Iran Super Thread- Merged

[CougarKing]

And the violence continues as Ahmadinejad's security apparatus cracks down on Mousavi supporters:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090616/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election

State radio: 7 killed in Tehran clashes

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's state radio says seven people died in clashes in Tehran after an "unauthorized gathering" following a mass rally over alleged election fraud.

The radio report says the seven died in shooting that erupted after several people at the gathering Monday night in western Tehran "tried to attack a military location."

More than 100,000 opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had marched through Tehran earlier Monday protesting alleged vote rigging in last week's elections.

The report Tuesday gave no details. It was the first official confirmation of the shooting in Tehran's Azadi Square. Witnesses there saw at least one person shot dead and several others seriously wounded after shooting from a compound for volunteer militia linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard.

 

[Yrys]

Video of "Reporters restricted in Iran", 1 min 30 sec
Iran Agrees to Partial Recount of Disputed Ballots, NY Times

A video grab from the Arabic-language official Al-Alam television showing supporters
of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rallying in Valiasr Square in central Tehran
on Tuesday. Iran issued rules for the foreign media limiting coverage of the protests.
News agencies are limited to using screen grabs from demonstrations broadcast by
television networks.

Iran 'to hold election recount'

Iran's powerful Guardian Council says it is ready to recount disputed votes from Friday's presidential poll.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election is being contested by rival Mir Hossein Mousavi and other
moderate candidates, who are seeking a rerun. The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says they may not accept
the recount offer.

Several people died in a protest on Monday and Mr Mousavi urged followers not to take part in a rally
planned for Tuesday, amid fears of new violence. "This headquarters calls on people to avoid the trap
of planned clashes," a Mousavi spokesman told AFP news agency. The authorities announced sweeping
restrictions on foreign media covering the protest and other "unauthorised events".

The march was due to have taken place in Tehran's Vali Asr Square at the same time as a demonstration
there by supporters or President Ahmadinejad.

The Guardian Council - Iran's top legislative body - said votes would be recounted in areas contested by
the losing candidates. But a spokesman for the council told state television it would not annul the election
- as moderate candidates have demanded. The opposition says millions of ballots may have gone astray.

Monday's protest involved hundreds of thousands of people and was one of the largest since the Iranian
revolution 30 years ago. The radio report said the attack occurred at the end of the "illegal" rally as
people were heading home "peacefully". "Several thugs wanted to attack a military post and vandalise
public property in the vicinity of Azadi Square," the radio said referring to the site of the protest.
"Unfortunately seven people were killed and several others wounded in the incident." Hospital
officials later put the number of dead at eight.

Dozens of people have been arrested since the protests began. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a close aide
of ex-President Mohammad Khatami, was detained at his home in Tehran on Tuesday. Those
detained also include prominent journalist and academic Ahmad Zeidabadi. His wife says he was
picked up in the middle of the night on Saturday. "There is no explanation from the authorities
about why he was arrested or where he is," she told the BBC.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television said the "main agents" behind the unrest had been detained,
and guns and explosives seized. There are reports of fresh demonstrations at Tehran University
- one of the main centres of tension in recent days. About 120 university lecturers have resigned.

The powerful Speaker of parliament, Ali Larijani, has condemned an attack by police and militia
on a student dormitory. Iranian media quoted him as saying: "The interior minister is responsible
in this regard."

Unrest has been reported in other parts of Iran. One of Mr Mousavi's websites said a student
had died on Monday in clashes with hardliners in the southern city of Shiraz.

Foreign concern

Our correspondent says the authorities appear to be weakening in their support for President
Ahmadinejad. The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered an inquiry
into the allegations of vote-rigging.

The authorities' handling of the protests has drawn international criticism. EU foreign ministers
expressed "serious concern" and called for an inquiry into the conduct of the election. US
President Barack Obama said he was "deeply troubled" by the violence in Iran.

Meanwhile, President Ahmadinejad arrived in Russia on Tuesday. He told a regional summit
that the "age of empires" had ended, but made no mention of the protests.

 

[Yrys]

Video of "Pro-Ahmadinejad supporters rally" 41 sec


Obama's cautious reaction to Iran

Mr Obama has been attempting to engage with the Iranian government

It took President Obama until Monday evening to respond publicly to the outcome
of the Iranian election. Fair enough, given the initial confusion and the sensitivity
of the issue. When he did break his silence, his words suggested he was walking
a fine diplomatic line.

The president said he was "deeply troubled" by the images he - and millions
of Americans - had been watching on television during the last few days. And
he called on Iran's leaders to respect the "universal values" of the democratic
process. But he studiously avoided any comment on the allegations of vote
fraud, saying only that the United States had no observers watching the
election close up.

The Iranian government had promised an investigation, and the president said
he hoped it would be done fairly and without any further violence.

Rush to judgement

The first official US reaction had come on Saturday afternoon with a rather
anodyne White House statement: "Like the rest of the world, we were impressed
by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that the election generated. We continue
to monitor the entire situation closely, including reports of irregularities."


By Sunday morning, Vice-President Joe Biden was a bit more forceful, stating on
national television that there appeared to be "some real doubt" about the results.
His remarks came long after Tehran had erupted with protests and bitter
recriminations, however. On Monday afternoon, the state department spokesman
went a little further saying that the administration was "deeply troubled" by
"reports" of violence and voting irregularities.

Why they were just "reports" of violence seems curious, since by now we had all
seen the images of Iranian police beating protesters. In some ways, the Obama
administration's view of Iran's presidential election seems as opaque as that of
the regime in Tehran itself.

There are, of course, good reasons not to rush to judgement.

Caution

We all remember the fatal mistake the Bush administration made in 2002 declaring
that Hugo Chavez had been ousted from power. It was both wrong and counter-
productive - fuelling anti-American sentiment. But at least it was clear which side
the Bush administration was on.

Four years ago, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power, the Bush
administration had denounced the election even before the result was declared.
They knew it was rigged by the Guardian Council, acting on the orders of the
supreme leader. This election was fundamentally no different. It was never
going to be free and fair.

So why has President Obama been so cautious?

First, he wants to get US-Iranian relations out of a deep rut. Criticising the country's
elections in advance could only have helped the hard-liners and hinder the reformers.
It would have reinforced the old perceptions of US interference and made future talks
all the harder. Mr Obama's reticence may have in fact strengthened the hand of the
reformers and improved the chances of fundamental change.

