Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance web site hacked following attack on Ahmadinejad's blog

(Updated, 9:30 AM GMT, Friday, 8 January 2010)

The web site of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance was hacked in the late hours of Thursday, January 7, 2010.

The main titles on the home page were replaced with 'Hacked By DevilZ TM ... D3v1l Was Here !'

Friday morning the ministry's home page had been replaced by the following, which stated:

The electronic services of the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry I.R.I. (NB Islamic Republic of Iran)
This site is temporarily not accessible because of maintenance. Please try again later.

This follows a sustained attack on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal blog, ahmadinejad.ir, which has been blocked for the past two days. A Google search for 'Iranian presidency' returns the following result which states:

Your Ip is blocked
The maximum number of your request has been reached, Please try again later...

Mother of young man sentenced to death expresses her anguish

The mother of a man sentenced to death by the Islamic regime's Revolutionary Court gave a poignant interview to the Voice of America's Newstalk program on Tuesday night, January 5, 2010. (Video and translation at the end of this report)

Ahmad Karimi, a young carpenter accused of being a ringleader in the post-election unrest in Iran and a member of the Anjomaneh Padeshahi (Monarchist Association), was sentenced to death on December 28, 2009, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Judge Mohammad Mogheiseh, who presides the 28th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, called Karimi a mohareb, an individual who fights against God, and delivered this verdict even though the young man was arrested before the presidential election of June 12. Karimi had been forced to testify against himself in the infamous show trials of the past months.

Judge Mohammad Mogheiseh, also known as Mogheisieh and Nasserian, was one of the tight circle of prosecutors and judges responsible for the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in the late 1980s. He was prosecutor at Gohardasht and Evin prisons at the time and operated under the name Nasserian, according to sources who wish to remain anonymous.

Khalil Bahramian

The court informed Khalil Bahramian, Karimi's lawyer, of the death sentence. Bahramian is a prominent human rights lawyer and represented Karimi pro bono. Hamed Rouhinehad, another client of Bahramian, was sentenced to death in the same case in October. In an interview published on November 6, Bahramian said the following concerning his clients:

I have submitted papers to the country's high court [to appeal Rouhinejad's death sentence]. In the meetings I had with [Rouhinejad] in prison, I observed that he suffers from multiple sclerosis and both of his hands are almost paralyzed. After writing for a few minutes both his hands become completely useless and he has to wait for a while before resuming his writing. His right eye is blind. This individual is handicapped and is not able to engage in activities against the country or politics. [...] The verdict that was issued does not conform to the law and I believe that it was guided by politics. They brought them before the court alongside those accused of being involved in the post-election unrest. I believe that Mr. [Saeed] Mortazavi, the prosecutor at the time, acted as he usually does and tried to build a weighty scenario and engineer a trial to create an untrue picture in the minds of the Iranian people. These people had nothing to do with the post-election protests and were arrested before [those events]. I can clearly say that neither Mr. Ali Zamani (NB Another defendant in the case who was sentenced to death), nor my two clients were members or supporters of that organization (NB The Monarchist Association), nor did they even know about that organization. They were just three young men, and a small child, Mr. Zamani's child, who went to Iraq and planned to go abroad from there. Because of a lack of funds and other problems, [Rouhinejad] and Ahmad Karimi returned to Iran in coordination with the Intelligence Ministry and honestly told the authorities everything that had happened. [...] I hope that the high court judges, whose attitude in security cases so far has been to blindly confirm verdicts without reading the files, will not veer from their consciences, their God, and their beliefs and that they will not submit to the political climate. [I hope] that they will not issue a verdict to please a few individuals but for which they will have to answer tomorrow to the Iranian people and almighty God. (For an in-depth description in Farsi of the regime's bogus case against these individuals and others accused of fomenting violence in support of the Monarchist Association, please click here)

A translation follows the video:



Note: Without being disdainful in any way, it is worth mentioning that Mrs. Karimi has an accent from Azerbaijan province and employs a working-class syntax. I only point this out as class and politics are often mentioned in the same breath by some Iran experts who still maintain the fallacy that the Islamic regime has been a defender of the oppressed and that the opponents of the regime are middle-class Tehran residents.

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
Mr. Ahmad Karimi is a young Iranian who is in prison. He has been sentenced to death. He was jailed before the [presidential] election. His mother is on the line with us. Greetings. Mrs. Karimi, why was your son arrested?

