Sunday, June 27, 2010

Iranian identity

By: "AmirN" on

My religion is Iranian
My God is Iran
My prophet is Kourosh
My Imams are Dariush, Xashayar, Ardeshir, Shapur, Khosro Anushiravan, Babak Khoramdin, Yaqoub Saffarid, Amir Kabir, and Reza Shah
My hidden Imam is Kaveh
My Apostle is Ferdowsi
My Holy Book is the Shahnameh
My commandments are written on the Kourosh Cylinder
My Mecca is Persepolis
My Holy shrines are at Pasargad, Behistun, and Naqshe Rostam
My Ashura is Qadissiyah
My martyrs are Rostam Farokhzad and Yazdgerd
My Holy Banner is the Derafshe Kaviyani
My Jerusalem is Ctesiphone
My Judas is Salman Farsi
My anti-Christ is Mohammad
My Yazid is Ali
My Shemr is Omar
My demons are the Akhounds
My Satan is Allah
My angels are the Iranian nationalists
My cross is the Faravahar
My Hell is Islam
My Paradise is Nowrouz, Chaharshanbe Souri, Mehregan, Yalda
My temple is my own heart
My religious conviction is knowledge
My faith is logic
My sermon is history

Retrospective on the late Shah's reign

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980),
By: Alan Peters

Some 25-years ago this summer, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Iran was dying in Cairo. Egypt's President Sadat had offered him his last refuge and helped him escape from a perilous exile in Panama.

Historically, Egypt has been famous for providing shelter - even to those they do not approve - like the family of Yasser Arafart - at the time that Arafat was public enemy #1 in Egypt for inciting the overthrow of Sadat's regime, his wife and children were guarded by Sadat's government bodyguards.








To be sure, a distilled account of these years would not completely vindicate the Shah. His handling of the constitution was self-defeating in ways that escaped his political savvy. Yet, at worst, was still aimed to benefit the country not himself. He had all the prestige he needed and required no constitutional short cuts to stroke his ego.

His authoritarian rule, much of it because he could not find "managers" to help run the country honestly and efficiently, carried the seeds of instability and a backward thrust, the prevention of which had served as an alibi to silence dissent. Yet, the surfeit of slander and libel before and after his downfall was largely undeserving.

Few leaders in history have been adulated and demonized in such a frivolous manner. A good illustration of hypes comes from two prominent Americans. On the New Year's Eve of 1978 -- a few short days before the triggering event of the Islamic revolution -- President Carter stunned the US western allies by calling the Shah his most trusted ally and dialogue partner.






Where should the line be drawn? In a mixed bag of achievements and flaws the Shah's balance sheet resembles other modernizing states. Many would grade it superior. What tarnished his image most was his alleged record on human rights and political freedoms, much of which proved in the aftermath to be highly exaggerated.


By the seventies, the suppression had spawned violence as groups, sprung from the very edges of the ideological spectrum, resorted to urban guerrilla tactics and acts of terrorism. A vicious circle set in. General Bakhtiar, domiciled in Iraq, was instrumental in sending waves of terrorists into Iran. Terrorists willing to shoot to kill.

For the first time traffic police, who usually had empty holsters or unloaded guns at their waist were issued side arms and bullets. The terrorists robbed banks to fund their operations and for the first time in Iranian history, the robbers shot innocent clerks to make a point.

Then SAVAK blended ruthlessness with incompetence.

It had been effective in dismantling the clandestine structure of Iran's Communist party (Tudeh) but failed to guage the creeping popular discontent, fanned by Marxist groups like the Mojahedin and Fedayeen, still less the coming of the fundamentalist Islamic bane that surprised the Soviets and snatched away their Marxist revolution to place it in clerical hands.

When the crunch finally came in 1978, this colossus fell on its clay feet unable to save its master. A dozen Soviet urban guerilla psychologists, operating from inside the Soviet Embassy in Tehran and calling the shots for anti-Shah operations overwhelmed Iranian intelligence and police autorities, who had no training in how to handle or oppose these attaacks.


The red Mercurochrome was in fact used to stain the streets and clandestine flyers would then claim the Shah's men had shot innocents nd removed their bodies.



Only this number despite the wide spread Soviet efforts to install their minions and find passage to warm waters providing thousands of candidates. Despite the Bakhtiar terrorists sent in their hundreds, despite the Marxist and Fedayeen in their thousands openly attacking the regime. And the Hezbollah-to-be, pro-Khomeini adherents who disregrded laws and inviting arrest on a daily basis.


