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Anti-regime demonstrations ARCHIVES:
ARCHIVES:Featured Iranian Bloggers:Directory of Iranian Weblogs in English Read the State Department's 2007 report on Human Rights abuses in Iran (released March 11, 2008)
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Dec.
31,
2009: More videos from Ashoura protests. New cellphone videos
are becoming available of the Ashoura protests. In this extraodinary
scene, an angry crowd confronts anti-riot police in front of a Bank
Saderat branch in Tehran. After several minutes of rock-throwing,
protesters get hold of a police motorcycle and set it on fire. As the
police retreat, they abandon their motorcycles and a full-scale melee
begins.
In
this scene, a police pick-up truck can be seen charging into a
crowd, then rapidly retreating in reverse as another police vehicle
strikes a bystander, backs up, and runs over the body. (For another
link, go here). Police chief Gen. Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam became
defense when a reporter asked him about the video. "There are so such
images. Do not lie! You are not allowed to ask false questions!" he said.
Meanwhile, a much discussed document purporting to describe the
preparation of a government plane to evacuate Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei and his family to Russia if the street protests intensify was
circulating on the internet (and of course, was dismissed as a
"forgery" by the regime.) Here's a copy.
Send your comments/translation to exec@iran.org - subject line:
Khamenei letter).
Meanwhile,
an investigation by the Guardian newspaper has uncovered
extraordinary evidence that the Qods force was responsible for the
kidnapping of five Britains in 2007 from a government ministry in
Baghdad, and sought to exchange them for a senior cleric who was one
the Tehran regime's top terror-masters inside Iraq.
Dec. 28, 2009: Iranians come to the streets in large numbers on
Ashoura. With chants of "Death to the Dictator" and demands
that political prisoners be set free. hundreds of thousands of Iranians
took to the streets of Tehran on Sunday, defying the security forces.
According to news reports from the Human
Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran eight protesters were killed
in clashes with the bassij in Tehran, 4 in Tabriz, and 1 in Ardebil.
(Go here
for an English summary of the HRD blog). 
Regime
media are reporting 10 deaths in Tehran. Der Spiegel has an impressive report from
Tehran. "This time it was the demonstrators who were chasing,
seizing and beating up the police. This time it was members of the
security forces who were sitting covered in blood by the roadside."
Worth reading in its entirety. The New York Times ran this impressive
picture (right) from the protests on the front
page of its Sunday editions.
FDI President Kenneth R. Timmerman reports
from Jerusalem that Israeli leaders for the first time see the real
possibility that the people of Iran could overthrow the regime. “The
nuclear issue is tremendously important,” said a veteran Iran watcher
who has advised Israeli prime ministers for many years. “But regime
change must be the objective.”
Dec. 23, 2009: 3 killed, 20 wounded in Sirjan. Residents in
Sirjan for the second time tried to block the execution of two
detainees by the authorities on Tuesday, Dec. 22. After a successful
attempt yesterday morning, 5000 people gathered outside on Tuesday
afternoon and clashed with law enforcement forces. According to reports
coming from the scene, three of the protesters who were killed, and
more than 20 were wounded. Seven people were reported in critical
condition in Kerman hospital.
Update: Also today, Police beat mourners in Isfahan trying to
enter a mosque in Isfahan to commemorate Ayatollah Montazeri's death.
In Qom, bassijis broke windows in the compound of Grand Ayatollah
Yousef Sanai, widely seen as a supporter of the green movement. In
Tehran, police chief Brig. Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, threatened
legal action against protesters, warning that their movement was
illegal. Gen. Moghaddam said that further protests would be treated
harshly, a thinly-veiled warning to the organizers of the planned
Ashoura demonstration in Tehran. Read the detailed AP report here.
Dec. 22, 2009: Ashoura protest could be watershed event. A key
leader of Iran’s green movement tells Newsmax that the opposition is
gearing up for a massive protest this weekend that could see millions
of people pour into a single street in Tehran, forming a green chain
more than 15 miles long. “We call it the army of the people,” says
Mohsen Sazegara, a former government minister who has broken with the
regime and works closely with the green movement leadership inside
Iran. Read
the full story here
Dec. 21,
2009: Ayatollah Montazeri funeral today in Qom. The death
of Grand Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri on Saturday and his funeral on
Monday could become flashpoint for the pro-freedom movement. Of note
was the surprising absence of any mention of his religious title (Grand
Ayatollah, or even Ayatollah) in the initial announcement on state-run
media in Iran. This was later corrected, and the Leader was quick to
send a note of condoleances to the family, showing his continued
anxiety over the role of the traditional clergy. Ahmadinejad,
showing contempt, sent no note at all. Montazeri criticized Khamenei
repeatedly for his lack of religious credentials.
Today’s funeral (see pictures and video clips here
and here),
Ashoura (Dec. 26-27), and the 7-day commemoration of Montazeri’s death
all combine to provide a potentially toxic cocktail for the regime. The
Green Movement has been calling for massive protests on Ashoura. These
could now become a series of rolling protests – exactly what the regime
has been trying to avoid. We will provide updates as available.
Dec.
16, 2009: Former Bassiji describes election abuse. A former
member of the Bassij describes the indoctrination and orders he
was given BEFORE the June 2009 elections to crack down on protesters
and to rape prisoners. This
link gives an English-language translation of this intense and
emotional interview with Channel 4 news in Britain.
Newsmax.com
reports today on the Obama administration's continued refusal to
apply pressure on Iran, even as the U.S. House of Representatives
overwhelmingly approves HR 2194 to impose sanctions on companies
supplying refined petroleum products to Iran. Opponents of sanctions
predictably relied on the arguements of the pro-Tehran lobbyists, NIAC,
in their efforts to defeat the bill.
Dec. 7, 2009: Live updates from Iran protests. Several bloggers and websites are now posting live updates from inside Iran, including video-clips of protests and clashes with security forces. Sayeh Hassan, a Canadian lawyer and human rights activist, has links to video footage taken this afternoon (Tehran time) during protests at Amir Kabir University, Sharif University and Tehran University, as well as from the faculty in Esfahan. Planet-Iran has posted protest routes in seven cities and plans to have live blogging later in the day, so stay tuned.
Update 11:42 am: The Persian2English Facebook
page has
many links to short cellphone videos from today's demonstrations.
Update: 350 pm: Some highlights from the day:
- Zahra Rahnavard, a Tehran University professor and wife of Mir Housein Mousavi, was harrassed by female bassiji agents at Tehran University, and sprayed with pepper spray and she got into her car.
- Students broke down doors at Polytechnique
university (watch
video), after police had barricaded them inside.
- In Tehran, protesters torn down a giant poster of Ayatollan Khamenei.
- Throughout Iran, protestors chanted "Death
to the Dictator."
Dec. 4, 2009:
Opposition/regime gear up for mass protest on Dec. 7. The
IRGC and MOIS are engaging in mass intimidation of activists both
inside the country and abroad in an effort to quash expected mass
protests this coming Monday, when more than a hundred opposition
organizsations plan to hold protests across Iran for Iranian
Student's commemoration day (this coming Monday, Dec. 7). The Wall
Street Journal is reporting that Iranians arriving at Tehran
airport from overseas are being detained and forced to reveal their
Facebook passwords to intelligence officers upon arrival. Iranians
living overseas report having received threatening email messages
warning them to stop making anti-regime statements on social networking
sites, or see their family members inside Iran suffer.
