[lit-ideas] Re: Of demons and men
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:17:22 -0600
Lawrence, your life must have been pretty meaningless to you between 11/9/89
and 9/11/01. Wherever did you do to amuse yourself?
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 11:03 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Of demons and men
I need to apologize to Timmerman - a bit. After posting my note, I picked up
his book to check something only to discover it was in Mohammad Mohaddessin's
Islamic Fundamentalism. It was the latter who was more thoroughly demonizing
Khomeini.
Timmerman does assume an Iranian mastermind, but his is Rafsanjani.
Timmerman is breaking stories about Iran that I've never heard before (there
isn't anything wrong with that, but the stories should be verifiable, and his
may not be). For example, according to him, Al Quaeda trained for 9/11 in
Iran. One of his informants is a body guard who walked through a building and
saw simulations of rockets flying into American buildings. This bodyguard,
Zakeri, went to the American embassy in Azerbaijan and wanted to contact the
CIA with his information. He was referred to a CIA official eventually who
scoffed at his information. Zakeri even had the date September 10th as the day
of the attack, and the CIA official, unnamed in Zimmerman's book, laughed and
said he'd mark it on his calendar. When Timmerman tried to follow this story
up, the CIA denied it. They said that Zakeri was unreliable and they never
used him. Timmerman counters with a CIA principle which is that if 25% of what
an informant can be verified from other sources, you ought to pay attention to
the other 75%.
Timmerman also has photos of an Iranian terrorist mastermind (formerly) from
Lebanon named Imad Fayez Mugniyeh. He quotes someone as saying Mugniyeh makes
Osama bin Laden look like a school boy. He says because of the photos Mugniyeh
got a plastic surgeon to change his looks and now he looks something like
Richard Gere with a pot belly.
Perhaps my present less-than-favorable impression of Timmerman will change as
I read on. If so, I'll apologize further later on.
Lawrence
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 1:57 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Of demons and men
I went through a serious several-year jag of reading Israel/Palestine issue
books. I read books written by Jews, by Westerners who lived in the midst of
the conflict for a time, by Palestinian sympathizers, by political gurus and
secular journalists, all the Arab/Muslim texts Eric mentioned (well, most of
them). I can't count the number I read. Many out loud w/ my husband. The one
sure thing I came away with was the certainty that in terms of cultural and
political clashes there simply is no objective right and wrong, there simply
are no white hats and black hats. There are agendas I support and actions I
find damnable. But it's all a mixed bag of motives and rights and beliefs and
and and ......
I stopped reading on the subject for a while. It was too demoralizing.
Julie Krueger
========Original Message========
Subj:
[lit-ideas] Of demons and men
Date:
2/20/06 1:30:37 AM Central Standard Time
From:
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To:
lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent on:
I'm currently reading Robin Wright's The Last Great Revolution, Turmoil and
Transformation in Iran. I previously read her In The Name of God, The Khomeini
Decade, so I have a very good feel for what Wright thinks of Khomeini. In both
of her books she describes Khomeini entering the Iranian Revolution with
traditional Shiite beliefs, esp that Religious leaders should not be in
governmental leadership positions. He made several announcements to that
effect. His intention was to stay out of government unless there was some
problem he needed to referee. But as time went on he was drawn more and more
into government until when the Iranian constitution was eventually written, he
became the Velayat-e Faqih, the Supreme Leader.
I'm also reading Kenneth Timmerman's Countdown to Crisis, the Coming Nuclear
Showdown with Iran. Timmerman addresses the same facts Wright does, but draws
very different conclusion - think Andreas' views on Bush. In Timmerman's view
Khomeini wasn't drawn into anything, He was orchestrating a clever plot. He
intended to be the Veleyat-e Faqih from the beginning. He played reluctant and
hard to get to get the people behind him - to get them to demand that he become
the Supreme Leader.
I'm uncomfortable with Timmerman's approach to Khomeini. I don't trust
conspiracy theories. I fully accept the idea that we are each capable of all
sorts of things we don't think we are capable of as long as we aren't tempted
by them. I accept that if we are subjected to strong temptation we shall, most
of us, succumb. So I can accept that Khomeini may have been tempted to
compromise his Shiite beliefs when he had the opportunity to become (of felt
the necessity to become) Veleyat-e Faqih. But I find it hard to believe in the
cynical conniving Khomeini that cleverly planned everything in advance. If he
was that cynical, clever, and conniving, then why did he make so many other
mistakes? For example, he got rid of the Shah's American weapons, and nuclear
development sites. A Shiite trusts in Allah, not in American technology and
weapons, Khomeini said. But when the war with Iraq started, his people begged
him to change his mind and let them get some decent weapons to fight Saddam
with; which he reluctantly agreed to, and then they had to go to a source, the
USSR, they hadn't used before which necessitated inordinate delays and learning
curves.
Timmerman has demonized Khomeini while Wright has described a human being who
happened to be the religious leader who became the Supreme Leader of Iran. I
shall be happy to read anything else I can find by Robin Wright. I shall be
very reluctant to read another book by Timmerman.
Lawrence
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