The Syrian war and related conflict are about the persistence of feudal and medieval “absolute power” in the 21st Century. To maintain that illusion, but one bloody and miserable enough — I can’t imagine how it could be more miserable for Syrians — Colonel President Emperor Putin, Ayatollah Khamenei, and the Tyrant Assad have had to produce on the ground a play and strategy fit to their own grandiose and inhuman delusions: “Assad vs The Terrorists”.
So far, they have brought about what they wanted — and needed — to create.
In the post-Soviet but neo-feudal Russian period, Putin now has an enhanced military position in Syria, and that presumably suits his desire for empire. Handily enough, Ayatollah Khamenei has gotten out of the deal a foil — a kind of chess opponent for him — in the creation of ISIS against which he may now set loose more Revolutionary Guard and Iraqi Shiite militia (the two are together in this): as long as the Great Shiite vs Sunni Battle burns between himself and Baghdadi, he’s in business and may continuing his plundering of Iran. Of The Tyrant Assad, what may one say? How glorious that it turns out himself standing off (in view of the west) the butchery of the al-Qaeda types, who themselves have also a dreadful program.
From an ethical and moral standpoint — from Pharaoh, another tyrant, to this day — everything is wrong about Syria, and the only people who can really fix conditions and themselves are . . . Syrians.
In the 20th Century: Stalin-Hitler (before Hitler betrayed Stalin). In this one: Putin-Khamenei (Assad depends on both). These men need to be seen for what they are, what they represent, and what they have hauled with them into our century, and Syrians would be wise, perhaps, to understand their own complicity in the development of their power. It’s good to leave them with their egomania, their cowardly hate, and their sadism.
Visual coverage of the Syrian Tragedy: lurid.
Painful.
The cause of it: a medieval “will to power” accompanied in the people by insularity and culturally transmitted contempt for others matched to fear and hatred of the Jews and of the west. When trouble came and the same raised a cry and reached out for help, it appears the world most hated stood aside while the curtain rose on “Assad vs The Terrorists” and darkness came to their seared land.
One hopes that for those who reached across borders and those who have reached back that those mental conditions — habits of mind, learned social grammar, misperception, and fear of the condemnation of one’s own perverse society — will change.
The Iranian regime’s interests begin and end here: http://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part1 The sowing of chaos and confusion through disinformation and manipulation conforms with the post-Soviet arrangement signaled by the promotion of feudalism endorsed by Putin, Assad, and Khamenei. The story’s about individual wealth and absolute power, and there’s not much more to it than that.
The modern Jewish credo and ethos may have been set by Hillel the Elder between 70-BCE and 10-CE, a period to be noted in the history of religion and in the formation of the “Abrahamic Faiths” especially. Hillel’s most famous statement and the three questions:
“That which is distasteful to thee, do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. All of the rest is commentary” (“Now go and study” — the whole was addressed to a convert).
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?”
Jewish humanism and universalism — for which I blame Hillel 🙂 — far exceed, and have always far exceeded personal and parochial interests. They are a part of what binds personalities as diverse as Karl Marx, Woody Allen, Albert Einstein, and Felix Adler (who?). Of course, Jews do not have the lock on the observation of the universe or the universal in living, but what drives the study, the humor, the insight, and the humanism comes very much of the rejection and abandonment of Pharaonic power, i.e., the power of the despot. The Jews and “the mixed multitude” continue pioneering through time in search of a more kind and principled humanity.
” . . . the power of the despot and the shared humanity of humanity” is what should have been said.
Anti-Semitic and bullying — sometimes mild and polite — “Jew baiting” has its upside in the inspiration of some cool thought now and then; however, who is not full-up on words, Words, WORDS!?
Millions of dollars stashed in shoe boxes, bribes delivered to their recipients in chocolate packages, a gigantic gold smuggling scheme conducted through an Iranian “businessman,” the arrest of ministers’ sons, the resignation and dismissal of ministers and shameful corruption conversations wiretapped legally and illegally are some of the episodes of the probes now engraved in public memory.