Dec. 2, 2009: Trita Parsi faces tough question from American University students. Asked to defend his pro-engagement policy toward Iran, NIAC founder Trita Parsi says that the U.S. is not legitimizing the Iranian regime through talks. He also claimed, against all evidence, that the leaders of the Green Movement inside Iran seek to "reform" the Islamic Republic. An American University student quoted a recent statement by former president Khatami - the father of the "reform" illusion movement - who recently said that the regime was illegitimate and "reform" was "no longer an option."
Meanwhile, emails between Parsi and Iran's
Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations have surfaced in a lawsuit
pitting NIAC against Hassan Daioleslam. These emails, reproduced
in an essay by Mr. Daioleslam in the American Thinker, caused him
to retort that "Trita Parsi Reports to Tehran."
Nov. 24,
2009: "U.S. Acting in Iran's Interest," Opposition Leader says. In
an
exclusive interview with Newsmax.com in Europe, Iranian Kurdish
leader Rahman Haj Ahmadi accuses the Obama administration of thwarting
negotiations among Iranian pro-democracy groups that were on the verge
of creating a united opposition front that could have led to the
collapse of the Islamic regime during this summer’s post-election
turmoil. Those negotiations were on the verge of success, Haj Ahmadi
said– until the Obama administration inexplicably placed his group
(PJAK) on the terrorism list on Feb. 4, 2009. The U.S. action “made the
other groups afraid to work with us, for fear of U.S. government
reprisals.”
Oct. 28: House Foreign Affairs committee passes Iran Refined Petroleum Act; Canadian parliament calls on govt to support pro-freedom movement. On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs committee finally adopted a new sanctions bill, six months after it was introduced. Committee chairman Rep. Howard Berman (D, CA) held the bill at the request of the White House, and called it his "fourth best option" for stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the Canadian parliament yesterday adopted a resolution calling on the government to support the pro-freedom movement in Iran.
Canadian-Iranian blogger Sayeh Hassan has set up an on-line petition to muster support for the Iran Accountability Act, a private bill introduced by Liberal MP and human rights activist Prof. Irwin Cutler. The bill seeks to divest Canada from investment in Iran, freeze the assets of top military and nuclear officials, an dmore The petition is here.
Oct. 27, 2009: FDI President Kenneth R. Timmerman addresses the Canada Israel Committee conference in Ottawa on the threat from a nuclear-armed Iran. Timmerman sought to dispel the illusion that outside pressure or inducements had any realistic hope of changing the behavior of the Iranian regime, which has survived 30 years of sanctions that were often much tougher than those now being proposed. However, Timmerman said that new and tougher sanctions were necessary to building an international coalition to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. It also will send an im portant message to the Iranian people that the free world supports their struggle for freedom. Timmerman urged activists to get engaged in the movement to divest public pension funds from companies doing business in Iran, specifically those who have provided surveillance technology used gainst the pro-freedom movement. (See photo of the Milad tower, below).
Oct. 15, 2009: Rep. Berman plans hearings on gas sanctions; Rep. Trent Franks introduces PEACE Act.
Rep. Howard Berman (D, CA), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, announced today that he plans to hold hearings on his bill to impose sanctions on companies providing refined petroleum products to Iran. “The committee will mark up the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act on Wednesday, October 28," Berman said today. "By then it will be nearly six full months since I introduced this legislation, now cosponsored by 327 Members."
Berman has held the legislation at the insistence of the White House. At a September 10 meeting with leaders from Jewish organizations around the country, he pledge he would hold the hearings by the end of September, so he is already a month late.
At the same time Berman made his announcement, Rep. Trent Franks (R, AZ) introduced new legislation that would expand U.S. sanctions from suppliers of refined petroleum to any importer or exporter to Iran.
The Peace Through Strength Act "supports the use of 1.) truly crippling economic sanctions 2.) exhaustive diplomatic means 3.) and if all else fails the use of military force to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability," a statement accompanying the bill said.
The PEACE Act specifically targets companies that trade with
the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which until now has
been exempted from sanctions because it is a news organizaiton. IRIB
deserved to lose that exemption because of the key role it played in
importing and using technologies to track down protesters during this
summer's post-election demonstrations.
New reporting requirements are placed on both the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense. Treasury will be required under the PEACE Act to provide a list of the top political leadership in Iran, as well as the individual businessmen and companies that are supporting them, and their foreign trading partners. The goal of this measure is to ensure that the regime decision-makers personally feel the sting of sanctions.
The Defense Department is required to report to Congress on U.S. military options to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear-weapons capability and to "counter a nuclear ballistic missile threat" from Iran.
In another far-reaching measure, the bill calls for oversight hearings in Congress within 30 days should the president exercise his waiver authority and refuse to apply sanctions."As a result of this waiver, no sanctions have actually be implemented against entities doing business with the terrorist regime," a statement accompanying the bill said. "The Peace Act requires that as soon as the president uses his waiver authority Congress shall immediately hold a series of oversight hearings on the president's use of his waiver." Full text of the bill in PDF format.
Oct. 8,
2009: Executions of juveniles, women planned; pro-democracy
demonstrator sentenced to death. Encouraged by the Obama
administration "engagement" policy, the Tehran regime is taking off the
gloves with political prisoners and with juveniles and women sentenced
for blood crimes. Reuters
reported today that Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zaman, who was arrested
during this summer's protests, was informed by a regime court on Monday
that he had been condemned to death for active membership in a
"terrorist" organization.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Activists in Iran announced that Akram
Mahdavi, who was arrested in 2003 for killing her 74 year old
husband, was scheduled to be executed this coming Sunday. In addition,
two teenage boys, Behnood Shojaee and Safar Angoowho, have also been
condemned to hang in the coming days for murders they committed as
juvenile delinquents. Their lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaie, has said that the
executions could take place as early as tomorrow..
Sept
27, 2009: Regime thugs assault female protester in New York. A
security guard working for Ahmadinejad assaulted an Iranian-American
woman peacefully protesting in front of the Barclay Intercontinental
Hotel in New York last night. His identity was caught on videotape.
When the attacker tried to flee the scene in a taxi cab, he was stopped
by Iranian pro-democracy activist Ardeshir Zarezadeh (FDI Photo:
Zarezadeh addresses NY city rally this Thursday).
Sept. 26, 2009: Statement of FDI President Kenneth R. Timmerman Regarding False Reports in Official Iranian Media. Over the past several weeks, the Islamic Republic official media has run a series of story alleging that the Foundation for Democracy in Iran and its Executive Director Kenneth Timmerman have been instrumental in guiding and funding the recent anti-regime demonstrations in Iran. This attempt to attribute the pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian movement in Iran to FDI and its Executive Director is grossly misleading and factually incorrect.
In articles that have appeared in Fars News, IRNA, Keyhan,
Etelaat, Reselaat, Asr
Iran, and elsewhere, the regime's conspiracy-minded propagandists
have woven a tall tale of dark influences and of a secret cabal, led by
FDI and Mr. Timmerman, who they claim to be involved with the CIA's
"Iran desk" and other covert activities. This is pure
invention.
“They'd do better hiring a new Bollywood screenwriter,” said
Timmerman. “Anyone can just Google
my name or FDI and judge for themselves whether our profile fit
that of a clandestine CIA operation, careful to leave no traces behind.”
