(My friend John Wight, in his usual eloquent and well-reasoned way, takes a differing view from mine on Iran. – Bob. Update: 5:47pm John sent a revised version)
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 dealt a severe setback to the strategic and geopolitical interests of the West, in particular the United States and Israel. Indeed, ever since [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Iran election’
Iran in the crosshairs
North Alabama man helping provide safe forum for Iranian voices
Days of protesting in Iran over allegations of fraud in the presidential election have made headlines around the world.
Here in North Alabama, one man is making sure every Iranian citizen has the opportunity to be heard.
That would be UJ, who comments and posts here too.
These headlines that have made their way across the globe to [...]
Iran vote count. Old school Chicago-style
Iran’s Guardian Council said it had uncovered some irregularities in the polls, finding the number of votes in 50 districts exceeded the number of voters
“Some irregularities”? Sounds like outright fraud to me. Or, more to the point, the government didn’t even bother to count the actual votes and rather just announced the predetermined result they [...]
Iran. From Islamic republic to military dictatorship
Steve Clemons
One of DC’s best Iran experts Barbara Slavin wrote to me through Facebook and said:
Steve, Iran ceased being an Islamic republic a week ago. now it’s just another military dictatorship.
Clemons rightly thinks Khamenei has lost his mystique and aura of power. But that doesn’t mean he won’t try to rule by the jackboot alone.
In [...]
Iran protests. What does it mean
Sue wonders why I’m so fascinated by the Iran protests, given that Mousavi is no shining beacon of democracy and that protesters will soon be dragged out of their homes at 2am to be tortured and killed. Could part of it be – no offense to me she says – that the Irish in me [...]
Cold blooded murder by Iran police
Graphic and bloody videos. Protesters shot dead.
Student shot dead in front of camera
Woman shot, probably killed
Mousavi ready for death
From NIAC liveblog
Mousavi, speaking among the people, has just announced that he has performed the ceremonial washing (ablutions) in preparation for martyrdom.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Thomas Jefferson (which is certainly easier to quote while sitting in [...]
Live blogging the Iran protest
Fires set, many shots fired at crowd. Chaos. I wonder, is all of Tehran like this?
Andrew Sullivan
Nico Pitney at HuffPo
And of course, Twitter #iranelection
For those about to protest, we salute you
[An Iranian in Tehran] is tidying affairs in preparation for dying Saturday at the hands of the Iranian security forces.
Translation via Juan Cole:
“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed… I have to call my friends as [...]
Iran opposition defies ayatollah, schedules protest tomorrow
Not just any protest, but a big, major protest. Will they be greeted by tanks?
Mousavi circumvented regime efforts to block Internet access by announcing the rallies on his Facebook page in Farsi and in English Friday. “CRUCIAL Demonstration on Saturday 16:00 in Tehran and all around the world, please spread this message around.”
Messages urging the [...]
Iranian journalist in Tehran: “There will be blood”
Everywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
Cause summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy.
– Rolling Stones. Street Fighting Man
HuffPo. Saturday may be the bloodiest yet, with more attacks on protesters
I have been able to talk with Iranian photo-journalist NS (she does not want her name used, [...]
Anonymous Iran. Info on safe, secure web surfing
From their intro
How-to surf securely and avoid censorship: http://torir.org
This forum aims to be a secure and reliable way of communication for Iranians and friends. Use it to discuss what is happening in Iran. Post in the forum either anonymously as a guest, as a registered user, or login with your facebook-account. We are not a [...]
Iran protests. Huge coverage by Twitter and blogs
Mashable has the numbers and graphs
Twitter: 221,744 “Iran” tweets in one hour
Blogs: 2,250,000 blog posts on Iran in 24 hours
YouTube: 3000 Iran videos uploaded in one day
These trends clearly demonstrate that social media has been front-and-center in the Iran election protests. The Iranian government has reportedly been trying to censor some of this communication, [...]
Iran protests going beyond the election now
Juan Cole:
Protesters are even now targeting Khamenei directly, not just denouncing dictatorship, according to Robert Tait at the Guardian, chanting, ‘”Seiyed Ali Pinochet, Chile Iran nemishe” (Seiyed Ali Pinochet, Iran won’t become Chile).’ This chant is consistent with a ‘Third Worldist’ (including international left solidarity) tinge to the Green Revolution. I.e. it is not the [...]
On Iran
With the kind of brutal logic of which often only dictators are capable, Stalin once said: “He who casts the vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote decides everything.”
How many democratic elections since he uttered those words have borne out the truth contained in them? For despite the massive propaganda the world has been [...]
