Putting Iran's Elections Into Context

Iran's carrying out elections and the results wont really shed all that much light on who wields power in the country. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei basically picks and chooses who runs through the Guardian Council. There are hardliner factions, including those who have backed Khamenei's previous chosen one - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who is term-limited and can't run for a third term as President).

The election basically pits what media outlets refer to as Ahmadinejad's faction versus Khamenei's faction.

Iran's supreme leader urged Iranians to vote in large numbers as the country held parliamentary elections Friday, saying a high turnout would send a strong message to the enemies of the nation in the nuclear standoff with the West.

The balloting for the 290-member parliament is the first major voting since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 and the mass protests and crackdowns that followed.

It is unlikely to change Iran's course over major policies — including its controversial nuclear program — regardless of who wins, but it may shape the political landscape for a successor to Ahmadinejad in 2013.

That's not really accurate.

While Ahmadinejad has tried to expand his power, Khamenei slapped him down. There was an incident where Ahmadinejad attempted to sack a minister, but Khamenei restored the minister to that post within days. That's a reminder of where power really lies in the country and should be a message that media outlets really take away from the kabuki play of elections.

Iran's mullahs get to pick and choose who runs for office, and they do so with the blessing of the Supreme Leader. If the mullahs don't like the candidate - they don't even get on the ballot.

Opposition leaders, including Mirhussein Mousavi, are under house arrest. Mousavi had run against Ahmadinejad in the disputed elections and lost. Massive protests erupted across Iran and it was violently suppressed, leaving the opposition groups under arrest and the watchful gaze of the Iranian security forces loyal to Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.

Taken as a whole, the elections really don't indicate who runs the country or whether the Iranian regime is shifting policies since the power is dictated from the same person - Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Even opposition groups in Iran recognize this - that the statements coming from Khamenei about voting in the election as a poke in the eye of the West (US) is just propaganda to prop up canddiates that have been selected to run by the same cabal that has run the country since the 1979 revolution. It's not change - it's rearranging deck chairs.

Iran's economic situation remains dire and Khamenei is using all manner of tactics to ensure that his power is preserved. At the same time, Iran's political and religious leaders are invoking the crisis with the West over Iran's nuclear program as a way to get out the vote, even though most Iranians are far more concerned over their economic situation.

Iranian Regime Fires Foreign Minister While Minister Was Visiting Senegal

If the Iranian regime, led by the mad mullahs and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wanted to send messages to both the Iranian people and observers, they did so loud and clear today. The regime fired Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who had been the foreign minister since 2005.

Ahmadinejad doesn't rule alone, despite his title of President. He requires the consent and approval of the mullahs, which is led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei had blocked Ahmadinejad's attempts to dump Mottaki for several years, but apparently Ahmadinejad managed to get his way.

It has been well known that the Iranian leader had long sought to replace Mr. Mottaki but had been prevented from doing so until now by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in appointing the heads of several key ministries.

The move was a victory for the president and an apparent extension of his powers, though it remained unclear what changes at the upper echelon of Iranian politics allowed for the firing.

President Ahmadinejad appointed Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, as the country’s acting foreign minister until a permanent replacement is found.

In a separate letter issued on Monday, Mr. Ahmadinejad expressed gratitude to Mr. Mottaki for his services during his five-year tenure. "Hereby, I thank you for your services as efforts during your tenure in the Foreign Ministry," read the letter.

Consider this a further consolidation of power in Ahmadinejad and his minions and a further reduction in the power of the mullahs to control the domestic and foreign policy agendas.

Expect Iran to continue taking a still more confrontational stance on its nuclear ambitions as Iran's nuclear energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, will take over as interim foreign minister. Expect him to try and communicate Iran's nuclear ambitions within a clearly delineated civilian spin, even as Iran remains as bellicose as ever and Iran's rivals remain wary of Iran's intentions. Indeed, this could be a change in marketing tact about Iran's nuclear ambitions but will not change Iran's intentions to develop not only the enrichment capabilities, but nuclear weapons to go along with it.

On that front, it appears that the Stuxnet worm has done more to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions than years of diplomacy and cajoling.

Iranian Mullahs Continue Crackdown; Regime's Demonstrators Urge Death Of Opposition

The mullahs have sent out their own demonstrators who are calling for the death to the protesters.

Tens of thousands of Iranians have protested in favour of their government in major cities across the country, following recent opposition protests.

Government supporters marched in Tehran, Shiraz, Qom and elsewhere, chanting "Death to opponents!"

The rallies - reportedly organised by the government - were a response to the opposition demonstrations on Sunday.

Tehran has accused Western powers of stirring-up the protests which left at least eight people dead.

Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei are continuing to oppress the Iranian people and calling those who consider the government illegitimate pawns of the West, even though all evidence points to the regime stealing the election from Mirhussein Mousavi.

The regime also broke multiple taboos by engaging in a deadly crackdown during Ashura, which is something that not even the feared Shah of Iran did while still hoping to retain power in 1978-1979. The martyrdom of Ali weighs so heavily on Shia thinking that comparisons to Ali and Yazid are prevalent in the opposition's characterizations of the crackdown. They portray Ahmadinejad and Khamenei as Yazid, who killed Ali on the plain of Karbala in 680AD. As Michael Totten points out:

Ashura is a Shia religious holiday, and it is not joyous. It is a day of lamentation that marks the date when the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid killed Hussein, son of Ali and grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, during the Battle of Karbala in the year 680. It’s one of the most infamous episodes in the struggle for power that permanently ruptured the house of Islam into its warring Sunni and Shia halves. The Shia – the partisans of Ali and his lineage – have been at war with the Sunnis – those who took the side of Yazid – for thirteen centuries. That Khamenei’s security people would murder unarmed demonstrators on this day of all days, and that his opponents now denounce him as the Yazid of Iran, may very well set most of the religious conservatives against him for as long as he and his government live.

Turnabout is also fair play given that Khamenei once fashioned himself as a modern-day Ali during the Iranian revolution in 1979. Now, he's engaging in the very kinds of activities he once demonstrated against.

UPDATE:
Mousavi's nephew has been buried under the watchful eye of the regime's thugs. It's also interesting how easy it has been for the regime to post images of their counter-demonstrations all while clamping down on the release of any information pertaining to the opposition efforts to get their message out. The regime is more prepared today to thwart online communications between the protesters than it was when the protests first erupted in the aftermath of the election debacle.

UPDATE:
The Iranian regime is claiming that they didn't kill Mousavi's nephew, but rather some unidentified assassin.

Ahmadinejad and Khamenei Settling Scores The Old Fashioned Way

A rival mullah said that Khamenei turned Iran into a dictatorship. He isn't far off the mark. Both Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei and el Presidente Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are looking to settle scores against political rivals now that Khamenei declared the election results final and installed Ahmadinejad as president despite evidence that the election was rigged. They're going with the tried and true -

Ahmadinejad is prosecuting political rivals.

This isn't something done in a regime based on democracy, or even a veneer of democracy. It's all about consolidating power and eliminating rivals who threaten that power.

Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke in front of thousands of government supporters gathered in a covered arena at Tehran University. The president appeared unafraid to effectively contradict the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who on Wednesday said he was not convinced that reform leaders had conspired in advance with foreign forces to orchestrate the post-election unrest. The supreme leader did, however, stick by the government’s claim that the protests were planned.

If Ayatollah Khamenei was hoping to blunt calls for revenge, more arrests and severe punishment, Mr. Ahmadinejad showed no signs of softening.

“We must deal with those who led these events,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said. “Those who organized, incited and pursued the plans of the enemies must be dealt with decisively.”

Even before the current crisis, Iranian politics had competing power centers. But all such groups had their place within the Islamic republic, even if they had different ideas about government powers and priorities. Political analysts say that what is different now is that President Ahmadinejad is trying to transform his rivals into outsiders, shrinking the circle of those who have a voice and role in the system to a minimum.

“What has been remarkable about the last two months is that the tent of insiders has narrowed to such a small faction,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “The outsiders are the vast majority of the country.”

Indeed, the tent of insiders is now focused on two thugs - Khamenei and Ahamdinejad. Everyone else either kowtows to those two, toes their line, or is seen as an outsider, even when the opponents are no less strident on matters of Iranian foreign policy than Ahmadinejad or Khamenei:

His remarks were clearly aimed at Mir Hussein Moussavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Mohammad Khatami, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — some of the most important and influential figures in the Islamic republic’s 30-year history — whom the president has wanted to jail as enemies of the state.

