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June 24, 2009 Clerics join Iran's anti-government protests
Story Highlights
A group of Mullahs protesting election results represents a blatant act of defiance
They're normally loyal to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Khamenei called election result valid and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner
He told protesters they will face the consequences
By Octavia Nasr CNN Senior Editor, Middle East Affairs
(CNN) -- A photo showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest speaks volumes about the new face of Iran's opposition movement.
In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
Whether these clerics voted for Ahmadinejad or one of the opposition candidates is unknown. What is important here, is the decision to march against the will of Iran's supreme leader who called the results final and declared demonstrations illegal.
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mullahs rule supreme. They are the country's conservative clerics; the guardians of the Islamic revolution and its ideologies. They're loyal only to God and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian opposition supporters took to the streets in protest of their candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi's loss in the June 12 presidential elections.
They alleged the elections were rigged. Moussavi asked to annul the results and hold new vote. Ayatollah Khamenei rejected the proposal, backed Ahmadinejad and called on people not to demonstrate or else face the consequences.
When the protests began, Iranian students for the most part, especially women were visible and in the lead. Watch clerics join the protests »
Their numbers dwindled over time. Some blame police and militia crackdown and intimidation.
Social networks swelled with amateur video showing protesters beaten or shot at. Their screams of pain and even death were caught on tape by fellow protesters using mainly cell phone cameras.
Throughout all that, some clerics of the Islamic Republic have spoken up against the stifling of people's right to voice their opinion and in support of new elections.
On his Web site, Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri described government efforts to crackdown on the protests as threatening the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic because it was no longer representing all the people.
Moussavi ally and former president Mohammad Khatami also said in a statement that to "protest in a civil manner... is the definite right of the people and all must respect that."
The graphic pictures out of Iran in the past week have shown time and again, making statements is one thing and taking to the streets is another.
Iranian opposition at the leadership level and in the streets now has new faces, made up of those who had opposing ideologies before the election.
One symbol of that has become a nightly tradition in Iran. Secular or religious, Iranians go to their rooftops every night.. and shout out "Allahu Akbar" -- God is great -- and "down with the dictator."
NEW: Iran's ambassador to Mexico says protesters want to "impose a dictatorship"
"They were waiting for us," one protester says of security forces
Troops beat demonstrators in Tehran square, sources say
Officials say many foreign nationals arrested in connection with unrest
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons beat back demonstrators who flocked to a Tehran square Wednesday to continue protests against an election they have denounced as fraudulent, two witnesses said.
"They were waiting for us," one source said. "They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap.
"I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads -- blood everywhere -- pepper gas like war," the source said.
The source said security forces beat people like "animals."
Also on Wednesday, Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, said the protesters that have taken to the streets represented a small minority of the nation.
"The minority can't impose their opinion on the majority," Ghadiri told CNN en Español. "They can't impose a dictatorship saying that the majority is not going to govern."
There are ways of addressing electoral fraud, if any occurred, he said. "But they go out on the street, they attack buses, they attack banks; that affects the security of the country."
In Tehran, another witness said hundreds of people were chased by security forces on Wednesday and clubbed about a mile from the square.
Yet another source, a man who spoke to his wife in the area of the square, recounted what she told him in a phone conversation.
He said she saw security forces shooting and beating people and saw blood on people's clothes and in the streets. The woman said security forces had been carrying butcher knives and batons.
They were among the more than half dozen witnesses who said security forces, who outnumbered demonstrators, used overwhelming force to crush a planned demonstration in Baharestan Square, in front of the parliament building.
The witnesses said police charged the demonstrators, striking them with batons, beating women and old men, and firing weapons into the air in order to disperse them. Watch a witness describe the beatings »
The melee extended beyond the square, according to one woman, who said she was traveling toward Baharestan with her friends as evening approached "to express our opposition to these killings these days and demanding freedom.
"But the black-clad police, they stopped everyone," she said. "They emptied buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on ... and then, all of a sudden, some 500 people with clubs of wood, they came out of the Hedayat Mosque, and they poured into the streets, and they started beating everyone."
People were heard yelling "death to the dictatorship, death to Ahmadinejad, death to Khamanei and death to Basiji," she said.
Government-run Press TV gave a starkly different account, saying that about 200 protesters who had gathered in front of the parliament and another group of about 50 people in another nearby square were dispersed by security forces.
"A heavy presence of police prevented violence in the area," Press TV said.
At the nearby Bank of Melli hospital, a person who answered the phone said no one had been admitted as a result of any clashes.
The protests came as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Tehran with a delegation from Belarus in his first official meeting since the disputed June 12 election triggered widespread unrest. The official results of the election gave the incumbent president a landslide victory, but his challengers declared it was rigged and are seeking a new vote.
Ahmadinejad's claim of victory got further support from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, who endorsed the results and reiterated Wednesday that the government will not back down. Demonstrators must follow the law, he said.
According to official figures, 17 people have been killed in clashes with government forces over the past 11 days. Anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets in at least four cities outside Tehran.
But CNN has received unconfirmed reports of as many as 150 deaths related to the popular uprising. The government's response appears to have hardened in recent days. CNN received numerous accounts of night-time roundups by government forces of opposition activists and international journalists from their homes.
Some Tehran residents said they were too afraid to talk about the political crisis over the phone to anyone in the United States or Europe. Many protesters debated whether to venture into the streets. Watch an Ahmadinejad supporter describe the protests »
"I am not going outside my house at all," a 21-year-old college student from Tehran said. "The streets are too dangerous, and just so very busy with police. Ahhhh, when will our lives get back to normal?"
Worried that the government was monitoring their phone conversations, some residents said the Internet was the best way to transmit information. However, the spotty connection made it difficult to rely on the Web.
"It's beyond fear," said a woman who arrived at a U.S. airport from Iran but still did not want her name used for fear for her safety. "The situation is more like terror." Watch arrivals describe the situation »
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities said they have arrested several foreign nationals, some with British passports, in connection with the country's post-election unrest.
Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ezhei said some people with links to the West and Israel had planned a series of bombings in Iran ahead of the election, Press TV reported Wednesday. Watch a report on Iran's history with the West »
"England is among the countries that fan the flames with their heavy propaganda, which is against all diplomatic norms," Mohseni-Ezhei was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars news agency. "And the BBC Farsi has also played a major role. Also, a number of people carrying British passports have played a role in the recent disturbances."
The British Foreign Office said it was looking into the claims.
Iran said the 26-year-old woman, whose death Saturday has emerged as an emblem of the government's crackdown against protesters, might have been shot by "mistake," the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday.
The report said the investigation into the death of Neda Agha-Soltan is continuing, "but according to the evidence so far, it could be said that she was killed by mistake. The marksmen had mistaken her for the sister of one of the Monafeghin who had been executed in the Province of Mazandaran some time ago."
Monafeghin refers to the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, which promotes a Marxist government for Iran and has waged a campaign against the fundamentalist Islamic Tehran government -- including bombings that killed politicians, judges and cabinet members.
Earlier Wednesday, Press TV said police had raided a building in central Tehran that was being used as a "headquarters" to foment post-election unrest.
The television station, citing unnamed sources, said the building was used by campaign staffers of opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi. And evidence indicated that "foreign elements" were behind the planning, Press TV said.
