NO SOUNDS OF SILENCE, PLEASE

Spirit of Defiance I: "You think you're tough?"

A

s the Michael Jackson eulogies look set to completely dominate the news cycle for the next few weeks at least, the Iranian revolution's soundtrack could now become the Sounds of Silence.

If that happens, it won't be Jackson's fault. Celebrity still trumps everything else in the pop media, and the loss of the critically important world attention for the Iranian freedom seekers will be on the heads of moronic Western media mavens. And silly politicians like Jesse Jackson Jr., who led a Congressional silence for Michael yesterday. What about all the Nedas in Iran, where's their moment of silence and tribute for dying too young?

As one of the most senior Ayatollahs preached about executing protest leaders during Friday prayers yesterday, and other Iranian officials variously claim that either the CIA or the demonstrators themselves killed Neda Agha Soltan, continuing international attention to the situation is essential to freedom's cause.

One Iranian YouTuber (outside Iran) decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I just couldn't resist this one. [those viewing on tiny laptops may need to scroll down past the sidebar to see the video.]



If you're in the mood for another — "Invincible".

Spirit of Defiance II: Dictator fingered to his face.

I've heard via a reliable source that Neda's father has been forced to appear on national television saying that the protesters killed her, and not the regime's Basiji thugs. Disgusting. First they force the grieving family out of their home, and now this.

The two photos on this page come via Atlas Shrugs, where Pamela is doing some fantastic coverage. Click on either image to see the large scale versions in her latest article, or go here for all her Iran revolution posts.

It's getting more difficult each day for Iranians to communicate with the outside. The most crucial technology which is helping them to stay connected is TOR. A very good piece by Eli Lake in Washington Times explains how it's done, and offers this interesting background information (I hadn't known that TOR was originally a US military invention):

Designed a decade ago to secure Internet communications between U.S. ships at sea, The Onion Router, or TOR, has become one of the most important proxies in Iran for gaining access to Web sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

The system of proxy servers that disguise a user's Internet traffic is now operated by a nonprofit, the Tor Project, that is independent from the U.S. government and military and is used all over the world.

Invented by the US military and handed over to civil society to use for human liberty. That's the spirit!
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Labels: Iran

- posted by Agam @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

 
THE TYRANT SYNDROME **updated**

I

t's an evident truism that governments which are operated under the framework of immoral tyranny tend to act alike. Brook no dissent, counter it with brutality, lie about everything — that sort of thing.

The photo shown here was taken on July 19, 2005 in Mashad, Iran. It shows Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 14 and 16 at the time of their "offences" (homosexuality), preparing for Islamic Revolutionary justice. Dinnerjacket's statement was made a couple of years later, in an address at Columbia University. I've written about this previously.

Over the past week and a half, I've been amazed at the familiarity of some of the measures taken by Iran's security forces. Seizing dead bodies and live injured out of hospitals to be carted off to unknown destinations. Refusing to hand over remains to families and disposing of the bodies in secret burials. Ramping up expeditious special courts to deal with the hundreds (or thousands?) of detained dissidents. Persecuting the relatives of those killed, injured or arrested.

They are charging the families for the cost (highly inflated) of the bullet used to kill their loved ones. Detainees are paraded in public, and some are coerced to issue ludicrous public confessions blaming outsiders. The regime launches pathetic, unhinged accusations against foreign scapegoats.

Is any of this sounding creepily familiar? Just change "secret burials" to "secret cremations" and you'll get it.

I've spent most of the past year and a half focusing mainly on the Tibetans' struggle with Communist Chinese rule, and these are all very, very familiar. (If I've left some out, additions are welcome in comments.) At least the CCP doesn't execute teenagers just for being gay, so that's something.

Special courts will "teach protesters a lesson," and a few who "learned" their lesson early have been appearing on state-run television with their "confessions":

"I think we were provoked by networks like the BBC and the VOA (Voice of America) to take such immoral actions," one young man said. His face was shown but his name not given.

A woman whose face was pixilated said she had carried a "war grenade" in her hand-bag. "I was influenced by VOA Persian and the BBC because they were saying that security forces were behind most of the clashes.

"I saw that it was us protesting ... who were making riots. We set on fire public property, we threw stones ... we attacked people's cars and we broke windows of people's houses."

