The New York Times is reporting that top Iranian reform leaders have confessed their treasonous desire to topple the government with a “velvet revolution”. Velvet revolution is the term used to describe the non-violent movement that overthrew Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. The reform leaders confessed to taking “training courses” outside the country (bolstering the governments claim that the unrest was the result of foreign intervention).

While this claim may seem ridiculous at face value, for those of you who know anything about the School of the Americas (recently renamed to “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation”) located at Fort Benning, GA, it’s not actually that far fetched. The infamous school, which has been operating in the US since 1984 when it was transferred here from Panama has a long list of dictators on it’s alumni list and has been called America’s own terrorist training camp and perhaps with good reason. Anecdotally, I personally met one former student from El Salvador who attended the school in the 80s and confirmed a lot of the stories about what is taught at the school that I had read about on School of the Americas Watch. Recently in the news, it appears that several SOA graduates may have been at the very center of the coup in Honduras – but the sheep of America would rather watch a week of Michael Jackson retrospectives than care that they are paying to train insurgents to overthrow democratic governments. But I digress…

Iranian leaders released a…

…video of Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who served as vice president in the reform government of former President Mohammed Khatami, [in which he] …tearfully “welcomed being defrocked and has confessed to provoking people, causing tension and creating media chaos.

The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech Thursday that almost everyone detained has confessed.

The government has made it a practice to publicize confessions from political prisoners held without charge or legal representation, often subjected to pressure tactics like sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and torture, according to human rights groups and former political prisoners. Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of people have been detained.

I trust that those in the US who so vigorously defend our own use of torture as a legitimate means for gaining evidence will not cry foul at the upcoming show trials.