Mojtaba Khamenei

[Behrooz Boonabi]

I started this thread Because nobody seems to know anything about Mojtaba Khamenei. Most can't even identify him and he is a big player. Can anybody add to this?

[Iran33]

First we begin with his pictures:

[Behrooz Boonabi]

From Wiki

Mojtaba Khamenei (born c. 1969),[1] is an Iranian hard-line cleric, and the second son of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

Mojtaba is reported to have a strong influence over his father and is talked about as his possible successor.[2] The strength of Mojtaba's personal following has not been demonstrated and while he wears clerical robes he "by no means has the theological status" to rise to Supreme Leader.[2] He would face opposition in the Assembly of Experts, which selects the Supreme Leader. Many conservatives, including the Revolutionary Guard hierarchy, support Mojtaba and oppose reformers who might question the financial management of the country and the billions of dollars conservatives use to support their regional political agenda. However, Mojtaba's religious and political stature may still not be enough for Ali Khamenei to one day just unveil his son as his successor.[3]

Mojtaba is affiliated with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[4] He supported Ahmedinejad in the 2005 and 2009 presidential elections.[3] Journalists have stated that he may "have played a leading role in orchestrating" Ahmadinejad's electral victory,[2] that he may be "a key figure in orchestrating the crackdown against anti-government protesters" in June 2009,[5] and directly in charge of the paramilitary Basij, a blackout of his name in the regime press notwithstanding.[2] In an open letter, Mehdi Karrubi, ex-chairman of the Majlis (parliament) and a reformist candidate in the 2009 presidential vote, explicitly accused Mojtaba Khamenei of participating in a conspiracy to rig the election, referring to illegal interference of "a network".[6]

He is married to the daughter of former parliamentary speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel.[7] He is also "widely believed to control huge financial assets".[2]
[edit] External links

[M1A1Tanker]

Originally Posted by Behrooz Boonabi

I started this thread Because nobody seems to know anything about Mojtaba Khamenei. Most can't even identify him and he is a big player. Can anybody add to this?

Two things I have read came from British press and I can nolonger find them state that he was the one that helped get the vote out to regions that had never participated in the vote, like places where they dumped 5 tons of potatos and then dropped off a guy with a voting box and had them vote while gewtting their potatos. It has also been discussed that he is the one behind the basiji no mercy crackdowns and the prison director that took the fall for the prisoner deaths was his scapegoat.

If I find the link I will post it....

[Blue Bloater]

Originally Posted by Iran33

First we begin with his pictures:

handsome, like his father...

[IsmalAgha]

Originally Posted by Iran33

First we begin with his pictures:

Remember this face! I want to see it dangling at the end of a rope!

[Behrooz Boonabi]

Guys, what we are needing is information right now. Comments can come later.

What we need to do is collect as much information as we can. Who his wife is, where he lives, what he likes to do... This information is critical if you want to end the virtual monarchy. You don't want him popping up later dressed as someone else. He needs to be easily identified as the high profile figure he is.

[Ayyash]

First an interesting and short article from Foreign Policy Magazine

A Letter to a Former Friend
Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, a former militia member who fought in the Iran-Iraq war, fled Iran for Germany earlier this decade. Today, he writes a moving letter to Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the supreme leader, who is reportedly directing Iran's post-election crackdown.
BY AMIR FARSHAD EBRAHIMI | JULY 23, 2009


On the second day of Operation Valfajr 10 (also known as Operation Dawn 10), as fresh fighters came to replace those who had fought for 48 hours straight, the air above the Khormal road was full of smoke, preventing the Sokho fighter planes from attacking us. Our faces either blackened from soot or made so deliberately, but we Basijis could still recognize one another at night. Most of us still teenagers, we were exhausted from days of fighting the Iraqis. Resting beside the road, we waited for the truck to come and pick us up.

I turned to the fighter next to me and asked if he had water. He gave me his gourd to drink from. As I got the water, I noticed his lips, chapped raw from thirst. I asked him: "What about you?" He said he was not thirsty and that I should drink the water. I asked him what his name was. Mojtaba, he replied. He said he was from Tehran.

I didn't see him again until the war was over and we had returned to Tehran. From the war, despite the smoke and darkness, no one forgot a face. Several years later, I recognized the man who had given me his water; he was Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of then president Ali Khamenei, who is now known as the leader! Here's a letter I'd like to send him today.

Greetings, Mojtaba! I know you haven't forgotten me. We were close friends. I still recall the trips we made together. You were simple and cordial and it is awfully difficult for me to believe what I hear, that you stand behind Iran's recent massacres and murders. I can't accept that you, a person who would willingly sacrifice his life for his country, are the one behind a coup d'état and sedition that has shed dozens of Iranians' blood on the streets.

