Hashemi Rafsanjani - a moderate murderer

If you look at the results of the local council and the 86-member Assembly of Experts
elections in Iran, as they are reported by AP, it may seem as a political equivalent of an earthquake.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered an embarrassing blow in local council races, according to partial election results Monday, in voting viewed as a sign of public discontent with his hard-line stance.

The balloting represented a partial comeback for opponents of Ahmadinejad, whose Islamic government's policies have fueled fights with the West and brought Iran closer to U.N. sanctions.

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a relative moderate, polled the most votes of any Tehran candidate to win re-election to a key assembly post.

The biggest victory was for "moderate conservatives," supporters of Iran's cleric-led power structure who are angry at Ahmadinejad, saying he has needlessly provoked the West with harsh rhetoric and has failed to fix the country's faltering economy.

You can see two interesting terms used above: "relative moderate" and "moderate conservative". So fine is the vision of AP that it is ready to present this whimper as the Big Bang that will signify a watershed event in the history of Iran.

The people who expect a speedy onset of democracy in Iran could stop holding their collective breath. The democracy is not coming, nowhere soon at least. The "embarrassing blow" to Mahmoud the Mad is not much stronger than a mosquito bite. And that even without taking into account the fact that Mahmoud himself is a mere puppet in the hands of the Ayatollahs. Anyone with a bit of curiosity could take a look at the Iranian government structure in Wiki. Truly wondrous architecture and one that will keep the stranglehold of the mullahs on Iran forever, unless destroyed by force:

Click on the diagram to enlarge

Without going into an in-depth analysis, it should be clear that the president, his cabinet and the Majlis (Parliament) are only a bunch of figureheads, playing at democracy under the ever watchful eye of the clique of mullahs and Ayatollahs, themselves under the ever watchful eye of the Supreme Leader.

The other much touted result of the elections is the win of the "relative moderate" former president Hashemi Rafsanjani in the so called Assemly of Experts. Let alone the fact that "current elections law requires Assembly of Experts candidates to be religious mujtahids, which greatly narrows the potential field." This could hardly bother AP and its rivals who look for the earthquake. But who exactly is our big winner? Take a close look at this "relative moderate" and make your own conclusions:

Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hashemi Bahramani born on August 25, 1934, is an influential Iranian politician, and is currently serving as the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran.

If you wonder what the heck this Expediency Discernment Council could be, here is its definition:

The Expediency Discernment Council of the System, is an unelected establishment in the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran created in 1988. Its purpose is to resolve differences or conflicts between the Majlis and the Council of Guardians, and also to serve as a consultative council to the Supreme Leader.

As of 1998, the council is headed by Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. All of the 34 members of this council are directly assigned by the Supreme Leader.

Any questions? So you can see it clearly now, I hope, that our "relative moderate" hero is just one of the old boys and who takes care of his prosperity and his career. And that the whole farce of the elections is just a distraction. It is still worth to take a look at that Wiki entry on our hero:

In 1997, a German court convicted two men of murder in the 1992 assassination of Sadiq Sarafkindi, an Iranian-Kurdish leader, as well as three of his associates, and convicted two others of being accessories to the crimes. Presiding Judge Frithjof Kubsch said the men had no personal motive but were following orders. Without naming names, Kubsch said the gangland-style murders had been ordered by Iran's Committee for Special Operations, to which Iran's President and spiritual leader belonged. Prosecutors had contended that Iran's powerful spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani had personally ordered the killings.

On 25 October 2006, a team of Argentine prosecutors formally charged Iran and Shi'a militia Hezbollah with the 1994 AMIA Bombing in Buenos Aires, accusing the Iranian authorities of directing Hezbollah to carry out that attack and calling for the arrest of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others. This incident has put Ahmadinejad's government in the awkward position of defending Rafsanjani, whom they oppose for corruption and being pro-Western. Therefore, this event was seen as a positive development for Rafsanjani during his successful campaign for election as a member of the Assembly of Experts in December 2006.

So you can see now the ugly mug of the "relative moderate" in all its beauty. A wanted moderate, sorry - it should be murderer.


And instead of calling for his extradition to stand trial in Germany and /or Argentine, some Guardian hacks already call for a dialog with the murderers. Sorry, with the "moderates" of one the most oppressive and reactionary regimes in existence.

A travesty, one might say. No, it is worse.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com