Category Archives: Ali Khamenei

Ali Khamenei, Culture, Iran

Cool Ahamadinejad: the Return to Alternative Rock, Iranian GOP……….

 

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“Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed
When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,
Holding my head straight (looking down)
This is the easiest task I’ve ever had to do
Reason had harnessed the tame
Holding the sky in their arms
Gravity pulls me down…….” R.E.M.

“Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Thursday he was kind of getting back into old R.E.M. again, rediscovering his once-great passion for the alternative rock group’s first six albums. Ahmadinejad, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s conservative political coalition, confirmed that ever since R.E.M. broke up in September 2011, he had been revisiting the Athens, GA band’s catalog and was once again really digging its earlier stuff. “Listening to some of those early albums they did for [record label] I.R.S. has reminded me of how great R.E.M. really was,” said the 55-year-old former mayor of Tehran, who is known for his rigorous implementation of radical Islamist policies throughout Iran. “Stipe’s cryptic vocals combined with Buck’s bright, chiming guitar hooks, Mills’ melodic bass lines, and the driving beat of Bill Berry’s drums creates this ethereal sound that just completely kicks ass.” “They’re basically like the original alternative rock band,” the controversial world leader and Holocaust denier added. Ahmadinejad confirmed he first discovered R.E.M. in 1986 after stumbling across Fables Of The Reconstruction on vinyl at a record store in Tehran. At the time a civil engineering graduate student who helped crack down on dissident university professors and pupils, he said he was immediately infatuated with the band upon hearing the haunting guitar riff at the start of album opener “Feeling Gravitys Pull.”…………”

Apparently he has had some dispute on this REM issue with the clerics. Not only do the senior clerics disapprove, conservative members of parliament (the Iranian GOP) may again threaten to impeach him. If he ain’t careful the remaining year of his career may go up the proverbial creek. But then again, right now it’s better for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be true to himself: what has he got to lose? Just tell the mullahs to “take this job and shove it”.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Culture, Iran

Ahamadinejad: the Return to Alternative Rock, Iranian GOP……….

 

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“Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed
When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,
Holding my head straight (looking down)
This is the easiest task I’ve ever had to do
Reason had harnessed the tame
Holding the sky in their arms
Gravity pulls me down…….” R.E.M.

“Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Thursday he was kind of getting back into old R.E.M. again, rediscovering his once-great passion for the alternative rock group’s first six albums. Ahmadinejad, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s conservative political coalition, confirmed that ever since R.E.M. broke up in September 2011, he had been revisiting the Athens, GA band’s catalog and was once again really digging its earlier stuff. “Listening to some of those early albums they did for [record label] I.R.S. has reminded me of how great R.E.M. really was,” said the 55-year-old former mayor of Tehran, who is known for his rigorous implementation of radical Islamist policies throughout Iran. “Stipe’s cryptic vocals combined with Buck’s bright, chiming guitar hooks, Mills’ melodic bass lines, and the driving beat of Bill Berry’s drums creates this ethereal sound that just completely kicks ass.” “They’re basically like the original alternative rock band,” the controversial world leader and Holocaust denier added. Ahmadinejad confirmed he first discovered R.E.M. in 1986 after stumbling across Fables Of The Reconstruction on vinyl at a record store in Tehran. At the time a civil engineering graduate student who helped crack down on dissident university professors and pupils, he said he was immediately infatuated with the band upon hearing the haunting guitar riff at the start of album opener “Feeling Gravitys Pull.”…………”

Apparently he has had some dispute on this REM issue with the clerics. Not only do the senior clerics disapprove, conservative members of parliament (the Iranian GOP) may again threaten to impeach him. If he ain’t careful the remaining year of his career may go up the proverbial creek. But then again, right now it’s better for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be true to himself: what has he got to lose? Just tell the mullahs to “take this job and shove it”.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Egypt, Iran, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Suicidal Iranians: Another Dastardly Terror Plot in the Suez Canal……….

    

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“The Egyptian authorities claim to have foiled an Iranian attempt to blow up Israeli vessels in the Suez Canal, a government-linked newspaper has reported. Details of the alleged plot are likely to escalate tensions between Israel and Iran, who are locked in a stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear programme that many fear could trigger a new war in the Middle East. Israeli officials were unable to confirm the details, but said it was significant that the report had been published in Al-Ahram Weekly, a semi-official newspaper. Quoting state prosecutors, Al-Ahram said Egyptian police were holding two Egyptian nationals who are charged with receiving orders and payment from Iranian agents to blow up an Israeli ship. The two allegedly offered a third suspect, Mohammed Zakri, £5.1m to carry out the attack. Mr Zakri was reportedly told that he would be “paid by the Shiites”, apparently a reference to Tehran.…………..”

