Saturday, March 15, 2008

A review of Islamic Revolution, part 2

Going back to the days of Islamic revolution, one of the events which ignited the final quarrel between Islamic revolutionaries and government forces resulting in in crumbling of Dr. Bakhtiar's government was audience of a group of Iranian Air force technicians with Khomeini in his residence to show solidarity with new leader. Many people believe that this event had been planned by Islamic revolutionaries and with some of their own supporters dressed in uniforms in order to break the spirit of army which was the sole component in keeping the country together in those days. That event resulted in a clash between Royal Guards and air force technicians which Royal Guard members wanted to identify those who were involved in the meeting with Khomeini among them. Islamic revolutionaries and anarchists took advantage of the situation and rushed to the location of confrontation. Royal Guards found themselves face to face with armed civilians from one side and armed air force technicians from another side. This became the final battle between revolutionaries and government loyal forces resulting in many casualties from both sides before ending with fall of government.

Another event happened around the same time which was not very common in those days and not many people might have noticed that. An article was published in three segments in Ferdowsi weekly magazine by Dr. Mehdi Bahar in which, he had analyzed the nature and role of active forces behind revolutionary movement at that time. Dr. Bahar had identified three different forces which included armed leftist groups (ie: fadaian khalgh and mojahedin khalgh), nationalists and religious fanatics that was symbolysed by Khomeini himself. In that article, Dr. Bahar introduced Khomeini as dominant force with an agenda which was clearly explained in his book named "kashef-ol ghota". This book was not known to most people at that time and later after the revolution, it was published with its real name, "velayate faghih". The true picture of Islamic regime was drawn in that book that went unnoticed by many from Iranian opposition and intellectual community. Those who found the seriousness of the situation and tried to warn others were either unheard by excited population or dismissed as propagators of SAVAK and CIA.

This was what one would see as an outsider to the revolution which included almost everyone in Iran except those who were around Khomeini or were in close contact with his crew inside the country. About 10 years after the revolution, a book was published outside the country by a former member of Khomeini's original security team who had defected to a European country, which confirmed the initial suspicion about that fake parade. This, of course, has not been the only document to explain some of mysterious events in those days which had caused a lot of confusion for government and the people. A lot of information is now available which indicate how a nation was misled with misinformation, lies and dirty trickery by a group of power hungry fanatics and their supporters among interested foreign elements.from one side and irresponsible and clueless opposition groups and their leaders from another side. But what really happened? What was going on behind the scenes of Islamic revolution?

Shortly after revolution in the beginning days, a story broke out about a well known mullah, Mohammad Montazeri, son of ayatullah Montazeri who was considered number 2 figure of Islamic revolution at that time. Mohammad Montazeri with a group of armed bandits rushed to Tehran airport and loaded unknown amount of valuables from Iranian museums into a plane and flew to Libya.Other than a group in the circle around Khomeini himself, no one knew what was the reason for such behavior and why valuable items from Iranian museums should be flown to Lybia. This issue has partly come to light after it became clear that, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh had received a sum of $16 millions from Ghadhafi of Libya to fund the revolutionary activities inside Iran. The plane load of artifacts were to return the favor made by Ghadhafi. Coincidently, Billy Carter, the younger brother of President Carter, was in Libya at that time and had very close relations with Ghadhafi. Billy Carter was later questioned by congress for receiving more than $200000 from Ghadhafi to represent his government interests in United States. Apparently that has been an unusual issue which had come to the attention of congress especially in relation with someone like Billy Carter who did not have such brilliant financial record either.

Hussein Broujerdi used to be one of the fanatic and staunch supporters of Khomeini since early days who had participated directly in many of the criminal activities of Islamic revolutionaries. He has spoken freely to Mr. Bahram Choobineh about his activities during the years of working with Islamic regime, after he defected to a European country. Confessions of Mr. Broujerdi which has been published by Mr. Choobineh, has shed light on some events like the fire in Cinema Rex of Abadan that cost hundreds of lives. Some of the stories which have been told by this insider of Islamic movement have chilling details that reflect the dept of cruelty and inhumanity of the group of people who were just after ruling power under guise of religion. Mr. Broujerdi's confessions confirms some of original suspicions about some of mysteries in Islamic revolution which resulted in unsuccessful assassination atempts on his life according to himself. Another insider of Islamic regime who has provided some valuable information on the background and roles of some of most important elements in Islamic revolution has been Mr. Shafizadeh who provided personal security to different leaders of Islamic revolution including Khomeini himself.

Declassified documents of State Department and CIA, as always, can provide us with a good amount of information up to certain point but will be enough to help us come up with realistic conclusion about the events which changed the destiny of our nation for ever.

Before getting into details of any of these, one more time, I have to emphasize that, although overwhelming number of elements have been at work to move Iran on the path of revolution for certain purposes which varied from one element to another, the most determining element has been the role of internal secular opposition and ignorance of the people themselves towards their own future and their lack of awareness about their current situation. to be continued...