The Fall Guy

As a followup to the last post on Middle Eastern thought processes we have this gem from Shi'ite territory. It's not about our pal president Ahmendinejad, but rather the vice president of Iran, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaee.

An editor and manager of the Iranews.org website have been arrested, after the site posted a video of the Iranian Vice President, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaee, "taking part in a ceremony in Turkey where unveiled women were dancing," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported last week.

According to an employee of Iranews.org , the two employees under arrest were invited to meet with Vice President Rahim-Mashaee after their website posted the video. "But Mr. Mashaee did not come and some unknown people arrested" the employees, the report said, adding that "under Iran's Islamic laws men are not allowed to watch women dance and sing."

It is against Iranian Islamic law to watch unveiled ladies dance, and since there is film proof that Rahim-Mashaee watched said offense, naturally those who did the filming were the ones arrested.

In his complaint, Mashaee said he did not know women would be dancing during the ceremony. "I was not aware of the content of the program while it was being presented. I was suddenly faced with a dance. In a critical way, I mentioned the topic to Mr. Ebrahim Oglu, the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Conference. He pretended that this was not a serious problem, and I think he said that this is an Erfani (mystical) dance."

Ok, give the vice president benefit of the doubt, he didn't know that the sinful event was in the program. Simple mistake, not his fault.

Meanwhile, the DPA news agency reported that Mashaee has "come under fire" over the video, "which shows him watching and applauding women dancing during a ceremony in Istanbul ."

D'oh!

Mashaee, who is also Head of Cultural Heritage, accused Iranian members of parliament opposed to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government of being behind the video...

Quoting Iranian media sources, the DPA said the Iranian vice president dismissed the video as "a smear campaign."

So, let's not dwell on minor details of what the vice president was actually filmed doing. That's beside the point because the ones who did the filming had an alleged motive. And if someone somewhere has a motive, well, all transgression and guilt can be transferred to them.

In these kinds of situations a key truth is always in operation: the more important the person involved, the less at fault that person is, no matter the circumstances. The buck, as they say, always stops at the most insignificant individual possible.