BAGHDAD (AFP) In a bazaar in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite district of Kadhimiyah, one tailor bluntly expresses hope that the turmoil now besetting Iran will lead Iraq's neighbour to stop interfering in his country.
"Iran constantly meddles in our affairs; I hope that change means they will stop intervening," 43-year-old Salah Aziz told AFP.
Like many Iraqi Shiites, Aziz backs the Iranian protesters who have turned out onto the streets in massive demonstrations over the past week to contest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His views mirror the distrust many here have for Tehran, even as the two countries with strong Shiite majorities have strengthened ties in recent years, nearly three decades after the start of a war that left a million dead.
Those improved relations, sparked by a number of Iraqi Shiite political leaders who lived in Iranian exile during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, have given Tehran greater sway with Baghdad.
"Iranians have reason to protest," Aziz said, sipping coffee with friends during a break from work. "But I think Ahmadinejad will stay in power. He has the support of (Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei."
Nearby, mobile telephone seller Qais Zahar criticised Iranian political leaders, and particularly Khamenei, for imposing their vision of society on ordinary citizens. "Religious leaders should not intervene in politics and in people's day-to-day lives," the 27-year-old said. "I support the protesters. If the regime fell, that would be a good thing for Iran, and for Iraq."
Though the two countries have Shiite majorities, religion's place in society is viewed in wildly different ways. In Iran, power resides with the clerics while, in Iraq religious leaders only provide counsel to politicians and generally do not participate in politics.
It is a difference best illustrated by the differing roles taken on by Khamenei and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraqi Shiites' spiritual guide. While Khamenei is deeply involved in the day-to-day running of Iran and is the ultimate political arbitor, Sistani lives a cloistered life that is focused on religious matters.
In the shrine city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, there is a large population of Iranian residents and tourists from the Islamic republic, and Iraqi Mohannad Hassan also hopes for change. "I think if Ahmadinejad wins this struggle, it would have a negative effect on Iraq, because Iranian intervention would continue," the 24-year-old said.
Ali Saleh, a civil servant there, echoed those views, saying that "if Iran's leaders focused on their own problems, they would not get involved in other countries and would end their interference."
In Iraq's other holy city of Karbala, a police officer who declined to give his name for fear of being reprimanded, also spoke of his hope of an end to Iran's influence on Iraq. "We don't interfere in Iranian affairs. We expect the same from them," he said.
However, support for reform in Iran is not universal. Sheikh Abbas al-Daobul, an imam in Karbala, spoke of his concern that any change in Tehran could have a negative impact on Iran. "Ahmadinejad in power is better than any other regime when it comes to its relations with Iraq," he said.
But for many Iraqis, who have only recently witnessed the emergence of democracy at home, their neighbours also should have the right to be "free".
"Here, we are free," said Aziz in Baghdad. "Freedom to vote, to speak, to criticise. When I cast my ballot, it is taken into account. Why should Iranians not have this?"
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2009 13:51 ||
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Even as Ayatollah Khamenei blasted the United States for fomenting unrest in a defiant Friday prayer address in Tehran, President Obama has kept silent, focusing instead on domestic policy.
Newsmax has learned that the Obama administration also has zeroed out funding for pro-democracy programs inside Iran from the State Department budget for fiscal 2010, just as protests in Iran are ramping up.
Funding for pro-democracy programs began in 2004, when Congress earmarked $1.5 million of the State Department budget for educational, humanitarian, and non-governmental organizations and individuals inside Iran to support the advancement of democracy and human rights in Iran. The funding ramped up dramatically two years later, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested $75 million for pro-democracy programs. More than half of the $66.1 million Congress finally appropriated went to expand U.S. government-funded Persian language broadcasting services at Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
But no money has been earmarked for such programs in the administrations fiscal 2010 foreign operations budget request. Congressional sources told Newsmax they doubted that a Democrat-controlled Congress would add it when the budget comes before a committee next week.
Controversy has surrounded the programs from the start, with pro-regime lobbying groups, such as the National Iranian-American Council urging the State Department to cancel the funding.
And although Bush administration officials told pro-democracy activists they wanted to fund projects inside Iran (as called for in the original legislative language), State Department desk officers intervened to block funding for any projects other than cultural exchanges and think tanks and studies, insiders told Newsmax.
