NO SURPRSE BUT Iran's Presidential Election is A Sham

By Barry Rubin

The names have now been announced of who will be allowed to run for president of Iran by the regime in the June 14 elections. Six of eight are supporters of the current ruling faction; the rest are two weaker candidates of the other two factions. The outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tumultuous time in office has left many dissatisfied especially since he has mismanaged the economy and made Iran’s international situation worse by his provocative behavior.

With less than a month to go before the elections (the campaign is only three weeks long to make things harder for the opposition) it is now clear who the candidates are and all those disagreeing with the dominant faction have been vetoed by the six-member Council of Guardian. This council is controlled by the country’s real ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But the complex maneuvers leading up to the election have given him a huge political headache.

The core of the problem is that there are three factions. Khamenei doesn’t want two of the factions-- the super-hardliners and the reformists—to win but only the third group, his hardliners.

The super-hardline faction’s candidate was Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad’s son-in-law and man widely seen as a puppet for him. Khamenei hates Mashaei and Mashaei was disqualified.

Also disqualified was the potential “reform” candidate, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjan. One must hesitate to call him a true reformer. Rafsanjani is an insider, indeed a former president (1989-1997), who used to be an ally of Khamenei but now is a fierce rival. Rafsanjani is pragmatic and reportedly conspicuously corrupt. He does not want to overturn the regime but change its direction, keep it more out of international trouble, and find some way to shed the sanctions imposed to stop Iran’s nuclear program. He might have tried to pull Iran back from international confrontations. The 78-year-old Rafsanjani is a dubious hero. He is not part of the reform movement yet he was the best bet they have. The Iranian ruling elite hates him, too. There are genuine differences between him and Khamenei about the country's direction.

So who does the elite fix the election for as winner? There are eight candidates left in the election:
There is former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati who is close to Khamenei.

Then there is Muhammad Bagher Ghalibaf the mayor of Tehran and close to Khamenei.

Of course there is Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. He is very close to Khamenei, perhaps his favorite though he has no administrative experience. .

Or perhaps you like former speaker of parliament Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel who is close to Khamenei.

Some might prefer Asan Rowhani, former nuclear negotiator and Khamenei's man on the National Security Council.

But if you want someone else there is Gholam Ali Haddad Adel whose daughter is married to Khamenei's son.

There are two candidates not from Khamenei's faction. Muhammad Reza Aref is former vice-president and represents the reform group. Mohsen Rezaei, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard is a stand-in for the Ahmadinejad faction.

You might think that six Khamenei followers might split the hardline vote but don't worry as that will be taken care of in the ballot-counting if necessary.

Ironically, the main impact of the Iranian election may be on the West. Articles and arguments had been already appearing claiming that a post-election Iran would be more moderate and that the next Iranian president would be willing to abandon the regime's subversive foreign policy and nuclear weapons' program. Western negotiators wanted to say: Give Iran a chance. That will be much harder now.

For an explanation of the Iranian election in song, see here. I promise you won't regret it.

If you are interested in reading more about the history of U.S.-Iran relations and the Iranian revolution you're welcome to read my book Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience and Iran online or download it for free..

We’d love to have your support and work hard to earn it. See our new feature with 13 free books at http://www.gloria-center.org. Why not make a tax-deductible donation to the GLORIA Center by PayPal: click here.

By credit card: click here. Checks: "American Friends of IDC.” “For GLORIA Center” on memo line and send to: American Friends of IDC, 116 East 16th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10003.
For tax-deductible donations in Canada and the UK, write us here.

-------------------- Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His next book, Nazis, Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East, written with Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, will be published by Yale University Press in January 2014. His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, also published by Yale. Thirteen of his books can be read and downloaded for free at the website of the GLORIA Center including The Arab States and the Palestine Conflict, The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East and The Truth About Syria. His blog is Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.

The NY Times AND Dana Milbank Back Fox News OVER Obama (Who Says God Doesn't Perform Miracles)

Ladies and Gentleman, for those of you who may not believe that there is an ultimate creator of the universe today is additional proof that God does exist.  Others may mark today's date and play 5-22-20-13 and play them in their states' numbers games. 

What's the big miracle?  The bible of progressivism, the New York Times and Dana Milbank one of this administration's biggest unfettered cheerleaders admonished the Obama Administration for its actions involving the Department of Justice's targeting of Fox News' James Rosen.

