IRCG threatened a coup IF Rafsanjani had won the previous election

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FG
by FG
04-Sep-2009
 

According to Tehran Bureau it has been reported that right after the last election Khamenei told
Rafsanjani that if Rafsanjani had won, the IRCG would have staged a coup rather
than allow him to take office.  

True or not?  Considering the likely source (could it be R) and dangerous environment, one can understand why the story can't be easily confirmed.  However I find it plausible considering what we've all seen
of the Guard's recent behavior--including open warnings to the people prior to and after the recent election day coup.  The Basilj is now a sub-branch of the Guard and both groups are known to have run the seven prisons where most torture, rapes and murders of political prisoners occurred since June 12th. The IRCG will obviously stop at nothing to achieve it's goals.   

At the time of the last election Rafsanjani
was hardly regarded by anyone--including the Praetorian Guard (hope that nickname sticks) as a reformer.  That suggests the
IRCG's strong opposition had other motives--very worldly ones--that would apply double in the case of Goody Too Shoes reformers.  Like Rome's Praetorian Guard, Iran's generals have built a growing empire of power and privilege and will eliminate anyone who threatens it right up to the Supreme Leader hismelf who would suffer Nero's fate if he were to get in the Guard's way.

That won't be necessary in Khamenei's case.  Aside from being a hard-core reactionary, the Supreme Despot will be gone soon (prostate cancer or lung cancer?)  Afterwards the Guard can replace him with a suitable candidate who knows whats good for him.  Recall how Rome's Praetorian Guard, after killing Nero and wiping out his entire family, preserved a stuttering Claudius who they discovered hiding in a closet and made him an emperor. 

The IRCG loves Ahmadinejad who gives them
everything they want.  Under him the Islamic Republican has become an IRCG empire in disguise.   Note the composition of Iran's latest cabinet and purges of key ministries like
foreign affairs, intelligence and defense.  Don't worry: Guard generals will retain all the useful trappings of fundamentalist Islam as a supporting device, much as Rome insisted on worship of the emperor.  

Tehran Bureau's fine report describes other Guard outrages, particularly during the
reform presidency of Mohammed Khatami.  Among them were threats against newspapers who exposed murder and corruption
and (this one should be easy to prove).  When such newspapers were shut down with a fatwa from Khamenei himself, students broke out in large demonstrations.  At that point, 24 hard-line IRCG generals sent a letter to Khatami warning that if he did not put an end to
the pursuit of his reformist policies, they would be forced to take
strong action.  I assume Khatami saved that letter. Perhaps its time to post it on every internet site available to throw further light on the Guard's present behavior.

For a very thorough report on the IRCG's longtime war on refomists see the following Tehran Bureau report:

//tehranbureau.com/irgc-khatami-wanted-bring-...

 

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yolanda

Thanks!

by yolanda on

Your article reminds me of North Korea's "Military First" policy. I hope Iran will never become North Korea. N. Korea is so poor that, there is no data available or it is unranked. People have no facial expressions, it is sad to look at them.

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

thanks,

yolanda


FG

Praetorian Guards have always been trouble

by FG on

Anyone familiar with history--and that excludes products of a narrow clerical education such as Khamenei--would have known the danger of groups such as the IRCG.   It tends to be the rule rather than the exception.  When the Islamic Republic created the Guard, it created a plague for rulers and ruled alike.

ROME: In the empire's first 60 years, two trusted advisers and henchmen of the emperors--Sejanus and Macro--plotted to seize the throne.   Eventually the Praetorian Guard became such a problem it had to be exterminated.  Though the Republic had lone disappeared, emperors kept up the pretense and preserved institutions suh as the Roman Senate.   It had been powerful under the Republic but was toothless now.  In the second century AD Rome would be ruled by a series of military emprerors.  The most famous was Septimus Severus who gave the following deathbed advice to his successor on how to survive: "Just take care of the army and forget abut the rest. 

THE SULTAN'S ELITE JANISSARIES: Same problem.  They became ultraconservative, corrupt and heavily involved in schemes and conspiracies.   Leaders were invited to a dinner and murdered en masse--perhaps the only way to deal with haughty IRCG leaders at this point.

RUSSIA'S MKVD (later KGB): Upon Stalin's death, MKVD head Laurentia Beria, a know sadist famous for kidnapping teenage girls off the street and tying them to his bed for two or three days, attempted to seize power but was thwarted by the army.

NAZI GERMANY: The SS had only one leader, a former chicken farmer named Heinrich Himmler, who remained personally loyal to Hitler and knew he'd never be accepted anyway as chief of state.   Not so Ernst Roehm, leader of Hitler's SA or "brownshirt" militia who got too big for his britches and had to be eliminated along with all top SA officers.  Himmler and the SS carried out that task on the "Night of the Long Knives."