Our Man In Tehran

Robert Fisk of The Independent continues to prowl the streets of Tehran.  He is skeptical of the letter purporting to reveal the unofficial official results of the election:

They were handing out the photocopies by the thousand under the plane trees in the centre of the boulevard, single sheets of paper grabbed by the opposition supporters who are now wearing black for the 15 Iranians who have been killed in Tehran – who knows how many more in the rest of the country? – since the election results gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad more than 24 million votes and a return to the presidency. But for the tens of thousands marking their fifth day of protests yesterday – and for their election campaign hero, Mirhossein Mousavi, who officially picked up just 13 million votes – those photocopies were irradiated.

For the photocopy appeared to be a genuine but confidential letter from the Iranian minister of interior, Sadeq Mahsuli, to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, written on Saturday 13 June, the day after the elections, and giving both Mr Mousavi and his ally, Mehdi Karroubi, big majorities in the final results. In a highly sophisticated society like Iran, forgery is as efficient as anywhere in the West and there are reasons for both distrusting and believing this document. But it divides the final vote between Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi in such a way that it would have forced a second run-off vote – scarcely something Mousavi's camp would have wanted.

Headed "For the Attention of the Supreme Leader" it notes "your concerns for the 10th presidential elections" and "and your orders for Mr Ahmadinejad to be elected president", and continues "for your information only, I am telling you the actual results". Mr Mousavi has 19,075,623, Mr Karroubi 13,387,104, and Mr Ahmadinejad a mere 5,698,417.

Could this letter be a fake? Even if Mr Mousavi won so many votes, could the colourless Mr Karroubi have followed only six million votes behind him? And however incredible Mr Ahmadinejad's officially declared 63 per cent of the vote may have been, could he really – as a man who has immense support among the poor of Iran – have picked up only five-and-a-half million votes? And would a letter of such immense importance be signed only "on behalf of the minister"?

The BBC also has background.

Comments

[Veeshir]

Wait, what's that feeling? No, it can't be.

Respect for Robert Fisk, the first Internet verb I learned.

Good for him. His reporting has been incredible and is important, especially coming from someone definitely not a neo-con.

[bear1909]

he's still a douche bag.

[Ignatz]

--His reporting has been incredible--

There's an inadvertant truth for ya.

[Danube of Thought]

"Incredible douche bag." I have nothing to add.

[georg felis]

Well, I had heard that Iran had been throwing out all reporters who were not part of the Iranian state media. Now I believe it.

[clarice]

You don't suppose Mr Fisk is and always has been on the Wahabi payroll?

[Jane]

He's on someone's payroll if he is still there. The Iranians don't fool around.

[clarice]

Exactly.

[Ignatz]

Reportedly tomorrow will bring a crackdown on the protesters.

Barry may face a real problem if there is a massacre.
This isn't China in 1989. We have just liberated and democratized one country on the west and, somewhat less successfully, one on the north of Iran. And our navy sits just off shore.
If there's a massacre and he votes "present" with some mealy mouthed, even handed pabulum while another Tiananmen Square is going on, one that we could have some influence over, he runs a risk of going down Carter's "More Mush From the Wimp" (greatest headline ever) road.

[Holy Turquoise, Oh Batman, See the Sign.]

Don't mess with Meshad.

[verner]

Here's C. Hitchens' take on matters. (From Kudlow earlier tonight-LUN)

He feels that we're dealing with 1905 instead 0f 1917--but that the Revolution has indeed begun.

Obama is such a wimp. I am so deeply ashamed that the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is not supporting those shedding blood fighting for freedom from totalitarianism.

[JM Hanes]

"You don't suppose Mr Fisk is and always has been on the Wahabi payroll?"

Why would they pay for something they can get for free?

[sylvia]

Hmmm. Maybe the regime saw the low votes for Ajad and thought there was no way that could be real, since they existed in a bubble, and thought it was fraud against their Ajad, so they thought they'd do some fraud of their own back.

I would think they did first made some attempts to count the votes accurately, because no use to commit fraud if your guy actually won, but once they saw pattern of low Ajad votes merging, they figured if you are going to cheat, you might as well cheat big, it shows attitude. Kind of a Baghdad Bob, 'big lies are better lies' attitude that must be common in the M.E.

[Parking Lot]

((CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Vote for Obama
McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is simply a disgrace.
By Christopher Hitchens
SLATE: Posted Monday, Oct. 13, 2008, at 10:44 AM ET))

CH is a very smart man but in some ways he is very stupid.