The Second Reinvention of a Murderous Mullah

The US Alliance for Democratic Iran:

On May 5, 1989, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then Iran’s powerful Speaker of Parliament and acting Commander-in-Chief, called on Palestinians to kill Americans and other Westerners. Speaking at a Friday prayers congregation, he told the crowd, “If in retaliation for every Palestinian martyred in Palestine they kill and execute, not inside Palestine, five Americans, or Britons or Frenchmen,” the Israelis “would not continue these wrongs.”

He continued, “It is not difficult to kill Americans or Frenchmen. It is a bit difficult to kill [Israelis]. But there are so many [Americans and Frenchmen] everywhere in the world.”

It took the ever-cunning Rafsanjani just a few weeks to re-invent himself as a “moderate” establishment leader whom the West could deal with. READ MORE

Less than a month after his tirade, Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of Iran’s terror-sponsoring theocracy, died. As a result of a series of power sharing arrangement between the regime’s leaders, Ali Khamenei became the supreme leader and Rafsanjani positioned himself to be the next president, a post occupied by Khamenei till then.

Sixteen years later, Rafsanjani is at it again with another revolting charm offensive, which looks more and more like a rehash of his 1989 campaign, tailored mainly for his Western audience.

The reoccurring fascination in the West with elections in Iran seems rather misplaced given that they are futile exercises aimed at legitimizing a rogue regime. The ruling regime consistently exploits the electoral process to generate an appearance of democracy to camouflage its tyrannical theocracy.

Rafsanjani’s campaign promises today are not substantially different from those he made in 1989, however both Iran’s and Rafsanjani’s political positions are vastly different from what they were 16 years ago.

Back then, he skillfully sold his agenda to the West as a “moderate” or “pragmatist”. Rafsanjani cunningly boasted that his presidency would usher Iran into an era of achieving economic and social progress, relaxing restrictions on political freedoms, and paying attention to the issues of youth and women. He also deceptively pledged that Iran will end its rogue behavior abroad. His two terms in office as president proved just the opposite.

He was so disgraced at the end of his term that he could not even win a seat in the February 2000 parliamentary election. So despised is Rafsanjani that most of his election posters use his middle-name “Hashemi” rather than his last name “Rafsanjani.”

As for Iran, the demography and political landscape have drastically changed since 1989. The country has been the scene of many uprisings nationwide. Although uprisings were brutally suppressed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) and other security forces, their recurrence and sustained objective of toppling the clerical regime, clearly show the mullahs’ lack of popular legitimacy.

Never before, have the mullahs been so desperately in need of an appearance of legitimacy. Domestically, they are despised by the majority of Iranians, and internationally they are scorned for their determined campaign to acquire the A-bomb, sponsor international terrorism, and sow seeds of instability in Iraq.

By all accounts, the vast majority of Iranians will boycott the election farce. Don’t, however, expect the clerical regime to release the actual voter turnout. There are reports that the clerical regime has already decided that the margin will be declared to be around 55 to 65 %, regardless of the actual voter turnout.

Agence France Presse quoted a government official as saying, "For the first time in an opinion poll, 23 percent of the electorate is saying that they won't be voting. It's an important figure because ahead of the last presidential elections, just five percent of people said they wouldn't vote". And the inflated official figure of the last presidential election was just about 66 percent.

The mullahs’ supreme leader Khamenei recently warned Iranians that, “The enemies will use every means to discourage the electorate from taking part in the June 17 election" and that “casting a ballot is like firing a bullet into the heart" of US President George W. Bush.

In March 1990, one year into his first term, , the “moderate” Rafsanjani mocked President Bush Sr. for taking a telephone call from someone posing as Rafsanjani. “America is very much in need of talking to Iran, and praise be to God, is deprived of this. Iran is so important that the biggest power in the world, the biggest bully on earth, tries to contact its officials by telephone,” Rafsanjani said.

The hoax set up by Rafsanjani’s faction then sought to embarrass President Bush over the issue of American hostages in Lebanon. Sixteen years later, one wonders what sort of hoax Rafsanjani is working up to trick George W. Bush over the issue of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

What is abundantly clear is that Rafsanjani will try to reinvent his image to preserve and perpetuate the clerical regime but we shouldn’t expect his murderous methods to stop anytime soon.