ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style3 { height: 68px; } .MsoNormal {} h1 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style4 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="624" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style3"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2">&nbsp;</td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <p class="style4">Iran&#39;s Brutal Crackdown</p> <p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> (310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright Dec. 8, 2009<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style5">P</span>erhaps the tragic unintended consequence of President Barack Obama s Dec, 1 decision to escalate the war in Afhghanistan is the U.S. standing idly by while the world watches the most brutal modern-day repression since Chinese rolled tanks over pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square June 5, 1989.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi protested his loss June 14 in a fraudulent election to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran s mullahs, led by Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has used Iran s Revolutionary Guards to beat, arrest, torture, incarcerate, convict and execute hundreds if not thousands of anti-government protesters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Spread too thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. does nothing to stop Iran s advanced Gestapo tactics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>More than Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq or North Korea, Iran is America s biggest threat to national security.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Arresting more that 200 protester Dec. 7, the mullah s not-so-secret police continue to harass pro-democracy students in mass arrests, threatening the most harsh punishments in which only death represents relief from the state s abuse of power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Kill me, said Mousavi, after disguised Revolutionary Guards harassed him at his Tehran office, daring masked Basiji militiamen to martyr him, before aids whisked him to a safe location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mousavi led pro-democracy protests following the June 12 fraudulent election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Over the summer, thousands of protesters met an unknown fate, likely executed, by Iran s militiamen and Revolutionary Guards, for opposing Iran s brutally repressive Shiite regime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>New waves of nationwide protests indicate that anti-government protests bubbled up beneath the surface of a fierce crackdown by Ahmadinejad s authoritarian regime</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Rejecting a recent U.N. proposal to reprocess Iran s enriched uranium in Russia, Ahmadinejad thumbed his nose at the International Atomic Energy Agency, refusing to abandon his nuclear enrichment program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Foreign nuclear experts believe Iran already has enough enriched uranium to build two A-bombs, with enriched uranium stockpiling occurring daily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Ahmadinejad reacted to expected U.N. Security Council sanctions by promising to build more enrichment facilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>But despite this pressing global threat, the U.S. finds itself too embroiled in Iraq and now Afghanistan to back up tough new U.N. sanctions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> Without the credible threat of military action, Ahmadinejad laughs his way to building more enrichment facilities, cracking down on anti-government protesters with ferocious impunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Unlike Saddam Hussein s Iraq, Iran represents a far more formidable threat to U.S. national security.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Dispersing crowds with tear gas, students scrambled to escape the brutal onslaught by Basiji militiamen, sparing no violent tactic to end student protests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Tehran s police chief Gen. Azizullah Rajabzadeh confirmed 2004 arrests, promising more harsh treatment should protests continue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> So far, we have shown restraint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>From today, no leniency will be applied, said Iran s top prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi in Iran s official IRNA news agency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Ejehi, a hard-line cleric, fiercely defends Iran s mullahs, whose power, since revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei toppled the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi Dec. 3, 1979, has grown more lethal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While Khomenei consolidated his power inside Iran, today s mullahs seek to dominate the Persian Gulf, indeed the entire Middle East.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama s decision to escalate Afghanistan, gives Iran s mullahs the nuclear green light.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>There s no limit to Iran s crackdown on anti-government protesters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> We will not tolerate anyone who commits actions against security, and we will confront them, said Ejehi, warning that no one, not even Mousavi, would escape his reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Iran s Fars news agency warned that Mahdi Hashemi, the son of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a reform supporter, was subject to arrest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Basiji militiamen, wearing masks, blocked Mousavi from leaving his office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> You re agents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Do whatever you ve been ordered to do, kill me, beat me, threaten me! said Mousavi, provoking the masked Basiji militiamen to take action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mousavi s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, was pepper-sprayed by Basiji militiamen at Tehran University.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mousavi, a nephew of Iran s Supreme Leader Al Khamenei and former editor of Khomeini s revolutionary newspaper, has been leading the opposition against Ahamadinejad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Iran s hard-line clerics, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his mouthpiece President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have allowed their perverted vision of Islam to justify a brutal repression on individual and human rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Persecuting, harassing, jailing, convicting and executing dissidents parallel some of the world s most heinous regimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While the Obama administration scours Afghanistan for remnants of al-Qaida and the Taliban, Iran s radical mullahs continue their feverish pursuit of nuclear weapons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>All indications point toward blatant defiance of the IAEA and U.N. Security Council, whose attempts to stop Iran from enriching uranium have been ignored by Iran s power elite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While the U.S. gears up in Afghanistan, the world watches a shameful crackdown, allowing the fraudulently elected government to enrich uranium, bulldoze legitimate protests and trash human dignity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><bAbout the Author</u><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <i><a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> </i>and <i><a href="books.html"> Operation Charisma</a></i>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">©1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"> Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>