Neda Agha Soltan was perhaps the first named martyr of this freedom struggle and became its icon, but there are untold numbers of Nedas across Iran. Kaveh Alipour, 19, was one of them. He was returning home from a class on Saturday, and was to be married in a week.

At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.

Mr. Alipour didn't have that kind of money, for those highly expensive bullets. He was eventually able to take his son's body on condition it was immediately taken out of Tehran for burial. Other families don't know where their loved ones are buried.

The authorities have persecuted the family of Neda Agha Soltan right out of their home, after forbidding them from conducting normal grieving rituals. Regime media have also accused the expelled BBC journalist, John Leyne, of having paid for her assassination in order to make a documentary film.

Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

"We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat," a neighbour said.

The family's former neighbours continue to live in fear.

Remember the doctor who struggled alongside Neda's music teacher on Saturday, trying so very hard to save her life? His friend, author Paulo Coelho, has just published their email correspondence beginning the day after Neda's death. After getting his wife and son out of the country, the doctor fled to London on Wednesday. In which other countries must a doctor fear for his and his family's safety because he tried to save a life?

*UPDATE*: (26/06/09: 1100) Dr. Arash Hejazi gives an interview to the BBC, in which he explains why he is going public about Neda's death despite the jeopardy it places him in. "Because of the innocent look in her eyes" when she died, he says. He also describes that the crowd actually nabbed the shooter, a Basij member, who cried to them that, "I didn't want to kill her." His identity cards were taken from him, bystanders took his photograph, and he was released. The interview is 19 minutes (video at the link), a riveting conversation with this very fine man. [end of update]

Some former apologists of the regime have been mugged by reality. It's the NYTimes' Roger Cohen vs. the NYTimes' Roger Cohen — separated by less than four months. Remarkable. Faster please!

The previously planned July Fourth parties with diplomatic agents of the murderous thugocracy will have to go ahead without their presence, which one would have thought would be as unwelcome as fire ants at the picnics. After almost two weeks of this — the evident election fraud, a massive and peaceful popular uprising, and the hellishly barbaric crackdown — they've finally been disinvited by the White House. Weanie diplomacy is taken off the grill, and somebody else will have to bring the potato salad.

[In case anyone using RSS or other website feeds of this site hasn't noticed (and these feeds often don't pick up on article changes), the previous couple of posts have been updated since they were published. Last night's was updated three times. Please have a look.]
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Labels: Iran

- posted by Agam @ 6:37 PM 1 comments

 
THAT OLD TAM FEELING **updated x3**

A

nd that stands for Tian An Men. But you knew that.

Image: Wasserman / Boston Globe

Iranians had been further threatened with violence today, and it looks like the Ayatollah delivered on it. The free elections movement attempted to gather at Baharestan Square, near the parliament, in late afternoon. Khamenei's forces were out in force.

Citizen journalist persiankiwi was in the square, and I take the liberty of taking his series of tweets out of crimped-speak.

Just in from Baherestan Square, the situation today is terrible. They beat the people like animals. I've seen many people with broken arms, legs or head. Blood is everywhere, and pepper gas. It's like war.

They were waiting for us, they all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap, people being shot like animals. I saw 7 or 8 militia beating one woman with a baton on the ground. She had no defense, nothing. I'm sure that she is dead.

So many people are arrested, young and old. They take people away, we lose our group. People run into alleys, and militia are standing there waiting. From two sides they attack people in the middle of the alleys.

All the shops were closed. Nowhere to go, they follow people with helicopters. Smoke and fire is everywhere.

An Iranian student, who had been twittering under his own name before things began heating up, stopped broadcasting on Saturday afternoon. His latest entry.

I'm going to sleep a little before joining with the others, please pray for all people of Iran & wish us peace & freedom

5:55 PM Jun 20th from web

More from persiankiwi just now as I'm about to post this. I'll give them to you raw (hover your mouse over the icon here for current):

rumour they are tracking high use of phone lines to find internet users - must move from here now - #Iranelection34 minutes ago from web

reports of street fighting in Vanak Sq, Tajrish sq, Azadi Sq - now - #Iranelection - Sea of Green - Allah Akbar29 minutes ago from web

in Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher - Allah Akbar - #Iranelection RT RT RT27 minutes ago from web

they catch ppl with mobile - so many killed today - so many injured - Allah Akbar - they take one of us - #Iranelection25 minutes ago from web