The NY Times editorial page described the DOJ action as "moving beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news."

...The Rosen case follows other signs that the administration has gone overboard in its zeal to find and muzzle insiders. The Associated Press revealed last week that the government had secretly seized two months’ worth of records for telephones used by the agency’s staff, partly to determine the source of a leak about a report involving a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen. At least two other major leak investigations are continuing. Six current and former administration officials have been indicted under the old Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press and public. In 2010, a federal judge in Maryland sentenced a leaker to 20 months in jail while admitting that he was “in the dark as to the kind of documents” involved in the leak or what impact they had on national security.

Obama administration officials often talk about the balance between protecting secrets and protecting the constitutional rights of a free press. Accusing a reporter of being a “co-conspirator,” on top of other zealous and secretive investigations, shows a heavy tilt toward secrecy and insufficient concern about a free press.

In his Washington Post Column today Dana Milbank also described the chilling effect of the DOJ actions:

But here’s why you should care — and why this case, along with the administration’s broad snooping into Associated Press phone records, is more serious than the other supposed Obama administration scandals regarding Benghazi and the Internal Revenue Service. The Rosen affair is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of. 

To treat a reporter as a criminal for doing his job — seeking out information the government doesn’t want made public — deprives Americans of the First Amendment freedom on which all other constitutional rights are based. Guns? Privacy? Due process? Equal protection? If you can’t speak out, you can’t defend those rights, either.
Beyond that, the administration’s actions shatter the president’s credibility and discourage allies who would otherwise defend the administration against bogus accusations such as those involving the Benghazi “talking points.” If the administration is spying on reporters and accusing them of criminality just for asking questions — well, who knows what else this crowd is capable of doing?

Both pieces are accurate and sadly the DOJ action is not very surprising to those who have followed the careers of President Obama and AG Holder. The surprise is that two of this administration's biggest supporters are (correctly)  supporting one of their own over the President they worship.  

What is truly disappointing is these same two media vehicles did not take the same responsibility to support the American people over the President they worship when the scandal did not target one of their own.  

John McCain Demonstrates Why He is No Better Than Obama

2008 was an incredibly difficult election for many conservatives--they knew Barack Obama's policies would be trouble for America and suspected John McCain's would be almost as bad. So believing with McCain there was at least a chance he wouldn't be the anti-business progressive Obama would be many held their noses and voted for the Republican.

Yesterday on the Senate floor, McCain proved the only difference between him and Barack Obama is the President has two daughters neither of whom go on TV just to sound stupid about politics.

Yesterday the former GOP standard-bearer John McCain showed himself to be a warrior in President Obama's war on success.

On Monday Senate investigators discovered that Apple’s been a perfectly legal mix of international tax shelters to lower its tax burden. For example, they have a holding company incorporated in Ireland that keeps its bank accounts in the U.S.,  Since Ireland assesses residency based on where the company’s assets are but America assesses residency based on place of incorporation, for all intents an purposes, this holding company exists nowhere for tax purposes.

According to Politico Apple saved $44 billion since 2009 from tricks like this which are all perfectly legal. The United States has one of the world's highest corporate tax rates, so there is no wonder why US based companies look for international tax shelters . But he Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation report attacked Apple most heavily.

Congressional investigators found that some of Apple’s subsidiaries had no employees and were largely run by top officials from the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. But by officially locating them in places like Ireland, Apple was able to, in effect, make them stateless — exempt from taxes, record-keeping laws and the need for the subsidiaries to even file tax returns anywhere in the world.

In other words, the Democratic Party-controlled Senate was throwing another another punch in  President Obama's war on success (remember nothing that Apple did was against the law--they simply had great CPAs).

Yesterday, the Senate brought in Apple executives so they could make a public spectacle of yelling at success. 

At the start of the hearings, as the Ranking Member, McCain got to say a few words,  he decried what he described as Apple’s “scheme” to avoid taxes.

"U.S. corporations cannot continue to avoid paying their appropriate share in taxes," said McCain. "Our military can't afford it. Our economy cannot endure it. And the American people will not tolerate it."

Appropriate share of taxes....now where have I heard that before?


