Abbas Milani, 07.01.09, 02:52 PM EDT
The ultimate downfall of Khamenei and his violent accomplices.
A tyrannical triumvirate, one that is led by Ayatollah Khamenei and supported by the military might of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the street presence of gangs with ranks numbering at least a few million, seems hell-bent on forcing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the reluctant and still-resisting people of Iran.
A majority of the Basij, this militia with units in every neighborhood and office around the country, seem to have joined only to enjoy the perks that come with membership–easier access to government handouts, jobs, entrance to colleges for their children, even lucrative management positions. But there are still enough of them, driven by blind faith, to bring havoc and mayhem to the millions of peaceful demonstrators.
The triumvirate had been planning for their brazen coup, and the possible popular resistance, for some months. First came a re-alignment of the IRGC. Instead of a centralized command, they were broken into 31 units: one for each province, two for Tehran. Units of the Basij, hitherto autonomous, were placed under the direct command of the IRGC units. It was declared that fighting a “color revolution”–or, more accurately, suppressing the will of the people–was now the main responsibility of IRGC.
Their new commander was a man named Jaffari. Till then he had led the IRGC’s strategic think-tank. His expertise, it was said, was fighting “color revolutions.” People whispered that he had been responsible for the IRGC study, commissioned by Khamenei, to map out the early stages of all color revolutions. It was an attempt to nip in the bud any such movement before it could grow to uncontrollable proportions.
Click here to read the full article in Forbes.com.
