Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: Profile of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad

By Iason Athanasiadis May 19, 2006
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE19Ak02.html
TEHRAN - The West is just coming to know the resoluteness of Iranian
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad as he doggedly sticks to his beliefs with
regard to Iran's nuclear program, despite the weight of international and
domestic pressure building up against him. 
To friends and colleagues who have known Ahmadinejad for a long time,
though, his perseverance in the face of daunting odds comes as no
surprise. 
"Mahmud has not changed in the 30 years I've known him, at school and at
university," Saeed Hadian told Asia Times Online, saying that Ahmadinejad
had an obstinate streak and insistence on justice being served. "He's
still the same Mahmud." 
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad continued the plunge into a spiral of
confrontation with the West as he rejected a European offer to provide
Iran with a light-water nuclear reactor in exchange for Tehran giving up
nuclear enrichment activities. Iran's nuclear dossier is before the United
Nations Security Council, with the possibility of sanctions growing. 
Ahmadinejad compared the European offer to giving "a four-year-old ...
candies or walnuts and taking gold from him in return". 
While the populist rhetoric went down well with the large, open-air
audience he was addressing in the central Iranian city of Arak, it is only
likely to anger further a US administration seemingly hell-bent on
imposing sanctions on Iran as a first step toward depriving it of the full
nuclear cycle. 
That is unlikely to disturb Ahmadinejad, a previously obscure, mid-ranking
politician from a conservative background whose surprise victory in last
June's presidential elections prompted rumblings of fear. Iran's middle
and upper classes were convinced that Ahmadinejad would order a social
crackdown, which has yet to materialize. But they predicted correctly that
the country's economy would suffer from capital loss. 
Last summer, Ahmadinejad made an explosive entrance into the international
spotlight. He directed a combative address to the UN General Assembly in
September, made controversial comments that called into question the
Holocaust and the future of Israel in November, and was the first Iranian
president of the Islamic Republic to address a letter to his US
counterpart. 
Two weeks ago, he confounded everyone by exhibiting a heretofore unseen
liberal side and seeking to cancel a law that bans women from entering
stadiums. He was immediately overruled by the country's clerical
leadership, but reaped great popularity among the crucial secular, liberal
Iranian electorate that is traditionally opposed to what he stands for. 
Last week, Ahmadinejad was treated like a rock star in Indonesia, by an
audience enchanted by the kind of direct rhetorical style that evokes
memories of 1960s liberation ideology. In the Arab world too, increasingly
people are expressing admiration for how Ahmadinejad is dishing it up to
the West in a way that their own governments do not dare. 
"Iran has often been at the receiving end of ultimatums from foreign
powers," said Cyrus Safdari, an independent Iranian analyst. "The
politicians who stood up to these ultimatums are treated as heroes, and
the ones who caved are still considered to be traitors." 
So how did a blacksmith's son from rural Iran manage to become an Islamic
iconoclast who defied the West and the Iranian mullahocracy alike to
deliver a highly controversial nuclear program to his country? How did an
intensely pious war veteran manage to be elected in an poll marked by the
absence of religious symbolism and accented by his rival's promise to
continue the social liberalization characterized by the Mohammad Khatami
era? 
Naser and Saeed Hadian, two brothers who are childhood friends of the
president, describe him as unchanged from the time they knew him. Still
buddies, they all grew up together in the dusty streets of Narmak, a
solidly middle-class neighborhood of east Tehran. Naser recalls playing
soccer with the talented Ahmadinejad and other children. 
He was as obstinate as a lad as he is now, said Naser. "[Now] everyone is
against him," said Naser, who studied with Ahmadinejad at the Elm-o Sanat
University. "From the super-secular elite to the super-religious elites,
they have all turned against him. And he doesn't care. He says, 'Let them
come, let them vote against me, I have the support of the people.'" 
Typical of Ahmadinejad's temperament is the following anecdote, told by
another acquaintance. In 1997, with newly elected president Khatami
spearheading a rollback of hardliners, Ahmadinejad taught engineering
classes at his alma mater, Elm-o Sanat University, proudly sporting a
Palestinian kaffiyeh (scarf) around the campus. While kaffiyehs are
standard symbols for the pro-Palestinian cause in the West, in Iran they
also represent religiosity and a commitment to the hard right wing of the
Islamic Republic. 
To have worn one in the relative liberalism of a university environment at
the peak of the reformist wave indicated his single-minded commitment to
the founding principles of the Islamic Republic. 
During the eight-year reformist period, Ahmadinejad worked his way up the
provincial governorship ladder, eventually becoming mayor of Tehran. His
tenure was marked by the improved organization of what is one of the
world's most chaotic and traffic-choked cities. 
In recognition, he was short-listed for an international Mayor of the Year
competition in 2004, even as well-off Tehranis cracked jokes about how, if
he could, Ahmadinejad's conservativeness would have extended to his
instituting segregated male and female sidewalks, elevators and graveyards
in Tehran. 
For their part, upper-class Iranians sneer at his common looks and
ordinary-Joe appearance, even as Ahmadinejad himself stresses it to appeal
to large segments of the electorate. 
But those who know him prefer to dwell on his "indefatigable habits of
work" and "financial incorruptibility". A modest man, he inhabited an
unpretentious home in the same neighborhood that he grew up in and drove a
Paykan, Iran's cheapest, mass- produced car. 
A talented soccer player and straight-A student, Ahmadinejad sailed
through educational and professional hierarchies with great ease. When he
inherited the president's office, he completed a process of donating all
the lavish Persian rugs that used to decorate it to Tehran's carpet
museum. 
While Ahmadinejad's on-the-job performance has won him more fans since he
became president, his threat to reform the system and root out corruption
has created powerful enemies, including influential clerics. 
Some believe that Ahmadinejad's systematic purge of the foreign service,
provincial governorships and key economic posts - and his appointment of
mostly former Revolutionary Guard comrades to those offices - is angering
an older generation of clerics who see significant elements of their power
base being eroded. 
Further criticism is prompted by the fact that, whereas the time has
probably come for the second revolutionary generation to start taking
over, Ahmadinejad's abrupt manner in effecting this transition is ruffling
too many feathers. 
In the holy city of Qom, the primary center of Shi'ite scholarship in the
world, Ahmadinejad has reportedly upset a number of senior figures. One
senior cleric, Ayatollah Sanei, is more liberal than others and believes
in equality between men and women and tolerance among religions. But when
a conversation with Asia Times Online turned to Ahmadinejad and his
recent, crowd-pleasing decision to allow women back into soccer stadiums
for games, Sanei refused to comment. 
"I didn't sign that letter," he said, referring to a letter issued by at
least four grand ayatollahs that condemned the president's decision and
instantly granted him impeccable liberal credentials. "I didn't get
involved in that, it was all a game." 
In private pictures taken in 1977 in shah-era Shiraz, a young, beardless
Ahmadinejad stands next to his friends. Wearing scuffed running shoes and
an ordinary brown jacket and sporting a solid, left-hand parting in his
hair, he looks every inch the opinionated man he went on to become. He
appears obstinately dowdy, every inch the mardomyar (people's man) that he
went on to become. 
Iason Athanasiadis is an Iran-based correspondent.
-- 
www.iaciners.org
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. There is an idea, Mr.
Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

