The translations in the subtitles are by Mina. Warm thanks.
Some of the references are a bit obscure.
Gordon should read “Kordan”, referring to Ali Kordan, who was Minister of the Interior in one of Ahmadinejad’s cabinets. He was forced to resign when it was found that his “doctorate” from Oxford was a blatant forgery.
The reference to oil money is to how oil prices under Ahmadinejad did not translate into support for social services. “Election slogans promising to place oil money on people’s dinner tables,” according to one article.
The reference to Ardebil is to how Ahmadinejad, to how Ahmadinejad used his power as governor there to make one of his buddies in the military brass, Sadeq Mahsuli, extremely wealthy.
The reference to the bank is to his effort to get the Central Bank to give a crony of his a $700 million loan. The director of the bank balked, saying that he would have to get this order countersigned by the Majlis or the Leader. This led to Ahmadinejad getting into a struggle with the bank director and his evicting him from his position. (This was alluded to during the candidates debate and fleshed out further on a campaign stop in Tabriz.)
The halo reference is to a conversation Ahmadinejad had had after his speech at the UN, where he told a group of clerics of various miracles he performed while he was speaking, including the appearance of a halo around his head.
Ahmadinejad passed famously passed out potatoes before the election.