Some viewed this practice as a gimmick to earn political capital but be it as it may, few now dispute the fact that the Shah was averse to cruelty or execution. He even stayed Khomeini's execution in 1964 at the behest of General Pakrvan, head of SAVAK. In hindsight the gravest, catastrophic mistake possible, which not only later cost Pakravan his life but also Iran's progress into a modern nation instead of a deep well of suffering and pain it is today.

The overall number of executions by the military tribunals, including those occasioned by drug related offenses, after drug smuggling and distribution became a capital offense, were estimated at around 350 cases in a 25-year period. The USA has more than this and Iran currently has close to 200 a year, including teen-agers of both genders, which contravenes all laws and even Iran's own.

Figured among them were a few prisoners of conscience including some twenty-five ring-leaders of the military wing of the Communist party of Iran. Their crime, leading to execution, was to have been mesmerized by Stalinist Russia. The rest of the six hundred communist officers arrested in nineteen fifties - as indeed the bulk of other political prisoners - were rehabilitated, many were co-opted into the Shah's administration.

One of his favorite gambits was to invite dissident leaders into senior government positions and then ask them to do the job better than the person they replaced.

Then chortle when they eventually admitted they were unable to because the system and co-workers were too cumbersome and their staff often sabotaged work or were incompetent and they now understood why their predecessors failed to succeed.


All in all some 3500 persons were reportedly killed in street unrests or by order of military courts during the Shah's reign, between 1953 to 1979 though little substantiaion exists for such a number.






The alley housed an Assyrian Christian family, several Baha'i families, a Zoroastrian family and of course many Moslem households. No hint of bigotry disturbed the serenity of this cultural mosaic. Tolerance or lack of it was a personal matter not a government imposition and for the most part if you lived your life to the fullest but avoided anti-government activity, nobody bothered you.

It would be hypocritical to claim that religious minorities were by law on the same footing as Moslems but intolerance was being discouraged and the system moved progressively towards full equality of rights among citizens.


A previously unknown historical anecdote cited by a US scholar in a recent book best illustrates the point. It concerns the protection of the Iranian Jews living in the occupied Europe during World War II.

Reich on the false pretence that these citizens, having lived in Iran for over two millennium, had been assimilated in the Persian (Aryan) race. According to the author, the Iranian Government of the time, managed to procure them safe conduct from the authorities of the Third








But the economic bullishness did not pay off in the face of the sabotage by the bazaar. The country's weak infrastructure buckled under the weight of imports and the rise in the price of oil resulted in lower consumer demand in world markets.

As the economy wobbled and Carter's human rights agenda aimed like a javelin at the Shah, forced him to make liberalizing gestures, and the tide began to change.

Iranians respect power and strength. The moment he showed a "co-operative" attitude, they turned on him. Egged on by both the funds from the bazaar and the hostile clerics, whose influence had been diminished to almost nothing among a much more modern populace with open ties available to Western life styles and mind sets.


The Shah's "politics of liberalization" had also created its own sliding spiral. To reverse these trends, the Shah should have - but failed - to rally secular political forces to his side.




Be it as it may, his most serious errors occurred during the ensuing period. It was at this time that the Shah decided on one party rule to prevent the bickering that had ensued in the two party system of Iran Novin and Mardom and to allow very capable men in the minority Mardom party to accept important positions to carry the nation forward. Instead he decreed that the Rastakhiz party would have two "wings" to cover the differing views of the elected parliamenterians.


The Shah had also begun his somewhat fanciful flights on the "Great Civilization." The new royal mindset had the Iranians believe that within a generation or so Iran would rank among the world's industrial elite. Had he been given more time, his investments in key industries in the West, like Krupp steel and internal develoment of essential items like cement plants, nuclear power, etc., could well have made his vision come true. With all the various pieces inside his almost photographic memory he was looking beyond the horizon.

Had a race against the clock already began for the Shah? A wild-west climate of profiteering marked these balmy years. Abusive business practices, including by the Shah's close family and friends, became a hallmark of the laissez-faire policies practiced at overkill scale. Partly because policing or regulating everything in a rapid growth arena with too few people to help him, became too much to handle.


The Shah himself could hardly be given a clean bill of health as he brooked corruption in his entourage, yet he was far from the rapacious persona, with a fabulous wealth, which the revolutionary puffery sought to depict. In fact he was a pragmatist. When complaints reached hin that his Minister of Interior had misappropriated some $40 million and should be sacked and thrown in jail, the Shah refused.


Instead, the Shah stated, he will be at his desk every morning at six a.m., know that I know everything - and if from nothing else but guilt will do his job for the country better than before.

Which would be preferable to releasing him to go play in Europe with his stolen money, which could probably no longer be found to retrieve it.













