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Frank Gallagher

Proposal for Guardians Council Re-Count Rejected by Mousavi - 0 views

  • On Monday, June 15, in what may have appeared as a slight softening of his initial enthusiastic response to the official results of the presidential election, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, called for a “careful” evaluation of complaints submitted by reformist challenger Mir Hussein Mousavi to the Guardian Council.  Subsequently, on Tuesday, the Speaker of the Council, after meeting with representatives of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s opponents, announced the Council’s readiness to conduct a recount of votes from any and all disputed voting districts.
  • “I have written a letter to the Guardian Council and described the various irregularities,” he announced, “even though I have no hope in the Council. Many of its [twelve] members did not preserve their neutrality during the election process and openly supported the incumbent candidate.” Mousavi’s proposed solution is not a recount, but a cancellation of the results and a new election altogether
  • For his part, Mohtashamipour proposed the formation of what he labeled a Truth-finding Committee to investigate electoral irregularities and allegations. The Committee, he insisted, would consist of three representatives of Grand Ayatollahs (maraje’ taqlid), four persons representing the candidates, one employee of the Interior Ministry who has proven his neutrality during the election, one member of the Guardian Council with similar conditions accompanied by a university law professor and an unbiased judge as recommended by the Bar Association, the Attorney General, the Head of the Judicial Branch, and the Head of Iran’s General Inspection Organization. As none of the Grand Ayatollahs have supported Ahmadinejad in the election, the arrangement would severely limit the authority of both the Council and the Interior Ministry.
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  • “Imam Khomeini once told the Guardian Council ‘I fear the day when you are surrounded by an [elite] group, while the youth and our people scream slogans against you to reclaim their rights.’ 
Frank Gallagher

EurasiaNet - Larijani Faction Emerges as Third Force in Iranian Power Struggle - 0 views

  • working hard to establish a public profile apart from hardliners led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and from progressives led by aggrieved presidential challenger Mir Hussein Mousavi.
  • The Larijani coalition is also gaining the backing of so-called traditionalists among the Islamic clergy. So far, the new faction has not enunciated a philosophical platform,
  • Ali Larijani is emerging as the public face of the faction, but behind him stand his very influential brothers and other relatives, according to a well-connected source. One of Larijani’s brothers is Sadegh, who is one of the 12 members of the powerful Guardian Council. Another is Mohammad Javad, a physicist and prominent political strategist. The Larijanis’ cousin, Ahmad Tavakoli, a prominent rightist politician and a member of parliament, is also believed to be an important player in the faction, as is Ali Motahari, another prominent rightist political operator who is Ali Larijani’s son-in-law.
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  • Most recently, Larijani was a prominent no-show for a June 24 dinner marking Ahmadinejad’s supposed re-election.
  • At various points during the political crisis, Larijani has staked out an independent position by pointedly criticizing hardliner-controlled institutions, including the Guardian Council, the Interior Ministry and the state media agency, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Despite Ayatollah Khamenei’s insistence that the presidential election results were genuine, Larijani publicly castigated the Guardian Council, the state body charged with certifying the vote, alleging that some of its members were part of a conspiracy to guarantee Ahmadinejad’s reelection.
  • Meanwhile, political analysts in Tehran suspect that Sadegh Larijani was responsible for the Guardian Council making public information -- specifically that irregularities in 50 cities tainted 3 million ballots in the election -- that proved highly embarrassing to the supreme leader. Ayatollah Khamenei has publicly characterized Ahmadinejad’s landslide as a "divine assessment."
Frank Gallagher

Rafsanjani's Speech at Friday Prayers - July 17th 2009 (English) - 0 views

  • 13:41 Rafsanjani is getting teary. “The prophet respected the rights of all those under his rule.” He brings an example from the end of the prophet’s life where the prophet comes to the people and asks that if he ever treated anyone unfairly, they speak up and let him know.
  • 13:46 The prophet went to Baghi [where his old friends were buried] and said to them: you are lucky that you are no longer here to see that your old brothers are killing and destroying one another.
  • 13:54 Rafsanjani condemns China. People chanted “Death to China” . He asks that people stop their chants.
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  • 14:03 We agreed that you will stop chanting. If we do not have the votes of the people behind us, we will have nothing. The guardian council, the expediency council, EVERYONE gets their legitimacy from the vote of the people.
  • 14:09 I have some suggestions. I have spoken to some members of the the expediency council and the assembly of experts about them too.14:10 We must bring back the trust of the people. First of all, everyone must accept the law. The people, the parliament, everyone.14:11 We must create a condition so that everyone can speak. We must speak logically. And a part of this is on the shoulders of the broadcasting corporation.14:12 The guardian council did not make good use of the extra fives days given to them by the leader.14:13 We do not need people in prison for this. Let’s allow them to return to their families.14:14 We must join hands with those who have incurred great loss and try to lesson their pain.14:15 We must give freedom to the press within the confines of the law.14:15 We are all members of the same family. We must remain friends and allies. Why have we gone so far as to pain some of our marajeh [top religious leaders]?14:16 I hope this sermon will pave a way out of this current situation. A situation that can be considered a crisis.14:17 The sermon is finished.
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    Translation by a reliable opposition blog.
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    Translation by a reliable opposition blog. Probably a crucial landmark in the working out of Iran's crisis.
Frank Gallagher