 (people's man) that he went on to become.
E' un politico con le palle. Riesce a sfruttare al massimo le risorse di cui 
dispone.
Quando nel 2003 scrissi che l'arma dei Pasdaran ("sepah") era 
psicologicamente molto vicina ad un colpo di stato - e ad entrare in 
conflitto con l'estabilishment religioso - intendevo proprio ciň che č 
successo: M.A. ha vinto delle elezioni molto controverse e la "sepah" ha 
ottenuto soddisfazione.
Piů ci penso, e piů mi convinco che fu il Grande Trombato - Rafsanjani - a 
manovrare per l'esclusione dei riformisti dalle elezioni e persino 
incoraggiare brogli ai danni dei candidati Moin e Karroubi. Ha pensato che 
tra lui e il ragazzotto in odor di khomeinismo prima ora, la gente avrebbe 
votato lui, il grande ricco.
Cosě non č stato. Hanno votato per il "mardomyar" per le ragioni che 
l'articolo postato ha puntualmente esposto. L'appoggio della "sepah" al 
presidente č assoluto, soprattutto tra gli ufficiali over-40 che 
combatterono spalla a spalla per le strade di Teheran nel '79 o nelle 
trincee dello Shatt-el Arab contro gli iracheni. Sono loro che hanno fatto 
una rivoluzione nazionalista, per vedersi poi da un lato sbertucciati da 
mullah che si arricchivano, e dall'altro superati da ragazzini con vent'anni 
meno di loro a guidare nuove formazioni d'elite del regime.
I 27 anni trascorsi dalla rivoluzione hanno segnato una disaffezione del 
popolo verso i mullah. Ma le ragioni della rivoluzione, quelle di un 
nazionalismo autarchico di massa vecchio di almeno 130 anni, sono ancora lě. 
L'unica differenza č che agli occhi del popolo non sono piů i mullah oggi a 
incarnare gli interessi della nazione.
Il loro "tradimento" ha portato al potere uno del popolo, uno che quegli 
interessi li incarna meglio di un Rafsanjani finito sulla copertina di 
Forbes, o di un Khatami convinto che fosse sufficiente un po' di charme per 
diventare amici degli tati Uniti *e* mantenere il controllo nazionale delle 
risorse.
Perciň il ragazzotto č semplicemente l'uomo del suo tempo.
-- 
Aramesh 

