The Case of the 'Fatwa' to Rig Iran's Election
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23118.htm
"The propaganda campaign to paint the victory of the incumbent candidate in Iran's June presidential election as having been a stolen one began early."
So the upshot of that is that the sole original source material "proving" that the election was fixed, was a single unattributed report based in hearsay about a "Fatwa" that comes from a blogger who clearly admits having "good connections" with the mousavi camp whose just recently launched blog "Tehran Bureau" is hosted at a domain name owned by an American named Jason, and that this unconfirmed information was rebroacast netwide, through other "reformist" web sources such as Rooz whose advertizer base prominently includes "WashingtonTV", another recently launched (May 2009) web source that lists its company PO Box Zip Code using a "special" Zip code designation used for single companies, and indeed the US military and other US government agencies, and is not associated with any specific location as is the case with most Zip codes, and that this unverified, unattributed bloggery went "viral" in all the mainstream western press?
Or did I missread some of the "connections"? It was complex.
Normally, one would require the head in hand tenacity of say, Peter Falk's Colombo, combined with the bumbling sleuth technique of a Clouseau to follow that trail.
Yes. Don't know what it really means. I never came to a conclusion about the outcome of the election. My gut instincts is that there is a good deal of rigging of elections in most places, so why not Iran? Wether it made the difference or not is another matter. That said there is a clear devide here, and apparent dissatisfaction that is wide spread and that remains, even if Amedinejad had a small or marginal lead. Even a split down the middle is bad if the one side is tenacious and overt in its reaction.
The reaction is what is important. Americans didn't seem to get hot over the chads, so they are complacent or gullible or don't really care. Iranians seem willing to put themselves on the line for this vote, and that is a serious issue even in the case that Amedinejad did slip in with a slight majority. Small majorities are hardly strong mandates, and so a fix to make the mandate look stronger is just as likely.
The strength of the reaction in a split society hardly gives the victor solid ground, and speaks of strong underlying forces that could undermine everything, especially if public opinion is devided more or less down the middle.
That said, I do think its highly probable that the US funnels money into anti-Iranian web resources that it likes using shell companies that purchase banner "ads". Why not? Seems as likely a trick as rigging an election.
That said, I do think its highly probable that the US funnels money into anti-Iranian web resources that it likes using shell companies that purchase banner "ads". Why not? Seems as likely a trick as rigging an election.
I think you mean anti-Islamic republic, not anti-Iranian. The most active anti-government Iranian sites are weblogs that do not need much support. Rooz online (www.roozonline.com) is based in Netherlands and is operated by well-known Iranian journalists and writers who were forced out of Iran in late 90s and early 2000s. Most of them were either members of Khatami government or members of Iranian media at the time.
Closing for length.
