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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; ali khamenei</title>
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		<title>Appeasement: Obama&#8217;s Secret Letter to Khamenei</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/appeasement-obamas-secret-letter-to-khamenei/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=appeasement-obamas-secret-letter-to-khamenei</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 2014 05:40:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[ali khamenei]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=245318</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The president feeds the crocodile. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MW-CY442_obama__20141105115645_ZH.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245319" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MW-CY442_obama__20141105115645_ZH-426x350.jpg" alt="MW-CY442_obama__20141105115645_ZH" width="284" height="233" /></a>The <i>Wall Street Journal</i> headline on November 6, 2014 stated that “Obama Wrote Letter to Iran’s (Ayatollah) Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader of Iran) About Fighting Islamic State.” The article described the letter as “secret,” and goes on to say that the October, 2014 letter to Khamenei “[m]arked at least the fourth time Mr. Obama has written to Iran’s most powerful political and religious leader since taking office in 2009 and pledging to <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291"><span style="color: #0433ff;">engage</span></a> with Tehran’s Islamist government.”</p>
<p>President Obama’s “secret” letter has raised deep concerns among U.S. Middle Eastern allies including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates, who have expressed their concern that America’s desperate efforts to reach an agreement on the nuclear issue with Tehran might appear as appeasement, and that the U.S. might soften its demands for Iran’s nuclear disarmament. They are worried that the Obama administration&#8217;s eagerness to get an agreement might leave the radical Iranian regime with the capability to produce a nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu responded to the revelation concerning the “secret” letter to Khamenei, saying, “I think the struggle with ISIS doesn’t need to come at the <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-reportedly-knew-of-obamas-secret-letter-to-khamenei/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">expense</span></a> of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear arms.”</p>
<p>Reacting to Obama’s “secret” letter, Linda Heard’s column in the Saudi based <i>Arab News </i>(November 11, 2014), stated that</p>
<blockquote><p>Iranian tanks rumbling over Iraqi soil is guaranteed to throw a match on the embers of sectarian conflict, would serve as a recruiting tool for Daesh [the Arabic term for ISIS], and inflame Sunni tribes. Furthermore, this does nothing to allay the concerns of Gulf States that the U.S. may be cooking up a Grand Bargain with Iran to act as its geopolitical proxy. Those fears are exacerbated by America’s pivot east, not to mention that the luster of Arab oil has diminished now that the U.S. is on its way to becoming the world biggest oil producer. The question uppermost is this; <a href="http://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/658051"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Is Obama throwing Sunni States under an Iranian bus</span></a>?</p></blockquote>
<p>During his first six months in office, President Barack Obama wrote two letters to Khamenei calling for improvement in Iranian-U.S. relations. To many Iranian liberals who sought more freedom from the oppressive clerical regime, it amounted to appeasement of the Ayatollahs. Moreover, it only served to heighten Khamenei’s contempt for the U.S. and President Obama.</p>
<p>Ayatollah Khamenei rejected Obama’s overtures for improved relations, and in the words of Jeffrey Goldberg of <i>The Atlantic, </i>the latest letter smacks of “Obama chasing after Khamenei in the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/a-troubling-letter-to-an-unbending-ayatollah/382505/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">undignified</span></a> and counterproductive manner of a frustrated suitor.” Suzanne Maloney, writing for the  Brookings Institute (November 7, 2014) concludes:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is simply no plausible scenario in which a letter from the President of the United States to Ali Khamenei generates greater Iranian flexibility on the nuclear program, which the regime has paid an exorbitant price to preserve, or somehow pushes a final agreement across the finish line. Just the opposite – the letter undoubtedly intensified Khamenei’s contempt for Washington and reinforced his longstanding determination to extract maximalist concessions from the international community. It is <span style="color: #0433ff;"><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/iran-at-saban/posts/2014/11/06-letter-khamenei-ayatollah-iran-obama-nuclear-isis">a blow</a></span> to the delicate end-game state of play in the nuclear talks at the precise moment when American resolve was needed most.</p></blockquote>
<p>The November 24, 2014 deadline for the final nuclear agreement between the five permanent representatives on the UN Security Council (U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France) and Germany with Iran is fast approaching. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the outgoing EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met in Muscat, Oman last weekend with Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister.</p>
