Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameni has authorised purges of those Iranian officials involved in 'economic sabotage'.
This after US sanctions have really bitten, with Iran's currency, the Rial, seeing a 140-percent drop in its value.
Economic sabotage is a rather wide reaching term, covering anything from, the 2,500 cartons of cached children's diaper's (in short supply - incidentally the Persian word for diaper is pooshak .... while the word for missiles is mooshak), found in the city of Qom, or two storage containers full of women's sanitary products found in Tabriz, to a number of merchants and shopkeepers being told to respect fairness in pricing their commodities (or else).
Also, the whole population have been told to tighten their collective belts and economise. "We call upon the people to avoid buying goods more than they require.” .... Of course he (and the other top mullahs), are not actually feeling the pain of this economic squeeze themselves. An investigation by the News Agency Reuters, has suggested that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei personally controls a "financial empire" worth approximately $95 billion (£60bn).
For context, the last Shah of Iran was not worth US$95bn. When he fled the revolution, the exact value of the wealth he fled with is not known for sure. However estimates have ranged from $50 million, to $100 million (according to ABC's reporter Barbara Walters), to over $1 billion, according to both columnist Alexander Cockburn and The Spokesman Review newspaper, which found that the Pahlavi dynasty had amassed one of the largest private fortunes in the world, at well over $1 billion in 1979 values.
The Ayatollahs government claimed he actually stole away with $56 billion. Certainly whilst in exile in the Bahamas, the Shah tried to purchase the island that he was staying on, with an offer of $425 million (in 1979 USD), the offer was rejected by the Bahamas government, but even so $56bn is unlikely, as at the time of his exile that would have made him to be the richest man on the planet by a factor of 4.
But one thing the wealthy Ayatollah and the late Shah share in common about their wealth, is that their financial empires are not overseen by the Iranian Parliament, a fact which may well be contributing to Iran's current financial difficulties, and the unrest.
Meanwhile, elsewhere the other great stalwart of Islamic values, the Grand Poobah of Constantinople, life President Erdoğan has said, that now that he's arrested just about everyone who has ever challenged him, he can't purge anyone else, or he would. However as the sole representative of life in Turkey, he will boycott iPhones.
This boycott is in response to US metal and other sanctions. In point of fact, the Turkish economy has been mismanaged with inflationary state spending (printing money), and is now facing soaring inflation and borrowing levels, with a plunging currency, but like Iran, Turkey's leaders are blaming the US and economic sabotage .... not corruption and economic mismanagement.
So Erdoğan's going to get a Turkish made smart-phone ... Err, well perhaps a Samsung Galaxy s10 ... We don't want to be too silly do we? He has also bravely suggested that he will transfer all his own US dollars and gold into the nearly worthless Turkish Lira, to save the nation, this as he called on all Turkish citizens to exchange their foreign currency and gold for Lira, calling it an "economic war".
Oh hang on, the Turkish people don't know about his families millions of dollars that are in a secret account abroad, so scrap that idea. According to many web reports, the Erdoğan family is closely tied up with what are known as The Malta Files.
According to this scandal ..... Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has more than a few skeletons in his closet. One is that in 2008, Azeri billionaire Mübariz Mansimov apparently purchased his family a $25m oil tanker, in a complicated deal detailed on the links. Mansimov had become a Turkish citizen in 2006 and adopted a Turkish name, Mübariz Gurbanoglu, allegedly at the Turkish Presidents suggestion.
Strangely, immediately after the tanker deal went through Mansimov, or rather Gurbanoglu as he is now known, started getting state contracts. The details were published in numerous news outlets, including Spain's second biggest circulation newspaper El Mundo. Oddly, Mansimov / Gurbanoglu is also “a friend” of Donald Trump, and attended his presidential inauguration. Indeed, when the 39 floors of residential and office block Trump Towers opened in Istanbul in 2009, Mansimov / Gurbanoglu was allegedly the first customer, buying eight apartments, including the penthouse suite.
The connection between these two regimes are that they are both avowed Islamists, and both are corrupt from the top ...... But one has to wonder at why the connection between Erdoğan and Trump, via Mansimov, is one that appears to have not been thoroughly explored.
