Oriana Fallaci interview with Mohammad Reza Shah on Religion

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Masoud Kazemzadeh
by Masoud Kazemzadeh
29-Jul-2010
 

Oriana Fallaci interview with Mohammad Reza Shah

//www.amazon.com/Interview-History-Oriana-Fallaci/dp/0395252237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280442661&sr=1-1

pp. 267-269.

O.F.: My goodness, it must be a great nuisance! I mean, it must be pretty lonely being a king instead of a man.

M.R.P.: I don’t deny I’m lonely. Deeply so. A king, when he doesn’t have to account to anyone for what he says and does, is inevitably very much alone. But I’m not entirely alone because I’m accompanied by a force that others can’t see. My mystical force. And the I get messages. Religious messages. I’m very, very religious. I believe in God, and I’ve always said that if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Oh, I feel so sorry for those poor souls who don’t have God. You can’t live without God. I’ve lived with God ever since the age of five. That is, since God gave me those visions.

OF: Visions, Majesty?

MRP: Yes, visions. Apparitions.

OF: Of what? Of whom?

MRP: Of prophets. Oh, I’m surprised you don’t know about it. Everyone knows I’ve had visions. I even wrote it in my autobiography. As a child I had two visions. One when I was five and one when I was six. The first time, I saw our Prophet Ali, he who, according to our religion, disappeared to return on the day when he would save the world. I had an accident – I fell against a rock. And he saved me – he placed himself between me and the rock. I know because I saw him. And not in a dream – in reality. Material reality, if you see what I mean. I was the only one who saw him. The person who was with me didn’t see him at all. But no one else was supposed to see him except me because ... Oh, I’m afraid you don’t understand me.

OF: Indeed I don’t, Majesty. I don’t understand you at all. We had got off to such a good start, and instead now ... This business of visions, of apparitions.. It’s not clear to me, that’s all.

MRP: Because you don’t believe. You don’t believe in God, you don’t believe me. Many people don’t. Even my father didn’t believe it. He never believed it, he always laughed about it. Anyway many people, albeit respectfully, ask if I didn’t ever suspect it was a fantasy. My answer is no. No, because I believe in God, in the fact of having been chosen by God to accomplish a mission. My visions were miracles that saved the country. My reign has saved the country and it’s saved it because God was besides me. I mean, it’s not fair for me to take all the credit for myself for the great things that I’ve done for Iran. Mind you, I could. But I don’t want to, because I know that there was someone else behind me. It was God. Do you see what I mean?

OF: No, Majesty. Because.. well, did you have these visions only as a child, or have you also had them later as an adult?  

MRP: I told you, only as a child. Never as an adult – only dreams. At intervals of one or two years. Or every seven or eight years. For instance, I once had two dreams in the span of fifteen years.

OF: What dreams, Majesty?

MRP: Religious dreams. Based on my mysticism. Dreams in which I saw what would happen in tow or three months, and that happened just that way in two or three months. But what these dreams were about, I can’t tell you. They didn’t have to do with me personally; they had to do with domestic problems of the country and so should be considered as state secrets. But perhaps you’d understand better if instead of the word dreams I used the word presentiments. I believe in presentiments too. Some believe in reincarnation, I believe in presentiments. I have continuous presentiments, as strong as my instinct. Even the day they shot at me from a distant of six feet, it was my instinct that saved me. Because, instinctively, while the assassin was emptying his revolver at me, I did what in boxing is called shadow dancing. And a fraction of a second before he aimed at my heart, I moved aside in such a way that the bullet went into my shoulder. A miracle. I also believe in miracles. When you think I’ve been wounded by a good five bullets, one in the face, one in the shoulder, one in the head, two in the body, and that the last one stuck in the barrel because the trigger jammed... You have to believe in miracles. I’ve had so many air disasters, and yet I’ve always come out unscathed – thanks to a miracle while by God and the prophets. I see you’re incredulous.

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more from Masoud Kazemzadeh
 
Latina

....

by Latina on

Gracias

Estoy mas o menos

Espero que se encuentre bien

 


Masoud Kazemzadeh

Dear Ahura, P_J, and Fooladi

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Dear Ahura,

You are most welcomed. Thank you for your kind comments. Please call me "Masoud."

Best wishes,

Masoud

 

=======================================

 

Dear P_J,

Thank you for your kind words.