<p>It is likely that the U.S. administration, through John Kerry, urged the Iranians to be more flexible and indicated its desire to reach an agreement, even if it leaves Iran with the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. The Iranians are bent on retaining their right to enrich uranium and keeping their existing nuclear infrastructure intact. Kerry, on the other hand, seeks to create the impression that the U.S. will adhere to President Obama’s pledge to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions.</p>
<p>Former U.S. Representative Dan Burton wrote in the <i>Washington Times</i> (2/19/2014),</p>
<blockquote><p>Based on Iran’s history of lies, deception and hostility, why should we believe they are playing square now? Giving Iran $7 billion in cash while leaving in place one of the most sophisticated enrichment programs in the world is not an act of faith; it is an act of appeasement.  <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Appeasement</span></a><span style="color: #365f91;"> </span>did not work in the 1930’s with Adolf Hitler. It did not work in the 1990’s with North Korea. It will not work in 2014 with Iran.</p></blockquote>
<p>Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), who co-authored a bill with Bob Menendez (D-NJ) that imposed tough sanctions on Iran, reacted to President Obama’s letter saying that “The best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to quickly pass the bipartisan Menendez-Kirk legislation &#8212; not to give the Iranians more time to build a bomb.” John Boehner (R-OH), Speaker of the House, said, “<a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291"><span style="color: #0433ff;">I don’t trust</span></a> the Iranians &#8212; I don’t think we need to bring them into this.” Referring to the continuing nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, Speaker Boehner said he “would hope that the negotiations that are under way are serious negotiations, but I have my doubts.”</p>
<p>In an ironic twist, Khamenei actually blames the U.S. for creating ISIS and al-Qaeda as a way to weaken the Islamic world. It is perhaps a more honest response than the Taqiyya (a form of religious dissimulation or deception of one’s enemy) artists such as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who have appeared to have charmed the Obama administration and the British government that recently reopened its Tehran embassy.</p>
<p>The Obama administration appears to have concluded that the Islamic Republic of Iran would be the best American deputy to guard the region and insure the region’s stability. For the Ayatollahs, this couldn’t be a better prospect. For a long time, Iran has sought to become the hegemon of the region. With the U.S. destroying Iran’s rivals, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the Taliban in Afghanistan, it paved the way for Tehran to spread the Shiite arc. <span style="color: #232323;">Haider al-Abadi’s </span>Iraq, Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, and Hezbollah controlled Lebanon are now tributaries of Iran. The Arab Gulf states can expect increased intimidation from Iran. Israel faces an existential threat from a nuclear armed and hegemonic Iran.</p>
<p>And yet, other than in the realm of terrorism, Iran has little ability on its own to project power. Its air force is antiquated, and its regular army is relatively weak. Khamenei’s threat that “if America makes the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/world/middleeast/05diplo.html?pagewanted=print&amp;_r=0"><span style="color: #0433ff;">wrong move</span></a> toward Iran, the shipment of energy will definitely face danger” is rather hollow given U.S. capabilities. In fact, the U.S. Navy has the capacity to eliminate the entire Iranian navy in an hour. It is America’s consistent appeasement of Iran despite its unpunished attacks on Americans in Lebanon, (241 U.S. Marines killed in 1983, U.S. embassy in Beirut bombed) Saudi Arabia, (Khobar towers bombing 19 American servicemen killed and hundreds wounded), and Iraq (Improvised Explosive Devises killing numerous American soldiers) that has emboldened the Ayatollahs of Iran. President Obama’s letter to Khamenei appears to smack of further appeasement.</p>
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		<title>Exalting Khomeini’s Legacy</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/lisa-daftari/exalting-khomeini%e2%80%99s-legacy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=exalting-khomeini%25e2%2580%2599s-legacy</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/lisa-daftari/exalting-khomeini%e2%80%99s-legacy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:03:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Daftari]]></dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Zahra Eshraghi]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=49727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Iran’s leaders try to reignite the cultish reverence for a bloody despot.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ahmadinejad_khomeini.jpeg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-49730" title="ahmadinejad_khomeini" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ahmadinejad_khomeini-300x238.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="238" /></a></p>