Realism

The other reason why the White House has been careful is that it will still have to work
with whoever wins. "Deal with the leader you have, not the one you wish you had,"
appears to be the administration's position.

Team Obama's foreign policy "realists" have learned from the mistakes of the Bush-era
"ideologues". They realised the flaws - and at times the hypocrisy - of President Bush's
policy of trying to reward countries that adopted US-style democracy. As the Washington
Post has noted, the muted response from the Obama administration reflects a diplomatic
dilemma.

President Obama's comments about what has happened may have an impact on the kind
of dialogue he has with Tehran and therefore the chances of any diplomatic success on the
key issue of Iran's nuclear programme.

To be clear, it does not rule out a dialogue. Washington has relations with plenty of
unsavoury regimes. Barack Obama's refusal to condemn the elections before they took place,
and caution in responding to the results may still prove to be wise.

But is it a triumph of pragmatism over principle?

The charge levelled against President Bush was that he was too simplistic, that there was no
nuance in his foreign policy, that he only saw the world in black and white.

But if he were in charge now, we would at least know his verdict on these elections.

 

[Yrys]

Iran clamps down on foreign media, BBC News

Authorities in Iran have announced sweeping new restrictions on foreign media,
effectively confining journalists to their offices.


In Iran, an Iron Cleric, Now Blinking

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrived at a polling place in Tehran on Friday to cast his vote.
He has a reputation for caution.

For two decades, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has remained a shadowy presence at the pinnacle of power in Iran,
sparing in his public appearances and comments. Through his control of the military, the judiciary and all
public broadcasts, the supreme leader controlled the levers he needed to maintain an iron if discreet grip
on the Islamic republic.

But in a rare break from a long history of cautious moves, he rushed to bless President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad for winning the election, calling on Iranians to line up behind the incumbent even
before the standard three days required to certify the results had passed. Then angry crowds
swelled in cities around Iran, and he backpedaled, announcing Monday that the 12-member
Council of Guardians, which vets elections and new laws, would investigate the vote.

“After congratulating the nation for having a sacred victory, to say now that there is a possibility
that it was rigged is a big step backward for him,” said Abbas Milani, the director of Stanford
University’s Iranian studies program.

Few suggest yet that Ayatollah Khamenei’s hold on power is at risk. But, analysts say, he has opened
a serious fissure in the face of Islamic rule and one that may prove impossible to patch over, particularly
given the fierce dispute over the election that has erupted amid the elite veterans of the 1979 revolution.
Even his strong links to the powerful Revolutionary Guards — long his insurance policy — may not be
decisive as the confrontation in Iran unfolds.

“Khamenei would always come and say, ‘Shut up; what I say goes,’ ” said Azar Nafisi, the author of two
memoirs about Iran, including “Reading Lolita in Tehran.” “Everyone would say, ‘O.K., it is the word of
the leader.’ Now the myth that there is a leader up there whose power is unquestionable is broken.”

Those sensing that important change may be afoot are quick to caution that Ayatollah Khamenei, as
a student of the revolution that swept the shah from power, could still resort to overwhelming force
to crush the demonstrations.

In calling for the Guardian Council to investigate the vote, he has bought himself a 10-day grace period
for the anger to subside, experts note. The outcome is not likely to be a surprise. Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati,
the council’s chairman, is one of Ayatollah Khamenei’s few staunch allies among powerful clerics. In addition,
Ayatollah Khamenei appoints half the members, while the other half are nominated by the head of the
judiciary, another appointee of the supreme leader. “It is simply a faux investigation to quell the protests,”
said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Ayatollah Khamenei was an unlikely successor to the patriarch of the revolution, the Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, and his elevation to the post of supreme leader in 1989 might have sown the seeds for the
political crisis the country is facing today.

The son of a cleric from the holy city of Mashhad, Ayatollah Khamenei was known as something of an
open-minded mullah, if not exactly liberal. He had a good singing voice; played the tar, a traditional
Iranian stringed instrument; and wrote poetry. His circle of friends included some of the country’s most
accomplished poets. In the violence right after the overthrow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a bomb
hidden in a tape recorder permanently crippled his right arm, and he was elevated to president in 1981
after another bomb killed the incumbent. He managed to attract the ire of Ayatollah Khomeini himself
once, ironically, by publicly questioning some aspects of having a vilayat-e-faqih, or supreme leader
system.

He also clashed repeatedly with Mir Hussein Moussavi, the powerful prime minister at the time. After
being trounced in the official election results by Mr. Ahmadinejad, Mr. Moussavi, the reformist presidential
candidate, challenged Ayatollah Khamenei in the one area where he has always been vulnerable:
his religious credentials. Mr. Moussavi wrote an open letter to the clergy in the holy city of Qom
about the election results. By appealing to the grand clerics, he was effectively saying Ayatollah
Khamenei’s word as supreme leader lacked sufficient weight.

Ayatollah Khamenei was elevated from the middle clerical rank, hojatolislam, to ayatollah overnight in
what was essentially a political rather than a religious decision. He earned undying scorn from many
keepers of Shiite tradition, even though Iran’s myth-making machinery cranked up, with a witness
professing he saw a light pass from Ayatollah Khomeini to Ayatollah Khamenei much the way the
imams of centuries past were anointed.

Still, lacking a political base of his own, he set about creating one in the military. It was the end of the
Iran-Iraq war, and many senior officers returning from the front demanded a role in politics or the
economy for their sacrifices. Ayatollah Khamenei became a source of patronage for them, giving them
important posts in broadcasting or as leaders of the vast foundations that had confiscated much of the
pre-revolution private sector. “By empowering them, he got power,” said Mehdi Khalaji of the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy.

In the wake of the election debacle, questions are being raised about who controls whom. But over
the years, Ayatollah Khamenei gradually surmounted expectations that he would be eclipsed. “He is
a weak leader, who is extremely smart in allying himself, or in maneuvering between centers of power,”
said one expert at New York University, declining to use his name because he travels to Iran frequently.
“Because of the factionalism of the state, he seems to be the most powerful person.”

But many analysts say the differences between factions have never been quite so pronounced nor public
as in the past few days. Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, once a close Khamenei ally
who helped him become supreme leader, sent an open letter to him in the days before the election
warning that any fraud would backfire, Mr. Milani noted. If he allowed the military to ignore the public
will and to destroy senior revolutionary veterans, the decision would haunt him, Mr. Rafsanjani warned:
“Tomorrow it is going to be you.”

