The War of Words:
The “Basij” is a paramilitary organization founded by Ayatollah Khomeini which is subordinated to the “Pasdaran” (Army of the Guards of the Islamic Revolution – a very powerful elite military force independent from the Iranian armed forces) and which was used in major assault operations during the Iran-Iraq war. Nowadays, the Basij are an auxiliary force for emergency situation which range from disaster management to law and order and riot control. As such, they often loathed by opponents of the Iranian regime.
Anybody who has been keeping up with the recent news from Iran must have noticed, albeit mostly possibly, that the Basij are almost invariably described as “Basij thugs”. But where did that idea of Basij being “thugs” come from?
Let us assume, for the sake of the argument, that indeed, the Basij are composed almost exclusively of thugs, nasty thugs at that, and that they use every opportunity to beat, maim, molest and abuse innocent Iranians. And then, let’s ask this simple question:
What kind of knowledge do those in the West who write about “Basij thugs” have that the Basij are, indeed, thugs? Let me repeat, I am not arguing here that the Basij are not thugs, I am only asking where to those who throw around the words “Basij thugs” get their info from?
[Now please, those of you who did use that expression on my blog, do not rush to google in order to try to find proof of Basiji thuggery. Now is too late. No, my question was different. Did any of you actually do some serious research to establish the thuggish nature of the Basij *before* you used the words “Basij thugs”?]
The reality is that the entire concept of “Basij thugs” has exactly the same roots as, say, “Serbian Chetnik” or “Palestinian terrorist”. While there are undoubtedly Basiji thugs, Serbian Chetniks and Palestinian terrorists out there, the use of these terms by people who have only second hand knowledge of Basijis, Chetnicks or Palestinians is a modern form of Orwell’s “two minute of hate” – they serve to disconnect any rational thought and make a fact based and logic driven analysis impossible.
The Empire has always excelled in carefully framing the debate and giving the gullible public well identified targets for outrage and hatred. In the case of Iran, the millions invested by Uncle Shmuel in its strategic psyop campaign are now handsomely paying off.
The War of Images
By now we probably all have seen the terrible images of the young lady shot in the streets of Tehran. (If not, you can see these images here). The videos are identified as “Shot by Basij” and “Basij shoot to death a young woman”. Here is the text which is circulated with the videos:
At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.
A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.
Amazingly, a number of absolutely basic questions are *not* asked about this shooting:
1) “Shot by” – what kind of evidence is there that the shot came from the person identified as the shooter since the same text says that this person was hiding. Maybe somebody else was hiding also? Is there any ballistic evidence identifying the guy on the roof as the shooter?
2) “a Basij member hiding on a rooftop”. How do we know that he was Basij?! Did he somehow identify himself after the shooting? (not before, since he was, quote “hiding”).
3) “He could not miss her”. Shooting down from a rooftop? What was the approximate distance and weapon used?
4) “He aimed straight at the heart”. Wow! Not only are we told who shot the lady, but we even know what the shooter was aiming at. Now how could anybody know this unless the shooter was interviewed before or after the shooting. Also, this “Basij thugs” is clearly a elite marksman using a sniper rifle.
5) “I am a doctor”. Wait – from all of the above I was under the impression that the author of this text was not a medial doctor, but a ballistics expert. Either that, or a psychic…
We will probably never find out what really happened that day. And maybe the lady was shot by a a member Basij. But then, maybe not. Could have been another shooter, could have been a totally missed shot by somebody with only very basic weapons skills, could have been a lost bullet, or it could have been a carefully orchestrated incident, with an elite marksman carefully aiming at a young lady (not a masked men or an old woman dressed in black – these would not make for adequate victims) with just the right folks standing nearby to take the seminal images proving the “barbarity of the Basij thugs unleashed by the corrupt regime of the Mullahs against the liberty-aspiring Iranian youths”.
Those familiar with what happened in Venezuela during the famous scene of “Chavez’ thugs shooting at unarmed peaceful demonstrators on a bridge in Caracas” know exactly what I am talking about here. Those who have not seen this video can order it here or download it from the Internet.
Lastly, nobody is asking the age old question: Cui Bono? Who has the most to gain (or the most to loose) from all this?
