Shah of Iran's Heir Plans Overthrow of Regime

[Emit]

Exclusive: Shah of Iran's Heir Plans Overthrow of Regime


Posted May 01, 2006

Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran, told the editors of HUMAN EVENTS last week that in the next two to three months he hopes to finalize the organization of a movement aimed at overthrowing the Islamic regime in Tehran and replacing it with a democratic government.

He believes the cause is urgent because of the prospect that Iran may soon develop a nuclear weapon or the U.S. may use military force to preempt that. He hopes to offer a way out of this dilemma: a revolution sparked by massive civil disobedience in which the masses in the streets are backed by elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States, said he has been in contact with elements of the Revolutionary Guard that would be willing to play such a role, and activists who could help spark the civil disobedience.

~snip~

The following are excerpts from the interview with the editors of HUMAN EVENTS...

~snip~

You think you can exploit this to turn some elements of the Revolutionary Guards against the regime?

Yes, for a number of reasons. Because like in any totalitarian system, they know that at the end they’ll fall. The question is, how do they negotiate their exit strategy?...

~snip~

Are you in contact with some of the commanders of these (elements)?

Absolutely. Absolutely...

~snip~

Are you the person who puts together the master plan? Are you the commander-in-chief of this counteraction?

Look, I think I can be effective, and the reason I have stayed behind until now was because I wanted to exhaust every avenue of possibility so that the opposition can gather itself and collectively work on a common agenda. Within the next two or three months, we’ll know if the result of two or three years of intense effort is going to pay off.

Two or three months?

Two or three months. This summer.

~snip~

Cont'd:
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=14424

[MnFats]

1. now that's fuggin' great. Will he bring back SAVAK, too?

just what we need in Iran right now....

[kaygore]

2. Like his father did...with the help of the US? Hmmmmm.....

[azurnoir]

3. Could this be part of

*s' plan for Iran?

[Emit]

6. Been following this news for some time now, esp. in relation to neocon

Michael Ledeen. Here's an article I read some time ago:

WASHINGTON MIGHT HAVE PICKED IRAN’S FUTURE KING AND PREMIER

~snip~

"The Bush Administration apparently has a handpicked American "plumber" ready to go in Iran, much like Ahmed Chalabi ... Sohrab "Rob" Sobhani, an Iranian-American associated with the neoconservatives in Washington. With Reza Pahlavi as Shah, the 40-ish Sobhani would presumably be prime minister or president...

~snip~

"The promoter of the Administration policy is American Enterprise Institute Freedom Chair Holder Michael Ledeen ... Ledeen and Sobhani recently established the Coalition for Democracy in Iran (CDI) to promote this regime change.

Reza Pahlavi had been living quietly in Maryland until 11 September, when he began to address the Iranian community via the internet and satellite television. This prompted the Iranian community to dub him the "Internet Prince." Rob Sobhani, who has known Reza Pahlavi since childhood, was actually born in Kansas. His doctorate, completed in 1987, dealt with Iranian-Israeli relations from 1948-88. He became a specialist in energy policy. He has had his finger in many pies in Washington, including consultation on the construction of an oil and gas pipeline across Afghanistan.

~snip~

Sobhani’s interests in regime change are very clear and very consonant with American desires. They are largely commercial. Following his graduation from Georgetown, he became head of a Caspian Energy Consulting, a firm dealing with the transport and sale of Caspian oil. On March 5, 2001 in an article written with Pennsylvania State business professor Fariborz Ghadar, he advocated a number of the policies that have since been carried out by the US, including containing the Taleban and Saddam Hoseyn. He also notes that supporting a secularisation of Iran would lead to easier transport of Caspian oil through Iranian territory.

~snip~

Ledeen, Sobhani and Morris Amitay, former director of the principal Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) joined forces at the American Enterprise Institute in a seminar entitled The Future of Iran, in which they called for regime change. AIPAC has indicated support for the restoration of Reza Pahlavi to the throne, although they wish to remain in the background, as reported by Mark Perelman on 16 May in "The New York Jewish Daily Forward".

~snip~

Both Sobhani and Michael Ledeen are remarkably cagey about claims for the restoration of the Monarchy ...~snip~

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Jun-2003/us_monarchists_3603.htm

[wookie294]

4. LOL

I remember the Shah's son in the 1980s when he said, "I'm still waiting to go back to rule my country." LMFAO!!! The guy is a "George W. Bush" wannabe. He's a joke.

[annabanana]

10. Watch out.. this sounds like their plan, no laughing matter...

We must start a chronicle of their every move and utterance, for this is where the attack on Iran is coming from.

[OneBlueSky]

5. and the plot thickens . . . n/t

.

[acmavm]

7. This is just screwed up on so many levels. And I REALLY hate the fact

that the neocons may just have a ruler picked out for Iran, just like they had that criminal bastard Chalabi waiting in the wings for Iraq.

[shadowknows69]

8. These freaks really need a new playbook

n/t

[MADem]

9. I've been postulating this thesis for some time

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1102738&mesg_id=1103084

Baby Shah has a very jazzy website, he spends more time on the Hill than most Congressmen and lobbyists, and he's all over the place, poking, prodding and persuading.

