Author: Slater Bakhtavar

2011 has been a remarkable year in world politics. Never before in recent history have there been so many examples in quick succession of citizens rising up against their governments. Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria have all witnessed political …

Subsequent to the June 9 elections tarred by fraud, a poorly-known organization further increased its power in Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“Pasdaran” or “IRGC”) following the 1979 Islamic Revolution to safeguard …

For the Iranian people everything begins on June 12, 2009, with their 10th presidential election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution: the challenge was between the outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the opposition’s leader, Hossein Moussavi.

These were the words uttered by the distraught Shah of Iran when, grieving, he reflected on his downfall just before his demise in exile. The tormented former “King of Kings” ardently nurtured a deep-rooted conviction that the Carter Administration, …

During the 1970′s, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had acceded to the monarchist governmental leadership role present throughout Iran’s history, implemented economic, educational and social reforms. In 1978, in the midst of democratic reforms, the Shah and the Iranian …

In early October, members of the separatist Kurdish Workers’ Party (“PKK”) stationed in northern Iraq, instigated a clandestine military attack, which led to twelve casualties. This attack is a minuscule part of a spate of intensified attacks by the Kurdish …

After the advent of the September 11th attacks, General Perez Musharraf’s militaristic regime, metamorphosed into a stalwart cohort of the U.S.-led war on terror. Confounding conventional wisdom, the Pakistani government cut financial, cultural and military ties to the Taliban, supplied …

In the mid twentieth century, US-Iran relations prospered. Many Americans celebrated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a model king. President Lyndon B. Johnson pronounced in 1964: “What is going on in Iran is about the best thing going on …

The closer we approach the 2008 elections, the more I realize America needs another Ronald Reagan. Someone everyone knows, someone everyone likes, someone who is conservative and someone who can both win the election and manage to hold the Presidency …

The United States preoccupation with the grave situation in the Middle East has metamorphosed into a grand opportunity for Beijing. Once thought of as the “sick man of Asia” with land confiscated by the British, Dutch, Germans and Japanese, …

Recently President Bush went on a six nation South American tour, a region to which both the Clinton and Bush administrations have failed to spend sufficient time and resources. His visit was a progressive move in the right direction but …

After the 2003 US-led military invasion of Iraq, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei summoned a war council in Tehran where Iranian officials adopted several initiatives to secure Iran’s short term and long term interests. Iranian security services suggested …

In 1996, funded financially and backed morally by their allies in Pakistan, the Taliban (“Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement”) emerged as the prominent force in Afghanistan after the war against the Soviet Union and the fall of the corrupt communist …

Hezbollah was founded in 1982 with a manifesto of driving Israel out of Lebanon and creating an Iranian-Style Islamic Republic in the multi-religious nation. The organization receives one hundred million dollars annually from the Iranian government to pursue their religious …

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution a little known clandestine Islamist group remerged from the ashes. Formed in 1953 with a radically anti-Bahai and anti-Sunni ideology the Hojjatiehs flourished during the Revolution that ousted the Shah. The fiery, respected Sheik …