“The Green Movement’s
main goal has always been to revive the ideals and aspirations of Imam
Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution." – Mir Hossein Moussavi, 14 February
2011 (25 Bahman 1389)
“I remain faithful to
the ideals of Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution of 1357.” – Mehdi
Karroubi, 14 February 2011 (25 Bahman 1389)
Foreword
Considering the verbal support given on the anniversary of
their house arrest by Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and the
U.S. State Department to prominent members of the so-called “leaders” of the
so-called “opposition”—Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard—I
thought it might be helpful to look again at that exactly their “opposition
means”.
Among the founders of Iran’s “reform” movement are the Butcher
of Evin, the Hanging Judge of the Revolutionary Courts, the founder of the
hezbollahi, the two founders of VEVAK, the man who suggested the Iranian
Cultural Revolution, the first minister of culture and “Islamic guidance”, the
man responsible for the Mecca Massacre, and the prime minister who presided
over the Cultural Revolution, the Reign of Terror, the unnecessary extension of
the Iran-Iraq War, and the Prison Massacres of 1988.
The two quotes above are from the last public statements of
Moussavi and Karroubi before the beginning of their house arrest. It doesn’t sound to me like they are opposed
to much of anything the Islamic Republic has done in or to Iran and are
seeking a return to the “Golden Age” of the Islamic Republic, when they were in
almost complete control and when the regime’s worst abuses occurred and when it
perpetrated its worst crimes against humanity.
For Moussavi, Karroubi, Rahnavard, and their allies in the so-called
“reformist” movement, this is what they want to go back to.
Moussavi, Karroubi, and Rahanavard have indeed been unjustly
held without charge, but there are many, many more persons held in actual
prisons, tortured, raped, and executed, much more needful and deserving of the
efforts of the above organizations. And
please, people, these three have little interest other than serving their own
ambitions, so stop calling them by the designation “leaders” or even
“opposition”.
In each and every one of the major atrocities and crimes against
humanity, the Followers of the Line of the Imam, now “reformists” were at the
forefront: the subversion of the workers movement, the persecution of the
secularists, the early purges, the revolutionary courts, the hezbollahi, the
Cultural Revolution, the Sepahi, the Basiji, VEVAK, the Reign of Terror, the
unnecessary continuation of the Iran-Iraq War, the Prison Massacres, institutionalization
of prison rape (really, by fatwa no less), and countless mass murders. Moussavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard do not
deserve freedom; they should be tried for crimes against humanity before the International
Court at The Hague.
Introduction
In the early days of
the Islamic Republic, the faction known as the Followers of the Line of the
Imam, or the Maktabis (Radicals), dominated nearly every aspect of the regime.
It included all
those who have deceptively rebranded themselves as reformists and also Hojat-al
Islam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and, Hojat al-Islam Ali Hosseini Khamenei.
And others, such as Mohammad Beheshti, Morteza Motahhari, Hossein Ali Montazeri
Najafabadi, Ayatollah Mohammad
Mofatteh, Mohammad Javad
Bahonar, Sadegh Khalkhali,
Asadollah Lajaverdi, Mohammad Montazeri (son of Hossein
Ali), and Mehdi Hashemi.
The undisputed
leader of the Followers of the Line of the Imam at the time was Ahmad Moussavi
Khomeini, son of the Grand Ayatollah and his chief-of-staff.
Their rivals in the
Revolution, and later in the Majlis and government, were usually referred to as
the Hojjattiyeh, after a conservative society later dissolved in 1983.
The early years
The earliest
important Revolution-era association was the Jame'e-e Rowhaniyat-e Mobarez (Combatant Clergy Association),
established in late fall 1978.
Founding included: Beheshti, Motahhari, Mohammad Reza Madavi Kani, Abdolkarim Moussavi
Ardebili, Montazeri Najafabadi, Mofatteh,
Javad Bahonar, Hosseini
Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad
Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi.
An older and covert
organization was the Fedayan-e Islam.
That group’s founder had been executed in 1955, but Moussavi Khomeini instructed
his followers Sadegh Khalkhali
(later known as the “Hanging Judge”) and Asadollah
Lajaverdi (later known as the “Butcher of Evin”) to revive the group.