One key opponent of the funding, who weighed in at meetings to block specific grant requests aimed at helping pro-democracy groups inside Iran, was Suzanne Maloney, who is now at the Brookings Institution. Speaking at a Washington forum that the National Iranian-American Council sponsored Wednesday, Maloney applauded President Obamas do-nothing policy. The best thing we can do for Iranian democracy is sit back and let Iranians fight it out for themselves, she said, echoing the presidents own words from a brief press statement the day before.
What a weasel. Wonder if her post-government job at the Brookings Institute is Iranian-funded?
Program supporters say the efforts of people such as Maloney inside the State Department to blunt the original intent have made the funding virtually meaningless.
The State Department never did a lot with all the funding we gave them, so Im not sure that zeroing it out is a huge loss, an aide to a key congressional supporter of the funding told Newsmax.
That sounds true. Just another example of how the State Department has its agenda no matter what the White House says.
"Of the total $67 million that was appropriated, $42.7 million has been obligated, and $20.8 disbursed, according to a just-released report from the Congressional Research Service.
Kenneth Katzman, the analyst who wrote the research service's Iran report, told Newsmax that the programs suffered from finding few participants inside Iran who were willing to be seen as taking U.S. government money. These programs reached a limited number of people in Iran and that would indicate that their effectiveness was limited.
When reporters asked White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Thursday about the presidents hands-off approach, Gibbs said there was no debate in the White House over how to address the events in Iran. Everybody is on the same page. Theres no difference of opinion. I think the only thing I might take the only thing I would take some exception to is the notion that the president has been hands-off.
The next question from the press was about Fathers Day.
Earlier, the White House and the State Department dismissed Iranian government claims that it was interfering in the election.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reinforced the administrations hands-off policy in a statement to reporters on Wednesday. It is for the Iranians to determine how they resolve this internal protest concerning the outcome of the recent election, she said.
They won't believe you. You might as well get on the side of the people ...
At the same time, Clinton defended the phone call by a 27-year old State Department staffer to the CEO of Twitter, urging him to delay scheduled maintenance work to ensure that the social networking service remained available for use by Iranians without interruption.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2009 13:47 ||
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#1
Biden predicted that Obama would make an extremely unpopular foreign policy decision...
Iranian police have used water cannon, batons and tear gas to disperse protests over the presidential election, witnesses in Tehran say. Police earlier warned protesters not to gather, but several thousand made their way to the central rally site.
A BBC correspondent at Enghelab Square said there was a huge security operation, including military police, anti-riot police and Basij militia.
There were also reports of a bombing at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini. Two Iranian news agencies reported that the suicide bomber died and two people were injured in the bombing near the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 revolution. There was no evidence to support the report, the BBC's Jon Leyne says from Tehran.
The country's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei had warned protesters a day earlier not to continue their rallies, but correspondents say the warning appears to have made some protesters more determined. It was unclear if political leaders had backed their supporters continuing to march.
Other developments included:
People using the micro-blogging site Twitter said smoke lay over Enghelab Square, and protesters were throwing stones
One witness told AFP news agency that he saw police beating people trying to reach the rally site
About 3,000 protesters were reportedly gathered at Enghelab Square, according to Associated Press news agency. They chanted "Death to the dictator" and "Death to dictatorship"
Witnesses told AP that up to 60 people were seriously beaten by police, with some being dragged away by fellow protesters
There were between 1,000-2,000 protesters in front of Tehran University, near Enghelab Square, AFP quoted witnesses as saying
The campus was cordoned off by riot police, AP reported
Helicopters and sirens could be heard over central Tehran, and black smoke seen, AP reported
These reports could not be independently confirmed, and foreign news organisations - including the BBC - have been subjected to strict controls which prevent reporters from leaving their offices.
The BBC's Jon Leyne, who is also in Tehran, says the impression was that the police had broken up very large crowds into smaller groups to prevent them assembling.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2009 11:12 ||
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Seems like the police have things under control. They have a highly effective police state.
I would think this post election protest will fizzle unless Mousavi pushes his supporters to more actively defy the police roadblocks, etc. than what we've seen today.
He also conveys a rumor that Mousavi is ready to be a martyr, FWIW.
Still, anecdotal since the Iranian police state is pretty good at tamping down civil disobedience and blocking comms. So we are going on 2nd hand rumor while and so are the protestors.
#3
Ok. I've found a bunch of feeds. Seems like the typical internet echo chamber effect, but this might actually make it seem bigger than it is for the participants.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/20/2009 09:57 ||
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Now the Iraqis can play the game on the Iranian leadership they've played for years on Iraq. If explosives can move one way across a border, it can move the other way as well.