“Serious confrontation has to be against the leaders and key elements, against those who organized and provoked and carried out the enemy’s plan,” he was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. “They have to be dealt with seriously.”

Mr. Khatami, a former two-term president and reform leader, blasted Mr. Ahmadinejad in a statement issued on his Web site the night before, sharply criticizing the government crackdown and what he called “these so-called trials,” which have been held for the dozens of intellectuals, former officials and journalists arrested since the election conflict began.

Meanwhile, Khamenei must realize that claims that the demonstrations were the result of foreign agents isn't sitting well with Iranians who have seen their rights stripped from them, and is trying to walk back from earlier statements.

Video confessions are backfiring, primarily because they show that the regime is engaging in methods that result in serious weight loss - torture, withholding of food, etc. Reports of rape are also being made. The show trials are exposing the regime's barbaric methods to lay claim the levers of power.

Iranian Show Trial Proceeds With Reformers Confessing

The Iranian regime continues with the show trials of those it claims formented violence in the wake of the botched elections that were given a rubber stamp of approval by Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

They've even managed to get some reformers to admit to formenting violence:

The courtroom statement by Saeed Hajjarian — who is considered one of the reform movement's top architects and who was shot in the head in a 2000 assassination attempt — was the latest dramatic confession in the month-old trial that the opposition has compared to Josef Stalin's "show trials" of opponents in the Soviet Union.

More than 100 defendants are on trial, accused of trying to overthrow Iran's clerical leadership in a "velvet revolution" by fomenting huge protests over the disputed June 12 presidential election, which the opposition says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by fraud.

Also among the defendants who appeared Tuesday was Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American academic. The prosecutor read out charges against him including espionage, contact with foreign elements and acting against national security.

Speaking before the court, Tajbakhsh appeared to try to speak broadly about foreign interference in Iran, saying "undeniably this was a goal of the U.S. and European countries to bring change inside Iran" and that "the root cause of the riots are found outside the borders."

The root causes for the violence was the fact that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the election and sent his thugs, the Basiji, to crush the opposition. Khamenei gave his approval to Ahmadinejad and the election results were made official, even if many Iranians don't think Ahmadinejad won.

No full recount will take place because Khamenei already declared the winner.

The opposition has been harassed by the regime ever since.

Iranian Mourners Roughed Up Following Memorial To Slain Protesters

Islamic law provides a 40 day mourning period, the last day of which was today in Tehran. Among those who were memorialized was Neda Soltan, who was murdered in cold blood by the Iranian thugs operating at the behest of the Guardian Council and Iranian thug Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad and the other mullahs warned that opposition leader Mirhussein Mousavi should stay away from the memorial service.

Of course, it didn't stop the regime from taking the opportunity to rough up those who paid their respects to those slain 40 days ago.



As CNN reports:

The witness saw baton-wielding riot police and Basij militia charging the gathering of 3,000 people and observed at least three beatings. The witness also saw other people running from police who appeared to have been beaten. One of the mourners had a bloody head.

People came to mourn the death of Neda Agha-Soltan on the 40th day after she was shot in Tehran, and the day had the potential to cause broader demonstrations.

For Iranians, a predominantly Shiite Muslim population, the 40th day marks the last day of mourning.

Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot during street protests on June 20. Her last moments were captured on a shaky video, probably shot with a cell phone, and dispatched for the world to see.

Reformist candidate Mir Houssein Moussavi, who was hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chief challenger, said on his Web site that he and fellow reform candidate Mehdi Karrubi would commemorate Agha-Soltan with her mother at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery.

An official death toll in post-election violence has not been updated in weeks, but the Iranian Labor News Agency cited Farhad Tajari, deputy chief of the parliament's judicial and legal commission, as saying that "evidence shows that ultimately 30 people were killed."

CNN fails to note that Mousavi and Ahmadinejad were both hand picked challengers by the Guardian Council and "reformist" is a matter of degree - if not without distinction since both would be generally operating at the behest of the Guardian Council and the Supreme Ayatollah, Ali Khamenei. Further, evidence suggests that the death toll from the crackdown against the protesters is far higher than 30. With the regime cracking down on media outlets, there's no way to officially determine how many were murdered by the regime, and how many remain in custody.

MSNBC reports that the police arrested some of those who attended the memorial at the cemetery, plus they forced Mousavi to leave the cemetery as hundreds surrounded his car. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that the police were forced to retreat as tens of thousands of Iranians converged on the cemetery.

Tehran Bureau is attempting to compile a list of those murdered by the regime. Also, Tehran Bureau relates how an Iranian lawmaker has admitted the existence of a previously secret detention facility under the Iranian Intelligence Ministry building, where some protesters were taken and were routinely assaulted, tortured and deprived of food and water.

Here's more video - showing Iranian soldiers beating on protesters using chains and batons:



This is an evil and corrupt regime to the core.

UPDATE:
More video, this purporting to be from the cemetery skirmishes:

More Details Emerging On Iranian Crackdown Against Protesters

More than 100 protesters were killed after they were arrested, according to reports emerging from Iranian sources.

Some prisoners say they watched fellow detainees being beaten to death by guards in overcrowded, stinking holding pens. Others say they had their fingernails ripped off or were forced to lick filthy toilet bowls.

The accounts of prison abuse in Iran’s postelection crackdown — relayed by relatives and on opposition Web sites — have set off growing outrage among Iranians, including some prominent conservatives. More bruised corpses have been returned to families in recent days, and some hospital officials have told human rights workers that they have seen evidence that well over 100 protesters have died since the vote.

On Tuesday, the government released 140 prisoners in one of several conciliatory gestures aimed at deflecting further criticism. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a letter urging the head of the judiciary to show “Islamic mercy” to the detainees, and on Monday Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, personally intervened and closed an especially notorious detention center.

But there are signs that widespread public anger persists, and that it is not confined to those who took to the streets crying fraud after Mr. Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory last month. Several conservatives have said the abuse suggests a troubling lack of accountability, and they have hinted at a link with Mr. Ahmadinejad’s recent willingness to defy even the venerated Ayatollah Khamenei.

The reason the anger persists is that the perception that the election was rigged and that Khamenei rubber stamped Ahmadinejad's bogus victory is now an established fact in the mind of most Iranians. They've seen their electoral power wiped away with a few mere words from Khamenei, whose word is typically seen as the final one.

A few conciliatory gestures aren't going to placate millions of Iranians who have seen their few rights evaporate in front of their eyes. They now realize that the regime is corrupt throughout, and there's little they can do about it with Ahmadinejad and the mullahs controlling the IRGC and the Basiji.

Mirhussein Mousavi and another candidate for the presidency continue to oppose the regime and call the election fraudulent. More than 250 members of the opposition remain in custody, and requests to secure their release have fallen on deaf ears. Even a call to memorialize those who were killed in the clashes between the opposition and the regime's thugs went unanswered.

Some hardline clerics have demanded that Mousavi and Karoubi be tried on charges that could carry the death penalty.

Khamenei, having rejected calls for the election result to be annulled or re-examined, is expected to confirm Ahmadinejad as president soon. Parliament will then swear him in.

This week the authorities have taken some steps to defuse tension over the detainee issue, perhaps reflecting concern among some senior officials about reports of harsh treatment.

Khamenei has ordered the closure of one Tehran detention centre. The judiciary, ordered by its chief on Monday to review the cases of detainees, said on Wednesday that a disabled reformist, Saeed Hajjarian, would be released.

The regime's response has been to deflect claims of illegitimacy, blaming the US and the West for the violence, and to ignore the claims of election fraud going so far as to reject a full recount of the election.

In the meantime, criminal trials will proceed against at least 20 protesters. The charges against that group of protesters includes bombings, carrying weapons and attacking security forces. As the AP notes:

Among the defendants are some who had contact with the Mujahedeen-e Khalq — a dissident group of Iranian exiles — and members of the Bahai faith, who are often targeted by the Iranian government, IRNA said.

They will face charges including connections to terrorist groups, planting bombs, carrying weapons and grenades, intentional attack on the police and Basij, attacking security and university facilities, "sending images to the media of the enemy" ... and damaging public property, IRNA said.

In other words, expect death sentences to be handed down and lengthy prison sentences for those who are not sentenced to death. The regime is hoping that such a sentencing will deter others from standing in the way of the regime's ongoing consolidation of power.