The Iranian government has long blamed other countries, especially Britain, for "meddling" in its affairs but has offered no proof.
Tehran said Wednesday that it was temporarily recalling its ambassador from London, another move in escalating tit-for-tat gestures between the governments. On Tuesday, Britain expelled two Iranian diplomats. A day earlier, Iran told two British diplomats to leave.
The difficulty in getting information has been compounded by a government clampdown on representatives of the international news media, who have been banned from covering protests. That has led some news outlets, including CNN, to rely on people who are disseminating information via social networking Web sites.
According to Reporters Without Borders, 36 journalists have been arrested, 26 of them Iranian, since the election and "many others" are missing.
Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/24/iran.election/index.html
Police Harassing Citizens This is a short video uploaded today, though it seems to have been taped on Sunday. It shows riot police on the sidewalk in Tehran kicking and hitting citizens walking by.
First Posted: 06-25-09 07:45 AM | Updated: 06-25-09 08:32 PM
I'm liveblogging the latest Iran election fallout. Email me with any news or thoughts. Send me instant messages at nico.pitney@gmail.com or njpitney on AIM.
8:28 PM ET -- Iran expected to dominate G8 summit. From an AP report:
Foreign ministers of Group of Eight countries sought to find a common position on Iran's violent crackdown on protesters as they opened a meeting in this northeastern Italian city on Thursday.
Italy, the host of the meeting, said it wanted to send a tough message, but Italian officials speaking in Trieste also stressed the need not to further isolate Iran. The EU commissioner for external relations condemned the use of excessive force, and called for dialogue among battling parties within Iran.
A question: obviously the U.S. and Britain have severe restrictions in their ability to take actions on Iran that don't end up backfiring. What can other nations do that will have a real impact? Feel free to pass along smart articles you've read, or your own thoughts. We'll discuss as we move forward.
7:54 PM ET -- "This young man befriended me..." So begins a terrifying experience described to CNN by a woman who had gone to Iran after the elections to help her friends but ended up being tracked and then ambushed by the Basij.
"This young man befriended me. I was trying to download CNN to find out -- this was the day after the ayatollah gave his prayer on Friday," May said.
Afterward, the man helped her hail a taxi outside the cafe to meet one of her friends for lunch, she said.
"About half an hour into that ride, the next thing I know, there are two motorbikes on either side of my taxi," she said. "He's on the back of one of them, and three big Basij guys are on the other, and they pull me over. I knew what was happening."
The Basij, Iran's feared volunteer paramilitary group, has cracked down on the thousands of protesters in the bloody aftermath of the Islamic republic's disputed presidential election.
Story continues below
"I was terrified, and I immediately started screaming, saying no, no, no," May said.
The young man climbed into the taxi and told her to go with him and the three other men.
7:36 PM ET -- Electronic warfare versus the Islamic Republic. The latest by Eric Margolis. And for those just getting acquainted with the events in Iran, Robin Wright has a fantastic overview in Time magazine.
6:53 PM ET -- Warning: graphic video. What seems to be the first video actually depicting an Iranian being shot on camera by government officials has hit the internet. The shooting occurs while the person filming is quite far away, but the video then shows closer images of his body. The video is dated June 20. One can only imagine what an accurate count of the injured and dead demonstrators would look like at this point.
5:16 PM ET -- A trail of carnage. In this video posted today (date of taping unknown), a man shows the results of an alleged night raid by government forces, who damaged the cars outside his home, then invaded the house and vandalized or destroyed most everything, including the communications equipment on the roof.
A reader sends in this translated overview:
The man in the video explains that a group of "Arabic accented" riot police entered the building the night before, breaking glasses and doors and destroying the air-conditioning units on the roof top. They were probably after the people who chant slogans on the roof tops at night or wanted to destroy the satellite dishes (which are illegal). At his last sentence, he says that "we might need to get armed if this problem goes on like this..."
Another reader adds more detail:
He says that the doors were locked in the building, as it is a purely residential buidling, and were kicked in. He then states that they would have tried to break in the doors, and you see the baton marks on one of the doors later, but people stood infront of them. He says that one of the women was pregnant and very scared, and lastly, he states that they threw one of the AC units from the roof and it crashed on top of a car. He states that there was a woman and a child inside the car and they got out and started running.
5:05 PM ET -- Swedish PM cautions against Iran sanctions. "Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country is set to take over the EU presidency next week, cautioned on Thursday against European sanctions towards Iran, saying they could be counterproductive."
A reader notes that Sweden has relatively good relations with Iran, with hundreds of companies that do significant export business there.
4:57 PM ET -- Iranian ambassador tells CNN: CIA may have killed Neda. It's worth noting, through the fog of this propaganda, that the doctor who aided Neda told the BBC in an interview posted below that, after the shooting, he saw passers-by seize "an armed Basij militia volunteer who appeared to admit shooting."
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're anxious to hear your government's response to all of these developments which have been very dramatic over the past two weeks. A key question many people around the world are asking is, why did your security forces kill that 26 year-old beautiful student named Nada?
GHADIRI (through translator): This death of Ms. Nada is very suspicious. She was shot from behind. The location was where there was not much demonstration, there was no police presence and the gun that shot and killed her was a smuggled gun. It was not a government-issued gun. [...]
My question is that how is that this Nada was shot from behind and several cameras take that. And this is done in an area where there was no important demonstration... If the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the elements of the government and then choosing a girl would be something good for them because it would have much higher impact. Therefore, we believe and we are looking into this to find who the elements were who did this. [...]
BLITZER: Do you really believe that, Mr. Ambassador? You're a distinguished diplomat representing Iran. This is a very serious accusation that you're making, that the CIA was responsible for killing this beautiful, young woman.
GHADIRI (through translator): I'm not saying that the CIA had done this. There are different groups. Could be intelligence services, could be CIA, could be the terrorists. However, these are the people who do these things. You could ask Mr. Andreotti, who was an Italian diplomat whether Gladitators were a secret group related to CIA or not. Now they of course they use better methods. Of course, you're not going to say that CIA is a sacred organization that hasn't done anything to other worlds.
BLITZER: Mr. Ambassador, why won't your government allow people to go mourn at a memorial service for Nada, as her family has requested?
GHADIRI (through translator): We have no problem with mournings. Naturally we don't want to provide an opportunity for the rioters to come in and make the situation worse.
4:49 PM ET -- Blogging in Iran. An Iranian-American sends over this cartoon:
In normal times, Iranian television usually treats its viewers to one or two Hollywood or European movie nights a week. But these are not normal times, so it's been two or three such movies a day. It's part of the push to keep people at home and off the streets, to keep us busy, to get us out of the regime's hair. The message is "Don't worry, be happy." Channel Two is putting on a Lord of the Rings marathon as part of the government's efforts to restore peace.
Lots of people, adults and kids, are watching in the room with me. On the screen, Gandalf the Grey returns to the Fellowship as Gandalf the White. He casts a blinding white light, his face hidden behind a halo. Someone blurts out, "Imam zaman e?!" (Is it the Imam?!) It is a reference, of course, to the white-bearded Ayatullah Khomeini, who is respectfully called Imam Khomeini. But "Imam" is at the same time a title of the Mahdi, a messianic figure that Muslims believe will come to save true believers from powerful evildoers at the time of the apocalypse. Isn't that our predicament?