Everyone speaking of Ayatollah Khamenei tends to use the word “cautious,” a man who never gambles.
But he now faces a nearly impossible choice. If he lets the demonstrations swell, it could well change
the system of clerical rule. If he uses violence to stamp them out, the myth of a popular mandate for
the Islamic revolution will die.

“The Iranian leadership is caught in a paradox,” said Ms. Nafisi, the author of memoirs about Iran.

 

[Yrys]

Social Networks Spread Iranian Defiance Online

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marching in support for the
presidential opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi.


Opposition in Iran Rejects Call for Partial Recount

TEHRAN — Thousands of people began massing in the streets here again on Tuesday to protest Iran’s disputed
presidential election, increasing tensions a day after clashes left at least seven people dead during the largest
antigovernment demonstration since the Iranian revolution. But in answer to the supreme leader’s turnabout
call for an examination of opposition charges of vote-rigging, the country’s powerful Guardian Council said
Tuesday it was prepared to order only a partial recount, and it ruled out an annulment of the vote,
according to state television and news reports.

The concession was rejected by the main opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, and other opponents
of the declared winner, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The opponents demand that a new election be held.
As the political tumult grew, the Iranian government canceled all foreign press credentials and told Iranian
journalists they could report only from their offices, but news continued to flow out of Tehran.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ahmadinejad appeared to try to project a secure grip on power, leaving Iran to fly to Russia
on Tuesday for a meeting on international security. Seeking to reclaim the initiative after the opposition’s
enormous show of strength on Monday, Mr. Ahmadinejad’s supporters called for a their own rally on Tuesday,
and demonstrators from both camps began to gather in the same part of Tehran.

A spokesman for Mr. Moussavi was quoted as urging them not to attend “to protect their lives,” Reuters
reported. In Twitter feeds and on Web sites — a primary source of communication for the opposition
— Mr. Moussavi’s supporters asked that protesters wear black in honor of the seven killed Monday.
Speaking at Monday’s huge rally, Mr. Moussavi said he had written to the Guardian Council to complain
about the election but had little hope of action from the panel because many of its members had supported
Mr. Ahmadinejad ahead of the election.

“I believe annulling the election results would be the least harmful measure,” he said. “Otherwise people
will no longer have confidence in the system and the government,” he said. But the Guardian Council
rejected that demand, Reuters reported.

“Based on the law, the demand of those candidates for the cancellation of the vote, this cannot be
considered,” the spokesman, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the Guardian Council,
told state television, Reuters said.

Mr. Ahmadinejad flew to Yekaterinburg, Russia, for a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, grouping Russia, China and four central Asian states. At the gathering, Mr. Ahmadinejad
did not mention the Iranian election, but gave a speech in which he referred to regional problems,
describing Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine as occupied and unstable. “The world is gripped by economic
and political crises, and there is no hope for their solution,” hesaid. “The countries allied with America
are also in no condition to cope with these crises.” He added: “The current political and economic order
is approaching the end of its mastery of the world. It is absolutely clear that the epoch of empire has
come to an end.”

Mr. Medvedev did not offer any public comments on the Iranian election. He later met on the sidelines
of the conference with Mr. Ahmadinejad, Kremlin officials said. In contrast with doubts expressed in many
west European capitals over the validity of the Iranian ballot, a deputy foreign minister of Russia, Sergei
Ryabkov, told reporters that Russia had warm relations with Iran. "Elections in Iran are an internal affair
of the Iranian people, but we welcome the newly elected president of that state," Mr. Ryabkov said.

On Monday, hundreds of thousands of people from across Iranian society poured into the streets to protest
what they charge were fraudulent results in last week’s vote. The protests initially were believed to have
been largely peaceful and only one death was reported. But violence erupted after dark when protesters
surrounded and attempted to set fire to the headquarters of the Basij volunteer militia, which is associated
with the Revolutionary Guards, according to news agency reports. State radio said seven people died after
an “unauthorized gathering” following Monday’s mass rally when protesters tried to attack “a military
location,” the A.P. said.

Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was compelled to respond to the popular and sustained defiance
and called Monday for a formal review of the results, the first hint that the government might fear it could
not control the crowds. But Mr. Ahmadinejad’s decision to leave the country as head of state threatened to
inflame voters. Mr. Ahmadinejad had already incensed protesters when he compared them to angry soccer
fans whose team had lost and called them “dust.”

One demonstrator fired off a Twitter message, one of thousands of brief electronic dispatches that kept the
outside world up-to-the-minute on the protests, proclaiming: “Ahmadinejad called us dust, we showed him
a sandstorm.”

The silent march through central Tehran on Monday represented an extraordinary show of defiance from
a broad cross section of society and some protesters began to sense that the leadership’s firm backing of
Mr. Ahmadinejad had wavered. In his first public comment on the situation in Iran, President Obama said
he was deeply troubled by postelection violence and called on Iranian leaders to respect free speech and
the democratic process. He told reporters he would continue pursuing a direct dialogue with Tehran, but
he urged that any Iranian investigation of election irregularities be conducted without bloodshed.

The protests showed how the government’s assertion that Mr. Ahmadinejad won re-election by a margin
of almost two to one had further cleaved Iranian society into rival camps.

On one side are the most powerful arms of the Islamic system of government: Ayatollah Khamenei;
the military; the paramilitary; and the Guardian Council. On the other is a diverse coalition that has
grown emboldened by the day, with some clerics joining two former presidents and Mr. Moussavi,
the former prime minister and main opposition candidate, who addressed the crowd from the roof
of a car near Freedom Square in downtown Tehran.

Earlier Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei stepped in to try to calm a growing backlash, forcing him into
a public role he generally seeks to avoid as the country’s top religious authority. Under Iran’s dual
system of government, with civil and religious institutions, the supreme leader can usually operate
in the shadows, while elected officials serve as the public face of Iranian governance and policy.

He called for the Guardian Council to conduct an inquiry into the opposition’s claims that the election
was rigged and then had that announcement repeated every 15 minutes on Iranian state radio throughout
the day. It was a rare reversal.

Nazila Fathi reported from Tehran, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Bill Keller reported from Tehran,
Clifford J. Levy from Moscow and Andrew E. Kramer from Yekaterinburg, Russia.

