Iran Election June 09

[Dreadnought]

I bet Hugo's down there in Venezuala biting his nails hoping his pal remains in power. Better hope he does Hugo, because if not then its back to the shit heap of history for you.:))

[Castellano]

I think a number of comments have been ungallant

Let's just praise the bravery and the beautiful eyes of "Persian Woman" or else shut up.

You know perfectly well that if you were in front of one them alone, none of us would be so cocky...so stop pretending.

In the long run you can tie at most...so don't tell me you are Humphrey Bogart because even if you were which you are problably not...

THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL

[Dreadnought]

I think a number of comments have been ungallant

Let's just praise the bravery and the beautiful eyes of "Persian Woman" or else shut up.

You know perfectly well that if you were in front of one them alone, none of us would be so cocky...so stop pretending.

In the long run you can tie at most...so don't tell me you are Humphrey Bogart because even if you were which you are problably not...

THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL

IMO, They are. But so are many women of different cultures. Just going to the beach from where I am from will show you many different cultured women that come here to work for the summer. Some are students on visas working through college and some are new US citizens. There is something that can be said for variety...BEAUTIFUL!:)

Just going to work everyday where I work is a virtual cutural shopping market and one can strain ones neck from observing some of these cultured beauties. All sizes, shapes, colors and cultures.:))

[Oscar]

There is currently a big demonstration in the center of tehran. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, whereas nothing was scheduled for today. That augurs well for tomorrow.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Reporters' log: Iran's upheaval

[Castellano]

Good article, I disagree in a couple of secondary points but very good read and not as pessimistic as the title suggests:

Iran Fails Again
Melik Kaylan

One worries that the coup in Iran--for that is what it is--will not produce a life-affirming, decisive upsurge of popular revolt against the unshaven charlatans in charge. Iranian citizens have disappointed the rest of the world ad seriam in recent decades, and ultimately, tragically, one suspects they are not about to change their habits this time around.

Iran really is another civilization altogether, sui generis and oddly asymmetrical to other cultures. The Turks have lived beside them and with them--almost a third of Iranians are said to be ethnically Turkic--for millennia, not just in Turkey but throughout Central Asia, and even Turks don't understand Iran. What is one to make of a population that marched into martyrdom against the Shah and then against Saddam Hussein, yet has left the mullahs in place for 30 years?

The last time I visited Tehran (as opposed to other provinces) some six years ago I was charmed, like other Western visitors, by the highly cultivated good manners everywhere on display. I went for the Wall Street Journal to cover a cultural event and traveled in the guise of an ordinary tourist. It's easy to make friends with Iranians. Women walk up to you in the street to chat--an utterly unique experience in the Muslim world. Men quote poetry to each other. People newly met extend invitations to their homes and lives, and apparently into their thoughts. I had just visited another, more dangerous Muslim country for which I'd grown suitable facial hair. The reception girl at my hotel pointed to it and said, "It's not nice." From shopkeepers to restaurant waiters, one and all seemed to deplore the ukases of mullahs and basijis and kleptocrats. Yet they have ultimately allowed the likes of Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Khatami and Ahmadinejad to endure. While the pretend electorate let successive pretend governments persist in their mutual masquerade, the barely hidden deep state has dug ever deeper foundations of power.

Many have tried to push from within--trade unionists, students, journalists-- only to find themselves truncheoned down and buried away in the warren of secret gulags run by the various para-gendarmeries attached to real power. The Web site co-founded by Ramin Ahmadi (who has written for Forbes on the election), the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center offers a chilling anatomy of the entire complex. Yet none of the protest and sacrifice has reached critical mass. The regime has ingeniously tinkered with populist sentiment to keep it off the boil or to redirect it--from the Iran-Iraq war to the nuclear issue. Throughout, it has tried to present itself as an equal and opposite force to Israel, with the inbuilt message that Iran's regime is at least as legitimate as Israel's, therefore anyone undermining Iran is doing so not for Iran's faults but for Israel's sake. Most Iranians don't buy that any more than Soviet citizens ultimately bought the capitalist bogeyman as the cause of all their ills. Yet the Soviet police state collapsed while the hirsute police state of Iran endures.

One resorts to neologisms and euphemisms for the Iranian regime because Ahmadinejad's sustained presence in power has altered the regime's complexion--you can't quite call it a full-scale mullahcracy any longer. Indeed, several of the top mullahs now find themselves threatened by the very state they upheld, not least the former presidential mullahs Khatami and Rafsanjani, who supported Mousavi, the challenger to Ahmadinejad. Khatami and Rafsanjani, like Stalin's henchmen Kirov, Beria and the like, have found that dictatorships sooner or later consume their enforcers.

