Ahmadinejad Declared Winner In Iran `Election'

Friday, June 12, 2009

http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/

Ahmadinejad Declared Winner In Iran `Election'

That is, according to IRNA.

The state election commission said early Saturday that Ahmadinejad, a hardline conservative, was ahead with 66 percent of the votes in Friday's election after 21 million ballots were counted.

Ahmadinejad's main challenger, moderate former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, had 31 percent, according to the commission, which is part of the Interior Ministry. It said 61 percent of all ballot boxes had now been counted.

The official news agency IRNA said: "Dr Ahmadinejad, by winning most votes at the 10th presidential election, has secured his victory."

I particularly love the way al-Reuters refers to Ahmadinejad as "a hardline conservative" and Mousavi as a "moderate".There's maybe a dime's worth of difference between them.

'Moderate' Mousavi's biggest backer was none other than the 'moderate' former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rasfanjani, who famously said that the 'Israel problem' could be solved by one nuclear bomb.

Neither one of them would have been allowed to run for office without the express permission of the Supreme Council of Guardians and its leader Ayatollah Khamenei and especially not without agreeing to follow orders. And anyone who thinks that Mousavi being 'elected' would have marked any change to some kind of new order in Iran is simply kidding themselves.

What little difference there was involved class. Mousavu represented the older, kleptocratic, more elitist order and had mor support from the more educated classes in Tehran while Ahmadinejad was more of a populist with solid following among the baseji, rural areas and the working classes. The only reason Mousavi was on the ballot inth efirst place was as a possible gambit by the Mullahs if they felt it might be better to have a new face up front instead of Ahmadinejad to buy a bit more time until Iran's nukes are completed.

The key to their decision to go with Ahmadinejad was Obama's performance in Cairo. After that, they obviously felt no need to make the effort and came down solidly on the side of Ahmadinejad.

Mousavi claimed numerous voting irregularities and at one point tried to declare himself the winner, but this is pure kabuki. There may be a few scuffles and a little shouting from Mousavi's followers to let off some steam, but it's over.

The mullahs have spoken. And that's where the real power lies in Iran.

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Obama Steps on Britain's Toes - Again

D'OH!
The continuous amauteur hour at the Obama White House is getting monotonous.Do these people have any clue what they're doing?

Some of the inmates at Club Gitmo are Chinese Uigher Muslim separatists.

Since the Chosen One decreed that Club Gitmo must be closed without making any plans about an alternative, there's been a scramble as to where to put these people.

In th ecase of the Uighers, China was quite willing to take them back, but there were concerns about the kind of reception they'd receive there, so an alternative was sought.

The island nation of Palau was bribed with taxpayer dollars to take some of them while another four were sent to Bermuda, again at the US taxpayer's expense.

Just one minor problem... Bermuda is a dependency of the UK, but no one bothered to ask the British for permission!

And to put it mildly, the Brits are not amused:

The British Government responded with ill-disguised fury tonight to the news that four Chinese Uighurs freed from Guantanamo Bay had been flown for resettlement on the Atlantic tourist paradise of Bermuda. 
The four arrived on Bermuda in the early hours, celebrating the end of seven years of detention after learning that they were to be accepted as guest workers. 

But it appears that the Government of Bermuda failed to consult with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the decision to take in the Uighurs – whose return is demanded by Beijing – and it could now be forced to send them back to Cuba or risk a grave diplomatic crisis.

I understand the British position entirely - not only did we dump some of our garbage in their yard without their permission, they now have a diplomatic row with the Chinese, who really, really want these Uighers back.

Either the Obama Adminsitration was cynically trying to put something over on the Brits or some of their appointees were to stupid to realize that Bermuda is a British dependency before they came up wioth this bright idea. There's no third possibility.

Now, if Bush '43 had pulled this, it would be front page headlines in the New York Times and opening story on the alphabet networks.Because it's Obama, crickets.

Rememeber during the campaign, when the American public was lied to about how Obama was going to restore the relationship with our allies? 

With his previous treatment of Britain's prime minister and a whole slew of silly mistakes like this one, Obama has done more to damage those relationships in 6 months than Bush '43 did during his entire two terms.