 

[Edward Campbell]

There’s an old saying to the effect that “when a man has only a hammer every problem starts to look like a nail.” Thus, I caution you that my personal interest in the politics of Tudor England may mean that I see reflections everywhere.

The relationship between the sovereign and the parliament in 16th century England was evolving, slowly from the model the Angevins built upon Saxon foundations. The sovereign accepted, albeit grudgingly, that (s)he had no power to tax and, therefore, his/her power to e.g. wage war was severely constrained. Slowly but surely, over three or four hundred years, the relationship solidified until, in 1648, after the turbulent Tudors, parliament – by the act of trying and executing the (Stuart) king – made itself sovereign. (It conformed its absolute sovereignty later, in 1689 when the English parliament selected, arguably elected, William and Mary to reign over England and Scotland.)

Perhaps we are seeing a similar evolution in Iran and, indeed, across the region. People like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are analogous to the absolute monarch of renaissance Europe. I don’t want to carry the analogies too far, I’m not suggesting that Ahmadinejad or Moussavi are some sorts of democratic reformers but they may be harbingers of things to come.

I have ranted and raved about culture being supremely important and I have argued that the Persian/Arab culture is not, now, in the 21st century, ready for modern, sophisticated democracy, either liberal or conservative. But: that Arab/Persian culture may be ready for a simpler form of democracy, maybe something akin to that known in Tudor times. Maybe that much democracy, that much accepted constraint on the rule of tyrants is about the best for which we can hope right now.

Just a thought.

 

[dapaterson]

Politics makes strange bedfellows. Guess who wrote:

There are other reasons Obama should not heed the war hawks howling for confrontation now.

When your adversary is making a fool of himself, get out of the way. That is a rule of politics Lyndon Johnson once put into the most pungent of terms. U.S. fulminations will change nothing in Tehran. But they would enable the regime to divert attention to U.S. meddling in Iran's affairs and portray the candidate robbed in this election, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, as a poodle of the Americans.
...
Nevertheless, Obama, with his outstretched hand, his message to Iran on its national day, his admission that the United States had a hand in the 1953 coup in Tehran, his assurances that we recognize Iran's right to nuclear power, succeeded. He stripped the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad of their clinching argument -- that America is out to destroy Iran and they are indispensable to Iran's defense.

It's that raving left-winger Pat Buchanan.  Full article is online at: http://townhall.com/Columnists/PatBuchanan/2009/06/16/outlasting_the_ayatollahs?page=full&comments=true

 

[Yrys]

Just a thought.

An interesting one.


Latest Updates, NY Times

'Mass opposition rally' in Tehran, BBC News

Iranian opposition supporters are staging a mass rally in northern Tehran, witnesses
have told the BBC.

It comes despite presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi urging supporters not to
risk clashes with demonstrators backing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Hundreds
of thousands turned up on Monday alleging fraud in the poll which returned
Mr Ahmadinejad to office.

Tough new restrictions on the foreign media mean the BBC is unable to confirm reports
of Tuesday's opposition rally.

 

[a_majoor]

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-seven-point-manifesto-of-the-iranian-resistance/

The Seven-Point Manifesto of the Iranian Resistance

Their demands include no less than the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This widely circulated document has been translated by PJM's Ardeshir Arian.

June 16, 2009
The following document, known as the Seven-Point Manifesto, calling for the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, has hit the streets of Iran. Hundreds of thousands of copies have already been circulated throughout the country.

A copy was sent from Tehran to filmmaker and activist Ardeshir Arian, who has translated it for Pajamas Media:

The Seven-Point Manifesto calls for:

1. Stripping Ayatollah Khamenei of his supreme leadership position because of his unfairness. Fairness is a requirement of a supreme leader.

2. Stripping Ahmadinejad of the presidency, due to his unlawful act of maintaining the position illegally.

3. Transferring temporary supreme leadership position to Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazery until the formation of a committee to reevaluate and adjust Iran’s constitution.

4. Recognizing Mir Hossein Mousavi as the rightfully elected president of the people.

5. Formation of a new government by President Mousavi and preparation for the implementation of new constitutional amendments.

6. Unconditional release of all political prisoners regardless of ideology or party platform.

7. Dissolution of all organizations — both secret and public — designed for the oppression of the Iranian people, such as the Gasht Ershad (Iranian morality police).

 

[Yrys]

Iranians defy media restrictions

Iranians are still managing to send photos, mobile 'phone
video and emails to the BBC's interactive sites, despite
the Iranian government's attempts to close down all
media communication beyond its control.

 

[CougarKing]

In spite of the violence, Mousavi supporters continue to stage massive rallies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writers Ali Akbar Dareini And Nasser Karimi, Associated Press Writers – 51 mins ago
TEHRAN, Iran – Tens of thousands of black-clad protesters filled the streets of Tehran again Thursday, joining opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to mourn demonstrators killed in clashes over Iran's disputed election.

Many in the massive crowd wore green wristbands and carried flowers in mourning as they filed into Imam Khomenei Square, a large plaza in the heart of the capital named for the founder of the Islamic Revolution, witnesses said.

Demonstrators marched silently until they arrived at the square, where some chanted "Death to the Dictator!" and "Where are our votes!"

The witnesses spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation. Foreign news organizations are barred from reporting on Tehran's streets.

The fourth consecutive day of protests openly defied Iran's supreme leader, who has urged the people to pursue their allegations of election fraud within the limits of the cleric-led system. Mousavi and his followers have rejected compromise and pressed their demands for a new election, flouting the will of a man endowed with virtually limitless powers under Iran's constitution.

Trying again to satisfy the protesters' demands, Iran's main electoral authority invited Mousavi and two other candidates who ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a meeting. Iran's al-Alam Arabic television channel said the three candidates would meet with the Guardian Council on Saturday.

The unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities.

Mousavi, who has said he won the vote, charges the Guardian Council is not neutral and supports Ahmadinejad and has demanded an independent investigation and a new election.

The Council's spokesman, Abbasali Khadkhodaei, said Thursday that it received a total of 646 complaints from the three candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.

The council provided few other details, but the large number of complaints raised the possibility that even a limited recount could turn into a far larger and messier exercise than the government desires.

The regime has blocked communication channels, such as Web sites and mobile phone networks, to make it more difficult for Mousavi supporters to organize protests. The mobile phone network in Tehran appeared to go down at the start of Thursday's demonstration, as it has intermittently since shortly after the election results were announced. Text messaging has been blocked almost constantly since Friday.