The latest claims, which appeared in two separate articles in Fars News (on Sept. 23, and Sept 26) and are repeated in the headline of the official Islamic Republic News Agency today, assert that FDI has organized funding for former president Mohammad Khatami through George Soros. As proof, these eminent organs of Pravda-style "truth" trot out an article FDI Executive Director Timmerman published at Newsmax.com on Sept. 7, 2006, which describes a dinner Soros threw in Khatami's honor in Boston during the former president's trip that month to the United States. Khatami, today, denies he attended the dinner - but as anyone can see from the Newsmax article, my sources at the time included organizers of the dinner as well as Khatami's translator. That being said, there is no connection whatsoever between FDI or Ken Timmerman and Soros or his Open Society Institute.
Earlier articles in the Tehran Pravda have cited Newsmax.com articles that exposed a State Department bias in favor of Khatami, Moussavi and the so-called "reform" movement, and criticized the Obama administration for "interfering" in Iran's domestic politics.
Either Hossein Shariatmadari and the Supreme
Leader's propagandists want to make Mr. Timmerman out as a supporter of
Khatami-Moussavi and the (now former) "reformists," or as a critic. They can't have it both ways. The problem with conspiracy
theories is that they get caught up on facts.
The real fear of the thugs now ruling Iran is that the demonstrations that have rocked the country since the stolen June 12 election are authentic; that they are led from inside Iran; that neither the United States, France, Israel, George Soros, nor Kenneth R. Timmerman organized them or played any significant role in them whatsoever. Many of us begged the President of the United States and his Secretary of State to get involved, at least as a cheer-leader (see FDI's letter to President Obama here). Instead, the President washed his hands... But the Iranian people showed they didn't need outside forces to mount opposition to the regime. That is what has got the thugs running scared.
Download a PDF of this statement.Sept. 25, 2009: Obama says Iran has secret uranium enrichment plant. This morning at the G-8 in Pittsburg Obama announced that Iran has been operating a secret uranium enrichment plant near Qom, south of Tehran. He said that "the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program," and that its existence, which Iran now appears to acknowledge, makes the upcoming Oct. 1 talks between the P-6 and Iran all the more "urgent." Until now, the Obama administration has given the appearance of allowing Iran to "run out the clock" by negotiating and negotiating while its scientists completed a weapon or a weapons arsenal. This is the first time we have seen a serious statement from the White House about the Iranian nuclear threat, coupled with hints of strong steps to counter it. Stay tuned.
Sept. 24,
2009: FDI joins the Stand for Freedom in Iran rally in New York. FDI
president Kenneth R. Timmerman joined with a broad-based movement
calling for US and international support of the 
pro-freedom movement in
Iran. In addition to two dozen American groups and speakers, Iranian
dissidents Ardeshir Zarezadeh and Roya Temouri addressed the crowd. We
will be posting additional photos from teh rally on a separate page and
hope to get up some of the digital voice from the speakers, who
included NY State Governor David Patterson and former NY City mayor,
Rudy Guiliani.
Sept. 23,
2009: Newsmax
reporting on the rally of Iranian dissidents in New York, and a
press conference at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in New York.
Demonstrators used one of the slogans from the
1978-1979 revolution, but with a twist. Instead of esteghlal, azadi,
enghelab-e eslami (independence, freedom, Islamic Republic),
today's
protesters are chanting esteghlal, azadi,
enghelab-e irani
(independence, freedom, Iranian Republic). A single word shift, in this
case, is literally a revolution. This slogan was also used during
demonstrations inside Iran to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the
July 9, 1999 student uprising.
Sept. 22, 2009: Ahmadinejad arriving with 127-member delegation. Ahmadinejad will arrive at 5 PM today in New York. This is the largest delegation of any UN member state this year. He will also have 65 security guards drawn from the Iranian interests section in Washington, DC (US green card holders or US citizens) and the Iranian Mission to the UkN in New York.
Sept 18,
2009: Hundreds of thousands of
protestors in Tehran streets. Live video from Persianhq (see
above), and photos from Western wire services (photo below courtesy:
Reuters) suggest large crowds of protesters at today's "Qods" day rally
in Tehran. Rafsanjani, who usually does the Friday prayer address for
this annual anti-Israel 
and
anti-America hate-fest, was disinvited. Khatami nearly lost his amameh
in the crowd; Mousavi was jostled by pro-regime supporters. Check the
latest news reports here.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration maintains its plans to give the
regime more leash with "negotiations" to "begin" on October 1, as the
AP describes the "secret annex" to the latest IAEA report that was
suppressed by ElBaradei at the Board of Governors meeting in
Vienna last week.
According to the Guardian, the report
contradicts ElBaradei's assurances that the Agency had "no evidence"
that Iran was working on a nuclear weapons program, and states the
assessment of inspectors that Iran has tested non-nuclear components of
a bomb and now has the technical knowledge to build one. "The IAEA
annexe, entitled Possible Military Dimension of Iran's Nuclear Program,
gives details of a top-level meeting in 1984 in which Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, then president and now supreme leader, appears to give the
green light for building a bomb, saying: 'A nuclear arsenal would serve
Iran as a deterrent in the hands of God's soldiers,'" the
Guardian reported.
Aug. 5,
2009: Show trials in Tehran
or pro-democracy supporters, as Ahmadinejad sworn in. Show
trials continued in Tehran today of hundreds of pro-democracy 
supporters arrested during the demonstrations of the past month,
as Ahmadinejad took the oath of office for the second time. Choosing
Aug.5 for his swearing in date showed particular
hubris, since it is the anniversary of the 1906 constitutional
revolution, whose freedoms have been abolished by Ahmadinejad and his
IRGC regime.
Among those on trial was internationally-renowned photographer
Majid Saeedi (3rd row, 3rd from the left), who was accused
by Prosecutor Mortazavi of taking pictures of "illegal"
demonstrations in Tehran and sending them "to an anti Revolutionary
group Marzeporgohar in United States, Getty Agency in England and
[Agence Sipa] in France.”
Mortazavi's account of the accusations was widely available
inside Iran, and was carried by all the major Iranian and international
news agencies when Saeedi's arrest was announced on July 27.
But in its ongoing effort to downplay any news from Iran that
cuts against the orthodox view that 
the entire protest movement
is just a factional war inside the regime between pro-Mousavi
supporters and pro-Ahmadinejad supporters, the Voice of America
purposefully omited the name of the opposition Marzeporgohar party in
its TV and radio reporting, or on its website. " Iran's official news
agency says two photographers detained earlier this month have been
accused of new links with an unnamed movement seeking the
overthrow of the Iranian regime," VOA reported. In fact, the
official IRNA dispatch, quoted
here, specifically mentioned Marzeporgohar (MPG)
Last month, when MPG founder, Roozbeh Farahanipour, traveled
to Iran clandestinely (see below), a Voice of America reporter called
him several times on his satellite phone over a half day period,
forcing him to change locations to avoid arrest. “They put my security
at risk for half a day before actually doing the interview,” Farahanipour
said. “Then editors said they couldn’t air the interview because I
had entered Iran clandestinely.”
VOA Persian Service editors have been claiming to reporters
that they refused to air the interview with Farahanipour because they
were "unable to verify that he was actually inside Iran," a
preposterous excuse. Sources close to the son of the former Shah told
FDI recently that "Reza Pahlavi has also been banned from the VOA
Persian service for the past eight months."
Just in case anyone was wondering, the White House officially
recognizes Ahmadinejad as "Iran's elected leader." Such was the
word from the podium yesterday from White House spokesman, Robert
Gibbs.
