Who's in charge in Iran?
Borzou Daragahi, writing in the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Iran's president has conducted a purge of the nation's intelligence ministry," but he makes a very weak case for Ahmadinejad actually being in charge. Daragahi also wrote that "officials in the Revolutionary Guard" have replaced the intelligence officials who were suspected of disloyalty. The moves could just as easily support the argument that the military has actually taken power.Iran's president purges intelligence ministry
Iran's president has conducted a purge of the nation's intelligence ministry, sweeping aside ranking officials with decades of experience in favor of loyalists, a lawmaker, several news websites and a former intelligence chief's son said.
The move, chronicled by news outlets today, underscores the deep rifts and disarray within the highest echelons of the country's security apparatus in the wake of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 reelection.
Analysts say the purge flushes away decades of intelligence experience. Even after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , the founder of the Islamic Republic, chose to co-opt the clandestine services into his new government rather than start from scratch.
"Ahmadinejad has practically taken command of the most significant security organ in the country and is embarking on a retaliation project," Hassan Younesi, the son of former Intelligence Minister Ali Younesi, wrote in letter posted on his blog late Saturday. "Never has the intelligence ministry witnessed such a politically motivated purge since its establishment. This gesture will certainly inflict heavy damage on the management of the ministry."...
Ahmadinejad last month made himself temporarily de facto chief of the agency, which has operatives and offices all over the country. Hossein Taeb and Ahmad Salek, two hard-line clerics loyal to the president and close to the Revolutionary Guard, now control the vast human intelligence and electronic monitoring infrastructure of the ministry...
Labels: Iran, leadership, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:01 PM
1 Comments:
Showing who's boss
"BACK in 2007 the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) announced an important change of mission. From now on the main task for his 120,000 guards, as well as for the 3m or so members of the baseej paramilitary volunteer force that had just, and for the first time, been placed formally under his command, would be to deal with what he called internal threats. Just what he meant has grown increasingly clear since the disputed presidential elections in June that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an ex-guardsman, to power. The hardline faction centred on the IRGC embraces a network of former officers and like-minded men in other security branches...
"The IRGC leaders have united behind Mr Ahmadinejad not only to defend their shared idea of an Iran that is less of a republic but more stridently 'Islamic'. They also want to protect a moneymaking machine. The IRGC controls a big chunk of the 70% or so of Iran’s economy that is state-run, with stakes in everything from dental and eye clinics to car factories and construction firms. Even 'privatised' assets seem to fall into its hands or those of friends. The real private sector has grown hoarse crying foul, as recently when the state privatisation agency quietly passed ownership of Tehran’s main convention centre to an army pension fund.
"Because their accounting is off-the-books and the ownership of these businesses is notoriously opaque, it is difficult to gauge their value. But in his first term Mr Ahmadinejad steered billions in uncontested oil, gas and large-scale infrastructure contracts to the IRGC... 'It’s got much worse in the last four years,' says one local market analyst. 'They’ve become a mafia. They undercut bids by abusing their access to free labour and exploiting their intelligence capabilities [to spy on competitors].'
"The IRGC is also widely rumoured to control a near monopoly over the smuggling of alcohol, cigarettes and satellite dishes, among other things in great demand. One MP reckons these black-market deals net it $12 billion a year. This creates not just a drain on state coffers but an incentive to radicalise the regime; the IRGC’s commanders personally profit from Iran’s isolation, since it creates more demand for contraband..."
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