Iran: Musavi Rejects Recount Offer by Guardians Council - 0 views

  • Iran's Guardians Council, the country's top legislative body, has announced it is ready to partially recount disputed votes cast in the June 12 presidential electio
  • Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodai is quoted by Iran's state news agency as saying that "it is possible that there may be some changes in the tally after the recount."
  • After the announcement, Reuters quoted a senior ally of reformist candidates Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi as saying they wanted new elections held rather than a recount of "a few ballot boxes." Both candidates suffered decisive defeats, according to initial results.
Frank Gallagher

Karrubi hits Basij and Guardians Council - 0 views

  • Karroubi who has faulted the Secretary of Iran's Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati for canvassing support for President Ahmadinejad, urged the council to comply by its supervisory obligations.
  • criticized the recent statements of the IRGC Chief-Commander, Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari about the division of Basij into two segments -- military and non-military -- the second which has reportedly been allowed to be involved in political activities.
Frank Gallagher

Excellent Review of the Campaign and the Elections- MERO (via Zmag - 0 views

  • The morning after Iran's June 12 presidential election, Iranians booted up their computers to find Fars News, the online mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic's security apparatus, heralding the dawn of a "third revolution." Many an ordinary Iranian, and many a Western pundit, had already adopted such dramatic language to describe the burgeoning street demonstrations against the declaration by the Ministry of Interior that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the sitting president, had received 64 percent of the vote to 34 percent for his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi. But the editors of Fars News were referring neither to the protests, as were the people in the streets, nor to the prospect that the unrest might topple the Islamic Republic, as were some of the more wistful commentators. Rather, the editors were labeling the radical realignment of Iranian politics that they wish for. This realignment would complete the removal of the old guard, as did the "first" revolution of 1978-1979, and consolidate the rule of inflexible hardliners, as did the "second revolution" symbolized by the US Embassy takeover of 1979.
  • The number of deeply conservative voters, of the sort who back Ahmadinejad, has not exceeded 12 percent of the electorate since 1993. True, in 2003, these voters seized control of the city councils of major cities, not because of a surge in the popularity of their agenda, but because of the widespread abstention of those who had lost hope in the effectiveness of reformist candidates.
  • But instead greater mass participation in the local elections of 2007 cost the hardliners their grip upon local councils. In Tehran, Ahmadinejad's men lost two thirds of their seats and had to share power with reformists and moderate conservatives.
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  • Khatami, then president, promised he would reveal details of election irregularities before leaving office, but this was a promise he did not keep. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, another contestant who later replaced Ahmadinejad as mayor of Tehran, announced that $330 million of the municipal budget was unaccounted for, hinting broadly that the monies had been illegally diverted to the Ahmadinejad campaign. Parliament formed a commission to investigate, but the new speaker, loyal to Ahmadinejad, suspended the investigation.
  • Incredulously, the ex-premier exclaimed: "They keep telling me, 'They used to cut neckties in your era.' Who do you think used to cut neckties? Who do you think Imam Khomeini forbade from interfering in people's lives? It was the same people who are in the administration now!"
  • Unlike in previous elections, the Ministry of Interior authorized deployment of 14,000 mobile voting booths, making it very difficult for candidates to send monitors to observe the balloting at every booth. Some 14.5 million extra ballots, by some reports, were printed and no clear system was delineated to track them. When several polling stations in urban centers ran out of ballots, Mousavi supporters asked where the extra ballots were, but they could not be found, and remain unaccounted for to date.
  • Yet the clearest violation of the law would be Mousavi and Karroubi's claim that their observers were not allowed to be present when ballots were counted and the ballot boxes sealed. By law and custom, these observers confirm that the boxes are empty before voting starts, and they are present at the count, sign the result sheet and take away a copy. They are also supposed to be present when the ballot boxes are finally sealed and sent to the Interior Ministry.
  • Unlike in previous elections and despite the enormous turnout, the Ministry of Interior was quick to declare a victor and the Leader officially congratulated Ahmadinejad before a final tally was released or the Guardian Council could make time to review complaints. The "result" generated sub-controversies as well. To highlight just a few, Karroubi is said to have won less than half a million votes (less than the number of spoiled ballots), when in 2005 he earned about 5 million votes, or 17 percent of the total vote. The initial count, oddly, did not include any ruined ballots.
  • During the campaign, opposition candidates repeatedly argued that Ahmadinejad had flaunted regulatory procedures in attempts to circumvent the constitutional checks and balances on the powers of the presidency. Today, it is apparent that this major campaign theme has been borne out in the election itself.
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    Great detail on the political background (inc. 2003, 4 and 7 elections); no the campaign, and on the result. Some good points on electoral processes as well, and the congruence between Ahmadinejad's circumlocation of proceedures for accountability whilst in office, and the conduct of the election.
Frank Gallagher