Oh oh, this is now an epidemic. Yet another Iranian plot surfaces, this time in Egypt, just two days after the last one, which was about four days after the one before it, which was just days after the one preceding………
And the suspect in Egypt knew just the exact words to say to the police; “paid by the Shiites“. He sounds so sincere, he almost sounds like a Salafi that equates Shi’as with Iranians (the way I often equate Salafis with a Saudi fifth column). There hasn’t been an Iranian plot against Egypt since they tried to take over the country with the help of Hizbollah about two months ago, as reported by Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat. A couple of months before that the Iranians were plotting with al-Qaeda to take over Egypt again, for the second time in 25 centuries (according to the same Saudi daily). Before that, some two years ago, they had tried to convert all 80 million Egyptians to the Shi’a sect, but Hosni Mubarak and the Shaikh of al-Azhar saved the day.
This new plot is uncovered exactly one day after an Iran-Hizbollah-Hamas plot was exposed by Ambassador Gerald Feierstein to take over Yemen, barely two days after the plot in New York to take photos of tourist sites. I am not even going to list all the other plots exposed so far, leaving their masterminds, the Iranian mullahs, in a state of un-consummated frustration.
Apparently the (extremely stupid) Iranians are itching to be bombed and have their infrastructure destroyed by Israel and the United States. Preferably with the blessings of the UN Security Council (they already have all the al-Saud and Salafi blessings they need). The mullahs must be disappointed with nothing to show for their efforts: that their country is still standing on its feet after all the previous plots they concocted and tried to execute all around the world. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must have called in the chief of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and given his a dressing down:  ”If you are so smart, then why are our cities, out command and control centers, our ports and our oil infrastructure still standing?”
What must be frustrating for the mullahs is that all their terror plots consistently fail. From the Persian Gulf to Egypt to Georgetown to New York to Asia, not one of these dastardly plots has been consummated. Maybe the best thing for the West to do about their nuclear program is to leave it alone. Just let them botch it up like all their other plots.

(Humor and wit side: it is possible, just possible, that the Iranians, some faction of them, are behind all these wild worldwide plots that we read about almost every other day now. Some of them, besides Jack the Texan and his Mexican drug cartel pals, may have had a grudge against the Saudi ambassador. But in that case which faction is it? An internal Iranian faction or an external Iranian faction?)
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Human Right, Iran

A Massacre of Journalists in Iran, Ayatollah and King at the Watergate……….

 

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“The 39-year-old, the deputy head of Iran’s Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), was taken seriously ill in 2010 after being kept in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison for a month. Since her arrest, she has developed an undiagnosed epilepsy-like disease which causes her to lose control over her muscles temporarily during the day. In September 2011, she was sentenced to 11 years after being convicted on three charges: acting against the national security, membership of the DHRC and propaganda against the regime…………. On Sunday, another human rights activist and lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, was sentenced to 18 years after being found guilty of anti-government propaganda. Among many of Soltani’s charges is “endangering national security” by accepting a German human rights prize. Kaleme also reported that Iranian journalist Nazanin Khosravani who has been sentenced to 6 six years went to Evin prison on Monday to endure her jail term. According to the opposition website, the Green Voice of Freedom, Khosravani has worked with banned pro-reform newspapers such as Bahar, Norooz, Dorane Emrouz, Kargozaran and Sarmayeh. Another Iranian journalist, Ali Mousavi Khalkhali, was picked up by security officials on Friday, his cousin has confirmed to BBC Persian. He is reported to have been arrested on charges related to propaganda against the regime. …………”



“Propaganda against the regime“: Iran and most of her neighbors have this one thing in common. What they all don’t want is politics, for how can there be politics without some “propaganda” against the regime?  And how can the regime, including Ali Khamenei, know they are screwing up the country without people telling it so?
Ayatollah Khamenei ought to take a sabbatical, come and spend a year or two in the United States, see how Obama gets pummeled by all the “propaganda” ads and statements against him in this election year. May he can study the “Citizens United” case and all the super PACs.
Oh, he should bring the Saudi king along; they can share an apartment at The Watergate. They can talk with Santorum and Gingrich about politics (forget Romney; he’s not interesting enough). They won’t even have to address AIPAC, not yet .

Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Iran, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Iranian Elections, Ahmadinejad’s Loss, Western Blockade…….

 

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“Pro-reform political activist Elahe Rastgou told the Mehr News Agency on Saturday that former president Mohammad Khatami voted in the March 2 parliamentary election to tell the foreign-based opposition that the pro-reform camp will continue its political activities within the framework of the Islamic system. Rastgou said, “With participation in the election, we wanted to prove to everyone that the reformist current is still alive and is doing political activities within the framework of the system of the Islamic Republic.”………..” Mehr News (Iran)

Many reformers in Iran were disappointed that former reformist president Khatami voted in these elections. The opposition, the true reformists in Iran, had been squeezed and demoralized since 2009. Many of their candidates, had they decided to try running, would probably have been disqualified by the regime. Their supporters saw no reason to vote, nobody acceptable, from their point of view, to vote for. This showed in the turnout in the large cities, especially Tehran, where early voter turnout was reportedly about 52%.

It was a battle between the partisans of the president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and those of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They have different visions of the future of Iran, although both seem uncompromising vis-a-vis the West on the nuclear issue, as is the real opposition inside Iran. The more conservative party, the Khamenei side, seems to have one against the less conservative party, the Ahmadinejad side. Even the president’s sister lost her election bid. Ahmadinejad will most likely be replaced by someone more conservative after his term expires in 2013. But it is not a foregone conclusion: Iranian politics, even now, are quite complex. In the elections of 2005 the favorite candidate of the clergy lost to Ahmadinejad. In 2009 Ahmadinejad was widely reported to be the favorite candidate of Khamenei, yet within months there was a power struggle between the two sides.
The tighter Western blockade are as likely to weaken the opposition further as they are to weaken the regime. But the blockade will be tightened because the Obama administration is squeezed between the Israeli regime and their American extreme right wing lobbyists. Between them, they’ve got the Obama administration in a tight vise by the cojones.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, Saudi Arabia, United Nations International Organizations, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Khamenei on Nuclear Sinning in Iran and other Places……….

 

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“As U.S. and Israeli officials talk publicly about the prospect of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program, one fact is often overlooked: U.S. intelligence agencies don’t believe Iran is actively trying to build an atomic bomb. A highly classified U.S. intelligence assessment circulated to policymakers early last year largely affirms that view, originally made in 2007. Both reports, known as national intelligence estimates, conclude that Tehran halted efforts to develop and build a nuclear warhead in 2003. The most recent report, which represents the consensus of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is pursuing research that could put it in a position to build a weapon, but that it has not sought to do so………. An IAEA report in November cited “serious concerns” about “possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program,” but did not reach hard conclusions. Another IAEA report is imminent. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted Wednesday that Tehran had no intention of producing nuclear weapons. In remarks broadcast on state television, he said that “owning a nuclear weapon is a big sin.”……….”

Ayatollah Khamenei just called nuclear countries sinners. Which confirms what I have been writing here, and what others have written: that they may acquire the technology but they will not actually produce a nuclear bomb. The mullahs don’t like sinning, I think. That is not to say there are no sections of the diverse Iranian regime that would like to sin, to develop nuclear weapons. In the end it is Ali Khamenei who is supposed to have the final say, provided that he knows exactly what is going on. I mean he can be calling nuclear weapons a sin, but some branch of his government may be tempted to try a bit of sinning (the flesh is weak after all). All this is contrary to all the whining by Israeli officials and Saudi princes, egging the United States toward another futile war in our region.
(The Israelis don’t really want a war, they just want to divert attention away from the West bank and their expanding settlements. The Saudi princes and their Salafi proxies, on the other hand, would love a war fought by Americans, or any other ‘heathens’, on their behalf).
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Iran

Middle East: Annoying President and Absolute King Questioned………

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“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been summoned to the parliament to answer questions by lawmakers about a number of the administration’s irregularities. The move came after MP Reza Hosseini, the spokesman for the MPs who signed the motion, announced on February 1 that the MPs had not been convinced by the answers provided by the president’s representatives at a meeting which was held on the same day to discuss the reasons behind irregularities by the administration. Deputy Majlis speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar read out the text of the motion at the open session of the Majlis on Tuesday and said that the president will hopefully appear before the parliament to answer the questions in the first half of the Iranian calendar month of Esfand (February 20 – March 19). The motion calls for the president to answer questions about the administration’s failure…………..” Mehr News Agency

After reading this, the royal appointed rubber stamp Shoura Council felt invigorated, decided that it needs to question the king on some policy issues. They summoned the king over for questioning, whereby he summoned them back immediately and gave them the choice of being beheaded in public or castrated in public. They chose castration, as before a normal condition they are used to.
Of course, the summoning of Ahmadinejad may be just another way at political castration by his political foes. He had been threatened with parliamentary impeachment in the recent past. Relations between him and the True Leader are not what they used to be. Hard to believe, but there are those who are even more conservative, more right wing, more Tea Party if you will, than Ahmadinejad.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Human Right, Humor, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Middle East, WTF

A Very Funny Iranian Political Story…….