When it came time for Senator Rand Paul a member of the committee to speak he  attacked the proceedings.

Tell me one of these politicians up here who doesn’t minimize their taxes,” Paul said. “Tell me a chief financial officer you would hire if he didn’t try to minimize his taxes legally. Tell me what Apple has done illegally. I’m offended by government that uses the IRS to bully the Tea Party, but I’m also offended by government that convenes a hearing to bully one of America’s greatest success stories. I’m offended by the spectacle of dragging in executives from an American company that is not doing anything illegal.”

“If anyone should be on trial here, it should be Congress,” Paul went on. “I think the committee should apologize to Apple, I think Congress should be on trial here for creating a bizarre and byzantine tax code that runs into the tens of thousands of pages and for creating a tax code that simply doesn’t compete with the rest of the world.”

Committee Chairman Levin fired back after Paul’s  salvo, saying that while Apple was indeed a great global technology company, “No company should be able to determine how much they are going to pay in taxes . . . using all kinds of gimmicks to avoid paying the taxes…”

“This subcommittee is not going to apologize to Apple,” Levin said. “We did not drag them in front of this subcommittee. They have come here willingly to explain their system. We intend to hear from them as to what this system is that they use.”

 Of course Levin is a progressive Democrat...that's what he is supposed to say, but Paul wasn't done, and gave the committee some more.

But John McCain had just about enough, wanting keep his progressive stripes when it was his turn to speak again he faced Levin and said the two of them had worked together for more than a quarter of a century in the Senate and that

“I know of no member of the United States Senate who ever accused you of bullying or harassing a witness . . . And frankly it’s offensive to hear you accused of that behavior which has never characterized the conduct of this committee.”

Barack Obama must have smiled at that knowing he has another ally in the war against success.

Paul is correct the real problem is our crazy voluminous tax code. Apple's first obligation is to its shareholders many of them "moms and pops" and/or pension plans for "moms and pops."  If progressives such as Carl Levin or John McCain want Apple to bring its earning back into the United States simplify the tax code and lower the tax rate.  This is still a free capitalist country and a corporation's gotta do what a corporation's gotta do to earn money. Much of that is producing the best products at the lowest rates, but some of that is paying out as little as possible--the fiduciary responsibilities of senior management.

This brings us back to Senator McCain. In 2008 the GOP nominated Obama-lite to be president, voters chose the "original" Obama.  In 2012 the GOP nominated Mitt Romney who was a bit less Obama-lite but still closer too close to the progressive standard bearer and once again the people chose the original over the copy. 

2016 is just around the corner, it is clear that the Democratic Party is not moderating, they will most probably choose another radical progressive as their nominee.  If the Republican's follow suit and choose another "progressive-lite," a John McCain or Mitt Romney clone they will be dooming us to another four years of crashing down the abyss of over regulation, over taxation and success-prevention. Given the choice between a John McCain type or an "original" progressive voters will always choose the original.

Jesus vs. Mohammed-MUST Watch Steven Crowder Video

Another entertaining and enlightening video from comedian Steven Crowder. He makes some valid points and makes one laugh at the same time comparing (and personally I believe Moshes and Elisha have them has them both topped).

Why Elisha? Because of Kings 2 verses 23 and 24, when Elisha teaches that you don't mess with bald guys:

And he went up from there unto Beit-El; and as he was going up along the derech, there came forth ne’arim ketannim out of the Ir, and jeered in mockery at him, and said unto him, Go on up, thou kere’ach (bald head); go on up, thou kere’ach.
 

And he turned around, and looked on them, and cursed them in the Shem Hashem (the Name of God). And there came forth two dubim (female bears) out of the woods, and mauled 42 yeladim of them.

Some might say Elijah's successor has an anger management problem--but not me.

How cool is that! A couple of bullies make fun of Elisha and he becomes the defender of bald guys like me.

But I digress--below is Crowder's great video.

Oh and if you are an Islamist...I didn't put this video here (it was them dammed joooos  oh wait I am one of them dammed Jooos) well either way please don't kill me after you watch the video.

Scandalpalooza Update: Obama's Worst Day So Far?

One thing becoming increasingly apparent that the revelations regarding the Obama scandals are comings at a faster pace and in some respects yesterday may have been the President's worst day since this "scandalpalooza" began.  As bad as today's news was the indications are that it may get much worse.