<p>Most Iranians can remember the exact moments in their lives when they discovered that the Ayatollah Khomeini had died. For many Iranians, this was a joyous occasion and the cause of days of partying, drinking champagne and fanciful thinking about the fate of their country.  Schools were closed for forty days, and Iranians abroad remained attached to their television sets wondering if they would touch the soil of their homeland once again. Khomeini’s name was synonymous with the Revolution, the precarious social ambiance and the severe impact that Islamic ideology had on the country.  The root of that influence was now gone.</p>
<p>Khomeini, best known to the rest of the world as the founder of modern Islam, the supporter of the Hostage Crisis and the man who issued a fatwa (death decree) on the head of author Salman Rushdie, represented for the Iranian people a central chapter of their modern history that is both complicated and tragic. In the roughly ten years that he reigned, over 100,000 Iranians were executed. The Iran-Iraq war futilely dragged on for almost a decade, and persecuted Iranians across a multicolored Iranian population wondered what the Revolution had achieved.</p>
<p>Looking back at that time makes it difficult to understand how Islamic Republic leaders are now bringing back a cultish reverence for the Khomeini era. Since the post-election protests, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and likewise, reformist Presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi have made serious efforts to revive a faux nostalgia for the late Ayatollah among the opposition.</p>
<p>On the part of the current regime, uniting their modus operandi with that of Khomeini’s gives them a legitimate claim to the Islamic Republic.  Recalling that period reminds Iranians of a time when they were curious to see what the Ayatollah Khomeini could offer them.</p>
<p>For the reformists, who are proposing ‘change,’ they are motivated to do so within the confines of the regime, making respect and support for the Khomeini camp a prerequisite to remain part of and function within the Islamic Republic. As a matter of fact, Mousavi and Karoubi have been quick to use Khomeini’s legacy to strengthen their constituency, alleging that the Ayatollah was a more righteous leader, and that Khamenei’s government has severely deviated from the principles initially set forth.</p>
<p>Besides bearing such resemblances in surnames, Khomeini and Khamenei share similarities beyond the superficial. Both support mass executions, terrorism, and a fundamentalist Islamic ideology. Khomeini was famous for the words, “We do not worship Iran.  We worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.” To spread Islam and its influence was his agenda, not much different from the current regime. So inherent is Khomeini’s role in the Islamic Republic landscape that to eradicate his influence from the movement is to study the establishment of the American government system without George Washington, or better yet, to assess Nazism absent Adolph Hitler.</p>
<p>The cleansing of Khomeini’s image became en vogue under former President Mohammad Khatami, who sought to salvage the late Ayatollah’s bloody reputation and in effect absolve the regime, beginning at its very roots. It is said that Khatami began his campaign to change the then dull and disillusioned mood during his presidency and to purify Iran’s modern history.  It also might have to do with the fact that Khatami and Khomeini were related. Khatami’s brother, Mohammad Reza, is married to Khomeini’s granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the intricate web of marriages within the handful of regime dynasties does not stop at the Khatami and Khomeini families. Most staggeringly, the fathers of Mousavi and Khamenei are brothers, making them first cousins. The unions demonstrate how far the inner circle of the regime will go to preserve their stronghold.</p>
<p>Under every IRI leader since Khatami, there has been a push to glorify the name and legacy of Khomeini, a move the leaders believe will sustain the Islamic Republic. For the current government it relies on erasing a very recent history, and for the reformists, it means tying themselves to a retrospectively more ‘benevolent’ supreme leader, in order to say that not everything about the Islamic Republic is corrupt; it had its glory days too.</p>
<p>Making such a claim relies entirely on pandering to a population of Iranians under the age of 30, who do not clearly remember Khomeini’s track record. Or maybe they do remember it and choose not to. It is clearly more pleasant to remember a peaceful history rather than one dotted with executions, stonings and lack of human rights. The leaders may take advantage of the people’s yearning for a united Iran, albeit one that chooses to forget its own history and thus remains under the grips of an Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>When Khomeini’s picture was rampantly burned in the streets of Iran in early December during National Students’ Day, many believed that was, at the very least, a clear and overt indication that the unrest was certainly not just over a fraudulent election. More profoundly taken, burning the picture of the founder of the Islamic Republic represented a denunciation of a theocratic regime and a manifestation of a movement pro-secular.</p>
<p>Yet when the government announced that those in violation are deemed “moharreb,” or Enemies (of God), and subsequently blamed Mousavi and Karoubi for instigating the event, the reformist leaders then in turn blamed the government for staging the incident it in order to discredit the opposition as irreverent and sacrilegious. Subsequently, the Green party urged the opposition to carry pictures of Khomeini to demonstrations in reverence and to never burn or disrespect the late Ayatollah again. In the end, Khomeini actually emerged more popular and even more of a central player in the backdrop of the movement.</p>
