IRAN & AYATOLLAH BOROUJERDI UPDATE

Sorry for the delay in this but I have been preoccupied with a few matters that have been developing.

You have all heard by now that at 4 a.m. on Sunday, the Islamic Regime sent in various law and security enforcement agencies backed by armored vehicles, water cannon trucks spouting boiling water and even firing live rounds on the demonstrators to finally arrest Ayatollah Boroujerdi. Publicly treating him in a shameful and degrading manner after they had their hands on him.

Several aspects and questions came to light:

1. To what extent were outside forces involved in this quite significant event?

2. Was this showdown forced by the Islamic regime as a test case?

a) Would people rise up to support this comparatively young Ayatollah (or others like him)?

They failed to rally to his call, so one result now portends that the Islamic regime will have even less hesitation and compunction in dealing harshly with any future clerical opposition. Even members of the populace, tired of the Islamic regime, stayed home when the call was from one cleric against his own kind in what they perceived to be a purely Mullah power struggle.

b) How difficult would it be to suppress and control this situation or one similar to it?

As a practise run, the events provided a real life tactical training for various law enforcement units, including one which in Farsi is called the "Pressure Group" (gorouheh feshaar).

It also gave a "live fire", so to speak, training for new reinforcement recruits for the Paasdaars (IRGC - Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and mercenary (now mostly Arabs and Sunni Pashtu from Pakistan) Basiji (vicious anti-riot and demonstration suppression forces).

The Islamic Regime has partially gone back to the philosophy used when the original Basiji and Paasdaars were organized as bodyguards and "palace guards" by Khomeini, who recruited ignorant village peasants for these paramilitary services.

His idea was that these would be the least educated, most superstitious, most religious (or open to religious pressure) and the least knowledgeable of real life beyond their village settings and would thus be devoid of any political ideology and be the most open to doing his bidding blindly.

Some of these newly recruited simpletons were among those tasked with maintaining a cordon around Ayatollah Boroujerdi's residence and when approached by opponents of the Islamic Regime, showed little hostility.

When asked why they were opposed to Boroujerdi, they said they had been told he claimed to be the representative on earth of Imam Mehdi, the 12th Imam - most sacred to the Hojatieh sect - to which President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad belongs and is led by candidate for future Supreme Ruler of Iran, Ayatollah Taghi Mesba Yazdi (also nicknamed the crocodile).

The recruits stated they were ready to arrest or kill Boroujerdi for his act of heresy. Some admitted they had no proof he had made such claims.

3. The Regime wanted to find out which other Ayatollahs or high level supporters would openly rally to support Boroujerdi.

Only one, Mehdi Haeri (not Kazem, who is the ally of Moghtada Al-Sadr and his Shia militia in Iraq) came on the air and called for people to rise up. Though cautioning them not to destroy property, specifically gasoline stations, as suggested by some callers to KRSI (Voice of Iran Radio in Los Angeles - www.krsi.com), which was broadcasting events live.

4. The Islamic Regime has apparently used this uprising to begin disarming the regular Armed Forces, which since the 1979 Khomeini revolt, had been increasingly less trusted and became orphan children to the Paasdaran (IRGC), who got all the best military equipment and most of the budgets.

5. Concurrently with all this, Al Qaeda, which has several hundred senior leaders and fighters residing in Iran, including several Ossama bin Laden sons, began threatening the Swiss Embassy for representing American interests and a possibility for a take over, per the USA Tehran Hostage Crisis, exists even now.

6. Finally, for now at least, rumors were floating that Al Qaeda was preparing an attack inside the USA for today, October 9th, 2006, to coincide with Columbus Day and the discovery of America day would also become the destruction of America Day.

Instead, North Korea tested their very dirty nuclear bomb and sucked out the news oxygen desired by other harmful events.

Note: if you want to know where Iran is heading , check what North Korea is doing.

a) When the long range missile test by NK was scheduled recently, there were over 20 senior Iranian scientists and physicists present.

Obviously, since the test was to provide operational proof of the missiles NK was selling to Iran but for which they would not be paid, beyond any down payment, till they proved the missiles worked.

Iran has, repeat has, at least four - possibly six to eight - nuclear war heads, with four already in nose cones on mid-range Shahab 3 missiles.

While capable of reaching Israel and Eastern parts of Europe, the Shahab 3 and the still being developed Shahab 5 fail to provide long range capability Iran wants to have right away.

b) Today's North Korean test also had Islamic Iran scientists and physicists present. The exact number is hard to quantify since Iran has had hundreds of their nuclear program staff trained and still training in NK.

The purpose of this test might serve to draw attention to NK and force a bilateral meeting between Kim Jong IL and the USA as a side effect but the primary thrust is a test paid for by Iran.

As mentioned above, Iran holds a quantity of fissionable material, some of it from the early 90's and potentially greatly degraded for weapon use - but not for an underground explosion - with which Ahamdi-Nejad can announce Iran has become a nuclear power and thus ward off - as too late - any UN sanctions etc.

The fly in the Islamic Regime's ointment was that they have no idea whether what they have will detonate impressively or be a big burp.

So NK, which has a more abundant supply of similar fissionable material was hired to run a test. If it "burped" Iran would hold off doing a similar underground test and announcing their joining the nuclear family - from the Shrine of Imam Reza (saint of miracles) in Mashhad.

If there were a big enough bang, Ahmadi-Nejad would follow suit and in addition to offering an apparent "fait accompli" to the world, would then cowe his neighbors into more rapid submission to his political plans.

And incidentally start a regional nuclear arms race.