UPDATE1: The anwer to this question has kindly been provided by, of all things, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in its article “Iran turmoil likely to benefit Israel“:
Like the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago, the outcome of the post-election unrest in Iran could be of major strategic significance for the Middle East and for Israel.
Israeli analysts see three possible scenarios:
* President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the ruling ayatollahs use force to reassert the authority of their regime.
* Ahmadinejad’s presidential rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, sweeps to power on a wave of popular support and reforms what still remains an essentially clerical regime.
* The unrest takes on a dynamic of its own, driving the ayatollahs from power.
In each scenario, Israel stands to benefit.
(Make sure to follow the link above and read the rest. It’s a great read)
We don’t even ask whether the action of one man (the putative “Basij thug” on the rooftop) tell us anything at all about the regime in power. After all, innocent people have been shot by law enforcement officials in every single country on the planet, even the most democratic one.
Any time you give guns to a large amount of people you will be giving guns to a certain percentage of clumsy idiots and/or morons who like the power and authority a gun gives them. I can almost guarantee you that sometime this week, some Basiji shot *himself* by mistake. The same would have happened in any country. Does any of this tell us anything useful or relevant about Iran?!
This is the real power of the “Basij thug”. No, not the actual Basij member (whether thug or not), but the power of the idea of the “Basij thug”. This concept achieve as suspension of thought, a kind of blind acceptance of a carefully tailored narrative which then explodes into a “two-minute of hate” kind of hostility towards the object of this debate-framing technique.
If anything, the current events in Iran have shown that the Western public has learned exactly *nothing* about how it has been manipulated for many decades already. The Empire is using the exact same techniques and, amazingly, it still achieves the exact same results. The gullible comemierdas (as they are so aptly called in Spanish) still are eager to gobble down whatever the Empire wants them to feed on.
No wonder our Imperial masters despises us and treats us like slaves. We deserve it.
The Saker
PS check out Craig Paul Roberts’ latest article “Iran Falling to US Psyops” and listen to his recent interview on this topic.
UPDATE2: PressTV has just reported that the Tehran police denied that *any* shots at all were fired by its personnel on Sat. (thought whether this includes Basijis is unclear). PressTV is also reporting that some “armed vandals” have killed several people and that these “vandals” were arrested. (Not that any such denials or reports will have the slightest impact on those who have already decided that they ‘know” who shot the young lady).
Are not not disgusted by the cold-blooded murder of the young woman?
It seems to me that, in your haste to side with the regime in Iran, you have lost sight of this fact.
Sure people are murdered all the time by ‘agents of the state’ in democracies too. Here in Greece we had the murder of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos last December that sparked off 2 weeks of rioting and demonstrations.
The conservatives, social-democrats of PASOK and the KKE Stalinists all condemned the rioters/demonstrators, but had to distance themselves from the policeman who murdered the schoolstudent as the vast majority of Greeks (and not only) were absolutely livid.
All ‘agents of the state’ are thugs and their job is to protect the interests of the ruling class. In ‘normal’ times this is often done without the need for ‘excessive’ force, more through fraud. In Iran, the times are not normal and I really hope that the regime will not resort to a Tiannanmen ‘solution’.
If it does, will you still support the regime?
@Oh Jezz, my friend, I did not expect that one coming from you…
First, I am not supporting any ‘regime’ in Iran. What I do support is the rule of law in this country, and since I have not seen as much as a tiny shread of evidence that the election was stolen (by a whopping 11 million votes, of all things!), I do not support extra-legal methods to contest the results.
Second, I am absolutely convinced that all this is the result of a community of interests between such pseudo-reformers as Rafsanjani and his puppet Mousavi and the Empire and this has nothing to do with any “reforms”. This is a power grab by the Iranian Guccis supported by the USraelians.
Third, I categorically reject the kind of logic which says that if I ask pernitent questions about a shooting I am therefore not disgusted by the “cold blooded” (how do you know that, by the way?) murder of a young woman. Frankly, I am offended by your words.
Fourth, I do believe that the government has the right and, in fact, the DUTY to uphold the results of the elections. There is no doubt in my mind that unless somebody establishes with some degree of plausability that Mousavi won, the will of the majority has to be respected and, yes, ENFORCED.
