Increasing Public Awareness About Iran

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

July 06, 2005
Iran va Jahan
Shaheen Fatemi


As I was about to write this week's commentary on the strange turn of events in Iran, I saw the outstanding article of Bernard-Henri Levy, the world famous French philosopher and activist in this weeks Le Point magazine. As I continued reading it, I became more and more convinced that the world has indeed changed and the Iranian democrats and liberals are no longer alone in this world. We have finally succeeded in attracting the attention of the most important opinion makers of our generation to the plight of our nation. This is a major achievement! Once people such as BHL begin to champion the cause of the Iranian people, we begin to gain the attention of decent people throughout the world. A magic force called “public opinion” is the only effective weapon that we could hope to have against the greedy political leaders of the western democracies who out of political expediency are always ready to make a deal with the devil. Once we gain the support of public opinion in these countries, we might be able to influence policy or at least make an attempt at preventing betrayal of our national interest. It is in this spirit that we should welcome BHL’s brilliant essay.

Any attempt at description of this article for our non-French speaking readers would be doomed to failure. Thus I am presenting you with my own rapid English translation in lieu of lieu of this week's commentary and strongly urge you to see the original in this week's Le Point:

A Black Week for Iran and the World
By Bernard-Henry Levy

“Chancelleries will as usual minimize it. Experts will explain that there is no religious extremism which is not diluted by the responsibility which comes with the elected office. Americans and the Israelis will be warned against the temptation of use of force. It would be said and repeated that it is urgent to hold judgment on the newly elected subject to his actions. As far as Vladimir Poutine is concerned, he has already given him his shinning seal of approval in return for petrodollars.

Let’s face the facts: Mr. Ahmadinejad is a dangerous man. His election as President of Iran is a catastrophe. Coming after the take over of the city and municipal councils and then the Parliament it should be construed as another step in the full fledge return to power of the hard-liners.

Although Ayatollah Khamenei, the ‘supreme guide of the revolution,’ has been at the helm as the successor of Khomeini, and could have the last word on major issues, the personality of Khatami, like it or not, had a moderating effect.

But now with this man, with this new President, who during the campaign declared that the supreme guide is infallible; with this newly elected who in one of his first declarations said that “the Iranian people did not make the revolution for democracy;” with this layman who starts his news conference with long prayers while his audience kiss the Koran; the hard liners have not to worry, but the reformers, the youth, the women and the intellectuals all have plenty to worry about.

Coming from the ranks of the Guardians of Revolutions and furthermore having come from a special unit which in the 80’s was in charge of ‘muscled’ interrogations and tortures, he then became a high ranking officer in a brigade in charge of what was then modestly referred to as “extraterritorial operations” which in fact was the notorious arm of external operations of commandos.

He was personally in charge of some specific missions such as the 1989 execution of Dr. Ghassemlou, the Kurdish leader in Vienna, and in an assassination project against Salman Rushdie. The new President is not the modest and pious leader described at length by the media. He is a brutal man. He is a man with blood on his hands. He is a professional killer, not very well known publicly but very familiar to the intelligence community that see him rightfully as one of the agents of International Terrorism manipulated by IRI. Before him Iran was already a terrorist state. What will happen to it with him? What would you call a country whose chief is a terrorist himself?

On the nuclear issue the new President following his election left no room for doubt. He promised that Iran under his leadership would become an exemplary powerful Islamic State. The status of nuclear power according to him is non-negotiable. And those who did not understand this unbelievable sophistry, a good example of the best collection of political bad faith, should take a s second look: “Nuclear energy is the result of scientific development of the Iranian people and no one can bar them from this path to scientific advancement ----“Add to this the hatred toward Israel which is the main ingredient of his world view; add to this a Korean (north) type hatred for America of an irresponsible leader who has no hesitation in saying that he will lead his country on the path of self-sufficiency and thus is not impressed with threats of a super power. As a result it is a second country which like Pakistan will soon have the dual threat of a dangerous weapon and the dangerous ideological baggage to go with it.

How did we get there? How did Iran about whom we were assured of irreversible progress towards democracy could all of a sudden reverse into such regression? A crocked ballot is recognized by everyone; irregularities are taken for granted; hundreds of disqualified candidates, of course. All of this would not have been sufficient if it were not for one additional underestimated factor.

The Iranian State has been and remains a totalitarian state. The Iranian society has been ruled by one of those ideologies of which Solijenitsyne said they are the hallmark of fascism. For example this battalion of Pasdaran and Bassidj who have terrorized some, bribed others, beaten journalists at the entrance to the polling stations; they have proven that they are more than ever the enforcers of social conformity. When they are the kind of SA at call of the supreme guide and his new chief of staff Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The wind of freedom, the admirable resistance of the civil society, of course. But also the heritage of the first Ayatollahs and their –sinister order that we had a tendency to forget too quickly.”