Mojtaba! Is this really you? Life takes rather unexpected turns! I accept that these days, we differ greatly from one another, but we can't deny the past. We have a similar history, one that we take pride in. We have defended our country, rifle in hands, and have killed to save our country from deterioration. We took pride in standing against the Baath army when it was supported by the whole world, while our country and nation stood alone. In those days, neither you nor I ever imagined standing against our own people, unlike what seems to be your cup of tea these days.

Perhaps you have heard of the recent killings, seen photos, and watched the video of Neda getting shot. When I saw the photographs of this innocent young woman dying in the street, arms and eyes open, it reminded me of one of our martyred friends from the war, laying lifeless on the ground for their country.

Mojtaba! Your pride should lie in having been a Basiji and a war hero, not in being the son of the leader. Don't you see how the nation is being crushed? Don't you see the blood in the streets? You are the same person who was ready to sacrifice his life for his country. You are that person with the raw, thirsty lips who gave his gourd to me to drink. Why are you silent? I can't believe you may be behind all these crimes against humanity. I don't accuse you, but how can you watch and not speak a word of protest? Could it be that you take pride in your father's regime and follow his lead so that his rule can continue?

I have kept and treasured my uniform, covered with dirt and blood from the war, and maybe you have done the same. If you have, I want to ask you as a former friend, fellow fighter, countryman, and fellow human being to look at it and question where you stand today. Ask yourself where all those martyrs would have been standing today had they been alive. Would you and your supporters be pointing your smoking guns at our friends Hemmat, Broujerdi, Bakeri, and Khanjani?

Mojtaba! It will not be long before every Iranian cries to reclaim his or her rightful place, and the nightly calls of Allaho Akbar (God is Great) on the rooftops are a testimony to that. It will happen whether you or your father want it or not. The future belongs to those who are heirs to the innocents whose blood is being spilled in the streets. You watch all this, but like a sleepwalker pass through without seeing. Shame on the one who is not asleep but pretends to be!

Wake up, Mojtaba...

Your former friend,
Amir Farshad Ebrahimi

Pictures

(2nd from left)




(again, 2nd from left)


(and far left)


(red circle)

[Behrooz Boonabi]

Bravo! I wonder how many events we can find him in?

[IsmalAgha]

His wife is the daughter of Haddad-e Adel. He studied under his father, Mesbah-e Yazdi and Ayatollah Shobeiri-e Zanjani (like his Father).

[Behrooz Boonabi]

Originally Posted by IsmalAgha

His wife is the daughter of Haddad-e Adel. He studied under his father, Mesbah-e Yazdi and Ayatollah Shobeiri-e Zanjani (like his Father).

Any pics?

[IR.IRAN]

Unsourced reports are circulating that British banks have frozen $1.6 billion in funds belonging to Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the supreme leader
http://www.iranian.com/main/news/200...supreme-leader





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I cut out some non relevent info.

Who is Mojtaba Khamenei? Why does he command such loyalty among the right-wing reactionaries? And how is it that he can use the power of the state to advance what appears to be his own political agenda, and continue to do so with such impunity?

His full name is Sayyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei. One of six children of Ayatollah Khamenei, Mojtaba was born in 1969 in the holy city of Mashhad, in northeastern Iran. His father is a cleric and so was his paternal grandfather, Sayyed Javad Hosseini Khamenei.

After the 1979 Revolution, Mojtaba and his family lived in Tehran, as his father was part of the new revolutionary elite. His father Ali Khamenei's first job in the revolutionary government was deputy defense minister. His son, Mojtaba, attended Alavi High School, a private religious school with a rigorous course load. (The school is located on Iran Street in central Tehran, where the author grew up.) Many of Iran's present leaders are graduates of this high school. Mojtaba graduated in 1987. During the last year or two of the war with Iraq, Mojtaba and his oldest brother, Sayyed Mostafa, also served in the armed forces.

Mojtaba began his theological studies after finishing high school. His first teachers were his own father and Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the current judiciary chief. Mojtaba was not a cleric yet. In 1999, he moved to Qom to study to join the ranks of clerics. He was taught there by conservative and ultraconservative clerics such as Mesbah Yazdi; Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, the first Secretary-General of the Guardian Council in the 1980s; and Ayatollah Sayyed Mohsen Kharrazi, the father of former foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi. (Kharrazi's real name is Sayyed Mohsen Agha Mir Mohammad Ali and his daughter is married to Mojtaba's younger brother, Mohsen, a junior cleric.)