DAWN.COM | World | Rivals hold rallies amid talk of vote recount - 0 views

  • ‘Hereby we inform all foreign media representatives to avoid any news coverage which has not been coordinated or authorised by this bureau,’ a culture ministry official said.
  • ‘If the Guardians Council reaches the conclusion that such offences as buying votes or using fake identity cards have been committed... it will order a recount,’ council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodai told the official news agency IRNA.
Frank Gallagher

Khatami: Referendum Can End Iran's Election Crisis Asharq Alawsat - 0 views

  • "Durability of order and continuation of the country's progress hinge on restoring public trust," Khatami, a popular reformist, said, according to the Web sites. "From the start, we said there is a legal way to regain that trust. I openly say now that the solution to get out of the current crisis is holding a referendum."
  • Under Iran's constitution, a referendum has to be ordered by Khamenei himself. All popular votes in Iran are monitored by an oversight body called the Guardian Council. Khatami, however, proposed that a neutral body, such as the Expediency Council, should monitor the proposed referendum instead.
Frank Gallagher

Another Transcript of Rafsanjani's Speech - 0 views

  • This week, Imam Jafar Sadigh’s martyrdom’s celebration will be held. He spent his entire life either in prison or being censored.
  • The Islamic Revolution was the way of Mohammed. People should be brought into the system first, This is why Imam Khomeini was successful.
  • We were with Imam Khomeini, He always said that without the participation of the people the Islamic government would never be successful. The role that Imam gave the people was very high. (Story about Mohammed’s late life about how important people are)
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  • When we were writing the new constitution, We asked the Imam for advice, He put a lot of emphasis on the role of the people. He also knew that people’s vote was the most important thing inside our country. Everything depended upon the people’s vote. People should directly elect the president, the parliament, the local council. It was all about the vote of the people. This is a theocracy, A theocratic republic.
  • We need to be able to sit down like brothers and sisters and talk about our differences. Unfortunately, The chance that was given to the Guardian Council of five days to get people together and regain their trust was not used.
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    Less polished English, but perhaps thus closer to the original Persian!
talate adineh

کشفیات عالیجناب آلزایمری - 0 views

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    در تاریخ 27 تیرماه 1367، جمهوری اسلامی ایران رسما قطعنامه 598 شورای امنیت سازمان ملل در مورد چگونگی خاتمه جنگ را پذیرفت. اما به راستی چرا این قطعنامه تصویب شد؟ محتوای آن چه بود؟ ما در قسمت اول این مقاله قصد داریم سر بخشی از رازهای این قطعنامه را بگشاییم.
Frank Gallagher