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
What was that?

Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Why was your son arrested?

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Because, dear sir, a man fooled my son. He told him, Let's go abroad for work. Can you hear me?

Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Yes, we can hear you, dear Mrs. Karimi.

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
A man made a proposal, said, Let's go abroad to work. He left with my son. They went there and weren't able to find work. When his daddy died, [my son] came back to Iran. He came back with Intelligence officials. Then he came here and identified himself to Intelligence. Do you have the sound of my voice, Mr. Haji (NB Someone who has gone on the Hajj pilgrimage)?

Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Yes, we do. Don't worry. Please go on.

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
He identified himself and [they] said, You're free. Go and put your head down and live your life. After six or seven months, they raided the house at midnight, it was before the elections. They raided our house and I felt ill and my child felt ill. They ransacked our house and didn't find anything. They didn't find anything and took my child away. For two months, no one gave me any answers wherever I went. Two months. After two months, my child called and said, Mother, I am all right. I asked, Where are you? He said, I can't tell you. He said, I can't tell you. After hat call, I didn't know where to go. They don't give any response. I go to the prison and they don't tell me anything.

Host Jamshid Chalangi:
You mean you didn't see Ahmad?

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
No, they wouldn't give any visits. For five, six months, they didn't give me any answers. After five, six months, Mr. Bahramian... We got Mr. Bahramian as a lawyer. Mr. Bahramian spoke to them and I went with him and I got one visit. They broke our door. He was my breadwinner.

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
How was your child when you saw him? You may observe things with your maternal instincts...

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
He's not bad. He's a bit better. But we're in bad health. I have heart problems, Mr. Haji. I swear to God, I can't stand this. What has my child done? I don't know what he's done. They should give a reason. He's been on trial for two months. After two months of not giving any answers, they took him twice to the examining magistrate. Now they tell me, Your child will be executed. (begins weeping) What should I do? Where should I go, sir? What must I do, Mr. Haji, please God... Wherever I go, no one gives any answers. The Islamic Republic has taken away my bread. He was my breadwinner. My child is innocent.

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
So Ahmad was your family's breadwinner?

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Yes, yes, he's my family's breadwinner. I swear to God, my son-in-law is paying for me now. What should I do? Where can I find money?

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
Have you seen anyone to save your child from execution?

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
We just got a lawyer. He's human rights. I had no money to get a lawyer. I had no money to get a lawyer. I went to the court twice and they don't respond to me. They give no answers wherever I go. Wher must I go? He's my child. They fooled my child. Mr. Haji, honorable sir, they got a confession from my child. They fooled him. They said, Say these things and we'll give you freedom tomorrow or the day after. We'll free you. He said those things and they gave him a death sentence. I swear to God, I didn't know. The kids are saying, Your child has a death sentence. (starts weeping) What am I to do? My child has been executed (sic). What am I to do? Me and my family's breadwinner... Where should I go, what should I do? Is this the Islamic Republic? Is this law? Is this a government? What am I to do? (weeps) My child has been sentenced to death. What has he done for them to give him a death sentence? His daddy's not here to look into this, he has no older brother to look into this.What can I do?

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
What do you ask of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Mr. Ali Khamenei, dear mother?

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Who's going to take me to Khamenei?

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
He may hear what you're saying here. Or government officials or other officials may hear what you're saying here.

Ahmad Karimi's mother:
I don't know. They won't let me see Mr. Khamanei. The President... the Islamic Republic has taken away my bread, I swear to God. What should I do, where should I go? Why are they executing my child? What has he done? I don't know what he's done. He was arrested before the election. So someone told him, Let's go abroad to work and make money. They left and didn't succeed. His father died and he came back. Intelligence and officials knew he came back. He didn't do anything illegal. He doesn't know about politics. We don't know about politics, I swear to God. He's a carpentry laborer. Is this life? You just destroy someone like this. I swear to God, I have heart problems right now. I have no money to see a doctor. I can't get any money... What should I do, where should I go? He worked as a carpenter and brought money home. What am I to do? Tell me what's going to happen to me, government! The government must release my child. He's innocent.

CLOSE-UP - Medical center rejects body of protester run over by security forces

Much of the information coming out of Iran is in the form of footage uploaded to the Internet without the benefit of any description or explanation. Each installment in the Close-up series will provide an in-depth analysis of a single video or a series of videos covering one event.