Key points from the Friday prayers address by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
___
Dismisses charges of voting rigging in the June 12 presidential election and sides with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who official results showed was the landslide winner. This effectively closes the door on chances for a recount or new election. Khamenei says that the ruling establishment will still examine the claims of fraud.
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Warns supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to end their street protests and holds them responsible for chaos and consequences if they don't. This suggests harsher crackdowns by authorities.
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Insists that Mousavi and other candidates in the race are loyal to Iran's Islamic system and do not seek its overthrow. Mousavi, a former prime minister, has never called for a fight to dismantle the ruling structure, but he has openly defied Khamenei by staging street marches.
___
Blames foreign media and Western countries specifically naming Britiain and the U.S. of trying to create political rifts and encourage 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.
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Posted by: ed ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Iran's supreme leader sought Friday to end the deepening crisis over disputed elections with one decisive speech declaring the vote will almost certainly stand and sternly warning opposition leaders to end street protests or be held responsible for any "bloodshed and chaos" to come. Long article w/ lots of details. Continued on Page 47
Posted by: ed ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the country's worst unrest in decades as "enemy" interference and warned that protests and riots would not be tolerated in his first speech Friday since the disputed elections that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad win a second four-year term.
After a week of protests, Khamenei denied accusations that the elections were rigged and labelled Ahmadinejad the "absolute" winner of 24.5 million out of 40 million votes and said the 11 million-vote margin shows the result was accurate.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at Tehran University where Khamenei warned that "street protests are not acceptable" and urged those who want to pursue complaints to do so from within the system. "It would be wrong to think that turning out on the street would be a way to force officials to accept your demands," he warned, adding protests "challenge democracy," in light of the worst mass protests in the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Khamenei accused "agents" of the West and Zionism of operating inside Iran and said they were the ones who started the riots in which cars were burned and property damaged as well as killing eight people.
Hours after Khamenei's speech, the United Kingdom summoned its Iranian ambassador to complain about the speech in which the leader labeled Britain "the most evil" of Iran's enemies and European Union leaders called on the republic to allow peaceful protests.
Zionist meddling
" The Zionist controlled media is trying to show you that there is a fight between those who support the state and those who do not support the state "
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
The crowd chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" as the leader accused Western and Zionist governements of sowing discord and using their media to make the elections look like a national failure. "The Zionist controlled media is trying to show you that there is a fight between those who support the state and those who do not support the state," Khamenei told the crowd.
"All the candidates support the state," the leader said, despite the fact there was no sign of reformist candidates Mir Hossien Mousavi or Mehdi Karroubi or former premier Mohammad Khatami. The only candidate present was Ahmedinejad's conservative rival Mohsen Rezai.
The leader also addressed Ahmadinejad's' recent scathing remarks of former president and current chairman of the Assembly of Experts, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and said he has not been accused of financial corruption, a reference to the incumbent's accusations during electoral debates that Rafsanjani was involved in corruption and fraud.
With regards to U.S. criticism of the heavy-handed police tactics being used on protestors, Khamenei sarcastically noted Iran did not need human rights advice from those are not even concerned about human rights.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
those who voted for this clown to absolve for sins committed some generations ago didn't realized that with it came the inability to criticize this man for even the most egregious blunders. Example, he's praised for not meddling in Iran's affairs, but if he would have utter praise for the democratic movement, he would have been praised for that too.
Posted by: jack salami ||
06/20/2009 12:50 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Britain summoned Iran's ambassador Friday as Western powers continued to condemn Tehran leadership over the handling of election results following a major speech by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran's ambassador to London was summoned to the Foreign Office, a British spokesman said, in a new sign of the diplomatic strains caused by the disputed election which Iranian authorities say returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second term as president.
" Today, top diplomats of several Western countries who talked to us so far within diplomatic formalities are showing their real face and most of all, the British government "
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
The Foreign Office spokesman did not say why the ambassador, Rasoul Movahedian, was summoned, but the action came after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei singled out Britain for criticism in a speech.
"Today, top diplomats of several Western countries who talked to us so far within diplomatic formalities are showing their real face and most of all, the British government," Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran.
On Tuesday the Iranian government summoned the British and Czech ambassadors to protest against the British and EU reactions to deadly post-election unrest in Tehran.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his government would carry on criticizing Iran and that "the whole world is watching" the events in Tehran.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[ADN Kronos] A Syrian government representative on Friday reiterated that the site bombed by Israel in 2007 is not a nuclear facility and said Damascus would cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"Al-Kiber military facility that was attacked by Israel back in 2007 is by no means used in nuclear activities," said Syria's representative at the IAEA, Ibrahim Othman during a media conference.