Profile of Mojtaba Khamenei - Tehran Bureau - 0 views

  • Karroubi was certainly not the first senior figure to protest Mojtaba Khamenei’s intervention on behalf of the extreme right. Before him, Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, another former Speaker of the Majles and a close aid to Ayatollah Khamenei, had quietly protested the younger Khamenei’s meddling in the political process. (Nategh Nouri, a mid-rank cleric, heads the Supreme Leader’s Office of Inspection)
  • In the last year before the 1979 Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei and two other clerics, Abbas Vaez Tabasi and Sayyed Abdolkarim Hasheminejad, formed a sort of leadership ring that led most of the demonstrations and political activities against the Shah in Mashhad and the Khorasan province, which was Iran’s largest province at that time.
  • Vaez Tabasi is now a powerful cleric who runs the shrine of Imam Reza (the Shiites’ 8th Imam), in Mashhad. He is believed to be a Rafsanjani ally.
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  • His son, Mojtaba, attended Alavi High School, a private religious school with a rigorous course load. (The school is located on Iran Street in central Tehran, where the author grew up.) Many of Iran’s present leaders are graduates of this high school.
  • His first teachers were his own father and Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the current judiciary chief. Mojtaba was not a cleric yet. In 1999, he moved to Qom to study to join the ranks of clerics. He was taught there by conservative and ultraconservative clerics such as Mesbah Yazdi; Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, the first Secretary-General of the Guardian Council in the 1980s; and Ayatollah Sayyed Mohsen Kharrazi, the father of former foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi. (Kharrazi’s real name is Sayyed Mohsen Agha Mir Mohammad Ali and his daughter is married to Mojtaba’s younger brother, Mohsen, a junior cleric.)
  • Mojtaba Khamenei is also very close to Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali,
  • One link is a mysterious figure not known to most Iranians. His name is Ayatollah Aziz Khoshvaght, who is a great supporter of Mojtaba Khamenei. Ayatollah Khamenei’s third child, Mostafa (Mojtaba’s older brother), is married to Khoshvaght’s daughter.
  • Khoshvaght is the prayer leader of a large mosque in northern Tehran, and a radical hardliner. Saeed Emami, the notorious figure who was responsible for the infamous Chain Murders in the fall of 1998, which resulted in the murder of six Iranian dissidents (and the murder of close to 70 other dissidents from 1988-1998), was a follower of Khoshvaght.
  • Khoshvaght is also close to and influential in the affairs of Ansar-e Hezbollah,
  • Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Brigadier General Sayyed Mohammad Hejazi,
  • The third link between Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Hassan Taeb, the current commander of the Basij. A hardliner and cleric, he is also linked with Mesbah Yazdi and his followers.
  • Other relatively young radicals and disciples of Mesbah Yazdi include Mohsen Gharavian and Ghassem Ravanbakhsh. The former always attempts to present a moderate and reasonable image of Mesbah Yazdi and his thinking, whereas the latter who is the editor-in-chief of Partow Sokhan, the weekly published by Mesbah Yazdi, is virulently opposed to the reformist-democratic movement.
  • However, many clerics in Qom dispute Mojataba Khamenei’s religious credentials.
  • There have been persistent rumors that Brigadier General Ali Fazli, who lost his left eye in the Iran-Iraq war, the commander of the IRGC forces in the Tehran province, has been opposed to the harsh crackdown on the protesters and demonstrators (reportedly ordered by Mojtaba Khamenei). Both he and Major General Mohammad Ali (Aziz) Jafari, the top commender of the IRGC, are said to be opposed to Mojtaba Khamenei’s meddling and power plays.
  • Mojtaba Khamenei is married to a daughter of Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, a university professor and former conservative Speaker of the Majles. After he was elected the Speaker of the 8th Majles in 2004, Haddad Adel once said, “We were told [by Ayatollah Khamenei] to be here [in the Majles to control it for the Ayatollah],” for which he was widely mocked by the reformists. But this statement indicated how the Ayatollah was putting his loyalists everywhere. Ayatollah Khamenei’s oldest daughter is married to Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, his chief of staff.
Frank Gallagher

EurasiaNet Civil Society - Iran: Ahmadinejad Backers Lay Groundwork for Massive Vote-Ri... - 0 views

  • After four years in office, Ahmadinejad has filled the Interior Ministry with cronies, many of whom have connections to the Revolutionary Guards. A source who participated in closed Interior Ministry planning sessions, speaking on condition of anonymity to EurasiaNet, says top ministry personnel openly stated during one session that a repeat of the 1997 election, in which the reformist candidate, Mohammad Khatami, scored an upset victory, would not be tolerated on June 12.
  • By the numbers, it would seem that the country’s vast election apparatus has the ability to guarantee a favorable outcome for Ahmadinejad. According to Kamran Daneshjoo, the Interior Ministry official responsible for overseeing the voting, there are 385,000 citizens who will be administering voting precincts. The Guardian Council is expected to deploy another 340,000 people to monitor the balloting. In addition, there will be hundreds of thousands of security personnel deployed on election day. Overall, the country has about 57 million citizens of voting age, meaning that roughly 1 in 60 Iranians of voting age will be involved in some aspect of conducting the election.
  • For one, they note that over 59 million ballots have been printed, far more than the number of registered voters
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  • They also have evidence that a substantial, though undetermined, number of soldiers has been ordered to hand over their national identity cards to officers.
  • Most importantly, according to another CPV report, up to a third of voting booths in Iran will be protected by the Revolutionary Guards, and not the regular Law Enforcement Agency personnel.
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    Reasonable pre-election look at suspicious activity. Good stats on electoral administration.
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