Summary
These videos show a female protester just after she was run over by a car and then her body being rejected by a medical center in Tehran on December 27. Her corpse is crammed onto the back seats of a silver car and driven away.

The videos
Video 1: The body is brought out of the medical center on a stretcher:


Video 2: The face of the dead protester is glimpsed as she is placed in the car:


Video 3: The same scene is filmed from an upstairs window across the street:


Video 4: Most probably showing the same protester just after she was run over by a car.


The circumstances

Frame 1 (0:12) from video 1 shows a sign over the building's entrance. It reads, 'Ammar Day-and-Night Medical Center:'

frame 1, video 1

Ammar is an emergency center connected to the Tehran municipality. It is featured among the network of medical centers of the Sherkateh Shahreh Salem Tehran (Healthy City Company of Tehran), overseen by Tehran City Hall. Ammar medical center is marked with a red arrow in the screen capture below:

Ammar medical center is situated at 419, Behboudi Street, Tehran:

View Ammar medical center, Tehran in a larger map

The date of the videos is almost definitely Ashura, December 27, 2009. The Iranian opposition took advantage of the commemoration of the 7th-Century martyrdom of Imam Hossein to stage protest rallies. Footage of the rallies and the violence of the security forces is widely available on YouTube. At the 2:16 mark on video 3, we hear the cameraman say, 'It took 1,400 years for us to see the real Ashura!' At the 2:37 mark, the crowd begins chanting 'Mourning, mourning, today is a day of mourning,' before loudly shouting, 'Death to the dictator!'

In a separate confirmation of this information, the following text appeared on forums and YouTube after video 2 was posted:
On Ashura day, I had to go towards Behboudi Street. It was around 1 PM, if I'm not mistaken. I saw a black Sonata drive quickly up Behboudi from Azadi Street (NB One of the protest sites in Tehran) and heard a woman screaming. I saw it go towards Ammar Yasser medical center. I made my way over there and saw them bringing a woman out of the car. They said that a police van had run over her on Azadi Street. Then the Sonata left. They brought a stretcher out of the medical center and took the body in. It was clear that she was dead because her limbs were broken and she wasn't moving. They said that she was a 37- or 38-year-old woman and that no one was accompanying her. This is the same woman who was among the martyrs of Ashura and who has not been identified yet. I saw her face. I'm even in the images that you posted. They brought the body out five minutes later and said stop a car and take her to the hospital. They said that they couldn't keep her. We said, Don't you have an ambulance? I think they lied and said no. Finally, a silver Samand (NB Automobile made by Iran Khodro), you can see it in the video, accepted to take her. They managed with great difficulty to put the body in the car and take it away. 

A statement released by the Islamic Republic's police last week confirmed that 8 individuals had died during the protests on Ashura day. The police added that two dead individuals, a 31-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman, had yet to be identified. The official statement claimed that the woman had 'either fallen off a bridge or had an accident.'

Video 4, which was posted days after the others, almost definitely shows the same woman, whose corpse was rejected by the medical center, just after she was run over by a police vehicle.

The following is a translation of the comments on the video:
Man: Take her over there. There's a van.
Woman: (inaudible) I don't know her. (NB Corresponds to the account above which states that the woman was not accompanied by anyone.)
Man: You see what these sons of whores are like?
Man: Cover her. What did they do to her?
Man: He ran over her with two wheels, the bastard!
Man: Let's take her before they come back.
Man: She's crushed and you're bringing water? Bring a car and take her away.
Man: Pick her up.
Woman: Wrap her in her coat and pick her up.
Man: Don't move her. She might have broken bones all over. Miss, I'm a doctor. Don't move her.

A comparison between the face of the dead protester in video 2 (frame 2, below) and the partially covered face of the injured protester in video 4 (frames 3-5, below) is inconclusive, although the hair color and thin eyebrows seem to match. However we catch a fleeting glimpse of the dead woman's striped green shirt in video 2 (frame 6, below)and this also matches the shirt of the injured protester leading this observer to conclude that the two videos almost certainly are of the same woman:

frame 2, video 2

frame 3, video 4

frame 4, video 4

frame 5, video 4

frame 6, video 2, patch of striped green shirt

Footage of two police vehicles plowing through protesters and killing at least one person on Vali Asr Square has received broad media attention:


However, the woman shown in videos 1 to 4 was killed kilometers to the west of Vali Asr Square. This seems to indicate that far from being an accident or the work of zealous renegades, running over protesters has become the newest officially sanctioned tactic of security forces.