Farahanipour on Majid Saedi arrest:
"Majd is a known and recognized photographer and he was doing what
photographers are supposed to do, take pictures. The fact that the
regime dislikes journalism does not make journalism a crime. In the
eyes of Iranian people and the international community, reporting
history is a duty; in the eyes of the Islamic Republic, it’s a crime.
July
13, 2009: New evidence links Ahmadinejad to murder of Kurdish leader.
As Iranian Kurds gathered in front of Iranian embassies around the
world to protest the 1989 assassination of Kurdish leader Abdurrahman
Qassemlou by an Iranian government hit team in Austria, new evidence
has emerged linking Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the
killing.The new evidence, presented to Austrian police last week by
Peter Pilz, the spokesman for Austria’s Green Party, cites a previously
secret sworn statement by a jailed German arms dealer in Italy, who
said he sold Ahmadinejad the weapons for the Qassemlou murder at a
meeting in the Iranian embassy in Vienna. Pilz said that he has
questioned the Austrian police officials who were present when Schlax
made his statement. “They said they found him to be quite credible,
because he didn’t have a personal interest to accuse Mr. Ahmadinejad.” Read
the full story at Newsmax.com
More photos of July 9 (18th Tir)
protests:
July 9, 2009:
Riot police clash with
protesters on Azadi street; block Tehran university; protests erupt
across Iran. News is starting to come in from bloggers, wire
reporters and other sources of protests all across Iran today.
According to one blogger
on-scene, security forces have massed in front of the Interior
Ministry building in Tehran and in Enghelab square; helicopters have
been circling over Laleh park and Azadi street... Mobile phone networks
have been cut off in all of central Tehran...Wire services reported
clashes between police and protesters at Tehran university early in the
day, with
police using tear gas and batons. Meanwhile, reports are
coming in of large protests in Shiraz, Tabriz, Isfahan, Mashad, and
other cities.
The
American Thinker provides more background on MPG leader Roozbeh
Farahanipour, who returned to Iran this week to coordinate anti-regime
demonstrations. So does Lisa Dafteri in FrontPage magazine.
• Reporters Without Borders publishes new
list of journalists and bloggers jailed recently by the regime.
First
pictures from today's demonstrations inside Iran. These pictures
were just posted at tehranlive.org, but we cannot verify that they
actually come from today's demonstrations. Stay tuned....
July 8, 2009: 10th anniversary of student
uprising tomorrow; 
student leader Farahanipour
returns clandestinely to Iran. A key leader of the 1999 student
uprising that shook the Islamist regime in Iran to its foundations
returned to Iran clandestinely this week, and plans to lead a
nationwide protest on Thursday for the 10th anniversary of the uprising.
Roozbeh Farahanipour, 37, was jailed for several months for his role in
the July 1999 protests and was tortured extensively. “After ten years,
I am fulfilling my dream," he said. Farhanipour is the spokesman for Marze Por Gohar (Glorious Frontiers
party), a secular, nationalist group created in 1998 with close ties to
the Iran Nation's Party of Darious and Parvaneh Forouhar, who were
assassinated in 1998. For more, see
Newsmax.com
• Protests to
commemorate the 1999 student uprising will be held around the world.
Find the one in your city here.
Another on-line clearing house for videos of protests is here.
• IRGC puts
jammers on Milad tower. The Revolutionary Guards have built a giant tower one mile behind the Ex Hilton Hotel (now called
Esteghlal), the highest construction by far in the entire area,
dominating Tehran. The exclusive
photograph at right shows what the Milad tower is being used
for: satellite jamming devices that have proven to be successful in
recent weeks at jamming communications from
Europe and the Middle East.
The jammers bear nameplates from Saberin Company, aka Ofogh Tose-eh Saberin Engineering, an IRGC "special forces batallion" that is part of the IRGC
Protection and Intelligence Department (counter-intelligence). Sabarin
imports and assembles telecom and surveillance gear from foreign
suppliers. If any of our readers recognize the foreign supplier of this
equipment, let us know!
June 30,
2009: Corrected picture of Morteza
Rezai. 
When we posted the
picture of Morteza Rezai last week (see below), we thought he looked an
awful lot like Khamenei when he was president. It was. Our mistake.
Morteza Rezai was behind Khamenei in the picture. Here's the full
photo. Morteza Rezai is in the red circle.
- Three days before the June 12 election, Majles member Fatimeh Rahbar, an Ahmadinejad
supporter, predicted that Ahmadinejad
would be elected with 24 million votes - almost precisely what
he eventually got. Her speech to a parliamentary committee initially
appeared on a pro-Ahmadinejad website. Some observers now see it as additional proof that the
elections were cooked from the start.
June 29,
2009: Regime sets up
collaborationist website to identify pro-democracy activists. FDI
has learned that the regime set up a new website on June 21, 2009, OBASH.INFO, to incite the
denunciation of pro-democracy activists by other Iranians, in yet
another flashback to Nazi Germany. The website gathers video and still
footage from a wide variety of public sources - BBC Persian service,
FoxNews, YouTube, balatarin.com, citizentube, CNN, etc, and identifies
protesters by name - much as
pro-democracy activists have done with some of the regime's thugs
who have been responsible for killing on the streets. The website calls
on visitors to name the protestors, so the website can then send their
names to the Islamic Republic authorities for prosecution.
• A MEMRI analysis released today details
the violent methods used by the regime to quell the pro-democracy
protests, including massive arrests, attacks on student dormitories,
the establishment of a special court to try the protestors, and
televised "confessions" of detainees. One of the three elements MEMRI
cites for helping to quell the protests was the "absence of
international support" for the protestors, most notably the refusal of
the Obama White House to get involved.
• On Sunday, Majles member Mullah Alikhani, read a letter from the Head
of the Leader's Office, Nateq-Nouri, which denounced Ahmadinejad and
the authorities for stealing the election and "the plunder of the
people's resources.' Nateq-Nouri said that the stolen election caused
"a rift in the people's trust for the system." This is a stunning 5-
minute presentation in the Majles - with English
subtitles.
• Faces
of the Dead and Detained.
• Group offers to
translate documents on the protests from Farsi to English
June 25, 2009: Regime confiscates passports
at airport, turning whole country into a prison. FDI has
received reliable reports that regime authorities are confiscating the
passports of Iranians arriving at national airports from overseas,
including the foreign passports of dual nationals. Arriving Iranians
have been told by the authorities they can ask to get their passports
returned "the day they decide to leave Iran."
Meanwhile, the European Parliament is actively considering sending an investigative team to Iran to review reports of election fraud and human rights abuse.
Preliminary reports of up to 17 people killed
during yesterday's protest in front of the Parliament building in
Tehran.
June 23, 2009: Update 2: Morteza Rezai said to be behind "coup." FDI sources tell us that the real power behind the Khamenei throne is not so much his son, Mojtaba, but the long-standing head of IRGC intelligence, Morteza Rezai.
Few people beyond the inner leadership circle
have ever seen Rezai (not to be mistaken with presidential candidate
and former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezai, who is not family), as he does
not frequently appear at large public gatherings.
Two years ago, Morteza Rezai "retired" from
the IRGC, but our sources say he was put in charge of a top secret
program on behalf of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, to guarantee his
re-election in 2009. Part of the plan, as we revealed below (Update 3
from yesterday) was for Ahmadinejad to suspend the constitutional term
limits on his office, and become president for life - like Hugo Chavez.
"All the
billions of dollars these reformists say has gone missing these past
few years have gone to Morteza Rezai to plan this coup," a former
Iranian intelligence officer told FDI.
