Bi-Honar
07-29-2009, 01:11 AM
Is It Christmas Already?! This is an excelllent article from LA Times via Chicago Tribune. Grab the pop corn boys - it's always fun to watch a fight where you hope both people get beaten badly! :drinking05:
Hardliners threaten to depose Ahmadinejad over defiance
The warning points to a rift among Iran's conservatives and could further sap the authority of the controversial president. The government also denied a request for a rally by Mousavi supporters.
By Borzou Daragahi
4:20 PM CDT, July 28, 2009
Reporting from Beirut - Political hardliners warned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today that he could be deposed like past Iranian leaders if he continued defying the country's supreme religious leader. The implied threat was the latest evidence of the rift within Iran's conservative camp and could serve to further sap the authority of a president already considered illegitimate by reformists.
The Islamic Society of Engineers, a political group close to parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, warned in an open letter to Ahmadinejad that he could suffer the same fate as Prime Minister Mossadeq Mohammad, who was deposed in 1953 in a CIA-backed coup d'etat with the acquiescence of the clergy. The letter also cited the experience of Abol-Hassan Bani Sadr, who was impeached in 1981 and fled the country after he fell out with the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Both leaders had been elected by huge margins. "It seems you want to be the sole speaker and do not want to hear other voices," the group's letter said, noting that recent actions by Ahmadinejad have frustrated his own supporters. "Therefore it is our duty to convey to you the voice of the people."
Meanwhile Iranians braced for another round of clashes between protesters and security personnel after the Interior Ministry rejected a request to allow supporters of opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi to gather at a large Tehran mosque on Thursday. The protest is meant to commemorate those slain in the unrest after Ahmadinejad's disputed June election victory over Mousavi. In response, Mousavi's supporters began circulating routes for unauthorized marches and candlelight vigils to mark the religiously significant 40th day following the death of those killed during the June 20 demonstrations, including Neda Agha-Soltan, whose slaying, captured on videotape, has drawn worldwide condemnation.
Dozens have been killed since the election and hundreds arrested, most recently including Ali Maqami, a campaigner for reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, who was arrested at his home Monday and taken to Tehran's Evin Prison, news websites reported. Lawmaker Kazem Jalali said that 140 prisoners arrested during the unrest have since been released from prison and that only 200 remained in Evin, far below the number estimated by international observers. "Those who were released had committed lighter offenses," he said according to the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency. Human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr was freed today on $500,000 bail, according to reformist websites. But other well-known Iranian political figures remained behind bars.
Officials said another prison ordered closed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday was the Kahrizak detention center, described by some as Iran's Guantanamo because it not under the control of the State Prisons Organization. According to a reformist website, it has been supervised by deputy national police chief and former Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan. Witnesses told Mowjcamp.com that the facility lacked proper ventilation and that prisoners were beaten by ruthless interrogators. "The closure of Kahrizak Detention Center had been decided before the election, but post-election events made it necessary to keep it open," Iran's prosecutor-general, Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, told local media. "Finally, the supreme leader was informed of poor sanitation and other problems for detainees, and he ordered its closure."
Amid the uproar, Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to the judciary demanding "maximum Muslim leniency" toward those detained, acknowledging that the "duration of the detentions has been more than normal," a striking departure from the government's insistence all along that detainees were well treated. Though Ahmadinejad's reelection has angered supporters of the opposition, his post-election actions have also enraged fellow conservatives, in particular his attempts to buck Khamenei's order to dump a controversial vice president and his firing of intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei. "His reckless actions indicate quite well that the president does not understand what security challenges we are grappling with," lawmaker Parviz Sorouri told the Mehr news agency.
Conservatives are also bothered by Ahmadinejad's push to broadcast the confessions of detainees, local media reported. Ahmadinejad's supporters see airing the confessions as a way to discredit and silence reformists and protestors, a tactic used extensively by hardliners in the early 1980s. But conservatives say televised confessions could prove politically explosive and appear dangerously out of step with the national mood. Several local news outlets said Mohseni-Ejei along with state television chief Ezatolah Zarghami, clergy and judiciary officials have been locked in a backroom fight with Ahmadinejad over the airing of such confessions, according to Iranian news websites.
Over the weekend, one lawmaker sternly warned authorities not to broadcast confessions obtained in prison. "Broadcasting confessions can only add to public awareness if they are made under normal conditions, not if they are extracted under irregular circumstances," Ali Mottahari told Press TV, according to an article on the website of the state-owned broadcaster. "The arrests may have been legal, but the important thing is how individuals were treated during interrogation, whether Islamic code was maintained, and whether they suffered any emotional, psychological or physical pressure or not." According to human rights groups and former prisoners, authorities typically extract the videotaped confessions after holding detainees in solitary confinement or following grueling interrogations that sometimes include physical abuse. They are often told what to read. In recent years, many said during the interrogations that they were foreign dupes, only to disavow the remarks later.
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I asked these questions in another thread and didn't get an answer. What happens if AN's cabinet gets a no confidence vote? He has to pick a new cabinet, right? How can he get impeached (by Majles or Rahbar)? If he is impeached, who takes his position? Anyone?