Best,

Masoud

 

 

========================================

 

Fooladi jaan

I agree with everything you wrote.

 

You ask an excellent question on why monarchists instead of accepting scholarly facts and analyses, viciously attack and slander the person who presents such facts and analysis counter to their dogma.

Americans have a saying you can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make the horse drink the water. Some in cults and dictatorial groups are brainwashed, so when they are presented with scholarly fact and analyses, they have a hard time dealing with these scholarly materials. One immediate reaction is to lash out at the person who is presenting these which challenges their false beliefs. However, these materials remain in the back of their minds and when they accumulate over the years, they reach a turning point that causes the collapse of their dogmas and brainwashing for those among them with a little intellect. For many, no matter how much facts and analyses they see, they cling to the dogma they were brainwashed with. Even today, there are some people who think that the earth is flat.  No amount of scholarly evidence is going to make them abandon their dogma.

There are also those who have an INTEREST is perpetuating false dogma. They know perfectly well that they are propagating something totally false, but it is in their material interest to attack those who present scholarly FACTS and ANALYSES. Members of this category want to perpetuate the myths and lies that have brainwashed the members of their group.

 

The reactions by the monarchists calling the materials presented by the top scholars as lies is clear examples of the such reactions.

 

Best wishes,

Masoud

 

P.S. Thank you for all your contributions to this forum and your fight against the fundamentalist terrorist regime supporters.


Anonymous8

interesting interviuew

by Anonymous8 on

he has many things in common with President Ahmadinejad. heehee


fooladi

Dear Masoud, Thank you again for the links

by fooladi on

I am an engineer and not a historian, or god forbid a politician. So have a tendency to dismiss claims not backed by data. I really enjoy reading your blogs, beacuse you seem to back your Statements with data and references.

I had a very dear family member, a true patriot sadly now dead, who happened  to be a revolutionary communist, who was imporisoned and tortured by both pahlavi and islamist regimes. So I am not a fan of either. I however happen to think that the key enemy  right now is the islamist khalifa khamenei and his regime, and all opposition forces should be united and focused aginst this terrible menace of islamist fascism before our country is completely disintegrated. 

Having said that, I also believe that having an honest discussion about why  our country is in the clutches of islamist fascists today, should not be such a painful process. Are we not allowed to openly discuss and learn about our modern history and  the mistakes of our past regardless of our ideological differences without being called names? Why some of us resort to name calling instead of presenting a counter argument? Why people are being called "liers" because their presentation of facts offends another person's dogma? 


Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime

Dr. MK, I am not impressed with your quick

by Everybody Loves Somebody ... on

cutting and pasting of the Internet phrases from here and there to prove your argument, reasoning, and most importantly the unsubstantiated information you clutter here with.

You are NOT Dr. Millani Sir! That gentleman is a true scholar whose research, findings, and articles have been published in the prestigious refereed journals.

Your attempts in Imamizing the ilk of the Jebehe Melli will not convince a single Iranian of anything than that they lacked integrity, competency, and patriotism.

Thank You


P_J

GREAT ARTICLE Mr. Kazemzadeh!

by P_J on

"Shaholahis" in general are EITHER uneducated about Iran’s history or try to fool themselves!    One of their attempts is to blame Mossadegh for the MULLAHS NOW!!   Forgetting that it was the Pahlavi regime that sustained these MONSTERS and it was Jimmy Carter that ordered the CIA not to act as Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s BAG MAN to the MULLAHS!    

It is either sheer ignorance or a FEEBLE attempt to rewrite history!   History is and has always judged GREAT PATRIOTIC FIGURES Like Mossadegh!  When you see his portraits in literally every demonstration, knowing full well that by doing that they are putting their lives in jeopardy!   And, by contrast Mohammad Reza Pahlavi has joined the TOILET of history!    

