DOMESTIC TERRORISM IN IRAN...BY IRAN. Amir Taheri writes: Iran has just carried out the largest wave of executions since 1984.

The Mashad hangings, broadcast live on local television, are among a series of public executions ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month as part of a campaign to terrorize an increasingly restive population. Over the past six weeks, at least 118 people have been executed, including four who were stoned to death. According to Saeed Mortazavi, the chief Islamic prosecutor, at least 150 more people, including five women, are scheduled to be hanged or stoned to death in the coming weeks.

The latest wave of executions is the biggest Iran has suffered in the same time span since 1984, when thousands of opposition prisoners were shot on orders from Ayatollah Khomeini.

Some numbers:

According to General Ismail Muqaddam, commander of the Islamic Police

• More than 30 people have disappeared since March 21.
• 430,000 men and women have been arrested on drug-related charges since April
• 4,209 men and women between ages of 15 and 30 arrested in Tehran for "hooliganism"
• Almost 1,000,000 men and women arrested in connection to the new Islamic Dress Code passed in May 2006

(Odd to read that last point. Despite the original report about this, later reports seemed to indicate it was false or at least doubtful)

According to Ali-Akbar Yassaqithe head of the National Prisons Service, each year approximately 600,000 Iranian spend time in prison, while Ahmadinejad is having 41 buildings converted into prisons and has contracts for 33 more.

And of course Ahmadinejad has not forgotten about the internet:

The nationwide crackdown is accompanied with efforts to cut Iranians off from sources of information outside the Islamic Republic. More than 4,000 Internet sites have been blocked, and more are added each day. The Ministry of Islamic Orientation has established a new blacklist of authors and book titles twice longer than what it was a year ago. Since April, some 30 newspapers and magazines have been shut and their offices raided. At least 17 journalists are in prison, two already sentenced to death by hanging.

Ahmadinejad has been very busy--but that won't stop those impressed by the "exquisite politeness" of Iran.

Technorati Tag: Ahmadinejad and Iran.