ONE THING ABOUT BELIEVING IN ALL-POWERFUL CONSPIRACIES....:

Why Ahmadinejad Fears Khatami (Amir Taheri, 12/19/08, Asharq Alawasat)

The Islamic Republic in Iran is facing "a sinister international conspiracy" designed to "replace religious rule with secularism." The plot was allegedly hatched by a "secret society of Freemasons" known as the Bilderberg Group whose members include many of the Western world's richest and most powerful businessmen and politicians.

The alleged conspiracy was finalized at a secret meeting of the group in June 1999 in Caesar Park Hotel in the Portuguese resort of Penha Longa. Inside Iran, the executors of the "plot" included the so-called Reform Movement symbolized by former President Mohammed Khatami who attended the meeting along with his then assistant on environmental affairs Mrs. Massoumeh Ebtekar.

The so-called Bilderberg "lodge" is often described by conspiracy theorists as "the secret government of the world".

According to the report published by IRNA, the "plot" included building up Abdul-Karim Sorush, a self-styled philosopher and erstwhile Khatami protégé, as "the Martin Luther of Islam" with a message of separating religion from politics. They also tried to "transform Khatami into an Islamic [version of Mikhail] Gorbachev."

...it's basically an acknowledgment that they're winning and your own bizarre ideology is toast.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 19, 2008 7:54 AM