To my shaholahi Friends;   Folks, Iran’s revolution was real…it may have gone sour momentarily, but as our history indicates, Iranians have always overcame, never ran away from their problems, as they are doing today with their BRAVE resistance.   They did it against shah’s ATROCITIES and TREASON and are continuing it against the MULLAHS


oktaby

OF

by oktaby on

To me, symbolizes (along with a few others) and represents everything that was done to dismantle an ascending Iran. Not that she had that kind of power or any direct influence. Indeed if you read her book that was famous in Iran then (To the child never born), it was a piece of 70's confused junk that was hyped by mass media. She is the kind of garbage that also created this we are mesmerized by the west image that was leveraged by islamists and mortaje'

OKtaby


Darius Kadivar

FYI/(Sanjabi's Own Words) راه مصدق را خميني دجال ادامه داد

Darius Kadivar


Adab az Keh Amoukhty ? Az Bee Adaban :


MRX1

Jebheh ablaha

by MRX1 on

well  Mr MK or should we say mr goebeles, Amnsety international could barely come up with a number less than 250 for all the years that shah was in power but some how you discovered there was an additonal 300! That's ok though while you add it, add several thousend more who really cares...

In any case Jebheh meli with an excpetion of Dr. Bakhtiar who was a class act and above the rest (In fact he got kicked out of JM), were a collection of incompetent, self absored, clueless politican who sold and betray Iran to khomeini and his thugs. Those of us who are old enough remember this so we don't need any hisory lesson.

I also find this new phenomena very interesting: some how the shah of a backward, khorafati, superstitous muslim country with millions of illiterate had to be some thing else or act some thing different.ss if he was from planet crypton!   Get over it folks, Jesus (oops he is christian!) was/is not going to rule Iran, what you see is what you get!


Ahura

A Delusionary Man Too!

by Ahura on

Thank you Dr. Kazemzadeh for the links and your insightful narratives. With the assault of shahollahis on historical facts and their campaign to rewrite history it is a breath of fresh air to get the vantage point of great Oriana Fallaci on Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.  Those who see the man as a weak incompetent dictator could append it with delusionary adjective as well, but of course to few he remains the king of kings and the light of Aryans, notwithstanding the facts.

Oriana was indeed an iconoclast who called it like it was.  In defiance she took off her mandated veil (chador) in an interview with great Satan Khomeini and had him flee the room.  Here is an excerpt  from that interrupted interview:

“OF- I still have to ask you a lot of things. About the "chador," for example, which I was obliged to wear to come and interview you, and which you impose on Iranian women. [...] I am not only referring to the dress but to what it represents, I mean the apartheid Iranian women have been forced into after the revolution. They cannot study at the university with men, they cannot work with men, they cannot swim in the sea or in a swimming-pool with men. They have to do everything separately, wearing their "chador." By the way, how can you swim wearing a "chador"?
AK- None of this concerns you, our customs do not concern you. If you don't like the islamic dress you are not obliged to wear it, since it is for young women and respectable ladies.
OF- This is very kind of you, Imam, since you tell me that, I'm going to immediately rid myself of this stupid medieval rag. There …”

She also responded to an Israeli general who told her they (Israelis and Phalangists) were saving the residents of Sabra and Shatila from terrorists, that, general; I see you are bombing them not saving them!

Here is a link on her //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriana_Fallaci


Farah Rusta

"If you repeat a lie often enough ...

by Farah Rusta on

 

.. people will believe it" 

 

Joseph Goebbels

 

ps - At least I got you working!


Masoud Kazemzadeh

CIA's own Secret History of the Coup Against Dr. Mossadegh

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

CIA's own secret history of the 1953 coup:

 

//www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html

 

 


Masoud Kazemzadeh

More than 300 persons were killed on 28 Mordad; New York Times

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

//www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/082053iran-army.html

 

"More than 300 persons were killed and 100 wounded during the fighting, which raged at key Government buildings. Two hundred were estimated to have died in the fierce last-stand battle at Dr. Mossadegh's heavily fortified home."


Masoud Kazemzadeh

About 300 people were killed on 28 Mordad; from Gasiorowski

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Mark J. Gasiorowski, "The 1953 Coup d’Etat Against Mosaddeq," in Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne, Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004).

 

//www.amazon.com/Mohammad-Mosaddeq-Intellectual-Political-History/dp/0815630182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280491268&sr=1-1

 

 

 

P. 256

 

 

 

"The anti-Mosaddeq forces then destroyed the walls surrounding Mosaddeq’s home and attacked the house itself. The defenders were eventually overwhelmed, in a fierce battle that reportedly took two hundred lives. One hundred other people were killed in fighting elsewhere in Tehran that day."