Now, as to who is really pulling the strings in the regime, there are continuing reports suggesting that Ahmadinejad is pursuing his own agenda without the consent of Khamenei. Some hardliners are warning that Ahmadinejad could be deposed for not following orders. That's on the heels of various reports regarding the selection of Ahmadinejad's vice president and the reason for his sacking.

The Iranian Regime Takes Rafsanjani To Task

Yesterday, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani gave a sermon that got the regime in a tizzy. The full text of that speech is here, in which he slammed China for killing Uighurs (and which those present began chanting Death to China), but which devoted significant time to attacking Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad for making a mockery of the democratic process such as it exists in Iran.

He said:

As you are aware, according to the constitution, everything in the country is determined by people's vote. People elect the members of the Assembly of Expert and then they elect leader, that is, leader is [indirectly] elected by people's vote. Presidents, MPs, members of the councils are elected by direct votes of people. Other officials are also appointed [indirectly] through people's vote. Everything depends on people. This is the religious system. The title of Islamic Republic is not used as a formality. It includes both the republican and Islamic nature.

The title of Islamic Republic is not just a formality. This is a reality passed on to us on the basis of Koran, as well as the religious sayings of the [Shiite] Imams and prophet. We believe in them. We should have them at the same time. Rest assured if one of those two aspects are damaged we will loose our revolution. If it looses its Islamic aspect, we will go astray. If it looses its republican aspect, it [The Islamic Republic] will not be realized. Based on the reasons that I have offered, without people and their vote there would be no Islamic system...

This was our path. We should reach the destination. We should strengthen it day by day. If the problems after the [presidential] election had not emerged, we would have had taken the best largest step towards realizing the Islamic [aspect of the establishment] at the 30th anniversary of the revolution. I am not going to say that we have not taken the step. I want to explain why this happened.

What I understand is that towards the end of the election campaign we were taken over by doubt. In other words, people started to have doubts and the seeds of doubt were sown, for whatever reason. Whether it was unfavourable publicity or the Voice and Vision's inappropriate actions or other things, seeds of doubt were planted in the minds of the people. We consider doubt as the worst disaster.

Doubt came down on our nation like the plague. Of course, there are two separate currents. There is a group of people who have no doubts, they...and mind their own business. But there is also another group, whose numbers are not few and include a great section of our erudite and knowledgeable people, who say: " We doubt". We should take measures to remove this doubt. This period, after the results of the elections , is a bitter era. I do not believe anyone from any faction wanted this to happen. We have all lost in this event. We have all lost and now ask ourselves: why did it happen. We need unity today, more than ever.

Our country should be united against all the dangers that threaten us. They have now upped their ransom demands and are coming forward to take away our achievements in the fields of hi-tech and particularly nuclear technology. Of course, God will not give them the opportunity to do so, but they are greedy. My brothers and sisters, first of all, you all know me, I have never wanted to abuse this platform in favour of a particular faction and my remarks have always concerned issues beyond factionalism. I am talking in the same manner today. I am not interested in any factions. In my view, we should all think and find a way that will unite us to take our country forward and save ourselves from these dangerous and bad effects, and the emerging grudges. We should disappoint our enemies so that they would not covet our country. What should we do? I have a few suggestions...

Note that while he continues attacking Ahmadinejad and Khamenei for all but stealing the election and sowing the seeds of doubt in the legitimacy of the regime through their heavy handed actions to declare a winner without a full recount, he too supports Iran's long term goals of nuclear technologies and is just as wary of the West and the US as the current regime.

Still, it was the comments about the regime that got Rafsanjani in hot water. One of the official mouthpieces for the government slammed Rafsanjani for questioning the election outcomes. Moreover, at least one member of the Guardian Council, which rubber stamped the election, invokes the name of Allah to support their results:

But a prominent cleric who is a member of the electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, which upheld the poll result, rebuked Rafsanjani for his focus on popular legitimacy.

"The legitimacy of the government is given by God," the ISNA news agency quoted Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi as saying.

"Acceptance by the people doesn't bring legitimacy to (an Islamic) government. Mr Hashemi Rafsanjani ignored this important Islamic point and talked in both parts of his sermon yesterday as if governments are assigned only by the people."

These comments give lie to the fact that the people have ever had a say in who governs. It was always concentrated in the hands of the Guardian Council.

It suggests that Rafsanjani is part of a conspiracy against the regime. That's not good news for the regime, but it puts Rafsanjani on the same side as the opposition. It means Rafsanjani is the highest ranking cleric to side with the opposition.

As for the chants of Death to Russia and Death to China, those stem from the fact that both of those countries were quick to recognize Ahmadinejad as winner, though it doesn't mean that the US is on the back burner.

Iranian Regime Tear Gasses Opposition At Prayer

I've been saying that the fight for control of Iran wasn't over by a long shot. There would be lulls in the conflict between the regime and the opposition, but things have once again heated up following Friday prayers. Today's events show that the regime, led by the illegitimate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continue their assault on the intelligence of all Iranians and once again directly attacked the opposition as they met for Friday prayers.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters packed Iran's main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical supporter, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, delivered a sermon sharply criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests.

Outside Tehran University, where the prayers were held, pro-government Basiji militiamen in front of a line of riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of opposition protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Some protesters kicked away the tear gas canisters as others scattered and regrouped.

The opposition aimed to turn the Friday prayers into a show of their continued strength despite heavy government suppression since the disputed June 12 presidential election. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, sat in the front row of worshippers, attending for the first time since the turmoil began. Many of the tens of thousands at the prayers wore headbands or wristbands in his campaign color green, or had green prayer rugs.

Rafsanjani is no friend of the West, but even he sees that the regime has gone too far. Rafsanjani had been on the sidelines until now, but taking this stance puts him up against Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.

The protesters continue to stand up against Ahmadinejad at great personal risk to their lives. Women, who make up a significant portion of the protesters are at risk of being raped by the Basiji who are at the forefront of Ahmadinejad's crackdown. Killing protesters turn them into martyrs. Rape then is a favored tactic since Iranian society traditionally shuns such victims:

Taraneh's is not the first allegation of brutal raping of a post-election protester -- according to the UK Guardian, an 18 year old boy in Shiraz was repeatedly gang raped by prison officials while in detention after being arrested for participating in the protests on June 15. That boy's father won't let him back in the family home.

Despite its agitations for reform, Iranian society remains traditional, according to Iranian-British blogger Potkin Azarmehr, and it's the stigma of rape that is being used as a weapon against the protesters. "By killing protesters, the government makes martyrs of them, but by raping them and allowing them to live, it makes them shunned in society," Azarmehr said.

Not that the stigma of rape is exclusive to Iran and other more traditional societies. A friend of Azarmehr's who is presently in Iran told him that he's "sick of hearing that people like Taraneh are better off dead" from friends abroad, just because they "can't handle the fact that she's been raped."

Via Hot Air comes the following two clips showing the protests and the crackdown:





There are also photos purportedly of the ongoing demonstrations and crackdown, including protesters dealing with tear gas fired by police and the Basiji.

Iranian Protesters Defy Regime's Crackdown Threats

Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei aren't giving up so easily. They've once again taken to the streets in demonstrations.

For days, supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been calling for new protests in Tehran and other cities on Thursday, their first significant attempt to get back on the streets since security forces crushed massive demonstrations nearly two weeks ago in Iran's postelection turmoil.

Tehran governor Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march Thursday would meet the same fate.

"If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to calls by counterrevolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA in a report late Wednesday.

Thursday afternoon, a stepped-up number of uniformed policemen along with plainclothes Basiji militiamen stood at intersections all along Revolution Street and at nearby near Tehran University, some of the sites where protests were called.

Still, a group of around 300 young people gathered in front of Tehran University and began to chant, "Death to the dictator," witnesses said. Many of them wore green surgical masks, the color of Mousavi's movement.

Police charged at them, swinging batons, but the protesters fled, then regrouped at another corner and resumed chanting, the witnesses said. Police chased them repeatedly as the protesters continued to regroup, the witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution.

Within an hour, the number of protesters grew to about 700 and marched toward the gates of Tehran University, the witnesses said. A line of policemen blocked their path, but they did nothing to disperse the gathering as the protesters stood and continued to chant, the witnesses said.

As I've noted, the situation in Iran will continue to ebb and flow as the regime tries to maintain its grip on power and the opposition looks for ways to organize just beyond the regime's grasp.