Othman, however, said that Israel should undergo an IAEA investigation to ensure the region was free of nuclear weapons.
Israel neither acknowledges nor denies having nuclear weapons. However it is believed that Israel's nuclear arsenal contains between 80 and 200 weapons.
According to Othman, the Syrian Research Centre's nuclear plant is not capable of enriching uranium as it only has a capability of 30 kilowatts. He also said the plant is used for neutron activation and other research that are not related to nuclear energy.
In line with Syria's 2006 agreement with the IAEA, the plant was being supervised by the agency, Othman added.
Syria has reaffirmed several times that the plant bombed by Israel at al-Kibar in the country's eastern desert was a traditional plant, and denied that it was a nuclear facility under construction.
Last year, the IAEA said a "significant" number of particles of man-made uranium had been found at the facility. It also said it had found more man-made uranium at the site and Syria would need to explain how it got there.
An Israeli intelligence operation penetrated the suspected Syrian nuclear programme, which photographs appearing to show it had been undertaken with North Korean assistance delivered by sea.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"We will work with the IAEA, as long as nobody more effective than El-Baradei is in charge"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2009 9:39 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Fifty-seven Iranian elites and lawyers have signed a letter calling for an end to the violence and use of force against post-election protesters.
The petitioners cite a number of acts of violence, which they say have been perpetrated against the protesters, including "firing at defenseless people and killing a number of them, widespread arrests of young people without notifying their relatives, violating universities premises and attacking students, illegal entries into private residences, destruction of public property, interventions by unknown and un-uniformed forces under the pretext of restoring order and the imposition of widespread and unjustifiable restrictions on telecommunications services."
The petitioners, among whom are a number of clerics, are mainly academics from the prestigious Tehran, Shahid Beheshti and the Allameh Tabataba'i Universities, as well as a number of attorneys-at-law, express their sympathies with the families of those killed and call on the bodies "empowered by the constitution to safeguard the citizens' rights and liberties to process the public's demands in a peaceful way."
"The blocking of legal channels for the enforcement and the restoration of the rights of the people is not the way to solve the problems. The justice-seeking cries of the people must be heard and their rightful demands obeyed," they said.
Iranians went to the polls on June 12, in unprecedented numbers to elect a new president. However, when the results were announced the next day, giving almost a 2-to-1 lead to the incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the runner-up Mir-Hossein Mousavi, he and many of his supporters rejected the Interior Ministry figures as a "charade", and took to the streets in rallies to register their dissatisfaction and demand for annulment of the election.
Although Mousavi has called on his followers to remain peaceful and avoid provocations, violence has erupted in several places resulting in a number of casualties.
Mousavi and the other two losing candidates have reported more than 600 "irregularities" to the supervisory body, the Guardian Council, and the council has convened a meeting scheduled for Saturday to discuss the complaints with them.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Elites: what would we do without them.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/20/2009 6:26 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi seconds Mir-Hossein Mousavi's calls on Iran's Guardian Council to nullify the June 12 election and called for a re-run.
"We expect that you [the Guardian Council] accept the will of the nation by nullifying the election and holding a re-run," Karroubi, the leader of the National Confidence Party (Hezb-e Etemad-e Melli), said in an open letter to the council on Friday.
The letter was posted on his party's website and is expected to be circulated in his newspaper's Saturday edition.
Opposition rallies have been held on a daily basis in Iran, since the announcement of presidential election results last Friday, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected with almost two thirds of votes.
His main rival, Mousavi, rejected the result as fraudulent and demanded a re-run.
Karroubi said 'the absolute majority of Iranians' have objected to the election results, adding that anything other than the nullification of the election results by the Guardian Council would be 'a grave mistake'.
The Guardian Council, the body tasked with supervising the electoral process, says it has received 646 complaints from the three presidential candidates -- Karroubi, Mousavi and Mohsen Rezaei.
The council has invited the three defeated candidates to discuss their objections on Saturday.
Despite Mousavi's insistence on peaceful nature of protests, violence flared in early stages of demonstrations which started in the weekend. At least eight people were killed in Tehran and many others sustained injuries.
The 72-year-old cleric sharply criticized the government for 'adding fuel to the fire of the nation's wrath' by trying to suppress 'peaceful gatherings' of the people.