Also, very important question: Are these guys (the clergy) now openly ADMITTING that they were directly involved in the removal of Mossadegh?!!!!! Surely, that has to seal the deal for Iranians at this point. I'm going to find the Persian version of the articles Barzou's talking about.
Hardliners threaten to depose Ahmadinejad over defiance
The warning points to a rift among Iran's conservatives and could further sap the authority of the controversial president. The government also denied a request for a rally by Mousavi supporters.
By Borzou Daragahi
4:20 PM CDT, July 28, 2009
Reporting from Beirut - Political hardliners warned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today that he could be deposed like past Iranian leaders if he continued defying the country's supreme religious leader. The implied threat was the latest evidence of the rift within Iran's conservative camp and could serve to further sap the authority of a president already considered illegitimate by reformists.
The Islamic Society of Engineers, a political group close to parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, warned in an open letter to Ahmadinejad that he could suffer the same fate as Prime Minister Mossadeq Mohammad, who was deposed in 1953 in a CIA-backed coup d'etat with the acquiescence of the clergy. The letter also cited the experience of Abol-Hassan Bani Sadr, who was impeached in 1981 and fled the country after he fell out with the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Both leaders had been elected by huge margins. "It seems you want to be the sole speaker and do not want to hear other voices," the group's letter said, noting that recent actions by Ahmadinejad have frustrated his own supporters. "Therefore it is our duty to convey to you the voice of the people."
Meanwhile Iranians braced for another round of clashes between protesters and security personnel after the Interior Ministry rejected a request to allow supporters of opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi to gather at a large Tehran mosque on Thursday. The protest is meant to commemorate those slain in the unrest after Ahmadinejad's disputed June election victory over Mousavi. In response, Mousavi's supporters began circulating routes for unauthorized marches and candlelight vigils to mark the religiously significant 40th day following the death of those killed during the June 20 demonstrations, including Neda Agha-Soltan, whose slaying, captured on videotape, has drawn worldwide condemnation.
Dozens have been killed since the election and hundreds arrested, most recently including Ali Maqami, a campaigner for reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, who was arrested at his home Monday and taken to Tehran's Evin Prison, news websites reported. Lawmaker Kazem Jalali said that 140 prisoners arrested during the unrest have since been released from prison and that only 200 remained in Evin, far below the number estimated by international observers. "Those who were released had committed lighter offenses," he said according to the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency. Human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr was freed today on $500,000 bail, according to reformist websites. But other well-known Iranian political figures remained behind bars.
Officials said another prison ordered closed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday was the Kahrizak detention center, described by some as Iran's Guantanamo because it not under the control of the State Prisons Organization. According to a reformist website, it has been supervised by deputy national police chief and former Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan. Witnesses told Mowjcamp.com that the facility lacked proper ventilation and that prisoners were beaten by ruthless interrogators. "The closure of Kahrizak Detention Center had been decided before the election, but post-election events made it necessary to keep it open," Iran's prosecutor-general, Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, told local media. "Finally, the supreme leader was informed of poor sanitation and other problems for detainees, and he ordered its closure."
Amid the uproar, Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to the judciary demanding "maximum Muslim leniency" toward those detained, acknowledging that the "duration of the detentions has been more than normal," a striking departure from the government's insistence all along that detainees were well treated. Though Ahmadinejad's reelection has angered supporters of the opposition, his post-election actions have also enraged fellow conservatives, in particular his attempts to buck Khamenei's order to dump a controversial vice president and his firing of intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei. "His reckless actions indicate quite well that the president does not understand what security challenges we are grappling with," lawmaker Parviz Sorouri told the Mehr news agency.
Conservatives are also bothered by Ahmadinejad's push to broadcast the confessions of detainees, local media reported. Ahmadinejad's supporters see airing the confessions as a way to discredit and silence reformists and protestors, a tactic used extensively by hardliners in the early 1980s. But conservatives say televised confessions could prove politically explosive and appear dangerously out of step with the national mood. Several local news outlets said Mohseni-Ejei along with state television chief Ezatolah Zarghami, clergy and judiciary officials have been locked in a backroom fight with Ahmadinejad over the airing of such confessions, according to Iranian news websites.
Over the weekend, one lawmaker sternly warned authorities not to broadcast confessions obtained in prison. "Broadcasting confessions can only add to public awareness if they are made under normal conditions, not if they are extracted under irregular circumstances," Ali Mottahari told Press TV, according to an article on the website of the state-owned broadcaster. "The arrests may have been legal, but the important thing is how individuals were treated during interrogation, whether Islamic code was maintained, and whether they suffered any emotional, psychological or physical pressure or not." According to human rights groups and former prisoners, authorities typically extract the videotaped confessions after holding detainees in solitary confinement or following grueling interrogations that sometimes include physical abuse. They are often told what to read. In recent years, many said during the interrogations that they were foreign dupes, only to disavow the remarks later.
----------------
I asked these questions in another thread and didn't get an answer. What happens if AN's cabinet gets a no confidence vote? He has to pick a new cabinet, right? How can he get impeached (by Majles or Rahbar)? If he is impeached, who takes his position? Anyone?
Also, very important question: Are these guys (the clergy) now openly ADMITTING that they were directly involved in the removal of Mossadegh?!!!!! Surely, that has to seal the deal for Iranians at this point. I'm going to find the Persian version of the articles Barzou's talking about.