A Rigged Election---Iran's Ex-Foreign Minister Yazdi: It's A Coup

Iran's Ex-Foreign Minister Yazdi: It's A Coup
posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 06/13/2009 @ 07:24am

It's Saturday afternoon in Tehran, and the streets are generally quiet. But the aftermath of Iran's rigged election, in which radical-right President Ahmadinejad and his paramilitary backers were kept in office, has left Iran's capital steeped in anger, despair, and bitterness.

Last night, after the polls closed, heavily armed troops from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were in evidence in the streets. In one area of north Tehran, where backers of opposition challenger and reformist ex-Prime Minister Mousavi are concentrated, I saw a convoy of at least fifteen military vehicles filled with armed guards idling along the side of the road. The street in front of the Interior Ministry, where votes are counted, is blocked and heavily guarded after rumors that Mousavi supporters might gather there to protest the election count.

Mousavi himself has pledged to fight the verdict, using words like "tyranny" and adding, "I will not surrender to this dangerous charade."

To get some perspective on the crisis, today I went to see Ibrahim Yazdi, a leading Iranian dissident and Iran's foreign minister in the early days of Islamic republic. Here is the text of the interview:

read interview:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/443348

also more info here:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/13/741967/-Early-Report:-Ahmadinejad-is-Trying-to-Steal-the-Irani-Election.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090613/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election;_ylt=AoOGj1h404z31_3Gx6EOCsKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJoZGJlbHVhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNjEzL21sX2lyYW5fZWxlY3Rpb24EY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2lyYW5kZWNsYXJlcw--

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/12/iran-election-results-ahm_n_214975.html

Or we would have been watching round the clock coverage of our new Iranian War.

Doh! That's right! Dead Eye Dick would have already been directing military strikes in the Iranian War months ago, from his bunker.

Somehow, I really don't think they will react the same way we did.
I am sure blood will be shed. We weren't willing to do that.

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There were many, many irregularities. They did not permit the candidates to supervise the election or the counting of the ballots at the polling places. The minister of the interior announced that he would oversee the final count in his office, at the ministry, with only two aides present.

In previous elections, they announced the results in each district, so people could follow up and make a judgment about the validity of the figures. In 2005, there were problems: in one district there were about 100,000 eligible voters, and they announced a total vote of 150,000. This time they didn't even release information about each particular district.

I don't think they'll be able to keep a lid on that for very long!
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pnorman