Take note of the other headlines on the Al Monitor page: “Erdogan Defense Brotherhood’s Qaradawi After Arrest Warrant”; “Energy Deals May Make Turkey Irreversibly Reliant on Moscow”; “Shadow Government Set up in Erdogan’s White Palace”.
Don’t say BackChannels didn’t warn you about this politically malignant backbone: Putin-Assad-Khamenei / Putin-(Yanukovych) / Putin-Orban / Putin-Erdogan.
Bent on glory, the Club of Bad Little Boys appears to have formed a confederacy of different interests bonded in state-based kleptomania.
The Pyramid Conundrum
Considering what had to have taken place to build the Great Pyramids of Egypt, plus what we my know and what they Jews have to say about it, the public may scratch its collective international head today over the building of the Great Palaces of the Politically Criminal, which I hope have been built already well enough for move-in, for I would not want to see the compounds or palatial estates of these wealthy left unfinished for the public to absorb when they’re gone.
Leaving completed works — that’s just being polite, as such “gentlemen” should be, well affording the same on the apparent misappropriation of national wealth.
Nonetheless, local, state, and global intelligentsia and empowered or struggling policy makers may indeed weigh the benefits of despotic rogue self-aggrandizement in creating magnificence from gain miserably obtained against the implied costs in freedom, human rights, and general rule of law.
“The Pyramid Conundrum”?
The pyramid does not get built without Pharaoh’s absolute power and related sociopathy.
A government may build some sturdy buildings — or a national Interstate highway system, which in the United States may be considered another wonder of the world — but they’re generally not monstrous residences.
Or mausoleums.
Related Reference
Pacepa, Ion Mihai and Rychlak, Ronald J. Disinformation. Washington, D.C.: WND Books, 2013.
Not to be too hypocritical and uppity here, a reminder of how it was in the west (with family and friends of a highly privileged sort) may be found here: http://www.anglotopia.net/anglophilia/top-11-stately-homes-in-england-best-english-manor-houses/ (11/9/2010).
These days in our country, news is not good: to be a communist, to be a Christian (especially a Moslem converted to Christianity), to be a Zoroastrian or a Jew, to be a liberal or a secular … they are all castaway.
Even Moslems don’t have much security. The only accepted Moslems are those who are not reformist, not followers of Interuniversalism, not a Gonabadi Sufi, not an independent journalist, not a Moslem wanting separation of religion and politics, not an independent lawyer, and not anyone critical of state policies…
Indeed, with these designations, is there any Iranian who is safe from being detained for sure?
Quite possibly, the rejection of the bannered anti-Semitism of the piratical bastards who have infantilized, intellectually poisoned, suffocated and subjugated millions of their own constituents by lying — by way of deception and pandering — and by applying mafia methods in service to their own breathtaking criminal aggrandizement.
The world’s unrelenting focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an injustice to tens of millions of victims of tyranny and terrorism in the Middle East. As we speak, Yazidis, Bahai, Kurds, Christians and Muslims are being executed and expelled by radical extremists at a rate of 1,000 people per month.
How many resolutions did you pass last week to address this crisis?
There are . . . “handlers”. The adversely aligned organizations are their tools. The power and wealth involved are immense — look up “Setad”; enjoy Karen Dawisha’s still new book — and the traceback from street violence to a number of palaces should start to become clear. Perhaps: confront not the UN but 21st Century Neo-Feudalism.
“Adversely aligned” to Israel, the west, rule of law, human rights, dignity, autonomy, freedom : aligned to barbarism, criminality, mafia, rule of might, and malignantly and viciously narcissistic aggrandizement.
I think N’s on the right track as regards the relationship between corruption at the top and the driving of ideological, nationalist, or religious violence in the field or on the street except where the violence is counter to political mafia and manipulation.