With the Shah's departure, Iran sank into the darkness of the Middle Ages. A reign of terror, of which he had presciently warned the nation, set in. The first public act of Khomeini, when he took over the reins of power in February 1979, was to abolish women's right to sit in as a judge in a court of law.



Perhaps no ruler in history like the Shah has benefited from a postmortem redemption, due not to any re-appraisal of his balance sheet but the misdeeds and brutal excesses of those who succeeded him in power. Far above and beyond anything of which he could have been accused even by his most biased opponents.



Sunday, June 13, 2010

Reza Pahlavi II - 12 June Statement

Washington D.C.

It is with profound regret that we join the world in watching the brutal reaction of the regime in Tehran to the protests of the brave people of Iran for their rights and against the suffocating tyranny they have been subjected to these past 30 years.

The regime has had 12 months to peacefully and respectfully resolve it's differences with the populace who has long since lost faith in their so-called government and lost hope in the judicial and constitutional infrastructures of the clerics and their paramilitary apparatus.

To the youth of Iran I say: your courage is the fodder from which legends are written. Your names and your actions, today and every day, until the liberation of our beloved Iran, will not only grace the pages of our history but that of the region and the world as the stories of the great struggles for human dignity and human rights are written.

To the Basijis, the Sepah, and the men of the Armed Forces of Iran I say: Join your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, do not turn the sacred land of your fathers and mothers into killing fields. You are better than that. You can change your own destiny and your country's destiny. We cannot change the past. But you can change today and tomorrow. Join your people in this just struggle to reclaim your blessed country.

To the regime in Iran I say: enough. Enough killing, enough torturing, enough blood of innocent spilled! In the name of all that you hold holy, stop this vicious campaign to hold power. You know it will not work, I know it will not work, history has taught us it will not work. Enough.

To the Iranian Diaspora whose heart beats in snych with their brothers and sisters inside Iran: Do not despair, the liberation of Iran is at hand. Your unity, your voice, your sacrifice is needed today more than ever by those who are buying the freedom of Iran with their blood.

To the citizens and governments of the world I say: The people of Iran need you more than ever. Let their voices be heard. Don't allow their epic and existential struggle go unnoticed under the guise of nuclear weapons priorities. These are all part and parcel of the same problem. A vile regime whose actions can no longer be justified nor tolerated by decent men and women, regardless of nationality.

In closing let us remember the words of Dr Martin Luther King: "We will foget the words of our enemies. But we will not soon forget the silence of our friends."

With a hopeful heart for a free and properous Iran,

May God bless Iran.

Reza Pahlavi

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Man Iranam

Anti-regime demonstrations and clashes with security forces are taking place in Iran today - marking the anniversary of the regime's crackdown on pro-freedom/democracy demonstrations last year. Large crowds are out in force in Tehran confronting the islamic regime's savage security forces.

(the clip below is a complilation of clips of what has taken place in the past year since the anti-regime demonstrations of June 2009).

Friday, June 11, 2010

Neda Agha-Soltan

Never to be week will mark the killing of what has been referred to as Iran's "Angel for Freedom" - Neda Agha-Soltan. The savage murderer (a paramilitary militiaman) and the system (Islamic Republic) who condoned the killing are still at large... it is in the hands of the Iranian nation to muster the courage and bring this barbaric anti-Iranian islamic regime to justice for the crimes against humanity that have been perpetrated by them in the past three decades.


Rest in peace Neda. In hope that your aspirations for a free, democratic, and secular Iran will soon come true.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Mir-Hossein Mousavi

I found this clip an amusing way of depicting the fundamental nature of Mir-Hossein Mousavi - the former Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic, who oversaw the execution of tens of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980's, and which the regime has now tried to rebrand as a "reformist" alternative. All these stooges which the regime short-lists for people to vote for in their sham s-elections are regime-loyalists who defend the Islamic Republic and the rotten framework which it's built upon. It's incredibly sad to see that people would genuinely fall for this kind of obvious political charade by the Islamic regime, especially after 8 years of another of the regime's "reformist" projects - namely the smiling mullah Mohammad Khatami - which resulted in further prolonging the terrorist regime's life, more executions, arrests, and torture of Iranian pro-democracy activists all under the guise of the smiling "reformist" mullah who had hypnotized liberal western media-outlets.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Manouchehr Mottaki - "murderer from a torture regime"

The terrorist Islamic Republic's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki is greeted at the European Parliament (1 June, 2010) by European MP's referring to him as a "murderer" of a "torture regime" with photo-placards bearing the image of Neda Agha-Soltan - who was killed in cold blood by the islamic regime's thugs last year during anti-regime unrest.