Iranian Elections

[Fragony]

Ok that settles it, let's attack and take what's rightfully ours for whatever reason.

[Lemur]

A detailed profile of Neda.

-edit-

Didn't Stalin do something like this? Or was it China? Security forces charging parents of slain protesters "bullet fees."

When Mr. Alipour didn't return home that night, his parents began to worry. All day, they had heard gunshots ringing in the distance. His father, Yousef, first called his fiancée and friends. No one had heard from him.

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

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

[Hax]

Ok that settles it, let's attack and take what's rightfully ours for whatever reason.

Ever occur to you that girl is also one of those horrible Muslims?

[Fragony]

Ever occur to you that girl is also one of those horrible Muslims?

I like muslim chicks, like all chicks really. I don't like the way they are treated though.

[tibilicus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8115358.stm In retaliation to the dismissal of two UK diplomats.

Good riddance I say, we don't want any one associated with the regime in this country.

It looks like the Iranians are pretty desperate in looking for scape goats though. I think when Gordon Brown seems like a plausible scape-goat your really in trouble..

[Samurai Waki]

The Iranian Government is trying to use the same tactics it did thirty years ago. When the charges of American/UK over-meddling in the state of Iran was legitimate. However, I don't think many Iranians have seen an American or British person except on a TV since that time. So, its not likely anyone will buy it. Anotherdinnerjacket and Co are basically grabbing at straws right now.

[tibilicus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD6H...er_profilepage

I bet these people have such high levels of self esteem..

[Viking]

This is what happnes to unruly football players:

Their gesture attracted worldwide comment and drew the attention of football fans to Iran's political turmoil. Now the country's authorities have taken revenge by imposing life bans on players who sported green wristbands in a recent World Cup match in protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...ll-protest-ban

[FactionHeir]

Well, sport is supposed to be apolitical, and if you are representing your nation abroad as part of your national team, then you probably shouldn't be venting against your government while doing so.

[tibilicus]

Updates for you all.

I'm not sure if this has been posted already but the website of Hossein Mousavi will provide reliable news.

http://www.mir-hosseinmousavi.com/

Also it appears another rally is planned for Wednesday. If this keeps up Tehran, which is already being effected will grind to a halt.

Also the war games begin. http://www.reuters.com/article/lates.../idUSHOS233576

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...tionary-guard/

[FactionHeir]

The opposition leader provides reliable news? Hardly. Truth is somewhere between what Ahmedinejad and Mousavi write rather than fully in one camp.

[tibilicus]

The opposition leader provides reliable news? Hardly. Truth is somewhere between what Ahmedinejad and Mousavi write rather than fully in one camp.

I'm referring to reliable news on opposition actions. Planned rallies ect.

[Viking]

Well, sport is supposed to be apolitical, and if you are representing your nation abroad as part of your national team, then you probably shouldn't be venting against your government while doing so.

I accidentally left out the important bit:

None of the team members were given back their passports upon returning to Tehran after the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw – a result that ended Iran's hopes of qualifying for next year's tournament.

which is political.

[CountArach]

Also the war games begin. http://www.reuters.com/article/lates.../idUSHOS233576

The military exercise plans were announced last month.

Doesn't sound too bad to me... unless they start bombing citizens...

[Lemur]

This is what heroism looks like:

A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been arrested for refusing to obey Iran's Supreme Leader, according to reports from the Balatarin website.

General Ali Fazli, who was recently appointed as a commander of the Revolutionary Guards in the province of Tehran, is reported to have been arrested after he refused to carry out orders from the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to use force on people protesting the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Fazli, a veteran of the devastating Iran-Iraq war is also believed to have been sacked and taken to an unknown location.

[Sheogorath]

This is what heroism looks like:

A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been arrested for refusing to obey Iran's Supreme Leader, according to reports from the Balatarin website.

General Ali Fazli, who was recently appointed as a commander of the Revolutionary Guards in the province of Tehran, is reported to have been arrested after he refused to carry out orders from the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to use force on people protesting the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Fazli, a veteran of the devastating Iran-Iraq war is also believed to have been sacked and taken to an unknown location.