"The government has described the people's protest as a protest against the system and has created an atmosphere of fear through censoring the media, cutting mobile phones and text message services," Karroubi said.
On Friday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, called for an end to street protests, assuring the public that the Islamic Republic has 'by no means' betrayed the vote of the nation.
The Leader, however, maintained that the Guardian Council will look into the complaints of the candidates who are unhappy with the election results.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for constructive engagement with the world, vowing continued 'servitude' to the people, 'justice and progress'.
"Without engaging the world, it is impossible to develop the country and the correct development will inevitably influence others, as without improving the world, it will be impossible to establish the good life*," the president told a group of students today, reports IRNA.
Referring to the protests at the disputed June 12 presidential election, which saw him return to office for a second four-year term with an overwhelming 63 percent of the votes, he blamed the "enemies," for the rallies.
"Today, the enemies are distressed because of the maximum and startling participation of the people in the elections, and with 'Divine Favor', the will of the Iranian nation and the Islamic revolution shall bloom in the world more quickly," he explained.
Turning his attention to the West, Ahmadinejad said, "However much the West opposes the Islamic Republic of Iran, the will of the Iranian nation for resistance against the bullies will be increased manifold."
He went on to dismiss the West's model of democracy. "In the democracy of the West, the exalted values and the people are ignored,... (whereas) the aspiration and origins of the Islamic Revolution are different from those of other revolutions. Because, in the Islamic Republic that rose from the revolution, the object is the realization of Divine aspirations and the commands of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and, consequently, the perfection of humanity," the president stipulated.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"However much the West opposes the Islamic Republic of Iran"
Yes, President AhmedNeedsJihad, there are a few still in the West that abhor a despotic facsist.
Posted by: jack salami ||
06/20/2009 19:26 Comments ||
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[ADN Kronos] Supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi have reportedly claimed that pro-government Arab militias attacked protesters in Tehran following last week's presidential elections. According to witnesses quoted by pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, undercover security agents gave the militias orders in Farsi while one of them translated the phrases in Arabic.
Witnesses claim that only after hearing the orders in Arabic would the militias begin attacking the demonstrators in an attempt to disperse them.
The witnesses claim Arab involvement the murder of at least eight protesters allegedly by pro-government Basij militias.
Unrest has grown in Iran since hardline presidential incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner in last Friday's election - a vote the opposition claims was rigged.
According to official Iranian media, Ahmadinejad received 62.3 percent of the vote, or 24.5 million votes, compared to Mousavi's 33.7 percent or 13.2 million votes.
Tens of thousands of people were reported to have taken to the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran following the election results.
Figures on the number of people killed in the unrest are impossible to verify as the Iranian government has imposed a ban on foreign media coverage.
However, rights group Iran Human Rights quoting 'reliable sources in Tehran' as saying earlier this week that least 32 people had died in clashes with security forces since the opposition protests began last Saturday.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Useful review of the relationship between the two men.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Teheran for a large-scale peaceful protest Thursday on behalf of Iranian opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi.
But for this occasion, the people were wearing black to honor the "martyrs" killed in the post-election violence. In 1979, all those who "died at the hands of the dictator [the Shah]" were called martyrs and mourned in a similar way. Revolutionary symbolism continues to thrive at such rallies, as protesters Photoshop the reelected president's face onto a Pahlavi military uniform.
Mousavi's "green team" has spread rumors, through pamphlets, about Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cunning preparations to "rig the people's vote." According to the unsigned pamphlets, Akbar Hashemi Rafjansani's reputation was destroyed in the weeks leading up to the election, in order to derail the reformist's demand for a limitation on the years the supreme leader can serve and to redistribute power among the parliament.
Former terror squad revolutionaries like Mousavi are now viewed as "liberals" and "the people's servants." Unfortunately, the reformists have fooled the vulnerable Iranians by wearing their "liberal" turbans at the rallies.
The legitimacy of the Revolution is now called into question by two of the men who helped create it. Mousavi and Rafsanjani have joined forces against their ruling system. The dynamic duo is again ready for revolutionary action; the boys are up to their old tricks.
In the holy city of Qom, after the "landslide" results were published last Saturday, they quickly began to gain support from other senior dissident clerics willing to speak up against the elections.
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri declared that "no sound mind" would accept the results. "A government that is based on intervening in (people's) votes has no political or religious legitimacy," said Montazeri, who had once been set to succeed Khomeini as supreme leader but was ousted because of criticisms of the revolution.