Update 1: Obama Sheds Crocodile Tears for Neda. Asked his reaction to the video of the murder of Neda Amir Soltan in Tehran on Saturday, President Obama at his press conference today said it was "heartbreaking" and "a problem." But he refused to speak out against human rights violations by the regime, despite repeated questions from reporters. One reporter pointed out, as FDI has done repeatedly, that the notion of "consequences" was oddly missing from his remarks. Obama replied that the U.S. will do nothing "until we know how this is going to play out."
Even more troubling from the president's mouth was this quote: "[I]t's not too late for the Iranian government to see there is a peaceful path that leads to legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people."
Is Obama the last one to understand that the regime has irrevocably lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people? Or is he just too beholden to his strategy of outreach to the regime to admit that the voice of the Iranian people has spoken louder than the whispered words of courtship spoken by the ruling mullahs he has been hearing in his dreams?
Iranian dissident Mohsen Sazegara said he was
stunned and listened to the president's words with "deep,
deep, deep regret."
Mojtaba
Khamenei said to be
top regime strategist. The Guardian
is reporting that the middle son of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
Mojtaba Khamenei (second from left in this undated picture), is the
real power behind t
he throne. (Blogger
Potkin Azarmehr made a similar argument four years ago, when
Ahmadinejad first came to power). The cleric in the middle of the four
Khamenei brothers is their former teacher, Mojtahadi Tehrani, who died
in 2008.
Sources
inside Iran say that Mojtaba Khamenei conspired with Ahmadinejad to
"fix" the elections. This report claims that the plan,
code-named Sharayet-e Khakestari" (Condition Grey), involvement
the movement of the Supreme Leader to a secure undisclosed location in
north Tehran at dawn of Saturday, June 13 (the morning the election
results were announced), and the massive deployment of anti-riot troops
in Tehran to head off any demonstrations. The report alleges, as other
sources have done (see the document below) that
Khamenei was first told that Mousavi had won the election by a
significant margin, but that the regime was planning to announce
Ahmadinejad as the winner. This new report is so important that FDI has
translated it into English
(along with a link to the Persian original)
Washington Times reporter
arrested in Iran. The
Washington Times revealed today that freelance reporter Iason Athanasiadis, who has been
covering the election and post-election turmoil in Tehran for the
paper, has been arrested by regime authorities. Reporters Without
Borders says more
than 30 reporters and prominent bloggers have been arrested since
the disputed election by the regime.
The latest from the Guardian's correspondents in Tehran.
June 22, 2009: Update 4: Reader identifies Ahmadinejad cronies.
One of our readers has identified the men in the famous
motocycle picture from last week (larger picture, below). The two
men with red circles are brothers. They are senior members of the
Sarollah Basij and have earned significant fortunes - thanks to
their close relationship to Ahmadinejad, wh has helped them to acquire
several mining companies. On the front cycle is Seyed hassan
Mir-Kazemi; on the rear cycle is Seyed rouhollah Mir-Kazemi. According
to our source, they control: World of Metals (Donyaeh Felezat), in
Ardestan Yazd; Sherkat Loh-e Feshordeh Pars; Renous Company; Mojtame
Kesht-o-sanat Fadak, Tehran; and Zob-e Ahan Ezna, in Lorestan. Their
corporate HQ is located in Tehran in Ghaem Magham Farahani Street,
Alley No. 17 (Street No. 17), Building No. 18.
Update 3: Ahmadinejad sought to become president for life. In a memo that purports to be a transcription of private notes taken at a pre-election meeting of Ahmadinejad's top staff in April, Ahmadinejad explains that as soon as his re-election victory is announced as planned, they have to move "very quickly" to replace key members of the Judiciary and other government agencies in order to change the constitution "to remove the 8-year limitation"on the president's term. If Parliament interferes, Ahmadinejad tells his top aids that they will "learn a lesson soon after we take office." Pointing to the success of Hugo Chavez in suspending term limits in Veneuzuela, Ahmadinejad boats: "If Chavez was able to achieve this, so can we." Read the memo.
Update 2: Phone numbers for Iranian intelligence and police headquarters. Former political prisoner and human rights activist Amir Farshad Ebrahimi today released cellphone numbers for a number of senior IRGC and MOIS officers, as well as intellience and police headquarters in Tehran and other cities, and urged Persian-speakers to call them to inquire about missing persons.
Update 1:
Reza Pahlavi mourns slain protesters. At a press conference
today in Washington, DC, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi wiped
away tears as he pulled out a photograph of Neda, the 26-year old
girl shot on Saturday (see below). C-SPAN
carried the entire press conference.
• Foreign embassies evacuate, but offer shelter to protestors. Rafsanjani makes headway in Qom.
The Iranian Students Solidarity Movement is reporting that more than 300 protestors have been killed by regime thugs since the June 12 elections, and provide a city by city breakdown. The same report also lists the addresses of foreign embassies in Tehran that have been ordered by their governments to provide shelter and medical assistance to protesters wounded in street fighting. Many reports have emerged in recent days of wounded protestors being arrested or murdered in hospitals where they had gone seeking treatment of their wounds.
The British embassy announced today that it is evacuating all personnel from Tehran.
Other foreign embassies are evacuating non-essential employees and
dependants.
Rafsanjani is said
to have received support from 40 of the 88 members of the Assembly
of Experts in Qom for a motion that would examine Khamenei's behavior
in the elections, leading ultimately to his removal as supreme Leader.
FDI has learned that Rafsanjani - an unlikely leader of the moving that
could end the Islamic Republic! - has sought to meet with Grand
Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most widely followed and most senior cleric
in Shia Islam, who lives in Najaf, Iraq.
• Graphic footage of teenage girl shot to death by Basijis on Saturday. Her death has sparked widespread new protests inside Iran.
June 19.
2009: "Supreme Leader" paves the
way for popular revolt. Group calls for Free Elections. Khamenei's
Friday
prayer speech rejected challenges to the election result, and
called on protestors to go home or "be held responsible for the chaos
and the consequences."
An Iranian opposition group, Marze por Gohar, said the time has come "to demand full and completely free
elections," not just an investigation into election fraud. The
demands should include"freedoms of speech, assembly, press and media,
political parties, freedom of political prisoners and fair financial
competitiveness; ellection laws free from discrimination based on
gender, thought, religion, ethnicity and under the supervision of the
United Nations. It is under such circumstances that we shall see who
the nation’s choices are and what the people want," the party said in a press
release this morning.
• Photo (above): Allegedly one of the basijis who opened fire on demonstrators in Tehran.
• Supporters of jailed Ayatollah Hosein Kazemeini Boroujerdi
again called for an internationally-supervised referendum today. Ayatollah
boroujerdi's plea to UN Sec. General Ban Ki Moon.
• Obama
administration cuts off pro-democracy funding for Iran, from
Newsmax.com
• Former FDI board member Joshua Muravchik debunks the pro-Ahmadnejad opinion poll from Terror Free Tomorrow as "Junk Poll."
• In strong show of support for Iranian
people, U.S. Congress today approved
a resolution condemning the crackdown by the Islamic Republic of
Iran authorities in a 405-1 vote.
June 18,
2009: Islamic Republic imports Hezbollah thugs to attack demonstrators.
FDI has received these
photograph of Lebanese Hezbollah members who had been in Iran to
receive military training, and who now have been deployed during the
demonstrations to attack protestors. Notice in the picture at the right
the Farsi writing behind them. FDI has received many eyewitness reports
(see below) of Iranians who said they heard masked militiamen speaking
Arabic as they beat up protesters.