Hoo boy. I hope the Iranian leadership have their bags packed.

It would be amusingly ironic to see the 'Supreme Leader' of Iran trying to find a state that will take him in.

[Xiahou]

Meanwhile, Obama condemns violence against Iran protesters

"No iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice," he said during a nearly hourlong White House news conference dominated by the unrest in Iran. "Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history."

"We can't say definitively what exactly happened at polling places throughout the country," Obama said. "What we know is that a sizable percentage of the Iranian people themselves, spanning Iranian society, consider this election illegitimate. It's not an isolated instance, a little grumbling here or there. There is significant question about the legitimacy of the election."

Now I guess the Supreme Leader will declare the protesters to be American puppets and they'll all go home in shame.

We also find out from this article about some of Obama's plans to reach out to the Iranian regime- invite them over for a 4th of July party... seriously.

He made clear that one recent overture to Iran — the authorization for U.S. embassies to invite Iranian officials to Independence Day parties — was likely to disappear without changes. "That's a choice the Iranians are going to have to make," Obama said.

Edit: Also...
Intensified crackdown mutes protests in Iran

[Adrian II]

We also find out from this article about some of Obama's plans to reach out to the Iranian regime- invite them over for a 4th of July party... seriously.

Hahaha, he might as well invite them to play ping pong. That would be equally ineffect..

Um, wait...

[FactionHeir]

The more I think about it, the more I believe that Mousavi is probably no better than Ahmedinejad if he were to come to power. His positions in some matters were the same pre-election already and while he's now touting more liberal credentials, its probably all politics to get more people on his side (pandering and all). At least with the current president you know what you are getting and he doesn't seem too fussed about veiling his intentions or using overly diplomatic language. Easier to deal with really.

[Hax]

Don't forget ex-president Khatami stopped his campaign in favour of Mousavi, and I do think he knew what he was talking about. Not to mention Mousavi was one of Khatami's chief advisors during his presidency.

[Fragony]

The more I think about it, the more I believe that Mousavi is probably no better than Ahmedinejad if he were to come to power.

But of course.

And the backlash all the more severe, sit back, grab some pretzels, and watch idiots destroy themselves. Don't be so hasty, they are done for, they are going to claw a lot of people on their way down, but down they go.

[KukriKhan]

Credit where credit is due: those folks know how to hold a tea-party. Not some namby-pamby tea-bagging demo.

From the west's point of view, whoever gets the big job after all this, if he's believeable when he says they're just building nuke power plants, not bombs, then it's all good. No matter how much talk is done with/at Ahmadinejad, he'll never be believeable.

Even though the protesters and I probably disagree on politics, policy & philosophy, the American Rebel in me stands in awed admiration, I admit; these guys don't quit, and aren't daunted by the powers that be, or the liklihood of failure. They may die, but they insist that THEY WILL BE HEARD.

Good on 'em.

[Lemur]

We also find out from this article about some of Obama's plans to reach out to the Iranian regime- invite them over for a 4th of July party... seriously.

That's not exactly what he said, as your own quote proves. Xiahou, much like Matt Drudge, you seem to be intent on relating everything back to Obama; I hope you find this activity rewarding and fulfilling.

Meanwhile, Roger Cohen has another killer essay.

I said the Islamic Republic has been weakened. Why? I see five principal factors. The first is that the supreme leader’s post — the apex of the structure conceived by the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — has been undermined. The keystone of the arch is now loose.

Khamenei, far from an arbiter with a Prophet-like authority, has looked more like a ruthless infighter. His word has been defied. At night, from rooftops, I’ve even heard people call for his death. The unthinkable has occurred.

The second is that the hypocritical but effective contract that bound society has been broken. The regime never had active support from more than 20 percent of the population. But acquiescence was secured by using only highly targeted repression (leaving the majority free to go about its business), and by giving people a vote for the president every four years.

That’s over. Repression will be broad and ferocious in the coming months. The acquiescent have already become the angry. You can’t turn Iran into Burma: The resistance of a society this varied and savvy will be fierce.

