [Supreme] Leader" and involved the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari.

2. The decision to manipulate the election was prompted by the perceived surge of support for Mir Hossein Mousavi, especially after his performance in a 1-on-1 debate with Ahmadinejad.

3. The Revolutionary Guards split over the manipulation, with a majority opposed Jafari and the Basij militia's command.

4. The political establishment were also divided. Only a minority of conservatives supported Ahmadinejad before the vote, and he was only backed by one senior cleric, Mesbah Yazdi.

5. To bolster the opposition, which had turned out in the hundreds of thousands (millions?) the previous day in Tehran, the US should promote a message of human rights and should not recognise Ahmadinejad.


THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

¶1. (S) Summary: Syed Salman Safavi, brother of ex-IRGC commander and the Supreme Leader's military advisor Rehman Safavi, on June 16 told London Iran Watcher (Poloff) and a small group of diplomats that "a majority" of leaders within the government of Iran and the IRGC want the United States, while continuing to avoid interference in Iran, to continue and even strengthen its public messages on human rights, so as to support popular protests in Iran and prevent any consolidation of Ahmedinejad's electoral win. Safavi said "a majority" of the IRGC have split from the Basij and from IRGC commander Jafari over the manipulation and aftermath of the June 12 elections. He added that a person he "cannot name, very close to the Supreme Leader," and "working in the Leader's office," conceived and ordered engineering of the election and of attempted suppression which has followed. Safavi claimed no senior clergy other than Mousavi in fact support Ahmedinejad. Safavi offered no compromise solution among contending parties in Iran, and indicated throughout that either Moussavi or Ahmedinejad would be politically vanquished. He explicitly played down the prospect of a "civil war" raised by a European interlocutor. End summary.

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