AP Photo of Iran President as hostage taker. Fake ?

- who by all accounts was supposed to win.

Those accounts?

Those accounts?

Here's one:

London, Jun. 21 - A 49-year-old former commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards catapulted to super-politician status by the unexpected results of Friday’s presidential elections in Iran found himself at the centre of a growing controversy over allegations of vote fraud, his own shadowy past, and speculations over a crafty scheme by the top leaders of the clerical regime to lure voters to the polling booths.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the mayor of Tehran, was almost ignored by the domestic and international media until the last few days of the presidential campaign, and was widely expected to be among the five candidates who would be eliminated in the first round.

But Ahmadinejad, who belongs to the ultra-conservative camp within the theocratic regime, had something which placed him ahead of the other candidates: the nationwide powerful machinery of the Revolutionary Guards and the paramilitary Bassij, as well as the active blessing and support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“In the last week of the campaign, the Supreme Leader decided that Ahmadinejad represented the best chance among his favoured candidates in the race, who also included [former police chief Mohammad-Baqer] Qalibaf and [former state broadcasting chief Ali] Larijani”, an influential Tehran businessman with close ties to the ultra-conservative faction said.

“Khamenei instructed his son Mojtaba and his security chief Hojjatol-Islam Hejazi to devote all the resources of the Revolutionary Guards and other agencies controlled by the Supreme Leader’s office to ensure that Ahmadinejad would reach the second round”, he said.

Some observers remain sceptical as to whether Ahmadinejad is a genuine candidate who is being backed by Ayatollah Khamenei and his ultra-conservative faction to emerge as Iran’s next president, or whether he is being used as a “monster” to scare people into voting for “the lesser evil”, namely ex-President Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

“If you look at the way the Khamenei-Rafsanjani duo worked together throughout the 1990s, it wouldn’t be beyond them to be using Ahmadinejad as a demonic candidate to rally people around Rafsanjani”, said Simon Bailey of the London-based Gulf Intelligence Monitor.

“Here are two men who have been rivals since the early days of the Islamic revolution, yet each one knows that he needs the other one to keep the regime on its feet”, Bailey added.

Hossein Shaheen, a Paris-based analyst, agreed. “Khamenei didn’t want Rafsanjani to be the next President. But as the old saying goes, if you can’t stop them, join them. Both men have a vested interest in raising voter turnout, which would be critical for the continuity of their regime under highly sensitive domestic and international circumstances. A high turnout would enable them to thumb their noses at [United States President George W.] Bush. They can always settle their own accounts later”, he said.

What has strengthened speculation that Ahmadinejad is being used as a tool for scaring young people and women to rush to the polling stations in the runoff that will be held next Friday are a series of extremely unpopular statements by the former Tehran mayor and his close associates since his unexpected success in the first round.

Addressing a nationwide television audience, Ahmadinejad’s chief spokesman said last night that the kafiya (a popular headdress worn by men in Arab countries) must become the national headdress in Iran. Ahmadinejad himself said in an interview on Sunday that one of his top priorities will be “to implement sexual segregation in public transport systems and educational institutes”.

“These are suicidal statements for a presidential candidate in a country where the support of women and young people is essential to win,” Bailey said. “Ahmadinejad is certainly a radical Islamists, but we saw him in the municipal elections two years ago. He is not as dumb as he is acting right now”.

www.iranfocus.com...

Originally posted by AWingAndASigh:

Based on the evidence, I think it's not unlikely that he could have been involved in the hostage taking. However, the picture this thread is about is not the man the hostages are talking about when they say the president-elect was one of their captors.

I agree.

Thx for the links.

Thx for the links.

You're very welcome.

It's why we're here - Deny Ignorance!

Originally posted by AWingAndASigh

Thx for the links.

You're very welcome.

It's why we're here - Deny Ignorance!

Stop it! I might have to applaud you!

You know, it doesn't really matter who won. Those elections were a farce b/c so many candidates (over 1,000) were excluded from the get-go. Those people were the true reformers. It's awful. I really feel for the people of Iran, b/c if given the chance, they would probably want to see a more western style/friendly Iran.

www.iranfocus.com...

Reuters: President George W. Bush said on Thursday he
wanted answers on whether Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a leader in the 1979 U.S. Embassy siege as some former hostages have said.

Now that Bush is demanding answers wont be long till America believes this story.