There have been widespread accusations of nighttime attacks on Mousavi supporters by pro-government militiamen, and protesters attacked a militia building after one rally, but both sides have been restrained, with uniformed police and other security forces standing by as protesters march calmly through the streets.

On Monday, hundreds of thousands turned out in a huge procession that recalled the scale of protests during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Seven demonstrators were shot and killed that day by pro-regime militia in the first confirmed deaths during the unrest.

The massive gathering was followed by three days of marches along main Tehran avenues, presenting one of the gravest threats to Iran's complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged out of the Islamic revolution that brought down Western-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The ruling clerics still command deep public support and are defended by Iran's most powerful military force — the Revolutionary Guard — as well as a vast network of militias.

But Mousavi's movement has forced Khamenei into the center of the escalating crisis, questioning his role as the final authority on all critical issues.

The wild card for Mousavi's movement is former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts — a cleric-run body that is empowered to choose or dismiss Iran's supreme leader. Khamenei is Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's successor, and the assembly has never used its power to remove Iran's highest authority.

Rafsanjani was a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad during the election, but has not publicly backed Mousavi. It is not known whether Mousavi has actively courted Rafsanjani's support or if they have held talks.

But Iranian TV has shown pictures of Faezeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani's daughter, speaking to hundreds of Mousavi supporters, carrying pictures of Khomeini.

A group of hard-line students rallied outside the Tehran prosecutor's office Thursday, accusing Rafsanjani's daughter and his son, Mahdi, of treason, state radio reported. They said Rafsanjani supports these actions and shouted: "Shame on you, children of Hashemi!"

For the moment, protesters have focused on the results of the balloting rather than challenging the Islamic system of government. But a shift in anger toward Iran's non-elected theocracy would sharply change the stakes. Instead of a clash over the election results, it would become a showdown over the foundation of Iran's system of rule — the almost unlimited authority of the clerics at the top.

The Iranian government has directly accused the United States of meddling in the deepening crisis. A statement by state-run Press TV blamed Washington for "intolerable" interference. The report, on Press TV, cited no evidence.

"Despite wide coverage of unrest, foreign media have not been able to provide any evidence on a single violation in the election process," state radio said Thursday.

President Barack Obama said he shared the world's "deep concerns" but it was "not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling."

The two countries severed diplomatic relations after militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran following the Islamic Revolution.

The government has blocked certain Web sites, such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are vital conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence. Many other sites, including Gmail and Yahoo, were unusually slow and rarely connect.

Mousavi has condemned the blocking of Web sites, saying the government did not tolerate the voice of the opposition.

In a statement, Google Inc.'s video sharing site, YouTube, said this week it would allow clips depicting violence in Iran because of their journalistic merit.

"In general, we do not allow graphic or gratuitous violence on YouTube," the company said. "However, we make exceptions for videos that have educational, documentary, or scientific value. The limitations being placed on mainstream media reporting from within Iran make it even more important that citizens in Iran be able to use YouTube to capture their experiences for the world to see."

Iranian Press TV said Khamenei would lead the weekly prayers ceremony on Friday. There was no immediate word whether Ahmadinejad would attend, but attends the service whenever Khamenei gives it. Al-Alam said the three presidential candidates also confirmed they would attend.

 

[Yrys]

NY Times :
Stark Images, Uploaded to the World
Clerics May Be Key to Outcome of Unrest
An Insider Turned Agitator Is the Face of Iran’s Opposition


Protesters Gather Again, as Iran Panel Offers Talks

Supporters of the opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi demonstrated
in Tehran on Thursday.

TEHRAN — Hundreds of thousands of black-clad protesters massed quietly in central Tehran
on Thursday for another day of protest over last week’s disputed presidential election, even
as the Iranian government made its first move toward some form of dialogue to defuse the
outrage.

The move came in the form of an invitation from the country’s powerful Guardian Council to
the three losing candidates to meet to discuss their grievances. The exact motives, timing and
conditions of the proposed meeting, reported by state media, remained unclear. The offer,
from a legal panel largely controlled by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was widely
seen as a government effort to buy time in the hopes of dampening the momentum of days of
enormous protests taking place in open defiance of the government’s authority.

The government also seemed to be building a case that challenges to the election represented a
threat to national security, with the Intelligence Ministry describing an election-day bomb plot
linked to foreign enemies, Reuters reported.

Beginning at about 4 p.m. local time on Thursday, thousands of people began gathering Tehran’s
Imam Khomeini Square. The crowd quickly grew to the hundreds of thousands, stretching beyond
the borders of the square — one of the cities largest — and filling the surrounding streets, witnesses
said. The protest seemed as large, or perhaps larger, that Monday’s, which Tehran’s mayor said
numbered three million.

At one point, a car drove into the thick of the demonstration, and the main opposition leader,
Mir Hussein Moussavi, and his wife, got out and stood on top of their car to. The crowd greeted
them with a roaring welcome, witnesses said. As on previous days, the police kept to the sidelines,
and while vigilante forces appeared, there were no immediate reports of clashes.

Mr. Moussavi had called on his followers to mourn those protesters killed in clashes with
paramilitary forces over the past several days, and protesters responded by wearing black
and carrying black candles. Many held up their hands, their fingers making a V-sign for victory.
Meanwhile, some protesters expressed growing fears that the government’s tolerance of the
persistent protests would expire soon.

The Iranian authorities reported at least eight people killed in Tehran in the first days of
the unrest after the election. Student activists say seven more people have died since then
in attacks by government militia on student dormitories in Tehran and in the southern city
of Shiraz. Iranian Web sites have carried reports of violence in some other cities in Iran,
but given the press restrictions now in place, those could not be verified.

Iran has been in tumult since early Saturday, when, just hours after the close of polls in
Friday’s presidential election, Iranian authorities declared a landslide victory for the incumbent,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The supreme leader welcomed the declaration of a landslide victory
and called the results “fair.”

But two days later, as fury intensified over what opposition supporters viewed as a stolen vote,
Ayatollah Khamenei called on the Guardian Council to examine the opposition’s accusations. In
Iran’s theocracy, established after the Islamic revolution of 1979, the supreme leader has vast
power over the military, the judiciary and broadcasting. He also appoints six of the 12 jurists
on the Guardian Council, which oversees Parliament and certifies election results, and so exerts
profound influence on legislators.