A reader emails: "one of my most vivid memories of 79 was the many many american movies, tv shows they started streaming. it was such a complete contrast to what was happening outside real time. unimaginable that the current regime is doing exactly what the shah did. what goes around comes around..."
3:25 PM ET -- Albright, Berger back Obama. After defending Barack Obama's Iran stance, President Clinton's former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger respond to this question from Bloomberg's Al Hunt:
HUNT: What the critics say is that we wouldn't have taken that attitude in South Africa in the 1980s, we wouldn't have taken - shouldn't have taken that attitude in Tiananmen in 1989, or in Hungary or in Czechoslovakia in the '50s.
ALBRIGHT: I think very different. And I think the point here is you have to understand the differences.
So for instance, I know a lot about Czechoslovakia and Poland. Those were very different kinds of bottom up revolutions against the Soviet Union. And frankly, there was a very big issue in Hungary. And this is something that people have to be careful of.
The administration in the 1950s kept saying to the Hungarian people, we will help you if you rise up. And then we didn't. And so there's a lot of blame that goes around. Czechoslovakia in 1968, same thing.
So first of all, they're very different. Those revolutions were very nationalistic. And just a different situation.
BERGER: Now the fact of the matter is what the President has said has been very tough. And he's escalated his rhetoric as the situation has escalated. In the early first days, it was not appropriate to prejudge how this thing would unfold. But his rhetoric over the past few days and his statements have been clear, have been strong, and have been appropriate.
3:15 PM ET -- What a difference a video makes. This 10-minute video just arrived in my inbox from (the very helpful) reader Jenny. It appears to be video from yesterday's events. And as you can see -- warning, there is footage of protesters beaten and anxious moments when people are trapped in between cars -- there was serious unrest yesterday.
After a day when many news outlets shifted away from their focus on Iran because of the scarcity of new footage, it demonstrates just how vital these citizen-created videos are in establishing a real sense of what's happening on the ground.
Reliable sources in Iran are suggesting that a possible compromise to put an end to the violent uprising that has rocked Iran for the past two weeks may be in the works. I have previously reported that the second most powerful man in Iran, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Assembly of Experts (the body with the power to choose and dismiss the Supreme Leader) is in the city of Qom--the country's religious center--trying to rally enough votes from his fellow Assembly members to remove the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from power. News out of Iran suggests that he may be succeeding. At the very least, it seems he may have gained enough support from the clerical establishment to force a compromise from Khamenei, one that would entail a run-off election between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.
2:48 PM ET -- A note to readers who read Russian... I'm hearing that there's some interesting Iran reporting coming out of Russia. If you can do a scan of papers and check it out, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
2:45 PM ET -- Boycotting caviar. The Guardian reports:
One of the leading European importers of Iranian caviar, Hague-based Persian Caviar, has decided to boycott the product, France Soir reports (in French).
"I will not give any more money to a regime that is massacring my people," said Hossein Akef, the Iranian director of the company.
Persian Caviar, which sells about €400,000-€450,000 in Iranian caviar a year, will continue to import the luxury food item from other Caspian Sea countries, "all of which are also good," Akef said.
2:16 PM ET -- Congress jumps into Iran again. "A Republican effort on Tuesday to cut off U.S. loans to some companies doing business with Iran will bring Congress deeper into the fray over the U.S. response to the Iranian elections," the congressional paper CQ reported earlier this week.
Adam Blickstein of the National Security Network, who calls the Iran provision "red meat for Ahmadinejad and the Khamenei regime," notes today that it was approved by committee and now is attached to a "must-pass" spending bill.
The man behind the measure is Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), who has been highlighting the fact that the Israel lobby group AIPAC supports the measure. But Blickstein notes:
Keith Weissman, AIPAC's former top Iran analyst, strenuously disagreed with such initiatives, at least for right now. "The best policy now is, 'Do no harm,'" he said.
Neither sanctions nor diplomatic engagement has meaning now, since the country is in internal turmoil, Weissman explained: "What AIPAC is doing here is hurting the very people the U.S. and the rest of world would like to assist in Iran. Any kind of message like this just proves what the bad guys in Iran have been saying to their people for years. It makes it easier for them to hurt the people Obama is trying to help.
2:08 PM ET -- "Remember that I helped the BBC." BBC's John Simpson, whose visa expired on Sunday, writes today of the "Secret voices in Iran." (Via Robert Mackey.)
For reasons best not explained, I've come to know a former member of the Revolutionary Guards really well. He's done some pretty dreadful things in his life, from attacking women in the streets for not wearing the full Islamic gear to fighting alongside Islamic revolutionaries in countries abroad.
And yet now, in the tumult that has gripped Iran since its elections last week, he's had a change of heart. He's become a backer of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate who alleges fraud in the elections. He's saved up the money to send his son to a private school abroad, and he loathes President Ahmadinejad. He's not the only one.
I had to leave Iran last Sunday, when the authorities refused to renew my visa. But before I left, another former senior Revolutionary Guard came to our hotel to see us. "Remember me," he pleaded. "Remember that I helped the BBC." I realised that even a person so intimately linked to the Islamic Revolution thinks that something will soon change in Iran.
1:59 PM ET -- The doctor who tried to save Neda. Via reader Margarita, BBC just posted a 20-minute video interview with Dr. Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in the south of England, and who tried to save Neda's life after she was shot in Tehran.
Dr Hejazi also told how passers-by then seized an armed Basij militia volunteer who appeared to admit shooting Ms Soltan.
Dr Hejazi said he had not slept for three nights following the incident, but he wanted to speak out so that her death was not in vain.
He doubted that he would be able to return to Iran after talking openly about Ms Soltan's killing. [...]
"They are going to denounce what I am saying. They are going to put so many things on me. I have never been in politics. I am jeopardising my situation because of the innocent look in her (Neda's) eyes."
1:21 PM ET -- Will the U.S. soccer team wear green? A petition:
To the U.S. soccer team players:
Please consider wearing green wristbands in your upcoming match in the Confederations Cup finale. It would be a sign of solidarity and compassion for your fellow soccer brethren who were banned from the game they love and face unthinkable repercussions for simply adorning a green wristband symbolizing peace and freedom. This is not politics, it is human rights. Any slap on the wrist you may face from FIFA pales in comparison to what the Iranian soccer team faced, and what the Iranian people face.
1:17 PM ET -- Chavez 'makes common cause with repression.' Norman Soloman, one of the most frequent Western defenders of Hugo Chavez against U.S. criticism, calls the Venezuelan leader's position on Iran "idiocy."
12:33 PM ET -- Careless murder. Al Jazeera airs some of the clearest, close-up footage I've seen showing basiji on a roof, firing weapons indiscriminately down into the street. It appears about 1 minute in, and is followed by an interview with YouTube political director Steve Grove.
12:29 PM ET -- Solidarity. We noted earlier that Mousavi was calling on supporters to release green balloons tomorrow and take video or photos of the scene. NIAC translated the Mousavi Facebook message:
"Ok, now all the world are going to show their supports to Iranians... This Friday, We all are going to send GREEN BALLOONS to the sky to show that now ALL PEOPLE OF THE WORLD ARE IRANIAN. On 9/11 everybody was American, NOW THE WORLD IS IRANIAN."