I can't stop laughing that this guy can't even find an ironed shirt and he's the president

shave you loser

the average mall rat dresses better than this clown

What you fail to realize is that you are projecting your western beliefs on him. Iranians don't necessarily subscribe to your view of personal presentation.

LOL

Based on the same evidence. I believe the guy in the old photo,
is now the "elected leader" of Iran.
And still there is no BBC story claiming otherwise.

I also believe that if he's to be taken seriously, he does need to clean up,
shower, shave, and do some laundry. Western belief projection or not..



[edit on 30-6-2005 by spacedoubt]

Originally posted by spacedoubt
LOL

Based on the same evidence. I believe the guy in the old photo,
is now the "elected leader" of Iran.

Yeah, he's just as "elected" as George W. Bush.

The following is an analysis of the profile of the President's head, all of the photos are dated to the SAME time period, which will allow a more accurate analysis as the age factor doesn't come into play... the two new images are photos of the President while he was a student. They are authentic and from the Presidents very own personal website,
www.mardomyar.com.



Now just by looking at the photos it is clear that the terrorist shown in the first image is not the President, the President as a student looks nothing like this man. Also notice that the most defining feature is the nose in these profile shots, and the nose of the President is totally different to the nose of the terrorist. Therefore, and the BBC concurs, the man in the AP photo is NOT the President.

DEBUNKED

On the record, what is the Iranian president's height?

Sorry, I'm not in the mood to remember how to spell the guys' name.

Remember that people do lose some of there height after a certain age.

Those images on the first page are definitely fake, i think it is part of Bush's plan to invade Iran. Paint a bad picture so that the mass population will hate the guy. I am sure they paid those hostages to say that he was one of the bad guys and threatened them.

Now we can look forward to a terrorist attack with Iranian origins so Bush can call the draft and go to war with Iran and then the entire middle east. What do you think Bush will try this time, maybe a dirty bomb?

Ahmadinejad is 154 cm tall

which means he is 5 foot 1 inch... now that is short... think about it a moment, he's shorter than an average girl.

NinjaCodeMonkey...

i personally think that israel will sink an american ship in the gulf and blame it on iran... israel has the exact same anti-ship cruise missiles as iran afterall, wouldn't be hard for Mossad to do a false flag operation... so 5000 or so american sailors die, Bush says iran did it, the american people rally behind Bush, Bush says we must get pay-back terminator style, the american people happily accept a draft... hell Bush might even refer to the iranian presidents role in this hostage incident just to flare up things even more... its all good ole' ammunition... think about it... you already have ties to terror (his alleged role in the hostage taking) the quest for nuclear weapons AND now once he has his sunken ship... every american will support the war.

damn... seems like fooling the american people into going to war is easier than taking a piss in the morning and trying not to miss the bowel...


[edit on 30-6-2005 by metallicabrainz]

Now just by looking at the photos it is clear that the terrorist shown in the first image is not the President, the President as a student looks nothing like this man. Also notice that the most defining feature is the nose in these profile shots, and the nose of the President is totally different to the nose of the terrorist. Therefore, and the BBC concurs, the man in the AP photo is NOT the President.

The angle of the photos is not the same, so optical illusion can make nose profiles look different when they're actually not.

I prefer not to rely on the photos, but the president-elect's actual activities during the time in question. It's clear that he was at least marginally involved - this has been confirmed by multiple sources. No one has denied that he was a member of the group that staged the takeover. It's not much of a stretch to extend his verified activities to the activity the hostages say he was involved in.

In my opinion, the question as to whether he was involved in the embassy takeover is still open, regardless of photo analysis.

i think it is part of Bush's plan to invade Iran.

Maybe the Iranians wanted a guy that they know will stand up to america and keep on the track off trying to aquire nukes?

Originally posted by cryptorsa1001
Remember that people do lose some of there height after a certain age.

Nonetheless, it would be very helpful to know that stat. You could then compare it to the stat of the hostage (in the photo). That would tell you difinitively.

AWingAndASigh keep thinking that...

optical illusion? c'mon... thats pathetic... different angles? huh... maybe a degree or so... take a step back from your comp and look at the faces... they are not the same people! its like comparing michael jackson to 2pac... see past the nose and just look at his face! they are NOT the same people!

gawwwwwd i hate how people with different views never listen to reason or evidence they just end up in denial when proved wrong.. grrrr

And the spins goes on...

Spin, metallicbrainz! Spin like there's no tomorrow!