By: Greg Mitchell It?s timely, to be sure, if also more than a bit ironic. In her weekly Q&A for this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Deborah Solomon chats with the son of the former Shah of Iran, known for his brutal rule, who backs the ?cry for freedom? in that country today.
Rez Pahlavi, who lives in Bethesda, Md., looks eerily like his dad in one of the photos. He denies that he is simply bitter about not getting to be Shah himself, saying, ?This is not about me.? He also denies that he is a billionaire, thanks to money taken out of the country by his late father. He claims that while he has been working with exiles seeking to overthrow the current regime, he has had no contact with the CIA or gotten any aid from the U.S. government at all.
Pahlavi warns that Mousavi would not be the answer, comparing his ?moderate? reputation to the hopes, years ago, for new Soviet Union leaders sometimes dubbed ?moderate" but who still represented Communism and totalitarianism. Asked about his dad?s own brutal rule, he replies, ?I leave this judgment to history. My focus is on the future.?
But what about the current leaders learning about repressoon from his father? ?If they are in fact students of my father," he asserts, "his ultimate act of refusing suppressive bloodshed in favor of exile should be their test.?
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