I've read a rumor that Ayatollah Khamenei has died. According to the rumor, it will be officially announced tomorrow morning. No word on cause of death.

If true, it should be interesting to watch the scramble for power. My money would be on Rasfanjani. Not that he is an improvement or anything, but he might have the gnads to annul the bogus election results that put Ahmadinejad in the president's seat.

I've read a rumor that Ayatollah Khamenei has died. According to the rumor, it will be officially announced tomorrow morning. No word on cause of death.

If true, it should be interesting to watch the scramble for power. My money would be on Rasfanjani. Not that he is an improvement or anything, but he might have the gnads to annul the bogus election results that put Ahmadinejad in the president's seat.


If there is even a serious rumor out there, it will make it to at least one of the nightly news programs.

As for any impact on the election, I think Ahmanutjob's hold on the military leadership will trump any rationale a new Supreme Leader may have when it comes to changing the outcome.

I doubt the news outlets would air it since it would be impossible to confirm. We should know if it was bogus tomorrow. If Iran announces it, it was true. If not, it probably isn't.

I doubt the news outlets would air it since it would be impossible to confirm. We should know if it was bogus tomorrow. If Iran announces it, it was true. If not, it probably isn't.

"Unconfirmed reports ..."

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2009/10/13/khamenei-said-to-be-in-coma/#

Do you know how much backing the people will feel they have if he dies?

It will be as if it was punishment from god for his oppressing his people. God I hope that man is dead.

And Khamenei is the one that is in charge of the Revolutionary guard, Ahmadinijad only controls the military.

I take it hes not dead.

It has begun...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's official news agency is reporting that at least 20 people, including five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard, have been killed in a suicide bombing in southeastern Iran.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/iran-suicide-bomb-senior-_n_325009.html

and of course the Iranians are blaming the US for the bombing.

not sure where the politics of this one is coming from.

Homicide bomber indicates religion. Are the fundies making a play on the militarists?

I take it hes not dead.

As far as we know, it was quite the rumor - he's alive.

not sure where the politics of this one is coming from.

Homicide bomber indicates religion. Are the fundies making a play on the militarists?

Just your typical basic Sunni versus Shiite violence.

As far as we know, it was quite the rumor - he's alive.

Yep, if he had croaked I think it would have been announced by now. On the other hand, it would not surprise me if he is incapacitated or nearing death from various accounts of his state of health.

The recent bombing is unrelated IMO.

And in related news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still deceased.




(Anyone who saw the first year of Saturday Night Live will get that)

not sure where the politics of this one is coming from.

Homicide bomber indicates religion. Are the fundies making a play on the militarists? Jundallah took the credit for this. They're an Al Qeda franchise. Since they were operating in Iran, Seymour Hersch reported that the VP's office was sending them millions of dollars when cheney was VP. Much of that funding went to blow stuff up in Pakistan, although some went to blow stuff up in Iran. Much like when MEK (the Iranian branch of PKK) was sent piles of cash: some went to kill Iranians, but most went to kill Turks.

The part of Iran this happened in is predominantly Balochi. The Pakistani side of his region had significant terrorist activity for years, including some attacks on senior PK military, and allegedly at least one attempt on Musharref when he was in charge. PK will never grant any sort of independance or autonomy to this region as the primary port is in this region (in Gwadar).

Ralph Peters came up with an interesting article called Blood Borders (http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1833899) that discussed what borders really should be moved because of ethnic issues. It caused a diplomatic incident with Turkey (http://nykrindc.blogspot.com/2006/09/blood-borders-revisited.html) that meant that the original article had to have the map removed, along with a formal US apology.

The map that offended Turkey:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Ralph_Peters_solution_to_Mideast.jpg

One could make the argument, like Peters did, that large ethnic groups should be partitioned into their own nations, instead of the western drawn borders that were intended to make the regions easy to govern (under the principle of "divide and conquer").