Iran: A Major Cog in the Terror Machine

Fire of Liberty

While folks in the MSM media and Sean Penn (It's rather an insult to the people of Iran that a wacked-out movie star is considered an journalists, we all remember his crack reporting from Iraq) continue to point out that Iran will hold elections on June 17, 2005 and that several moderates will be in the running (even though the mullahs in the Guardian Council decide who runs for spots in the majlis(parliament)), they generally fail to note that the people in Iran are tired of the mullahs and are ready for a change. Luckily, there's people like Michael Ledeen who are able to get the message out.

Well, Ledeen has written yet another wonderful piece over at National Review Online on the growing discontent with the Mullachracy that is simmering amongst the people of Iran. While Iran has had a long history of imprisoning and killing it various political prisoners/dissidents, Ledeen notes that the regime has a habit of torturing its political prisoners/dissidents and then releasing them with their bruises, scars and broken bones to intimidate its current and future opponents from speaking out against them. Though their are countless individuals who endure such inhumanities at the hands of the mullahs, Ledeen has chosen to point out one of the most popular dissidents of Iran:

One of the most prominent dissenters and a distinguished journalist, Akbar Ganji, was given a week-long "“medical leave"” from Evin Prison in Tehran, and on Monday he gave an Internet interview that may well prove fatal. He called for a general boycott of the "“make believe elections"” for the presidency, scheduled for the 17th of the month, and urged the Iranian people to engage in large-scale civil disobedience.

"“We are faced with a personal dictatorship, the dictatorship of (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei,"” he said. "“Khamenei has ruled for fifteen years and wants to rule for life. I oppose this and I say that this contradicts democracy."” Ganji called for Khamenei himself to submit his dictatorial rule to a public ratification. "“He must take part in a free election, should the people vote him in he can rule and should they reject him he must step aside."

Following the interview the head of the Evin Prison announced that Akbar Ganji had to return at once.

Even though the regime can force its opposition into silence by locking them up or using torture, it seems that the simmering discontent amongst the Iranian population has turned into a steady boil. Whether it's a public demonstration against the regime this Sunday by the Women's Movement of Iran at Tehran University, the Office of Student Unity who have denoted that the election is a pure sham that people should abstain from or various street protests and hunger strikes, the people of Iran are on the march against their oppressors but are still waiting for more voices against the regime.

While it seems the US State Department is a long way from denouncing the regime like Michael Ledeen and a small smattering of other journalists, the people in Iran struggling against the regime seem to be getting a voice in the West with the likes of US Senator Sam Brownback and Reza Pahlavi (son of the late Shah). Just read what Eli Lake wrote about these Western advocates in the June 9, 2005 edition of The New York Sun:

The latest crackdown from the mullahs comes as leaders of the Iranian opposition both inside and outside the country are planning public protests of the elections scheduled for next Friday. The founder and president of the Alliance of Iranian Women, Manda Zand Ervin, yesterday told The New York Sun that a sit-in is scheduled for Sunday in front of the University of Tehran, to be organized by a popular poet, Simin Behbahani.

Mr. Mehr said that student organizers from an umbrella group for campus activists, Tahkim Vahdat, have staged protests on behalf of Mr. Ganji in front of his home. Student groups are also planning hunger strikes to coincide with the final week of the elections.

Today, Ms. Zand Ervin will testify in the first hearing focusing on Iran before a Cold War committee that monitored human rights in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the Helsinki Commission. She said the chairman of the commission, Senator Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, "told me to give a picture of what is going on in Iran. So I am going to talk about how teachers, young students, bus drivers are doing small things in protest. There is not a huge high-profile uprising yet, but every day there are smaller uprisings."

The son of the late shah and former crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, announced yesterday that he would conduct a hunger strike of his own from Fairfax, Va., at the request of political prisoners in Iran. "Solidarity with political prisoners of Iran and support for the legitimate quest for freedom, human rights, and economic opportunity in Iran transcends all political boundaries and ideologies," he said in a statement.

I just hope The White House will get on the ball in offering greater political, financial, organizational, and communicational support to the students and people protesting the evil regime rather than clearing a barrier to entering WTO talks or supporting the EU-3's (UK, Germany and France) trainwreck of negotiating Iran out of its nukes. A better solution is a regime change via the people to remove this timber from the mine-shaft of terror.