To be sure, the West has played its part, as it always does, with foreign policy blunders and live-and-let-live intellectual arguments. In the former category, one can point to a long list of wrong turns: the neglect of Afghanistan, which allowed Iran to consolidate influence over non-Sunni Afghans, thereby giving Tehran leverage over U.S. moves in Kabul; the unopposed resurgence of Russia in the Caucasus, which gave Moscow counter-leverage against the West in Iran; and the many misjudgments in Iraq, especially America's mishandling of relations with Turkey, a country which has always functioned as a counterweight to Persian power in the region.

In the latter category of intellectual offenders, one always finds the predictable host of what you might, at a stretch, call neo-Fabians after the British socialist movement--always more ingenious, more humanist-than-thou--who focus on Western polemical inconsistencies rather than a rogue regime's horrors. My colleague Reihan Salam in this section cites the example of Noah Feldman: "Last year, Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law School with a longstanding interest in religion and public life, published a provocative book called The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State. Rather than condemn contemporary Islamist political movements outright, Feldman placed them in a broader historical context."

I might add the example of Reza Aslan, the highly presentable young operator (and author) of Iranian-American background upon whom our institutions--even the Daily Show--have showered legitimacy. Last week, Aslan was featured in a one-on-one interview with Vishakha Desai for an entire evening at New York's Asia Society, in which he rehearsed his usual list of provocative nostrums to the delight of the audience--that Iran is a real democracy whether we like it or not, that Islam has been living through a reformation for over a century, and so on. The first assertion I leave the reader to consider. The second, though, is worth a detour.

Aslan's argument on Islam's reformation can be found in many interviews published on the Web. Here's one from Los Angeles CityBeat, in which he asserts in his usual way that, contrary to Western assumptions, Islam's reformation is fully underway because Muslims have pushed aside priesthoods and institutions and turned directly to holy scripture to exercise individual conscience in the way that Martin Luther did.

You could equally argue that Muslims in recent years have largely done the opposite. Since the post-World War I collapse of the Ottoman caliphate ushered out the ulema, the Islamic order of official jurists who determined the correct interpretation of scripture for rulers and citizens alike, no such priestly institution has existed--except in Iran, which has invented an entirely new and comparable hierarchy with all those Ayatollahs and Hojatelislams codifying daily conduct according to holy text.

Furthermore, the standard ideology of most Sunni Islamists includes a program for resurrecting the Caliphate and its attendant priesthood. Finally, most Muslims don't read scripture directly, because the vast majority--Indonesians, Pakistanis, Malaysians etc.--don't understand Arabic. The Quran is meant to be God's word literally, and may not be understood except in the original. Most Muslims therefore have to trust the word of their Hoja, the Mosque preacher--exactly the condition of Christians before the Reformation. To be precise, and pace Aslan, Islam is undergoing a counter-reformation without having lived through a reformation. When will our bien pensant institutions resist the suave appeal of the "useful idiots" in our midst?

Meanwhile, Iranian citizens can help spur a true Reformation in Islam by sweeping away their turbaned and bearded tormentors back to the moderation of the cloister. They have the good taste, cultural depth and independence of mind to see the absurdity of their condition. Where is their collective courage? One might remind them (with a slight alteration) of Omar Khayyam's words: "Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai / Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day / How Mullah after Mullah with his Pomp
Abode his Hour or two / and went his way."

Forbes.com - Magazine Article

[Dreadnought]

I wish the good people of Iran the best of luck for change, where as I wish their present leader A-jad and accompanying Theocracy the noose for how they treat their people and cheat them of their ligitimate rights one of which being fair and transparent elections. I hope they over throw them all and rejoin the rest of the world in working for peace in the region and stability. We all want the very best for our countries and our families no reason it cannot be achieved.

[Castellano]

Amen

[Dreadnought]

Defying threats of arrest or worse, witnesses to protests in Iran are managing to leak reports of violence after the country's disputed presidential elections.

A protester injured during Monday's demonstration in Tehran is carried to a hospital.

"Censoring is very bad here and they have reduced Internet speed," two Iranians said to a friend outside the country. The pair wanted to broadcast images of damage and casualties after a reported attack on a dorm at the University of Tehran. "We managed to upload a few pictures and movies ... please give it to news agencies and ask them to air it."

The witnesses said riot police and militia attacked the dormitory Sunday night after a student protest the day before. Up to 150 students were arrested, according to the account, and at least one was killed. Students were beaten and shot, and one of the buildings caught fire. Some university professors resigned after the incident, the witnesses said.

CNN cannot independently confirm this or other reports. The images showed a heavily damaged building, the charred remains of what appeared to be a dorm room, an injured or dead person, a burned motorcycle and a bloody floor.

Many Iranians feel the June 12 election was "a sham," a Tehran man in his 20s told CNN in an interview.

"During [the] previous presidential election, we had a 50.9 percent turnout," he said. "This time, we got 82 percent, because people wanted change and [current President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad out. We know that many of Ahmadinejad voters from [the] last election voted for [opposition leader Mir Hossein] Moussavi this time.

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"This is one of the reasons we were certain that Moussavi would win," he said. "On Saturday morning, when they released the results that Ahmadinejad got 64 percent and Moussavi got 33 percent, we were absolutely shocked. If you looked at the returns coming in, Ahmadinejad's returns never dipped -- but Moussavi's votes dropped from 630,000 to 570,000. How is that possible? It's just more proof that the elections were rigged ... people feel like their intelligence has been insulted and that they've been lied to."

Reports of violence came from outside Tehran as well. One video was posted by a person who said he had received it anonymously from a Twitter feed. It showed several people wounded by apparent gunshots, and people attempting to treat them, seemingly without medical supplies. The poster said the video was shot in Esfahan, a city about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Tehran.

"We need napkins, towels!" one person yells in the video. "Quick, give them to me!"

"Sit down, sit down," another person tells one of the injured. "Please relax. You are very hurt."

Another image on CNN's iReport site shows the body of a man who has suffered a huge gash to his side. The man was 25, the description said, and was martyred because of his belief in freedom. In yet another video, posted without a description, a screaming crowd surrounds a man's body. CNN is not identifying iReporters who post content from inside Iran.

"Iranian TV isn't giving the big picture," the Tehran man said. "They are depicting the protesters

What a wonderful government that attacks students in their dorms. Whats a matter couldnt find any elderly women and men to beat in the streets? The U.N. should refuse admission to Iran altogether and suspend any country that has dealings with this regime until a fair, transparent election can be held with idependent observers. That way the people get a fair shake.

[Skywatcher]

Why bother? Khameini and his minions are hanging themselves well enough. Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake.

[Dreadnought]

And now the cover up blame the U.S.

TEHRAN, Iran (June 17) - Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of "intolerable" meddling in its internal affairs, alleging for the first time that Washington has fueled a bitter postelection dispute. Opposition supporters marched in Tehran's streets for a third straight day to protest the outcome of the balloting.
The Iranian government summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to complain about American interference, state-run Press TV reported.

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. A video grab from state television news network IRINN shows hundreds of supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi gathering in Tehran June 17, 2009. Iranian reformist Mousavi called on Wednesday for a day of mourning for those killed in clashes set off by a disputed presidential election as tens of thousands protested for the fifth straight day.

The English-language channel quoted the government as calling Western interference "intolerable."
President Barack Obama has reacted cautiously to developments in Iran, saying he shared the world's "deep concerns about the election" but adding that it was "not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling."
The two countries broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A crackdown on dissent continued, with more arrests of opposition figures reported, and the country's most powerful military force — the Revolutionary Guard — saying that Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove any materials that "create tension" or face legal action.
Amateur video showed thousands of people marching on an overpass in Tehran in support of pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. He has accused the government of rigging the election in favor of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Marchers flashed the victory sign or carried placards, and some were dressed in green — the color of Mousavi's campaign.
It was the third day in a row that Mousavi supporters have taken to the streets, and he called for another demonstrations on Thursday — a direct challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the cleric-led system.
Khamenei has told Mousavi to pursue his demands through the electoral system and called for Iranians to unite behind their Islamic government, an extraordinary appeal in response to tensions over the vote. But Mousavi appears unwilling to back down, issuing on his Web site a call for a mass demonstration Thursday.