Both now deceased, Khalkhali and Lajaverdi remained staunch Followers
of the Line of the Imam for the rest of their lives and were charter members of
the later “reform movement”.
The real organ of
Khomeinist doctrine that was not exclusively clerical was the Islamic Republic
Party, founded 18 February 1979 by the following men:
Mohammad Beheshti
Mir Hossein Moussavi
Ali Hosseini Khamenei
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Mohammad Javad Bohanar
Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili
Hojat al-Islam Hassan Ayat
Mohammad Ali Rajai
Hassan Habibi
Of course, the Party
grew and its Central Committee soon numbered many more men. In time, it
obtained a monopolistic chokehold on the country of Iran similar to what the
Bolshevik Party had in the early Soviet Union.
Almost immediately
after its organization, its Central Committee charged later reform movement
stalwart Hadi Ghaffari with
organizing the Hezbollahi (Party of God), its version of the Nazi Party’s
Brownshirts.
Six days before,
Ruhollah Moussavi Khomeini had tasked Ayatollah Madavi Kani with organizing the
Central Revolutionary Komiteh to gain control over the komitehs around the
country and purge them of the ideologically unreliable.
Among the later
“reformists” who served with the Central Revolutionary Komiteh were Mehdi Karroubi, Mohammad Khatami, Dr. Saeed Hajjarian, Dr. Behzad Nabavi, and Hojat al-Islam Hadi Ghaffari.
When Rahbar-e
Enghelab (Leader of the Revolution) Moussavi Khomeini announced the
organization of the Sepah-e Pasdaran-e
Enghelab-e Eslami (Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution), it was
the Mohammad Beheshti and Mohammad Montazeri who oversaw it for the shadow
government.
In the first round
of the first Majlis elections under the Islamic Republic, the Party was
surprised by the showing of candidates supported by it enemies, primarily the Mojahedin-e Khalq. Member Dr. Mostafa Moin suggested ideologically
purging universities of elements not sufficiently supportive of their goals.
Holy Councils of
Reconstruction were established in each institution, and the Basij-e Mostazafin (Mobilization of the
Dispossessed) was established to assist.
The Iranian Cultural
Revolution shut universities for two years, purged tens of thousands of liberal
and leftist instructors and staff, and replaced of student organizations with
“Islamic Student Associations”.
Dr. Moin, by the way, was the candidate
for the united reformist front in the 2005 presidential elections, as well as
of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front and the reformist Association
of Combatant Clerics individually.
The Cultural
Revolution Headquarters was established 12 June 1980 with the following men in
its ranks:
Ali Hosseini Khamenei
Mohammad Javad Bohanar
Ahmad Ahmadi
Abdolkharim Soroush
Jalaleddin Farsi
Mehdi Golshani
Hassan Habibi
Ali Shariatmadari
Mostafa Moin
Hassan Arefi
Mohammad Ali Najafi
Asadollah Lajaverdi
Mir Hossein Moussavi
Not long afterward,
Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded, beginning the Iran-Iraq War. The Followers of
the Line of the Imam, with the connivance of their Imam, the Rahbar-e Enghelab,
pushed to extend the war even past the eight times there was a serious chance
for a cessation of hostilities. They used it to cement their control
domestically.
With the advent of
the Reign of Terror, Sadegh Khalkhali
was returned to his post as Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor, which he held until
1985. The conductors of this early purge, which lasted from Banisadr’s ouster
in June 1981 through December 1982, were either Followers of the Line of the
Imam or acting on their orders.
Between 3000 and
5000 individuals were murdered during this time.
The split in the
regime
Hashemi Rafsanjani
and Ali Khamenei began forming their own faction in the regime after the
appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as Deputy Leader in 1985. Ahmad Khomeini
soon came over to the Hezbollah (Party of God), not to be confused the loose Iranian
militia by the same name.
The Hezbollah soon
gained a majority in the Conservative Clergy Association by alliance with the
Hojjattiyeh. In the Islamic Republican Party, however, they were vastly
outnumbered them. Fearing the party under the control of Prime Minister Moussavi, Hashemi Rafsanjani and
Ahmad Khomeini recommended the Party’s dissolution to the Rahbar-e Enghelab in
1987. He gave his consent.
The Maktabi minority
in the Conservative Clergy Association earlier began meeting apart under the
overall leadership of Deputy Speaker Mehdi
Karroubi.
