'Diploma-Gate' Scandal Reveals Iran Regime?s Weakness
Fox News, August 15, 2008
Transcript
The latest political flap in Tehran involves a forged
doctoral decree and bogus academic credentials for Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's newly appointed Interior Minister, Ali Kordan.
Apparently Tehran's ayatollahs do not falsify only photos of
missiles being fired or documents of nuclear activities; the
academic credentials of senior officials are also
counterfeit. One can only imagine the level of fraud in the
next round of elections, supervised by Kordan's Interior
Ministry!
The scandal sheds light on the pervasive corruption in the
ayatollahs' regime, while the revelation itself exposes the
widening cracks at the apex of power. During recent
parliamentary debate on Kordan's nomination, a conservative
cleric, Ruhollah Hosseinian, questioned the veracity of
Kordan's doctoral diploma. In the past, Hosseinian has
demonstrated his knowledge of the ayatollahs' many secrets
and skeletons.
Despite Hosseinian's allegations and others involving
Kordan's "moral problems," the newly appointed speaker of
the mullahs' Parliament, former IRGC general Ali Larijani,
rejected several calls for a closed session to discuss
Kordan's qualifications. He ordered a speedy vote of
confidence for Kordan and two other nominees.
But the story refused to go away. A web site belonging to
another conservative block revealed more of Kordan's lies
about his academic credentials, which he had extensively
used in previous governmental positions for higher salaries
and special benefits. Sensing the matter was getting out of
hand, the Interior Ministry tried to squash it with an
official decree, warning the state-controlled media to steer
clear of questions about Kordan's degrees.
Then the ayatollahs' "diploma-gate" really took off. The
Interior Ministry released a scanned image of what Kordan
claimed was his doctoral degree from Oxford University.
Kordan, who reportedly does not speak a word of English, had
boasted that after writing a thesis about Islamic education
and defending it through a translator, in June 2000, he had
been granted an Honorary Doctorate of Law diploma, which was
undersigned by three Oxford professors.
Questioned about the veracity of the claim, Oxford
University announced that Kordan's degree was forged. One of
the professors said he did not recognize the signature above
his name. The growing scandal ultimately forced Larijani on
August 11, to order an investigation into Kordan's academic
background.
So why would Ahmadinejad take such a political risk, less
than a year before he must run for reelection? His cabinet,
described by many of the regime's insiders as politically
the weakest of all previous presidents, already has the most
cabinet changes. Ten ministers, all in key ministries, have
been dismissed since 2005.
Ahmadinejad nevertheless had to balance the risks against
the three nominees' proven loyalty to him and his
government's agenda. The ayatollahs' president reportedly
delayed naming his three candidates for the ministries of
Interior, Economy, and Transportation, until he could ensure
their approval and prevent any political embarrassment.
Kordan, who had won the confidence of Ahmadinejad in his
previous stints as deputy oil minister and as an IRGC
commander, is also a long time cohort of Ali Larijani. Now,
with Larijani as Parliamentary Speaker, Kordan was viewed as
a sure bet.
In his speech at the Parliament, Ahmadinejad praised
Kordan's "thirty years of service to the Islamic Revolution
in sensitive and important positions." In turn, Larijani
spoke highly of Kordan and his years of service at the
broadcasting system when run by Larijani.
Even after Larijani's blessing, Ahmadinejad was taking no
chances, and took an unprecedented leap in the ayatollahs'
political wonderland, explicitly stating that his three
choices also had the approval of the mullahs' Supreme
Leader, Ali Khamenei. That statement set off a political
powder keg. Keyhan newspaper, the mouthpiece of Khamenei,
published a blistering editorial lambasting Ahmadinejad for
"cashing in on the Leader" for his own political gain.
Khamenei's office, while acknowledging the gist of
Ahmadinejad's claim, also issued a statement enjoining any
public official from attributing statements to him without
his office's approval.
The fiasco exemplifies the endemic corruption of the
ayatollahs' regime of cheat and deceit. It also points to
the widening fissures at the top of the ruling faction; the
revelations about Kordan were spearheaded by a die-hard
conservative wing, not a rival or sidelined faction.
The cracks in the ruling structure are spreading under
pressure from widespread anti-government protests. This is
coupled with the growing political maneuverability of the
democratic opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization
of Iran (PMOI/MEK), since its delisting in June by the
United Kingdom. The mullahs' growing international isolation
is also an important factor, as evident by the rebuke of
Tehran's demands in the recent summit of non-aligned
countries, and adoption of more sanctions by the European
Union last week. On August 12, the U.S. Treasury also
imposed sanctions against five more Iranian entities
involved in Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.
Nevertheless, the widening cracks in the IRGC backed ruling
faction will not allow for another resurrection of the
so-called "moderate" faction, as some would like us to
believe. The mullahs have already played out that storyline
to its unavoidable ending, the preeminence of the
military-political IRGC faction. This is an irreversible
path. The cracks at the tip of power pyramid foretell the
collapse of the whole regime, and that is something Khamenei
is hell bent on preventing. He will not waver from his
strategic quest for nuclear weapons capability and dominance
of Iraq's political landscape.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs
Analyst and the author of "The
Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear
Crisis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and
its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the
existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the
Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.