12:15 PM ET -- If you'd like to support this post on Digg... please click here, and thank you.
11:56 AM ET -- FIFA soccer organization sends letter on Iran. AFP reports, "Football's world governing body FIFA wrote to the Iranian football federation on Wednesday to ask for answers over alleged punishments meted out to several of their players for wearing wristbands reflecting their support for opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi."
"We wrote a letter to the Iranian Federation to ask for some answers and clarification regarding the press reports over what happened to some of the Iranian players following the qualifier with South Korea on June 17," the spokesperson said.
11:51 AM ET -- Solidarity. A reader from Georgia writes, "I just attended a candle light vigil in Atlanta last night, about 175-200 people showed...emotional." Another reader in Texas: "I can't do much here ... but I can chant. I'm going to go out tonight, and every night that the protestors are protesting ... and chant 'Allaho Akbar' and 'I am Neda' (or God bless Neda). My neighbors won't get it but that's okay."
I used to work as an editorial cartoonist for a small newspaper but since moved away from it. Now, I only draw when I'm really struck by a story. And this one has got my attention. I sent this cartoon to the Post last night but I don't know that it made it through the filters. So I'm sending it to you, as it seems you'd be the most relevant channel right now. I just wanted to express my support for their cause in the most honest way I can.
11:49 AM ET -- CNN's 'anti-Iran war room.' An Iranian site Jahan News, citing the state-funded FARS, claims the CNN has created a war room to fight a psychological war against the Islamic Republic.
Laughable, though CNN has indeed provided the best cable network news coverage of the events in Iran, and their iReport citizen journalism site is reportedly seeing a surge in readership.
11:41 AM ET -- The Saudis join the plot. ABC's Lara Setrakian: "Iran state tv says Saudi govt also behind iranelection protests."
Meanwhile, "Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Thursday accused the West of fomenting protests in Iran over this month's presidential election but added that it had no worries about the stability of its main foreign backer."
The Saudi allegations are notable (and predictable) because Mousavi ally Rafsanjani is known to be very close with the Saudi leadership.
Update: Stories just published by Iran's state media also go after France and the EU.
11:34 AM ET -- Mousavi back under house arrest... according to the Gooya news site.
Iran bans one of the aides of defeated Reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi from leaving the country until he elaborates on aspects pertinent to the recent post-election unrest.
Abolfazl Fateh, head of the Mousavi information committee who seeks to visit England, "has been banned (from leaving Iran) because of (his role in) recent developments and his efforts to arrange for the illegal gathering of Mousavi supporters," the Fars news agency reported.
11:20 AM ET -- Rumors of a compromise circulate. Mehdi Noorbaksh, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, emails a message to TehranBureau: "There is a possibility, and I am saying a possibility, for a compromise on the election result among the involved parties in Iran in the next couple of days. I received a call from Iran late last night indicating that there is a possibility for a runoff between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. There are a few points that we should consider in this context." His full message is here.
10:03 AM ET -- USA Today profiles Iran's women. "One scene stood out, and 'he couldn't believe his eyes,' said Mortazavi, 27, who came to the USA from Iran in 2002 and is helping to coordinate protests in the United States. 'He decided it was time to start running when the police were coming. He turned back and saw some women still standing,' she says. 'These women are not afraid.'"
9:50 AM ET -- Most university professors reportedly released. An Iranian journalist tweets (in Persian) that of the 70 faculty members who were arrested yesterday, 66 are freed while 4 are still detained.
9:42 AM ET -- Reza Aslan on the Daily Show. One of the more insightful voices on Iran, Reza Aslan of the University of California Santa Barbara, appeared last night on the Daily Show. "Thank god for Barack Obama," he said.
[S]ome Middle East watchers believe the timing of news last night that the United States would send an ambassador back to Damascus Syria after a four-year absence is no coincidence, and may be related to the new Obama administration tone on Iran.
Asked about that theory, a U.S. official said: "You're warm." Syrian Embassy and Middle East expert sources noted that news reports on the envoy to Damascus seemed to have originated with the White House -- which has been in the midst of daily meetings about Iran for several days -- not the State Department.
"I think the Obama administration strategy -- while not fully formed -- was always that it wanted to engage with both Iran and Syria, and it wanted to play one side off the other," said Syria expert Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "This does have to do with that. I don't think we fully understand all of their reasoning on this ... but by announcing that it will send an ambassador to Damascus, it sends a message both to Damascus and Tehran."
9:20 AM ET -- Ahmadinejad lashes out, compares Obama to Bush. "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Barack Obama on Thursday of behaving like his predecessor toward Iran and said there was not much point in talking to Washington unless the U.S. president apologized."
Obama said on Tuesday he was "appalled and outraged" by a post-election crackdown and Washington withdrew invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend U.S. Independence Day celebrations on July 4 -- stalling efforts to improve ties with Tehran.
"Mr Obama made a mistake to say those things ... our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"Do you want to speak with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about ... I hope you avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it," he said.
Mr. Ahmadinejad has filled crucial ministries and other top posts with close friends and allies who have spread ideological and operational support for him nationwide. These analysts estimate that he has replaced 10,000 government employees to cement his loyalists through the bureaucracies, so that his allies run the organizations responsible for both the contested election returns and the official organs that have endorsed them.
"There is a whole political establishment that emerged with Ahmadinejad, which is now determined to hold on to power undemocratically," said one American-based Iran analyst, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of his work in Iran. "Their ability to resist the outcome of the election means they have a broad base as a political establishment."
Also, Joe Klein's new Time magazine piece includes some relevant news that I had missed: "The truth is, Iran's government is a conservative, defensive, rational military dictatorship that manages to subdue its working-class majority softly, by distributing oil revenues downward. (On June 23, Ahmadinejad announced that doctors' salaries would be doubled, for example.)"
9:09 AM ET -- Mousavi vows to continue fight against "rigged" vote. "Iran's opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi said on Thursday he was determined to continue fighting against 'major' presidential election rigging despite pressure to stop, his website reported. 'I am pressured to abandon my demand for the vote annulment ... a major rigging has happened ... I am prepared to prove that those behind the rigging are responsible for the bloodshed ... Continuation of legal and calm protests will guarantee achieving our goals,' Mousavi said."
He declares: "I am ready to show how the electoral wrong-doers, standing beside the main agitators that have caused the present disturbances, have spilled people's blood. I would not, for the sake of personal expediency and fear in the face of threats, withdraw for one moment my demands for the return of the rights of the Iranian people, whose blood is being unjustly spilled today."
He added: "(The people's) problem is with millions of votes whose fate is unknown."
Calling for people to keep calm while resisting, he goes on: "It is a must for us to neutralise this evil conspiracy through our behaviour and expressions."
8:44 AM ET -- Boston Globe profiles TehranBureau.com. As it turns out, the Bureau is made up of just one extremely committed person channeling the work of many Iranians:
The website is called Tehran Bureau, but it is not housed in the Iranian capital. It's edited from [Kelly Golnoush] Niknejad's parents' living room in Newton.
"Everybody thinks this is some kind of extensive bureau, but it's just me," Niknejad said yesterday as she sat alone at a small round table, tapping on one of two Apple PowerBooks.