<p>It is still not clear who was behind the original burning of the pictures, but the more poignant revelation was how radical the Iranian momentum has become. So incendiary was this incident that it triggered a fad across several continents of posting videos of burning Khomeini’s picture. There are dozens of such groups on Facebook and Youtube created for the cause. Groups such as “I burned Khomeini’s picture” on Facebook has almost 2,000 members. There is even a video capturing a “Burning Khomeini’s picture party” that takes place in Europe, that shows a large group of expatriate Iranians burning the Ayatollah’s picture.</p>
<p>These cyber campaigns, seeking to eradicate Khomeini’s legacy, were created in reaction to the regime’s campaign to exalt it. Freedom-seeking Iranians are warning their countrymen of what can happen if Iranians fail to recall history and fall into the trap of the regime once again.</p>
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		<title>A New Way on Iran – by Jacob Laksin</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/a-new-way-on-iran-%e2%80%93-by-jacob-laksin/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-new-way-on-iran-%25e2%2580%2593-by-jacob-laksin</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:03:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=44271</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Obama administration’s policy of engaging the mullahs goes up in flames. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-44272" title="Tehran_664861a" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Tehran_664861a.jpg" alt="Tehran_664861a" width="585" height="350" /></p>
<p>As the clock counts down on the Obama administration’s <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE54H4QX20090518">end-of-year deadline</a> for negotiations with Iran, it’s timely to review what the administration has to show for its policy of engaging the regime.</p>
<p>Obama’s investment in this policy has been substantial. The president has personally reached out to the Iranian leadership, even going so far as to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/24/khamenei-obama-letter">send letters appealing for better relations</a> to the country’s unofficial leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When demonstrations erupted this June in the wake of a blatantly fraudulent presidential election, the administration spurned a chance to take a stand with the thousands of opposition demonstrators who poured out onto Iran’s streets – and, when the streets became too dangerous, onto Iran’s rooftops – to protest the political injustice committed in their name. Not even grisly reprisals against democrats, dissidents, journalists and political activists elicited more than a tame warning from Washington. Obama pronounced himself “appalled and outraged” at the regime’s brutality, but revulsion did not translate into robust response. For all intents and purposes, the mullahs and their loyalist thugs were given a free pass to suppress all stirrings of dissent as they pleased.</p>
<p>That remains official U.S. policy. Recent weeks have seen Iran transformed once again into a battlefield between the theocratic regime and its militia enforcers on the one side and the democratic opposition on the other. Credible reports suggest that the latest crackdown has left dozens dead, even as a police-state dragnet has swept thousands under arrest. Prominent critics and democratic activists have been targeted, as have their relatives. The nephew of opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi, believed by many to be the true winner of the summer election, has reportedly been killed after being run over. The apolitical sister of Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has been arrested. Opposition leaders who fall into the regime’s clutches <a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCALDE5BQ06J20091229">face execution</a>. Watching the bloodshed from his paradise retreat in Hawaii, President Obama has offered only symbolic support for the swelling ranks of victims. Despite condemning the regime’s “iron fist of brutality,” he has not lifted a hand to break its repressive grip. And so the crackdown continues.</p>
<p>From the administration’s standpoint, this calculated coldness to the human-rights atrocity unfolding in plain sight is the height of pragmatism. Granting official and active support to the opposition demonstrators’ cause, the argument goes, would only encourage the regime to discredit them as seditionist stooges of the Great Satan. At the same time, it would compromise the administration’s leverage on nuclear issues, making it more difficult to bring Iran to the diplomatic bargaining table.</p>
<p>Such convenient rationalizations fly in the face of recent history. If the past decade has taught any lesson, it is that Iran will not be peacefully persuaded to abandon its march toward a nuclear weapon. Supporting the suspicion is the ever-expanding evidence of the regime’s covert nuclear activities, including <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,580344,00.html">revelations</a>, earlier this month, that Iran has spent four years constructing a “neutron initiator,” otherwise known as a trigger for a nuclear bomb. For those who continue to believe that the regime can be reasoned with – a dwindling number that nonetheless includes many in the Obama administration – Iranian officials have long been the bearers of bad news. When warned recently that Iran could face a new round of sanctions if it failed to comply with the administration’s timelines, Mahmoud Ahmadinehad offered a revealing retort: “We don’t care. We are not afraid of sanctions against us and we are not intimidated.”</p>
