Comments on: Tehran Overnight

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:27:37 +0000

In reply to Badtux.

If you replaced the white “purity” shirts of the Basij uniform with white robes, everyone would see what they are. They also put agent provocateurs in the crowds to start trouble.

The Basijs are the “terrorists” in the mix, the bullies who do all of the illegal searches and random arrests. Most of the reports are gunfire from plainclothes agents. No one really controls them after they are unleashed, and they have no self-control.

The Basij are on a “mission from G-d”, with all of the excuses implied by that phrase in full force. They are the Iranian version of the Klan.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:50:37 +0000

From the reports on the ground it does appear the police are not shooting at the protesters, haven’t seen any reports of it happening from Iranians anyhow, they always say “Basij”. The cops are really in a bad place here, they don’t have any stomach at all for killing their fellow Iranians but of course fear for their jobs so have to don the riot gear and go out there and half-heartedly whack a few heads from time to time and then get “overwhelmed” by the protesters. The Basij, on the other hand… they remind me of the poor white trash kids I grew up with and that I taught. Vicious, love to fight, hate anybody who is above them on the social scale (which is just about everybody), hate anybody who is *below* them on the social scale (i.e., black people and Mexicans, since this is deep South), and a perfect militia for anybody who wants to recruit them to kick ass and take names, with *no* compunctions about using any force they’ve been given authorization, either explicit or implicit, to use… and there is a LOT of them. And they love ole’ Ahmadinejad. No problem with motivation there…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:17:23 +0000

Rafsanjani is the chairman of the Assembly of Experts that monitors and selects Supreme Leaders, and the chair of the Expediency Council that works out compromises between the President and the parliament. He is a billionaire, a leader in the Iranian business community, and a cleric. He is no one to mess around with if you can possibly avoid it.

They seem to pushing him, and that is a very stupid thing to do.

By: Jack K., the Grumpy Forester

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:39:28 +0000

...what I find interesting from the recent reports is the fact of somebody messing around with Rafsanjani's family. Although to the rest of the world he is mostly a name from the past as a former president (and one for whom things didn't go all that well), he wields a certain under-reported amount of power and influence in both society and theocracy in Iran. To call him "a powerful opponent" of Ahmadinejad doesn't do justice to their mutual emnity, and the arrest of his family members suggests a degree of political crisis that is far deeper than what is being suggested by street protests or even by Larijani’s statement... .-= ´s last blog ..Today's "Why Am I Not Surprised" Moment =-.