The president and Parliament are popularly elected by the people, and in recent years as popular
demand for social and economic freedoms has grown, frictions have sharpened between the various
arms of government. After Mr. Khamenei’s request, the Guardian Council agreed to conduct a partial
recount, and on Thursday state radio said a “careful examination” of a total of 646 complaints concer-
ning the vote had commenced, Reuters reported.

However, the opposition has maintained its call for a new election, and it was not immediately clear
how it would respond to the council’s offer of talks, which could take place as early as Saturday. Many
Iranians are hoping for clues to the government’s next moves from sermons by senior clerics at Friday
prayers in Tehran. Mr. Khamenei is expected to lead the main prayers at Tehran University.

In the unfolding battle of wills, the government worked on many fronts to disrupt the outside world’s
view of the unrest, banning coverage of the demonstrations, arresting journalists, threatening bloggers
and trying to block Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, which have become vital outlets for information
about the confrontation. None of this week’s mass gatherings have been given official authorization and
reporters have been formally barred from leaving their offices to cover them. The senior prosecutor in
the central province of Isfahan, where there have also been tense demonstrations, went so far as to
say protesters could be executed under Islamic law.

The semi-official Fars news agency reported that a son and daughter of former President Ali Akbar
Hashemi Hafsanjani, who has been supporting Mr. Moussavi, had been stopped from leaving the country.
Human rights groups accused the authorities of rounding up other prominent figures, including a former
foreign minister. According to news reports and a human rights activist group, the International Campaign
for Human Rights in Iran, the latest detainees include Ibrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister who leads
an organization called Freedom Movement. According to the rights group, he was arrested at a hospital in
Tehran while undergoing treatment on Wednesday. The arrest was reported after other people were
detained, including Mohammad Reza Jalaipour, a sociologist  and university professor. He was arrested
at Tehran airport while trying to leave the country with his wife, news reports said.

Amnesty International issued a tally of detentions, saying 17 people, including some associated with the
Freedom Movement, had been detained in the northwestern city of Tabriz. “Among those arrested was
Dr. Ghaffari Farzadi, a leading member of the Iran Freedom Movement and a lecturer at Tabriz University,”
Amnesty International said on its Web site, adding that students appeared to have been “particularly
targeted.”

The offer to talk with the opposition was broadcast by state television, which quoted the Guardian Council’s
spokesman, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, as saying, “The presidential candidates will be invited to the meeting to
be held early next week to express their ideas and ask any questions in the presence of the Guardian
Council’s members.” The meeting would include Mr. Moussavi and two other candidates — Mehdi Karroubi
and Mohsen Rezai. Mr. Moussavi has indicated in the past that he does not trust the Guardian Council,
because some of its members campaigned on behalf of Mr. Ahmadinejad before the elections.

State television’s Press TV reported on its Web site that Mr. Moussavi was already set to address a rally on
Saturday, called by a group of reformist clerics loyal to a former reformist president, Mohammed Khatami,
who has thrown his support to the opposition. Press TV said Thursday that the reformist clerics group,
the Association of Combatant Clerics, had asked for authorization to hold the pro-Moussavi rally in Tehran.

Also Thursday, President Ahmadinejad released a recorded statement, according to The Associated Press,
clarifying remarks he made earlier in the week referring to opposition supporters as “dust” and essentially
calling them poor sports. The statement, broadcast on state television said: “I only addressed those who
made riot, set fires and attacked people. Every single Iranian is valuable. The government is at everyone’s
service. We like everyone.”

Nazila Fathi reported from Tehran, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Robert F. Worth contributed reporting
from Dubai, and Sharon Otterman from New York.

 

[Xiang]

If there is any sort of progress in reform/revolution in Iran, Mousavi will simply be a temporary leader.

Most Iranians know his past and his brutality.  He is simply a figure head for the more moderate Islamic ideology most Iranians want.

 

[GAP]

The government also seemed to be building a case that challenges to the election represented a
threat to national security, with the Intelligence Ministry describing an election-day bomb plot
linked to foreign enemies, Reuters reported.

Last time there was unrest the US/Israel got blamed to divert the people's attention away from internal issues towards an outside issue....looks like they are using a winning formula again....

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Seems the army is keeping to it's promise to stay out of the fray. Which means all of the hate and thoughts of revenge will be directed to the RG and their hired thugs. Even if the regime survives this, it will widen the cracks and focus the people. when the next crisis happens the people may ask the army to intervene to protect them against the RG, leading to short and nasty civil war. Combine this with the fact that only 51% of the population is Persian, Iran may shortly be consumed by civil insurrection.

 

[a_majoor]

Nice:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTM5NmE3ODNkYTdjYjlkNTdjN2Q0Zjg5NzgyYjI1YTg=

Bert Brecht on Iran  [Michael Ledeen]

Fifty years ago, the East Germans rose against their Communist tyrants. As Russell Berman notes:

Bertolt Brecht, whose relationship to democracy was far from clear, pinpointed the hypocrisy of dictatorship in a poem worth rereading with regard to Iran.

The Solution

After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

 

[CougarKing]

Seems the army is keeping to it's promise to stay out of the fray.

Seems that things may not stay that way though from the looks of this latest update below.

So will it be long before Iranian MBTs roll through Tehran to emulate what happened at Tiananmen Square 20 years ago?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090619/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writers Ali Akbar Dareini And Nasser Karimi, Associated Press Writers – 42 mins ago
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader sternly warned Friday of a crackdown if protesters continue their massive street rallies, escalating the government's showdown with demonstrators demanding a new presidential election.

In his first response to a week of protests of the disputed election, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said opposition leaders "will be held accountable for all the violence, bloodshed and rioting" if they do not halt the rallies.

Khamenei also said the balloting had not been rigged, and he sided with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, offering no concessions to the opposition. He effectively ruled out any chance for a new vote, lauding the June 12 election as an expression of the people's will.

"Some of our enemies in different parts of the world intended to depict this absolute victory, this definitive victory, as a doubtful victory," Khamenei said at a Friday prayer service at Tehran University attended by tens of thousands of people. "It is your victory. They cannot manipulate it."

The speech created a stark choice for candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters: Drop their demands for a new vote or take to the streets again in blatant defiance of the man endowed with virtually limitless powers under Iran's constitution.

