Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – September 1, 2003

Today, the coffin of Ayatollah [Seyyed Mohammad Baqir] Hakim was carried in funeral processions in Karbala, Hilla, and Kufa, with the fervent presence of hundreds of thousands of people from across Iraq. This massive turnout, accompanied by slogans against the occupiers and the Baathists, was noteworthy for international observers. An audio tape from Saddam has been broadcast on some news networks, in which he denies the involvement of his supporters in the Najaf bombing and has called on them to direct their attacks against the occupiers.

In Kufa, a group of Badr Corps members attacked the home of the former police chief. In an armed confrontation that led to his arrest, four of them were killed. In several operations, a number of Americans were killed and wounded. The oil pipeline from the north to the south of Iraq was also blown up, and the timeline for restarting the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been delayed. The list of the cabinet approved by the Iraqi Governing Council has been published: 13 Shiites, five Kurds, five Sunnis, one Turkmen, and one Christian.

In Afghanistan, clashes have continued for a week. Today, the Americans also suffered casualties. The process of approving the constitution has also been delayed. The communist parties of Afghanistan have also been dissolved. Pakistan also arrested several officers on charges of aiding the Taliban.

Sardar [Aziz] Jafari, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces and the Tharallah Headquarters, came to see me. He gave a report on the preparedness program of the armed forces for a possible American aggression, as well as a summary of the recent unrest and the arrest of its perpetrators. He said that a group of [members of the] Participation Front, Tahkim-e Vahdat, and the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, along with deputies of the Ministry of Science, had been the architects of the unrest, and for certain considerations, they had not been arrested. He criticized the inaction of the Ministry of Intelligence and the judiciary in this regard, and said that students who have explicitly confessed to being managed by that group are protesting why the students have been dealt with while the main perpetrators have not, and that if they feel secure, the events might be repeated in the future.

Mr. [Javad] Etaat, representative of Darab, came and suggested that I act more actively to reduce tensions. Mr. [Amir] Tehrani, [advisor to the minister] from the Ministry of Intelligence, came and said that the hardliners of the 2nd of Khordad movement and the nationalists are thinking of creating a crisis in the country in the future.

In the evening, I had an interview with [Ghassan bin Jaddo, director of the Al Jazeera office in Tehran] regarding domestic, regional, and global issues.