Iran's political system simplified

May be one of the most misunderstood countries of the world today is Iran. Reading and hearing reports of Iran, written by mostly uninformed reporters, whose knowledge of Iran limits itself in 2 meals consumed at some Persian restaurant in some big city. Furthermore, their self-assertions sometimes crosses the barriers of ignorance and as a reader one feels irritated and frustrated. Some call it disinformation, but I would like to call it irresponsible illiteracy. I take it upon me to simplify the A-B-C of the Iranian political hierarchy for any one interested to know from top to bottom, who knows maybe it helps to neutralize the stultification of some western news consumers, should they bother to read.

Supreme Leader / This position is elected by the Assembly of Experts,the "Leader" is the commander in chief of all armed forces and can have the last say in all major issues of internal or foreign relevance, Radio and TV heads are named by the Leader,Head of the Judiciary is also appointed by the Leader and the Leader has the right to "Veto" laws.

President / Head of the executive branch in the republic and elected every 4 years by popular vote.

Assembly of Experts / A body of 86 clergies , elected directly by popular vote every 8 years, and its duties are amongst others the selection and supervision of the Leader, they have the power to remove the Leader and they are by law committed to assemble twice annually.

Parliament / The legislative body of Iran, has 290 seats and its members elected every 4 years.

Guardian Council / A body of 12 appointed "Jurists" of which 6 are appointed by Leader and 6 appointed by the Parliament, this body is charged with guarding the integrity of the constitution and supervising elections and candidates.They also double check every passed law by the Parliament for its compatibility to the Constitution and Islamic Laws.

Expediency Council / This council is appointed by the Leader to mediate eventual discrepancies between the parliament and the Guardian council on issues of law interpretations, they are appointed on a 5 year basis and number around 30 members. They also have strong advisory duties towards the Leader.

Judicial power / This body represents the independent judicial system of Iran and
is based on the "Sharia". The head of the Judiciary is appointed by the Supreme Leader. The system is "inquisitorial" (very much like the French System) only in cases involving the "Media" a jury is allowed.(like the British system)

Supreme National Security Council / This body has the duty to decide on the method of implementing and safeguarding sensitive political and international issues, policy making and coordinated acting, its secretary is always selected by the President and its members are all the "Alpha" elements of the Iranian political system i.e. head of parliament, cabinet members, military commanders and etc.

City and Village Councils / Directly elected every 4 years by popular votes and are responsible for electing mayors and activities of social, cultural, educational and welfare requirements of their constituencies.

I am sure if Iran were to recognize the state of Israel, the western media would not be calling Iran a dictatorial state or a state sponsor of terrorism or an axis of evil or etc. etc. Rather the western media would be picking on some western allies a la Egypt or Saudi Arabia and the rest of some of these Arabian draconian states who really are dictatorship states and sponsor extremism and terror!!! unfortunately as long as we don't have an independent free thinking media system, this kind of wanton disinformation shall continue.

Operation Ajax 2 ......

Looking back at the contemporary Iranian political history, we can not oversee the darkest ever period that Iran experienced, in which the hard obtained democratic Government of Dr.Mossadegh was toppled by a so called popular uprising of a large crowd of thugs that threatened and aggressively destroyed the establishment of the Iranian fragile democracy whose objective was to nationalize the Oil industry, after which the Shah was reinstated and as of then practically ruled as an absolute monarch despite of the constitutional restrictions, also hard won through the constitutional revolution in Iran.Today we all know the names of those thugs and how they were financed and above all who initiated it. It was organized and carried out by the British and US intelligent services and the whole operation as is known today was called "Operation Ajax".

Should we have a short memory, I remind us all of a country called "Georgia" this country has been in the news quite often in the last decade. Our point of interest in Georgia goes back to the year 2003, and the so called "Rose Revolution" its President Shevardnadze,who was reelected in 2000, was deposed and toppled by a young and suddenly appeared politician called "Mikheil Saakashvili". He claimed that the parliamentary votes of 2003 have been "marred by fraud" and organized marches and overran the parliament and thus forced the Government into exile. This so called "Rose revolution" took its toll on the civilians too but no big deal was made in the western media because of them. 6 years have passed and Georgia has since disintegrated into 3 separate states and the Government of Saakashvili has developed itself into a political prostitute that offers itself and its soil for all possible use and abuse to the western powers and to Nato,but has only been accepted as a place to hold military maneuvers and not to forget the crossing of pipelines for Azerbaijan's Oil.

Irans recent elections, and its aftermath took many in Iran by surprise, but there were articles a few months ahead of the election about such a "Georgian scheme", in Iranian conservative newspapers and the fact that the establishment were ready for them, I doubt anyone took these information for important at the time, and quite seriously I never thought the west could possibly be so stupid and try such a ridiculous experiment in Iran, but the events that took place, proved, Iran is always in danger of such adventurous, new wanna be and amateurish secret black operations, that inevitably are there to disintegrate Iran into pieces, to implement Ariel Sharon's biggest wish to cut Iran to pieces ( mentioned at his last AIPAC conference, before his march to delirium).

