The shrinking pool of insiders in Iran

WORLD NEWS: "Turmoil in Iran: Political 'leprosy' takes toll on regime; The opposition is led by politicians who were 'insiders' just six months ago," by Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times, 2-3 January 2009.

FRONT PAGE: "Opposition chief in Iran ready for martyrdom," by Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times, 2-3 January 2010.

This substantial migration from the ranks of insiders to outsiders is amazing--a big sign of profound change on the horizon. The only way the Supreme Leader keeps some semblance of control is to concentrate it and--essentially--hand it over to the Revolutionary Guard tightly arrayed around him, meaning he continues his "absolute control" over less and less of the population, only to see the bulk of his power "translated" by others as they see fit for their personal survival and enrichment. The puppeteering has truly begun.

Meanwhile, big leaders on the opposition side are moving toward public statements of martyrdom willingly embraced. Strong and courageous stuff.

Comments

[Ted O'Connor]

What a precious gift we have here. As messy and as goofy as it gets sometimes we still can walk down to the polling place ( a neighbor's garage in my case) and we can vote the b______s out...or in...as we see fit. we can shout and yell and call people names...we can be right and we can be wrong...but no secret police will come to our door at midnight. People in Iran are frightened and angry. Some have died. I hope they can get it right. It looks grim now. The bad guys have the guns. "All power grows out of the barrel of a gun." That's what Mao said.