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| Economic Sabotage - More Often Starts At The Top ..... |
This after US sanctions have really bitten, with Iran's currency, the Rial, seeing a 140-percent drop in its value.
Economic sabotage is a rather wide reaching term, covering anything from, the 2,500 cartons of cached children's diaper's (in short supply - incidentally the Persian word for diaper is pooshak .... while the word for missiles is mooshak), found in the city of Qom, or two storage containers full of women's sanitary products found in Tabriz, to a number of merchants and shopkeepers being told to respect fairness in pricing their commodities (or else).
Also, the whole population have been told to tighten their collective belts and economise. "We call upon the people to avoid buying goods more than they require.” .... Of course he (and the other top mullahs), are not actually feeling the pain of this economic squeeze themselves. An investigation by the News Agency Reuters, has suggested that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei personally controls a "financial empire" worth approximately $95 billion (£60bn).
For context, the last Shah of Iran was not worth US$95bn. When he fled the revolution, the exact value of the wealth he fled with is not known for sure. However estimates have ranged from $50 million, to $100 million (according to ABC's reporter Barbara Walters), to over $1 billion, according to both columnist Alexander Cockburn and The Spokesman Review newspaper, which found that the Pahlavi dynasty had amassed one of the largest private fortunes in the world, at well over $1 billion in 1979 values.
The Ayatollahs government claimed he actually stole away with $56 billion. Certainly whilst in exile in the Bahamas, the Shah tried to purchase the island that he was staying on, with an offer of $425 million (in 1979 USD), the offer was rejected by the Bahamas government, but even so $56bn is unlikely, as at the time of his exile that would have made him to be the richest man on the planet by a factor of 4.
But one thing the wealthy Ayatollah and the late Shah share in common about their wealth, is that their financial empires are not overseen by the Iranian Parliament, a fact which may well be contributing to Iran's current financial difficulties, and the unrest.
 |
| President Erdoğan Boycotts iPhones |
Meanwhile, elsewhere the other great stalwart of Islamic values, the Grand Poobah of Constantinople, life President Erdoğan has said, that now that he's arrested just about everyone who has ever challenged him, he can't purge anyone else, or he would. However as the sole representative of life in Turkey, he will boycott iPhones.
This boycott is in response to US metal and other sanctions. In point of fact, the Turkish economy has been mismanaged with inflationary state spending (printing money), and is now facing soaring inflation and borrowing levels, with a plunging currency, but like Iran, Turkey's leaders are blaming the US and economic sabotage .... not corruption and economic mismanagement.
So Erdoğan's going to get a Turkish made smart-phone ... Err, well perhaps a Samsung Galaxy s10 ... We don't want to be too silly do we? He has also bravely suggested that he will transfer all his own US dollars and gold into the nearly worthless Turkish Lira, to save the nation, this as he called on all Turkish citizens to exchange their foreign currency and gold for Lira, calling it an "economic war".
Oh hang on, the Turkish people don't know about his families millions of dollars that are in a secret account abroad, so scrap that idea. According to many web reports, the Erdoğan family is closely tied up with what are known as The Malta Files.
According to this scandal ..... Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has more than a few skeletons in his closet. One is that in 2008, Azeri billionaire Mübariz Mansimov apparently purchased his family a $25m oil tanker, in a complicated deal detailed on the links. Mansimov had become a Turkish citizen in 2006 and adopted a Turkish name, Mübariz Gurbanoglu, allegedly at the Turkish Presidents suggestion.
Strangely, immediately after the tanker deal went through Mansimov, or rather Gurbanoglu as he is now known, started getting state contracts. The details were published in numerous news outlets, including Spain's second biggest circulation newspaper El Mundo. Oddly, Mansimov / Gurbanoglu is also “a friend” of Donald Trump, and attended his presidential inauguration. Indeed, when the 39 floors of residential and office block Trump Towers opened in Istanbul in 2009, Mansimov / Gurbanoglu was allegedly the first customer, buying eight apartments, including the penthouse suite.
The connection between these two regimes are that they are both avowed Islamists, and both are corrupt from the top ...... But one has to wonder at why the connection between Erdoğan and Trump, via Mansimov, is one that appears to have not been thoroughly explored.
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