Mousavi of Iran: responsible for executing thousands...
" Stacy Summary: Stay tuned for the shocker that comes from minute 01.36. The interviewee casually mentions that Mousavi was responsible for executing thousands of political dissidents. Was anyone else aware of this??? I should imagine Rummy and Dick are thinking if they stay quiet for a decade or so, they, too, could possibly return as reformist heroes to the twitterverse?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzEV1VlYrwQ
Jennifer on the Max Keiser forum
Jun 23, 2009 at 9:38 am
Wasn’t Saddam Hussein responsible for the gassing of 4,000 Kurds? And wasn’t this one of the reasons the US cited as a justification for attacking Iraq? How is it that Iran’s “reformist” leader had 5,000 political prisoners executed on his watch and yet he is feted in the West as a hero, even though it’s likely he personally rubber stamped the death warrants? Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to distribute his country’s oil revenues among the poor like the “Dinnerjacketguy”. This reason alone is why Western leaders consider Iran’s rightfully elected leader a threat to “Freedom™” and why their propagandists are working around the clock to discredit and demonize him.
This is not to say that Ahmadinajad is anything other than a cynical demagogue who has channeled populist rage against israel and its seldom talked about nuclear arsenal in order to strengthen his own power base. It’s useful to remember that while he cozies up to Hugo Chavez and pays lip service to the Palestinian struggle, he jails leftists at home and does more damage than good to the Palestinian cause by lumping their supporters into the same category as holocaust deniers.
It’s not the first time a corrupt leader in the region feigned sympathy for his Palestinian brethren in order to divert attention from his government’s poor stewardship of the economy. Still, it’s hard to see how Mousavi (another corrupt, opportunistic politician beholden to a rival cabal of clerics) will bring about significant change to Iran, unless it’s to enrich the privateers and further disenfranchise the poor.
Like American voters, Iranians are given a choice between two right wing candidates beholden to powerful interests. Unlike Americans, however, Iranians are willing to stand up for their rights as citizens, and risk their lives to express their dissatisfaction with the status-quo. Contrast these scenes with America’s newly poor quietly huddled in their tent cities and see if you can resist the urge to spit on your TV screen as some talking head on CNN et al get all giddy about Iran’s “next revolution”.
For better or worse, though, Ahmadenijad is the elected leader of Iran. It doesn’t take a cynic to point out the hypocrisy of the US praising the “democratic spirit” of Iranian protesters, (protesting against an election’s democratic outcome, of all things) while refusing to recognize Hamas as the legitimately elected leadership of the occupied territories - even with international observers on hand to ensure an accurate vote count). Predictably, the US/UK media is framing the ongoing demonstrations against Ahmadinajad’s victory as a struggle between good (upper middle class neo-liberal “reformers” in Gucci eyewear and Hermes headscarves) vs bad (shabby, brown terrorist types) - using the comely corpse of murdered protester ‘Neda” to sex up this false narrative.