The regime has continued making threats against the opposition, claiming that they are working at the behest of the US, the West, and/or Israel. It's a tried and true formula in the Middle East, but it's not going to fool many this time around, not when so many people see the regime for what it is - a fraudulent attempt to remain in power.

Iran Continues Crackdown Including Executing Captured Protesters

There have been multiple reports over the past week that the Iranian regime has been arrested, convicting, and executing protesters who are standing up to protest the stolen election.

This latest report gives the most detail to date:

The state-run Fars news agency reported that 20 people were hanged at the Karaj prison west of the capital on Saturday, and another 14 executions elsewhere in Iran have been reported by state media since Wednesday, including six hangings at Teheran's Evin Prison. Many of those executed have been described in state media as drug traffickers - a charge often leveled at dissidents.

Iranian police say that about 1,000 people have been detained for involvement in the public protests that erupted after June 12 presidential elections.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated candidate who has branded the victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fraudulent, has been laying low since last Wednesday while still challenging the results.

Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are busy trying to spin the election debacle as though the protests are the result of foreign interference, including claims that Mousavi was a US agent.

That's a most interesting claim, given that Khamenei himself has to sign off on all the candidates that run for office. Mousavi was one of the hand-picked candidates for President, and Khamenei and the Guardian Council have to agree to their credentials. Also, as Supreme Ayatollah, Khamenei is supposed to be infalliable. So, how is it that all of a sudden he's totally wrong about Mousavi?

People out on the streets in the vicinity of protests are also subject to arrest, search, and seizure. The Basij are looking for people who have cellphones with images or video of the demonstrations - and the ensuing crackdowns. They don't want people to see the truth.

Meanwhile, a group of clerics, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers, has ruled the election invalid, setting up a confrontation with Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, and their fellow mullahs. The group claims that the Guardian Council no longer has the authority to rule in such matters.

That's in addition to the regime's attacks on employees working at the British Embassy and foreign journalists:

On Saturday, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that post-election events had caused bitterness.

Britain said one of two UK embassy employees detained for "inciting protests" would be released.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the aftermath of the poll to protest at what they alleged was a fraudulent election.

The protests died down after the authorities deployed lethal force, killing at least 20 demonstrators. More than 1,000 were arrested.

On Sunday, state news agency Irna quoted Iran's police chief as saying about two-thirds of those arrested had been released.

The authorities have blamed the West, in particular the UK, for fomenting the unrest through the use of the media, including BBC Persian television which broadcasts to the country via satellite.

The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, has said "those who co-operate with such websites and television channels will face prosecution".

On Sunday, Iran's foreign ministry said a British-Greek journalist working for The Washington Times - who had been arrested in connection with "recent street riots" - had been released.

Iranian Mullahs Continue Crackdown

It should come as no surprise as the regime says that some of the protesters will face the death penalty for their participation in protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stealing the election.

A senior cleric demanded in a nationally broadcast sermon Friday that leaders of the unrest be punished harshly and that some are "worthy of execution."

Iran's ruling clergy has widened its crackdown on the opposition since a bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, and scattered protests have replaced the initial mass rallies.

Punish them harshly and with cruelty. That's what the mullahs siding with Ahmadinejad and Khamenei want.

In fact, the mullahs are already claiming that the protesters are at war with God himself, so will use such claims to justify their violence. The mullahs are engaging in jihad against their own people by claiming that they are not following the word of Khamenei as enforced by Ahmadinejad.

As usual, the thugs chant death to America and death to Israel to end their Friday sermons, whipping the faithful into a frenzy. Of course, the media simply can't bring itself to repeat precisely what was said, but instead says that the parishioners were saying anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.

It's also reported that Mirhussein Mousavi's website was hacked, which was likely done by Ahmadinejad's thugs because they want to crush the opposition and their means of communications and organization.

Inauguration Day, Iran Style

Ahmadinejad was sworn in today, but 180 members of the Iranian parliament decided to be no-shows. That's pretty ballsy given that Ahmadinejad and his thugs in the Basij arne't above murdering Iranians who stand up against Ahmadinejad and the regime which stole their votes and the election from Mirhussein Mousavi.

More than 180 Iranian MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election win, local press reports say.

All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night, but only 105 turned up, the reports say.

A BBC correspondent says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of Iran after disputed presidential polls.

The Parliament is a mullah approved gaggle of politicians, so if they've decided in overwhelming numbers to snub Ahmadinejad, that is a pretty strong rebuff.

The problem is that the legislature may be next up for reprisal by Ahmadinejad. By stealing the election, there's every indication that Ahmadinejad isn't going to be constrained by Iranian law and will use the Supreme Ayatollah to sanction further actions that undermine what's left of the facade of Iranian "democracy" and push Iran fully into a totalitarian dictatorship. Ed at Hot Air also notes the importance of this action.

Mousavi isn't backing down either, although the street demonstrations are sporadic and some have been cancelled.


Where's the UN in all this? Given that all they could probably muster was a weakly worded letter of rebuke, their presence wouldn't exactly be noticed.

Ahmadinejad has called out President Obama for what he calls interfering in Iranian affairs. Well, that was a given regardless of whatever President Obama said. The US and the rest of the world, particularly the British and Israelis are bogeymen for Ahmadinejad and his cronies to pull out when the going gets tough and their designs to turn the Islamic Republic of Iran into the Islamic State become so blatant and overwhelming that Iranians can't help but notice that their votes have disappeared into the night.

One of Iran's ambassadors is taking to calling the protesters a minority, but the fact that 180+ members of the Iranian parliament snubbed Ahmadinejad shows that it's far more than just a minority. You could even argue that it's an overwhelming majority of Iranians.

The protests continue (screen cap from 6/24/2009). The police are present in large numbers, to head off potential demonstrations.

This video purports to show the damage done by police who act as little more than thugs to intimidate the locals into acquiescence.

This video shows the police gathering to quell demonstrations in Tehran:


Meanwhile, as riding the PATH train this morning a gentleman had a button on the lapel of his jacket which asked "Where is my Vote?" The words were laid out in the colors of the Iranian flag (green/white/red).

That's indeed the question that many Iranians are asking - where are their votes?

Admissions and Rejections

The Iranian regime continues operating as though the election results actually meant that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won. They're not going to rescind the results, even though their own calculations show that the results were bogus (and outside statistical analysis confirms). They just don't consider the results significantly bogus to annul the results:

On Press TV, the English-language state television satellite broadcaster, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, declared: “If a major breach occurs in an election, the Guardian Council may annul the votes that come out of a particular affected ballot box, polling station, district, or city.”

“Fortunately, in the recent presidential election we found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election,” he said.

“Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place.” He was speaking late on Monday in Tehran and his remarks were posted early Tuesday, Tehran time.

That said, there are reports the Guardian Council is contemplating what was previously considered unthinkable. They are contemplating sending Ahmadinejad packing and/or adjusting the role of the Supreme Ayatollah, a position held by Ali Khamenei.

I consider both of those options farfetched, and frankly resemble the rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic. This regime has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people and most of the world (except for the US State Department, which apparently wants to go forward with hosting barbeques for Iranian diplomats at embassies around the world to celebrate July 4th).

Meanwhile, the regime keeps cracking skulls of protesters and those caught up in the protests:



And they're continuing to make threats that the courts will teach those protesters already arrested a lesson. They're also trotting out people they claim show that the protests were the result of foreign influence. No doubt coercion and propagandists are at work here. It's what the regime does:

Iranian state television, in broadcasts clearly intended to discredit opponents defying a ban on protests, paraded people it said had been arrested during weekend violence.

"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.

UPDATE:
The general strike against the regime is on. Ahmadinejad and the Guardian Council had warned anyone striking would be fired.

The stakes are being raised.

At the same time, the regime keeps exposing its depravities for all the world to see. The regime is charging a bullet fee to those killed by the regime's thugs:

A 19-year-old shot in the head and killed during the demonstrations... and Iranian officials asked his parents 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." One of the most tragic stories I've read in a long time, by the Wall Street Journal's exceptional Farnaz Fassihi.

UPDATE:
This goes to something I've noted before. Mousavi's background doesn't make him a sainted figure either in the opposition to the thug Ahmadinejad. In fact, it appears that he's got just as thuggish a past as Ahmadinejad.

You see, it appears he participated in the attack on the US Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983 among other terror attacks:

"We had a tap on the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon," retired Navy Admiral James "Ace" Lyons related by telephone Monday. In 1983 Lyons was deputy chief of Naval Operations, and deeply involved in the events in Lebanon.