The problem is, neither he, nor his daddy were universally loved. If he's gonna go home and play Queen Elizabeth, that's one thing (it's bullshit, because his family has NO HISTORICAL right to any "Peacock Throne"...hell, his grampa was a mid-grade Army officer who staged a coup) but if he intends to RULE, that's not gonna fly too well.

[leftchick]

11. I am sure he has had meetings with Elizabeth Cheney

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2070419,00.html

with our tax $$$

Cheney daughter leads ‘cold war’ on mullahs
Sarah Baxter



THE war in Iraq is her father’s business but Elizabeth Cheney, the American vice-president’s daughter, has been given responsibility for bringing about a different type of regime change in Iran.
Cheney, a 39-year-old mother of four, is a senior official in the State Department, which has often been regarded as hostile territory by Dick Cheney’s White House team. Nonetheless father and daughter agree it would be better for the mullahs’ regime to collapse from within than to be ousted by force.

[Emit]

12. Yes!

DUer Cliss and I were discussing Liz Cheney meeting with Reza Pahlavi in Dubai here,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2572494#2572583


and how it ties into using MEK/MKO in Iran:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2570340&mesg_id=2571923
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=923696&mesg_id=923696

[leftchick]

15. well there you have it!

thank you for the links. Damn the pnacers and their spawn. :puke:

[ShortnFiery]

13. I knew that it was only a matter of time before they brought us

the "Chalabi of Iran" ... this Dude has been chopping at the bit for decades to fill this role.

How about you tell us what "a brutal and murderous THUG" your daddy, The Shah was during his bloody rule through a CIA sponsored overthrow of Iran? :puke:

BTW Liz Cheney is one evil piece of work, just like HER daddy. :thumbsdown:

[TexasLawyer]

14. Ahmadinejad is the elected leader of Iran

Granted, Iranian elections are even worse than US, but Iran's political system did allow reformists to begin taking power in the last decade. Bush screwed up that transition, though.

Hasn't he learned yet that "Democracy" can't be imposed at the point of a gun? And hasn't he learned that re-installing former monarchies isn't really much of a step toward Democracy?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Iran

[Bridget Burke]

20. Yes. Iran is a Democracy--with problems.

If only we & the Iranians could put both of our Presidents in a rocket to Neptune....

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Is he going to lead the charge in is his Mercedes Limo?

To be welcomed by the flower throwing Iranian people no doubt. Kinda like the welcome bestowed on the "liberators" of Iraq. Oh, wait..

[Norquist Nemesis]

17. How much was Chalabi getting on his paycheck from us?

I wonder if the Shah's son negotiated the going rate or simply took the offer. Remember not too long ago, Bush was asking Congress for $$$$ to fund spreading democracy into Iran.

[myrna minx]

18. That is exactly what I was wondering.

I'm quite interested in the Chalabi/Baby Shah connection and the financial ties etc. The neocons are like a broken record. Same plans, faces, bloodlines. Always the same.

[Emit]

19. I have a feeling Pahlavi was in this early on

along with the usual neocon suspects. I, too, have been following this for some time, as I first noticed the connections when I was following the Niger forgery/Plame scandal, Michael Ledeen, etc. some time ago.

From 2003:

Thanks to the flesh and blood versions of Mattel Toy Company's line of pull-string Chatty Cathy dolls--which utter the same statements over and over and over again--the US seems destined to continue that notorious relationship with Iran. The formulaic logic used to justify the destruction of Iraq has now been set in motion for Iran by Richard Perle, Jim Woolsey, Mike Ledeen, Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld, affectionately known as "neo-cons". And, as another cliché goes, the world is subjected to their "broken record" comments that are repeated ad nauseum each news cycle. What journalist hasn't tired of mentioning them?

Pull the string on any of them, let's say the Chatty Cathy Ledeen version, and this is what one gets: "There is now a clear recognition that we must defend ourselves against them ...

~snip~

Pahlavi also cut a backroom deal by garnering political support and funding from the US Congress for private Iranian-American satellite companies in California and US government sponsored external radio programs such as Radio FARDA, geared to reprogramming Iranians under 30 years of age. He was very careful to mention that there should be "one degree of separation”--no royal hand involved so to speak--and that American taxpayer's funds should be given to foundations that in turn can give the money to the satellite broadcasters. Not surprisingly, Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, introduced an amendment on April 8, 2003, that would provide $50 million (US) to an Iran Democracy Foundation, the purpose of which is to broadcast “democracy" into Iran. According to reports, the language in Brownback's amendment has its origins in the Pentagon and is almost the same as that used in the Iraqi Liberation Act that the US Congress approved in 1998.

http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2003/04/001971print.php

And Ledeen has been pushing support of this. Here is what he wrote in May 2003:

One might think that all this would encourage the American government to find ways to support the impending democratic revolution in Iran, and there are many modest steps that would produce great gains for the anti-regime forces. There are several excellent radio and TV stations in California that broadcast directly into Iran. Due to limited resources, they are only on the air for a few hours a day. The Bush administration could accomplish a lot with a small investment in these broadcasters, who have many millions of Iranian listeners and viewers, and whose words carry an authority and an intimacy that no official U.S. broadcaster can hope to match. But so far, the administration has not done anything to support them.