 

 


Masoud Kazemzadeh

About 300 people killed on 28 Mordad; from Kinzer

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Stephen Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the roots of Middle East Terror

 

//www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/047018549X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280490230&sr=1-1

 

 

 

p. 187

 

"About three hundred people died in Wednesday’s fighting, half of them in the final battle at Mossadegh’s house. Some of the civilian victims were found with 500-rial notes still in their pockets, Roosevelt’s men had distributed the notes that morning to dozens of their subagents."

 

 

 


Farah Rusta

Backing down with more lies Mr Kazemzadeh?

by Farah Rusta on

So now you have changed your stats and decided that there were no 300 officers who were killed  but 31!

Now where do the 300 killed on 28 Mordad come from? Can't you come up with one original piece of data and stop hiding behind Abrahamian?

If so many were killed on 28 Mordad, then why did Mosadegh ask the authorities to be buried alongside his fallen supporters of 30 Tir 1331?

FR


Masoud Kazemzadeh

Correction

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

The following passage is in error:  "After the CIA-MI6 coup against Mossadegh, the shah’s regime tortured and killed about 300 military officers saying they were members of the Tudeh. Most of them were actually members and supporters of JM."

 

 

About 300 were killed on the day of the coup (28 Mordad, August 19, 1953).

The numbers provided by Abrahamian on the torture to death and executions of alleged Tudeh members is 11. The same source mentions the number of executed to be 31.

 

MK

 


Masoud Kazemzadeh

On CIA and MI6 Propaganda On Tudeh's Significance

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

the following are excerpts from Ervand Abrahamian, "The 1953 Coup in Iran," Science & Society, vol. 65, no. 2, (Summer 2001), pp. 182-251. 

 

 

The CIA had at least four important local agents: Colonel Abbas

Farzanegan; Ehsam Lankarani, and the so-called “Boscoe Brothers.”

Colonel Farzanegan, a desk officer, had just returned from Washington

where he had received a crash course on covert operations. Commissioned

to the General Staff, Farzanegan knew most field officers

in Teheran. Lankarani was a Tudeh activist with a drug problem.

Although not in the party leadership, he came from a prominent

religious family and enjoyed the reputation of being a daredevil revolutionary.

In other words, he was the perfect agent provocateur.

....... 

 

 

The destabilizing campaign was not restricted to propaganda

activities. Weapons were dropped quietly to the tribes. Less quietly,

an armed gang — formed of retired officers linked to Zahedi and Baqai — kidnapped General Mohammad Afshartous, Mossadeq’s

chief of police (Sarreshteh, 1994, 37–85). A few days later, his badly

 

tortured body was dumped outside Teheran. This was a major blow

to the government. It proved that even the police chief was vulnerable,

even in downtown Teheran. It sent a clear warning to other

officers. It created an aura of acute instability. And it prompted rumors

that others were on a hit list. When Mossadeq canceled public appearances

and instead carried out government business from his

residence, the Western media claimed he was being paranoid and

melodramatic. A note at the Foreign Office stated ambiguously: “You

might well consider it desirable to put about the story that the communists

are plotting against Musaddiq’s life, and are trying to plantthe responsibility onto the British” (FO 371/Persia 1952/9859). Along

similar lines, Lankarani bombed the home of a prominent cleric, and

sent leaflets to others in the name of the Tudeh heralding the imminent

dawn of a bright new “atheistic” republic. This frightened some,

including future leaders of the Islamic Republic (Kianuri, 1992, 252).

Wilber also writes that suitable articles were planted in Western

papers and then replanted in Iranian newspapers. Publications such

as Newsweek raised the hue and cry that the country was on the edge

of falling into the communist abyss (August 10, 1953). They claimed

that the Tudeh had infiltrated the National Front; that leading members

of the government — namely, Fatemi, Abdol-Ali Lofti, the JusticeMinister, and Mehdi Azar, the Education Minister — were secret

fellow-travelers; that Mossadeq was about to make a deal with the Soviets;

and that if he did not do so the Tudeh was poised to launch an

armed insurrection.

Throughout the crisis, the “communist danger” was more of arhetorical device than a real issue — i.e., it was part of the cold-war

discourse. The British and American governments knew Mossadeq

was as distrustful of the Soviet Union as of the West. In fact, they often

complained to each other about his “neutralism.” They knew perfectlywell that the so-called “fellow-travelers” were staunch nationalists

(after the coup some of them obtained refuge in the United States).