"The Iranian ambassador received instructions from the foreign minister to have various groups target U.S. personnel in Lebanon, but in particular to carry out a 'spectacular action' against the Marines," said Lyons.

"He was prime minister," Lyons said of Mousavi, "so he didn't get down to the details at the lowest levels. "But he was in a principal position and had to be aware of what was going on."

Lyons, sometimes called "the father" of the Navy SEALs' Red Cell counter-terror unit, also fingered Mousavi for the 1988 truck bombing of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Center in Naples, Italy, that killed five persons, including the first Navy woman to die in a terrorist attack.

Bob Baer agrees that Mousawi, who has been celebrated in the West for sparking street demonstrations against the Teheran regime since he lost the elections, was directing the overall 1980s terror campaign.

He may have had a change of heart, but he was clearly one of the Guardian Council's chosen few to run for President, so he would have been amenable to continuing their policies. The thuggish way they've handled matters since has changed Mousavi's role and that of the regime itself.

UPDATE:
President Obama is giving a press conference and taking questions. In his prepared comments, he noted that the Iranian claims that the US is instigating the protests is patently false. His prepared comments are pretty good, but then decides to use the term "extraordinary debate" to describe the ongoing situation there.

Extraordinary debate?

People are being murdered by the regime in cold blood (and being asked to pay for the "privilege" of being murdered to boot). and that's debate? Sorry, but it was an extremely poor choice of words.

This isn't a debate. It's a struggle for power between an entrenched regime that wants to retain all the power for itself, and the rest of the Iranian people who have finally seen the veil lifted on the totalitarianism of the Iranian political system. The election didn't matter, because the outcome was predetermined. It was rigged.

UPDATE:
Iranian soccer players who wore green armbands in solidarity with Mousavi have apparently been punished for that action. They have been "retired."

According to the pro-government newspaper Iran, four players – Ali Karimi, 31, Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32, Hosein Ka’abi, 24 and Vahid Hashemian, 32 – have been “retired” from the sport after their gesture in last Wednesday’s match against South Korea in Seoul.

They were among six players who took to the field wearing wristbands in the colour of the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, which has been adopted by demonstrators who believe the 12 June election was stolen.

Most of the players obeyed instructions to remove the armwear at half-time, but Mahdavikia wore his green captain’s armband for the entire match. The four are also said to have been banned from giving media interviews.

Also, there's a new video out that shows Ahmadinejad and mullahs discussing items in Farsi. The translations so far speak to laying the groundwork for the events we've seen unfolding.

Farsi translators need to get their hands on this. If true, it shows the determination of Ahmadinejad and the mullahs to thwart the will of the people of Iran and pursue their own agenda.

UPDATE:
Iran is scheduling Ahmadinejad's "swearing in". Tin hat dictators do not get sworn in. They take power and the people have no choice.

That's what happened. Stop treating Iran as though it is a representative democracy; it never was. It was a totalitarian regime that used elections to give it a veneer of legitimacy, and the veneer has been shorn off by the thuggist tactics of Ahmadinejad and his co-religionists.

Fundamental Shifts

The events of this past weekend in Iran have signaled what is going to reveal a fundamental shift in Iranian politics. If the regime - Ahmadinejad and Khamenei - cracks down and survives the demonstrations, it will purge the regime of anyone who opposes them.

Steve Shippert further notes that there are rumblings among the opposition that they may look to do away with the position and role of Supreme Ayatollah, a position that Khamenei still holds.

Iraq's Ali Sistani appears to have developed a significant following inside Iran, who has watched as he has threaded his way through Iraqi politics and positioned himself as finding that Islam and democracy can go hand in hand.

This is a huge development. One of the biggest questions I and others have had since the Iranian protests/revolt/revolution began was whether Mousavi would be any different in tangible effect (Hizballah & Hamas support, etc.) than Ahmadinejad and whether Rafsanjani was seeking to sack 'Supreme' Leader Khamenei simply to acquire the powerful position for himself. That question perhaps may have been answered today.

My ears first perked up when word made it through the grapevines over the weekend that Rafsanjani had been meeting with other Ayatollahs and clerics in Qom, and had among them a representative of Iraq's Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Why? Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in 2007 made two very critical statements: that "I am a servant of all Iraqis, there is no difference between a Sunni, a Shiite or a Kurd or a Christian," and that Islam can exist within a democracy without theological conflict. You will never hear such words slip past the lips of Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei. Ever.

Sistani's presence at the Rafsanjani talks in Qom, Iran, through a representative brings therefore added significance. And the al-Arabiya report above seems to suggest that Rafsanjani is not seeking Sistani's support for superficial reasons.

If you're looking for tangible benefits of the Iraqi invasion, it's that the seeds for democracy might be taking hold not only in Iraq, but well beyond. If it takes root inside Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah may be out of business since they lose their financial backing.

Fatah faced a similar problem after Saddam Hussein was overthrown (Saddam used to fund martyrs' funds for the Palestinian terrorists). Without that money coming in, Fatah had to look elsewhere. Eliminate the flow of money to the terror groups, and they will wither on the vine. That presents the best chance for peace in the region, not the ongoing demands to force concessions from Israel.

But for now, the battle for Iran's future is being fought on the streets and online. The regime is showing that it has developed sophisticated means to quell online communications and they had help from European telecommunications companies in the process.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

The "monitoring center," installed within the government's telecom monopoly, was part of a larger contract with Iran that included mobile-phone networking technology, Mr. Roome said.

"If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them," said Mr. Roome.

The sale of the equipment to Iran by the joint venture, called Nokia Siemens Networks, was previously reported last year by the editor of an Austrian information-technology Web site called Futurezone.

The Iranian government had experimented with the equipment for brief periods in recent months, but it had not been used extensively, and therefore its capabilities weren't fully displayed -- until during the recent unrest, the Internet experts interviewed said.

Demonstrators have been using the Internet and various services online to communicate and get their message out via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and the video services YouTube and LiveLeak. Disrupting those services by limiting overall Internet access gives the regime the ability to crack down without anyone being the wiser.

Iranian police continue to call demonstrators hooligans, and threaten to continue using force - at least 19 were killed so far yesterday, and the toll was likely far higher.

There were lots of Internet postings on Twitter and Facebook about a 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. ET) vigil at Haft-e Tir Square for a young female protester identified as Neda. Her death, which was caught on camera, has become a rallying cry for many protesters.

At Monday's rally in the square, one witness said a male protester in his 20s was chased into an alley by two members of the pro-government Basij militia. A group of protesters chased the Basijis away and then the crowd could be heard chanting "Do not be scared. We are all together."

On Monday, the country's Revolutionary Guard warned that protesters who "disturb the peace and stand up to security forces" will be considered a threat to the regime and will be met with a strong response.

"The guardians of the Islamic revolution and the courageous Basiji together with the security forces following the orders of the supreme leader and following him unquestioningly, are determined to act strongly to return peace and tranquility to society ... and to clean the country of these plotters and hooligans," the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement, according to Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA.

In other words, the regime expects to purge and eliminate its opposition, cementing control via the clearly bogus election results. The regime admits errors were made, but will do nothing to rectify the situation.

You cannot expect anyone to trust the election results when you have 50 cities showing that they had more than 100% voter turnout. Clearly, someone cooked the books, and that can only be the Ahmadinejad regime. After all, if they were truly secure in the fact that they won this election fair and square without chicanery, they would have had no problem allowing a recount. Instead, they used iron fisted force to ram through the election results without scrutiny because it was all a sham.

More to the point, no one in Iran will accept the regime's say on what will come next because they've already attempted to lie their way into securing power for themselves.

Demonstrations continue around the world, including in the United States, Turkey, Germany and France, and the death of Neda has become a focusing moment for the demonstrators. Her death may have been one of the nearly two dozen murdered by the regime, but since it was captured on video in brutal detail, and because she was a very attractive woman before the Basij murdered her, she has become a rallying cry for opponents of the regime.

UPDATE:
The regime's goons aren't above home invasions to terrorize the people:



UPDATE:
They may have murdered Neda, but not her voice. Indeed.

Meanwhile, a Life photographer has apparently gone missing in Tehran. That comes after threats against journalists to refrain from covering the events on the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in Iran. This regime is doing all it can to remain in power and shows the utmost contempt for the Iranian people in demanding they obey the thugs in charge despite admissions of electoral fraud that the Supreme Ayatollah signed off on as legitimate.

The protesters have called for a general strike tomorrow, which the regime has apparently countered with a claim that anyone who doesn't show up is fired.

UPDATE:
BBC is reporting that the thugs in charge were fearful that there would be tremendous crowds showing up to memorialize Neda, so they've taken to cracking down on demonstrators in smaller groups to prevent them from organizing.

And she wasn't even participating in the demonstration when she was murdered:

The fiance of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose violent death during clashes in Tehran on Saturday was recorded on video and uploaded to the internet, has described the events leading up to her shooting in an interview for BBC Persian TV.

She had been sitting with her music teacher in a car, stuck in traffic, when she decided to get out because of the heat. “She got out of the car for just for a few minutes [and] that’s when she was shot dead,” said Kaspin Makan.

Mr Makan quoted eyewitnesses as saying she appeared to have been targeted deliberately by “paramilitaries in civilian clothing.”

He added that officials had prevented mourners holding a memorial service at a mosque on Monday. “The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story,” he told the BBC. “They were afraid that lots of people could turn up.”

Depraved... and this is the regime in charge.

HuffPo has more details from the interview with Neda's fiance.

Kasamin Makan, Neda Agha-Setan's fiancee, was interviewed by BBC Persia, noting that Neda would have turned 27 this year. "Neda's goal was not Mousavi or Ahmadinejad, it was her country and was important for her to fight for this goal. She had said many times that if she had lost her life or been shot in the heart, which indeed what happened, it was important for her to continue in this path," he said.

UPDATE:
The regime is setting up special courts to deal with the protesters it has arrested thus far. Keep in mind that the regime has called such protesters terrorists, and has murdered its own citizens to remain in power. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the writing on the wall. They intent to make examples out of some of those who they've arrested to force the rest of the country into submission to its will.

UPDATE:
More video:

19+ Dead As Iranian Regime Cracks Down on Protesters

The New York Times says at least 13 are dead, but the Iranian government says at least 19 people it considers terrorists were killed in clashes with police. More than 100 were injured. This is just the tip of the iceberg. (Disturbing video of another woman apparently killed by the Basij here).

Mirhussein Mousavi isn't backing down, and his criticism of Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has only grown.

Mousavi added that the Islamic Republic must be purged of what he called lies and dishonesty, sending out a direct challenge to conservative rulers after a week of unrest in Iran.

The opposition leader, who claims victory in the poll, told supporters he was "ready for martyrdom", according to an ally. But he said he did not seek confrontation with the authorities.

"We are not against the Islamic system and its laws but against lies and deviations and just want to reform it," he said in a statement on his website at the end of another tumultuous day.

Mousavi said if authorities refused to allow peaceful protests they would face the "consequences" – an apparent rejoinder to Khamenei's warning that opposition leaders would be held responsible for any bloodshed resulting from protests.

Ahmadinejad says for the US and Britain to stay out of Iranian affairs.

I guess criticizing the regime for murdering its own citizens for demonstrating against what they believe was a stolen election is meddling. Again, this shows the depravity of this regime and how silence further allows the regime to continue its efforts to consolidate its power.

Now is not the time for silence. It is the time to speak out against the violations of human rights by this evil regime.

The media continues to be restricted from reporting on the situation. The AP runs the following note with its photos:

** EDITORS NOTE AS A RESULT OF AN OFFICIAL IRANIAN GOVERNMENT BAN ON FOREIGN MEDIA COVERING EVENTS IN IRAN, THE AP IS OBLIGED TO USE IMAGES FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES.

In other words, it's got to either use footage from the Iranian media outlets or footage from other media sources.





This is how totalitarian regimes crack down against their opposition. They limit the flow of information that might prove damaging to the regime and crush free speech, the right to assemble peaceably and engage in a free press - rights that we take for granted here in the United States.

UPDATE:
The woman murdered in one of the videos linked to above may have been identified.

The rumor — and it’s all rumor until some newspaper tracks down her family — is that she was 27 years old and a philosophy student. I hope to god this isn’t really her photo because the thought of her being so beautiful and dignified makes the murder somehow that much more obscene.

Rushing Headlong Into Confrontation

Mirhussein Mousavi's supporters still believe that the rally scheduled for today is on. The New York Times reports via a Facebook page that this is the case. Isn't technology grand?

Why exactly does anyone need the New York Times when the protesters are able to get their information out via alternative sources like Facebook and Twitter?

The Times is relying on these sources like everyone else because the regime is busy thwarting media outlets from reporting, and has attempted to do the same to Facebook, Twitter, and other online outlets with little success.

So, while there are concerns over the reliability of Twitter, Facebook, and other online sources, they remain the only way anyone knows what's really going on inside Iran.

That's both exhilarating and troubling since people are showing their resourcefulness to get news out but it means that rumors will often go unchallenged for days and misconceptions about events.

What is troubling is that several bloggers operating inside Iran are silent this morning, which is a first since the crisis began a week ago.

The 4pm local time rally means that it should be underway in Tehran (7am EDT).

The fact that the Iranian Guardian Council is offering a recount of 10% of the vote is meaningless at this point. That would be insufficient to deter Mousavi's opponents, and would do nothing to assuage Iranians that the election results were legitimate.

Iranian media reports that Mousavi and the other defeated candidates were offered to appear before the Guardian Council to discuss their complaints, but Mousavi declined to show.

So far, no photos of the demonstrations have been uploaded to Flickr or video posted to YouTube or LiveLeak. When they do, I'll post.

UPDATE:
Twitter is abuzz with postings from Iran claiming that the Basiji have been busy intimidating protesters and invading homes in Isfahan.

The BBC has increased the number of satellites used to thwart Iranian efforts to jam signals.

The Guardian's live coverage is superior to those of other outlets, but they too are relying on second and third hand information:

1.25pm:
The entrance to Tehran's Revolution Square, is blocked by fire engines, according to AP. It also reports that riot police have surrounded Tehran University.

Several unconfirmed tweets claim that protesters have clashed with the police. Some claim the police have used batons.

1.10pm:
The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Tehran, admitted on the World Service that he cannot tell if the rally is actually happening, because of the restrictions on reporting. The Guardian's reporters in Iran are in no position to comment either.

1pm:
An unconfirmed Tweet from a usually reliable source says Mousavi is walking from his Ettelaat office to the Ministry of Interior and that 10,000 people are with him.

Photos, claimed to be taken today, show several rows of riot police.

The BBC says its witness have seen hundreds of riot police in Enghelab Square.

Al-Jazeera also reports a heavy police presence, but points out that it is difficult to verify because phones are jammed.

Photos allegedly of the Basiji and police preparing for the demonstrations:




UPDATE:
Twitterings reporting large crowds, and police to match.

UPDATE:
Tweet Grid is one way to try and keep up with the deluge of information.

UPDATE:
Multiple reports claiming that tear gas is being used to disperse protesters. Reports coming via AP and al Jazeera.

UPDATE:
Multiple reports of gunfire as well, no word on injuries, but I'm sure that reports will begin filtering in as to such injuries.

There's also a so-far unconfirmed report that there was a bomb blast at a mosque where Ali Khamenei preaches.

UPDATE:
Nothing official on the reported bomb blast at the Khomenei mosque, but it could have been the government itself using the incident as a pretext to crack down hard against Mousavi's supporters with extreme prejudice. With such a lack of reliable information, anything is possible. Stay tuned.

UPDATE:
A bomb blast has been confirmed at Khomeni square. No word on injuries, but Iran state TV apparently set up cameras to tape before blast occurred. That's likely a coincidence.

This video claims to have been taken today:


UPDATE:
More video via BBC.

UPDATE:
More video and information (in French). The videos are pretty self-explanatory.

UPDATE:


UPDATE:
Is this Iran's Tiananmen Square moment?

The Line Has Been Drawn

Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has thrown down the gauntlet to Mirhussein Mousavi's supporters, warning them that further street demonstrations will not be tolerated.

In a somber and lengthy sermon at Friday prayers at Tehran University, Mr. Khamenei seemed to raise the stakes of the confrontation, according to Iranian and regional analysts, by evoking the possibility of bloodshed if the defiant days of vast protests continued.

Translations of the speech are under way.

Opposition leaders, he said, would be “responsible for chaos” if they did not call off the demonstrators.