Still at the head of
government, Mir Hossein Moussavi
was now undisputed leader of the Followers of the Line of the Imam along with Mehdi Karroubi.
That’s right, in
1988 the Followers of the Line of the Imam were now led by the Dynamic Duo of
Prime Minister Moussavi and
Deputy Speaker Karroubi.
Karroubi and his associates made themselves publicly
known as the Majma-e Rowhaniyun-e Mobarez
(Association of Combatant Clerics) on 16 March 1988. Its founders were:
Mehdi Karroubi,
secretary-general 1988-2005
Mohammad Moussavi Khoeiniha, secretary-general 2005-2010
Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur,
secretary-general 2010-present
Mohammad Khatami
Sadegh Khalkhali
Hadi Ghaffari
Hadi Hosseini Khamenei (brother of the current Rahbar-e Enghelab)
Abdollah Nuri
Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili
Jalali Khomeini
Mohammad Hossein Rahimian
Asadollah Bayat Zanjani
Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari
Mohammad Ali Sadoughi
Ali Asqar Rahmani Khalili
Mohammad Ali Abtahi
Majid Ansari
Mohammad Hashemi
Rasoul Montajab Nia
Mohammad Reza Ashtiani
Mahmoud Doa’i
Mohammad Reyshahri
Several months
later, on 18 July 1988, the Rahbar-e Enghelab ordered that the previously
issued fatwa ordering the execution of every Monafeqin (Mujahedin-e Khalq) in
Iran’s prisons, and another for the execution of the majority of the Mortads
(leftists) should be carried out immediately and swiftly.
Sometime before, he
had introduced his plan months before, to these six men:
Ali Hosseini Khamenei, President of the Islamic Republic
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Speaker of the Majlis
Mohammad Khatami,
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance
Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili, Chief Revolutionary Justice
Mohammad Moussavi Khoeiniha, Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor
Ahmad Khomeini, the Leader’s chief-of-staff
The Rahbar-e
Enghelab personally assigned implementation of the fatwas to Chief
Revolutionary Prosecutor Moussavi
Khoeiniha, future secretary-general of the reformist flagship
Association of Combatant Clerics.
As Minister of
Culture and Islamic Guidance future “reformist” President and party leader Khatami was heavily involved with
the prison massacres, as was Moussavi
Ardebili, who has been retired from political life since Ruhollah
Moussavi Khomeini’s death.
Mir Hossein Moussavi was Prime Minister at the time.
Mehdi Karroubi was Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Ali Akbar
Mohtashamipur, current
Secretary-General of the Association of Combatant Clerics, was Minister of the
Interior.
Mohammad Reyshahri was Minister of Intelligence.
Saeed Hajjarian was Vice Minister of Intelligence and
National Security for Political Affairs.
The massacres lasted
from 20 July 1988 through 10 April 1989. Between 4500 and 33,700 were murdered.
In 1991, Behzad Nabavi revived the Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Enghelab-e Eslami
(Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization). It had earlier fallen apart
due to the same ideological conflicts which had doomed the Islamic Republican
Party.
Exile and
return
In 1992, then
President Hashemi Rafsanjani used the Council of Guardians to disqualify
Maktabi candidates from running in elections for the Majlis, which they had
controlled since its beginning.
For the next eight
years, they were shut out of power.
Soon afterwards, Saeed Hajjarian formed the
Center for Strategic Studies to plan for a return to power for the Followers of
the Line of the Imam and came up with the idea of a “reformist” movement as a
way of getting back into power.
In 1997, his ally Mohammad Khatami was elected
President. In 2000, control of the Majlis returned to the Maktabis.
The so-called reform
movement proved a disappointment and a failure.