•
PARS TV does a segment today with new information on foreign troops
entering Iran at the regime's request.
• Youtube clip of Mousavi aid, Mohsen Maqhmalbaf, telling the European parliament that Ministry of Interior officials came to Mousavi headquarters on election night to inform him he had won the election. Maqhmalbaf also gave the election results that figure in the letter below (the letter itself may be a fake, but the information is being widely credited as true).
• Pictures
and new documents from the People's Fedaii
From the
Guardian: an Iranian reader sent in this
picture of the protest yesterday (June 17) in Isfahan's Naghsh Jahan
square.
June 17,
2009: Letter fake? FDI sources who have many years of
experience with internal Iranian regime documents believe the letter
below is a fake and is being spread deliberately by the regime in an
effort to discredit the legitimate protest movement inside Iran. But an
Iranian correspondent for the Guardian newspaper reported
this morning that the man who "leaked" the letter and the election
results, Mohammad Asgari, was killed yesterday in a suspicious car
accident.
• Better
translation of
Ministry of Interior letter. A friend of FDI has provided a
better copy (below) and a better translation of this letter, which
purports to be signe
d by Minister of Interior Sadegh
Mahsouli, addressed to the Supreme Leader on 23 khordad - Saturday,
June 13, 2009. Once again,
we emphasize that we have not yet been able to verify the authenticity
of this letter. We also note than unlike most regime documents of a
sensitive nature, it bears no secrecy stamps. But we are told that
Mahsouli is IT-savvy and is likely to have typed it himself and
delivered it in person.
In the letter, the minister advises Khamenei that he is "responding to
the apprehension and cause for concern you indicated relating to the
results of the 10th elections of IRI and to your personal view as to
the prudency of renewing Mr. Dr. Mahmoud Adhmadinejad's presidency at
this critically sensitive time, and as such please be advised that all
planning and advanced steps have been taken (by the Ministry) to allow
for an announcement [of victory] in favor of whichever candidate is
favoured by the regime and the revolution, and that all actions have
been taken preemptively to
circumvent all probable repercussions by the political leaders of parties and candidates and their camps and that
all are under the microscope and surveillance." Mahsouli then provides
Khamenei "for your informational
purposes only, the accurate vote count." The first line is the
total number of votes case, then it shows the tally we listed below
(Mousavi first, Karrouubi second, then Ahmadinejad, Rezai, and blank
votes). Finally, the minister asks Khamenei how to proceed. (Download a
better image of the letter).
• A video-grapher working for the Norwegian daily Aftenposten was arrested by police while filming crowds on the streets.
• A well-made slideshow of the post-"election" protests and crackdown.
• BBC video
of Sunday's clashes in Tehran, police arrest and beating demonstrators;
more cellphone
video of police beatings; Two particularly gruesome videos of
masked police wearing armor padding cutting the tongue out
of one demonstrator and beating to death
another.
*** FDI is receiving reports from many
sources that Hamas Palestinians and other non-Iranians have been
specially trained to do the regime's dirty work. Eyewitnesses last
night (Tuesday) saw police in black masks club to death six young
people at a Tehran intersection, and heard them conversing among
themselves in Arabic.***
June 16,
2009: Update: Proof?? An anonymous blogger
has posted what he purports to be a letter from the Interior Minister
to the Supreme Leader, showing the "real" election results. According
to the text, Mousavi came in first with 19,075,623; fellow "reformist"
Mehdi Karroubi came in second with 13,387,104 votes; Ahmadinejad came
in third with 5,698,417; and Mohsen Rezai came in fourth with
3,754,218. The letter writer starts his letter by asking the Supreme
Leader which candidate he wants to declare the winner. At the end, he
gives the actual vote tally. Not having seen a hard copy, FDI cannot
vouch for the authenticity of this document.
\
Demonstrators,
Hezbollahi, surround state TV in Tehran. Demonstrators have
been converging on the state-run IRIB TV network all evening, and as
the crowds thickened, broadcasters called on Hezbollahi supporters of
Ahmadinejad to come to the streets to battle the demonstrators. Violent clashes could be imminent...
FDI has also received reports of clashes between demonstrators and
hezbollahis in Tabriz in Shiriz.
The
latest news update from Bloomberg says 8 people were killed
yesterday and 25 injured when security forces fired on demonstrators in
Valiasr square. Mousavi supporters held massive rallies again today in
Tehran's Valiasr square.
• FDI to Obama: Break Your Silence now! The
Foundation for
Democracy in Iran has written to President Barack Hussein Obama, urging
him to stand up for America's principles and avoid the error made by
President Clinton in 1999, when he washed his hands of the student
uprising in Iran, claiming that America could do nothing."Mr.
President, America can do much, as you and your supporters said
repeatedly during your election campaign. For starters, America should
continue to hold up the beacon of liberty that Iranians look to with
such longing – not put it under a shroud," the letter states.
The FDI does not call on the United States to support any particular group or party inside Iran, but instead calls on the president to "assert America’s moral authority in defense of freedom."
Above all, the letter calls on President Obama "to refuse to recognize the imposter regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and to muster world opinion to neutralize him behind an international cordon sanitaire until he crumbles from isolation and neglect. Download a PDF of the letter.
• Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
video message to the people of Iran: "We're on your side."
June 15,
2009: Khamenei backs down... a
bit. Faced with a challenge mounted by Rafsanjani and the
Assembly of Experts in Qom (see below), Khamenei today appears to have
backed down somewhat, now ordering
a review of election results to determine if fraud occured.
Ahmadinejad remained arrogant, taunting his opponents; reports persist
that Mousavi and 100 others tied to his campaign have been placed under
house arrest. Texting, Internet access, and cellphone coverage have
been blocked. This afternoon, Mousavi supporters march on Tehran from
Enghelab avenue to Azadi square, the exact same path that anti-shah
protesters used in 1978 and that led to a bloodbath. Reports reaching
FDI from Iran say that protesters are "equipping themselves with chains
and batons to fight back" against the security forces. And for good
reason. In this
amateur video, a man is hauled off a motorcycle and beaten to death
by anti-riot police. At least one protester was killed
by gunshots fired from a military barracks near Azadi square.
Candidate Mohsen Rezai finally has joined the other two
"losing" candidates and filed
his own complaint with the Council of Guardians. Meanwhile, the
pro-Ahmadinejad state-run news agency, IRNA, reported in the person
edition of "Iran" daily today that forner president Mohammad Khatami traveled to Cairo last
week at the precise time that Obama was
speaking there, and met with a "senior
U.S. administration official" to "share intelligence" on the
election. While this would appear to be another allegation by
Ahmadinejad in his campaign to tie Mousavi and his supporters to the
United States, Iranian observers we queried pointed out it was highly
unusual for "Iran" to mention former President Khatami. "If they had
alleged it was his brother, that's one thing. But the former president?
It's very hard to lie about that," one observer siad. Stay tuned....
Photo:
Pasdars patrolling the streets on motorcycles in plain clothes (Olivier
Laban-Mattei/AFP/Getty Images. For more of these terrific photos,
go
here:
June 14, 2009: Mousavi protests election results; Rafsanjani in Qom. Mir Hossein Mousavi, reportedly under house arrest in Tehran, has issued a formal protest to the Guardians' council, asking them to annul the election results. Iranian filmaker Mohsen Maqhmalbaf, speaking on behalf of Mousavi, released a statement on Facebook (the unofficial Mousavi site) saying that Interior Ministry officials came to Mousavi headquarters on the evening of the election, telling them that Mousavi had won a clear victory and that they soon would announce the results. Two hours later, the Interior Ministry announced that Ahmadinejad had won by 62.6% - exactly the same percentage they had announced when the first partial results came in early in the evening.