They also knew that the Tudeh, even though the largest political

organization, was in no position to seize power (F0 371/Persia 1952/98597; FO 371/Persia 1953/104573; Declassified Documents/1981/CIA/

Doc 276). Despite 20,000 members and 110,000 sympathizers, the

Tudeh was no match for the armed tribes and the 129,000-man military.

What is more, the British and Americans had enough inside information

to be confident that the party had no plans to initiate armed

insurrection. At the beginning of the crisis when the Truman administration

was under the impression a compromise was possible, Acheson

had stressed the communist danger and warned if Mossadeq was not

helped the Tudeh would take over (FO 371/Persia 1051/1530). TheForeign Office had retorted that the Tudeh was no real threat (FO 371/

Persia 1952/98608). But, in August 1953, when the Foreign Office

echoed the Eisenhower administration’s claim that the Tudeh was

about to take over, Acheson now retorted that there was no such communist

danger (Roosevelt, 1979, 88). Acheson was honest enough to

admit that the issue of the Tudeh was a smokescreen.

 

.....

 

 

 

The coup also inaugurated an era of political repression. Immediately

after the coup, the military arrested Mossadeq, his closest

ministers, and some 1200 Tudeh activists. The figure climbed to over

4000 by August 1954 when army intelligence, helped by the CIA, uncovered

an organization of 520 members of the Tudeh within the armed

forces (Zibayi, 1955–57; Military Governor, 1956). This impressivelooking

figure led some to wonder why the Tudeh had not forestalled

the coup. In fact, the total was small relative to the military’s overall

figure of over 15,000 commissioned and 51,000 non-commissioned

officers (FO 371 /Persia 1950/82356). What is more, the vast majorityof the 520 were cadets, doctors, engineers, instructors, and offi

cers in the police, gendarmerie, and infantry, mostly in the provinces.

Only 26 were in the cavalry, and only two had tank commands in Teheran

(one helped defend Mossadeq’s residence and the other foughtoutside the radio station) (Mohammedi, 1993–95, 1999).

The new regime, on the whole, dealt leniently with the National

Front but harshly with the Tudeh. Mossadeq as well as most of his

ministers and trusted military officers were given three-year sentences.

Mossadeq’s much publicized trial proved a major embarrassment;

instead of the military court putting him on trial, he managed to put

the court on trial. Of his ministers, only Fatemi was executed; after

the failed coup attempt, he had called for the establishment of a republic,

and after August 19, he had taken shelter in the Tudeh underground

and had pushed for a Tudeh–National Front alliance.

Harsh treatment was meted out to the Tudeh. Between 1953 and

1958, the regime tortured to death 11 of its members; executed 31;

condemned to death another 52 (their sentences were commuted

to life imprisonment); condemned another 92 to life with hard labor;

and gave hundreds terms varying from one to 15 years. According

to British and American embassy reports, the first executions were

given much “gory publicity,” but the later ones were kept secret because

of “public revulsion,” because of the “bravado” and “uncompromisingdefiance

” of those facing death, because of the reluctance

of firing squads to shoot straight, and, most important of all, because

of “widespread suspicion” that the United States had pressured the

shah into such “un-Persian” behavior (FO 371/Persia 1954/104805;

Declassified Documents/1975/CIA/Doc 309A).


Farah Rusta

دروغهای استاد کاظم زاده

Farah Rusta


فقط به یک نمونه بسنده می‌کنم:

"After the CIA-MI6 coup against Mossadegh, the shah’s regime tortured
and killed about 300 military officers
saying they were members of the
Tudeh. Most of them were actually members and supporters of JM. For
example, the song Mara Beboos, was not made by Tudeh party member for a
Tudeh Party member to be executed. It was made by democrats for the
democrat to be executed." 

