Live-Blogging the Revolution

Wow. Rising up all over Iran (even in supposed Ahmadinejad strongholds). God or whoever bless them. On twitter follow @JShahryar, who has worked like a dog for #iranelection since before the election and whose early reports have borne out. Ultra reliable and lots of breaking videos. Here is his live blog.

The Revolution Continues

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/12/the-revolution-continues.html

On twitter,follow #iranelection for links to latest news stories.

Montazeri Dead

Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, champion of reform and the Green movement, has died at 87.

Where Is My Vote

Excellent website, and great resource. Here.

(I am living out of a suitcase at the moment, so not blogging much, but the right side links will keep you well-informed.)

Such a strange time it is, my dear!

Via @khoshkeledoc

In this dead-end (July 1979)
- Ahmad Shamlou

They smell your mouth
To find out if you have told someone:
I love you!
They smell your heart!

Such a strange time it is, my dear;

And they punish Love
At thoroughfares
By flogging.

We must hide our Love in dark closets.

In this crooked dead end of a bitter cold
They keep their fire alive
By burning our songs and poems;
Do not place your life in peril by your thoughts!

Such a strange time it is, my dear!

He who knocks on your door in the middle of the night,
His mission is to break your Lamp!
We must hide our Lights in dark closets!

Behold! butchers are on guard at thoroughfares
With their bloodstained cleavers and chopping-boards;

Such a strange time it is, my dear!

They cut off the smiles from lips,
and the songs from throats!

We must hide our Emotions in dark closets!

They barbecue canaries
On a fire of jasmines and lilacs!

Such a strange time it is, my dear!

Intoxicated by victory,
Satan is enjoying a feast at our mourning table!

We must hide our God in dark closets!

Amartya Sen on Democracy, the Left and America

"This reading that the plague that haunts the world today is American imperialism has a grain of truth in it, but that grain of truth is underneath a ton of other things. How can you emphasise that and forget everything else—forget the international threat of terrorism, of creeping fundamentalism across the world, not see the problems of dictatorial continuation, whether in Sudan or in our neighbourhood, Burma, or that democracy has not made much progress in recent years; not see our domestic problems like hunger and undernourishment, on which the Left is the natural party to protest loud and clear?"
- Amartya Sen

Cut the Rope

Stop the executions of children and others in Iran.

Bulla Ki Jaana

I never get tired of this song, Sufi lyrics, sung by Rabbi Shergill, a Sikh:

Roundup

Death sentence handed down to acvtivist for participation in protests. Look, the regime doesn't care how many Iranians they kill. They don't care about the people. They care about the oil and the power it gives them.


IRGC tightens its grip with Telecom move.

CBS: Cooperation rises between Iran and Taliban.

Dedicated to Housein Ali

Report: 16 year old executed for taking part in protests.

More protests/National Unity Plan

All over Iran, university students have been demonstrating against the regime.

EA on the National Unity Plan - will it all come down to the Larijani brothers and their Marjah connections?

World Votes: No to Ahmadinejad

Not too many delegates stuck around to hear Amadinejad's speech to the UN today:



CNN: "Walkout of this magnitude unprecedented." (via Sara)

Greenmail Update

Stand by Iran. Five easy ways to protest at your desk.

Iran Graffiti

The protest goes underground:

Last Roundup for a while

Due to the greatly increased atmosphere of the Iranian crisis and the cyber war right now, I am taking a hiatus from blogging to help some great people with some great protest ideas, offline. Hit the invaluable links to the right for up to the minute news, analyisis and commentary. Tehran Bureau, EA and GB are particularly reliable English language roundups and analyses from Farsi sources.

Green Mail/Next Global Day of Action

Ruin Ahmadinejad's trip to NYC to speak to the UN! Green Mail the UN here, and check here for updates on the next Global Day of Action, a week of action this time, starting September 22.

Khamenei Says No Proof Iran Protest Leaders Linked With U.S. More here on how Khamenei appears to be "putting some distance between himself and Ahmadinejad."

Iran's factional disputes grow increasingly bitter.

Iran in Turmoil: Understanding Political Divisions and Advocating Human Rights.

Ramadan Karim

Quite a few night-time protests have been reported around Iran yesterday. A good roundup of the videos can be found here.

Here is the English translation of Rafsanjani's speech along with a very good analysis. It doesn't sound to me like he is calling for the people to unite behind Khamenei but quite the opposite, that the leaders should follow the people to find unity. Rafsanani is such a wily old operator.

What is Rafsanjani up to?

The political machinations of the Iranian leadership are so far beyond my understanding now.

More here and here.

Persepolis II

Story of the 2009 Election. Here.

Friday Update

Another Ayatollah condemns the government, reports of secret burials of protesters in government cemetery, and protests last night to honor slain protesters. Here.

The Story of the Iran Election

No English subs yet, but the pics tell their own story.

Mousavi backs Karoubi/A Trial Postponed

Summary of Mousavi's letter in support of Karroubi here.

"I praise your courage and hope the other clerics join and strengthen your efforts," Mousavi's letter said.

"It is the main duty of revolutionary clergy to reflect the realities, but some have closed their eyes and ignored this responsibility," it added.

More from Earthnews:

“Those who have committed these crimes are agents of the regime….Does the rulership have no interest in knowing what these agents are doing to the people?….
Your letter on ugly treatments of prisoners have made the pro-government dailies nervous. This indicates that there might even be more horrible abuses of which we are not yet aware…. Do you [in the regime] also want four witnesses to wash off the sin from your hands?…It is expected from the Islamic clergy to fulfil their spiritual duty and only to be afraid of God and not of liars and rapists.

[VIA]

One of the most evil men in the world, Tehran chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, has postponed one trial because he has suddenly decided some defendants should be able to consult lawers and those lawyers should have a few days to prepare. Nobody buys it.

Yarom Bia by Kiosk & Mohsen Namjou

Tomorrow

Persian poetry in film (and in English) here.



Introduction to Iranian poetry here.

Monday Roundup

Via Mehdi. Join the Facebook group for his dad here.

The latest on maneuvers, protests, and Rafsanjani at the inauguration of the new Judiciary head here. (PressTV highlights Rafsanjani's speech and, remarkably, seems to be leaning towards the opposition these days.)

Mehdi Karroubi had called off today's protests at the Eternade Melli newspaper offices. But people came anyway.

Ayatollah Sanei blasts the regime.

Here, Persian Rap from Cyrus Mafia.

Sunday Roundup: A Puddle of Black Versus a Sea of Green

Is Ahmadinejad afraid to come to New York next month to speak to the United Nations? Same source provides this recent photo: Ahmadinejad not so popular at home either.



A puddle of black versus a Sea of Green.

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has 72 hours to get approval from Parliament of his choices for Cabinet ministers. Otherwise, under Iranian law, the way is [open] for dissolution of the Government and new elections."

Latest statement from Mousavi (which was reprinted in FULL on PressTV site:

“Our election campaign was conducted under the Constitution and the principles which the Iranian nation holds dear. We still remain committed to the same slogans.”

More here. Mir Hossein!

Same source reports more Russian rethinking of government's support of Ahmadinejad. Also, more moves against Khamenei by clerics and others and:

"An Iranian website is reporting a statement from the “conservative” Society of Teachers and Researchers of Qom, whose members include Mohammad Yazdi and Ahmed Khatami, calling on the Government to ensure detainees’ rights and to curb illegal actions committed during arrests and detentions."

Another chilling account of detention and torture here.

Tehran Bureau has a good roundup here. Shemiranat Friday Prayers Leader Hojjatoleslam Mohsen Doagou says:

“A velvet revolution is the revolt of the people to seize political power without bloodshed; a military coup is military men seizing power; a political coup is seizing political power by manipulating public opinion,” he continued. “This is while the candidates and their supporters before and after the election proved their devotion to the establishment and Imam Khomeini [by demanding] the governing of the country in line with the constitution.”

There is no confirmation of this info yet AFAIK but this post makes some interesting points so am passing it along. Via Anti-Mullah. (I am not anti-Mullah as I've met some great ones but am anti-theocracy.)

Have you Green Mailed yet today?

Karroubi

Mehdi Karroubi continues to tell it like it is. Didn't know much about him before the elections except that he ran in 2005 as a reformist and lost to Ahmadinejad, and am now getting up to speed on him in the wake of his courageous stand on the treatment of detainees. He is an impressive man.

Beyond the Blue Horizon - Michael Nesmith

Letter from Tehran

"Should the United States reach out to Ahmadinejad? I think they are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. He loves to be threatened and will use that to show how pure he is, how outside the reach and influence of foreign powers he really is. But on the other hand, I think the unity of European and North American countries does scare him. A real novel approach however would be to confront Russia and China for their support of the regime; this could be the most powerful force. The U.S. government should use all of its diplomacy in that direction. The regime in Iran will not last and United States needs to come to terms with Russia and China about how much they would like to prolong this regime’s life."

More here.

Green Mail Russia and China with easy to use email forms here.

The Green Path of Hope

Moussavi forms new political front as hardliner allies of the medievel regime call for Karroubi to be "whipped" if he doesn't produce FOUR witnesses for each alleged rape in detention. Safe to say there is no justice in Iran under the current regime.

New maneuvers between Rafsanjani and Khamenei? Same source: Many conservatives angered by Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi's statement that “obedience to the President is like obedience to God.”

The newspaper Jomhoori Eslami has pointed out the inherent hypocrisy in Mesbah’s proclamation: “If Mr. Mesbah-Yazdi’s statement is accepted, he must confess that he himself is a great sinner because, during the eight years that Mr Khatami was President, he encouraged everyone to disobey and confront the President….Even during the last four years, Mr Mesbah has also occasionally sinned against God by expressing his disagreements with Ahmadinejad.”

More on the latest machinations here and here.

Mounting Pressure

The divisions in the government may be coming to a head, with ominous warnings about an arrest of Mousavi, amid more reports of conservative criticism of the regime and its functionaries.

The regime wants the whole world to hate them.

Why?

The Real Election Stamp

Via Mehdi.

I Confess... and more

"But above all I confess that I feel small and powerless in view of the plight of my friend, his family and his people. I would like to help more."

And purportedly from inside Iran, A Message to the International Community.

And... The Persistence and Ingenuity of the Iranian Opposition.

How to Cover a Paranoid Regime with your Laptop.

New detentions.

Ahmad Khatami is such an evil parrot for the Ahmadinejad-Khamenei regime. Do these hardliners not realize how they look when they get more upset by Karroubi publicizing the well-substantiated charges of rape and other abuse of detainess than they get by the idea that these abuses have happened? Do they care about the Iranian people? Rape and torture of people denied their due process doesn't upset them, but making it known does?

(BTW Ahmad Khatami, evil parrot, must not be confused with Seyyed Mohammed Khatami, who is one of the good guys.)

What is Ali Larijani up to? Is he a patriot (in which case he would support reforms) or just a big political weasel out for his own clan? He's so hard to read. We know he and his are close to the IRG, but that they also have a scholarly background and brains so they aren't just regime parrots and stooges.

"I confess I wanna see iranian people smiling and walking for their rights as God always preffer but not a president who shot against is own people beyond his army forces or mercenaries."

Esfahan reporters show green at press ceremony, get applause.


Top 10 Ways to Overthrow Government of Iran using Google Translate.

Dota Cheshme Siaah Dari

This version is beautiful too.

Mashaie Blabs and More

Sistani speaks about trials: "These prosecutions are stain on Islamic justice."

Ahmadinejad "aide" Mashaie unleashes regime's secret weapon: Crazy Talk.

Also, Tehran Bureau on the next Minister of Intelligence.

"More than 200 former and current government officials of Iran sent a letter to the government asking it to pay heed to Rafsanjani, Karroubi, Khatami and Mousavi’s suggestions and stances on the country’s future. Signatories included former and current ministers, directors, governors, mayors and academics." [VIA]

In the NYT, a great review of the book GUARDIANS OF THE REVOLUTION: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs By Ray Takeyh.

I missed this conversation, from late June, between Christiane Amanpour and Leslie Stahl.

Swedish police are showing their solidarity with Iranians.

The Epic Protester.

Maneuverings/Rumblings

Ayatollah Dastgheib calls for an emergency meeting of the Assembly of Experts and condemns Khamenei, as criticism mounts against Ahmadinejad.

The latest Ayatollah watch.

Ardeshir Rowhani and Elaheh

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw this, so I did both. This is Iranian satirist Ebrahim Nabavi, and this is what he predicted (a week or two before the trials IIRC) Abtahi would confess to.



Here is the English transcript.

Nightly Chants/Ahmadinejad is God on Earth?

Last night's opposition chants (with newspaper shown for date confirmation):




Is this the face of God? Via EA and Parleman news:

Mahmoud is God. So says Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, who told a gathering of “Basij Artists,” “Once the President has received the investment from the Supreme Leader, the holiness of the Supreme Leader is transferred to him as well, therefore people should obey the President as if they obey God.”

That sounds blasphemous to me. There is no God but Allah..... Are Basiji "artists" falling for this?

I Confess, it was me and Google Translate

"I worked from inside of your government. where was given this secret chafiyé. But now I've betrayed you all! And I'm working with portugal Governement! Yes, Portugal government, not britain or france. your intelligent agency cant even find the right country. I confess It was me. All the time and only me that stole every profile on facebook. Twitted from all people on twitter at the same time. I even made videos and put them all over the youtube and translated them into many many languages using google's translator. I confess, Me and my chafieye caused all this velvet revulution."

Via him and these folks.

Iran is So Much Better than its Government

Mousavi:

"What happens in Iran's prisons these days clearly shows the necessity of a deep change in the country," the Ghalamnews quoted Mousavi as saying. "Could America harm Iran ... as much as these events in prisons have damaged the (1979 Islamic) revolution and the country?"

Conservative Opposition candidate Mohsen Rezaei criticizes Intelligence ministry purge in letter to Speaker of the parliament Ali Larijani.

Ahmadinejad still having trouble with Principlists. Update: Principlist calls on AN to change his "past ways" and become law-abiding.

In an effort to appease women, other reformists, and.... the west, the regime is sending some pro-woman signals, coupled with some pro-Israel signals. I know, it sounds fishy. IRIB has shown a documentary that showed Israel as a benign example of governments with women ministers, amid reports that Ahmadinejad will name several female ministers in his new cabinet. Ahmadinejad, champion of women! But as we all know, the only place the regime treats men and women as equals is in prison. Way too little, way too late.

Hard to obey Iran's insanely strict laws when enforcement changes from day to day.

Mehdi has a lot of interesting new material today, go here.

Confession (Eng subtitles added)

Watch This

EU Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs' discussion on Iran, July 2009, (note the voice of the interpreter in the first part).

Elsewhere... new momentum for the Opposition... and The Supreme Leader looks for Facebook friends.

No Rafsanjani Friday/Confessions of a Cartoonist

Now reports from many sources, including the Guardian, Tehran Times, PressTV and Hashemi Rafsanjani's own website say Rafsanjani will NOT lead Friday prayers - ostensibly to prevent another regime crackdown. The sense is that there is a lot more to this story.

Elsewhere, Confessions of a Cartoonist.

Backlash Against Russia

Here.

According to an Aug. 6 piece published by the privately owned Nezavisimaya Gazeta, it's time to give the divisive president the heave-ho.

"It appears that recent events in Iran, when the opponents of Ahmadinejad shouted slogans of 'Death to Russia,' indicate that Moscow's defense of Ahmadinejad's government has not been met with approval among a considerable portion of the Iranian population," the editorial said.

"It appears that the idea that Iran is a regional power which Russia could use as a trump card in relations with the West has turned out to be mistaken," the editorial says.

"As a matter of fact, it has turned out that Iran is using Russia to polarize the Group of Six," the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, over Iran's nuclear program.

The editorial pointed out that Russians are being singled out by the West and Iranians themselves as the primary backers of Ahmadinejad, possibly to Moscow's disadvantage.

The editorial adds,

"banking on personal relations with Ahmadinejad appears to be counterproductive." It urges "the development of contacts" with other political players.

Wow.

More.

Monday Roundup

Warning - graphic material: More reports -- and photographs -- of torture in Iran's prisons, and Karroubi asks Rafsanjani to investigate reports from "senior officials" (and many others) that some protesters were brutally raped, as outrage over the Ahmadinejad crackdown continues to spread. A good analysis here. Karroubi's accusations should come as no surprise. Rape is a tried and true torture technique in Khamenei's Iran, (and too many other places), and is nothing new.

RR has one detainee's story here. Again, this is very graphic and painful.

Photos from Aug 6th ceremony. Kermanshah, for Kianoosh Asa. It looks like there were a lot of people there.

There is again doubt about whether or not Rafsanjani will lead Friday Prayers. Rafsanjani announced he would be, on his website, but that information has since been taken down. Aftab News says No (FA) (EN). Mehdi Karroubi's newspaper, Eternade Melli, says:

“It seems that such a decision [Rafsanjani's withdrawal from Friday prayers in Tehran] has been made because of concerns that the last blatant display of popular support that greeted Rafsanjani last time will be repeated. The question remains that was this decision made [by the Friday Prayers committee] due to governmental pressure or that Rafsanjani himself decided to not lead the prayers”.

@oxfordgirl on twitter notes that there were false reports that Rafsanjani had withdrawn from prayers before the July 17th prayers. Keep that in mind. An announcement is to be made Tuesday.

UPDATE: The Guardian says no Rafsanjani on Friday. Something very fishy about this.

Lots of reports now that Ahmadinejad is running into a lot more trouble in parliament with his cabinet. There's a sense that a lot of hardliners want to be rid of AN without looking like they openly oppose him and the cabinet is a vulnerable area for him.

And U2's latest tribute to the Iranian opposition, in Zagreb:

>

[VIA]

Sistani's "Oblique" Intervention

Here. Appears to be a veiled warning to Khamenei.

Stolen from the World by Ahmadinejad - Amir Javadifar

Amir Javadifar, Industrial management student, was beaten by government forces and hospitalized, then abducted from the hospital by Basiji and taken to prison, where he died under horrific torture. I have no English translation for this yet, but the pictures alone tell a story:

When the History of the 21st Century is Written...

"In the history books of the 21st century, the first chapter will be about us.
In the introduction, they might write that important events have happened before us, events like 9/11 and war on Iraq and Afghanistan, but those were the remnants of the previous century, with an outdated dialogue and with twentieth century tools: Airplanes, bombs and bullets. And then they will write that the first chapter is dedicated to us because we have been the true children of our time and our dialogue was the dialogue of the beginning of the third millennium.Early in the book, they will write that social movements are born out of communication technologies and at the same place they will write that we were the first movement that exploited entirely all the new communication tools that were established at the beginning of this century.Perhaps they will write a footnote on how these tools changed the social structure and how they changed the world view on the social classes, work flow, production and distribution of wealth, social leadership and management and even changed the world's attitude about the sustainable human values."

Read more (in Farsi and English).

Roundup

The best defense is a good offense, but too much offense is just offensive. Are Iran's show trials backfiring by alienating their intended audience?

Mojtahed-Zadeh, who is far from a radical operative of the “velvet revolution” — he is a professor at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran — offers the advice, “Perhaps the regime would be wise enough to put some facade of legality on this, because these show trials are not acceptable in any way, by anyone.”

Except, maybe, to the Republican Guard and the Basiji -- who represent the biggest challenges at the moment and are the reason fuel sanctions on refined petroleum products are a bad idea. The Guard reportedly controls Iranian smuggling, in a region of the world that is a smuggler's paradise, and would just get richer while most other Iranians suffered under increased sanctions. The world must find more creative ways to convince the Guard and their brutish underlings that their economic and other interests are better served by a democratic Iran where people's human rights are respected and people's talents are fostered and honored, not extinguished.

More on the purge of the Intelligence Ministry, as Ahmadinejad replaces more experienced people with loyalists, here.

And, In Iran a Hostage-Taker Becomes a Hostage.

Yet more ridiculous...

Among the entities involved in the massive-worldwide conspiracy against the Iranian regime? According to the regime, "Facebook, Twitter and Google Translate."

Assorted Tweets in reaction:

"Also implicated, knowledge, soul and thinking."

"They forgot Mickey Mouse."

"They forgot Mossadegh, Cyrus, Gandhi."

Rafsanjani

The mercurial mouthpiece for the Iran government, PressTV, confirms Rafsanjani will be leading next Friday's prayers.

Stolen from the World by Ahmadinejad

Kianoush Asa playing Tanbour. Master's science student, killed in protests.

Listen for the child...

I confess the earth is flat

Go here, to see the original post with photograph and page down to read more and to join the Facebook group for his father.

I confess!

I confess that the earth is flat, I confess that night was day and
It was my optical illusion that I thought it was night…I confess
those drugs are delusion, a traitor like me does not deserve commiseration.
I will confess, just show some mercy, please give my friends a loaf of
bread, I’ll confess, stop hitting us for God’s sake.
I will confess, I will confess, Just don’t tell my daughter what happened to me during
a couple of months that passed.

RR Live Blogging the "Trial" here.

Iran conservatives demand role in Cabinet's vetting

Here.

"If, God forbid, you pursue an approach different from the one elucidated by the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] because of your refusal to consult the honest friends of the revolution, or you lose public faith out of obstinacy, we fear that the regime would suffer irreparable damage," said the statement, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency.

Logic is Illegal

Good update (in English from mostly Persian sources) here on spontaneous protests last night that grew and spread throughout Iran and the regime's attempts to backtrack, spin and cover up atrocities against detainees. It includes this quote from a Mousavi advisor:

"Whoever talks about something logical, they will accuse him of being disloyal to the Supreme Leader. By using these tactics they are avoiding logic. It has been two months since the election: which one of their actions solved the crisis?"

The same report has good coverage of the sermon by conservative Ayatollah Emami-Kashani, who warned the government that the Iranian people "deserve better treatment."

Iran Tightens Online Censorship

Here.

1980

solidarnosc.

The News, Briefly

Despite insanely heavy security forces in the streets, there were big protests August 5th. Numerous videos show crowds chanting in different streets, subways and in other cities, and many of these videos show the day's newspaper to confirm dates shot. The Ahmadinejad-khamenei regime continues to crack down, making even more enemies and fracturing the Principalist and other conservative blocs. While capital flees to other countries, Ahmadinejad faces double-digit inflation and unemployment and other economic problems only compounded by the volatile oil markets and widespread international disgust and hatred. The offices of the Iranian Association of Journalists have been sealed. Rafsanjani is scheduled to deliver the sermon at Friday prayers August 14, but there is no confirmation he will do it yet.

Fighting to get Iran Back and Get Back to Iran.

I Confess - tribute to Mohammed Reza Jalaeipour

Some very good soul has now provided English subtitles for this, a tribute to a young man "arrested after the elections and believed to be under torture and pressure to confess to lies."



Facebook group for Mohammed Reza Jalaeipour here.

More from the Watch me Confess project here.

Rafsanjani leading Friday Prayers August 14?/Bad Actors

Rafsanjani here.

The Bad Actors in Iran's Political theater -- The Guardian.

"The paradox of the current administration in Iran, and in particular the character of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is that they want it both ways. They want the theatre but they also want total control, not only of the production, but of the audience reaction. In so doing they have singularly failed to manufacture consent and have been struggling since the election on 12 June to impose their narrative. Indeed, we should not lose sight of the fact that for all the contests on the streets and the divisions within the elites, this is at heart an ideological contest, where the message matters. This is why journalists have been expelled, academics imprisoned and activists put on trial. This is why the hardline establishment insists on normality and business as usual, and why the mere continuation of protests denies them that particular fiction. In fact, control has been especially elusive of late, not least because of the crisis of authority, but because the means of transmission have been so diverse: the internet has proved just as serious a battleground as the streets. But perhaps even more significant that these have been the mistakes perpetrated by the establishment itself in its urgency to get the message right.

"It is far from over," The Economist.

Says it All

More from this artist here and here. (And a little shout out to the woman who introduced me to this artist -- hope you're well.)

Via OnlyMehdi.

Militia Member Now Fights the Militia

Here.

Ahmadinejad faces economic hurdles.

Several reports mention that opposition MPs boycotted the Ahmadinejad inauguration and members of the Imam Khomeini line walked out as soon as AN began his speech. More coverage of the ceremony and the opposition protests:

OnlyMehdi - new videos

Roozonline - analysis

Revolutionary Road - liveblogging pics, videos and commentary from inside

Tehran Bureau (read also "Why China and Russia love Iran's hardliners" in today's edition)

Green Brief

Watch Me Confess: NV

[VIA]

Waiting for English translation on this one:



Finally, Khamenei's warning to Ahmadinejad?

Global Solidarity 2.0

Tehran Bureau on global solidarity and the "new" media.

45 Nobel Laureates' "Open Letter to the Iranian people."

Green art.

Pakistan hits Twitter

Bina Shah on Pakistan's growing internet presence here.

The Kiss

Read one guy's interpretation.

And watch this:

The Anti-American Lie

Look, I have my gripes with the US government and American business too, God knows. But I hate the knee-jerk attitude that everything wrong with the world is somehow America's fault (and a CIA plot), as if the Soviet Union, China, OPEC and people's own governments have never meddled, done harm, exploited other countries for their own gain. As if America hasn't done a lot of great good too, and given the world enormous gifts. Yes, America did a lot of harm to Iran in the last 60 years (and here is the latest example of evil Americans in the mideast). But they were not alone in this, and the mostly hardline governments of Iran of the last 60 years (excluding a few brief periods of enlightened governance) have outdone even the US, the UK and Russia together when it comes to inflicting harm on the Iranian people. The Iranian government and its allies are bigger thieves, better torturers and much more accomplished killers of Iranians than any foreign government. The Khamenei-Ahmadinejad government is the Great Satan.

As this incisive piece notes, Iran's internal battles pre-date the formation of the CIA, and America, by years.

She says she wants her vote back from Khamenei

A Patriot:



Update on the barbaric show trials in Iran.

Watchmeconfess - who is behind the "velvet revolution" to overthrow Iran? Me, of course, and you, and Julia and him....

Show Trials/Machinations

Some detainees were reportedly released yesterday, but many more arrested, and show trials for twenty people who have been detained for weeks are set to begin today.

Tehran Bureau's assessment of current political situation.

Today in Tehran

Iran security forces retreat at cemetery.

Vote for Iran's live-blogging of big demonstrations and clashes in Tehran today.

Ahmadinejad meanwhile has fled once again to Mashhad.

Reformists call for fall of the "coup government."

Enduring America's updates.

The Tehran Bureau has put together profiles of some of the 78 people known to have been killed by the regime. There will undoubtedly be more families coming forward with tales of their dead children in coming days. The stories, photos and medical testimony about unspeakable torture and rape are almost unbearable to hear about, yet iranians live with this every day. We cannot do enough for them, especially after all the ways the West and Russia abused Iran the last hundred years. We owe them all our love, support and cooperation.

No Words

Watch this.

Battle Inside the Intelligence Ministry

This is the third report of an intra-ministry purge, all from very reliable sources and analysts, and it's the clearest and most insightful interpretation. Here.

"The cause? Ministry officials had been told to compile a report, based on files and interviews of detainees, on whether the quest for a 'velvet revolution' by outsiders was responsible for post-election conflict. Their investigations produced the answer: No. There was no proof that “foreign” elements had instigated the protests as part of a plan for regime change."

Green spreads like water...

Where is My Vote: Mauritania Edition.

The evolving protest in Iran.

Mohsen Namjoo

Below, the Mohsen Namjoo version of Yare Dabestani, put to editorial cartoons about the Iran elections:



Mohsen Namjoo was recently sentenced to five-years prison in Iran for "insulting sanctities." Luckily, he's not in Iran at the moment.

Yare Dabestani

Modern version with transliteral and English lyrics.

And this.

Regime crumbling?

Tehran Bureau.

Revolutionary Road.

Enduring America.

Green Brief.

Ayatollah Watch.

New York Times

Future is Now: Thorium

Clean nuclear power, proliferation-resistant, which cleans up nuclear waste instead of creating more? It's known as LFTR, and we've had the technology since the 1960s. Watch the snappy, informative video here.

Join the cause here.

The Ahmadinejad Gambit

It makes sense, as many sources are reporting now, that the Ahmadinejad government is imploding. Hope this is true. He may just succeed in uniting Iran -- against him.

But AN is a weaselly guy, so I can't help wondering how much of this is deliberate maneuver.

I couldn’t figure out the Ahmadinejad moves with Mashaie at first. For those just tuning in, Mashaie's daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son, and AN had named him to be his first vice president, angering hardliners who thought Mashaie was soft on Israel, Islam, and dancing girls.

Why would AN want to anger hardliners right now, when he’s got most of the country seething at him? But then, he withdrew Mashaie’s name as vice-president, and made him a personal advisor, and "gatekeeper," instead. This smells like a familiar AN trick, something Mousavi brought up in a debate during the campaign. Ahmadinejad compiles dossiers on people who aren't completely subservient to him. If his security services can’t find real dirt on people, they just make it up. These dossiers are used to humiliate, break and often destroy his enemies. But if these people are useful to him, he “rehabilitates” them and makes them his advisers.

Another tactic of AN’s is to humiliate a rival in order to provoke an angry response in order to justify a crackdown. There are numerous reports that he sent someone from his camp to inform Mousavi that he had won on the night of the election, but that he’d mever get to be president. The scale of the fraud may have been deliberately designed to anger the people so he could crackdown and destroy the opposition in the streets. (It hasn’t worked out that way, however.)

Both strategies could be at work with Mashaie.

Mashaie was put out there to take a beating, instead of Ahmadi, and then rewarded for taking a pounding for his boss by being named an advisor.

Mashaie was also a lure to provoke and identify hardliner oppositon, such as the intelligence minister, who was fired this week.

The intelligence minister was officially in charge of the crackdown on protesters. Ahmadinejad used him to initiate his bloody repression.

Now AN has fired the intelligence minister, no doubt so Ahmadinejad can place blame for the crackdown on him and distance his own sorry self from it.

It doesn’t look like his old games are working as well these days though. He has alienated too many factions, including that of his champion Ayatollah Khamenei and Khamenei's son, Mojtaba.

One of the best non-Iranian blogs for cutting through the byzantine politics is Enduring America, a blog dedicated to:

"alternatives to a foreign policy based on conflict rather than co-operation, force rather than law, and caricature rather than understanding."

UPDATE, again from Enduring America - Will Supreme Leader sacrifice Ahmadinejad?

Especially interesting are the blips about Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larjani. Larjani is the canniest, cold-blooded tightrope walker in Iranian politics, and people speculated for weeks which way he would go on the election. For weeks he dithered, watching, waiting to see how the post-election played out, before, recently, affirming his support for AN. But now, as the tide turns against Ahmadinejad, Larjani is suddenly very concerned about the detainees and their treatment and sending a few sympathetic signals to the Opposition.

The crackdown has been so outrageous and unpopular in Iran, strengthening the opposition instead of weakening it, that all the hardline scoundrels are scrambling to distance themselves from it now.

The protests haven’t stopped, they’ve just become stronger and more creative. They didn’t count on Iranians reporting their own revolt to the world, and they haven’t been able to completely block them. They thought they could use the old Soviet Era trick of the Big Lie to cover their deeds. But the Big Lie doesn’t work against a million phone cams.

They thought the world would lose interest and turn away. Instead, there is a galvanized community of committed supporters worldwide.

Khamenei and Ahmadinejad and their fair and foul-weather friends really misread the Iranian people.

Haystack

Haystack Anti-Filtering for Iran.

Mousavi

Latest statement from Mir Hossein Mousavi here.

Hichkas Ye Mosht Sarbaz

Banned in Iran.

Another Martyr, and another, and another...

Almost every day now news gets out about another person killed by the regime in the protests or in prison. Usually, the families don't know the fate of their loved one until they get a terse call from a ministry to come pick up the body. Then, they are not allowed to put mourning banners on their homes or in any way publicly mourn, and cannot speak to anyone about it.

It isn't enough that the regime is cruel in the grandly evil ways, forcing its people to live in sadness and fear, but they are cruel in such petty ways too. Though there is no love lost between the Sunni Taliban and the hardline Shi'a regime in Iran, they have much in common.

Enough martyrs. The world must think of new ways to peacefully fight the regime and obtain the release of all detained protesters, activists, journalists and other political prisoners. Just as the reformists in Iran grow more creative, so must we -- which is not to say I have an idea how to do this, not right this minute, although I still think a targeted and graduated oil boycott is a good idea.

In one of the smaller, and most powerful protests of July 25th, the little town of Revine Lago Italy held a lantern ceremony to honor the martyrs, and support Iran:

Canada comes through

Montreal yesterday July 25, 2009:



Vancouver:



Toronto (and start of bike trip to Ottawa with Amnesty petition:



Oh. And here's some video of the pro-Ahmadinejad/Khameini rally in NYC yesterday.

United4Iran.org - U2 in Dublin Last Night

Dublin July 25, 2009 -- U2 green again and with video tribute to the Iranian reform movment:



Updated united4Iran playlist here.

The Green Scroll: Tonight in Paris

The Green Scroll, a petition over 2 kms long made with pieces sent from 190 cities around the world. The petition is to be unfurled at the Eiffel tower in Paris at 17.00 GMT. More at Where Is My Vote:

Iran: Tragedy and Future - Roger Cohen.

United4Iran Videos

The first might be my favorite:







And Canada:



United4Iran playlist on YouTube here.

united4iran.org

Desmond Tutu on Global Day of Action for Iran

unitedc4iran.org

"We are with you."

AN-Mashayi-Khameini

Have been trying to get handle on the whole fracas about Ahamdinejad's first VP pick, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie. Mashaie (aka Mashayi) isn't considered hard-line enough and he said some not completely hateful things about Israelis so the Khamenei gang and their frowning allies want him fired.

Ahmadinejad wants to anger hardliners NOW? Is it to distract people from what's going on in the streets and prisons? Is it a genuine power struggle between AN and Khamenei? Is it all just sheer stupidity? Insights?

It's just a matter of time before this regime falls. The question of course is how many more innocents will be tortured and murdered before this tinpot dictatorship flees the capital one step ahead of the angry mob. Iran deserves so so so much better than these Keystone clerics and their thuggish enforcers. It's just a crime that this great culture has been held hostage by these mentally deficient bullies for so long.

The same story has a good quote from Mousavi about the "elite's" dissatisfaction with the regime, and this might answer the question I had earlier about the Republican Guard, because quite a few of the IRG are technocrats, managers, and other members of the "elites," (which apparently has a less incendiary meaning in Iran than in America). Surely the Guard's interests would be better served by a strong republic with good trade and foreign relations, and one that promotes its people's talents instead of suppressing them and killing them.

Elsewhere on Ayatollah Watch... more influential Ayats join the reformists.

This T-shirt Fights the Evil Rulers of Iran

See it large here.

Piazzale Michelangelo, Florence

Green for Iran last night:



[via Green Brief]

India 4 Iran.

Japan 4 Iran.

Kyrgyzstan 4 Iran.

Hungary 4 Iran.

Incredible (but time and place unverified) videos from Iran via BBC.

Iran - Torang (Mohsen Namjoo)

July 25th Global Day of Solidarity with Iran

United For Iran Global Day of Solidarity

Amsterdam prepares for July 25:

The Strange Battlefields of Twitter: Part 2, The Guard

I’ll get back to my hacker story, which is still developing btw, later, when I have put more of the pieces together. This kinda ties into that.

Cyberwar: Iran Government versus Worldwide Hacktivists - it is an incredible story how these guys and girls have worked to keep Iranians anonymous and connected to the web. These people never sleep. @austinheap is the lynchpin of this effort. Follow him on twitter for the whole story.

Yet another thing I love about Twitter is the connection and access to people you’d likely never meet otherwise. Where else could one come in from the garden with an arm full of rhubarb in Ohio or Saskatchewan or Oslo and while it is rinsing, sit down at Twitter and pick up a conversation with a member of the Republican Guard?

The Guard is key at the moment. There are numerous rumors of dissension in the Guard over the election and Khamenei‘s interfering son Mojtaba, and stories (unconfirmed) of arrests of officers allegedly plotting to join reformists.

The Basij of course works for the Guard, officially anyway/ Basij agents online and their admiring wannabees were just as you’d imagine the Basij in the streets to be to be, crude parrots for the party line and the regime’s twisted brand of Islam and patriotism. They were often cruel and preferred clubbing ppl over the head with insults to talking. And they were also young men, time bombs of nsecurity, bravado, unarticulated anger and repressed sexual energy. Compressed might be a better word. It was all channeled, with fearsome strength, into protecting Iran and the revolution from foreign agents and esp. America, just as their forefathers had saved Iran from Saddam and Reagan in the 1980s.

Even among this band of warped Manboys, though, there were people willing to drop the propaganda and engage in a mostly sane discussion, but only briefly, just until they remembered their job was to blast Twitter with gunfire and track down any Iranians who were online. The Basij guys were often held back by poor English, but some spoke it pretty well, and not all were stupid -- the Basij get many of the best places in Iran‘s universities. It was interesting to see too how many Westernisms crept into the Basij tweets, the “Hey Man,” “Dude,” the Hip Hop references, etc. This was done self-consciously, which differentiated the Basij from the Basij fans in the west. These imitators and trolls had done some research and could often ape the Basij for a while, but most outed themselves pretty quickly.

A favorite subject of the Basij was the Neda conspiracy, that Neda was killed by either Mossad or the BBC and the proof of this was that she was shot with a “foreign bullet,” (claims the regime). It was all just a plot to make the Basij look bad.

The Twitarmy (that is what it is called, really), fired back, “If Isr. or BBC wanted 2 kill Neda and frame Basij, wldnt they use Iranian bullet?”

The Republican Guard fellows on Twitter were a cut above, way above. The ones tweeting in English wrote in excellent but formal English switching back and forth between it and Farsi with ease. They liked to quote Persian and western literature and got a bit emotional when discussing Iranian history, the Khomeini revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, and Ahmadinejad. They seemed happy to argue reasonably about various issues, and sometimes raised good points about Gaza or the 2000 US election. Often, they cited literacy and education stats to show how much better Iranian women were doing when compared to most of the world (and when not being clubbed, tortured and killed by Basij), and to show that they weren’t completely against women’s rights. Still, they doggedly stuck by Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.

What gave them pause were appeals to their sense of patriotism and their belief they are working in a noble tradition, because they admire Cyrus the Great, the Constitutionalists, and Prime Minister Mossadegh -- all reformers in their day.

But what stopped them cold was the arrow to the heart. “Mr.R they R arresting torturing killing innocents best and brightest of Iran & World. U know its true. Great loss 4 all.”

I am not an expert on Iran, but someone who got interested for personal reasons 30-some years ago and has followed it, and particularly the reform movement, since. I know and have known a lot of Iranians inside and out, but I am an outsider with all that entails. So please correct me if I'm wrong.

And... this is not a scientific sampling of members of the Republican Guard, obviously (nor the Basij), and what we see in the West, especially online and in English, is usually just the tip of the iceberg. But there were a surprising number of sane Guard supporters on Twitter, and this is backed up by a lot of anecdotal evidence from Iranians, Greens, in the vein of, “My late uncle was in the Guard and he was a wonderful man.” It is just enough to give me hope that the Guard will ultimately turn away from the regime and do what’s best for Iran.

That’s my hippie side talking. My cynical, punk rock side says the only thing that will win the Guard is if their vast industrial empire and Swiss Bank Accounts are more secure under a new government than under the old, crumbling one, that they’ll fight to the last man against the reformists if their iron-clad grip on the economy is threatened.

Maybe it will take both approaches, some compromise on the economy as well as an appeal to the hearts and minds of the Guard to win them to the Greens. If it's true certain popular officers have been arrested, that means there will already be disgruntled rank and file ready to honor the arrested officers.

Yes We Can

Video made by an unnamed Iranian artist (AFAIK now).

The Opposition, today. Khamenei issues another dark warning, Khatami asks for a referendum, and Mousavi blasts the regime for insulting Iran and again calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners.

What they are up against.

Iran's American Martyr/Ahmadinejad Caught Out in Mashhad/Talking to Wiretappers

Nebraska Howard and the Constitutionalists.

The turnout must have been low for Ahmadinejad in Mashhad Friday. There have been reports that he was jeered by people there, and the NYTimes and others report he was snubbed by the clerical leadership of the city. That may be why Iran's state-controlled media is running this doctored photo from four years ago as if it happened on Friday.

UPDATE: Video of the real turnout for AN (and some of them are wearing green):



"What to say to Brothers who are Listening in to Your Phone Calls." This comes from OnlyMehdi. His father Issa Saharkhiz, a journalist and reformer, among other things, was arrested in Tehran July 3rd and is still being detained along with dozens of other reporters, photographers, editors and publishers.

The opposition was very active over the weekend, according to the latest Green Brief. Green Brief is compiled from Farsi tweets that have been confirmed and translated by NiteOwl and others. It breaks a lot of news before the MSM, and everything I've read here has checked out so far.

Finally, Roger Cohen has been praised by the free Iranian media for his fair and heartfelt reporting on Iran. He doesn't just know a great deal about Iran, he also feels its heart.

Mr. & Mrs Iyer: Don't Look Away

From one of my favorite movies of the last ten years, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, about two young strangers thrown together when their bus gets caught in the middle of religious riots:

The Tehran Bureau

Part Two of Prayers Make History, an eyewitness account of events on the streets after Friday Prayers, is now up at the Tehran Bureau.

The Tehran Bureau provides deep, informative commentary about the post-election revolt from inside and outside Iran. Here is their assessment of the Rafsanjani speech.

More here.

Mousavi with Eng. Subtitles

I've come to greatly admire this man and his wife.

I Ka Barra - Habib Koite and Bamada

Lyrics in English

Cronkite

Here.



Three classic broadcasts.

Via Mrs. B. at My Mind Room, from this artist.

Rafsanjani's Sermon/Siemens in Trouble?/How Geeks and Non-Geeks Can Help

Ayatollah Rafsanjani does one for the people here, here and here. Big protests. Protesters condemn China, Russia for their support of regime and meddling in Iranian affairs.



Ahnmadinejad faces unprecedented criticism from hard-liners. He is even losing hard-liner support.

Siemens work with Iran's regime could cost it a Los Angeles Transit contract (YES!) [via Nico Pitney in HuffPost]

Also via Pitney, How Geeks and Non-Geeks Can Help iranians stay Online Anonymously.

More Friday Video here.