<p>The same cannot be said of opposition protestors, many of whom have been forced at risk of death into hiding or exile. But if the Obama administration believed that keeping its distance from the men and women being bludgeoned on the streets would spare them from the regime’s lurid slurs of treason and the United States from charges of foreign subversion it has tragically misunderstood the cynicism of totalitarian regimes. The fact that the opposition has received no official support has not deterred Iran’s Orwellian foreign ministry from <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114909&amp;sectionid=351020101%20">decrying</a> fictional “interference” in the country’s internal affairs. Nor has the mere fact of its absurdity kept Ahmadinejad from alleging that the mass uprisings in Iran are part of a play “commissioned” by “Americans” and – who else? – “Zionists.” So much for the Obama administration’s assurance that engagement has made it “difficult to demonize the United States and say it has been the root of all evil.” Modern Iran may have few exports, but it boasts an oversupply of anti-American conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>Small indeed are the wages of inaction. There is little indication, meanwhile, that the action that the administration is prepared to take, such as <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h3eddJPOnhRvsCM4fnH7I0glk1gQ">targeted sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard</a>, offers a realistic solution to regime’s threat, foreign or domestic. However defensible in themselves, sanctions will neither make the regime more pliant on nuclear matters nor relieve pressure on the embattled opposition. By contrast, meaningful support for the opposition – including but not limited to financial aid – could provide the kind of existential threat that Iran’s ruling powers have learned to discount from the international community. It would be a grim coda to 2009 if the administration that has presided over the largest government spending spree since the Great Depression was prepared to use taxpayer dollars to bail out all but the desperately needy.</p>
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		<title>Iran’s Resurgent Revolution – by Ryan Mauro</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/ryan-mauro/iran%e2%80%99s-resurgent-revolution-%e2%80%93-by-ryan-mauro/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iran%25e2%2580%2599s-resurgent-revolution-%25e2%2580%2593-by-ryan-mauro</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:12:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ahmadinejad]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=43633</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The death of dissident cleric Ayatollah Montazeri energizes the democratic opposition.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-43634" title="iran-protests-supporters-005" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/iran-protests-supporters-005.jpg" alt="iran-protests-supporters-005" width="587" height="390" /></p>
<p>On December 19, one of the Iranian government’s most prominent critics, Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/20/world/main6001318.shtml">passed away.</a> His demise may yet portend the beginning of the end for Iran’s oppressive regime.</p>
<p>The regime may have been relieved that this independent source of religious authority and popularity among the people would no longer be around, but the Shiite holiday of Ashura fell on the seventh day following his death. The rallies mourning Montazeri combined with the Ashura celebration, creating a storm of anti-regime activity that only brutal suppression can contain.</p>
<p>Ayatollah Montazeri was a ferocious critic of the regime and advocate of ending clerical rule in government. Clerics, Montazeri believed, should serve as advisors to elected rulers. He wanted freedom of speech and assembly, and became particularly incensed in recent months over the fraudulent re-election of Ahmadinejad and widespread human rights abuses. His ardent opposition to the regime made him a hero among the people, despite his original role in bringing Ayatollah Khomeini to power and founding the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>This year, he even issued a <em><a href="http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3412.htm">fatwa</a></em> declaring the regime illegitimate and listed various transgressions committed by Khamenei and Ahmadinejad and their underlings, including hurting Shiite Islam by misrepresenting it. The <em>fatwa </em>even said that by breaking the “contract” with the people, “the people may remove the position holder from his post,” a not-so-subtle endorsement of overthrowing the government. He followed that up with an even bolder challenge to the regime: a declaration that Khamenei lacked the religious credentials to be a source of canon law and did not have the authority to issue <em>fatwas</em>.</p>
<p>Montazeri’s religious credentials as a Grand Ayatollah made such statements deeply unsettling for the regime. Originally, he was so adored by Khomeini that he was appointed as his successor. However, moral and religious conviction led Montazeri to disqualify himself from this post by speaking out against Khomeini’s massacres and human rights abuses. He even called on Khomeini to stop trying to export the Islamic Revolution by supporting terrorists and militias, and urged him to lead by example instead of force.</p>