Makhmalbaf: Secrets of Khamenei's life - part 3 - His wealth

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

This is part 3 of a 4-part series.
For part 1 - His interests, please click here.
For part 2 - His entourage and Household operations, please click here.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, internationally renowned filmmaker and the Iranian opposition's main spokesman abroad since the disputed presidential election, posted an article, entitled 'The secrets of Khamenei's life,' on his web site on Monday, December 28, 2009. Makhmalbaf has been living in exile in Paris. The original article in Farsi can be read here.

The following is a translation of the third part of the article. My notes are in italics.

Note: The term 'beyteh rahbari' has been translated as the Leader's Household in the broadest sense, which includes Ali Khamenei's personal office and inner circle.

The Secrets of Khamenei's Life - Part 3

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

I compiled this text which is based on information relayed to me by former staff members of the Leader's Household and the Intelligence Ministry who have escaped abroad.

Khamenei's residences
[Islamic Republic founder Ruhollah] Khomeini's residence in Jamaran (NB Neighborhood in northern Tehran) was 200 square meters. Khamenei's main residence on Pasteur Street measures 1,200 square meters. (This 1,200-square-meter residence is the only one that everyone knows about).

Khomeini only lived in a small house in Ghom and the Jamaran prayer complex, but Khamenei uses all of the Shah's palaces (NB Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, deposed in the Islamic Revolution of 1979) which have not been turned into museums, and has even added to them.

Nevertheless, Iranian children still read in their schoolbooks that the Shah's teaspoons were made of gold and that the revolution took place because of his aristocratic manners.

A 5,000-square-meter anti-nuclear protective bunker has been built under Khamenei's Pasteur Street residence, at a depth of 60 meters. The elevator alone cost $5 million. A protective bunker has also been built under the Vakil Abad Palace in Mashhad. But these bunkers cannot prevent a revolution. If a revolution occurs in Iran, Khamenei will escape to Syria, otherwise to Russia.

Khamenei's logistics: The following means are exclusively at the disposal of the Leader's Household:
One Airbus airplane, for his personal travels
Two Boeing 707s, one for the family's travels, the other for bodyguards
Five Falcons, two for his own travels, one for Mojtaba (NB His influential second son), two for the rest of the family
Five helicopters, two for Khamenei's travels, one for Mojtaba, two for the rest of the family
Although helicopters are banned over Tehran, the sound of helicopters can often be heard in northern Tehran.
Six helicopter pads. In Tehran: Mehrabad, Abbas Abad, next to Esteghlal Hotel, Manzariyeh, and one each in Ghom and Lavasan.
17 bullet-proof vehicles, each one at a cost of $400,000
1,200 other vehicles

Those who run the Leader's Household
[The late Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali] Montazeri was initially supposed to succeed Khomeini. His denunciation of the mass executions of political prisoners (NB In the late 1980s) gained him Khomeini's disfavor and he was not only dismissed, but also placed under house arrest. Of course, some clerics also played a role in overthrowing Montazeri (NB as deputy leader and heir-apparent) and replacing him with Khamenei.

When Khomeini was dying, some wanted his son Ahmad to replace him. Ahmad did not seek such a role. Khomeini would say, 'Make whoever you want Leader after me, but do not do me the disservice of naming Ahmad Leader. Don't let the people say that Khomeini's son inherited [his position] just like in a monarchy.' Some people wanted to seize the opportunity to sideline Montazeri from power and replace him with Khamenei. Among these people were Reyshahri (NB Former Intelligence Minister, described in greater detail in part 2), Mohammadi Golpayegani, Hejazi (NB Asghar Hejazi, chief of staff), and Taeb (NB Probably Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb, described in greater detail in part 2), who at that time was the interrogator of Mehdi Hashemi (NB Brother of Montazeri's son-in-law. Mehdi Hashemi was executed by the regime in 1987 after a complex frame-up. Most observers believe Hashemi was executed because he opposed and divulged regime contacts with the US administration which were part of the Iran-Contra scandal.) Upon Khomeini's death and Khamenei's accession to the Leadership, all of these individuals became the key figures of Khamenei's office. These individuals opposed the proposal to create a leadership council after Khomeini's death, a council that was to have included ayatollahs Golpayegani, Ardebili, and Khamenei.