The third is that a faction loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, fiercely nationalistic and mystically religious, has made a power grab so bold that fissures in the establishment have become canyons.

Members of this faction include Hassan Taeb, the leader of the Basiji militia; Saeed Jalili, the head of the National Security Council and chief nuclear negotiator; and Mojtaba Khamenei, the reclusive but influential son of the supreme leader.

They have their way for now, but the cost to Iran has been immense, and the rearguard action led by Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a father of the revolution, and Mir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition leader, will be intense.

The fourth is that Iran’s international rhetoric, effective in Ahmadinejad’s first term, will be far less so now. Every time he talks of justice and ethics, his two favorite words, video will roll of Neda Agha Soltan’s murder and the regime’s truncheon-wielding goons at work. The president may prove too much of a liability to preserve.

The fifth is that, at the very peak of its post-revolution population boom, the regime has lost a whole new generation — and particularly the women of that generation — by failing to adapt.

-edit-

Question: Why didn't the Supreme Leader blame everything on Ahmadinejad and throw him under a bus? It was the logical move, but instead he backed Dinnerjacket completely. Thoughts?

[Xiahou]

Question: Why didn't the Supreme Leader blame everything on Ahmadinejad and throw him under a bus? It was the logical move, but instead he backed Dinnerjacket completely. Thoughts?

The obvious reason would be that Ahmadinejad is now the one in control.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Opinion: Fixing the election was unneccessary and has backfired. At best a reformist leader could only lean Iran in a direction, not actually make a change of course. In Iranian terms Moussavi may be such a reformer even if he is still fiercely right-wing in our eyes; the failure to elect him must mean something though.

Two possibilities occur to me:

1. The Supreme Leader is weak, or losing grip of his mental faculties. In such a situation Dinnerjacket may have more power than we might otherwise expect.

2. The Regime was already scared, they know the young don't back the revolution and they are trying to maintain control.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

What is the reformist element within the council of clerics? Is THIS element posing a threat to Khamanei and thus generating the harsh line he's taking?

Good essay Lemur, nice points by Cohen.

I think the Iranian leadership may be facing a bit of a "governor Tarquin" experience, without an available Deathstar to extinguish the rebellion.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Question: Why didn't the Supreme Leader blame everything on Ahmadinejad and throw him under a bus? It was the logical move, but instead he backed Dinnerjacket completely. Thoughts?

Just a guess, but I think Moussavi is viewed as too willing to compromise/negotiate on the "nuclear issue" in future talks with the West. Ahmadinejad is much more inflexible on the subject and would drive a much harder bargain if any at all. Khamenei mentioned right after the election that Dinnerjacket's views were more in line with his...so it was "divine intervention" that Dinnerjacket won so convincingly. with a little help from his friends

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

What is the reformist element within the council of clerics? Is THIS element posing a threat to Khamanei and thus generating the harsh line he's taking?

Good essay Lemur, nice points by Cohen.

I think the Iranian leadership may be facing a bit of a "governor Tarquin" experience, without an available Deathstar to extinguish the rebellion.

"Don't be too proud of this state terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a protester is insignificant next to the power of Twitter."

[CountArach]

Those with facebook should join this group to show solidarity. A guy in Tehran sent out this message for members of the group:

Thank you all my friends... all the firends of my people, as we face this terrible day. I myself I am broken at heart. The wicked deeds of this eveil ayatollah do not stop. My twin has been shot and my mother is sick with grief. I do not know what to do. the world is dark for us. Please invite anyone you can to join this group, any group. go to your strret corner and stand with a placard. Please help. that is all i can say. help us.

[KukriKhan]

Those with facebook should join this group to show solidarity. A guy in Tehran sent out this message for members of the group:

Thank you all my friends... all the firends of my people, as we face this terrible day. I myself I am broken at heart. The wicked deeds of this eveil ayatollah do not stop. My twin has been shot and my mother is sick with grief. I do not know what to do. the world is dark for us. Please invite anyone you can to join this group, any group. go to your strret corner and stand with a placard. Please help. that is all i can say. help us.

Fake, Real... the principle is the same.

Joined.