Kamangir (Archer)

A very obvious question for those who follow the news about Iran is that, if the Islamic Republic is such a cruel entity and if Iranian hate it so much, why do they not revolt against this oppressive system. The answer, or one of the answers, is that the regime has done a very cruel job so fantastically well. The sad fact is, there is no reputable alternative either in Iran or in diaspora. That is partly because after the Islamists took over the revolution, about thirty years ago, they deliberately annihilated the roots of any opposition. That you might call a very deliberate move from an entity which knows sooner or later it will be faced with the same people who established it. Of course by that I do not mean to underestimate the anti-IR flares which are not rare in Iran at all. People obviously have many reasons to hate the Islamic Republic and to want to overthrow it. However, without the presence of any unifying decent opposition force, these actions all fail. A clear example of this happened in the student clashes on July 1999. Then, the Supreme Leader was openly cursed in the streets of Tehran. Unfortunately, a harsh reaction from the regime was enough to take back the scene in less than a week.

A more recent example of lack of political insight can be clearly seen in the recent series of protests in Mazandaran. On the surface, the students are demanding very decent requests (background). The blog which covers the events has been attracting thousands of viewers every day, a record for a blog which has been established about a week ago. Even Gateway Pundit seems to be amazed by their coverage. That, unfortunately, is not the whole story.

During their coverage, which is obviously accompanied by fear of their identity being disclosed, the authors of that blog have started making mistakes. It is important to know that they are are using blogfa, a Tehran-based service which obviously would have no secrets at the moment the intelligence services ask for information. Nor blogfa will wait for a second once the order comes to shut down the blog. But that is the least of the problems. As time goes on, more blogs are attracted to, and are established for, covering the genuine and honest cause the students are pursuing. The blog we are referring to introduces some of them to their readers.

One of those blogs, which is titled 911-2 and is again hosted in blogfa, carries posts and analysis about the events. The latest post in 911-2 is this,

Pay attention to this terrifying comment,

The hidden organization:

Release Mr Bijan Sabbagh [one of the student's arrested by the authorities]

The north committee is impatiently waiting for the release of other arrested students. In case they are not released, or any other event happens to the captured students, the north committee will start its military and guerrilla operation. The [swear] prosecutor and the [swear] governor and their [swear] families must be ready for death.

We will start the terror and we will detonate the bombs.

The Hidden Guerrilla.

The “Hidden Guerrilla” is another blogfa-based blog with quite interesting posts. A few months ago, in a post, the “Guerrilla” complained that their old blog is deleted by blogfa. Their reaction? “The hidden organization [in case this happens again] will filter blogfa forever according to its especial regularities”. Then they threatened to destroy the headquarters of blogfa by bomb. The blog continues with giving a recipe for building homemade bombs and follows with “announcing their preparedness for assassinating Islamic Republic key figures”.

Don’t get me wrong, this “Guerrilla” is nothing more than a teenager scratching his back while posting harsh messages. The question is, how do the students fall into the acquaintance of such an entity. The answer to that, partly, is the lack of any established democratic opposition, to my understanding.