 

مواضع و عملکرد سازمان نظامي در مسائل مهم داخلي و خارجي، از جمله مسئله
مهم ملي شدن صنعت نفت و دولت دکتر مصدق، همان مواضع و عملکرد حزب توده
بود. براي نمونه موضع مشکوک سازمان در روزهاي سرنوشت ساز 25 تا 28 مرداد و
عدم به کارگيري امکانات خود براي مقابله با کودتا، بازتابي از مواضع حزب
توده بود.
سرانجام در روز 21 مرداد 1333، سروان ابوالحسن عباسي، يکي
از مهمترين اعضاي هيئت اجرايي سازمان، در خيابان جمال الحق با بقچه و
چمداني پر از اسناد و مدارک دستگير شد و پس از او ظرف مدت کوتاهي ديگر
اعضاي سازمان هم شناسايي و دستگير شدند.
از حدود 480 تن اعضاي
سازمان، 27 نفر به اعدام،
53 نفر به حبس ابد، 91 نفر به حبس ابد با کار،
119 نفر به پانزده سال حبس، 79 نفر به ده سال حبس، 7 نفر به هشت سال حبس،
5 نفر به هفت سال حبس، 38 نفر به پنج سال حبس، 36 نفر به سه سال حبس و سه
نفر هم به 18 ماه حبس تأديبي محکوم شده و عده اي هم موفق به فرار به خارج
از کشور شدند.

البته تعداد زيادي از اين محکومين سرانجام با اظهار
پشيماني و اعلام اطاعت از محمد‌رضا شاه، بخشوده شده و حتي جذب نظام
شاهنشاهي شده و خدمتگزار آن گشتند.

 

//noorportal.net/90/114/123/8049.aspx

 

FR


Masoud Kazemzadeh

On CIA, MI6, Monarchist propaganda

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Benross,

 

The Tudeh was too weak to take over the country. It was infiltrated by both the MI6 and the CIA. Part of the British strategy was to scare the Americans to stop supporting Mossadegh and start supporting the British gov and British oil company (then called NIOC and PB). So they falsely exaggerated the power of Tudeh party. Later on, part of TPAJAX operations was to exaggerate the power of the Tudeh in order to scare the public and the religious forces into supporting the Shah and opposing Mossadegh.

 

There were free elections in Tehran for the Majles, and the Tudeh Party did not win a single seat in 1952. Tudeh party was sort of disciplined but it electoral base was very small.

After the CIA-MI6 coup against Mossadegh, the shah’s regime tortured and killed about 300 military officers saying they were members of the Tudeh. Most of them were actually members and supporters of JM. For example, the song Mara Beboos, was not made by Tudeh party member for a Tudeh Party member to be executed. It was made by democrats for the democrat to be executed.

The Shah’s regime falsely accused liberals as being communists to justify their executions.

The British, the Americans, and the Shah knew that the Tudeh was too weak. They used the Tudeh boogyman propaganda to scare others. They couldn’t say, hey the Shah is our puppet (nokar) and Mossadegh is democrat and nationalist and he is popular. We want the Iranian oil and Mossadegh wants oil for Iranians’ benefit and Shah is our puppet and he will do as we tell him to do. So, the propaganda to justify their policies of overthrowing democracy and supporting dictatorship.

 

 

//www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57382/l-carl-brown/the-1953-coup-in-iran

 

//www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20050822.shtml

 

 

 

MK

 


Masoud Kazemzadeh

The Role of the Shah in Helping Rise of Khomeini

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

ELS,

Had the Shah respected the constitution as late as 1977 and stopped acting fascistic, released political prisoners and accept free and democratic elections, then the pro-democracy forces such as Jebhe Melli would have definitely won.

However, the shah did a loooooooooooot of bad things. He killed about 2,900 people between June 1977 and Feb 1979. He used the SAVAK to target JM and other middle of the road democrats.

Between June 1977, when JM was the most popular force in Iran and Khomeini a very minor forces, and September 1978 when Khomeini become the main force, the shah did a lot of bad stuff and Khomeini did a lot of things that benefitted him (e.g, lying about supporting freedom and democracy). As the shah keep killing unarmed people, our ability t lead the population declined and the ability of Khomeini rose. By Oct 1978, perhaps, still we could have done something.

But by Nov or Dec 1978, Khomeini clearly had the majority support. The question was what should democratic forces do. Some of our members like Dr. Sedighi and Dr. Bakhtiar viewed Khomeini as worse than the shah. Some of our members, such as Dr. Sanjabi, viewed the shah as utterly fascistic and charlatan. For the latter group they had seen how when the shah is weak, he would use other Prime Ministers, but as soon as the crisis was over, he would come it, dismiss the Prime Minister, and restore his earlier fascistic rule. Shah did this with Qavam, Gen. Zahedi, Ali Amini, etc.