The main people who run the Leader's Household are Khamenei himself, his son Mojtaba, and then Hejazi, Mohammadi Golpayegani, and Vahid (NB Golpayegani's executive deputy). The first tier of the Household's staff number 500 individuals, the second tier 2,000, and the third tier 10,000. In reality, it is not the government, Majlis, or judiciary which run the country, but rather it is the Leader's Household that controls everything. The Leader's Household has numerous buildings across Iran.

Khamenei's view of the Basij
Khamenei was the head of the Islamic Republic Party (NB Created 1979, disbanded 1987). He believes that the Basij can be his party, a party which is also an army. Critics who speak of a 'barracks party' are referring to this issue. [Khamenei] has built himself a military party with the government and people's money.

Khamenei's main businesses
Sugar and rice imports, BMW automobiles, production of sugar cubes and sugar under the name of the Imam Reza Shrine authorities (NB An immensely wealthy conglomerate based in Mashhad, involved in businesses from pizza parlors to the rug trade. Resembles the so-called 'bonyads' or foundations in its seemingly religious facade behind which large portions of the Iranian economy are controlled.), investments in Dubai, Germany, Iraq, South Africa, Venezuela, Lebanon, and China.

Asemipour

Souri
In order to control his various businesses, Khamenei maintains the same people in key positions for very long periods. For example, Majid Hedayatzadeh who was in charge of selling Iran's oil for 30 years (Hedayatzadeh was replaced last year after Nourizadeh revealed his identity) (NB Majid Hedayatzadeh Razavi ran the Naft Iran Inter-Trade Company, better known as NICO, which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. NICO is the only body other than the international division of the Iranian national company that can sell Iranian oil. Hedayatzadeh was injured in the bomb explosion at the Islamic Republic Party HQ in 1981. He was replaced last year by Mohammad Javad Asemipour.) Another individual is Mr. Souri (NB Mohammad Souri), who has been in charge of transporting Iranian oil for the past 30 years. Khamenei named these two individuals to their posts in 1982. [Former President] Hashemi Rafsanjani, [former President Mohammad] Khatami, and even [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad wanted to replace them, but were overruled by Khamenei. These two worked with the Leader's Household in the following manner: Hedayatzadeh would sell the barrels of oil, Souri would have the oil transported, and the commission would be transferred to Khamenei's bank account. In the past 30 years, Iran has sold about $700 billion worth of oil and the commissions from the sales and transport have been paid into Khamenei's account through these two individuals. The third person whom Khamenei brought into the Oil Ministry was his own brother, Hassan Khamenei, who was initially a member of the censorship team at the Islamic Guidance Ministry, but was brought to the Oil Ministry to keep an eye on Khamenei's profits.

Khamenei's palaces
The following pictures obtained through Google show Khamenei's palaces (NB Makhmalbaf's web site does not provide photos of all the palaces. Where possible, I've also used Google Maps in addition to the photos provided by Makhmalbaf in order to allow readers to zoom in and out).
1. The palaces at Lavasanat which are used by Khamenei, Mojtaba, and Mohammadi Golpayegani (NB Photo not provided by Makhmalbaf. The following is a satellite image of the village of Lavasanat, which is just to the east of Latyan Dam mentioned below. I cannot situate the palace.)

View Lavasanat in a larger map

2. Jamshidiyeh Palace, former palace of Ardeshir Zahedi (NB Former Iranian ambassador to the United States in the time of the Shah. Makhmalbaf does not provide a photo. The following is a satellite image of Jamshidieh Park. I cannot situate Jamshidieh Palace.) (where Khamenei goes mountain hiking)

View Jamshidieh in a larger map

3. Feish Ghola Palace, next to the Caspian Sea. (NB Makhmalbaf does not provide a photo)

4. The palaces of Malek Abad in Mashhad with 300,000 square meters of grounds.

View Malek Abad - Mashhad in a larger map

5. Niavaran Palace (NB Khamenei's palace is situated to the east of the Niavaran Palace Complex and Museum, the former residence of the late Mohammad Reza Shah.)

View Khamenei's Niavaran Palace in a larger map

6. The palaces of Latyan Dam, which belonged to the Shah

View Latyan Dam Palace in a larger map

Khamenei's wealth
Khamenei became president in 1981.

