One of the 20th centuries most brutal and corrupt dictators, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the king [shah] of Iran being celebrated on a Los Angeles billboard. \n\nAm i saying that the current Islamic government is good ? No, ofcorse not...both have been murdering corrupt dictatorships. My point here is to highlight the fact that those Iranians who became well off under the shahs\' regime and now live in the west, love him and down play or even deny the corruption and brutality. And it is such self deluding elites who have facilitated [mainly] western imperialism for centuries around the world. \n\nAmnesty International reported in 1976 that Iran had the \"highest rate of death penalties in the world, no valid system of civilian courts, and a history of torture which is beyond belief. No country in the world has a worse record of human rights than Iran.\"\n\nTo stress again that i am no fan of his replacements, here is a link to the Amnesty International 2006 report on iran: http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/irn-summary-eng \nNot exactly a glowing endorsement of the islamic republic, [personally i think the evidence shows the shahs\' regime was worse in terms of corruption and political prisoners and murders and the i.r.i is worse on womens rights]. So instead of arguing about which corrupt dictatorship you prefer, [shah or islamic republic] because your families made more money or gained higher social status or bigger religiously based egos under one or the other...how about you just support democracy instead, and let\'s save our venom for the [mainly western] governments and their corporate backers who champion such monsterous regimes ? hmmm ?\n\nOriginally taking the throne in 1941 at the orchestration of the allied forces, who felt he would be more amenable to their wartime agendas than his fathers nazi sympaties. My focus here is on the C.I.A. [and British] coup of the legitimate and developing democratic government of Iran in 1953 under prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh, in order to reverse the decision of Irans\' parliament to nationalize its oil industry. Indeed ironically the British had themselves just nationalized their coal industry. Mossadegh [Mossadeq] entertained the unforgivable notion that Iran should own and control it\'s oil, not foreign corporations like BP.\n\nThe ensuing U.S. backed dictatorship under the shah became notorious for its brutality and corruption. However not everyone suffers under such regimes. There is always a wealthy elite that emerges and pays homage to the leader for facilitating their wealth and status, albeit ultimately at the expense of their economically and democratically impoverished countrymen. In addition there is also an uneducated underclass some of whom offer their support gladly through the cult of personality to a regime that is oppressing them. If you\'re wearing enough shiny self awarded medals or appointing yourself as the guardian of the state religion, some will follow you anywhere, even if you\'ve stolen all they have. When the people of Iran finally deposed the shah in the 1979 revolution, much of the elite left and settled in western cities, most notably Los Angeles where the shahs\' son lived. Sadly instead of democracy replacing dictatorship, a corporate appeasing dictatorship was replaced by a religious one that probably hasn\'t been a great deal less morally or economically corrupt. \n\nIsn\'t it obscene to display a huge billboard proudly celebrating one of the many dark episodes in the murderous thieving saga of U.S. corporate imperialism ? \n\nPresuming that most of them embrace and endorse this advertisement, what does this say about the moral and social ideology of the Iranian community living outside Iran ? \n\nWould it be wrong to characterize this community as being notorious for their elitism, corporatism and [self imposed] isolationism ? \n\nWhat does it say about their non Iranian neighbours\', in LA and around the U.S., knowledge and concern [or lack thereof] of such events... and their media that rarely make any references to them, until - [as with the decades of U.S. support for Saddam Hussein, or the neocons explicit recomendations for \"removing Sadams\' regime from power...to protect our vital interests in the gulf\", and to keep permenant military bases in the region, PNAC] - it becomes common knowledge through foreign and alternative media ?\n\nApr 2007, Santa Monica Boulevard, LA CA USA\n\nThe following links are for a youtube PBS clip, an NPR audio file, a BBC audio file and a New York Times article respectively. \n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtgoxuVPcwY\n\nhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1357781\n\nhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20050822.shtml\n\nhttp://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html\n\n\nThese bottom two links are for alternative media sources that I recommend for general news.\n\nhttp://www.democracynow.org\n\nhttp://www.buzzflash.com

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