Lalezar Sq is same as Baharestan - unbelevable - ppls murdered everywhere - #Iranelection24 minutes ago from web

they pull away the dead into trucks - like factory - no human can do this - we beg Allah for save us - #Iranelection20 minutes ago from web

Everybody is under arrest & cant move - Mousavi - Karroubi even rumour Khatami is in house guard - #Iranelection -15 minutes ago from web

we must go - dont know when we can get internet - they take 1 of us, they will torture and get names - now we must move fast - #Iranelection9 minutes ago from web

thank you ppls 4 supporting Sea of Green - pls remember always our martyrs - Allah Akbar - Allah Akbar - Allah Akbar #Iranelection6 minutes ago from web

*UPDATE*: (23:30)



*UPDATE-2*: (01:40) CNN is playing around with the videos — when I posted that at 11:30 pm, it was four minutes long. They cut off the most gripping descriptions of the carnage and her heart-rending pleas for help, right after she tells of the large mob emerging from a mosque to beat people. They trimmed it down to the first minute.

I'll leave it up there in case the following YouTube version doesn't stay up. This is the full segment. It's in a wide format and I can't make it any smaller, so if your browser window is too narrow and it doesn't appear directly below, scroll down past the end of the sidebar to see it:



*UPDATE-3*: (25/06/09: 15:30) I'm feeling really annoyed that CNN has apparently deep-sixed most of this interview. The one-minute family-friendly version replaced the four-minute original, as near as I can tell, within two hours of its first airing. Only the truncated interview has been broadcast today, at least on CNN International.

I know that some people can't view embedded videos, so for the non-clickers here is a transcript, partly done by The Lede Blog and finished by me.

I was going towards Baharestan with my friends…. This was everyone, not just supporters of one candidate or another, everyone — all of my friends, we were going to Baharestan to express our opposition to these killings these days, and demanding freedom. But the black-clad police stopped everyone at Saadi. They emptied the buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on…. We went on until Ferdowsi then, all of a sudden, some 500 people with clubs and woods, they came out of [Hedayat] mosque and they poured into the streets and they started beating everyone.

[This is where CNN has trimmed off the rest of the interview, both from their online video offering and in its broadcasts.]

And they tried to beat everyone on Saadi bridge and throwing them off of the bridge…. And everyone also on the sidewalks. They beat a woman so savagely that she was drenched in blood and her husband, who was watching the scene, he just fainted. And I also saw people shooting, I mean the security forces shooting on people, on Lalezar. And of course people were afraid… the security forces …

They were beating people like — hell. This was a massacre. They were trying to beat people so that they would die. They were cursing — saying very bad words to everyone. They were beating old men. And this was — this was exactly a massacre. You should stop this. You should stop this. You should help the people of Iran who demand freedom. You should help us. …

[Here ends The Lede's transcript, the rest is added by yours truly.]

[nearly speechless interviewer: "How many of you were there in this terrible situation?"]

There were thousands of people on the streets, but it was me and ten of my friends.

[interviewer: "And you said the security forces were shooting at the people? Did you see anybody injured by gunfire?"]

No, as I explained earlier I didn't see, I heard the shooting and my friends and I we just scattered. We heard the shooting near Lalezar and we were near there, and we just ran away. I didn't see again what happened, I'm sure people are dead there but I couldn't see, I couldn't catch the film or anything.

[interviewer relates to her some other received reports of shooting and beating the people "like animals"]

Yes exactly, exactly, exactly. This is what's happening, they beat people so bad. You know in the previous days they are killing students with axe. You know they put the axe through the hearts of young men and it's so... devastating, I don't know how to describe it I can't find the words, but this is horrific. This is genocide, this is a massacre, this is Hitler! And you people should stop it! It's a long time we have been exposed to this and nobody takes action! It's time to act!

If anyone is thinking, "Yeah, that axe thing is just a rumour," brace yourself. ThreatsWatch.Org has posted a photograph taken on Saturday, June 20 (the same day Neda Agha Soltan was murdered). Don't click through until you have prepared yourself to witness gruesome barbarity. If you're in doubt of your ability to handle it, don't. You can't unsee something like that.
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Labels: Iran

- posted by Agam @ 10:36 PM 0 comments

 
WHO'S TWEETERING NOW? **updated**

I

ranian tough-guy Prez Mahmoud has been in a rough mood these days but he's now coming out of his shell to throw down the gauntlet, in a challenge to those who object to shooting lovely and dignified women in the heart on the street.

