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Jewish World Review July 5, 2005 / 28 Sivan, 5765 Iranian election is a harbringer of a new era By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Why the f*** would you want to visit that old bas**rd's grave?" asked the
guard at the subway station in south Tehran when Christopher Hitchens asked
for directions to the cemetery where the Ayatollah Khomeini is buried.
The young guard's attitude, which appears to be shared by about three
quarters of his countrymen, illustrates why the recent election was a sham.
According to the Iranian government, former secret policeman Mahmoud
Ahmadeinejad defeated former president Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani, 62 percent to
37 percent, in a runoff for the presidency last Friday. Turnout was 60
percent, the government said.
AP reported the government's figures as if they were true, even though there
was a boycott of the election (photographs taken throughout the day showed
polling places in urban areas virtually empty), and Rafsanjani claimed
massive ballot box stuffing.
The election was boycotted by reformers because the only candidates
permitted to run in it were those approved by the mullahs who hold the real
power in Iran.
Even in a diminished electorate comprised largely of government employees,
Revolutionary Guardsmen and secret policemen, Ahmadeinejad required help to
reach the runoff. Michael Ledeen's sources told him about 7 million people
voted in the first round of the election June 17th. Yet 29 million ballots
were cast.
The blatant manipulation of an already sham election to install a hardline
reactionary as president suggests that the Ayatollah Khameini, chief of the
Guardian Council, no longer sees a need to put a "reformist" face on the
regime.
That suggests to me that Iran is very close to — or already possesses — a
nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it.
That Iran's nuclear program is more advanced than most in the West realize
is the subject of two recently published books, "Countdown to Terror" by
Rep. Curt Weldon, and "Countdown to Crisis," by investigative reporter
Kenneth Timmerman.
Why would Iranians have detailed knowledge of an al Qaida plot? Perhaps
because so much of al Qaida's leadership has taken refuge in Iran.
Two of Osama bin Laden's sons and al Qaida's former military chief, Saif al
Adel, are among 20-25 al Qaida leaders living in villas near the town of
Chalous on the Caspian sea, reported NBC investigative producer Robert
Windrem June 24th.
Windrem described the al Qaida leaders as being "under virtual house
arrest," but this is disputed by Ali and by Timmerman's chief source, a
recent defector from a top position in Iranian intelligence.
Osama bin Laden himself has been in Iran since a meeting late last year in
which he met with Iranian leaders to plan attacks on the United States,
Timmerman's source said.
If bin Laden is under Iranian protection, it would explain why he has yet to
be captured, even though CIA Director Porter Goss told Time magazine this
month he has "an excellent idea" where bin Laden is.
The CIA has described this defector as "a fabricator of monumental
proportions." But Timmerman says this is because the defector warned the
CIA in July of 2001 that a "massive attack on America" was planned for Sept.
11th.
If al Qaida and the mullahs are in cahoots, then al Qaida may get the bomb
when Iran does. The war on terror could be about to heat up in a very, very
big way.
In the meantime, now that the mullahs have discarded their "moderate" mask,
there likely will be a bloody crackdown on dissidents.
"It's only a matter of time now before the liberal forces inside of Iran are
cut off at the knees and shot in the head," warned Robert Mayer (Publius
Pundit). "This election alone has determined the future of hundreds of
thousands of families. Make no mistake. Ahmadeinejad was not selected by
accident."
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© 2005, Jack Kelly |
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