Posted on 09/09/2005 8:19:01 AM PDT by FreedomNeocon
Police state: Iran grants sweeping new powers to Basij militia goons
Iran has expanded the authority of the widely despised Basij militia to include police, defense and relief operations.
The Basij, said to have about 1 million members, has been designated as the shield of the Islamic regime and its principles. Over the past few years, the regime has used the Basij to quell pro-reform student demonstrations and enforce the Islamic dress code in and around Iranian universities.
Officials said the new government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad approved a plan to enhance the role of the Basij Resistance Force. Under the plan, the Basij would become a fully-fledged defense unit having police and military authority.
Officials said that under the latest plan the Basij would be granted arrest powers. Basij officers would be trained in tracking and capturing offenders of the Islamic dress code and other religious mores.
"The officers would be trained to deal with this crime and instructed in the proper procedures," Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad told the official Iranian Student News Agency.
The Basij, an arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, has come under attack from Iranian dissidents. Over the past few months, Basij and IRGC officers have been attacked and killed during street battles and ambushes in Iranian cities.
Officials said only a portion of the Basij members would be granted arrest powers. These members would be trained as judicial officers and patrol the streets to ensure the observance of the Islamic dress code.
"Crimes that take place in the presence of the officers, such as improper observance of the Islamic dress code, are regarded as crimes and must be dealt with in accordance with the law," Karimirad said.
The Basij has also been leading demonstrations supporting Iran's nuclear program. On Aug. 23, hundreds of Basij militia members marched outside European Union embassies in Teheran and pledged to defend Iran's nuclear program.
"Our nuclear activities are more important than the [1980-88] Iran-Iraq war," said Ibrahim Motevalian, head of the Basij at Teheran University. "We will resist to the last drop of our blood."
Officials said the Basij would also have a role in defending Iran. The Basij has participated in the development of defense software and other technology.
Under the plan, the Basij would also work with the IRGC to safeguard the nation's borders and prevent smuggling and the infiltration of insurgents.
On Aug. 27, IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said the air force was capable of intercepting foreign aircraft and remained on alert for any Israeli or U.S. intrusion, an assertion echoed by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
"Currently, the United States is making attempts to use political and cultural means and their lackey figures to undermine the Islamic republic and change its identity," Khamenei said. "But, they will suffer the heaviest blow from the Basij."
Makes you want to puke -- the beginning of the end.
1. The Basij sound an awful lot like the East German Stasi.
2. If Iran is increasing their powers, it means that there's a lot more unrest than they're teling us about.
Bottom line: the mullahs are trying to hold the lid on, but they're having a hard time doing it. I have to think that our presence in Iraq is making it harder for them. Pity....
I guess the employment rate in Iran is crappy that one has to join the Bassij. These guys are persecuting their own mothers wives sisters and daughters----they'll have hell to pay for it sooner or later.
UNEMPLOYMENT: 11.2% (2004 est.), BELOW POVERTY LINE: 40% (2002 est.)
Middle class threatened by victory of hardliner in Iran: "failed promises of economic liberalization that have left unemployment as high as 30 per cent." ___
Tehran's failures to join the community of nations and 13th century policy has had a terrible impact on the people there. Morally bankrupt but "spiritually perfect," leaders there shift the blame for the woes of their populous onto the Great Satan. Although the U.S. has tinkered with Iran's internal affairs in the past, we have not done so in more than a quarter century. Iranians are waking up to the fact that the blame for their problems belongs inside their borders, on their states constitution and on their states bad policy.
The only way the regime can stay in power is to crush the informed voice of dissent. And for that, the state has the Basij... The ruling elite claim that every voice of dissent is a foreign spy. But these are not spies; they are the best and brightest of Iran's sons and daughters and are naturally voicing their desire for a better life.
In the U.S. state security forces are public servants and for that we are a free people. In Iran, state security forces serve one man, the Supreme Leader, a tyrant. Iranians who back tyrants are not nationalists as some would have us believe. A relatively small set of Iranians (like the Basij) cope with the pain of subjugation by making excuses for their abuser. And I think you're right; they're encouraged to do so with cash...
But no matter how we look at it, life under tyranny is terror. Iranians will not live this way forever... no society can.
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