An On-Line Publication of the Anonymous Anything Society
Ruhollah
Khomeini
IRAN, LAND OF CONSTANT CONFLICT
Last week, while doing a piece on the problems that the U.S. is
having with the Saudi Arabians, we were obliged to revisit the half century
of unending travail visited upon the people of Iran, beginning with an
attempt by Mohammad Mossadegh, Prime Minister of the democratically elected
Iranian parliament to wrest control of its petroleum from U.S. and British
interests.
American CIA and British Secret Service urged royalists to
support the return of the Shah (monarch) as the head of the Iranian
government.
The Shah proved to be a despot. He surrounded himself with
secret police and either imprisoned or dispatched many of his enemies, some
of whom were clerics…the ayatollahs…and here we encounter a confusion about
titles and names: Senior ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was the leader of the
opposition to the Shah. He fled to France.
Ali Khamenei
The Shah became ill and the U.S. offered treatment. It was not
successful.After he died, Ruhollah Khomeini returned to a nation that
celebrated his return. He was acclaimed ruler.
While the older ayatollah was in exile, a younger cleric, Ali
Khamenei, (no relation) embraced the older ayatollah’s views and had been
imprisoned by the Shah’s secret police six times. During a lengthy, tortuous
interrogation by the Shah’s police, he lost the use of his right arm and
hand. He is now the Supreme leader of Iran.
TO BE CONTINUED. (Iran’s War with Saddam and the hostage taking at the
U.S, Embassy)
– Phil Richardson, Storyteller and Observer of the Human Condition.