The protests are now being carefully nurtured by influential clerics in the establishment. Their rhetoric against the system's "irregularities" has brought into the streets not only the Iranian youth, but also the revolutionary children of 1979. First-generation and second-generation recruits.
Even though the hardliners have the military capability to suppress the demonstrations, the reformists have built a loyal following. Once again, members of the old Revolutionary Guards are using people as human shields for their own political agenda and protection.
Refusing to be cornered by Khameini and his reelected watchdog, Mousavi and Rafsanjani are giving "old school" a new meaning by taking the Iranian people back 30 years, to when they wanted to be freed from the "dictator." Luckily for Mousavi and Rafsanjani, a significant portion of the population hate Ahmadinejad even more.
The "reformists" have been waiting for this moment since Ali Khameini transformed the parliament into a 70-percent conservative majority in 2004. Rafsanjani and Khatami remained silent while Mousavi was getting in touch with his artistic side.
Khameini and Ahmadinejad might win this battle, as the "reformists" are fully aware, but some members of the parliament who bear witness to their colleagues' arrests and disappearances might not wait around to be the regime's victims. Khatami, Mousavi and Rafsanjani have remained dormant over the years and finally decided to "protect the people's votes" - after Rafsanjani was forced to resign, Khatami's brother was arrested, and Mousavi at one point was nowhere to be found.
This trio is riding the wave as long as they can, and will do or say anything to keep up the hype among supporters.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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It's only just starting; if the protesters back down the prisons will fill.
International human rights organizations said Wednesday that many prominent activists and politicians had been arrested in Iran in response to protests over the country's disputed presidential election.
Hadi Ghaemi, director of the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights, said he had spoken with family members and colleagues of people who have been arrested or disappeared and was told that there were at least 200 across the country.
The Associated Press could not independently confirm the rights groups' reports due to government restrictions on reporting inside the country. The Iranian government has said that it has arrested a relatively small number of people responsible for violence and other crimes.
They won't be talking about it in coming days, either ...
Ghaemi said one of the latest to be arrested was Ebrahim Yazdi, who was foreign minister after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1979 revolution and is now leader of the banned but tolerated Freedom Movement of Iran. Ghaemi said Yazdi was arrested in the intensive care unit of Pars Hospital in Teheran.
Yazdi's son-in-law, Mehdi Noorbaksh, who lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, confirmed that his 78-year-old father-in-law was detained while undergoing treatment at the hospital. Noorbaksh told The Associated Press that Yazdi was arrested around 3 p.m. Wednesday and taken to Evin Prison, just outside the Iranian capital.
Iranian analyst Saeed Leilaz was arrested Wednesday by plainclothes security officers at his home, said his wife, Sepehrnaz Panahi. Ghaemi also said that Mohammad-Reza Jalaipour, another noted Iranian analyst, was detained.
The BBC's Farsi-language news site said Jalaipour is a student at Oxford and was arrested at the airport upon trying to leave Iran with his wife, Fatemeh Shams. A plainclothes officer did not give a reason for the arrest, Shams told the BBC.
Moussavi supporter Hamid-Reza Jalaipour is the detained man's father and said he asked everyone he could what had happened to his son, in an interview with BBC's Farsi channel. "Is it a crime to support Mousavi? That's my only question now," Jalaipour told BBC. "Man, they have fallen to attacking people's wives and children."
Amnesty International said that 17 political activists were detained and taken to "unspecified locations" Monday night after they staged a peaceful protest in a square in Tabriz, north-western Iran. Amnesty said Ghaffari Farzadi, a leading member of the Iran Freedom Movement and a lecturer at Tabriz University, was also arrested, according to witnesses they spoke to at the university.
Amnesty said a crackdown on about 3,000 protesters in the north-western city of Oroumiye led to the deaths of two people and the detention of hundreds. In the southern city of Shiraz, tear gas was used in a university library where security forces beat students and detained about 100 people, the group said. And in the northern town of Babol, armed paramilitaries and plain-clothed officials surrounded Babol University and targeted students in dormitories, witnesses told Amnesty.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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The Iranian Intelligence Ministry on Thursday claimed to have foiled an Israeli-linked terror plot to plant bombs in mosques and other crowded places in Teheran during last week's presidential election. State broadcaster IRIB quoted a ministry statement as saying several terrorist groups had been discovered, adding they were "in contact with Iran's foreign enemies, including the Zionist entity."
They don't even bother being subtle, do they ...