Mojtaba Khamenei is also very close to Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali, an ultra-conservative cleric and former member of the Guardian Council. Both Khazali and Mesbah Yazdi belong to the Hojjatiyeh Society, a right-wing religious organization that was founded in the 1950s, an organization that was banned by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1983 after it fiercely opposed Mir Hossein Mousavi, then the prime minister and the main reformist candidate in the recent presidential election.

One link is a mysterious figure not known to most Iranians. His name is Ayatollah Aziz Khoshvaght, who is a great supporter of Mojtaba Khamenei. Ayatollah Khamenei's third child, Mostafa (Mojtaba's older brother), is married to Khoshvaght's daughter. He is a member of the Assembly of Experts, a constitutional body that appoints the Supreme Leader. Khoshvaght ran for the presidency of the Assembly in July 2007. He had been put up as a candidate by the extreme right faction in the Assembly, led by Mesbah Yazdi, in order to oppose Rafsanjani. But Rafsanjani defeated him.

Khoshvaght is the prayer leader of a large mosque in northern Tehran, and a radical hardliner. Saeed Emami, the notorious figure who was responsible for the infamous Chain Murders in the fall of 1998, which resulted in the murder of six Iranian dissidents (and the murder of close to 70 other dissidents from 1988-1998), was a follower of Khoshvaght. Mojtaba Khamenei was apparently a friend of Emami. He traveled with him to Britain in 1988. Khoshvaght is also close to and influential in the affairs of Ansar-e Hezbollah, a radical right-wing group often used to quell demonstrations. But this is a group that remains shrouded in secrecy as well.

Another link between Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Brigadier General Sayyed Mohammad Hejazi, a former commander of the Basij militia, and widely considered to be an ultra-hardliner. He now works in the office of the Supreme Leader, and is believed to be the mastermind behind many violent crackdowns on university students and protesters. Hejazi has been a close aid and supporter of Mojtaba Khamanei.

The third link between Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Hassan Taeb, the current commander of the Basij. A hardliner and cleric, he is also linked with Mesbah Yazdi and his followers.

So through these three links -- Ayatollah Aziz Khoshvaght, Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi and Hassan Taeb -- Mojtaba Khamenei is connected with the forces that crack down on protesters and demonstrators. Though little is officially known about the political views of Mojtaba Khamenei, it would not be a stretch to put him in the radical right-wing camp hellbent on advancing the agenda of extremists such as Mesbah Yazdi and Khazali to establish the so-called Islamic government, as opposed to an Islamic Republic, where the views and votes of the people matter.

Mojtaba has always been around the ultraconservatives. He has been educated by them, and has been close to radical right-wing groups. He has had close friendships with notorious figures such as Saeed Emami, and reactionaries such as Mesbah Yazdi, Khazali and Kharrazi. He is known to be fiercely opposed to the reform movement and its leaders. In particular, he has expressed his disgust at Dr. Saeed Hajjarian, a top strategist for the reformists who was left paralyzed after an assassination attempt in 2000.

Although Ayatollah Khamenei has tried to create the impression that he and his family are not interested in enriching themselves, it appears that at least Mojtaba Khamenei has been using the resources of the state for his political agenda. Immediately after the June 12 election, the British government, at the behest of the European Union, froze a bank account in a British bank worth approximately $1.6 billion. The account was said to belong to the Iranian government, but it was widely reported to be under the control of Mojtaba Khamenei. The account has apparently been used for purchasing equipment for the Basij militia. (That Mojtaba Khamenei was the true controller of the account has not been confirmed with 100 percent certainty, though.)

Another way that Ayatollah Khamenei and most clerics try to spread their influence and assure loyalty is by marrying members of their families to other influential people. The practice is very widespread among the clerics and the senior leadership in Iran. In the case of the Khamenei family, Mojtaba Khamenei is married to a daughter of Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, a university professor and former conservative Speaker of the Majles. After he was elected the Speaker of the 8th Majles in 2004, Haddad Adel once said, "We were told [by Ayatollah Khamenei] to be here [in the Majles to control it for the Ayatollah]," for which he was widely mocked by the reformists. But this statement indicated how the Ayatollah was putting his loyalists everywhere. Ayatollah Khamenei's oldest daughter is married to Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, his chief of staff.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...-khamenei.html

[Sokuy30]

What an ugly Family?

[Behrooz Boonabi]

Good information. 1.6 billion at the least just for being a Mullahs son. Now, if we can get documents proving it, it will mean nothing.

This guy should not enjoy living in autonomy. He needs big publicity and his organization broken. Do that and it will disrupt the Basij and give protesters a footing.

[Alex]

Mojtaba is the 2nd most powerful man in Iran and the 2nd richest.