<p>In 1989, Montazeri was placed on house arrest and the regime began trying to marginalize him. The current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was chosen to succeed Khomeini, even though he lacked the religious qualifications and Montazeri’s education dwarfed his. Montazeri has thus been able to speak with greater authority than Khamenei, especially as Iran’s economy and human rights situation spiraled downhill. Following the June “election,” a <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-seven-point-manifesto-of-the-iranian-resistance/">Seven-Point Manifesto</a> was spread about Iran listing the demands of the opposition for democratic reform called for Montazeri to replace Khamenei as Supreme Leader until the constitution is changed to reconfigure the government.</p>
<p>The death of Montazeri couldn’t have come at a worse time for the regime. The opposition had already been gearing up for massive demonstrations during the Ashura holiday, knowing that the regime could not ban gatherings on that day. The mourning that followed his death led to growing expressions of discontent that extended into Ashura, creating momentum that only gunfire and violence could stop from spreading to every street.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-43636 aligncenter" title="ra2411909504" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ra2411909504.jpg" alt="ra2411909504" width="399" height="265" /><em>Voice of the people: Montazeri&#8217;s death has galvanized Iran&#8217;s opposition.</em></p>
<p>It became clear immediately following Montazeri’s death that the opposition was energized. On the day before Ashura, about 50 members of the Basiji <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/iranian-militia-halts-speech-by-former-president-in-tehran-mosque/">stormed</a> a mosque where former President Khatami, a critic of the regime, was speaking and ended the presentation. It is said that the attack happened as Khatami tried to equate the uprising of Imam Hussein, who Ashura honors, with the opposition movement fighting for freedom. To make things even more offensive to the regime, this took place at the home mosque of Ayatollah Khomeini.</p>
<p>The regime eventually had to ban public mourning of Montazeri, leading to ongoing clashes. People in Tehran were seen having their Iranian flags confiscated for removing the religious symbols in them and were arrested for wearing black to honor him. On December 21, one woman walked up to the Basiji militiamen blocking access to Montazeri’s home and <a href="http://www.worldthreats.com/?p=1957">ripped</a> up a photo of Khamenei, knowing she would be beaten and arrested. The next day, in Kerman Province, protests went to a scheduled public hanging of two alleged robbers and <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8426683.stm">freed</a> them. They were recaptured later, but this is a very aggressive challenge to the government.</p>
<p>Opposition forces claim that at least four protestors have been shot and killed, including the <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6968798.ece">nephew</a> of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the man on the losing side of the rigged election. Hundreds of thousands are demonstrating in Iran’s major cities, chanting “death to the dictatorship” and making direct attacks on Khamenei. Video and photos <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/12/iran-more-video-footage-from-protests-surface-2.html">leaking</a> out show large pillars of smoke over Tehran from the mass use of tear gas to stop the demonstrations from spreading. Regime forces even <a href="http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/7617/1/">ran over</a> two protestors—twice.</p>
<p>The clashes with the security forces are getting longer and more vicious. <a href="http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/7611/1/">At least</a> ten motorcycles used by the forces are <a href="http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/7616/1/">said</a> to have been set ablaze in Tehran, along with a state building, police van, a Basiji outpost, state-owned banks and a vehicle used by the Revolutionary Guards. The windows of the Oil Ministry have reportedly been broken. Reports say that there have been numerous incidents where the Basiji have arrested a protestor only to have the crowd fight back and free them. Some police officers are said to be refusing orders to attack the demonstrators.</p>
<p>Ayatollah Mehdi Karroubi, another man who competed with Ahmadinejad for the presidency and has rankled the regime by reporting systematic rape and torture and demanding full rights for women, boldly <a href="http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/story/iran-s-government-will-not-last-says-mehdi-karoubi/">predicted</a> recently that the current regime “will not last” its entire four year term. Based on the demonstrations going on today, Karroubi may be right.</p>
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		<title>Iranians’ Cry for Freedom – by Lisa Daftari</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/lisa-daftari/iranians%e2%80%99-cry-for-freedom-%e2%80%93-by-lisa-daftari/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iranians%25e2%2580%2599-cry-for-freedom-%25e2%2580%2593-by-lisa-daftari</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Daftari]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aftermath]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ali khamenei]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ali Montazeri]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=43843</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Daring Iranians continue to take to the streets. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-43845" title="iran" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/iran1.jpg" alt="iran" width="450" height="300" /></p>