Take it away President Ahmatwitterjad:



Seriously....

Iran's digital tracking capabilities against online citizens is far more extensive than previously known, far outstripping the snooping capacity of even China's net police, and also aided by western technology companies.

Her passion was travel, and she hoped someday to be a guide for Iranian tour groups to other countries. She had saved up and made trips to Turkey, Dubai and Thailand. She also loved and studied music. Her friend told her not to go out, that it was too dangerous. "Don't worry," she said. "It's just one bullet and it's over." Family and friends remember Neda.

Professor Fouad Ajami on Obama's Persian Tutorial. Please let him be a quick learner. Joe warned us about this, but no one listens to Joe (not the plumber, the other one).

This Friday a new film starring the magnificent Shoreh Aghdashloo ("The House of Sand and Fog") opens in North America. Be there or be square, wider release will follow. Take all your friends. The Stoning of Soraya M.

Hotdogs! Mustard! Diplomatic Action! July Fourth partying with the official agents of Neda's killers will proceed as planned. You guys bring the potato salad, ok? AFP: US says hot dog diplomacy still on with Iran.

The President needs to add a new word* to his vocabulary, and to pair it with another word he uses too much. The latter word is "I", the former is "condemn". Try it out, man. It's not that hard. Beating and shooting people who hunger for freedom is no clerical error. Nothing could be more deserving of clear condemnation, whether in Tibet, Burma, China, Iran, or formerly in South Africa, Poland, Hungary... the list is long. The leader of the free world position has always carried with it certain responsibilities.

*UPDATE* (00:30): Gecko gets results! (Actually, Trita Parsi made the same request earlier in the day.) "I strongly condemn these unjust actions," Obama said in a news conference at the White House.

Addendum:

"She died full of love," Golshad said.

From the above LAT story on Neda's family and friends. Golshad is not her real name.

The grey haired gentleman with Neda was not her father but her music teacher, Hamid Panahi. Her family was forbidden to eulogize her, but Mr. Panahi defies them saying he has nothing to lose.

"They know me," he said. "They know where I am. They can come and get me whenever they want. My time has gone. We have to think about the young people."

Neda, he said, was smart and loving. She had a mischievous streak, gently teasing her friends and causing them to laugh. She was passionate about life and meant no one any harm.

In the election unrest, friends found in her an unexpected daring, a willingness to take risks for her beliefs.

"She couldn't stand the injustice of it all," Panahi said. "All she wanted was the proper vote of the people to be counted.

"For pursuing her goals, she didn't use rocks or clubs," he said. "She wanted to show with her presence that 'I'm here. I also voted. And my vote wasn't counted.' It was a very peaceful act of protest, without any violence."

As to the person or persons responsible for her death, they will not be forgiven, he said.

"When they kill an innocent child, this is not justice. This is not religion. In no way is this acceptable," he said. "And I'm certain that the one who shot her will not get a pass from God."

Labels: Iran

- posted by Agam @ 6:43 PM 2 comments

 
LIONESS DOWN, SPIRIT SOARS

Neda Agha Soltan, a 27 year old philosophy student, died by the hand of the Islamic Republic's Basij militia on Saturday. Photo: "A Voice for Neda"

H

er name is Neda. Her name will always be Neda. When she fell and left it behind her, it was raised by hundreds, then thousands, now millions. Not was — her name is Neda.

Neda Agha Soltan was a 27 year old student of philosophy in Tehran. The bare outline of her story can only be provisionally pieced together from the unconfirmed snippets of discussion trickling out of Iran by her compatriots in freedom's cause. Perhaps one day soon, when journalism is no longer illegal in that country, her full story will be told.

It is said that she was standing on the sidelines of Saturday's forbidden protest, watching beside her father teacher. A wobbly cell-phone video shows the two of them together among the crowd. He is the grey-haired man in a blue striped shirt, she wears black.

If the gentle reader has not yet seen what happened to Neda (some news outlets are showing it), and is willing to have his or her heart broken yet again, then click the button while observing my strong content warning. Neda was alive at the beginning of this scene, but not at the end.

The original upload carried the following description:

At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.

The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.

The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.

Please let the world know.

