Posted by
Boris Tiraspolsky on Monday, June 15, 2009 2:52:25 AM
"Why did Khamene'i select Ahmadinejad to "win" the election? Why did he not chose a president-puppet who would present a smile to the world, including Obama, handle the economy competently, not rile the population, and whose selection would not inspire riots that might destabilize the regime? Has Khamene'i fallen under the spell of Ahmadinejad or does he have some clever ploy up his sleeve? Whatever the answer is, it baffles me. Put differently, the West makes plenty of mistakes, so it's a relief to learn that its enemy sometimes does likewise."
Assessing the Iranian Election
By Daniel Pipes
Better put, the Iranian "selection," as the exercise yesterday appears to have been window dressing for Spiritual Leader Ali Khamene'i, the real power in Iran, to re-appoint Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. According to the authorities, Ahmadinejad received 63 percent of the vote, Mir-Hossein Mousavi 35 percent, and the remaining two candidates each about 1 percent.
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