Benghazi: 

• The terrorists are free because Obama insists on trying them in civilian court.  According to the Associated Press, U.S. officials say they have identified five men they believe might be behind the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year. The officials say they have enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists _ but not enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers.
  

  "They have let it slip by because of politics, and now we've taken all the correlation we had and dropped the ball because of risk (aversion) -- and now the security in Libya is more fragile than ever," one U.S. special operator told Fox News. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirms that U.S. forces have tracked the alleged attackers since October but have since lost the trail of some of them, as no one up the chain of command would authorize them to capture or kill the targeted militia members

So the officials say the men remain at large while the FBI gathers more evidence. The decision not to seize the men militarily underscores the White House's aim to move away from hunting terrorists as enemy combatants and toward trying them as criminals in a civilian justice system.

• The Next Whistle Blowers will be MUCH Worse. Roger Simon reported on PJM about diplomatic sources told him the next whistle blowers will tell congress that Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming “insurgents” with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft. Additionally military contacts of the diplomats tell them that AFRICOM had Special Ops “assets in place that could have come to the aid of the Benghazi consulate immediately (not in six hours).”

 And Commanding General Ham was ready to send them. However Ham was told by the White House not to send the aid to the trapped men, but Ham decided to disobey and did so anyway, whereupon the White House “called his deputy and had the deputy threaten to relieve Ham of his command.”

 According to Simon, these whistle blowers are colleagues of his diplomatic contacts and are, currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistle blower law. Until they are sure they can be protected they cannot testify.

• Hillary Part Two- the Hill Reports: The rising temperature of the scandal means it’s possible that Hillary could be asked to return and testify again. If she comes back, she had better be prepared, says House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa. “We are interviewing lots of people, most of them under oath,” Issa says, describing the “methodical” approach his committee has been using for months. “We’re going to go through . . . that so that if we bring Secretary Clinton back, we bring her back when we have a lot of questions, including who told her what, or, more importantly, who didn’t tell her something, and why” Issa says in his office in the Rayburn House Office Building. 

• The Scape Goat? Following the attack in Benghazi, Libya, senior State Department officials close to Hillary Clinton ordered the removal of a midlevel official who had no role in security decisions and has never been told the charges against him. He is now accusing Clinton’s team of scapegoating him for the failures that led to the death of four Americans last year. But what difference at this point does it make? 

IRS: 

• Senate Hearing- More of the same from our friends at the IRS. But this time Orin Hatch gave Mr. Miller.
  
  “Why did you mislead me and my colleagues, my fellow senators, and most importantly the American people by failing to tell us what you knew about the exact subject we were asking about? Why didn’t you tell us?” Hatch asked.
  
  “Mr. Hatch, I did not lie,” Miller responded. “I did not lie, sir.”
  
  “You lied by omission. You knew what was going on,” Hatch said. “You should have told us.”
  
  “I answered the questions. I answered them truthfully. Did I know about the list? Yes. Not on the first letter, by the way, because the timing I wouldn’t have known for that. On the second letter, we answered those questions, sir,” Miller said.

• I'm NOT Sorry We Targeted Conservatives:  Senator Cornyn grilled former IRS Director Schulman and asked if he like Steven Miller did would begin by apologizing for the IRS’ systemic targeting of conservative groups.
  
  “I’m deeply, deeply saddened by this whole set of events,” Shulman replied. “I’ve read the IG’s report and I very much regret that it happened and that it happened on my watch.”“Is that an apology?” Cornyn asked the Senator?

 Which eventually led to the former director saying “I certainly am not personally responsible for creating a list that had inappropriate criteria on it,” Shulman replied. “What I know, with the full facts that are out is – from the Inspector General’s report – which doesn’t say that I’m responsible for that.”

• But No One Told The President? During the White House press briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Jay Carney informed the media that there were discussions between White House officials and the Internal Revenue Service regarding how they would present the news that conservative groups were targeted with excessive scrutiny. Carney confirmed that Deputy White House Chief of Staff Mark Childress interacted with officials in the Treasury Department and discussed the IRS scandal. 