I've gathered from reading many Iranians (who have become like autonomous solo broadcasters) these past days that her name, Neda, means "Calling" or "Voice". The man believed to be her father is calling to her as she dies, which has been translated as:

"Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. [obscured by others yelling] Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"

Courageous women have been the backbone of these demonstrations, according to many witnesses. I listened to an Iranian professor this morning talk about the phenomenon, which is not new. "Shirzan" is the Persian word he used for them, which he said Iranians will commonly use to describe such women without fear. It means "lioness" or "lion-woman," he said. Women have been estimated to comprise around 40% of the freedom protesters during the past 10 days.

No one knew whether the planned Saturday protest would go ahead or not, following the unveiled threat delivered by Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei on Friday. Everyone who considered going out of their house on Saturday knew that they could be risking their life. Mr. Moussavi had promised a statement in the afternoon, but it never came (his website has come under attack as well). Yet less than an hour after the planned meeting time of 4 pm, everyone who was following any of the many autonomous solo broadcasters (twitterers with a reliable reputation), knew that Tehran's people were in the streets again and were being foiled by huge numbers of riot police and Basijis already occupying their meeting places in the public squares. International media continued for hours saying the streets were quiet, while heads were already being cracked. CNN's not the "first name in news" anymore, and if they keep getting "Khomeni" and "Khamenei" mixed up and refering to demonstrators as "rioters" for defending themselves, they'll be the last name in news before long.

While earnest news anchors were saying that no one had seen Mr. Moussavi on Saturday, those who followed the solo tweet-casters already knew that he had spoken to the demonstrators in Jeyhoon Street. Before long, his words were translated, posted and linked by the Iranian tweeters.

By late night in Tehran the truth was evident to all, finally including international media. A vicious crackdown was underway, an unknown number of the freedom movement had been killed, and protests were continuing in most (if not all) Iran's major cities. Tweets from eyewitnesses circled the earth in seconds, thousands of citizen videos were uploaded to sharing sites, there are no secrets any more — at least, nothing this big can be kept secret when technology and an adept people are present.

I'm in a time zone two and a half hours ahead of Tehran. At around 2 am on Sunday morning here, the screen of the AP satellite feed showed a caption warning agencies to be ready. (paraphrasing) "Standby. White House statement 3:10 pm. Standby." The time corresponded to 02:10 am Bangkok time, in other words, imminent. It was just before midnight in Tehran, and we all knew what had happened during the afternoon and evening there. The White House was finally ready to take a stronger moral stand after these latest brutal killings, I thought. It could have come days earlier, after Basijis had raided Tehran University, beating and killing a number of students in their dorms. Or, a day or two before that when Basijis shot up a crowd around one of their bases, killing at least seven. But better late than never. I waited.

Nothing came across the AP feed after an hour, then after two hours of staying awake refreshing some pages of those solo broadcasters, I crashed out around dawn. Sunday afternoon, I learned what the "Standby" was all about.

Can't a man enjoy his waffle(cone)?

The White House statement was that the President had taken his daughters out for a Father's Day ice cream. Seriously! And that's not all. Bo got frozen Puppy Pops to go. (The photo is from an earlier ice cream excursion, I can't find any pictures from Saturday's fun.) Take a look at Patterico's juxtaposition of contemporaneous tweets out of Iran and Washington. Hey, did you know that real journalists use Twitter too? It's true! But only click on that one if you don't mind your heart being broken yet again.

Earlier, President Obama had said something which seemed stronger than the previous "concern" and "bearing witness."

"I'm very concerned based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made that the government of Iran recognise that the world is watching," Obama said on US television on Friday.

"And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and is not."

Well, it nudged the concern and witness ideas ahead a little bit (if ya squint!). A later written statement added the mourning of innocent life lost to the bearing of witness and concern. The toughest line was, "We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people."

Those brave 21st century Iranians need to hear that the free peoples of the world are with them. The placards, chants and comments of the demonstrators have often asked specifically for this, and it would mean a lot for them to hear it unambiguously from the leader of the free world. Whether he makes a strong, principled statement on the urgent need for liberty and the dignity of Iran's freedom-seeking people, or sticks with the current weak expressions of concern, makes no difference to the ruling hardliners in that country. They are blaming Britain, France, USA and all western countries for fomenting the rebellion in any case. To hell with them — speak directly to those millions of Iranians who are demanding their fundamental rights. They are the only ones who count, and the only ones listening anyway.