Primary
organizations of the “reformists”, or Followers of the Line of the Imam
Daftare Tahkeeme Vahdat (Office for the Consolidation of Unity),
founded 10 September 1979
Majma-e Rowhaniyun-e Mobarez (Association of Combatant Clerics), founded
16 March 1988
Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Enghelab-e Eslami (Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution
Organization), founded 1979, dissolved 1985, revived 1991
Center for Strategic
Studies, established in 1992
Jebhe-e Mosharekat-e Iran-e Eslami (Islamic Iran Participation Front), founded
23 August 1998
Coordination Council
of the Reformist Front, established 2000
Etemad-e Melli (National Trust Party), founded 2005
Rahe Sabz Omid (Green Path of Hope Party), founded 2009
Kaleme News (attached to the office of Mir Hossein Moussavi Khamenei)
Saham News (attached to the office of Medhi Karroubi)
Jaras
Rasa-TV
Tahavol-e Sabz
Leading
reformist figures with a brief outline of their careers
Mr. MIR HOSSEIN MOUSSAVI:
Council of Islamic
Revolution, 1979-1981
Political Secretary
of the Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1981
Central Committee
member of the Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987
Editor-in-chief of
the Islamic Republic, 1979-1981
Minister of Foreign
Affairs, 1981
President of
Cultural Revolution Headquarters, 1981
Prime Minister,
1981-1989
Rahbar-e Enghelab’s
representative to the Mostazafin Foundation, 1981-1989
President of the
Economy Council, 1982-1989
Expediency
Discernment Council, 1987-present
Senior advisor to
President Hashemi Rafasnjani, 1989-1999
Supreme Council of
Cultural Revolution, (1996-present)
Senior advisor to
President Khatami, 1997-2005
President of the
Iranian Academy of Arts, 2000-2009
Presidential
candidate, 2009
Leader, Green Path
of Hope Party, 2009-present
Hojat al-Islam
MEHDI KARROUBI :
Combatant Clerics Association, 1977-1988
Islamic Republican
Party, 1979-1987
Central
Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1980
Chairman, Martyrs’
Foundation, 1979-1992
Chairman, Imam
Khomeini Relief Committee
Chairman, Housing
Foundation Majlis Deputy, 1980-2005
Deputy Speaker of
the Majlis, 1985-1989
Chairman of the
Pilgrimage Foundation, 1985-1990
Secretary-General,
Association of Combatant Clerics, 1988-2005
Speaker of the
Majlis, 1989-1992 & 2000-2004
Presidential
candidate, 2005
Secretary-General,
National Trust Party, 2005-present
Presidential
candidate, 2009
Central Committee,
Green Path of Hope Party, 2010-present
ZAHRA RAHNAVARD BOROUJERDI:
Co-founder, Women’s
Society of the Islamic Revolution, June 1981, founded in support of the
ongoing Cultural Revolution
Chancellor, Al Zahra
University, 1998-2006
Central Committee,
Green Path of Hope Party, 2009-present
Hojat al-Islam Mohammad Khatami:
Combatant Clerics
Association (1977-1988)
Central Committee,
Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987
Central Revolutionary
Komiteh, 1979-1980
Majlis Deputy,
1980-1982
Islamic Republican
Party supervisor of Kayhan, 1981-1982
Cultural Revolution
Headquarters, 1980-1983
Minister of Culture
and Guidance, 1982-1992
Supreme Council of
Cultural Revolution, 1983-1992
Director of Cultural
Affairs, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1982-1988
War Propaganda
Headquarters, 1982-1988
Deputy
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, 1982-1988
Association of
Combatant Clerics, 1988-present
Head, National
Library of Iran, 1992-1997
President of the Islamic
Republic, 1997-2005
Islamic Iran
Participation Front, 1998-present
Chairman, Central
Council, Association of Combatant Clerics, current
Chairman, Central
Council, Islamic Iran Participation Front, current
Hojat al-Islam Mohammad Moussavi Khoeiniha:
Combatant Clergy
Association, 1978-1988
Central Committee,
Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987
Islamic Republican
Party representative to hostage-takers, 1979-1981
Deputy Speaker of
the Majlis, 1980-1985
Chief Revolutionary
Prosecutor, 1981-1982
Chairman of the
Pilgrimage Foundation, 1982-1985
Chief Revolutionary
Prosecutor, 1985-1989
Association of
Combatant Clergy, 1988-present
Secretary-General,
Association of Combatant Clergy, 2005-2010
Dr. Saeed Hajjarian:
Central Committee,
Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987
Central
Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1984
U.S. Embassy hostage
taker, 1979-1981
