June 20-2014
News stories carried widely this month have been saying that Gen. Mohammad-Ali Jafari (photo), commander of the Pasdaran, said in a speech recorded late in 2009 that the Pasdaran intervened to stop Mir-Hossain Musavi from winning the 2009 presidential election. A five-minute video of part of the speech has been posted on Facebook. The news stories about the video confirm the widespread suspicion that the election was a fraud. The problem with these stories is that Jafari does not say in the video that the Pasdaran or anyone else changed the vote count. What Jafari says is that a victory by the Reformists and their return to power was a red line for the Pasdaran and unacceptable to the organization. In effect, he is saying that the Pasdaran were prepared to intervene to stop Musavi from winning. But he doesn’t say the Pasdaran did intervene. That still leaves open the possibility that President Ahmadi-nejad won re-election at the polls.