So far, the Prophet of Cairo seems to be all Barack and no bite. His original "on the one hand, but on the other hand" stance (that dealing with Ahmedinejad or Moussavi makes no difference to him, that they are about the same) certainly did offend many of those risking life and limb for liberty, and they should expect clearer messages from a US president. For better or worse, those who want to live in a free(r) country have gathered together with Mr. Moussavi, demanding the fair election they have yet to receive. That alone means that the two are not the same.

A Life Magazine photojournalist disappeared on Saturday in Tehran. You can view his gallery here, with the following notification:

A NOTE TO OUR READERS: We are saddened to report that the Iranian photojournalist, whose pictures appear in this gallery, is missing. He has not been in contact with us; this morning we received the following email from one of his relatives. We will update this space when we have more details.

THE EMAIL: Hi im [photographer’s relative], when he go outside yesterday for he never came back home and also his friend and a lot of our young brave people, government arrested them [. . .] don’t let them suffer in those bloody hands. With thanks.

Here's a sample of some of the proven reliable Twitter feeds. Most are in Tehran. The last two are hashtag searches (categories). #Neda sprang up on Saturday night. #IranElection is very high volume (beware of rumours and regime dis-information there).

Raymond Jahan (StopAhmadi)
Iranian Student (Change_for_Iran)
Alireza Sedaghat (IranElection09)
TehranBureau.com (TehranBureau)
madyar (madyar)
Iran (IranRiggedElect)
oxfordgirl (oxfordgirl)
persiankiwi (persiankiwi)
#Neda
#IranElection

If you need to get caught up on the important developments over the weekend, there's no better place at the moment than Hot Air. AllahPundit is keeping on top of things very well, and these were continually updated on Saturday and Sunday. Also very good is NYT's The Lede Blog. The blog of the National Iranian American Council is worth keeping an eye on, for nuggets like this — which stuck in my mind last week (and I had a hard time finding it again). Posted on June 17:

9:47 am: In response to Ahmadinejad calling Mousavi supporters “brushwood and thorns” at the victory rally Monday, Iran’s most famous classical musician has ordered that Iranian government television/radio never play his music again. Mohammad Reza Shajarian told BBC Persian in an interview:

“Don’t broadcast my voice on Seda va Sima [IRIB Music channel] ever again: my voice is like brushwood and thorns, and it will forever remain brushwood and thorns!”

Labels: Iran

- posted by Agam @ 6:41 PM 0 comments

 
AHMADINEJAD GETS HIS ANSWER

A Moussavi supporter aids a policeman in Tehran, June 13, 2009. Photo: Twitter via #newiran #iranelection

Y

esterday, Ahmedinejad called his supporters into the street to celebrate his election "win". He gathered a considerably larger mass than the crowds protesting the apparently rigged election over the previous two days. Of course there was no risk for A'jad's supporters, since all his government apparatus would be encouraging his people to come out and celebrate.

Those opposition gatherings, spontaneously erupting all over the country, have been facing the truncheons of the Basij thugs and riot police (as well as Venezuelan and Hezb'Allah reinforcements, according to reports). Comparable turnouts should not be expected for both sides.

And yet, this is what happened late this afternoon in Tehran. Mir Moussavi shows up to address a massive crowd of people who don't accept the election result. A phenomenal showing for a peaceful protest that, last I heard, was denied legal permission by the authorities.

Here is Mr. Ahmedinejad's answer. Look carefully at the size of the crowd shown toward the end of the clip (taken from satellite here in Bangkok about 10 pm, or 1500 GMT Monday).

Labels: Iran

- posted by Agam @ 10:56 PM 0 comments

 
FAMOUS BIGOT STEALS ELECTION

O

ne of the most famous racist hate-mongers in the world stole an election yesterday, if even a fraction of the reports from Iran are to be believed. Bigotry seems to be riding quite high lately. Or maybe it's all coincidence.

I recorded some video from satellite last night of the protests in Tehran, intending to put it up here, but that scene and many others have already been posted by freedom-seeking Iranians. These and the latest updates from the streets can be found at Tehran Bureau (and a new page for Sunday here). Lots more on the situation here.

Change For Iran is twittering the street protests, and this feed is updating too fast to even keep up with.