Lastly, there is also no doubt in my mind that what we are witnessing is, in essense, the preparatory phase of a US-Israeli attack. Just listen to what Craig Paul Robers said in his interview (see audio link above and, for Pete’s sake, LISTEN TO IT before dismissing it all).
Anticapitalista, I ask you to read my words carefuly and take them to mean what they say, not what you think that they say.
Let me be clear here: I do not support any murder, not of a young woman, not of anybody else. I only ask people to friggin USE THEIR HEADS and logically and critically ask themselves what we really know about what happened and who benfits from all this?
Kind regards,
The Saker
One more thing:
The “Tiananmen option”.
Ask yourself, who now in Iran (and outside!) is most interested in seeing this happen.
And let me ask you: what would you have the government do?!
Just recognize the elections has illicit even though Mousavi presented no evidence to that?
And if they do, what will Ahmadinejad and his supporters to? Just take that gracefully or will they take to the streets also?
Do you want to two sides to slug it out in the street and the government to let that happen lest somebody accuses a cop of shooting somebody?!
For fuck’s sake, don’t you see that the government has EVERYTHYING TO LOOSE form a Tiananmen scenario and that it will try to avoid it as much as it can and that the OPPOSITION HAS EVERYTHING TO GAIN FROM THAT?!?!???!
Can’t you already see how Obama and Co. will present an attack on Iran not as the normal Israeli-ordered mass murder but as an “operation to restore hope and democracy to the Iranian people suffering under the brutal theocracy of a few corrupt Mullahs”?!?!?!?!
What happened to your critical sense? Is is really totally dead?!?!?!?!
anticapitalista,
What would be the point of the government forces in killing this particular woman standing next to her father in cold blood? If they are there to just kill in cold blood, why didn’t they just spray the street with machine guns…?
It does not make sense for the government forces to just randomly select this woman to be killed in cold blood, yet it does make sense for anti-government forces to randomly select killing her in order to blame it on the government forces and therefore the government with an agenda to continue creating mistrust of the government amongst the people to continue the chaos on the streets….
women and kids are killed almost on a regular basis by the zionists in the westbank and gaza , and the world Yawns but a woman get shot (may be by the Moujahedeen Khalq or insurgents who are paid by America , and the zionists and the world is shocked . Hypocrits .
@Anonymous: while what you say is definitely true of some, I have known anticapitalista for long enough to be sure that he cares for any innocent victim, including those killed in occupied Palestine.
The same goes for Amy Goodman or Pepe Escobar. I don’t believe for one second that they are hypocrits, they are just the victims of a very powerful and sophisticated propaganda campaign. That, and their anti-religious, anti-clerical bias, is the reason for their stance nowadays.
The hypocrits are the politicians, but not the people who are conned by them.
My 2cts.
According to this ( http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE55K1IG20090621 ) Reuters dispatch, “Israel keeps Mossad chief on for Iran ‘shadow war'”.
Don’t know how much is saber-rattling and how much their actual intentions, anyway is worth a read.
From Ynet, an interview with the fiancé of Neda Sultani, the killed girl ( http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3735477,00.html , caution, there are some disturbing images). Among the other things, he says that the photos of her wearing a green headband that circulate on internet are false.
Haaretz ( http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094795.html ) says that she was far from the place where the crowd was.
Anyway, while Ynet seems to take for granted that the killer was a basij, Haaretz says that this point can’t be verified.
@Alex: well, what can I say? The Israeli media is definitely better than any Western news outlet. Oh, even Ha’aretz is far from perfect, of course, and they can be manipulated, conned and otherwise biased, but at least they don’t fear “crossing the Party line” since their base is in the Left-leaning Israeli public.
Protestors clash with basiji and force the latter to run away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00cSHvqTXwI . Strange reaction for a band of blood-thirst thugs…
@Vineyard: and that tells a lot about Western media…
Peace all,
Distinguish between the crime and the criminal. The crime is evident but the criminal in this situation is not clear cut. Assumptions in condemning a person as a murderer is wrong, condemn with proof and certainty.
Regards