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen051403.asp


And here's Ledeen in an interview in December 30, 2003:

FP: Let us suppose that tomorrow you are brought into Bush's inner circle regarding Iraq and the War on Terror. The President asks you what concrete steps he should take next. What do you say?

Ledeen: Support the democratic revolutionaries in Iran and the Iranian-American broadcasters in California. Now, not tomorrow. That is the key to the entire war, in my opinion. There will never be peace in Iraq so long as the mullahs are in power in Tehran, and their favorite Assad reigns in Damascus.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11512



Here's an article from June of '03, and we all know that Ledeen has been saying "Faster, faster!" on Iran for some time:

'There is a pact emerging between hawks in the administration, Jewish groups and Iranian supporters of Reza Pahlavi to push for regime change,' says Pooya Dayanim, president of the Iranian-Jewish Public Affairs Committee in Los Angeles and himself a hawk on Iran.

Already, this emerging coalition is reminiscent of the build up to the invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan, with Pahlavi possibly assuming the role of Iraqi exile opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi or Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, all favourites of the neo-conservatives.

~snip~

One key Pahlavi supporter is former Reagan administration official Ledeen, now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''Iran is ready to blow sky-high,'' wrote Ledeen as far back as November 2001. ''The Iranian people need only a bright spark of courage from the United States to ignite the flames of democratic revolution.''

Ledeen has joined with Amitay; ex-CIA head James Woolsey; former Reagan administration official Frank Gaffney; former senator Paul Simon and oil consultant Rob Sobhani to set up a group called the Coalition for Democracy in Iran.

http://www.sundayherald.com/34272

The Coalition for Democracy was founded in 2002:

The Coalition for Democracy in Iran (CDI) is one of numerous pressure groups created by neoconservatives that focus on changing U.S. foreign policy. These include the U.S. NATO Committee, Committee for Liberation of Iraq, and U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon. In late 2002 Michael Leeden and Morris Amitay spearheaded the creation of the Coalition for Democracy in Iran. Other members include Frank Gaffney, Jack Kemp, Bruce McColm, Joshua Muravhik, Danielle Pletka, Rob Sobhani, Raymond Tanter, and James Woolsey. (1)

~snip~

Several of the CDI principals were among the main presenters at an AEI forum titled “The Future of Iran.” Setting the tone of the forum, convener Meyrav Wurmser of Hudson Institute said: “Our fight against Iraq was only a battle in a long war. It would be ill-conceived to think we can deal with Iraq alone…We must move on, and faster.”

Morris Amitay, listed on the program as the vice-chair of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, made mention of his association with CDI. Also presenting were Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), whose sponsorship of congressional resolutions against Iran have been closely coordinated with CDI, American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Middle East experts at AEI and other neocon policy centers; Michael Ledeen, who Amitay called the “godfather of JINSA, and who has served as the necon’s point-man on Iran; and S. Rob Sobhani, an Iranian-American who is president of Caspian Energy Consulting and like others associated with CDI is a close acquaintance of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the ousted Shah of Iran (installed by a U.S.-engineered coup in 1953).

Although CDI calls for greater democracy in Iran, the close association of neocons such as Ledeen and Sobhani with the shah’s son raise concern that this may form part of another U.S. plan to restore the monarchy in Iran. Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Cameron Kamran, an Iranian-American commentator, said: “The Coalition for Democracy in Iran has strong ties to the exiled Reza Pahlavi, the deceased shah’s son, and the Iran Democracy Act would largely fund dissident groups that advocate a restoration of the monarchy.” (3) (4) As it turned out, the initial request for $50 million to fund exile groups was removed from the 2003 congressional resolution, although its cosponsor Christopher Cox noted that funding for dissident groups could be included in future spending bills.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1457

[myrna minx]

21. Thank you for this.

This is a lot to digest.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iran-20050802.htm
Third, lest we forget, one reason the Bush administration promulgated the possibility of military preemption in its strategic doctrine was the fact that, in this day and age, one could not count on timely warning of when states or terrorist groups might be on the verge of obtaining a devastating capability that puts America and its allies in serious danger. With denial and deception capabilities in our adversaries growing, and the seeming holes in U.S. intelligence’s collection capabilities, senior policymakers will rarely, if ever, be able to count on getting “date certains” to guide key decisions. All of which returns us to the fact that we have to keep an eye on the bigger picture: What kind of regime is Iran? What is the history we do know of its clandestine nuclear program? What are its avowed aims toward the U.S. and our allies? Why is it developing a ballistic missile warhead capable of delivering a nuclear weapon? And, last, what remains of its ties to and support for terrorists?


None of this means that the U.S. should be planning an attack tomorrow. There are numerous practical problems we would confront in carrying out that decision, even if that were in theory the right one to make. But it does mean that we have no reason to relax, nor can we postpone difficult decisions indefinitely.


***Why is there all of this talk about Iran having ballistic missiles? This is crazy.

[Emit]

22. Your welcome...

It is a lot I put out there, but since you mentioned an interest, thought I'd share. :)