. . . Shole Pakravan, said Wednesday morning that her daughter has heard nothing about the execution and is being pressured to sign a document that denies there was any attempt at rape and that there was no third party present at the time of the alleged murder.
As if more proof were needed of Ayatollah Khamenei’s ______ (you fill it it in — the writer’s tired), the entire world has now the spectacle of this smiley old white haired fella torturing a young woman not only by denying her an inherent right to an authoritative, honest, fair, just, and open — and openly audited — trial before the Iranian public but by degrading and humiliating her all the way to the gallows — or freedom, God willing.
Reyhaneh Jabbari’s first lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, had apparently made it clear that Jabbari’s death sentence was signed by the courts even after the evidence had been destroyed or went “missing.” Possibly those who signed her death sentence in the Islamic Republic of Iran are not even sure of Jabbari’s guilt themselves, or could be just trying to blame her for the murder, regardless.
The government announced that the execution will be postponed but did not give any indication the sentence had been overturned. It also did not disclose if any future execution date had been set.
Jabbari, who has already served seven years in prison, claims Sarbandi drugged her and attempted to have physical contact with her.
Modafe website 31 Aug 2010 News Report- (Human right Lawyer Mr Mostafaei’s Official site)
Reyhaneh Jabbari is a girl from Iran. She is now 22 years old and has been in Tehran’s Evin prison where the last Wednesday of every month a number of prisoners are hanging. She has spent the best years of her life in the prison and she will. Maybe some other days of her life have left.
Proposed film title: “Iranimania II: Death Cult Hanging Orgy!”
Each of the above reports, published in 2009, 2011, and 2014, comments on the acceleration of the rate of hangings by the Iranian regime: more arrests, more “trials”, more hangings, never fewer, often if not predominantly similarly unjust — and when a hanging is “unjust” it is only a common act of murder.
Delara Darabi was put to death by hanging on May 1, 2009.
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Crocodiles smile too.
What can be said about such pleasant looking men whose mirrors wall them off from the blood and horror suffered directly at their own criminal will?
One may only imagine how modern Iranians feel knowing that the murder that will take place about 6 days from this one is not an aberration in the politics attending their lives but perfectly normal now, an atmosphere of fear maintained for Persians in a manner no different than that which would be meted to them by any other conquering agent in history. In fact, Ayatollah Khamenei and President Rouhani, Iran’s two leading political sadists and sociopaths, have obtained from Iranians in general what conquest obtains: compliance, passivity, plunder, silence, and subjugation.
What follows has been only loosely put together, but as so much of blogging may be, it’s a snapshot of the Jabbari case as emblematic of the regime’s despotic, misogynist, piratical, and sadistic mentality and the machinations and politics attending it.
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President Hassan Rouhani’s public criticism of Mr Cameron came as Amnesty International warned of the imminent execution in Tehran’s Evin Prison of a 26-year-old woman found guilty of murder.
If Reyhaneh Jabbari is hanged, she would be the 600th person to suffer the death penalty since Mr Rouhani took office in August last year – giving Iran the highest number of executions anywhere in the world, apart from China.
Therefore, Jabbari was sentenced to death for her action under the Islamic judiciary system of Iran. Why would a young professional woman be executed for defending herself against unwelcome actions from her superior, a sexual abuser?
The profound irony, and the peak of the Islamic Republic’s hypocrisy, became clear this week in a speech marking Women’s Day, when Iranian president Hassan Rouhani made international headlines by condemning any form of sexual discrimination and advocating for equal opportunities and rights for women.
Nazanin (Mahabad) Fatehi (Persian: نازنین فاتحی, born 1987) is an Iranian woman who was sentenced to death for stabbing a man who allegedly tried to rape her and her 15 year old niece, events occurring when she herself was a 17 year old. After more than 2 years in jail, Fatehi was cleared of intentional murder, ordered her to pay diyeh (blood money for the death), and released on bail (January 2007). As of 2012, Fatehi’s whereabouts were reported to be unknown to concerned supporters outside of Iran.
