As associates of Ahmadinejad’s administration continue their assaults on veteran politician Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family, Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) deputy for intelligence Hassan Taeb, who was previously the head of the Basij militia, accused Mehdi Hashemi of “launching a house of corruption in 1994 and 1995”. Officials of the Islamic republic categorize a house of corruption when people from both sexes co-mingle or hold a party. Prior to the June presidential elections, Taeb seldom made news but as he engaged in harsh crackdown methods against those who protested the final official results of the elections, his name is now routinely mentioned by the public.

Recently, at a Basij seminar that was not openly publicized or displayed any announcement banners in which to whom only Basij members were invited, this conservative cleric verbally attacked Mehdi Hashemi and his record. “We found an espionage gang in 1992 and 1995 that met in a luxury house in Tehran and trained prostitutes for state officials as a way to corrupt them. One of the ring leaders was Mehdi Hashemi, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s son who was immediately arrested. But following influence peddling by his father, some intelligence officials were transferred to other departments and Mehdi and his gang were set free,” Taeb said.

But Taeb did not stop there and made another wild accusation without providing any evidence for either. “Girls and women prostitutes that worked in that ring were active in Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s presidential election campaign headquarters,” he charged.

Advocating arrest of the leaders of the reform movement in Iran, Taeb said, “If Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khatami and Mousavi were arrested, there would be no consequences in the country.”

During his talk at the seminar, Taeb also spoke about what he thought were the plans of the reformists had they won the elections and claimed, “The plan of the reformists was that Mousavi would become president while Khatami would become leader and so the regime would collapse.”

Referring to Iranian university students, Taeb charged that they were the soldiers of the enemy and said that Mousavi’s supporters succeeded to bring people out into the streets on the Monday after the elections by chanting Allah-o Akbar slogans, which led to some seven hundred thousand people pouring into the streets between Engelab circle and Azadi circle in Tehran. Taeb’s figure contradicts the over 3 million people announced by Tehran’s conservative mayor who he said took part in the march in the capital protesting the announced results of the June 12 presidential elections.

And very much like Ahmadinejad himself, Taeb completely ignored the election and post elections events in Iran and said, “Today, there is not news of any crises in the country. What crisis? People are going about their normal life.”