"We want a peaceful rally to protest the unhealthy trend of the election and realize our goal of annulling the results," Mousavi said.
He called for his followers to wear or carry black in mourning for the alleged election fraud and the deaths of protesters, and said there should be "a new presidential election that will not repeat the shameful fraud from the previous election."
Mousavi and his supporters accuse the government of rigging the June 12 election to declare hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner. Their street protests, paired with dissent from powerful clerical and political figures, have presented one of the gravest threats to Iran's complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged from the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In another high-profile display of apparent opposition support, several Iranian soccer players wore green wrist bands during a World Cup qualifying match in South Korea that was televised in Iran.
Mousavi's Web site said seven Iranian players wore the green bands in the first half of the game, although most were forced to take them off before the second half. It said Mehdi Mehdavi-Kia kept his green band on throughout the game, which Iran and South Korea drew 1-1.
Fans from Iran unfurled a banner in the stands that read "Go To Hell Dictator," and waved Iran's national flags emblazoned with the plea "Free Iran."
Blogs and Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been vital conduits for Iranians to inform the world about protests and violence.
The Web became more essential after the government barred foreign media Tuesday from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations on the streets of Tehran.
Mousavi condemned the government for blocking Web sites, saying the government did not tolerate the voice of the opposition.
The violence has left at least seven people dead, according to Iran's state media, although videos and photos posted by people inside Iran show scenes of violence that have not been reported through official channels. The new media restrictions make it virtually impossible to independently verify much of the information, which includes dramatic images of street clashes and wounded demonstrators.
Much of the imagery has been posted anonymously. In other cases, those who have posted have declined to be identified due to fear of government retaliation, or cannot be reached due to government restrictions on the Internet and mobile phones.
The Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force answering to Khamenei, said through the state news service that its investigators have taken action against "deviant news sites" that encouraged public disturbances. The Guard is a separate military with enormous domestic influence and control of Iran's most important defense programs. It is one of the key sources of power for the ruling establishment.

The statement alleged that dissident Web sites were backed by Canadian, U.S. and British interests, a frequent charge levied by hard-liners against the opposition.

"Legal action will be very strong and call on them to remove such materials," it said.
Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, said widespread vote fraud had undermined the legitimacy of the ruling Islamic system and that "no sound mind" would accept the results.

"A government that is based on intervening in (people's) vote has no political or religious legitimacy," said Montazeri, who had once been set to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader until he was ousted because of criticisms of the revolution.

State media said Khamenei would deliver the sermon at Friday prayers, the most important religious address of the week. The supreme leader generally leads Friday prayers only two or three times a year.
Unlike past student-led demonstrations, Mousavi has the ability to press his case with Iran's highest authorities and could gain powerful allies. Some influential clerics have expressed concern about possible election irregularities, and a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, is part of the ruling establishment.
Iranian TV showed pictures of Faezeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani's daughter, speaking to hundreds of Mousavi supporters, carrying pictures of Khomeini and others.

The U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said several dozen noted figures associated with the reform movement have been arrested, among them politicians, intellectuals, activists and journalists.
Analyst Saeed Leilaz, who is often quoted by Western media, was arrested Wednesday by plainclothes security officers at his home, said his wife, Sepehrnaz Panahi.
At least 10 Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election,

Reporters Without Borders said, and a Web site run by former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said the reformist had been arrested.
Prominent reformer Saeed Hajjarian has also been detained, Hajjarian's wife, Vajiheh Masousi, told The Associated Press. Hajjarian is a close aide to former President Mohammad Khatami.
The main electoral authority has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. The recount would be overseen by the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei.

But Mousavi alleges the Guardian Council is not neutral and has already indicated it supports Ahmadinejad. Mousavi and the two other candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad are calling for an independent investigation.

His representative, reformist cleric Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, said after a meeting with the council Tuesday the number of votes in counted in 70 districts was higher than the population in those districts. He also said many polling stations were closed sooner than scheduled on election night, while people were still lining up.

On Tuesday, the government organized a large rally in Tehran to show it too can bring supporters into the streets. Speakers urged Iranians to accept the results showing Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a landslide.
The appeal for unity failed to calm passions, and a large column of Mousavi supporters marched peacefully in north Tehran, according to amateur video.
Security forces did not interfere, a witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.
Ahmadinejad, who has dismissed the unrest as little more than "passions after a soccer match," attended a summit Tuesday in Russia that was delayed a day by the unrest. He returned to Iran and held a cabinet meeting, saying on state television Wednesday that people had voted for his "policies of justice"


*IMO Amazing A-jad and his minions cant face the truth that the people dont want him as President and will go to any lengths to make sure the US,Canada and the Brits are responsible. I do hope the Iranian people are smarter then this and I hope they all sucseed in throwing his ass and his friends out of office. I think they have been blinded from reality long enough.

*By the way they left out the WAB as a dissident website.:P:))

PARTY ON IRANIANS!:))

[Guest]

Washington Watch: I'm glad Ahmadinejad won

Another view. ....

Douglas Bloomfield's column: I'm glad Ahmadinejad won | Columnists | Jerusalem Post

I'm glad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won reelection as Iran's president. And he did it by a single vote.