 Perciň il ragazzotto č semplicemente l'uomo del suo tempo.
secondo me, e' un agente della CIA
sta facendo *di tutto* per farsi invadere
e un primo effetto dei suoi proclami bellicosi e' che il Pentagono e' 
pronto a spendere miliardi di dollari per apparati difensivi
N.

 dollari per apparati difensivi
Offensivi. 

ArAmesh wrote:

e' simmetrica la cosa
N.

 e' simmetrica la cosa
Se sono offensivi non dipendono dai proclami.
-- 
Aramesh 

 Se sono offensivi non dipendono dai proclami.
no, erano scudi difensivi anti-missile
missili anti-missile
'sta roba qua ipercostosa
N.

"il cuggino di nico" <miocu...@cerco.dominio> ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:4472e8a9$0$29730$4faf...@reader2.news.tin.it...

La sicurezza costa, in un modo o nell'altro. Anche se il modo è 
fondamentale.
La cosa che ritengo degna di nota è che l'occidente è molto più sicuro in 
questa situazione di endemica guerra civile mondiale, rispetto al periodo 
della guerra fredda. Ma gli Stati Uniti ritengono necessario aumentare ogni 
anno il budget militare. Il dato in sé ha delle cause che non dipendono dai 
proclami, anche se può subire accelerazioni in seguito a certi proclami.
-- 
Aramesh 

 sta facendo *di tutto* per farsi invadere
Ho capito come fai a dire sempre e comunque una scemata: non leggi.
Dici le tue cose a prescindere da qualunque considerazione piu' evoluta si
trovi gia' detta o gia' scritta. Il tuo e' un pensiero primordiale, intonso
da richiami culturali e storici, assolutamente basilare, istintivo,
animale.
L'articolo prima e Ara poi hanno detto della popolarita' e del successo che
questa politica gli porta in patria, per cercare di farti capire al tuo
livello, se tu vivessi in libia e se la lega fosse il primo partito in
italia, un calderoli che esibisce una maglietta dove sbeffeggia la mezza
luna a te farebbe pensare che questo kalderholy e' un agente del
capitalismo cristiano, nel mentre il Calda diventerebbe ben popolare nella
pianura padana.

Ciao *il cuggino di nico*, non mi ricordo nulla di quello successo
 l'altra notte, mi ricordo solo un post che fa cosě:

zzo fate otti?
fanculo voi e i musi marroniw :)
-- 
Vuoi postare velocemente?
http://x-privat.org



perche' non ti killi tu?

 perche' non ti killi tu?
ti killo io con uno specchietto ustore
N.