 

The Shah NEVER agreed to abdicate. He actually NEVER abdicated. All he was agreeing to do was to go on a vacation until things cool down. Heck, even today, his son, has not abdicated.

In other words, the Shah wanted the JM to calm the people, then he would return and ash hamoon ash!!!!!!!!!!

Now, if Dr. Sanjabi did succeed in calming the population. In a few months, lets say in August 1979, the Shah would return, and dismiss Dr. Sanjabi and appoint Gen. Nassiri (head of SAVAK) as prime minister. If the pro-democracy forces resisted, then the Shah would order arrest, torture, and executions of our members (as he did in 1953) and massacre the people.

 

In January 1979, we were certain that the shah is brutal tyrant and fascist. We were not sure about Khomeini.

Today, we know that BOTH monarchists and Islamic fundamentalist fascists are the problem.

We need democrats to have democracy. The problem in Iran is that there are still dictatorial groups (e.g., monarchists and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists) that want to have their rule.

In March 1979, JM members and Nehzat Azadi members were not in control. Khomeini had much of power. The provisional government had some power. In the power struggle that ensued, Khomeini and his supporters gradually increased their powers and the pro-democracy forces gradually lost power.

 

Part of it was the fault and incompetence of the pro-democracy forces. Part of it was the revolutionary atmosphere where more radical demands were embraced. Part of it was the fault of the leftists forces that regarded liberals as their main enemy and considered khomeini as an ally in their anti-imperialist struggle. And part of it was the utter stupid policies of the Carter administration that did a number of really stupid things. The most stupid was allowing the Shah to enter the U.S., which opened the door for the fundamentalist students to take Americans hostage, which undermined the liberals and helped the fundamentalists.

I hope this is helpful.

MK

 


benross

During the Cold War, the

by benross on


During the Cold War, the U.S. funded and made alliances with reactionary Islamic forces to counter leftists, and pro-democracy forces.

Short of which, the country would have become 'Iranestan'. Unless of-course, Mossadegists facing communists, showed the same competence they showed toward Khomeini!


Masoud Kazemzadeh

Using Islam Against Secular Forces

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Fooladi jaan,

You are most welcomed.

The Shah used Islam against the secular liberals (Jebhe Melli) and the left. The injected a lot of resources into the conservative Islamic forces. This helped Khomeini and other reactionary Islamic forces to become powerful.

In Pakistan, Gen. Zia used it against Prime Minister Ali Bhutto. Now they have to deal with the Pakistani Taliban.

In Afghanistan, the CIA, Pakistan SIS, Saudi Arabia (and others including Khomeini) gave a lot of support to the Islamic forces against Afghan communists and their Soviet supporters. They got al Qaeda and Taliban.

In Turkey, to fight against the left, the Turkish government gave a lot of support to Islamic forces, and they got KDP (that now supports HAMAS and is getting close to the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist regime ruling Iran).

 

Yes the British made alliances with religious leaders (as well as other leaders, tribal, political, etc).

During the Cold War, the U.S. funded and made alliances with reactionary Islamic forces to counter leftists, and pro-democracy forces.

On the use of Fadaian Islam, and Ayatollah Kashani in the 1953 coup against Iranian democratic forces see:

//iranian.com/History/2005/January/Kinzer/index.html

 

 

Best,

Masoud

 


Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime

MR MK but your guys won, did they not?

by Everybody Loves Somebody ... on

In March of 1979 Mr. Bazargan, Dr. Yazdi, Mr. Sanjabi, Mr. Sahabi. Mr. Frohar, et al were in charge right? Why couldn't they handle Khomeini et al? Because these guys were INCOMPETENT! Please repeat after me INCOMPETENT!


Masoud Kazemzadeh

responses

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Nadia jaan,

ola, coma usted?

:-)

Masoud

 

===============================

 

Ebi jaan gerami,

glad you liked it my friend.

Best,

Masoud

 

===================================== 

 

ELS,

 

I will quote from the book by Professor Ervand Abrahamian.

Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 508.