I was rooting for Ahmadinejad, the demagogic Holocaust denier who wants to wipe Israel off the map, because a victory by the relatively moderate Mir Hussein Mousavi could have created a dangerous complacency that would tempt some in the West to ease up on the pressure to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, although there is no evidence his views on that are any different than Ahmadinejad's.

Any change brought by Mousavi's election as far as key foreign policy, security and nuclear issues would be more style than substance.

In Iran's version of democracy the principle of "one man, one vote" means that of the millions of people who went to the polls last week, only one man's vote really counted, and that was cast by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his protégé, Ahmadinejad.

Khamenei and his circle of clerics handpicked all four candidates in last week's presidential election. Khamenei didn't even bother waiting for the votes to be counted before declaring his man had won a "sacred victory" by a landslide.

After a weekend of the largest and most violent demonstrations since the 1979 revolution, that saw Khamenei's religious police beat, gas and even shoot Mousavi's supporters, he promised to investigate possible election rigging.



But don't expect Mousavi, a longtime Khamenei rival, to get the new vote he wants, because the investigation will be conducted by the Guardian Council, which is headed by Ayatollah Ahmad Janneti, another prominent Ahmadinejad backer.

I'D LOVE to see a free and fair election in Iran, but until then I want Ahmadinejad to keep his job because he reminds us of the real threat posed by a regime that is intent on regional hegemony. With clients like Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and other extremists, it threatens not only Israel but also American interests and Arab friends throughout the Middle East.

According to Mehdi Khalaji, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Khameini's message in declaring Ahmadinejad the winner was to tell the West, "Iran is digging in on its nuclear program" and its backing of Hizbullah and Hamas.

Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg has written that moderate Arab leaders have told him they want Ahmadinejad to stay in power because "his rhetoric helps make their case that Iran is a danger to them." Israeli leaders fear losing the poster boy for their campaign to impress upon the world the urgent need to act before Iran actually goes nuclear.

Ahmadinejad didn't disappoint them; he immediately announced he would not moderate his views and any discussion of Iran's nuclear policy "belongs in the past." The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has made Iran its top issue for more than 15 years, hopes rhetoric like that will make easier to win votes for legislation it is pushing to toughen sanctions by restricting Iran's ability to import and produce refined petroleum products, although evidence for the effectiveness of tough sanctions has been scanty.

Keith Weissman, an Iran expert, said the election "revealed some serious cracks" in Iranian government and even if Ahmadinejad remains in power he could be weakened.

There is only circumstantial evidence of fraud, and we may never know the truth because there were no international observers, Weissman said, but it is surprising that Ahmadinejad would win the home cities of all of his opponents.

President Barack Obama said Ahmadinejad's rhetoric may be "odious," but, to his credit, he hasn't given up on opening a dialogue with Teheran, telling reporters he plans to pursue "tough hard headed diplomacy, diplomacy without illusions." Jewish groups are not objecting - at least publicly - to the president's efforts, but many would like to see him set deadlines for diplomacy to produce results and to be prepared to take tougher measures should talks fail.

Iranian demonstrators demanding "reform" and "freedom" not only took to the streets to protest what they feel was a rigged election but they were Twittering, text messaging, sending pictures by cellphone, blogging and using the Internet to press their message. The government has tried to shut them down, and it has been cracking down on some foreign reporters.

There has been some speculation, but no evidence, that the mullahs fixed the election because they feared Obama's Cairo speech may have unleashed the kind of revolutionary fervor that they rode to power 30 years ago and don't wish to see replicated for their demise.

The dilemma for the Obama administration will be to pursue its diplomacy while still encouraging the obvious widespread dissatisfaction with the regime.

Few expect a repeat of the 1979 uprising just yet, but many are hoping this will sow seeds for future opposition. Could these demonstrations and calls for reform and freedom be the opening shots of a revolution that could bring democracy to Iran?

Inshallah.

[Castellano]

Could these demonstrations and calls for reform and freedom be the opening shots of a revolution that could bring democracy to Iran?


Inshallah.

Ojalá!


(easy to understand, no? - very, very common expression in Spanish, guess where it comes from, and we use it all the time, hell yeah! Spanish is optimistic)

[Steezy]

Of course that Jew would want Iran to stay the big enemy. I'm sorry but that article was ****ed up!

[gabriel]

Of course that Jew would want Iran to stay the big enemy. I'm sorry but that article was ****ed up!

It is a very cynical column but i disagree with your assessment.

[MIKEMUN]

Now you see why Obama reserved judgement. American support is seen as subservience in many parts of the world(but American money is accepted gladly and like Oliver Twist, they want more), so any form of support would have torpedoed the protests out of the water..Hmmmm.. Shrewd diplomat, Mr Obama is...