Warning About Iranian Conservative Extremists

The people surrounding new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are so dangerously militant that even the conservative mullahs feel uneasy doing business with them.

Or so goes the newest salvo in the anti-Iran information operation.

Iranian politics has shifted so sharply to the right that some traditional conservatives are warning of the dangers of radicalism.

With reformists sidelined and Ahmadinejad setting a strident new tone on the global stage, figures from the extreme right of Iran's political spectrum are defining the terms of political debate in the country. In remarks that set off a domestic firestorm, a senior cleric close to the new president suggested in January that Iranian voters were largely irrelevant because the government requires only the approval of God.

Gee, that's awfully reminiscent of the extra-legal policies of post 9-11 America. These require no approval or oversight by the other branches of government, only the approval of the Almighty.

The remarks by Ayatollah Taqi Mesbah, and similar comments by an aide, were roundly criticized, even on the editorial page of Kayhan, a traditional showcase for hard-line thinking. Iranian political insiders said the flap offered a window on intense infighting at the highest reaches of Iran's theocracy just as world attention is focused on the government's determination to proceed with a nuclear program that skeptics call a cover for atomic weapons.

"Ayatollah Mesbah is an extremist," said one Iranian official close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the soft-spoken cleric who has been Iran's supreme leader since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

"Ayatollah Khomeini warned the people lots of times not to allow these people, the Shia Talibans, to come to power in Iran and have space," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noting that Khamenei has judged it prudent to accommodate even extremists within the system and accord them respect. "Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei feel these people can do a lot of damage. They can damage Iran. They can damage Islam. They are like the Taliban. They are like al-Qaeda. They say they know what Allah expects from us -- that we should do what he wants from us without paying attention to the consequences.

This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The American info-warriors dream up wording about our newest bogeyman that, consciously or not, uses language that could equally be applied to the Bush administration.

Traditional conservatives viewing the people in power as being recklessly extremist. Potential damage to the country, etc.

It looks like the script could have been lifted directly from a domestic American critique of the current U.S. leadership. Only the names have been changed.

The blatant comparison of Iran and Al Qaeda, however, marks the piece as yet another composition bearing a remarkably similar style to that often seen from the boys in the psyop shop.