"Members of one of the uncovered networks were planning to plant bombs on election day at various crowded Teheran spots, including dozens of polling booths the Ershad and Al-Nabi mosques," the statement continued.
State television said there was also a plot to plant bombs in 20 polling stations in Teheran.
The television channel showed four of the suspects whose faces had been blurred by broadcasters.
One said that Americans in Iraq had asked them for information about the situation in Iran and had taught them how to make bombs.
Nope, not subtle at all, it's all the fault of the Juice and the Crusaders ...
Iranian reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi was given an ultimatum by the Islamic Republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a call to support the reelected regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the London Times reported Friday morning.
Khamenei made it clear to Mousavi that if he failed to report to Friday prayers at Teheran University, during which he planned to deliver a sermon calling for national unity, the oppostion leader would be exiled. According the report, Khamenei made the demand while meeting with the representatives of candidates of the national elections that Mousavi had claimed were rigged.
Exiled where? Britain? Pakistain? Or a six-foot plot in a remote desert in Sistan-va-Balochistan?
Amnesty International on Friday condemned Iran's threat of crackdown on reformist protesters. In a statement on Friday, the London-based human rights organization said Khamenei's speech "indicates the authorities' readiness to launch violent crackdowns if people continue to protest which may cause a widespread loss of life."
"We are extremely disturbed at statements made by Ayatollah Khamenei which seem to give the green light to security forces to violently handle protesters exercising their right to demonstrate and express their views," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East program. "If large numbers of people take to the street in protests in the next couple of days, we fear that they will face arbitrary arrest and excessive use of force, as has happened in recent days, particularly as permission for a demonstration to be held in Teheran on Saturday has been denied."
Amnesty said that instead of warning security forces, including the volunteer Basij militia, to act with restraint and in accordance with the law, Khamenei threatened the Iranian people by saying that if they continued to take to the streets, the consequences would lie with them.
"For a Head of State to put the onus of security on peaceful demonstrators and not on the security forces is a gross dereliction of duty and a license for abuse," Sahraoui added.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
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"If large numbers of people take to the street in protests in the next couple of days, we fear that they will face arbitrary arrest and excessive use of force, as has happened in recent days, particularly as permission for a demonstration to be held in Teheran on Saturday has been denied."
The 'real' message.... break local laws and our prediction is you'll suffer the consequences. There, we told ya so.
EU and US leaders on Friday condemned Iran's threat of crackdown on reformist protesters.
US President Barack Obama said he was very concerned by the "tenor and tone" of comment's by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a television interview taped Friday with CBS News' Harry Smith, Obama said that Iran's government should "recognize that the world is watching." He said that "how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard" will signal "what Iran is and is not."
That's just plain dumb: the Mad Mullahs have spent the last thirty years making it perfectly clear what the Islamic Republic is and is not. There is no doubt at all in that regard. Obama is talking like a man who would prefer to deal with Short Round than with the people of Iran.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he hoped Iran's leaders "don't do anything irreversible" that could further endanger the country's stability. "We support the Iranian people, and today the Iranian people are on the street," he said.
Better. That's unequivocal.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's speech "was rather disappointing," and she reiterated international calls for an official investigation into allegations of vote rigging.
And that's mush. It's not 'disappointing', it's flat-out unacceptable.
The 27 EU leaders were unanimous in condemning violence against Iran's opposition protesters, as hundreds of thousands there have rallied in recent days for a recount of presidential ballots.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted 405-1 to condemn Iran's crackdown on demonstrators and the government's interference with Internet and cell phone communications. The policy statement expresses support for "all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties and rule of law" and affirms "the importance of democratic and fair elections."
It also condemns "the ongoing violence" by the government and pro-government militias against demonstrators, as well as government "suppression of independent electronic communications through interference with the Internet and cell phones."
Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-sponsor of the resolution, said "it is not for us to decide who should run Iran, much less determine the real winner of the June 12 election.
"But we must reaffirm our strong belief that the Iranian people have a fundamental right to express their views about the future of their country freely and without intimidation," added Berman, a Democrat.
The resolution was initiated by Republicans as a veiled criticism of Obama, who has been reluctant to speak out against Teheran's handling of disputed elections that left hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power. Rep. Mike Pence, who co-sponsored the resolution, said he disagrees with the administration that it must not meddle in Iran's affairs. "When Ronald Reagan went before the Brandenburg Gate, he did not say "Mr. (Mikhail) Gorbachev, that wall is none of our business," said Pence, a Republican, of President Reagan's famous exhortation to the Soviet leader to "tear down that wall."