 

//www.amazon.com/Iran-Between-Revolutions-Princeton-Studies/dp/0691101345/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280455148&sr=1-4

 

 

 

 

 

 

To deal with the crisis, the regime adopted a complicated three-pronged strategy. First, it tried to physically intimidate the leaders of the secular opposition. Creating an Underground Committee of Revenge, SAVAK sent threatening letters to the lawyers and writers prominent in the human rights movement; circulated leaflets accusing these lawyers and writers of being stooges of American imperialism; kidnaped and badly beat up Homa Nateq and another member of the Writers’ Association; and bombed the offices of Sanjabi, Bazargan, Matin-Daftari, Nazeh, Forouhar, Lahiji, Moqadam Maraghehi, and Hajji Moinian, a bazaar merchant closely identified with the National Front. Similarly, the Resurgence party set up a vigilant force called the Resistance Corps, staffed it with policemen in civilian clothes, and attacked meetings organized by student groups, the Writers’ Association, and the National Front. In one such attack, the resistance Corps, pretending to be irate workers, seriously injured thirty people who were celebrating ‘Ayd-I Qurban (Day of Sacrifice) in the private gardens of a National Front leader. Moreover, the Shah, when asked by the press if he would negotiate with the secular opposition, rejected any such possibility on the grounds that the National Front was "even more traitorous than the Tudeh party."27

 

 

27. Cited in Iran Times, 21 July 1978.

 


fooladi

Good Blog Masoud, thank you.

by fooladi on

Use of islam and islamists to control and suppress seculaism, socialism and nationalism in middle east, started with the establishment of Wahabist Saudi Arabia by British colonial office and ended with creation of Al Qaeda and islamist khalifat of Iran by CIA/MI6. Any ruler in middle east who deviated from this grand policy of islamisation was either killed or had a coup plotted against him. Shah himself was just not Islamist enough for the imperialists who replaced him with khomeini, and destroying a genuinly popular revolution in the mean time. 


Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime

Mr. MK, Shah left Iran 31 years ago and died a year later.

by Everybody Loves Somebody ... on

Your ilk starting with Mr. Bazargan, Dr. Yazdi, Mr. Sanjabi, Mr. Sahabi. Mr. Frohar, et al followed Khomeini sheepishly and collectively took the stinkiest dump over Iran whose smell will not be removed if we applied the entire chemical resolvents available at all the Home Depots in the world! And for one reason and one reason only, your ilk were incompetent and ineffective.

 

What are these hazyoons about shah sending SAVAK agents after your guys! Did the shah give orders his SAVAK agents in between his meetings with his cabinet members or was it General Nassri or General Moghadam who sent them after your guys?

May I ask if you received your Ph.D. from a accredited school sir? You don't make any sense!


ebi amirhosseini

Masoud Jaan

by ebi amirhosseini on

Sepaas for sharing,long time no see!.

Ebi aka Haaji


Latina

.....

by Latina on

....


Masoud Kazemzadeh

The Shah mixing Islam and Politics and Attacking Secular Forces

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Benross,

You are sooooooo fanatic, that no amount of direct words of the shah, his own photos, and even the testimony of his minister of information and other evidence changes your fanatic views.

It is fact that the shah was either seriously delusional (and therefore in need of professional psychological help and medication) or a charlatan-moron.

The shah repressed the secular left and the secular liberals. The shah’s brutal fascistic SAVAK successfully arrested, tortured, and repressed us liberals. The shah’s brutal fascistic policies of executions and assassinations of the secular left successfully repressed them. In order to fight against the left and the secular liberals, the shah used the clerics. He gave the clerics lot of money. He built mosques all over. He used sooooooo much propaganda in the tv on promoting religion.

the shah used Islam to attack the secular liberals. One of the main charges for Dr. Mossadegh after the CIA-MI6 coup was the charge of apostasy for Dr. Mossadegh.

The shah in 1978, attacked a gathering of JM leaders and used SAVAK agents in plain clothes (lebas shakhsi) and pretended to be irrate workers. The SAVAK in plainclothes broke the bones of large number of JM members. The papers the next day said that the workers were upset that these anti-Islamic people were drinking aragh (vodka), which made the devout Muslim workers upset.

Mohammad Reza Shah was a fascist tyrannical thug, who used Islam to attack the pro-democracy Jebhe Melli and others. It was the Shah that BROUGHT and LEGITIMIZED religion in politics.

 

MK