Hard-Line Figure In Iran Runoff (Why does America care about this?)

[wookie294]

(why is this front-page news for the Washington Post?)

TEHRAN, June 18 -- The hard-line, working-class mayor of Tehran will face former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a millionaire cleric, in a runoff election for Iran's presidency next week, according to first-round results announced Saturday.

Rafsanjani, who came in first, had been a favorite in recent polls. But the close second-place finish by Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who trailed by 400,000 votes, stunned the field of better-known, better-financed candidates.

Two of the candidates charged that militias and uniformed Revolutionary Guards had intimidated voters at polling places on behalf of Ahmadinejad. Mehdi Karrubi, a moderate cleric who finished a close third, appealed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to investigate the allegations. Karrubi enjoys friendly relations with Khamenei, who holds the title of Supreme Leader and has ultimate authority in Iran.

The allegation was seconded by campaign aides to Mostafa Moin, the most prominent reformist candidate. Moin finished a distant fifth despite a higher-than-expected turnout that many in the reformist camp thought would improve their standing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801226.html

[Wright Patman]

1. The party line in D.C.

is that Iran is the next phase of the war on terriers. I think the invasion would have already begun if the Iraqi phase had gone smoothly, as was predicted by most Beltway Bandits.

[cornermouse]

2. I've been wondering if the powers-that-be in Washington

having decided that invasion this close to an upcoming election would upset even Britain are waiting till the election is over.

[bahrbearian]

4. I think if we continue this War on Terriers, we'll get our butts kicked.

[izzie]

3. Well they have a lot of arms and they are run by Religious nuts,

:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[Thor_MN]

5. Are you talking about Iran or the US?

[Igel]

6. The moderate's the one that gave a speech a few years ago

and helpfully pointed out, in furtherance of Iran's obviously unintended goal of producing nuclear weapons, that a nuclear blast would destroy Israel, but just "damage" the Islamic world. He's a big "death to America" man--with "America" originally being *Carter's* America.

Sort of makes you wonder about the hardliner.

[Trajan]

7. A Few Points ...

* Rasfanjani is hardly a 'moderate' ... He is a moderate only in relation to the EXTREME hardline Mullahs .... He is still a muslim proponent of Sharia ...

* Iran is the great nation of Persia .... There is much history that has involved that great land, and it is a crossroad of the world ; so of course it is newsworthy what happens there ....

* The PNAC target list is topped by Iran ...

Silly little boys wanna play war, and they don't want to use lots of toy soldiers, but Iran will be MUCH more difficult than Iraq was ....

Given the stress our military is currently experiencing, to attack Iran would be foolhardly, and possibly disasterous, which is why I expect the Neocons will do it: because they are fools ....

[Blue_Tires]

8. my problem with this is

the "Iran moderates claim election rigged by hardliners" story got front-page play in just about every major newspaper today, and the accusations were treated seriously and with concern...Yet, when anyone EVER dared accuse bush of rigging elections, those claims were squelched before they could even get off the ground