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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From the larger J-Post article, broken out separately.
Iranian President Mahmoud 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 Teheran 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.
"I was only addressing those who rioted, set fires and attack people. I said they are nothing," Ahmadinejad said in a previously taped video shown Thursday on state TV. "Every single Iranian is valuable. Government is a service to all."
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2009 00:00 ||
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One interesting fact of government is that a government is not a country, and if the people refuse to obey the government, it quickly runs out of steam.
From the larger J-Post article, broken out separately.
Speaking on Sky News, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he wants to have a good relationship with Iran in the future.
Good grief ...
"But that depends on Iran being able to show to the world that its elections have been conducted fairly and that there is no unfair suppression of rights and individuals in that country," Brown said.
... elections conducted fairly? Is he serious? The 'elections' were a complete fraud. Millions of Iranians know that, Gordo, why don't you?
Iran's supreme leader said Friday that the country's disputed presidential vote had not been rigged, sternly warning protesters of a crackdown if they continue massive demonstrations demanding a new election. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sided with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and offered no concessions to the opposition. He effectively closed any chance for a new vote by calling the June 12 election an "absolute victory."
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.
If they drop their demands and go home, they'll be hunted down by the Basiji and the secret police.
They'll be dragged from their homes in the dead of night and taken to detention facilities. They'll either be put on ice for a long, long time or they'll just be murdered. That is the choice: do you go home and wait to be arrested, or do you go down fighting?
Pro-Mousavi Web sites had no immediate reaction to Khamenei's warning and no announcement of any changes in a protest planned for 4 p.m. Saturday.
Khamenei 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.
"Some of our enemies in different parts of the world intended to depict this absolute victory, this definitive victory, as a doubtful victory," he said. "It is your victory. They cannot manipulate it."
Well, it's your victory ...
In one part of his speech, Khamenei slammed "Zionist radio," referring to the Israel Broadcast Authority's Persian language station, for "planting doubts" in the hearts of Iranians.
Later, when Khamenei said the United Kingdom's government was the "most treacherous" and described it as "evil," the crowd responded with chants of "Death to the UK, Israel and America."
The usual crowd, bussed in from the usual places ...
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?"
Ahmadinejad watched the sermon from the front row. The Times reported earlier that Khamenei instructed Mousavi to stand next him when he makes his speech or face deportation from Iran; it was not clear whether the report was accurate, but Mousavi was not to be seen during Khamenei's address.
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. ... If they don't, they will be held responsible for the chaos and the consequences."
Khamenei said Iran would not see a second revolution like those that transformed the countries of the former Soviet Union.
I'm pretty sure he's studied those carefully. The Rose Revolution. The Orange Revolution. The Cedar Revolution. The 1989 and 1991 revolutions. He's not stupid and both he and Short Round began planning four years ago to keep this from happening.
He 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.
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.
Which of course won't matter ...
He stressed that the four candidates were part of the country's Islamic system and reminded listeners that Mousavi was prime minister of Iran when Khamenei was president in the 1980s. "All of them belong to the system. It was a competition within the ruling system," he said.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
"I won."
Posted by: ed ||
06/20/2009 0:42 Comments ||
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#2
"Some of our enemies in different parts of the world intended to depict this absolute victory, this definitive victory, as a doubtful victory," he said. "It is your victory. They cannot manipulate it."
ACORN has spoken! The so called "Tea Parties" will serve no useful purpose. We have infiltrated your ranks. If you try to assemble peacefully, our infiltrators will initiate violence firing off rounds of bullet, molotov bombs, etc, and we will then kill you. Are there any questions?
#3
Well, it was fun for a while. I feel for those who were brave enough to speak up and are now "detained". I feel for their families. They have made a great sacrifice. But at least the man behind the curtain has been revealed. He's not a holy man. He's just another lying, murdering, power mad dictator and now everybody knows it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/20/2009 13:57 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Even as Ayatollah Khamenei blasted the United States for fomenting unrest in a defiant Friday prayer address in Tehran, President Obama has kept silent, focusing instead on domestic policy.
Iran's supreme leader said Friday that the country's disputed presidential vote had not been rigged, sternly warning protesters of a crackdown if they continue massive demonstrations demanding a new election. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sided with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and offered no concessions to the opposition. He effectively closed any chance for a new vote by calling the June 12 election an "absolute victory."
