Iran: Is the Supreme Leader Dead, or Dying?

[MADem]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran's U.N. ambassador denied on Friday reports circulating on the Internet that Tehran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had died.

"We checked last night and there is no truth to it," Javad Zarif, Iran's chief envoy to the United Nations, told Reuters about the reports, which first appeared on Web sites on Thursday.

The Internet rumours were circulating among traders in energy and other financial markets, but had not moved prices.

In Tehran, relatives of Khamenei dismissed the rumours...One Iranian source said Khamenei was expected to lead prayers during a religious holiday on Monday.

Khamenei has been Iran's highest authority since 1989....
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-01-06T080424Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-282438-3.xml

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Bullshit flag raised.

1. "The Internet rumours were circulating among traders in energy and other financial markets, but had not moved prices."

Hmmm.. prices didn't move. Why? Perhaps a trader asked another trader who has connections in Iran and those connections said 'bullshit', or its farsi equivalent.

2. This rumor first surfaced here sourced from the sham LGF rightwing horseplucky generator pajama media.

Guckert 'works' there.

This would be a 4.0 on the bullshit richter scale.

[Kagemusha]

2. I heard it was a Michael Ledeen rumor.

i.e. it comes from Iranian exiles with a huge incentive to destabilize Iran in any way possible.

[MADem]

3. I wouldn't be surprised if BabyShah was shopping it around, either

The only thing is, though, when you play that Cry Wolf bullshit, and you are lying, it comes back to haunt you later.

They pulled the same shit with Castro, but he puts up videotape of himself--looking like crap, but still kicking. Castro wrote the book on nipping that stuff in the bud.

The Supreme Leader is no spring chicken, but he may have good genes. We'll see. He'll either show up at the masjid for prayers or he won't. If he doesn't, the rumors will continue.

[deadmessengers]

4. It 'could' be true.

The guy was rumored to have pancratic cancer earlier this year. We'll see on Monday. If he doesn't show up, I'd say that's a good sign that he's either no longer a member of the community of oxygen consumers.

[MADem]

5. I realize that the Regime Change fans are hoping for it, but it just seems goofy to float the rumor

if there isn't at least a touch of illness tinged perhaps with wishful thinking behind it.

I don't think the tale is spun out of whole cloth. I think the guy is or was at the very least a bit ill.

What is weird is that a lot of his pals in government seem to be dying, in helo crashes, in car crashes, and so on. The latest was the Minister of Justice: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/12/iran-justice-minister-dies-in-car.php

[fuzzyball]

6. Israel planning nuclear attack on Iran

Just read the article...it says it all.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html

[MADem]

7. The Times leans right, but that said, who would reveal a "secret" plan

It's not secret anymore at that point. This could be a threat ploy to encourage Iran to back off the enrichment track. The denial has already been issued: http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8MGF4I80.html

"I refuse to believe that anyone here would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran," Reuven Pedatzur, a prominent defense analyst and columnist for the daily Haaretz, told the AP. "It is possible that this was a leak done on purpose, as deterrence, to say 'someone better hold us back, before we do something crazy.'"

Ephraim Kam, a strategic expert at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Strategic Studies and a former senior army intelligence officer, also dismissed the report.

"No reliable source would ever speak about this, certainly not to the Sunday Times," Kam said.