Khomeini ally now leads Iran dissidents

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By Iason Athanasiadis

ISTANBUL | Three decades ago, Moshen Sazegara quit his studies at the University of Illinois to join Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile to lead Iran's Islamic revolution.

A close aide to Ayatollah Khomeini, Mr. Sazegara was a founder of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, but an eventual falling-out with the clerical regime sent him back to the United States as an exile.

Today, he has become a global leader for Iranian dissidents who have risen up in opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the clerics who have endorsed his disputed re-election.

Mr. Sazegara's image now appears on many Iranians' computer screens every day, all over the world, against a green background seared with a V for victory sign.

The Washington-based dissident's wardrobe of green T-shirts and the green ribbon permanently tied around his right wrist adhere strictly to the opposition's color scheme. Sometimes, the color branding is so strong that only Mr. Sazegara's pale complexion swims out from a sea of green.

"Everyone in this green democratic wave that starts from the alleys of Tehran and stretches to Australia and California has a role to play," he said in a recent broadcast dedicated to avoiding fragmentation and uniting the disparate protesters behind the person of presidential candidate and de facto opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

"No one has the right to walk either in front or behind Mr. Mousavi," he said. "We only have one rahbar [supreme leader], and that is engineer Mousavi."

In his 10-minute videos, the balding Mr. Sazegara encourages the demonstrators in well-enunciated conversational Persian to continue taking to the streets. Almost every broadcast contains new suggestions for fighting the regime -- such as turning soccer games, religious events or pro-regime rallies into public protests.

Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, used Mr. Sazegara as one of his closest advisers. As Iran bubbled in pre-revolutionary fervor in 1978, Mr. Sazegara dropped out of school and flew to Paris to join the ayatollah, translating his speeches for an English-speaking audience.

Once Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran, Mr. Sazegara became a close aide and set up the Revolutionary Guard, an ideological army entrusted with safeguarding the principles of the revolution.