<p>Iran’s Islamic regime may be in denial about sanctions and anti-nuclear proliferation proposals, but after a long weekend of renewed and intense demonstrations, it cannot deny the thousands of disenchanted and daring Iranians who took to protest despite government threats, beatings and cold-blooded murder.</p>
<p>Up to 9 are reported dead and hundreds wounded as tens of thousands of Iranian protestors clashed with government security forces in what was the bloodiest and most violent demonstrations since the aftermath of President Ahmadinejad’s allegedly fraudulent re-election six months ago. The number of deaths is reported through sites that cannot be verified, though eyewitnesses confirmed the murder of at least four protestors when guards opened fire in Tehran’s central neighborhood   College Square mid-morning Sunday.</p>
<p>Websites report that clashes were not limited to the capital city of Tehran. Demonstrations were also held in Isfahan, Mashad, Shiraz and surprisingly, the Shiite clerical headquarter, Qom.</p>
<p>The demonstrations began two days prior and led up to Sunday’s commemoration of Ashura, the Islamic day of mourning the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, the third Imam and grandson of Prophet Mohammad.  Hossein was overcome by his nemesis and heretic to Islam, Yazid, at the Battle of Karbala in the seventh century.  On this day, Shiite Muslims traditionally congregate at mosques and hold public processions of flagellation and reenactments of his death.</p>
<p>Hossein’s death is commonly referred to as the battle between good and evil, as he is said to have spoken out against oppressive rulers. Though protesters have chanted anti-Islamic and anti-regime slogans since the initial hours after the presidential election, they used this religious day to voice grievances against their own modern-day oppressive rulers.</p>
<p>Anticipating large-scale protests this weekend, the regime made threats about participating in these events, instituted a 7pm curfew and forbid the assembling of groups larger than three.</p>
<p>In some areas reports say early shots were fired in the air Saturday morning to deter rioters. In other areas, witnesses say tear gas was used to disperse crowds.</p>
<p>Similar to the violence we have seen in previous Iran protests, Basiji militiamen freely used batons and in some cases, reports indicate that daggers and knives were used. The only difference is that this time around there were also reports of protestors fighting back, and in some cases, successfully restraining security forces.</p>
<p>Losing presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi made no official statements encouraging people to participate in protest. However, over the past two weeks, non-affiliated political activists called on Iranians of all backgrounds via websites, Facebook, Twitter and text messages, to come out in this new round of demonstrations.</p>
<p>The protests also coincided with the seventh day of mourning the death of 87-year-old reformist cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Iran’s most senior dissident religious figure and architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  Montazeri’s death last week played a significant role in igniting demonstrations which have sporadically taken place since the elections, but gave the opposition a significant running start for this weekend’s upheaval.</p>
<p>When funeral attendees clashed with security forces in the religious city of Qom last week, the regime lost its religious constituency and the opposition gained bragging rights to an emerging opposition that is colorful and diverse and not just comprised of secular Tehranis but of conservative Muslims as well.  Supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s order to attack funeral attendees made a serious and significant escalation in the plot of this boiling Iranian Revolution.</p>
<p>The rift was further intensified this past weekend when the government ordered violent and unwarranted attacks during the holy day of Ashura.  Traditionally, this day is a peaceful, reflective one. During the eight year Iran-Iraq war, there was no fighting in honor of this holiday, and even during the 1979 Revolution, political activists took advantage of Ashura, coming out in protest knowing that the Shah would not order attacks out of respect for the holiday. Violating this sacred holiday by not just any government, but an Islamic one, reaffirmed that the regime’s hunger for power and tyrannical rule run deeper than the ‘absolute’ religious doctrines they have purported at the heart of their leadership and have utilized in gaining legitimacy.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, the timely death of a revered clergy member coupled with violent escalations breaching one of the holiest Shiite days succeeded in giving the opposition what it has been lacking surely for the past six months, if not 30 years; homogenization.</p>
<p>Within one week, the regime helped bring the conservative and religious factions of Iran’s population to the streets. Dejected and disillusioned, members of the clergy and other conservative Iranians seamlessly joined the secular opposition.</p>
<p>It was apparent in the demonstration footage. Some demonstrators wore green, and others wore black.  Many did not color coordinate, believing that their cause was obvious absent visual manifestation.</p>