Pro-Mousavi Web sites had no immediate reaction to Khamenei's warning. They did not announce changes in plans for a march at 4 p.m. Saturday from Revolution Square to Freedom Square, site of a massive rally Monday that ended with fatal clashes between protesters and a pro-government militia.

"We are all feel a little angry, worried and disappointed after the speech," said one Mousavi supporter, responding by e-mail to The Associated Press.

"We are waiting for Mousavi's reaction. He is our hope to protect our votes," added the Tehran resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation.

Monday's demonstration was followed by three consecutive days of protest that have posed the greatest challenge to Iran's Islamic ruling system since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought it to power.

So far, the government has not stopped the protests with force despite an official ban on them. But Khamenei opened the door for harsher measures.

"It must be determined at the ballot box what the people want and what they don't want, not in the streets," he said. "I call on all to put an end to this method."

And Khamenei added, according to Press TV, Iranian state television's English-language channel: "Extremism in the country, any extremist move, will fan another extremist move. If the political elite want to ignore the law or break the law then they are taking wrong measures, which are harmful, and they will be held accountable for all the violence, bloodshed and rioting."

He accused foreign media and Western countries of trying to create a political rift and stir up chaos in Iran. Iranian leaders often blame foreign "enemies" for plots against the country, but Khamenei's comments suggest Iran could remain cool to expanding dialogue with the West and the offer of opening talks with Washington.

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Friday to condemn Tehran's crackdown on demonstrators and the government's interference with Internet and cell phone communications.

The resolution was the strongest message yet to Iran from the U.S. government and was initiated by Republicans as a veiled criticism of President Barack Obama, who has taken a cautious line on the election dispute, expressing sympathy with protesters but avoiding condemnation of the Islamic government.

He said Tuesday that opposition to Ahmadinejad represented "a questioning of the kinds of antagonistic postures towards the international community that have taken place in the past, and that there are people who want to see greater openness and greater debate and want to see greater democracy."

Khamenei reacted strongly, saying Obama's statements contradicted the president's stated goal of opening dialogue with Iran and the conciliatory tone of other recent American messages.

"The U.S. president said 'We were waiting for a day like this to see people on the street,'" Khamenei said. "They write to us and say they respect the Islamic Republic and then they make comments like this. ... Which one should we believe?

Khamenei remained staunch in his defense of Ahmadinejad, saying his views were closer to the president's than to those of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful patron of Mousavi.

Ahmadinejad watched the sermon from the front row and conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaei could be seen in the audience.

State television did not show Mousavi in the crowd of thousands, which spilled out of the open-sided campus pavilion and filled surrounding streets.

Iran's Arabic-language state TV channel said before the service that Mousavi, Rezaei and reformist candidate Mahdi Karroubi would attend. Karroubi confirmed that but it was not clear from broadcasts of the sermon if he or Rafsanjani were in fact there.

Khamenei said the 11 million votes that separated Ahmadinejad from his top opponent, Mousavi, were proof that fraud did not occur.

"If the difference was 100,000 or 500,000 or 1 million, well, one may say fraud could have happened. But how can one rig 11 million votes?" Khamenei asked.

Khamenei said Iran would not see a second revolution like those that transformed the countries of the former Soviet Union and pointed a finger at the U.S., Britain and what he called Iran's other enemies.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other European Union leaders expressed dismay over the threat of a crackdown. The British Foreign Office told Iran's charge d'affairs in London that Khamenei's comments were "unacceptable and had no basis in fact," a spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with policy.

The Foreign Office summoned the Iranian ambassador but said that in the end, the more junior diplomat attended the meeting with political director Mark Lyall Grant.

In Switzerland, Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi said Iran should hold a new election observed by international monitors, adding that more than 500 people have been arrested since the balloting. Her human rights office in Iran was raided last year, its files confiscated and several members subsequently arrested.

Khamenei's address was his first since hundreds of thousands of Mousavi supporters flooded the streets, evoking the revolution that ended Iran's U.S.-backed monarchy. On Thursday, supporters dressed in black and green marched in downtown Tehran in a somber, candlelit show of mourning for those killed in clashes since the election.

Khamenei said the street protests would not have any impact.

"Some may imagine that street action will create political leverage against the system and force the authorities to give in to threats. No, this is wrong," he said.

The supreme leader left open a small window for a legal challenge to the vote. He reiterated that he has ordered the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to the supreme leader, to investigate voter fraud claims.

The council has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities.

Ahmadinejad has appeared to take the growing opposition more seriously in recent days, backtracking Thursday on his dismissal of the protesters as "dust" and sore losers.

The crowds in Tehran and elsewhere have been able to organize despite a government clampdown on the Internet and cell phones. The government has blocked certain Web sites, such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are vital conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence.

Text messaging, a primary source of spreading information in Tehran, has not been working since last week, and cell phone service in Tehran is frequently down. The government also has barred foreign news organizations from reporting on Tehran's streets.

The BBC said it was employing two new satellites to help circumvent Iranian jamming of its Persian-language service.

Google said it was launching a Persian-to-English translation service and Facebook said Iranian users could now use a Persian version of its site as a way of easing communication to the outside world.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein in Cairo, Anne Flaherty in Washington and Raphael G. Satter in London contributed to this report.

 

 

[vonGarvin]

Bomb explodes in Tehran as protests grow violent

From here
English-language state television in Iran is reporting that a bomb has exploded in Tehran at the shrine of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as anti-government protests on Saturday quickly turned violent.

State television reported that two people were injured in the bomb blast. However, the report could not be independently verified due to a crackdown on both Iranian and foreign journalists.


More at link.

 

[a_majoor]

Our friends in Iran need all the help and support we can offer. The situation is rapidly leaving equilibrium, and we are now entering a zone where we can only speculate. Calls for defections by the Republican Guard and reports of actions taken against the Basij may or may not signal the crumbling of the regimes pillars, and the activities of former president Rafsanjani also may signal some sort of sea change in political support, we can only wait and see.

- Faster, Please! - http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen -

So Now It’s Saturday in Iran
Posted By Michael Ledeen On June 19, 2009 @ 9:00 pm In Uncategorized | 25 Comments

And Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has banned the big demonstration called for 4 PM in Tehran.  If you follow Andrew Sullivan’s blog–and you should, if you’re interested in what’s happening in Iran, and also in what’s happening in the ranks of the American Left–you will see that many Iranians fear that Saturday is slated to be a day of bloodshed.