“Street challenge is not acceptable,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, according to a translation by the BBC. “This questions the principles of election and democracy.”

His remarks seemed to deepen the confrontation between Iran’s rulers and supporters of the main opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who have accused the authorities of rigging the vote and called for or encouraged the huge silent marches of recent days. On Saturday, a group of reformist clerics loyal to the former President Mohammed Khatami planned to demonstrate against the election results, saying they had been given rare official permission. Some news reports, however, said that the gathering had been banned.

Ayatollah Khamenei instructed dissenters to pursue their complaints about the June 12 ballot through legal channels, insisting that the turnout — officially put at 85 percent — showed it to be a reflection of the national will.

Khamenei's towing the Ahmadinejad line, which bodes poorly for Khamenei if the demonstrations continue and Ahmadinejad can't squash the demonstrations.

He claims that Ahmadinejad's margin of victory was 11 million votes, based on 85% turnout. The numbers defy common sense, and harken back to the days of the Soviet Union when they would have gravity defying turnouts and massive margins of victory. It's what happens in totalitarian regimes, who attempt to claim that they are somehow governing at the behest of the people. Indeed, Khamenei is basically saying, rigging? What rigging? He's turning into Baghdad Bob right before our very eyes, and the Iranian people aren't falling for it.

Still, Khamenei isn't above slamming zionist media for sowing the seeds of doubt in the election result. Right. Mousavi contests the election results, and yet it's the Jews behind this? Classy and right on cue - blame the Jews for Ahmadinejad attempting to steal the election.

Khamenei's also threatening to send Mousavi packing into exile. That's a great lesson on Iranian mullahocracy tolerance for dissent. There is none.

Daylife continues posting photos and screen caps of videos from demonstrations in Iran and around the world protesting the election outcome.

UPDATE:
Amir Taheri notes that the Obama Administration should take a cautious approach, but seize the opportunity to lay out a groundwork for talks regardless of who takes power. He also notes the following:

Israel Radio's Farsi-language broadcaster, Menashe Amir, has been telling me for weeks to bet on an Ahmadinejad victory. Relying on pre-election statements, speeches and talks with Iranians in the know, Amir said Khamenei and his aides had decided in advance to declare Ahmadinejad the winner regardless of the actual vote.

"If I knew it, using only open sources, how come the American president, who has vast intelligence tools at his disposal, couldn't figure it out?" Amir said yesterday. (This week has changed everything, he added, and nobody can now predict with certainty the outcome of Iran's battle for democracy.)

But no special intelligence is needed to see the dangers in the whirling centrifuges. Even Mohammed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency's director, told the BBC this week he has a "gut feeling" that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

And then there was the mother of all Freudian slips: Iran's own envoy to the Vienna-based IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told the agency that all Iranians are unified on their "inalienable right of a nuclear weapon." (The regime's catchphrase is to talk about the right to nuclear power.)

UPDATE:
This website tool has promise to track the events, including protests, and the crackdown ongoing against Mousavi's supporters. I'd hope that they add in additional details, including how they've come to corroborate the various incidents. If that's done, it would be a tremendously valuable tool.

UPDATE:
It's nighttime in Tehran, and the sound of protesters shouting from rooftops can be heard throughout the city.

UPDATE:
British Premier Gordon Brown said Friday that EU leaders are unanimous in condemning the violence against Iran protests.


Speaking at a European Union convention in Brussels, Brown added that the world's ewas now watching the Islamic Republic, and that Tehran must prove that the passing week's violence will not reoccur.


Unrest
The EU has unanimously condemned Iran's crackdown against the protesters.

British Premier Gordon Brown said Friday that EU leaders are unanimous in condemning the violence against Iran protests.

Speaking at a European Union convention in Brussels, Brown added that the world's was now watching the Islamic Republic, and that Tehran must prove that the passing week's violence will not reoccur.

The UK premier added that London's future relations with Tehran will stand on three things: Its ability to prove that the presidential elections were held in a fair manner, observing human rights and maintaining freedom of the press.

Guess they aren't waiting around for Obama to come out and say something other than a bland non-committal meh. It also looks like they're not falling for the "meddling" nonsense either.

Defiance in the Face of Crackdown

Iranians continue protesting against the Ahmadinejad regime's crackdown against protesters who contest the election results. Human rights groups note that hundreds have been arrested. Ahmadinejad's thugs must think that arresting enough of the leaders will sap the strength of the protesters or cow those who might otherwise protest into going home.

That hasn't turned out to be the case, in part because of the way the Iranians are using technologies like Twitter to coordinate their activities. As hard as the regime has tried to curtail access, the protesters have managed to continue using the Internet as a conduit for their activities.



This video shows the demonstrations ongoing yesterday:


Massive rallies show that the Iranian people aren't going to tolerate Ahmadinejad's efforts to predetermine the outcome of the election.

The Iranian legislature is investigating hundreds of complaints about election fraud in last week's election. It's a little late for that, especially when Ayatollah Khamenei vouched for the results, and given that he's the official spokesman for Allah on earth, if the vote results turn out to be any different, his credibility is shot (as it should be in any event). He's lost his legitimacy, which means that in the eyes of many Iranians, there can be no return to the mullahocracy.

Michael Totten deflates one of the media memes, which was that Ahmadinejad's base was in the rural areas. An analysis of his support shows the opposite; it was strongest in urban areas, which makes the current demonstrations all the more startling. They're happening in his areas of strongest support.

This strange meme in many media reports that Ahmadinejad has a “base” of support in the countryside is not only wrong, it’s backwards. The uprising we’re all watching on YouTube is taking place inside Ahmadinejad’s “strongholds,” such as they are.

Ahmadinejad is a “conservative” in the relative sense of the word, as he resists any and all reform of the 1979 revolution. He is not, however, a conservative in the traditional sense. Khomeinism and radical Islamism are 20th Century totalitarian ideologies. Traditional village people, conservative as they may be, have little use for them.

Mousavi isn't a reformer in the traditional sense either. People may have latched on to his campaign and the demonstrations because of their disapproval of Ahmadinejad, but the kind of reform Mousavi would bring doesn't mean the end of Iran's nuclear weapons programs, support for international terrorism, or the other aspects of foreign policy that cause conflict throughout the region.

Meanwhile, Totten also warns that we should brace for more violence, and he's surprised that there hasn't been more to date. I concur on that. It is surprising, but this could be simply the deep breath before the plunge. Neither side can back down now, and there is little common ground when the elections are seen as illegitimate by a significant portion of the population.

One thing that is all too noticeable in all the videos coming out of Iran is just how many people are using digital cameras and video to capture the events; many have found their way online. It's showing that the technologies are being used by both sides to get their message out.

UPDATE:
Daled Amos makes a good point about Twitter and other social networking sites that are proffering news. Many of them turn out to be unsubstantiated rumors, so the usual skepticism should apply. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. However, expecting the traditional media outlets to get news reports is also dubious given that their movements are being restricted by Ahmadinejad as he tried to secure his power and control.

UPDATE:
Demonstrations against Ahmadinejad continue around the world, including here in the NYC metro area. This is video of demonstrators at New York's Union Square:



UPDATE:
Khamenei is throwing down the gauntlet. It may happen as soon as tomorrow if Mousavi and his supporters don't back down.

Iran To Recount Ballots

Iran's election officials have said there will be a recount of the ballots.

Ahmadinejad's main opponent, conservative reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi, Tuesday rejected the vote recount, calling instead for a fresh election, an official close to the opposition leader's camp told CNN.

Moussavi also asked supporters not to attend a planned protest rally Tuesday to avoid clashes with a rival rally by Ahmadinejad's supporters that had threatened to renew post-election violence, the official said.

Thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters crowded the streets of Tehran Tuesday.

Iran's Guardian Council -- which is made up of top clerics and judges -- said Tuesday it will recount votes that the opposition questioned in Friday's race.

A spokesman for the council told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that council members met with the three opposition candidates -- Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohsen Rezaie -- and asked them to specify the areas where they wanted a recount.

Some would argue that this would be the first time that the ballots are being counted in Iran from this past week's elections, but it goes to show just how crippled the mullahs grip has become.

Mousavi doesn't want to let a bogus election get rubber stamped with a recount, so he's calling for fresh elections. Don't hold your breath on that one.

Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had previously stated that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the elections, and usually that was the final word on such things.

Not this time.

Something new and different is afoot in Iran, and no one quite knows for sure what will come of it. There's no telling whether it is good or bad. It's just a different dynamic coming into play.

