Massive crackdown against dissent under way in Iran: report

Source: AFP

Massive crackdown against dissent under way in Iran: report

24/06/2007 03h34

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iranian authorities have launched a ferocious crackdown on dissent, targeting labor leaders, universities, the press, women’s rights advocates and Iranian-Americans, The New York Times reported on its website late Saturday.

The newspaper said the administration of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been using US support for regime change in Iran as well as threats of a military attack as a pretext to hound his opposition.

Some analysts describe the crackdown as a "cultural revolution," an attempt to roll back the clock to the time of the 1979 revolution, when the newly formed Islamic Republic combined religious zeal and anti-imperialist rhetoric to try to assert itself, the report said.

Attention has been focused on Ahmadinejad’s political enemies, like former president Mohammad Khatami and the controversy over his presumed violation of Islamic morals when he shook hands with an unfamiliar woman after a speech in Rome, the paper said.

Read more: http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070624030409.nk9wb3y5.html

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I don't know if paragraph 2 qualifies as a buried lead, but it bears repeating, "...Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been using US support for regime change in Iran as well as threats of a military attack as a pretext to hound his opposition....

The mind wobbles....

n/t

...people, especially young people, are fed up in Iran.

I have an Iranian friend who was there recently - the first time in 15 years. He said that people have had it with the government. Even he, in Yadz, did something rather foolish in a mosque to protest and mock the mullahs when no one was around except for his friends. Good thing he was not arrested.

...Bush and Ahmadinejad are like Idealogical twins. I don't know if this is true, but it wouldn't surprise me if someday it was revealed that Ahmadinejad and his people (his inner circle) have been watching and learning from Bush and his group and imitating the techniques that made him so popular for a while.

I have my notions about it--that Iranains are scared, and have long memories back to the overthrow of their democracy in 1954, by US/UK/Israel and installation of the horrible Shah who inflicted 25 years of torture and oppression. They have reason to fear the U.S., especially with the nutballs in charge here, and no reason to trust us. They would be fools to trust us. And this gives the more repressive and fascist-minded mullahs power. It was the mullahs, and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, that was the Iranians' bulwark against such brutal interference. With this new

threat of interference and attack, moderates and the more liberal-minded would therefore be reluctant to speak up (as they have been in this country), and could more easily be intimidated and silenced by rightwing extremists (as they have been here). And, of course, the Bush Junta spreads fear and divisiveness and anger and civil war. That is its M.O. That and creating chaos, and bullying, torturing and killing. I would think, too, that Iranians are not just afraid of being unjustly attacked, but also worried and fearful about the disorder in Iraq, right on their border.

How does your friend feel about these things? What does he report of Iranians' feelings about them? Do they think war with the U.S. is inevitable? Do they think that their government--or some elements in the government--wants war? It seems to me that, so far, Iran has played a pretty smart and cagey game, on the world stage, with the Bushites poised to smash them, and constantly demonizing and threatening them. It doesn't appear to ME that they want war. But I can only guess. What do Iranians say?

I am also curious about the nature of the crackdown on dissent. I have not heard of anything in Iran like those very anti-female Taliban patrols with the whips (enforcing complete coverage of every inch of skin). Iran seems far more liberal, in that respect, than the Taliban. What form does the mullahs' extemism take? How do the mullahs implement such a crackdown? Are they arresting people? Torturing people? Ostraczing people? Punishing people economically? Or just, say, preaching against dissenters, and making them feel unwelcome?

It is very, very sad to me that a country with such potential is being driven into paranoia and isolation by our criminal government. And I hope and pray that a Democratic administration will be better (--although I am not at all convinced that they will be). Do Iranians feel that cooler heads will prevail here, and/or that allies like China and Russia can/will prevent a U.S. attack?

Here is what is happening according to my friend. This information is a few months old, before the recent crackdown. Also, it represents the views of only one person, and so may not represent more than that, depending on the issue.

My friend's family is religious and conservative, at least in the older generation. Even they are turning against the mullahs, because the mullahs are corrupt and hypocritical, and the economy is a mess. Young people are very western-oriented and can't stand the theocracy. People of all ages have private parties where there is music, dancing, mixing of sexes, western dress, and sometimes alchohol (my friend loves wine). I saw pictures of such a party in a private home. The only support the mullahs have is from underclass city people, many who are employed as "muscle", and peasant farmers - the least educated parts of society (what a surprise).

Few people are really afraid of the US or think that the internal opposition is fueled by America. They think that Ahmadinejad is provoking conflict, but don't think it will really come. In fact my friend said that most people have positive views of the US, and many have positive views of Bush. My friend's mother is in that group for one major reason. She hated Saddam. One of her son's, my friend's older brother, was killed in the war. She credits Bush with the removal and execution of Saddam, and she celebrated on the day he was hung. In fact, my friend said that Bush is widely seen as having gotten rid of Iran's two biggest enemies - the Taliban to the east and Saddam to the west. Go figure.

As far as I can tell from what my friend told me, the best policy toward Iran would be to continue to work with other countries to squeeze Iran to slow it down in as it tries to build nuclear weapons, give moral support (maybe even a bit more than that) to the pro-democracy movement in Iran, and hope that the mullahs are taken down internally. I suspect that if such an outcome occurs, it will happen very quickly, beginning with a small incident that snowballs into a revolution that catches most by surprise. Maybe something like this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2036297,00.html

...yet the world's politicians seem more fascinated with the antipode.

A fine post - such accounts are worth more than any ten newspaper or television stories.

:kick: