video from Iran News blogspot
Iranian-Canadian Amir Safavi-Naeini writes re Iran:
Just thought I'd let you in quickly on what has happened in the last 24 hours.
Some of these reports are still in Farsi, and I'll translate. Basically, last night, according to phone call to Voice of America [link to d.yimg.com] from
one of the people inside Mousavi's election committee, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the following happened:
The Interior Ministry called Mousavi, told him…
he'd won. Told the progressive newspapers to avoid printing the word
"victory" in publications. Then it seems like "they" essentially changed their
minds. All mobiles in Tehran are shut off. The power in the city is shut
off. Armed and plain clothes officers are sent to main streets and
intersections. Rafsanjani, Noori and Mousavi attempted to contact the
leader regarding this, and most of the night is spent with them in
meetings, trying to figure out how suddenly AN [Ahmadinejad] is winning exactly 66%
regardless of location.
Now
Iran is a country where Farsi speakers are a minority. In previous
elections there have always been huge variations based on ethnicity,
and previous Azeri candidates have won disproportionately in Azeri
regions. Mousavi is Azeri. If we are to believe the election results,
Ahmadinejad won 60% in Mousavi's home town. Karroubi is from Lorestan, in the previous
election he won 5M votes, because all the Lor voted for him. This time,
he's essentially come 5th in a 4 person race if one counts the invalid
ballots. Apparently AN won >60%
in Karroubi's home town, a town which overwhelmingly
voted for him previously. The results have been clearly falsified. For
the expatriate results, they've given more than half to A.N.; another
clear falsification.
Back to Iran, on June 13th, Khamenei, without agreeing to meet with
Mousavi, Karroubi and Rafsanjani, validated the election results,
essentially removing all legal ways by which the results may be
disputed. He did this the very next day. Usually he takes 3 days, to
insure there are no irregularities.
In
the morning (June 13th) people took to the streets, demonstrations seem
to have
been spontaneous and have become violent in many parts. There are
pictures of burning police motorcycles and bleeding protesters and
officers, and films of plain clothes cops grabbing leaders. Here is a
blog which essentially captures what has been happening in pictures and
clips: http://iran101.blogspot.com/
There are
reports of deaths, though it seems like "hokm'e tir" (license to fire
guns) has not been given.
On another front, Mousavi is placed
under house arrest (link to www.entekhabnews.net). Leading reformers are arrested, including Khatami's
brother and his wife. 10s of reporters are also arrested.
Various
cities have been put under military rule, including Tabriz (Mousavi's
home town, an ethnic Azeri city) and Qom; Shia Islam's Vatican city.
All mobiles have been shut off for the last 24 hours or so. Facebook, twitter, etc. are blocked ("filtered"). All foreign reporters have been asked to leave.
Most disturbing are the (English) tweets of Farhad: link to twitter.com , a university student at Tehran who has been walled up inside the University of Tehran residences. Example: "Ahmadynezad now calls himself 'seyed' (bloodline of prophet mohammad) & wearing a green shawl on state TV! unbelievable!"
You have to understand, traditional media has completely failed us.
Iranians out of country have been glued to facebook and twitter and
youtube and blogs, since they are the only fast and reliable sources of
news. We feel completely helpless outside the country and can only
imagine what those inside (who we cannot contact) must be feeling.
A Farsi twitter feed which has been silent for last few hours is
that of (previously jailed) F. Ghazi, a brave Iranian citizen
journalist.
link to twitter.com
We can only hope and pray that today will bring another relatively
bloodless day for the streets of Tehran, Shiraz, Tabriz, Qom, Esfehan,
Babol, etc.
P.S. Please also note this source in EN/Farsi: link to twitter.com.
Do you think these are some of the folks that the U.S. government is paying to stir it up in Iran. Were Micheal Ledeen or Reuel Marc Gerecht handing out Iranian $$$'s to those who seemed to be protesting?
The Iranian government said they didn't intend to allow a "velvet revolution", and they haven't. I should save your righteous indignation for things you understand and have some influence, however minor, over.
I wish we had more and better sources for some of these reports. Ahmedinejad claiming to be a descendant of Muhammad (pbuh)? That's surreal.
Leading reformers are arrested, including Khatami's brother and his wife. Wow. Former President Khatami is a man of stature; going after his family is a sure sign that the confrontation is hard-core.
I have to say, I am not convinced by the reformists' arguments about vote-rigging…. there is nothing tangible in their hands. Granted that this does not mean there is no vote-rigging, it also does not prove that there is vote-rigging………. at this point it is nothing but rumors and for the record, do not underestimate Ahmadinejad's support base… it is huge, notwithstanding his bad reputation in the west… Keep in mind, Iran is not just Tehran's northern suburbs, nor is it Tehran alone… it is Qom, Yazd, Shiraz, Isfahan, Sistan-Balochistan, etc. It is not just urban centres, it is also rural areas, villages that dot the entire country….. The reformists' rumor-argument about Ahmadinejad receiving a mere 5.8 million votes is ridiculous and shows how hysterical they have become in their desperation… that's unfortunate, because the reformists prove time and again that they are not up to the task. Moreover, what is being done today, there is no justification for. It is thuggish behavior pure and simple. When Hezbollah did a million times less than what these "reformist" thugs are doing, the whole world accused it of being a "militia" and using thuggish behavior to terrorize the Beirutis… and now the whole world finds it justified because it is aimed at hurting the security of Iran's regime??? Double-standards. The coverage of the Ahmadinejad victory rally was also pathetic. On CNN the headline was, thousands rally for Ahmadinejad victory speech. THOUSANDS? No, make that HUNDREDS of thousands. Make that more than a million. Anyway, it is odd to see that voters' backgrounds are being assumed as the determinant of their voting pattern (just because they voted a certain way does not mean they will do so again) and that based on this, it is being argued that the vote was rigged. How utterly ridiculous. Anyway, Ahmadinejad was actually a resident of Tabriz district and the city itself, speaks Azerbaijani, and was, if I am not mistaken, a governor there.
Like I said in a comment that is currently in purgatory over on the other "velvet revolution" thread– this is all a bunch of Zionist imperialist bullshit. The 5% of humanity that lives in grotesque excess and causes the misery of a billion or more by the policies they shove down our throats just can't believe it when a country doesn't follow their commandments. Boo friggin' hoo. Go invest in an arms manufacturer, or Huffington Post, or short sell your phantom stock, and leave the rest of us alone. This media circus surrounding the re-election of a popular president (not popular to all the wealthy expats, "Iran experts," Zionist media trolls, etc–who cares?) are the most pathetic excuse the mass media has produced for its existence since they discovered that Austrian guy who enslaved his daughter or that blond chick went missing in Aruba. "G-d help us."
Seriously, this has all the fingerprints of American meddling. For one thing–since when does the western media give a shit about democracy? Electoral irregularities by the hundreds right there in the U.S.A. and they're like…[[[[crickets]]]] Isn't it known that the U.S. has been conducting covert operations in Iran for some time now? Doesn't that kind of forfeit its corporatist state media's right to wag its finger about respect for democratic institutions? Do the useful idiots who comprise 99% of the western media have their dictionaries with them? "Sovereignty" mean anything?
And remember it took kermit roosevelt ,less than four cia operatives and a suitcase full of dollars to overtheow moussadeq in 1953.Its a sad fact but true.This time the Iranians must be vigilant and firm.
A college friend of mine posted on his private blog that a number of his former students, Iranians, have concurred their impressions that the votes were rigged. People are in the street. If anything the numbers are close, so likely there is no landslide, or a popular revolution might be in the cards. At 50-50, suppression is in the cards. MM. Its very sad that you take that frankly reactionary position. Neither of us know what is occurring. It is far away geographically and culturally, and many former more open communication paths have been severed, hopefully only temporarily.
Germany ,France, england ,Usa,oh ,the civilized world that is are concerned about the election.WTF?Who are you? What are you.Monsters.Hamas won very ,very fairly.You know, Iam so mad at this double standard I cant even get my thoughts ,I need a drink.
A little off-topic for this particular post, but I've found a great journalistic exercise in pragmatism in this sea of shameful Western "reporting" (not referring to Phil there, more to the New Yorker/NYT/WaPo/LAT etc.): Pierre Tristam's Dashing Fabricated Hopes: The Meaning of Ahmadinejad's Victory.
There's nothing surreal about it. Many people make this claim — probably in the hundreds of thousands, though I don't know whether anyone has counted. There's nothing bizarre or controversial about it at all. You are plainly just a complete ignoramus. link to en.wikipedia.org
"concurred their impressions" Fortunately, that is not how the fairness of elections and the validity of their results are ascertained……………..
No, the real problem here is that you're just an ass. When has Ahmedinejad ever claimed before to be a descendant of the prophet? Have you ever heard of this claim before from him? If he hasn't made this claim before, why is he suddenly claiming it in the wake of an obviously-stolen election?
"Neither of us know what is occurring," yet "suppression is in the cards"… what a ridiculous poser you are. Why don't you clean the Gazan blood off your own fangs before telling other countries how to act? Your spiritual homeland Israel is the most rogue, radical, bellicose state in the Middle East, supported blindly by brainwashed American Jewish New York Times-believing elitists like yourself. And the whole world–despite the corrupt western media–knows it. Stop trying to sow death, destruction, and mayhem in the countries that don't accept your illegitimate colonial nightmare. And start reforming your own house, as your more courageous friend Phil has been trying to do for some time now, with little help from ostriches like you.
Yes but this time, the CIA will probably want to consider bribing in euros.
http://www.shiachat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic... no wmd, no rigged election. the westerm media builds you up and knocks you over again.
The Terror Free Tomorrow foundation did an opinion poll prior to the election. Key findings: a) Ahemadinejad led Moussavi by a margin of 2.4:1 b) Among Azeris Ahmedinajad led Moussavi 2:1 SOURCE – http://www.terrorfreetomorrow.org/upimagestft/TFT...
RE: "I need a drink." MY COMMENT: As do we all. Who's buying?
Unfortunately the Liberal Interventionists didn't get the memo. They are frothing at the mouth over the Green Revolution: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/16/iran... ugh.