Meanwhile, Bush hatred continues creeping into coverage and punditry regarding the Iranian elections. One nitwit compares the Iranian elections to the US elections in 2000. Sorry, but there is no comparison between a closely contested election in Florida that came down to a couple hundred votes and how to make sure that the votes were counted to Iran's mullahs rigged an election, predetermined an outcome, and rioting ensued across the nation, while Ahmadinejad used his supposedly loyal army, the IRGC, to intimidate, threaten, and arrest opposition leaders. None of that happened in the US in 2000, and to make such claims is spurious at best.

It turns out that the IRGC may not be as loyal as Ahmadinejad thought, and the idea of Iranian armies firing on fellow Iranians may have been a determining factor in choosing to recount the ballots. Michael Ledeen notes that it perhaps that explains why Ahmadinejad appears to have imported Hizbullah from Lebanon and Basji (the paramilitary aligned with the IRGC) to act as his enforcers. He further notes:

What’s going to happen?, you ask. Nobody knows, even the major actors. The regime has the guns, and the opposition has the numbers. The question is whether the numbers can be successfully organized into a disciplined force that demands the downfall of the regime. Yes, I know that there have been calls for a new election, or a runoff between Mousavi and Ahmadinezhad. But I don’t think that’s very likely now. The tens of millions of Iranians whose pent-up rage has driven them to risk life and limb against their oppressors are not likely to settle for a mere change in personnel at this point. And the mullahs surely know that if they lose, many of them will face a very nasty and very brief future.

If the disciplined force comes into being, the regime will fall. If not, the regime will survive. Can Mousavi lead such a force? If anyone had said, even a few days ago, that Mousavi would lead a nation-wide insurrection, he’d have been laughed out of the room. Very few foresaw anything like the current situation, although I will claim credit for predicting that neither side in the electoral circus would accept the official verdict.

Does Mousavi even want to change the system? I think he does, and in any event, I think that’s the wrong question. He is not a revolutionary leader, he is a leader who has been made into a revolutionary by a movement that grew up around him. The real revolutionary is his wife, Zahra Rahnavard. And the real question, the key question in all of this, is: why did Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei permit her to become such a charismatic figure? How could he have made such a colossal blunder? It should have been obvious that the very existence of such a woman threatened the dark heart of the Islamic Republic, based as it is on the disgusting misogyny of its founder, the Ayatollah Khomeini.

I don't think Mousavi wants to change the system, given that he was a long time part of the regime, and was one of the leading voices to initiate Iran's nuclear program. That's not going to change with him in charge.

Still, Ledeen notes that no one knows where any of this will lead, including the mullahs, Ahmadinejad, or Mousavi. We can surmise the intentions of the various actors because self preservation and retention of power play a great role in this; Ahmadinejad and the mullahs both want to retain their power and grip.

UPDATE:
Despite claiming that they will recount the ballots, the regime is doing all it can to limit communications, including via Twitter and other news sources. They must hope that limiting communications will undermine the opposition to Ahmadinejad and allow him to reassert a firm grip. See here and here for more. The regime is also doing all it can to limit foreign news outlets from reporting on the situation inside the country.

People are using all kinds of technological means to evade the state's censorship and shuttering of Internet sites that enable communication and organization.

Video of thugs shooting on crowds from buildings yesterday.

UPDATE:
No one knows how many people were killed in the ongoing demonstrations, but it is likely far higher than 20 (the Guardian claims 12 killed). If the videos coming out of Iran are any indication, hundreds of people have been injured in running clashes with the Basji and thugs loyal to Ahmadinejad.

Demonstrators have produced a list of seven demands:

1. Dismissal of Khamenei for not being a fair leader
2. Dismissal of Ahmadinejad for his illegal acts
3. Temporary appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as the Supreme Leader
4. Recognition of Mousavi as the President
5. Forming the Cabinet by Mousavi to prepare for revising the Constitution
6. Unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners
7. Dissolution of all organs of repression, public or secret

(Via Michael Totten at Commentary)

UPDATE:
Make that a partial recount of the ballots.

That shouldn't sit well with Mousavi's supporters, or Mousavi, who was calling for fresh elections altogether.

Also, Ahmadinejad must feel pretty secure in his position as he's taken off for a scheduled trip to Russia. He must feel that he wont have any problem returning.

UPDATE:
Another idiotic comparison of the day, this time courtesy of Matt Yglasias. He's busy trying to compare Ahmadinejad to Sarah Palin. Yeah, what could those two possibly have in common?

Ahmadinejad is in most ways a classic right-winger, a demagogic nationalist and cultural conservative. In a manner somewhat reminiscent of a Sarah Palin, however, he clothes this right-wing politics in a language of class resentment, painting his more pragmatic and reformist opponents as decadent elites out of touch with ordinary people. Unlike the populists of the American right, however, he merges this rhetoric with something resembling an actual populist economic agenda. The main element has been the use of oil revenue to expand the state sector of the economy in an attempt to distribute wealth more broadly throughout the country. This approach has gained Ahmadinejad a loyal following among the rural poor and public employees, but Iran’s objective economic performance has been disappointing, even during the great oil boom years.

Yet another lefty ignoring Ahmadinejad's genocidal rhetoric and trying to link Ahmadinejad to prominent GOPers. Lovely. It's cognitive dissonance, and it ignores the true evil at work in Iran, courtesy of Ahmadinejad and the mullahs.

UPDATE:
This is a good take on what President Obama should have said.

UPDATE:
It shouldn't surprise anyone that the regime's attempt to quell the demonstrations with a claim that they would conduct a recount hasn't done its job. People don't trust the government, and they've got every reason to do so.

UPDATE:
I've repeatedly pointed out that the mullahs control who gets on the ballots and that until this election, there hadn't been questions about the outcome, let alone the legitimacy of the regime. This election throws the entire power structure in doubt, and with people understanding that their votes are meaningless aren't going to sit back and let their say slip away, even if it was ethereal to begin with.

They got a taste of what democracy is with those elections, and they're not about to let Ahmadinejad steal if from them. It's a new dynamic, although that doesn't mean that Iran will become a Western style democracy overnight. We're not at that point yet. These events have shaken the Iranian polity to its core, and there will be changes.

There will also be blood, as Ahmadinejad and the mullahs aren't going to go quietly into the night.

UPDATE:
Soccer Dad notes the stinking hypocrisy of the Obama Administration, which has taken a tougher line with the Israeli government than it has with the mullahs. He points to Bret Stephens, who writes:

On the one hand we have democratically elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reputed hardliner, who on Sunday abandoned his own long-held position and, to the immense disappointment of much of his political base, spoke of his willingness to accept a Palestinian state -- provided only that the Palestinians forswear military pursuits, resettle Palestinian refugees in their own territory, and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, just as the U.N. did at the country's founding.

On the other hand there's Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Holocaust-denier and nuclear aspirant, who on Friday was declared the winner of an election so transparently rigged that the only serious question is whether the regime even bothered to stuff the ballot boxes. Since then, scores of reformist politicians have been arrested or intimidated, rallies have been banned, and the possibility of an Iranian Tiananmen hangs in the air.

Question: Toward which of these two leaders does President Obama intend to play the heavy?

Obama continues applying pressure on the duly elected Prime Minister of Israel, while going out of his way to appear to do any such thing to the illegitimate regime in Tehran. That's quite telling.

UPDATE:
Murder in the Isfahan dorms. Allahpundit also points out the following:

Incidentally, if you haven’t been following Jim Geraghty today, go see how much fun he’s having digging up old (and not so old) quotes from idiot liberals about how “shrewd” the regime is and what a “sweet hipster style” Ahmadinejad has. (Actually, argues E.M. Zanotti, he practically is a hipster.) In fact, if not for his Holocaust denial, he would have been much more popular as an icon of revolutionary chic. I know it plays well in the region, but so nutty is it and so quintessentially the hallmark of an anti-semite that even leftists otherwise inclined to spin for Iran could never really embrace him, even though he’s become the face of anti-Americanism abroad. For most Bush-haters — but not for all — it was simply too much, sweet hipster style notwithstanding. Anyway, here’s some of the hipster’s handiwork. Brace yourself. Click the image to watch.

It really is interesting watching leftists engage in pretzel logic after supporting Ahmadinejad's asinine claims for years on end, but now suddenly find themselves opposing him because he's suddenly the thug that the rest of us knew him to be.