Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/20/iranian-president-ebrahim-raisi-killed-in-helicopter-crash.html
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There’s no suggestion of assassination yet
Clearly it was US F-22s in cahoots with Israeli weather-making space lasers
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Another obituary to read with pleasure.
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I have a good friend from Iran (now residing in London; I recently visited him there). He welcomed this news but lamented that Raisi will just be replaced with another asshole in a couple of months. Still, he doubts that many tears are being shed in Tehran today.
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The inevitable succession crisis ought to keep the fundie thugs distracted for a bit. While they’re at each-other’s throats, perhaps liberal opponents of the regime might find a way to undermine it.
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They aren’t really any liberal opponents. Within Iran non-conservative politicians are irrelevant because they are barred from running for office, and the diaspora is dominated by the Shah’s son (pro-Israel and liked by right-wing Western politicians) and the MEK (cultish terrorists also liked by right-wing Western politicians).
Geert Wilders seized the opportunity to gloat.
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The progression of the news of this was interesting. The first I heard of it yesterday was a headline saying something like “Helicopter carrying Iran President makes emergency landing” and I didn’t even click on it because it didn’t seem like a big deal. Then, it changed to a “hard landing”, and I raised an eyebrow but still didn’t think too much about it. Then finally it was clear that it was actually a crash and everyone died.
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Speaking of dynastic rulers, I’m kind of surprised Khameini Jr. doesn’t have a failson or other loser relative lined up to take his place.
He can gloat as much as he wants, he’s still an authoritarian bigot himself.
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If you mean Ayatollah Khamenei he does indeed have a son who is failing upwards.
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Meanwhile…
(His successor is Prince Bonesaw, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman).
If King Salman doesn’t make it, middle eastern politics could get very unpredictable. Never mind if (c) Benny Gantz pulls down Netanyahu’s coalition the same time … (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/dozens-killed-wounded-israeli-forces-thrust-deeper-gazas-jabalia-rafah-2024-05-18/)
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May their souls wander forever tormented in those mountains. God doesn’t want them, and the devil won’t have them.
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That settles the “What the NTSB calls a ‘hard landing’ or what the Russians call a ‘hard landing’?” question at least.
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This guy was a real shitbag, and personally responsible for thousands of religious zealot deaths in the 1980s.
This morning all of the worst world leaders like El-Sissi, Erdogan and Putin said what a great guy he was.
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The closest thing to a plausible claim I’ve seen is that sanctions on Iran probably didn’t do the quality of maintenance and first party or reputable 3rd party spares for the helicopter any good. Hardly a slam dunk(both because Iranian aviation mostly still putters along; and because one assumes that Great Leader gets the top shelf sanctions evasion gear).
That claim did lead me to look up what type of helicopter it was, to see if what suppliers who listen to the US would even be relevant; and I was a bit surprised to see that it was apparently a Bell 212. A perfectly respectable helicopter(at least in round numbers, if there are any rabid aviation nerds who wish to differ please make your corrections informative); but I was not expecting an aging US/Canadian design to be doing head of government transport. Iran’s domestic production of helicopters appears to be a little on the limited side; but my default assumption would have been some Russian model, maybe Chinese if it was a relatively new purchase.
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People are assuming that the helicopter was built before the Iranian Revolution, but it could be a newer one made in Canada or Italy.
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Iran just executed a bunch of people, allegedly for drug offenses. It would probably have given them some small satisfaction to know that the head of the state that killed them would be dead only a few hours after them.
Clearly, if you are about to be executed, you should use your last words to say something like “I am innocent, but God will punish those who have persecuted me”, just on the off-chance that a random accident will come along and make you look posthumously vindicated/bad-ass.
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The current “supreme leader” is Ali Khamenei. Ruhollah Khomeini was the former guy, and died ~35 years ago.
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Looks like the pilot did a whoopsie-doodle.
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