Iraninan Government Pressures Opposition
The Associated Press is reporting here that the government of President Ahmadinejad is putting additional pressure on those protesting his election.
The raids hiked up the pressure against the top opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, who hard-line clerics and commanders of the powerful Revolutionary Guards have said should also be arrested.
The arrests suggested that authorities aim to crush the campaign led by Mousavi and Karroubi to bring to light alleged torture and rapes of protesters who were detained in the heavy crackdown against the opposition that followed the disputed June presidential election.
Iran’s police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam on Tuesday also warned the opposition against using an upcoming annual pro-Palestinian nationwide rally as an occasion to hold anti-government protests. The rally — known as Quds Day, referring to the Arabic word for Jerusalem — takes place on Sept. 18. It is usually an occasion for government supporters to denounce Israel and show support for the Palestinians.
World Threats has reported on some of the atrocities committed by the Ahmadinejad government in its quest to stifle opposition to the rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to information received by World Threats from inside Iran, protest continue unabated. Students taking exams last Sunday that had been postponed from June chanted anti-government slogans.
Quoting from our sources, “Hossein Hasemian. a member of the reactionary Parliament, said:’ according to the information we have, some members of the RGC (Revolutionary Guards Corps) have resigned in protest against the RGC’s interference in the political issues of the country.’” Defections from the IRGC, depending on who has defected and how many have defected, might be significant.
The IRGC is roughly equivalent to the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany. They are given better weapons, training and other percs based upon their ideological purity than the regular military forces of Iran. One part of the IRGC, the Quds Force, is responsible for the conduct of operations against the external enemies of Iran. This is the group that interfaces with and trains Hezbollah, provides aid and training to the Yemeni rebels, etc.
