A reader writes:
Kevin Sullivan nails it with his thumbnail sketch outlining the rise to power of the IGRC’s police state. Real power rests with the Guards Corps, and has for probably over a decade now. Sullivan’s notion that Iran is a theocracy in name only hits the nail on the head. In this respect, the Guards begin to resemble the SchutzStaffel under Himmler. People forget that under Himmler, the SS and their allied organizations the Siecherhiedstdeinst (SD) and the Geheimestaatspolizei (Gestapo) -all of whom answered to Himmler, wormed their way into all aspects of German society, and indeed set up rival economic fiefdoms within the German state, especially during the War. The corruption was widespread, and Himmler’s cronies made out like bandits during the lean war years. Not that it helped them when time came to meet the hangman.
The same thing is happening here.
(Photo: Members of the Iranian hardline volunteer Basij militia enter Tehran's university where supporters of the Islamic republic's defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi were protesting against the latest election's results at Tehran's University on June 14, 2009. AFP.)