Posts Tagged ‘Mehdi Karroubi’

Karoubi’s July 29th Letter to Rafsanjani

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

What seems to have become the accepted translation of Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karroubi’s letter to Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani can be traced to a translation published in khordaad88 and picked up (unsourced) in Enduring America. The sense of the original generally comes through, but it is often more in the nature of a paraphrase than a translation, and an entire paragraph is dropped without ellipses. Let the reader read and judge. Given the historical importance of this document, I am submitting my own translation. My source is Aq Bahman, a reputable website.

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The Complete Text of the Indictment of the Second Group of Accused in the Project for a Velvet Coup

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

According to an article by Fereshteh Qazi published in the 18 Mordad 1388 [August 9, 2009] Ruz , the following were accused in an indictment issued on 17 Mordad 1388 [August 8, 2009] by Judge Abdol-Qasem Salavati, head of Section 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court:

Clotilde Reiss, the French citizen whose case is well known in the West, and Nazak Afshar, a staff member of the cultural section of the French Embassy, along with Hosein Rasam, a senior analyst of the political section of the British Embassy. In addition, “political and journalistic activists” Dr. Ahmad Zeidabadi, Dr. Ali Tajernia, Hedayat Aqayi, Shahab od-Din Tabatabai (a prominent leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front leader), and Mohammad Javad Emam were present for this indictment. Ahmad Zeidabadi had been the leader of the students’ section of the Strengthening Unity Circles’s wife wrote an open letter in which she declares that her husband had been driven to the point of insanity by his mistreatment. in prison. He had been arrested on 31 Khordad and dispatched to an unknown location and held in an isolation cell, according to this letter.0

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Links and Updates

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

flowers

Links
Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Iran security forces retreat as huge numbers of mourners gather at cemetery

Elizabeth Rubin, The Cult of Rajavi (New York Times Magazine/July 13, 2003)

Updates
The updates will be preceded by (UPDATE July 30, 2009).

Twittering Tabriz

Rumors of the Uprising

Podcast
PRI’s The World interviews Borzou Daragahi

Videos
Click here to see the videos.

Jeremy R. Hammond, or Chief Inspector Clouseau in Iran

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Last night, someone posted a comment to a translation of an article I had posted about a month ago. The post read “Rubbish” and included a link to an article by one Jeremy R. Hammond. I replied that I would look into the matter. But I will deal with Hammond’s essay, “The Case of the ‘Fatwa’ to Rig Iran’s Election” rather than the one sent me in the “Rubbish” email.

Hammond’s essays belong to a genre of articles alleging that the resistance to Ahmadinejad is a CIA plot, that the millions of young people pouring into the streets resisting him were at best privileged youths angry at the mullahs for spoiling their fun and at worst supporters of neo-liberalism against the progressive/populist Ahmadinejad. Most of these authors know neither Persian nor Iran. Their main tool is reasoning by analogy: (Country name’s) government is making problems for America and America has poured millions of dollars into subverting it and a revolt breaks out which (threatens, topples) (country name’s) government; Iran’s government is making trouble for America and America has poured millions of dollars into subverting it and a revolt breaks out which threatens Iran’s government. Therefore America is responsible for the revolt in Iran.

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