The details of stories of vote-rigging in Iran simply lack credibility as evidence that the election result was fraudulent. No doubt there was some fraud on both sides, as there usually is in many western elections (my Australia certainly included), too. But what we are reading now in the media is nothing short of sheer misinformation. Media spin out rumour and unsubstantiated stories or rely on the most blatant propaganda in the form of various government and political party press releases. (Compare my previous post for more details and genuine inside reporting.)
Examples:
- By Esam Al-Amin, on the overall relative health of Iranian democracy and for a review of the actual facts vs media reports:
A Hard Look at the Numbers: What Actually Happened in the Iranian Elections?
- Maarten Doude van Troostwijk is a Dutch historian and translator who has observed many elections in the former communist block for the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, writes:
Stolen Election in Iran? An Inside View of Vote Fraud
- Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, Paul Craig Roberts, gives detailed background on what should surely be obvious to any reader who has been looking for sourced evidence for most of the astonishing claims made in the western media:
- On the stories that more than 100% of the people voted read Iranian reports on their own investigations (and compare with the U.S. response of blatant fraud in the Bush election):
Guardian Council: Over 100% Voted in 50 Cities
- And for those who like a bit of history, Chris Hedges, who has a weekly column for www.Truthdig.com, is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Hedges, who has reported from more than 50 countries, worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, where he spent fifteen years.
Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away
Not forgetting (how could we?) the neo-con establishment in 2002 of the Coalition for Democracy in Iran.
In other words, if it’s imprudent to bomb them for a little while, work like hell to whiteant them until they restore another one like the shah.