8:32 AM ET -- Footage appears to show Neda while alive. The video below, taken on Saturday, appears to show Neda and her professor in the lower right quarter of the screen roughly 20 seconds in. They're walking together as several paramilitaries riding motorcycles appear at the other end of the street.
8:26 AM ET -- Iran slams Britain's asset freeze as "human rights issue." From state media:
Amid growing tension between Tehran and London over post-vote riots, an Iranian dignitary lashes out at the UK for freezing a large sum of Iranian assets. [...]
Britain's Economic Secretary to the Treasury Ian Pearson said last week that the British government had frozen "approximately GBR 976,110,000" worth of Iranian assets. [...]
"The British government has frozen nearly one billion pounds of Iranian assets in England. This is in clear contradiction to what they claim. In their media they repeatedly claim to be advocates of human rights in Iran. They say they are defending the Iranian people but such a move is obviously against the Iranian nation because the assets belong to the people not to particular individuals."
Whose assets did Britain freeze? It's still unknown, but the British media report that they were funds belonging to Ayatollah Khamenei's son.
8:23 AM ET -- The regime exposed. A cartoon published in the Guardian, by artist Steve Bell:
8:14 AM ET -- An Iranian on Twitter reappears. One Iranian on Twitter who had not posted for three days returned today:
I'm only posting this to say I'm still alive & not in Tehran, I had a bad incident with Basij and couldn't use computer
Shayan's brother's fate is still unknown, Reza has been released yesterday & at hospital right now & I think Masood is safe
as soon I can walk properly again, I will go back to Tehran. probably tomorrow night
I will twitt again at night, my back & neck hurts a lot & I can't sit here anymore
sorry about no news at all in these past days, I will try my best to keep you informed again as soon as possible
8:12 AM ET -- More symbolic protests. "Mousavi supporters said they would release thousands of balloons on Friday imprinted with the message 'Neda you will always remain in our hearts' -- a reference to the young woman killed last week who has become an icon of the protests."
8:09 AM ET -- MPs "snub" Ahmadinejad election party. "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."
I see the moment we are witnessing as a civil rights movement rather than a push to topple the regime. If Rosa Park was the American "mother of the civil rights movement," the young woman who was killed point blank in the course of a demonstration, Neda Agha-Soltan, might very well emerge as its Iranian granddaughter.
If I am correct in this reading, we should not expect an imminent collapse of the regime. These young Iranians are not out in the streets seeking to topple the regime for they lack any military wherewithal to do so, and they are alien to any militant ideology that may push them in that direction.
It seems to me that these brave young men and women have picked up their hand-held cameras to shoot those shaky shots, looking in their streets and alleys for their Martin Luther King. They are well aware of Mir Hossein Moussavi's flaws, past and present. But like the color of green, the very figure of Moussavi has become, it seems to me, a collective construction of their desires for a peaceful, nonviolent attainment of civil and women's rights. They are facing an army of firearms and fanaticism with chanting poetry and waving their green bandannas. I thought my generation had courage to take up arms against tyranny. Now I tremble with shame in the face of their bravery.
7:49 AM ET -- A letter from an Iranian. An Iranian who holds citizenship with a Western nation writes:
I haven't gone out much after Saturday because of the giant guilt trip my family put on me...they were so worried that 4 of my family members had to take tranquilizers to calm their nerves. They say that if my grandfather dies it will be my fault. They won't let me shout Allah O Akbar (it really does help relieve a persons stress) from the rooftop for fear of reprisals. All this has depressed me terribly. I feel like I didn't do enough (and that they definitely didn't), I'm almost hoping to be arrested at the airport (I leave in a few days) as it would mean I did enough to be noticed. I think about all the great people who helped change their countries (Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and even our own Khomeini) they were all willing to sacrifice something or spend some time in jail, however most of my family are not willing to sacrifice a single Rial. They are in disagreement with the way the government acts but for fear of losing a little bit of the comfort they have they aren't willing to walk to the door never mind a protest.
I've also been getting a lot of "this is all the work of the British and American's" as if Iranians are to stupid or so low that they can't do anything for themselves. It must all be the work of foreign powers. I just hope that all this lead's to something, that people weren't beaten and killed for nothing. Once again I'm forced to sing Neil Young's Ohio in my head Which seems even more relevant after the video of a young woman dying in the street has swept the world) and hope for change.
"Gotta get down to it Soldiers are gunning us down Should have been done long ago. What if you knew her And found her dead on the ground How can you run when you know?"
I don't know what to think anymore, but I know I won't ever be the same.
2:32 PM ET -- Karroubi criticizes Guardian Council, calls for new election. Via the excellent NIAC, the latest statement by one of the other presidential candidates who has since been supporting and appearing with Mousavi:
In an open letter, Karroubi complained to the speaker of the Guardian Council about the provinces where the number of votes exceeded the number of eligible voters. According to Karroubi, there are more than 200 such regions. "But the problems are not limited to these regions... the interesting thing is why the Guardian Council, which oversaw the qualification of the administrators, did not report such widespread fraud on the day of the election?" Karroubi said. Therefore, he asked the Guardian Council to save the country from great danger by canceling the elections instead of "wasting time" by recounting the votes.
2:19 PM ET -- Mousavi fever spreads to volleyball. A reader sends along this video with a note:
It was apparently taken during a volleyball match between the teams Peykan and Alhelal held yesterday. Iranians wearing green rooted for the number 4 player with the name Mousavi (his first name is Mohammad though). I read in Balatarin (a kind of Farsi version of Digg) that after the police present in the stadium told them that even if there is a player with that name, they are not allowed to shout this name, they started chanting "Rahnavard!" Then the police got angrier and told them if they wanted to watch the match, they had to refrain from mentioning certain names. After this, the slogans changed to, "Liar, liar, you who we can't name!" "Shall I say, shall I say? Say, say! Best team is blue, no, no, no. Best team is red, no, no, no. It's green, green, green!" "Doctor (referring to Ahamdinejad), go away!" Then they raised their hands above their heads and observed a few minutes of silence out of reverence to Neda.
Here are some photos apparently from the same event:
2:14 PM ET -- More video, alleged from today.
2:03 PM ET -- Iran's citizen journalism. Some newsworthy recent tweets from one of Iran's most reliable Twitter users. Of course, they are all unconfirmed. But it is very impressive how a key group of Iranians on Twitter have filled the media vacuum not just by tweeting, but by noting when their information is unverified, or when it comes from sources whose reliability they cannot know for certain.
Clashes today confirmed in Jaam Jam and Mellat Park - militia used tear gas - shooting heard
Kalame Newspaper attacked by militia and several journalists arrested - #Iranelection2 minutes ago from web
Hospital sources - at least 1000 people injured so far by Gov in the streets against Sea of Green
Hospital sources - as many as 47 killed so far by Gov in the streets
Tehran is now alive again with the sound of the people - Allah Akbar - Death to the Dictator
The Combatant Clerics Group has strongly supported Mir Hossein Mousavi - Qom - Today
Mousavi has today had a meeting with several high rank clerics from Qom
1:55 PM ET -- TehranBroadcast.com. Via Alex, this looks to be an excellent new resource for English speakers.
1:46 PM ET -- Iran needs more guns. So argues Florida Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio.