<p>Developments in Iran’s opposition movement seem promising. At the very least, these demonstrations have and continue to weaken and divide the clerical regime, and at best, they can be integral in eradicating this regime altogether. For the last six months, the opposition movement has endured bloodshed and brutality, proving to the international community and their own government that they will stop at nothing to get their country back.  They have and will continue to sacrifice their lives, jobs, families and more to overcome this tyrannical regime, and more importantly, they have showed that they will continue to resist with or without the help of the United States or any other world power.</p>
<p>Ironically, anti-American propaganda has long helped in legitimizing this regime’s absolute reign over its people.  From its inception, the government made its people believe that the United States and Israel, the two Satans, large and small, will dutifully stand in the way of Iranian advancement. Synonymous with Iranian patriotism was hatred for the United   States. The people of Iran may have believed this at first, possibly while still under the spell of this regime, but now they are awake and cynical of religion and the clerics’ regime.</p>
<p>So commonplace is the role of anti-Americanism in the backdrop of this regime’s reign that if the United   States had sided with the people of Iran, it would have naturally been a huge blow to their rule.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Obama administration made another attempt at curbing Iran’s nuclear proliferation agenda this week with a year-end deadline, to which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad simply scoffed, and said he is not afraid.</p>
<p>How many attempts will it take for our ivy-league educated leaders to recognize that diplomacy will not work with Iran?</p>
<p>As a result, America has isolated the Iranians to have to take on their government on their own. There are sound arguments as to why this is actually to their benefit. This may be the case, however, that would hold true only if America was completely absent from the Iranian political scene; not involved in a sideshow attempting to fruitlessly engage this regime or to daunt them with meaningless deadlines.</p>
<p>Even if the United States did not prioritize human rights in Iran, the single way to eliminate it as a nuclear threat is to weaken its government; a task only within the capabilities of its people.  Diplomacy is not seasonal, and it is not a temporary way to achieve a goal. It is establishing a lasting relationship between powerful and sovereign countries, similar to the relationship Iran and the United States had under the late Shah. If our administration were after true diplomacy in the region, then they would sooner side with the 70 million Iranians who have looked our way for an approving nod.</p>
<p>After 30 years, the people of Iran have come to the conclusion—the same conclusion that should now be the obvious one to President Obama after failing to successfully engage the Islamic Republic; We cannot change the actions or philosophy of this terrorist government; The only thing we can change is the government. We can only hope that the pivotal moment will come soon, when those outside Iran can join those inside in unanimously acknowledging that the only solution in the case of Iran is regime change.</p>
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		<title>AFP: Khamenei says US, Britain will fail to isolate Iran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/afp-khamenei-says-us-britain-will-fail-to-isolate-iran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=afp-khamenei-says-us-britain-will-fail-to-isolate-iran</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:29:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ali khamenei]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ayatollah ali khamenei]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[list of enemies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear issue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state television]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[supreme leader ayatollah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tehran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zionists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=40912</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out Sunday at the US and Britain, labelling them Tehran&#8217;s main &#8220;enemies&#8221; and warning they will fail to isolate Iran over its nuclear issue, a report said. &#8220;Americans are at the head of the list of enemies and the British are the most awful of them,&#8221; state television reported [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out Sunday at the US and Britain, labelling them Tehran&#8217;s main &#8220;enemies&#8221; and warning they will fail to isolate Iran over its nuclear issue, a report said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Americans are at the head of the list of enemies and the British are the most awful of them,&#8221; state television reported Khamenei as saying in an address to thousands of people to mark a major Shiite ceremony.</p>
<p>&#8220;Americans, Zionists and other oppressive powers tried to isolate Iran for the past 30 years, but they failed and with God&#8217;s help they will also fail in the future,&#8221; Khamenei said in reaction to sustained Western threats to isolate Iran over its controversial atomic programme.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gprfbGpiQe554HjSXWTDxoo2pIgg">AFP: Khamenei says US, Britain will fail to isolate Iran</a>.</p>
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