Iran's sinister President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad simply begs for a nickname. What should it be? Mullah Strangelove? Doctor Kool—Aid? Darth Vader?  Apparently his Iranian enemies call him "the monkey."

But the nickname problem was already solved in the 1980s, when, according to Brett Stephens in the Wall Street Journal,

Numerous Iranian sources allege that in the 1980s (he) worked as an interrogator and executioner in Evin Prison in Tehran. They say (he) earned the nickname Tir Khalas Zan, or "The Terminator," for (his) methods there.

Further,

Kevin Hermening, a Marine sergeant at the U.S. Embassy
in Tehran during the hostage crisis, tells this newspaper that you
interrogated him personally on Nov. 4, 1979, while brandishing a pistol. For the record, he remembers you as a "very mean SOB" and described a sense of "déjà vu" while watching (his) performance on "60 Minutes."

The U.S. State Department is said to believe that Ahmadinejad was one of a group of five who planned the US embassy takeover.

Has Mullah Kool—Aid stopped terminating people by now? Not according to Brett Stephens. Among his more recent victims are:

1. Akbar Mohammadi, a student leader, reported tortured to death ()

2. Abed Tavancheh, 23, a blogger, "arrested and tortured ...  sustained permanent damage to his kidneys..."

3. Ahmad Batebi, student dissident in 1999, arrested and released after six years, re—arrested on July 29, 2006. Fate unknown.

4. Mansour Ossanloo, the leader of the independent trade union representing the workers of the Vahed Bus Company in Tehran.

"A year ago... security forces raided one of their meetings and cut out a piece of Mr. Ossanloo's tongue.

5. Ahmadinejad is "also suspected of involvement in the assassination of Abdurrahman Qassemlou, a leader of Iran's Kurdish minority, in Vienna in 1989."

6. Future victims.

A few weeks ago, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a member of the Guardian Council ... warned in his Friday sermon that Iran will execute en masse all dissidents if the U.N. Security Council votes to sanction Iran for your refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. The sermon was broadcast on Iranian state radio.

Feeling sick already? Well, don't forget the 15—year old girl who was just hanged by her Shari'a judge for walking hand—in—hand with a 25 year old man.  Hanging teenage girls appears to be something of a specialty for the Mad Mullahs. The judge had to hang the 15—year—old himself because the professional  hangman refused to do the job.

And journalists might remember Zahra Kazemi, a woman journalist with Canadian—Iranian nationality, who was raped and beaten to death last year.  Her rapist—killer is now Iran's official representative on the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Sounds like a job for Jimmy Carter.

James Lewis    8 18 06