1:30 PM ET -- Rafsanjani 'fighting furiously' for re-vote. Roger Cohen's latest for the New York times is out. One newsworthy passage: "On Sunday, I saw Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of the establishment's embittered éminence grise, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He told me his father, who despises President Mahmoud Adhmadinejad, is fighting a furious rearguard action to have the election annulled by the Guardian Council, the 12-member oversight body that will pronounce this week on the election's legality."
His closing line: "I bow my head to the youth of Iran, the youth that is open-eyed, bold and far stronger and more numerous than the near-beardless vigilantes."
1:03 PM ET -- An interview with Neda's fiance. As I noted earlier, BBC Persia today aired an interview with Neda's fiance. Several readers graciously volunteered English translations. I'm posting the full transcript below -- it's long but very interesting. Her fiance says that the coroners asked to remove a part of Neda's leg (for apparent use for another person), that Iran's authorities refused to allow her family to hold a memorial service, and that Neda was not a firm backer of either Mousavi or Ahmadinejad -- she simply "wanted freedom and freedom for all."
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.
Considering her young age she has taught a lesson to us all.
About the day of the incident, Mr. Makan said: "When the clashes were occurring, Neda was far away from the demonstrations, she was in one of the side alleys near Amir Abad. Thirsty and tired or being cooped up for about an hour in the car in heavy traffic with her music instructor, she finally gets out of the car and, based on the pictures sent in by the people, armed forces in civilian clothes and the Basiji targeted and shot her in the heart."
"It was over in a matter of minutes, the Shariati Hospital was nearby, the people around her tried to bring her to the emergency room by car, but before that could even happen she died in her instructor's arms."
Mr. Makan added: "We got her body back finally yesterday with some diffculties. Of course, her body was not at the Tehran Coroner but at a one outside of Tehran. The medical examiners wanted parts of her body, including a portion of her femoral bone but the chief medical examiner would not say why and no explanations were ever given."
"Finally the family consented just so they could get her body back as soon as possible, since just this issue could have resulted in delaying the reception of the body. We buried the body in a small area in the Zahra Cemetery in the late afternoon of 31 Khordad. Also, they had brought in other people who had been killed in the protests so it seemed that the whole event was scheduled to be such."
About payment for releasing the remains, Mr. Makan had this to say: "No specific amount has been paid at this time, although hospitals, clinics, surgeons and medical examiners have been ordered by the Iranian security services, based on various orders, not to list 'bullet wound' as the cause of death on the death certificate in order to prevent the families from filing international complaints in the future. I haven't seen the release notice of Neda's remains yet, but I will obtain it from her father in the coming days."
Mr. Makan regarding government ban of memorial service for Neda Agha Setan said: "We were going to hold her memorial Monday 1st of Tir at 2:30 PM at a mosque at Sharyati street north of Seyed Khandan. But Basijis and mosque officials refused our request for her memorial service so to avoid further public confrontation and instability. They knew that Neda was an died innocently, and people in Iran and the international community are informed of that fact. So they decided to avoid a situation where a mass rally would take place. In any way, we do not have permission for a memorial service for now."
However, many eye witnesses told BBC Persia that a large gathering took place with the intention of performing a memorial service at Al Reza Mosque at Nilofar square in Tehran. But the security forces intervened by throwing people out of the mosque and intervening with the service.
Mr. Makan also commented on fake pictures of videos claiming to be Neda at various sites:"I was looking at some sites including 'iReport'. There was a picture of a young woman with green signs from previous calm demonstrations and had claimed it was Neda before being shot. These pictures have no relation to the event. It seems that Mr. Mousavi's supporters are trying to portray Neda as one of his supporters. This is not so. Neda was incredibly close to me and she was never supportive of either two groups. Neda wanted freedom and freedom for all."
BBC Farsi tried to contact Neda Agha-Sultan's other family members but was told by a close relative of hers that, for reasons of their own, the Agha Sultan family could grant an interview.
12:56 PM ET -- Report of violence in Mousavi's hometown. Via the NIAC, an Iranian reporter tweets, "Frightening reports coming from Tabriz (Mousavi's hometown)."
12:54 PM ET -- Iran ambassadors summoned. "The Czech European Union presidency asked the bloc's members on Monday to consider summoning the heads of Iran's missions in Europe to express 'deep revulsion' over post-election violence there. The Czechs said they had summoned the head of the Iranian ministry in Prague to reject Iran's protest that the EU and its member states were illegitimately interfering in Iran's affairs."
Also: A European Union-wide proposal to coordinate aid for wounded Iranian demonstrators was expected to be discussed Wednesday in Stockholm, ministers said. Ministers of Italy, France and Finland called for a common EU response for people seeking assistance in the violent aftermath of Iran's June 12 election."
12:42 PM ET -- New video. Purportedly from today. The text accompanying the video reads, "Shiroudi Sports Compound turned into a military garrison."
12:08 PM ET -- Iran considering dismissal of EU ambassadors. So reports BBC Persia.
11:21 AM ET -- Neda was engaged. BBC Persia has an interview with Neda's fiance (some translation would be great). Also, AP prints some new details: "An acquaintance of her family said Neda worked part-time at a travel agency in Iran and that the government barred the family from holding a public funeral Monday. The acquaintance spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared government reprisal. The Iranian government has banned all public gatherings, though there was no specific information about funerals for those killed in recent clashes."
11:18 AM ET -- Nokia/Siemens responds to report it provided Iran with censoring technology. Via reader Paul, the statement is here. Here's the original Wall Street Journal story if you missed it below. Any thoughts from experts on this issue?
11:16 AM ET -- Italy willing to open embassy to protesters. Reuters writes up the news we noted yesterday: "Italy is willing to open its embassy in Tehran to wounded protesters in coordination with other European nations, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday. The move follows a Swedish initiative to look into whether European Union nations can put together a plan to take in and provide aid to demonstrators at their embassies in Iran, the ministry said."
11:11 AM ET -- "It has become a dangerous zero-sum game." If you're just starting to follow this conflict, the New York Times has an excellent piece on former Iranian president Rafsanjani and his intense behind-the-scenes campaign to tilt the center of power away from Khamenei.
11:01 AM ET -- Government accuses demonstrators of murder. From Iran's state TV: "Tehran's prosecutor general's office has said that some armed saboteurs opened fire on civilians and killed people in post-election violence in Tehran. 'A number of Tehrani citizens were shot dead by unknown vandals Saturday night,' said the office on Monday."
10:55 AM ET -- Riot police again violently cracking down on demonstrators. The latest from AP:
Riot police attacked hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas and fired live bullets in the air to disperse a rally in central Tehran Monday, carrying out a threat by the country's most powerful security force to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election.
Witnesses said helicopters hovered overhead as about 200 protesters gathered at Haft-e-Tir Square. But hundreds of anti-riot police quickly put an end to the demonstration and prevented any gathering, even small groups, at the scene.
At the subway station at Haft-e-Tir, the witnesses said police did not allow anyone to stand still, asking them to keep on walking and separating people who were walked together. The witnesses asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisals.
Just before the clashes, an Iranian woman who lives in Tehran said there was a heavy police and security presence in another square in central Tehran. She asked not to be identified because she was worried about government reprisals.