The coordinated western Media attacks, was another classical example of how the intelligent services and the media work together and that was also apparently anticipated by the system in Iran. However, this colorful revolution seems to have failed to reach its objective, this "Green revolution" was somehow doomed to fail the minute the first bus was torched and the first shots were fired, many Green voters left the demonstrations,that was supposed to have been silent and to object claims of fraud ,but realizing the infiltration of their lines by anarchists and hooligans many I know of decided to simply be more careful. The declaration of solidarity by the British and US governments towards the demonstrators also brought back dark memories of the kind of interferences that led to no good in the past and one should not risk it again. Whatever the case, we can unequivocally claim that an operation took place in Iran whose name we still don't know, so till we know, we call it operation Ajax 2 and we declare it as "failed"

However, The Iranians want more personal freedoms, and the present Government would be ill advised not to address these legitimate issues as soon as possible, should some in the Iranian Government think the middle class youth were seduced by western satellite media, then he also ought to know, the lack of personal freedom brought them into this position in the first place.

The truth about the Iranian unrest....

Lets be objective and impartial, not for and not against anybody in the Iran election, probably very difficult for many Iranians today but necessary to filter out the truth about what is actually happening behind the mirrors in Irans political sphere.

Iran has a powerful politician called "Rafsanjani" he was a 2 term president and 2 term Parliament speaker, to be more precise a true pillar of the Islamic revolution. He and his clan enjoy an unbelievable and opulent amount of wealth, which is known to have been acquired after the revolution and specifically during his term as President. He is now the chairman of the "Assembly of Experts" in Iran, which observes and supervises the Leader of the Islamic republic of Iran (the Assembly is elected every 8 years and consists of 86 Islamic clergies). Other words, the Assembly can replace the Leader.

Iran has a Supreme leader called "Khamenei" he was a 2 term president of Iran during the war (Iran-Iraq), and upon the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, was elected Leader of the Republic by the "Assembly of Experts", which was itself initiated by Rafsanjani.
Khamenei, has always had a reputation of being very passive, patient and to a large extend naive. Probably not the ideal person as a leader, but he was also known to be pious and incorruptible, very much a classical religious man. Many insiders claim, his election to this position was supposed to have been a guarantor for Rafsanjanis free hand in his economic and social policies.

To understand the characteristic differences between these two people, I refer to a recorded tape of a "SAVAK" (Shah's secret Police) torturer regarding the two,taken shortly after the revolution and shown on the TV in Iran in 1979. He (torturer) said Rafsanjani,used to attack us physically and verbally ,spitting and biting us upon entering his cell for interrogation, we had to grab him and tie him down. The same torturer claimed of Khamenei, that he used to pray and seek Gods help and prayed for strength loudly, sometimes tears could be seen, and was very passive and tried to fool us onto a wrong path, the torturer claimed , none of them cooperated, and both looked after each other and shared their fruits and treats with each other.

We have now the year 2009, we have a President in Iran that belongs to the war generation, the very generation that fought and spilled blood and had its blood spilled to preserve the revolution and Irans territorial integrity, whilst the likes of Rafsanjani became richer and richer, and these people with Ahmadinejad as its spearhead, have scores to settle, and they want Rafsanjanis accountability and the dismantlement of his massive network, managed by his clan. How they want it done ? Ahmadinejad declared before the election that if elected again, he will introduce a bill to Parliament, for all Iranian politicians and managers to openly declare their wealth and how it was obtained, other words complete financial transparency for the political elite of Iran. Ahmadinjed , has also managed to obtain the support of Khamenei on this issue and Rafsanjani is suddenly not amused.

Ahmadinjed might be a trivial character outside of Iran, but inside Iran and amongst the rural areas he is very much appreciated and he enjoys the support of the military elite and his comrades-in-arms during the war , and regardless of his sometimes embarrassing appearances on the international parquet, he is incorruptible.

The election is now over, and regardless of all the accusations of discrepancies, we all know that it is actually a conflict between Rafsanjani and Khamenei. Rafsanjani knows, once Ahmadinejad is officially declared winner, then Rafsanjanis countdown starts.
Rafsanjani declared an emergency meeting of the "Assembly of Experts" and failed to gain enough votes to replace Khamenei, with over 50 votes against and many abstention, Mussavi is Rafsanjanis protege, and when all of Rafsanjanis means are exhausted, then he shall accept the election results. What remains, is the spilled blood of many Iranian youths, that thought they were part of something special, not to mention the foreign medias short sightedness, thinking this to be a velvet revolution ,thus encouraging the Iranian youth to bang their heads against the batons of the Police.

Once again the naive and young become the play ball of the rich and powerful, and most upsetting, the reform movement will be demonized for this stupidity and allowing itself to be hijacked by Rafsanjani, for years to come.