Second indictment of those accused in ‘Project for a Velvet Coup’

The indispensable Evan Siegel has painstakingly translated the second indictment in all its tedium.  Key points:

During yesterday’s session, in the first introduction to the Tehran court’s charges, the indications that these riots had been planned in advance and the documents proving the recent organized and planned crimes were presented to the court. During this session, the planning, including planning by foreign countries opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the intention of collapsing [the system] and staging a soft coup in Iran and intervening in the post-presidential election events [and] operations by the counter-revolutionary and terrorist grouplets and their role in the events after the elections and the recent riots will be presented.A) Planning by foreign countries opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran with the intention of staging a soft coup in Iran and their intervention in the events after the elections to the presidency.
…
Along these lines, the new policies of the West, particularly the United States and Britain, to confront the Islamic Republic of Iran are based on three principles:

1. Democratization (democracy for Western aims and interests);
2. Keeping the [Islamic Republican] system preoccupied domestically by creating domestic insecurity and intensifying conflicts;
3. Reining in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regional power;

It has been confirmed that in order to achieve these goals, utilizing the media, public diplomacy, create populist [mardomnahad] organizations and networks and oppositional organizations with the goal of inciting civil disobedience and rolling out a project of non-violent struggle will play the most important roles and enormous budgets and new means of communication have been set aside for this. On the other hand, Western spy agencies were not negligent in taking advantage of all domestic opportunities and resources afforded by the opposition, which is considered to be their operational and executive arms, and the above-mentioned groups, including the illegal group the Freedom Movement, are playing the role of perpetuating insecurity and embroiling the system in strife and playing the role of pawns and the enemy’s fifth column.

…

Methods to destroy the Islamic Republic:
In order to advance these policies, the enemies of the system (of the sacred Islamic Republic of Iran—comment in the original) put the planning, sketching, and execution axes of the methods of destroying the Islamic Republic of Iran’s in the hands of spy agencies and dependent institutions, some of which are:

1. Propaganda about and spreading word of the necessity for political regime change;
2. International support from labor unions, craftsmen, groups which so-called defended human rights and civil organizations which opposed the Islamic Republic;
3. Actions for economic boycotts against the Islamic Republic of Iran;
4. Secret financial support to oppositional forces in the system;
5. Identifying, attracting, and strengthening effective centers and individuals and layers in society such as women, youth, NGOs, etc., to achieve specific ends;

Interestingly, the indictment quotes passages from the 2002 National Security Strategy of President George W Bush in order to demonstrate the West’s plans for a soft coup under the guise of democracy promotion.

Foreign intelligence operations in the tenth presidential elections:

1. Reviewing and studying the potential in the existing atmosphere in the country with the aim of creating disturbances in relations between the people and the elite with the Supreme Leader and the Velayat-e Faqih;
2. Efforts towards diminishing popular support for the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran (domestically or abroad) and defeating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s perspective with the aim of preventing Iran from becoming a successful model for other countries of the world;
3. Utilizing human potential with the intent of gaining goals they have in mind, such as creating distrust and fanning the flames of popular protest, strengthening ethnic currents and the domestic opposition, implementing democratizing projects in Iran with the aim of changing opinions, behavior, and, ultimately, the system’s structure;
4. Efforts towards exacerbating the divide between the people and the government, exploiting internal differences and existing capacity in this field, particularly in circles related to parties, political currents and officials, and ethnic and religious differences;
5. Encouraging some Iranians living abroad to engage in activity against the Islamic Republic of Iran and utilize propaganda from societies and their protests;
6. Organizing, leading, and providing material, political and media support for terrorist groups and cooperation between the domestic and foreign opposition and discontented social groups;
7. Preparing the basis for the implementation of a soft coup project and the formation of educational terms in various countries (such as the Emirates and Holland) under cover of themes like human rights and non-violent struggle;
8. Creating and providing material and moral support to NGOs with the intent to create currents in various social layers and to take advantage of their potential and resources according to the dictates of the circumstances;
9. Activating projects to create domestic crisis (particularly in social circles) and pursuing plans of pressure from without and change from within;
10. Focusing on psychological operations, spreading rumors, creating currents and propaganda about the Islamic system’s incompetence through Persian internet sites, satellite channels, particularly the Voice of America and the BBC Persian service and other [sic] fugitive, counter-revolutionary news channels, the monarchists, the Hypocrites [OPMI], and other means of networking;
11. Leading NGOs and currents opposing the system with the perspective of having supervision led by the Americans over the electoral process;
12. Emphasizing the emergence of fraud and uncertainty concerning the soundness of Iran’s electoral process (about ten days before the votes were counted) and efforts towards raising this topic through sites related to the State Department. (Among the issues are: cutting off the sending of ballots, reducing internet speed, the emergence of difficulties regarding the presence of candidates’ supervisors in vote-counting posts, etc.). It is necessary to explain that the official of Mr. Musavi’s office’s Committee for the Preservation of Votes said that this was an indication that the elections were fraudulent while discussing this matter a week before the elections. (15/3/88 = June 5, 2009);
13. Provocations and preparing the grounds for domestic violent movements and civil disobedience and setting the stage for the appearance of street rioting and creating insecurity and destruction and chaos;
14. Efforts towards creating accusations and psychological warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly in the matter of violating human rights, with the aim of escalating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s isolation in the international arena;

…

The foreigners’ measures against the Islamic Republic of Iran after the glorious 22 Khordad [June 12] elections were:

1. To weaken the velayat-e faqih’s status. This is part of the foreigners’ priority deeds and goals against the Islamic Republic of Iran and a lack of attention by some political currents to the commands and guidance of the Supreme Leader (particularly after the historical sermons of the Friday prayers of 29/3/88 [June 19, 2009]) presented an appropriate opportunity for the foreigners to fan the flames of this issue. Along these lines, the disgraceful efforts based on insinuating a division between the views of the Supreme Leader and that of His Eminence the Imam (Peace be upon him!) were made by the enemies’ propaganda aparatus;
2. Creating division in the united ranks of the nation and weakening popular support for the Islamic Revolution’s principles and goals;
3. Spreading an atmosphere of difference between political currents, parties, and individuals;
4. Dragging the Islamic Republic of Iran’s system’s legitimacy into conflict and posing claims on the matter of the system and its officer’s enjoyment of popular support;
5. Efforts towards confirming the system’s ineffectualness in creating democracy, holding sound elections, confronting the latest crisis, and observing human rights;
6. Emphasizing the need for the presence of foreigners and elector observers in the Islamic Republic of Iran for guaranteeing the soundness of the elections held. (This issue was seriously on the agenda of countries such as America and Britain and dependent grouplets like the Freedom Movement.);

Nearly one quarter of the text focuses on the role of the British in fomenting unrest and undermining the system of the Islamic Republic, including the role of the BBC and the BBC Persian service.  Other so-called “grouplets” fingered in the indictment include the Freedom Movement, the Soros Foundation, and of course the PMOI.