"There is a massive, massive, massive police presence," she told the Associated Press in Cairo by telephone. "Their presence was really intimidating."
10:40 AM ET -- Google updates Iran satellite imagery. Another very impressive move by Google: "Many of you have been letting us know through Tweets, emails, blog posts, message boards, and even an online petition that you're very interested in seeing recent satellite imagery of Tehran. Well, we've heard your requests and over the past few days have been working with our satellite imagery partner GeoEye to make this possible. We just received updated satellite imagery of Tehran, taken on Thursday the 18th at approximatly 11:18am local time."
Also, YouTube employees over at their Citizen Tube site have been posting Iran videos for several days now. This morning, they noted that Iran's state media have launched a "YouTube strategy" in recent days, posting propaganda videos and clips from its television station. One YouTube post states, "Is Iran's YouTube strategy working? The above episode of Reality Check was posted a day ago, and has 13 views at the time of this posting."
10:36 AM ET -- Police breaking up memorial for Neda. ABC's Lara Setrakian tweets, "People are trying to gather in 7 Tir square, but being dispersed before they can gather momentum. Many many Basijis. People btwn 1000-2000. they're preventing others from joining. As soon as they gather somewhere they attack, so they run away & regroup"
The 7 Tir Square gathering was a memorial for Neda, the young woman whose violent death in the street on Saturday was captured on video.
10:33 AM ET -- British foreign ministry evacuating staff from Iran. NBC News reports, getting more details. The UK also revised its travel advisory for Iran:
Large scale demonstrations following the Iranian Presidential elections on 12 June 2009 continue. There have been violent clashes at and after some demonstrations with some deaths. Further violence is possible. Some forms of international and internal communications have been disrupted, e.g. SMS, mobile telephone coverage and internet. You should avoid demonstrations and large public gatherings.
10:20 AM ET -- Revolutionary Guards threaten to crush protests. "Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned on Monday it would crush further demonstrations over the disputed presidential election after the opposition defiantly vowed to press on with its protests. The Guards -- an elite force set up to protect the Islamic republic in the wake of the 1979 revolution -- warned of a 'decisive and revolutionary' riposte to any further unrest."
9:58 AM ET -- "You can't beat our grandmothers." A very moving appearance by Melody Moezzi on CNN last night:
5:22 AM ET -- Karroubi calls for public mourning of Neda today. In a Facebook post, the reformist candidate who has been supporting Mousavi and appearing with him at rallies calls for people to gather at a central Tehran location at 4PM to mourn Neda. This could get explosive.
5:03 AM ET -- Khamenei to deliver another address on Friday. That news comes via a very reliable Iranian on Twitter, who cites Iran's state television. The same Twitter user also wrote earlier today about apparent plans for a broad strike being organized by reformists:
Soon Mousavi will announce full national strikes, probably starting with Petrochemical - prepare for this... Expect food shortage - transport stoppage - money shortage in bank... Gov will respond with electric power cuts - prepare and have gas cylinders at home or gasoline for light/cooking... People of Iran - THIS IS THE DAWN - This is the new begining - have hope and prepare.
4:43 AM ET -- Report: 40 senior clerics want election results annulled. The intense infighting among Iran's clerical establishment appeared to play out in new dramatic fashion on Monday. Via reader Art, the news site Peiknet reported that Ayatollah Rafsanjani has a letter signed by 40 members of the powerful 86-member Assembly of Experts calling for the annulment of the recent presidential election results.
Moreover, the letter (the authenticity of which has, again, not been verified) charges that the arrest of Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh on Sunday was a way to exert pressure on him, and that she was followed and identified by the intelligence services during the rally.
More translation via a reader:
It says Khamenai has lung cancer and wanted to have his son as Supreme Leader (the position that Rafsanjani wants), and that the attempt to alter the election results was done in an attempt by Khamenei to eventually allow his son Mojtaba to replace him. It says that at the core the argument is not just about Mousavi but the overall system of government, as it's becoming a like Monarchy rather than a republic. So far, it says, most of the clerics have not accepted Ahmadinejad presidency, and quotes Ayatollah Javadi Amoly saying of the attack on Tehran University students, 'no Muslim will destroy another's property, they must be foreigners.'
If you see any related news, let me know. In the meantime, it's useful to watch this video recounting Rafsanjani's key role in electing Khamenei as Supreme Leader some two decades ago:
3:44 AM ET -- Archives. I've been trying to keep the size of this page relatively small so it loads more quickly, but full archives are available down below. Here are Sunday's updates.
3:40 AM ET -- Mohsen Makhmalbaf. If someone has the contact information for Mousavi's external spokesman, can you please pass it along?
3:39 AM ET -- Rafsanjani speech? Powerful Iranian cleric Ayatollah Rafsanjani, whose family members were arrested and held for several hours on Sunday after his daughter was filmed supporting the demonstrators, will "speak after Friday's sermon," reports Jamal Dajani, a journalist and HuffPost blogger.
3:32 AM ET -- Some stunning video... of street clashes between basiji paramilitaries and demonstrators on Saturday. (Via reader Farbod.)
Iran's revolution has now run through a full cycle. A gruesomely captivating video of a young woman -- laid out on a Tehran street after apparently being shot, blood pouring from her mouth and then across her face -- swept Twitter, Facebook and other websites this weekend. The woman rapidly became a symbol of Iran's escalating crisis, from a political confrontation to far more ominous physical clashes. [...]
Although it is not yet clear who shot "Neda" (a soldier? pro-government militant? an accidental misfiring?), her death may have changed everything. For the cycles of mourning in Shiite Islam actually provide a schedule for political combat -- a way to generate or revive momentum. Shiite Muslims mourn their dead on the third, seventh and 40th days after a death, and these commemorations are a pivotal part of Iran's rich history. During the revolution, the pattern of confrontations between the shah's security forces and the revolutionaries often played out in 40-day cycles.
2:30 AM ET -- Foreign ministry: U.S. has "racial mentality" toward Iran. CNN aired extended footage of a live press conference by Iran's foreign ministry on Monday morning. An anchor noted many empty seats in the briefing room, a result of the foreign media crackdown.
In one key exchange, a questioner asked about reports that foreign embassies had aided demonstrators after Saturday's violence. The foreign ministry representative said there was, at that moment, a "heated debate" over those reports taking place in Iran's Parliament, and he promised that a "proportional response" from Iran's government was being planned. In the same response, he accused the United States of acting with a "racial mentality" in its behavior towards Iran.
REPORTER: Yesterday we had in the news that some foreign embassies in Tehran, in the past two or three days, they have given shelter to rioters. You said that there's a meeting held right now in Parliament. How does Iran look at this?
FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL: Well, I said that this was asked several times. I ask that you allow me not to make any prejudgments. All the reports and attitudes [sic] are being observed and they're being looked into, and measures proportionate to facts on the ground will be taken. We will not act based on our emotions and feelings. But a proportionate measure to take is being studied now. I have no permission to comment at this point, and just now, I said that there's is a heated debate in parliament right now, and they are looking into all the aspects of this issue. And like I said, at the same time, some Western officials say, some American officials say they don't want to engage in a political football, but that's not true. Reality is different. There was one statement out by those proclaimers of democracy -- there was no sentence, no statement in their comments to invite people to democracy! Not even one statement was mentioned, for your information, we observed it all, we monitored all that they said. They never invited people to do things based on law, legally. If there is going to be some protest in their own countries, people need to be issued a permit. They did not allow them to have a rally in their own countries. Why don't they find the same story in Iran? Why don't they treat us the same way? This is a racial mentality, that Iranians belong to the Third World, we shouldn't talk about law or regulations with them. But we belong to the first class, we are first-class citizens, and therefore you should permits from police to have a rally.
