Personal Power, Personal Hate

The decision to attack Iraq last week was taken personally by Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Despite his advanced age (82) and frail health, the religious leader has relinquished none of the levers of power that he grasped upon his triumphal return to Tehran 3½ years ago. Under Iran's Islamic Republican constitution, Khomeini's role as Velayat-e-Faqih, or religious guardian, gives him more power than either President Seyed Ali Khamene'i or Prime Minister

Mir-Hossein Moussavi, and he uses it to shape all major strategies, domestic as well as foreign. He also remains the final arbiter of all...

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