IRANIAN DOUBLESPEAK

In April, Israel's leading newspaper (Ha'Aretz) published a somewhat sarcastic and somewhat tongue-in-cheek piece by Akiva Eldar. His thrust was that, based on multiple anti-WMD statements from Iranian leaders, Israel should seriously consider recalibrating its position on Iran.

Eldar argued that Iran’s Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa (an authoritative religious edict) banning the production, storage and use of nuclear weapons. Eldar also cited a Washington Post piece by Iran’s Foreign Minister contending that Iran opposes weapons of mass destruction.

One doubts that Eldar’s piece altered Netanyahu’s position on Iran. Still, being charitable, Eldar’s arguments may contain some measure of merit. That said, there is a flip side to Eldar’s half-hearted and lightly-salted sentiments about Iran’s allegedly absent nuclear aspirations.

In truth, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader (The Rehbar), did indeed issued a fatwa condemning and banning the development and use of nuclear weapons. And, pointedly, absolutely nothing of import happens in Iran without the imprimatur (covert or overt) of Iran's Supreme Leader. That should have been the end of any discussion about nuclear enrichment, but it was not. Uranium enriching centrifuges are increasingly whirring in Iran.

Enter Fordo and Natanz. Fordo is Iran’s previously secret underground nuclear enrichment facility. Indeed, Iran had long denied that any Fordo-like facility even existed. And thus the plot thickens.


 

Until 2009, Iran had repeatedly and vehemently denied the existence of any nuclear enrichment facility except at Natanz. Where? Until 2002, Iran had also repeatedly denied that there were nuclear enrichment operations afoot at Natanz.


 

In due course, foreign intelligence services exposed the inescapable truths that Iran’s denials about both Natanz and Fordo were unmitigated lies, calculated deceptions and Machievellian disinformation. Enter Ahmadinejad.


 

Ahmadinejad is Iran’s belligerent President. He vehemently denies that his murky past conceals a sordid association with the American hostages taken by Iranian students in 1979. However, photographic evidence and hostage testimony convincingly suggest that Ahmadinejad is simply mendacious.



No matter, Ahmadinejad’s bellicosity (expressly including, but not limited to) threats to wipe Israel off the map ---presumably possible only with Nukes--- arises directly from and is a product of his impressive (or is it oppressive?) ideological heritage.


 

Ahmadinejad's psycho-political lineage is grounded in the ideological posturing repeatedly adumbrated by Iranian luminaries such as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Mezbah Yazdi. The latter was Ahmadinejad’s long time spiritual mentor.


 

Arguably, Ayatollah Mohammed-Taqi Mezbah-Yazdi is the most conservative, the most powerful and the most influential Shiite oligarch in Iran. He is justifiably known to his adversaries as "Professor Crocodile."


 

Yazdi is a recognized authority on Shiite Islam. He believes that the Shiite Messiah (The Mahdi aka The Hidden Imam who has been living in occult occlusion since the ninth century) will come only when there is sufficient chaos on earth and only when the primary source of all evil on earth (Zionism) is blotted out.

It is critical to note that Ayatollah Yazdi is a proponent of the Shiite doctrine of Takkiya. What is Takkiya? It is a Quran-based doctrine (Q. 2:225; 3:28; 16:106) which affirms the right of a Shiite to dissimulate (i.e. to lie, deceive, mislead, delude or hoodwink) when it comports with a Shiite’s need to protect his Islamic viability, vitality and well-being.


 

But wait. There’s more. Yazdi is an Ayatollah. By definition, an ayatollah is an infallible interpreter of Shiite Islam and, therefore, a source of emulation. That status is remarkably authoritative. That honorific designation lends commanding weight to the principles upon which Yazdi and his followers operate.


 

So, what's the bottom line to the above? Israel and Western leaders should feel constrained to question if The Rehbar and Iranian polemicists (who publicly speak against the acquisition of nukes) are premeditatedly and privately employing some mutated form of Takkiya.


 

Are the Iranians using diplomatic doublespeak to deceive, mislead and lull the West into complacency? Why else would Iranian centrifuges have been secreted in an undisclosed, underground, concrete-hardened, nuclear enrichment facility? Are Iranian protestations against nuclear enrichment a cleverly crafted mask to conceal contrary intentions? 


 

That conclusion is almost inescapable. In fact, it is well documented (in compelling books by Gertz and Pollock) that the Iranians have a deplorable history of troubling treachery and serial deception.


 

In sum, when contemplating the prospect of a nuclear Iran, it may be prudent to remember that disinformation, deception and doublespeak were not invented by George Orwell!