At another point in the press conference, he referenced the 2004 Bush-Kerry presidential race, noting that foreign governments didn't urge Kerry voters like those "in Los Angeles" to not accept the results.
1:39 AM ET -- Web access for Iranians. A site called Your-Freedom.me says it is offering free access to its services for Iranians, with widened bandwidth and no time restrictions.
1:13 AM ET -- Calm overnight, state media reports. "Iranian state radio said on Monday that no unrest broke out in Tehran overnight and the capital had been calm for the first time since a disputed June 12 presidential election. 'Tehran last night witnessed the first night of calm and peace since the election,' state radio said."
The New York Times reports, "There were reports of scattered confrontations but no confirmation of any new injuries by evening. But as they had on previous nights, many residents of Tehran clambered to their rooftops and could be heard shouting 'Death to the dictator!' and 'God is great,' their rallying cries since the crisis began."
12:46 AM ET -- State radio: 457 arrested. "Iranian state radio said Monday that 457 people were arrested in clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tehran that took place late Saturday. The arrests were made around the Iranian capital's Azadi square, the radio report said, quoting the police."
11:58 PM ET -- The Chatham House study on Iran's election. I was traveling today and only briefly mentioned the major Chatham House study examining the results of Iran's election. Here is the full study (pdf), and the New York Times highlights some key points:
[S]erious new questions about the vote's integrity were raised outside of Iran. Chatham House, a London-based research organization, released a study done with the University of St. Andrews challenging the Iranian government's results, based on a comparison with the 2005 elections as well as Iran's own census data.
The study showed, for example, that in two provinces where Mr. Ahmadinejad won a week ago, a turnout of more than 100 percent was recorded.
The study also showed that in a third of all provinces, the official results, if true, would have required that Mr. Ahmadinejad win not only all conservative voters and all former centrist voters and all new voters, but up to 44 percent of formerly reformist voters.
11:15 PM ET -- CNN: "Her name was Neda." I'm late getting to this but CNN really should be commended for producing the report below. Even tonight, as we near midnight on a Sunday, CNN's Don Lemon is still anchoring live news and commentary on Iran. Very impressive.
11:04 PM ET -- Siemens, Nokia helped provide Iran's censoring technology. The Wall Street Journal has a very important report:
The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale. [...]
[I]n confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep-packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.
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.
A reader notes, "Here is some software that was used in China as an effective tool for circumvention of the censorship controls. The software is Tor it is used by Human Rights Watch and others, including bloggers who don't want to get caught in a place where they can be killed for speaking out. It's open source for Windows, Linux and Mac. Here is the link."
10:49 PM ET -- Mousavi's words on tape. This video, uploaded on YouTube today, purports to be of Mousavi's appearance at Saturday's rally. It seems more likely to be from an event earlier in the week, but either way, it is among the first post-election videos I've spotted where his words can be heard.
A Farsi-speaking reader tried to help translate but it was tough: "The crowd's chanting makes it so hard to pick out what he is saying. I can pick up a few word here and there, but not his full sentences. The gist is that he is among the martyrs... -- then the crowd chants. The crowd chanting is clear, but not Mousavi's speech." Let me know if you're able to pick up more.
Update: Readers write in with additional quotes: "For this 'sacred path' we are ready to sacrifice ourselves," he says at one point, and then later, "We came here to defend the right of our own nation [inaudible]..."
Another reader, Ollie, offers this description: "'In our sacred path we have to give sacrifice," he says, and 'We have to defend our rights.' The first phrase sounds to be not 'to make' sacrifices" but to 'give them' ('ghorbani bedahim' as opposed to 'Ghorbani beshavim'). I don't wanna make too much of it, but it sounds like a call to confront violence and be prepared to face the consequences."
10:09 PM ET -- Keeping an eye out for for a strike. NBC's Ann Curry writes, "Word spreading that protesters r trying to organize a general strike. People told to stock up on supplies, medicines."
A knowledgeable reader writes, "Keep watch for any info on strikes, especially if bazari (major importers) and in particular if the oil workers will join. I am reading/hearing rumors about this. If/when oil workers join - I would say end of the regime. That is what happend '79: Oil-workers went on strike, the U.S. gov't had to give the shah oil at very high costs, until they gave up and the shah fell. This time no one will give them oil and if oil-workers go on strike, that is the most potent weapon against the regime. They will not have any money to finance (pay basij etc) for this."
9:45 PM ET -- "Stop or I'll tweet!" An editorial cartoon. Here's another, via reader Alex. Yes, there are those who overstate the role of new technology in Iran's unrest right now. But there's a reason that government forces are targeting demonstrators carrying cell phones and cameras.
9:40 PM ET -- Rafsanjani's daughter released. Iran's state media confirms the reports we posted earlier.
The New York Times adds that four of Faezeh's other relatives, also arrested, "were released after several hours."
8:43 PM ET -- Imprisoned Iranian politicians and journalists. An updated list. And below, a photo of Maziar Bahari, a Canadian reporter for Newsweek who has been arrested without charges in Iran. Bahari's colleague Fareed Zakaria has posted a statement over at PostGlobal.
8:36 PM ET -- Where should people send donations? I've received several emails asking for suggestions for groups that Americans and others can donate to. It's not appropriate for me to be making donation recommendations in this capacity, but I'm happy to pass on thoughts from readers. If you have a group/outlet/etc. you'd like to recommend, email me 1) their website and and 2) a short description of why you think they're great. I'll reprint them here later.
8:09 PM ET -- Demonstrators arrested. This video captures the tense scene as two individuals are arrested in a small alley. At one point, the police seem to place a shoe in one of men's faces. Later, they have him pick up the shoes with his teeth and carry them with him when they move him. The caption posted on YouTube says the man filming is quietly cursing the officers.
8:02 PM ET -- Rafsanjani ally calls for "political bloc." "A political party affiliated with Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the former president and key member of the Iranian regime, on Sunday called on Mir-Hossein Moussavi, the opposition leader, to form a 'political bloc' that would pursue a long-term campaign to undermine the 'illegitimate' government."
7:31 PM ET -- Building the case for arresting Mousavi. Washington Post: "Mousavi made no public appearances Sunday and some analysts in Tehran were concerned that the [state's] media campaign, which featured at least one militia leader and a law professor questioning the legality of his actions, was preparing the ground for his arrest. ... Authorities appeared to be seeking to blame the violence on radicals. State television charged that 'the presence of terrorists . . . was tangible' in Saturday's events. It asked viewers to send video of protesters in order to help authorities to arrest them."
First Posted: 06-25-09 07:45 AM | Updated: 06-25-09 08:32 PM
I'm liveblogging the latest Iran election fallout. Email me with any news or thoughts. Send me instant messages at nico.pitney@gmail.com or njpitney on AIM.