• I'd Take a Fifth Also:  If I was under the same pressure as Lois Lerner, I would take a fifth of single malt. But Lerner, was the IRS official who announced the scandal and followed up with a disastrous presser. Lerner was called to testify at the House Oversight Committee.
  

  “The committee has been contacted by Ms. Lerner’s lawyer who stated that his client intended to invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to answer questions,” said oversight spokesman Ali Ahmad. 

• The Administration is Lying? MSNBC (yes that MSNBC)  is reporting that Bonnie Esrig, a 38-year IRS veteran, worked as an area manager in the Determinations Unit of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations department in 2011 and 2012.
  
  “The idea of two rogue employees,” Esrig said, “is inconsistent with the kinds of checks and balances that are inherent in the way the organization is set up.”
  
  Nor does she believe the IRS assertion in its response to the Inspector General’s audit that the use of such inappropriate selection criteria were “mistakes” and that “front-line career employees … made the decisions.”
  
  “Front-line employees (at the Cincinnati office) do not make key decisions about policy and how work is processed,” Esrig told us. “Work is reviewed by the managers. The employees don't operate autonomously where there is no review. The managers review.
  
  “I think that even if an employee were to veer off in a separate direction briefly, I would be very surprised if anyone could sustain that before management became involved.” 

• Your Tax Dollars at work: Entrusted with a government credit card, an Internal Revenue Service worker allegedly used the plastic for a years-long Amazon.com shopping spree that netted her hundreds of items, including a chocolate fondue fountain; Bollywood movies; Pampers; Harlequin romance novels; Omaha Steaks; Apple Bottoms skinny jeans; mango body wash; and a Ginsu knife set.
  
  Yetunde Oseni, 37, was named this month in a U.S. District Court felony complaint charging her with embezzling government funds. Oseni has worked since 2000 as a secretary in an IRS office in Lanham, Maryland. According to a court filing, Oseni was given a Citibank MasterCard for the “purchase of office supplies for her business unit.”

• As the Story Changes- Jay Carny came up with another timeline for the IRS Scandal. Obama's hired spinner Carney said WH Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was informed by the Treasury Department’s General Counsel’s office April 24 that the Inspector General for Tax Administration was completing a report that found that IRS employees improperly scrutinized political organizations seeking tax exempt status by searching their applications for words including “Tea Party” and “patriot.”
  
  The previous week, on April 16, Ruemmler had learned more generally that there were a number of Inspector General reports being finalized and an IRS investigation was among those investigations, Carney said.
  
  Carney’s comments today are at odds with what he told reporters last week, when he said the White House counsel “only found out about the review being conducted and coming to conclusion by the inspector general.”

The War on The Media:

• And Sharyl Attkisson Too? Sharyl Attkisson, the Emmy-award winning CBS News investigative reporter, says that her personal and work computers have been compromised and are under investigation.
  
  "I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I'm not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I've been patient and methodical about this matter," Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. "I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public."

• Carney the Laughing Stock: The White House Press Corps/Jay Carney daily briefing has become nothing but contentious. At one point today,  Carney took tough questions on a series of issues that could damage the White House politically, the press secretary aligned himself with White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, who over the weekend accused Republicans of engaging in “partisan fishing expeditions “You know, we could go down the list of questions — we could say, what about the president's birth certificate?" Carney responded. “Was that legitimate?”

• Carney Gets Slammed-Witness this conversation between Jay Carney and  Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News:
  

  JAY CARNEY: What is it that you're trying [to do]?
  HANS NICHOLS: I'm trying to figure out how people in this building knew what they knew and when they knew it. And we seem --
  CARNEY: Let's step back.
  NICHOLS: You just dinged us for not asking precise questions. Here I am asking precise questions and you’re acting like I’m petulant.
  CARNEY: Well, I'm just trying to figure out what it is that we provided you. I can't believe anybody would call you petulant. But we provided you --
  NICHOLS: Or you forthcoming.

That's just what happened during the past 24 hours. Scandal upon scandal it seems as if things are building....it also seems that the administration is cracking at the seams. All of the above, on top of Fast and Furious, Obamacare falling apart and of course that doesn't even include the rumor from Drudge that there is a fourth scandal, the one the Administration fears most of all--just waiting to burst out.

Today may very well have been Obama's worst day so far in this Scandalpalooza, but based on the past 24 hours...it may get much, much worse.