June 13,
2009: Riots erupt in Tehran. 
Violent
confrontations broken out on Saturday in Tehran
between Mousavi supporters and riot-control police. Supreme Leader
Khamenei has refused appeals from Mousavi and his supporters to examine
the election results. In a TV address on Friday night, Khamenei called
on the people to unite behind Ahmadinejad, and said
the election result was a "divine assessment."
• Sources inside Iran tell FDI that the
govenrment cut off access to Facebook, jammed BBC, CNN, and VOA
broadcasts into Iran at 9:30 pm local time. "We expect that a
phone and Internet blackout is imminent," one source said.
• In Shiraz, the
head of Mousavi's campaign was assaulted by Ahmadinejad supporters, his
nose and several ribs were broken, and his car destroyed.
• In London,
demonstrators surrounded the Islamic Republic of Iran embassy chanting,
"death to the Islamic Republic, Death to Khamenei, Death to
Ahmadinejad, We Want Freedom."
More pictures from Mousavi supporters in Iran....
And more pictures here
from the BBC
Short
video of demonstration on Saturday in Tehran
• Ahmadinejad
initially declared the winner; Mousavi calls result "treason." After
the initial results announced by the Interior Ministry - controlled by
Ahmadinejad - gave the incumbant president a landslide victory, Mousavi
called the results "treason" and "a dangerous manipulation." To prevent
Mousavi from organizing supporters, the security forces shut down the
text messaging system across Iran and deployed anti-riot forces in
large numbers on the streets of major cities, AP
reported. At a press conference, Mousavi declared himself
"definitely the winner." A statement published on his website urged his
supporters to resist a "government of lies and dictatorship." At 11 pm,
security forces shuttered Mousavi's campaign headquarters and dispersed
his supporters using pepper gas and batons.“It appears that a coup has
taken place in Iran overnight to force the results on other parties.
These elections cannot be considered fair by
any measure under such circumstances,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson
for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Ghaemi
said there were unconfirmed reports that Mousavi had been arrested
as he attempted to visit the Supreme Leader's office to protest the
election results.
By mid-afternoon on Saturday, however, AP
reported that the Interior Ministry had "put on hold" any further
announcements, a move that "suggested intervention by Iran's Islamic
authorities seeking to put the brakes on a potentially volatile
showdown."
As we predicted
below, the regime is now circling the wagons, deciding how to massage
the vote count to suit its ends.
ACTION ALERT:
June 11, 2009: Mousavi-Rezai run-off?? Regime
insiders are whispering tonight that the split within the IRGC between
the Ahmadinejad and Rezai factions has got the Supreme Leader and other
decision-makers within the ruling clique so worried that they are
considering a Mousavi-Rezai run-off after
tomorrow's "election."
As we've been saying all along, despite the popular enthusiasm
for the elections, the State Department money and training being pumped
into the "green revolution," it won't be the people who vote who count,
but the people who count the votes. If past elections are any guide,
the regime leadership will get together at 2:30 AM on Saturday morning,
weigh the exit polls against the popular pressure from the street and
the pressure from within the IRGC, and decide the outcome of the
election based on a calculus of regime survival.
FDI has learned tonight (Thursday) that the Supreme Leader ordered the IRGC to hand over control for transporting the ballots to the polling places to the Regular Army - the first time the Regular Army has ever been granted such a responsibility since the 1979 Revolution. This shows how deep and potentially violent the divisions within the IRGC have become. Also, a reformist website tonight posted an answer by the Leader to an "Islamic" question by a reader, whether it was permissible to vote for a candidate (such as Rezai) who had no hope of winning. The Leader said, yes, such a thing is permissible.
An Ahmadinejad victory would lead to riots in the streets by Mousavi supporters, while an outright Mousavi victory would lead to riots by the IRGC faction that supports Ahmadinejad, our sources in Tehran say. "Rezai represents the minimum acceptable solution for the Revolutionary Guards," sources with acces to the leadership tell FDI. "After this fatwa isued by Khamenei, he now has the upper hand."
We are also told that Rezai
has succeeded in getting his own observers into Ministry of Interior
vote-counting units.... This could be the most critical gain of
all.
• Regime releases address of new polling place in Los Angeles. At approximately 4:47 pm today, the U.S. website used by the regime to publicize polling places for tomorrow added a new address: The Westin Hotel at 5400 West Century Blvd (near LAX) in Los Angeles. Get directions. It would appear that they feared action by opposition activists and so only released the identity of this location at the last minute.
FDI is also hearing of an additional location in the
Washington, DC area - the Hilton, in
McLean, Va - and the Grand
Hyatt of New York at 42nd and Lexington. (Note: the Hyatts are
owned by the family of Penny Pritzger, a major Obama fund-raiser). Here is a PDF with the updated
list....
Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R, FL) writes to Sec. State Hillary Clinton, seeking action against Islamic Republic polling places. Rep. Bilirakis said that Iranian diplomats traveling beyond the 25 mile radius of their official places of residence would be "subject to arrest." He also stated that allowing the Islamic regime to organize polling in the U.S. "raises questions with regard to how the U.S. can possibly participate in legitimizing these grossly illegitimate elections by a state sponsor of terror." Read the full letter.
Unpredictable polls... Opinion polls in Iran wildly vary, with pro-IRGC newsites claiming that Ahmadinejad will win by a decisive margin, and pro-Mousavi newspapers claiming that he will win. The latest from Asr Iran (thanks to Ali Alfoneh at AEI and their excellent irantracker website) shows just how wildly unpredictable the polls can be: it shows Mohsen Rezai (in light blue) climbing up from near zero to beat Ahmadinejad (red), just below the winner, Mousavi (in green). So we get back to the Josef Stalin theory of elections in undemocratic states: It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes. And they are solidly in Ahmadinejad's camp - even though FDI learned overnight from sources in Tehran that the regular army is calling on officers to vote for Mousavi.
Top
IRGC officer says "velvet revolution will be crushed at inception." The
head of the IRGC political division, Yadollah Javani, told the IRGC
publication Sobhe Sadegh that the
IRGC would crush any effort to launch a "color" revolution in Iran.
(Complete text in Farsi here and here).
Javani referred to the past events such as the reformists'
sit-in during the Sixth Majles and the July 9, 1999 student uprising as
attempts directed by the West and "Zionists" to overthrow the Iranian
regime. He mentioned Freedom House as a CIA affiliate and a promoter of
color revolutions. For more election news, and other threats to
Mousavi's alleged "green" revolution, see today's Newsmax.
Today's BBC
Persian service reports that the regime banned any gathering in the
streets of Tehran of more than three people, and has deployed 200,000
police and 50,000 bassijis nationwide.
June 10,
2009: FDI writes to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. FDI has
sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today, urging her to stop State Department
interference with Voice of America’s Persian Service, and to enforce the law on Friday
when Iranian regime officials in the United States will attempt to open
35 election sites around the country.
The FDI letter notes that VOA editors have “disinvited”
previously-booked guests because of their position in favor of
boycotting this Friday’s vote in Iran, and reminds Secretary Clinton
that even the State Department’s choice – so-called “reformist” Mir
Hossein Mousavi – is no friend of America or of the Iranian people.