Vice Minister of
Intelligence and National Security for Political Affairs, 1984-1989
Chairman, Institute
for Strategic Studies, 1992-present
Political advisor to
President Khatami, 1997-2005
Central Council,
Islamic Iran Participation Front, 1998-present
Hojat al-Islam Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur:
Office of Islamic
Liberation Movements, 1979-1984
Bureau of Assistance
to the Islamic and Liberation Movements of the World, 1984-1985
Minister of the
Interior, 1985-1988
Lebanon desk,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1988-1989
Association of
Combatant Clerics, 1988-present
Majlis Deputy,
1990-present
Secretary-General,
Association of Combatant Clerics, 2010-present
Ayatollah Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili:
Combatant Clergy
Association, 1978-1988
Central Committee,
Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987
Chief Revolutionary
Prosecutor, 1981
Chief Justice,
1981-1989
Association of
Combatant Clerics, 1988-1989
Expediency
Discernment Council, 1987-1989
Hojat al-Islam Sadegh Khalkhali:
Leader, Fedayan
al-Islam
Chief Revolutionary
Prosecutor, 1979-1980 & 1981-1985
Majlis Deputy,
1985-1992
Association of
Combatant Clerics, 1988-2003
Dr. Behzad Nabavi:
Central
Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1985
Central Committee,
Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987
Founder, Mojahedin
of the Islamic Revolution, 1979-1986
Spokesman for the
U.S. Embassy hostage takers, 1979-1981
Founder,
Intelligence Office of the President, 1980
Economic Council,
1980-1988
Minister of Industry
and Mines, 1985-1989
Central Committee,
Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, 1991-present
Deputy Speaker of
the Majlis, 2000-2004
Dr. Mostafa Moin:
Central Committee,
Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987
Cultural Revolution
Headquarters, 1980-1983
Majlis Deputy,
1982-1989
Supreme Council of
Cultural Revolution, 1983-present
Chancellor, Shiraz
University, 1979-1982
Minister of Culture
and Higher Education, 1989-1993 & 1997-2000
Minister of Science,
Research, and Technology, 2000-2005
Presidential
candidate, 2005
Hojat al-Islam Hadi Ghaffari:
Combatative Clergy
Association, 1978-1988
Central
Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1988
Islamic Republican
Party, 1979-1987
Supervisor,
Hezbollah, 1979-1988
Association of
Combative Clerics, 1988-present
Majlis Deputy,
1988-present
Chair, Al-Hadi
Foundation, 1997-2005
Fatemeh Karroubi:
Deputy Minister for
Social Affairs, 1997-2005
Secretary-General,
Islamic Association of Women, 1997-present
Afterword
My disparagement of
the reformists in the Islamic Republic of Iran is limited to the level of
national leadership. These “leaders” believe
their followers exist to provide them with power and influence. In contrast, most of the reformists below
that level, the “mid-level management” as it were, sincerely want a better life
for the citizens of Iran. They believe
their position exists to provide the people, all Iran’s people, with freedom. In case you’re wondering, yes, that is a
paraphrase of one of William Wallace’s speeches in “Braveheart”.
APPENDIX:
For more information
on the Iranian Revolution and the early Islamic Republic, see my “Outline
of the Iranian Revolution and the early Islamic Republic” at http://notesfromtheninthcircle.blogspot.com/2011/06/outline-of-iranian-revolution-and-early.html
See also:
The Myth of Autocracy, by Nuray Mert
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-myth-of-autocracy.aspx?pageID=449&nID=37487&NewsCatID=406
Ms. Mert's excellent article is about Turkey and the political situation there, but has truths that inspired me to repost and slightly rewrite this article. Without the Followers of the Line of the Imam who in the 1990's whitewashed themselves as "reformists", Khomeini never would have become the absolute autocrat that he was and the Islamic Republic not as complete in its tyranny.
Ms. Mert's excellent article is about Turkey and the political situation there, but has truths that inspired me to repost and slightly rewrite this article. Without the Followers of the Line of the Imam who in the 1990's whitewashed themselves as "reformists", Khomeini never would have become the absolute autocrat that he was and the Islamic Republic not as complete in its tyranny.
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