She was arrested after being raped by a 51 year old man. But according to Islamic Sharia Law, she was convicted for ‘crimes against chastity’, based on her admission, obtained through torture, that she repeatedly had sex with a 51-year-old ex-revolutionary guard turned taxi-driver Ali Darabi, a married man with children.[1] She was raped and tortured for 3 years,[2] a secret from both her family and the authorities. However, while in prison, she finally told her grandmother, saying that afterwards she could only walk on all fours because of the pain.[3] In the court the judge was Haji Rezai. As Atefah realised she was losing her case, she removed her hijab, an act seen as a severe contempt of the court, and argued that Ali Darabi should be punished, not she. She even removed her shoes and hit the judge with them.[4] The judge later sentenced her to death.
On August 15th, 2004 a 16-year-old girl was hanged in a public square in Neka, Iran. Her death sentence was for “acts incompatible with chastity”. Her name was Atefah Rafavi Sahaaleh. The only evidence against Atefah was her own forced confession.
Rouhani’s justice minister, Mustafa pour-Mohammadi, has been accused of executing thousands of Iranian political prisoners in 1988. [7] As a matter of formality, both US and EU officials have publicly criticized Iran’s human-rights records under Rouhani, but at the same time they have restarted trade in exchange for Iran dismantling its nuclear program.
Rouhani has filled his cabinet with wealthy ministers. According to Elias Naderan, a member of Iran’s parliament, several ministers in Rouhani’s cabinet have wealth of around 800 to 1000 billion tomans (US$265 to $330 million) – the toman is a superunit of the rial. [8] While most Iranians are suffering from poverty, Rouhani’s wife gave a lavish party on April 19 in the previous Shah’s Sadabad Palace, which raised strong criticism in the Iranian media. [9]
Setad has become one of the most powerful organizations in Iran, though many Iranians, and the wider world, know very little about it. In the past six years, it has morphed into a business juggernaut that now holds stakes in nearly every sector of Iranian industry, including finance, oil, telecommunications, the production of birth-control pills and even ostrich farming.
The organization’s total worth is difficult to pinpoint because of the secrecy of its accounts. But Setad’s holdings of real estate, corporate stakes and other assets total about $95 billion, Reuters has calculated.
He reportedly first expressed his opposition to the theocratic nature of the Islamic government of Iran under which Islamic jurists rule or provide “guardianship” in 1994. He has been quoted as saying Iranians “are loyal to the fundamentals of the true religion and the Prophet’s mission”, but are “tired of the religion of politics and political slogans.”[1]
Boroujerdi and many of his followers were arrested in Tehran on October 8, 2006, following a clash between police and hundreds of his followers. Iranian officials charged him with having claimed to be a representative of Muhammad al-Mahdi, a venerated figure in Shi’i Islam, a charge he denies.
I have been told there are others today in similar danger to Boroujerdi and Jabbari.
One may recall here that the (malignant) narcissist is never wrong — or so sensitive to criticism as to suppress as much of that as possible. In the medieval mode in which Ayatollah Khamenei exists, this sort of thing, a combination of rivalry accompanied by excoriating observations, may have been what compelled the Grand Ayatollah to push another ayatollah off stage:
Of course, you were correct when you said that international sanctions could not accomplish a damn thing! Not only because you and your cronies and support system in general, suffered no setback; your provinces of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain also weren’t bothered, because they blatantly looted and pillaged the God given wealth and natural resources of our defenseless nation and laughed their way to the bank, while stripping them of their economic independence and their will to think freely.
You have filled these thirty five years of contemporary history with your disgrace and deceit; and the names and memories of the sons of Iran have been written in blood which is the legacy of an antiquated dictatorship that operates in the dark ages.
Uttered in politics, even if not remembered, they may develop influence, which may prove more powerful than mere encrustation in ink as thoughts take on lives of their own, passing from mouth to ear to mind to heart, one from the other, again and again, across the world and possibly out into the universe to God’s own ears.
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