The letter also asks Secretary Clinton to uphold the law that restricts
Iranian diplomats from traveling more than 25 miles outside of their
posting (Washington, DC or New York), and to prosecute under Title
8, U.S. Code, any U.S. Persons officiating at the balloting places
on behalf of a foreign sovereign. (Taking an oath to a foreign
sovereign leads to loss of U.S. Citizenship). Download a PDF
copy of the FDI letter.
Latest election developments:
- According to Saeed Behbehani of MihanTV, a U.S. government emissary met in Dubai two weeks ago with Mehdi Khazali, campaign manager for Mir Hossein Mousavi, bringing assurances of U.S. government support for his campaign. So far, organizations such as "One Million Signatures" inside Iran, which is funded through NGO's getting State Department fnding, have been mobilized in favor of Mousavi in the election. For 30 years, Iranian women have been knocking their heads on the doors of Western "feminist" organizations, seeking - if not help, at least sympathy. Until now, they have been given the brush-off. But with a "reformist" in the White House, "reformists" in Iran have access s to campaign war chests, VOA Persian Service, National Endowment for Democracy grants, and more.
- Rafsanjani asks Supreme Leader to rein in Ahmadinjad and quash corruption allegations
- Askar Oladi says whoever wins, the Islamic Republic is the victor.
- Regime agents in the United States remain cagey on location of 35 polling places. Fearing interference from opposition groups, the regime has yet to reveal the precise location of the ballot boxes for this Friday's vote. The website they have set up to coordinate voting has been registered in Bellevue, Washington, through several layers of cut-outs to obscure the manner in which the regime is directing the voting operation. Here's a screenshot of their map of the US with the 35 polling places indicated with red dots, just in case they try to take it down....
- David
Albright, at ISIS, reveals that Mousavi played a "small but important
role" in the original contacts with the A.Q. Khan network for uranium
enrichment gear. In an email sent out today, Albright said that
the November
2007 IAEA report revealed that Mousavi endorsed the decision to
acquire nuclear technology from the Khan network when he was primse
minister. "In 2007, Iran provided the IAEA with a copy of a
“confidential communication” between the AEOI and Prime Minister
Mousavi dated March 5, 1987 in which the AEOI President stated that
Iran’s activities with the Khan network “should be treated fully
confidentially,”" Albright writes. "The communication was intended in
part to substantiate Iran’s assurances to the IAEA that there was no
military dimension to its centrifuge program. Mousavi effectively
approved Iran’s use of the black market to pursue its secret gas
centrifuge program. This decision, made more than two decades ago, may
not reflect Mr. Mousavi's current thinking regarding Iran's nuclear
program or nuclear proliferation in general, but it is worth being
aware of."
June 7, 2009:
Khamenei advisor says "No!"
to Obama. A
top advisor and propagandist for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wrote in
an editorial appearing this morning in Tehran that the Islamic Republic
has "logical preconditions" for any talks with the United States.
Writing in Kayhan, Hossein
Sharimadari
said that while Obama's Cairo speech on June 4 demonstrated his
willingness to take "the first initial steps towards better relations
with the Islamic Republic," the regime also has "logical preconditions which must be met"
before any talks can begin. "We seek the return of various rights that
the United States has stripped from us," Shariatmadari wrote.
Shariatmadari is an IRGC brigadier general, and has extensive ties to
the intelligence services. Kayhan is considered the "mouthpiece" of the
intelligence ministry.
In his June 7, 2009 editorial, Shariatmadari wrote that the regime was
demanding that the following "preconditions" be met before any talks
with the U.S. could begin:
June 7, 2009: U.S. government supports
reformists in Iranian election. The U.S. State Department has sent
a letter to employees and editors at the Persian service of Voice of America,
requiring them to support reformists Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein
Musavi-Khamenei in the June 12 elections, and to ban individuals and
groups from VOA programs who are calling for a boycott of the elections,
FDI has learned. As of today, all major opposition groups inside Iran are calling for a boycott. So are
prominent personalities such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi,
student leader Heshmat Tabaradi, jAbbas Amir Entezam (the longest
serving political prisoner in Iran's history), and Dr. Mohammad Maleki,
former head of Tehran university.June 6, 2009: FoxNews
quotes FDI president
on Obama's Middle East speech. "Timmerman said Obama should
have appealed to the Iranian citizens' right to choose their leader and
pointed out that the elections being held this month are a "sham" and a
"farce" because all of the candidates have been handpicked by the
supreme leader," FoxNews
reported. "'Obama... believes
he can reach
accommodations with an ideological regime, and it shows he does not
understand the nature of the regime,'" Timmerman said. June 5, 2009: Mud-slinging
intensifies in
elections; Newsmax banned by MOIS. Wednesday's live televised
debate between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi was full of fireworks, with the
candidates accusing each other of corruption and secretly consorting
with the United States. As a result of Newsmax
coverage of the debate, MOIS today cut off access to the
center-right website inside Iran, alleging it was "hostile to the
Islamic Republic of Iran." During a speech today in Esfahan,
Ahmadinejad told followers that "a
group of gangsters took control of the regime five to six years after
the revolution, and their only thought has been to line their
pockets and pad their bank accounts," according to state media accounts
in Iran. Ahmadinejad promised to "name names" later in the evening, but
then said he was being called back unexpectedly to Tehran. May 26, 2009: "Devil
worshippers" arrested. Just two days after a popular heavy
metal promotor was
interviewed in Persian on Voice of America, the regime police said they
had arrested 104 "devil worshippers"in the city of Shiraz. "Devil worshippers" is a regime euphemism for metal fans.
The promoter, 35-year old Iranian-American who calls herself Metal Sanaz, appeared in
a two-part interview on VOA television on May 23-24; the metal fans
were arrested in Iran on the 25th. She condemned the arrests in a statement
released today.
Ayatollah
Khamenei, the "Supreme Leader" of the Islamic Republic, rejected
President Obama's Nowruz message of "friendship" toward the Islamic
Republic of Iran leaders, saying that Obama has "insulted the Islamic
Republic of Iran from the first day." Perhaps thinking that words of
hope and change would resonate with Iran's ruling clerics, Obama
said he wanted to "speak directly to the leaders and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran." But as Iranian
pro-democracy activist Mani
Aryamand noted, "the people of Iran are called just that. There is
no such thing as people of [the] Islamic republic of Iran."March 4, 2009: Obama making
big mistake,
says Iranian oppposition leader. In
an extensive interview with FDI president Kenneth Timmerman that
appeared at Newsmax.com, the leader of the Iran Nation's Party
chastized U.S. policymakers who think that talking to the regime will
change its behavior. “We believe the United States should talk to the
Iranian people, not to the regime,” said Khosrow Seif, 73. [seen at right with picture of former prime
minister Mossadeq. Photo copyright© Kenneth R. Timmerman]Feb. 5, 2009: In concession
to Tehran, U.S. Treasury Dept designates PJAK as terrorist group. The
Treasury Department has blacklisted an
Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in northern Iraq, a move that
was greeted enthusiastically in Iran’s state-run media as part of a
initiative by the Obama administration to forge better U.S.-Iranian
relations. The Party of Free Life of Iranian Kurdistan, known by its
Kurdish acronym, PJAK, was created in 2004 and has never engaged in
international terrorism or in military activity outside of Iran.
But its guerilla fighters have clashed frequently with Iranian
Revolutionary Guards units in Iranian Kurdish towns and villages,
making it a primary target of the Iranian regime.Read more
from Newsmax.com.
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