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“There are unconfirmed reports that the qualifications of 30 to 40 current MPs, who had registered to run for the March parliamentary elections, have not been approved by the government’s appointed executive committees, the Mehr News Agency has learnt. The qualifications of the parliamentary candidates have to be approved by the mentioned committees, the Interior Ministry, and the Guardian Council respectively. These MPs were initiators of controversial proposals at the parliament……….”

This Iranian news agency has a subtle sense of humor. Political humor should be subtle in the Middle East, it is safer that way (except in places where humor may not exist anyway, like Jordan and Gaza and possibly the West Bank and Israel). It says the qualifications of these listed members were not approved (not yet, hints that maybe not later either) for the March elections in Iran. It also says that these members were “initiators of controversial proposals at the parliament”, wtf that may mean. Yet it seems as simple as putting two and two together (2+2=4, normally, except when it is inconvenient).
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Iran, OPEC, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

A Saudi Iranian Kiss? No Frenching Fundamentalists there………

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“Oil policy was often divorced from the wider politics of the region, analysts said, with one observing that “the Iranians have been trying very hard to please the Saudis right now”. Iran appears eager not to further antagonise Saudi Arabia at a time when Tehran is coming under increasing international pressure over its nuclear programme. Tehran’s main concern appears to be to discourage Riyadh from facilitating an expected European oil embargo by promising to make up for lost production. The Islamic republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, earlier this week sent Heydar Moslehi, the intelligence chief, to Saudi Arabia for a rare meeting with its interior minister, Prince Nayef……..”

They can kiss all they want, the Iranians and the Saudis, but it will never develop into a deep tongue-twisting body-tingling French kiss. Not of the kind they have with their respective allies. Not of the kind George W. Bush used to have with King Abdullah.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Iran, Middle East Nuclear, nuclear Iran, Sanctions, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Game of Chess: Sanctioning Central Bank of Iran, Sanctioning Grocers of Natanz……………..

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“The legislation requires the US president to impose sanctions on Iran’s central bank if he determines it is facilitating terrorism or the development of nuclear weapons, or supporting Iran’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “I believe the central bank of Iran is not only engaging in those activities; I believe it is the ultimate engine of those activities,” said the author of the central bank provision, Representative Howard Berman, a Democrat. The sanctions would effectively block from the US economy any foreign bank involved in significant transactions with Iran’s central bank. The legislation was approved by the House panel …………..”

There are many institutions and individuals in Iran that contribute to their nuclear program:

  • The Central Bank of Iran, by virtue of operating in Iran, supervising banks and the balance of payments and maintaining the exchange rate and monetary policy in general helps the nuclear program.
  • An Iranian doctor, by virtue of working in Iran helps the nuclear program (he may treat some nuclear scientist or a procurer of ‘yellow cake’ from Niger).
  • A street sweeper in Tehran (there are many of them since Iranians like their cities clean) helps the nuclear program by virtue of improving the quality of life of nuclear scientists and procurer of ‘yellow cake’ from Niger.
  • A grocer in any Iranian city almost certainly feeds some workers on some not-so-secret nuclear plants, let’s call him the green grocer of Natanz.
  • A home vintner in North Tehran, by virtue of supplying some secret party that some nuclear scientist or some clerk at a nuclear plant might attend, is helping the nuclear program.
  • A baby sitter or a housemaid in Tehran, by virtue of……..


You get the drift. It could be a virtual declaration of war, to which the Iranians will most likely only respond in kind, with virtual retaliation. That is how the Iranians, including the dogmatic mullahs, operate in the game of chess their ancestors invented. That is why the alleged Saudi ambassador plot sounds so ridiculous, regardless of all the “weighty” Western leaders who endorsed its veracity. It does not fit the pattern of a game of chess.
(one good thing is that the bill leaves it up to POTUS to decide if the Central Bank is engaged in such activities, The bad news is also that it leaves it to POTUS).

Cheers
mhg


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