Khamenei did not budge at all.  No concessions.  The elections are legitimate, the results are final.  Moreover, he said, the battle is not between “the people” and “the regime,” it’s between four leaders who all believe in the regime.  The people voted, we counted their votes, and that’s that.  If anyone protests after my sermon, he said, whatever violence ensues is on them.

Which sounds like a promise of violence.  As I said earlier, tens of thousands of Revolutionary Guards have been brought to Tehran to put down the demonstrations.  These are older, well-trained and presumably loyal soldiers who will not shrink from attacking the crowds.  So some of the Iranians on Twitter have written messages that sound like “final thoughts,” not knowing if they will survive Saturday.

This is all the regime has left, because the demonstrations have revealed its hollowness, and the nightly chants of  “God is great” from the rooftops of all major cities in Iran have exposed the collapse of its central doctrine:  that the theocratic fascist system is blessed by Allah.  Millions of Iranians are openly rejecting that.

Khamenei recognizes this, which is why he has committed his own power to the defeat of Mousavi’s movement.  This confirms what I have been arguing, namely that, however Mousavi started, he now leads a revolutionary mass movement that is aimed at the dark heart of the corrupt theocratic fascist state.  When Mousavi asked the huge crowd on Thursday “where are our $300 billion?” he and everyone else knew that was a threat to bring the ruling mullahs to justice, to prosecute them for their thievery.

That led to one of the interesting sub-plots in the Khamenei speech:  the kind words for former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is widely believed to have enriched himself more than any other of the ruling elite.  I think Khamenei was telling Rafsanjani to stick with the system, and not (as has been widely rumored) join the revolution.  What will Rafsanjani do?  The “big story” of recent days was that he had gone to the holy city of Qom to get an endorsement for Mousavi from the senior Ayatollahs.  So far as I know, no such endorsement was issued.  Does this mean that Rafsanjani betrayed Mousavi?  Or simply that the clerics decided to stick with Khamenei?  Perhaps we will know the answer some day.

Meanwhile, there were cracks in the regime’s instruments of repression, and reports of action against the Basij thugs in the night time streets of Tehran.  The latter was picked up by the daily blog at the Guardian, in a post on “Basij hunting” by young activists.  The former came from a group of Revolutionary Guards on [1] their own blog (all of the following was translated by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi).  At the top of the blog, we read a detailed condemnation of IRGC actions in past years, which is described as a betrayal of their values:

This weblog is for all the guards who have stepped in the direction of lovingly serving the people, our nation and Islam but were killed by the deceit of the cowardly or were led astray. This weblog is for all those guards who still stay steadfast to that form and yet with betrayed hearts and as a result of desperation were witness to the plundering of people’s belongings, were witness to the smuggling of arms and drugs, were witness to the gangs of corrupt guards who did sex-trafficking and sold innocent Iranian girls to the Persian Gulf countries, and….

Last Wednesday they published an extraordinary message, proclaiming their independence of the supreme leader, and calling on their brethren to defect, and join the revolution:

…those who imagine that the Revolutionary Guard Corps is the ranking guards of the supreme leader, they are mistaken. We take God as our witness that we will not permit the blood of martyrs of the revolution and an imposed war, that was poured on the streets and battlefields of our great nation for freedom and independence and the Islamic Republic, be trampled by power-hungry and monopolistic individuals. We take God as our witness that with the presence of certain dangers that may threaten our lives, we stand with the voting public in confronting the treacherous and with the water of ablution of martyrdom, we will not permit that those corrupt and power-grabbing commanders who don the blessed costume of the Revolutionary Guard, to drag people through blood and sand. We reiterate and specifically recommend to our Basiji brothers to either stand to the side of the fray or turn in your weapons and join the masses of people…

We will see later today if appeals of this sort are widespread and effective.  Certainly there are grounds for the regime to be deeply worried.  As [2] Ardeshir Arian tells us, many commanders of the Guards refused to carry out a roundup of opposition leaders, some of them were arrested, and Khamenei’s sermon was delayed  for several hours.  All day Saturday, regime forces were rounding up their opponents, from members of Mousavi’s campaign staff, to people around Karrubi, and to people sitting in their homes all over Iran.  The full extent of this repression cannot be known yet, but it is very ugly and very considerable.

Meanwhile, to his credit, President Obama finally rallied to the revolutionaries:

…we stand behind those who are seeking justice in a peaceful way.  Already we’ve seen violence out there.  I’ve said this throughout the week, I want to repeat it, that we stand with those who would look to peaceful resolution of conflict and we believe that the voices of people have to be heard, that that’s a universal value that the American people stand for and this administration stands for.

That wasn’t so hard, was it?  It would also be nice to hear a forthright condemnation of those who have unleashed the violence, and I suspect that we will hear it.

Finally, almost everyone has missed  one of the most remarkable themes of the Khamenei sermon, namely the attack on the Clintons.  I’ll give it to you in full, because there is really no way to summarize it without depriving you of the full flavor.  He was upset at American accusations of human rights violations in Iran:

Even inside the U.S., one is amazed, during the time of the administration of these very Democrats, the Democratic Party in America, the time of the presidency of the husband of this so-called “lady” who expresses her opinions, 80, 80 something people who were a part of the Davudi sect, were burnt alive; there’s no room for denying this. These “excellencies” did this deed; it was these very Democrats…the Davudi sect which they themselves call BRANCH DAVIDIANS. For some unknown reason, these people incurred the wrath of American and inside a house…they went over there and besieged the place and whatever they did, they didn’t come out and so they ended up setting the house on fire and 80 something men, women and children burned alive! You think you know something about human rights?!

Now I don’t want to be unfair to Khamenei (whom I once unfairly accused of being dead), but I have a suspicion that he was referring to Ali Murad Davudi, the Baha’i leader who disappeared from Iran during one of the pogroms against the members of his faith during the first year of the Islamic Republic.

Bad form, beating up on a woman who just underwent elbow surgery in Washington.  But it’s probably nothing like what he’s preparing to unleash on his own people later today.

Article printed from Faster, Please!: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2009/06/19/so-now-its-saturday-in-iran/

URLs in this post:
[1] their own blog: http://pasdarazadi.blogspot.com/
[2] Ardeshir Arian tells us: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/iranians-protest-government-cracks-down/

 

[GAP]

This could really blow up into something dirty and nasty....if the RG don't back the  Ayatollahs, it will blow everything wide open....

so much for theological states...