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Jewish World Review March 5, 2003 / 1 Adar II, 5763
Michael Ledeen
The Iranian-Election Revolt: The people speak. The West won't listen
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Once again, there is big news out of Iran, and once again the Western media refuse to see what is in front
of their noses. Iran held municipal elections over the weekend. All the regime's big guns had implored
the people to turn out in record numbers, to demonstrate that the people were committed to participation in
the Islamic Republic. Supreme Leader Khamenei, Eminence Grise Rafsanjani, and President Khatami - the
vapid matinee idol of the New York and Los Angeles Times apologists - made clear their desperate desire
for a record turnout.
Be careful what you ask for. There was a record turnout, but it was a negative record. The official reports
speak of a ten-percent turnout in Tehran and other major cities, with higher participation elsewhere. If those
numbers were accurate, it would represent a massive abstention, and hence an enormous vote of no
confidence in the system. But the real numbers are worse still: Of the roughly seven million people entitled to
vote in Tehran, less than 70,000 actually voted. I make that about one percent. These data come directly
from a high-ranking official involved in the elections office, who was shocked by the results.
The Iranian people rejected the regime in the most unmistakable way, yet the "story" you read in our
newspapers is that the hard liners routed the reformers in something resembling a real election. As if the
Iranian people, after years of mass demonstrations against the mullahcracy, after thousands of freedom
fighters had sacrificed their lives in protest against Islamic oppression, had suddenly seen the darkness and
decided they preferred tyranny to freedom. Or perhaps they had heard the shameful nonsense emanating
from the mouth of Deputy Secretary of State Armitage ("Iran is a democracy") and decided that since the
Supreme Leader was a confirmed democrat, the best path to liberty was to give the regime a huge vote of
confidence.
No way. The elections were a protest non-vote, pure and simple. The pathetic Khatami and his apologists at
the BBC and elsewhere in the Western media are now crying that "the system" is being undermined and
chances for reform have been weakened, but they have totally missed the point. Chances for reform are nil
so long as Khamenei and Rafsanjani are in command, and the Iranian people are disgusted with Khatami's
failed promises and empty gestures. He's not only ineffectual, but a coward to boot. He's threatened to
resign with monotonous regularity, but never does it. He promised reforms but has produced none at all, and
there is manifestly less freedom today than when he came to office.
If we had had any honest reporters in Tehran for the past two weeks, they would have put the elections in
their proper context. The vote came hard on the heels of a weeklong demonstration for the benefit of the
United Nations Human Rights Commission, which visited Iran on a fact-finding mission. Headed by the usual
Frenchman, the commission managed to complain about the protracted use of solitary confinement in Iranian
prisons. But they did not denounce the more terrible practices such as torture and arbitrary executions.
Indeed, while they were in Iran, the regime rounded up five more newspaper editors and locked them up,
with no protest from the commissioners. And apparently the commissioners did not insist on interviewing the
country's most celebrated prisoners, like student leader Tabarzadeh or the recently arrested jurist Sholeh
Sadi, who had bravely denounced the regime in uncompromising language. And unbeknownst to the
commissioners, the regime had staged a "dry run" for the prisoners. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed agents of the
regime, pretending to be commissioners, were sent into the prisons to interview prisoners. Those who
complained about maltreatment were isolated, and maltreated some more. Those who spoke well about their
conditions were permitted to be interviewed by the real commissioners.
G-d willing, Judgment Day is coming to the Middle East, and the long-suffering people of Iran, Iraq, Syria,
and Saudi Arabia will get their chance to be free. I have no doubt that they will have suitably harsh words for
the Western governments and journalists who failed to help them, or even tell the real story.
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JWR contributor Michael Ledeen is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of, most recently, ""The War Against the Terror Masters," Comment by clicking here.
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© 2001, Michael Ledeen
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