Economist has always had a lot of information. This week’s Economist has an article, "Fund and Find Your Opposition", in which the author speculates the death of Massoud Rajavi and that Maryam Rajavi has become a widow!
The article has a critical view on Condi Rice’s request for allocating 75 million dollars to finding an opposition desirable for the US.
The article goes as follows:
So America’s challenge now is to find suitable NGOs, trade unions, human-rights groups and students to receive the $20m they have been allocated. (The other $55m will help disseminate Persian-language broadcasts and propaganda on the internet.) Iran’s internal opposition lacks a Nelson Mandela; Iranians in the diaspora (1m in the United States) cannot even boast of an Ahmed Chalabi, the neo-conservatives’ failed favourite to run Iraq…
Even supposing the promise of cash moves the diaspora to unite, the credibility of its leading lights is low. Though he has astutely backed calls for a referendum on a political system to replace the Islamic Republic, Reza Pahlavi, the personable but reputedly unambitious son of the last shah, is little spoken of in Iran."
As for the MKO, the article says:
"As for the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which sided with Saddam Hussein during his war with Iran in the 1980s and is officially considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, it is widely despised by Iranians back home, millions of whom lost relatives in that war. The group fosters a cult of personality around Maryam Rajavi, wife (probably widow) of its long-time leader. There is growing support in the United States and Europe for removing the terrorist label attached to the PMOI, which is widely credited with having exposed several of the nuclear-research facilities the Iranian government had kept secret for many years. But that may not endear it to people in Iran either."
"Probably widow", this is what raises questions. Why? Does the Economist have secret reports, or is only based on rumors due to the long absence of Massoud Rajavi?
If the latter case is true, those who create rumors and those who extend the cult of personality and its ambiguities should be blamed equally. If the former case is true and the report is based on intelligence, then why are they creating ambiguity?
Anyway, we should wait for MKO’s response.
Irandidban’s analysis on Economist article – 2007/02/18