In 1982, he put Hedayat (NB Hedayatzadeh, mentioned above) and Souri in charge of selling oil and they were not replaced until 2006.

Mohsen Rafighdoust

In 1983, he put Mohsen Rafighdoust in charge of purchasing arms (NB Former Minister of the IRGC in the 1980s and a former head of the Foudation of the Oppressed or Bonyadeh Mostazafan. According to his own accounts, available at the Islamic Revolution Document Center, he assassinated a man in the streets with a bludgeon on June 5, 1963.).

In 1991, he became aware of the value of land and through the Enforcement Staff of the Imam's Decree and the Foundation of the Oppressed (NB Setadeh Ejraie Farmaneh Imam and Bonyadeh Mostazafan respectively are another two examples of official bodies which operate vast business empires. The Mostazafan Foundation is particularly involved in military companies and procurement, and is considered one of the largest commercial entities in Iran. For a look at the long list of companies which the foundation is willing to admit that it controls click here.) he started making a land grab.

From 1984, [his brother] Hassan Khamenei oversaw Hedayat and Souri at the Oil Ministry.

In the Defense Ministry, Mohammadi Golpayegani oversaw Rafighdoust and Heydari.

Mr. Lolachian was put in charge of business connected to land and he subsequently became related to Khamenei. (NB Bazaar merchant Lolachian's daughter is married to Khamenei's son Meysam).

From 1997, he allowed his children to engage in business.

In 2005, he stopped his personal business activities and began getting money directly from the government, the same funds which get lost in the country's budget. During the election, [Etemad Melli Party chief Mehdi] Karroubi asked Ahmadinejad what happened to a certain $1 billion?

The total wealth of Khamenei and his family: $36 billion.

Khamenei's personal wealth: $30 billion.

His family's wealth: $6 billion.

Cash
$22 billion of the $36 billion were kept in Iran in the form of currency. During the post-election unrest, it was decided to move a major portion of this money to Syria by way of Turkey. The shipment was exposed and confiscated in Turkey. Khamenei was worried that the money would be blocked in Iran if the regime were to collapse. The Iranian government is striving to retrieve this money from the Turkish government. There is no doubt that this money was confiscated in Turkey. The question is why this money was not transported to Syria by air. Perhaps it was feared that the airplane and its cargo would be identified and destroyed.

The rest of the cash: $3.5 billion, of which $1.5 billion is in diamonds, $1 billion is in gold, and the rest is in dollars.

$10 billion of the $36 billion are in bank accounts:
$1 billion in Russia

$1 billion in Syria
$1 billion in China
$1 billion in Venezuela
$2 billion in South Africa
$2 billion in London
$2 billion in other countries.

Apart from the $22 billion in cash and $10 billion in bank accounts, the rest of the assets are in the form of land and stocks:
$2 billion in stocks in world markets
$1 billion in South Africa
$500 million in Syria
$500 million in Venezuela

Where have Khamenei's $30 billion come from?
$12 billion from commissions on oil sales
$2 billion from land
$6 billion from the arms business
$10 billion from Ahmadinejad in the past 4 years

Khamenei's religious businesses
Khamenei shares and controles all the income and investments of the Imam Reza Shrine authorities in Mashhad, the Massoumeh Shrine authorities in Ghom, the Shahreh Rey Shrine authorities in southern Tehran. Tabasi (NB Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi, headof the Imam Reza Shrine authorities) and Reyshahri (NB Describes in greater detail in previous parts of this report) are his partners in Mashhad and Shahreh Rey respectively.

This is part 3 of a series.
For part 1 - His interests, please click here.
For part 2 - His entourage and Household operations, please click here.

(Soon: Part 4 - The financial and political activities of his family)

Regime's 'million man march' in Kermanshah - Wednesday, 30 December 2009

The regime rallied its supporters across the country on Wednesday. The following footage is from the gathering in Kermanshah. Kermanshah has a population of over 700,000 and is situated about 500 km west of Tehran.

View Kermanshah, Iran in a larger map

The cleric in the footage gives a speech denouncing the opposition's protests on Ashura, December 27. Just before the end of the video, a man accompanying a female photographer with impressive equipment asks the videographer who he is:



For footage of the regime's 'million man march' in Karaj on Thursday, please click here.