As I write this, more scenes from today are coming over AP. Massive crowds are overwhelming what appears to be pro-government thugs trying to disperse them by roaring motorcycles through the mass. It's not working. Thugs and police are getting the worst of it. Motorcycle bonfires at the end of it. Wow. Counter-revolution?
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Labels: Iran

- posted by Agam @ 1:57 AM 0 comments

 
RACISM CELEBRATED AT ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

S

o there's this international conference, see. It's a follow-up of the original Durban "anti-racism" conference eight years ago, which descended into fiasco and brought a singular shame upon the "United" Nations.

This time the keynote speaker is the man who convenes his own international "Zionism = Nazism" conferences, and repeatedly pledges that the country of which he is head of state will at some time in the future, "wipe Israel off the map." And will soon have the weapons to back up that threat.

What could go wrong?

At least someone was forward-thinking enough to send in the clowns. The soft red objects tossed on the stage by the rainbow-haired jokesters turned out to be rubber clown noses, but had your humble correspondent been present, ripe tomatoes would have been the soft red object of choice.

That Mr. Ah'minnajihad is a despicable person is a view not universally shared, but is hardly controversial. His continual threats against the oldest democracy in the Middle East are proof enough, but his government's treatment of dissenters, religious minorities, women and others should be additionally sufficient for any decent human being.

If any Iranian is found to be a homosexual, they can expect to be hung by the neck from a cherry-picker. If an Iranian woman is suspected of "adultery" (as it's very broadly defined there), she can expect to be stoned. Yet Ahmedinejad is loved by some leftists simply because he hates Jews as much as they do. Oh, and he's also loved by some residents of the Middle East who just wish they could go back and live in the 7th century again (read the first link above, written by an Australian student who was present for the fireworks in Geneva).

Whatever one thinks of the decisions of countries which chose not to boycott the racism conference (and I'm thankful that my country did), at least showing some spine at the last second is better than not at all. Seeing that mass walkout (I watched it live via AP sat feed) was the best thing I've seen on television for ages. And watching Mad-mood continue to speak while pretending it wasn't happening, was the second best.

I haven't seen a definitive list of the walk-out countries, but it was quite a big crowd of delegates who crammed the exit-ways. They weren't only European or western nations, but also among them are known to have been Morocco and Jordan. But may I ask why Mr. Ban Ki-moon didn't at least take a bathroom break? He looked extremely uncomfortable up there, directly behind the Iranian kook, continuously conferring with the officials seated on either side of him. Immediately following the speech, Mr. Ban deplored it. Wouldn't the time to do that have been while the racism was being spewed to an anti-racism conference?

The most sickening episode in this farce didn't come to my attention until last night. Remember: the Jew-hater spoke mere hours before Jews were to begin Holocaust Remembrance Day. It also occurred on Adolph Hitler's 120th birthday.

The world's most well-known Holocaust survivor was also present in Geneva, and as luck would have it, the survivor and the hater passed within a few feet of each other outside the conference room. Elie Wiesel, who I've loved ever since my high school teacher assigned Night many years ago, had to endure Dinner Jacket's henchmen screaming at him with epithets evoking the very people who had murdered his own family.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who was also part of the Wiesenthal Center's delegation to Geneva, said Wiesel did not respond to the verbal assault, but was deeply affected by it, as was obvious by the speech he delivered later on.

"I watched many of his speeches and I never heard him speak like this…he may be a Nobel Prize laureate, but he's still a Holocaust survivor, and coming to the UN on Holocaust Remembrance Day and going through this kind of experience was almost too much for him."

I'm extremely sad that this great man had to endure such abuse, not least for the venue in which it happened.

This is how it looked. Watch for Ahmedinejad himself appearing around the 26 second mark, with the keffiyeh around his neck.



The Iranian screamers, especially the main one in glasses and moustache, are well-remembered from the auditorium scenes during the kook's speech — they were the only 4 or 5 who picked up on his every applause line, clapping wildly and bouncing around in their chairs like excited four year-olds, while all around them were still and silent.

A big wai to AllahPundit for the video.

I ask every reader to please go and watch the short speech Elie Wiesel gave on the occasion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama receiving the United States Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush on October 17, 2007. You'll be glad you did.
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Labels: Iran, Israel, UN

- posted by Agam @ 5:30 PM 5 comments