JAILED FOR OUTING THE MULLAH MAFIA
June 13, 2008
'A BUNCH of turbaned thieves": So a member of the Iranian General Audit Office described leading Islamic Republic figures in a speech two weeks ago. On Wednesday, that official, Abbas Palizdar, was arrested by the secret police, ostensibly on orders from "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei.
Speaking at a university in Hamadan, west of Tehran, on May 27, and later on June 3, Palizdar claimed that "a mafia-style group of mullahs" is "plundering the country and sending the proceeds to foreign banks." He also said that the same "mafia" had assassinated two prominent officials who had stood in its way.
That the mullahs are filling their pockets hasn't been a secret for more than two decades. Iranians know which businesses are controlled by the turbaned heads and their "front men." What's new is that a senior official actually named names.
Palizdar claimed that former President Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani controls more than 300 businesses, making him the richest man in Iran. A small building contractor before the mullahs seized power, Rafsanjani has built an empire on government contracts that's now estimated to be worth several billion dollars.
Palizdar denounced many others:
* Ayatollah Muhammad Imami-Kashani, Tehran's Friday-prayer leader, and Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Nateq-Nuri, a former speaker of the Islamic parliament - who he called "leeches sucking the blood of our nation."
* Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, a pro-regime mullah from Qom, known to Iranians as "Sugar Ayatollah." Since 1995, he has controlled sugar imports through his son-in-law, Muhammad Moddallal.
* Ayatollah Muhammad Yazdi, a former chief justice, who holds agency rights for several German and French firms and is a silent partner in more than 100 businesses, some with offices in Europe.
* Ayatollah Ali Fallahian, a former minister for security and intelligence, who is wanted by the Criminal Court in Berlin for his alleged involvement in the 1992 assassination of Iranian dissidents there. Palizdar said Fallahian won "juicy government contracts" in exchange for a promise "not to spill the beans."
* Ayatollah Abbas Va'ez-Tabassi, who heads the Imam Reza Foundation, Iran's largest business conglomerate.
* Ayatollah Alam al-Huda - who Palizdar called the head of "a ring of corruption and money laundering" that includes hundreds of lesser-known clerics.
