Misblog

Originally Published June 19, 2009; Last Updated February 10, 2010; Last Republished February 10, 2010:

Ironically (or shrewdly) Ayatollah Khamenei during his Friday (29 Khordad 1388; June 19, 2009) prayer speech asserts the protesters are supporting a dictatorship and rejecting democracy.

Khamenei sees the hand of the Lord in the ballot boxes. Other Iranians aren't sure whose hand is in the ballot box and they're protesting in the streets until they find out.

Wonder if the Lord's hand will be coming out of the ballot boxes to strike those Iranians protesting in the street?

Nice to read governments¹ are summoning Iran's ambassadors to express their expectations for the Lord's hand—since the Lord's hand is ubiquitous its behavior cannot possibly be a solely internal matter for one country alone.

Res:

• UPDATED 02/10/2010 AEI, Iran Tracker. Provides in depth analysis, feature articles, and tracks current events in Iran with a center-right template.

• UPDATED 11/06/2009 RSF, Arrests of journalists [in Iran] since disputed June election now top 100.

  "Agence France-Presse correspondent Farhad Pouladi and Nafiseh Zareh Kohan, a journalist who writes for various pro-reform newspapers, were arrested yesterday in Tehran during demonstrations marking the 30th anniversary of the US embassy’s seizure. Hassin Assadi Zidabadi, a blogger who heads a student human rights committee, was arrested the day before." --Reporters Without Borders--

• UPDATED 11/06/2009 White House, Statement by President Barack Obama on Iran
• UPDATED 12/27/2009 Anonymous Iran, The Green Brief #76 (December 13).
  • Archive Green Briefs.

• UPDATED 06/20/2009 Statement from the President [Obama] on Iran

  "The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

  As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

  Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."--United States President Barack Obama

Blog:

• UPDATED 12/29/2009 WH Blog, President Obama Speaks Out on Iran Violence. Includes Persian and Arabic translations.

  "The United States will always bear witness for and stand by those in Iran, and around the world, who seek to exercise their universal human rights."--United States President Obama--

• UPDATED 12/27/2009 Daily Night Owl Blog. Blogging on protester events in Iran.

• UPDATED 11/05/2009 AJC, Iran has another hero, this one still living, in Mahmoud Vahidnia

  The response to those asserting Mahmod Vahidnia is an actor in a staged choreography is simple and direct—encore.

YouTube:

• Search on Iran Order Video by Newest and Unity4Iran Channel

• UPDATED 01/04/2010 The Wall

• UPDATED 12/07/2009 INA Student Day Protests

• UPDATED 11/05/2009 BBC Mahmod Vahidnia

• UPDATED 07/11/2009 Sea of Green Radio, Green Sheet #24

• UPDATED 07/09/2009 Renewed Protests

• UPDATED 06/28/2009 CNN, Thousands demonstrate silently [some not so silent] in Tehran

• UPDATED 06/28/2009 Iranian and American super rock stars Andranik (Andy) Madadian and Jon Bon Jovi perform "Stand By Me":

• UPDATED 06/20/2009 Young Woman Mortally Shot During Protest On Saturday:

  UPDATED 06/26/2009 Young Iranian doctor who came to Neda's aid tells his story (see video originator BBC World Service Iran: the death of Neda Agha-Soltan or YouTube Video Part 1 of 2 and YouTube Video Part 2 of 2)

• Khamenei Friday Prayer Speech:

Web:

• UPDATED 02/10/2010 CSM, Iran widens journalist crackdown before demonstrations.

  What type of government is fit to govern any people in the 21^st that restricts access to information, much less threatens to journalists with "spy" charges for disseminating information?

  How long will the community of nations tolerate inimical and baleful authoritarian regimes?

• UPDATED 01/28/2010 NYT, Iran Reportedly Executes 2 Over Election Protests.

  Two protester show trial defendants are executed by the wacky duo-dictatorship of Khamenei-Ahmadinejad.

• UPDATED 01/12/2010 NYT, Bomb Kills [elementary physics] Professor in Tehran.

  Alimohammadi, Masoud, Professor Elementary Particle Physics, Ph.D., Sharif University of Technology, Iran (1992)

• UPDATED 01/04/2010 NYT, Iranian Filmmakers Keep Focus on the Turmoil.

• UPDATED 12/30/2009 WP, Government supporters hold mass rallies against Iran's political opposition.

  At least we know Iran's leadership knows how to permit nonviolent protests.

• UPDATED 12/30/2009 Reuters, Iran's police chief warns opposition.

  The delusional dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the opposition leaders "enemies of god", by which he means enemies of the dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (see ولایت فقیه; Welayat-e Faqih; Velayat e Faqih).

  This likely presages both harm to the opposition leaders and the end of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delusional dictatorship.

• UPDATED 12/30/2009 CSM, Mousavi supporters say Iran ordered murder of his nephew and CSM, Iran protesters: the Harvard professor behind their tactics
• UPDATED 12/28/2009 NYT, Aides to Iran’s Opposition Leaders Said to Be Arrested.
  • NYT Photos, Violence in Iran
  • UPDATED 12/29/2009 NPR Photos, Iranian Police Crack Down on Opposition Protests
• UPDATED 12/27/2009 Frontline Tehran Bureau. Covering news on Iran and the Iranian diaspora, including special investigations and reporting.

  • UPDATED 12/27/2009 Frontline Investigates Neda Agha-Soltan's Death
• UPDATED 12/26/2009 Payvand, Clashes Reported As Iran's Opposition Holds Fresh Protests.
• UPDATED 12/21/2009 Reuters, Protests mark funeral of dissident Iranian cleric.

• UPDATED 12/18/2009 CSM, Iran: Opposition gears up for 10-day showdown, possible Mousavi arrest. The article refers to the rape of the young Iranian woman Maryam Sabri—below she describes her attackers brutality:

• UPDATED 12/08/2009 Reuters, Iran says will show no mercy to opposition protesters

  Does Iran's wacky putative leaders think their clubbing, gassing, tasering, shooting, torturing, imprisoning, and killing protesters is demonstrating mercy (see Amnesty International's Post-election Iran violations some of the worst in 20 years).

  • UPDATED 12/08/2009

• UPDATED 12/07/2009 NYT, Iranian Student Protesters Clash With Police

  Article includes a link to YouTube Iran Videos, Unity4Iran Channel.

• UPDATED 12/07/2009 UPI, Opposition holds rally in Tehran

  • UPDATED 12/07/2009 Aljazeera Student Day Protests

• UPDATED 11/26/2009 NYT, Iranian Militiamen Try to Cow Opposition Figure and RNW, Iranian authorities "seize Nobel Peace Prize" and BBC, Nobel Peace Prize medal 'confiscated' by Iran.

  Iranian religious rulers seized symbol of opposition—the Nobel Peace Prize medal of Shirin Ebadi.

• UPDATED 11/05/2009 WP, In Iran, rival rallies show rift endures.

• UPDATED 11/04/2009 Reuters, Mousavi supporters clash with police in Tehran.

  The tyrants Khamenei and Ahmadinejad are engaged in a counter-revolution against the Iranian people. Such a counter-revolution requires the leaders to simultaneously use and deny violent repression.

  One method of masking authoritarian repression is for a government to assert foreign interference in a propaganda campaign. Then launch a violent nationalistic repressive response against those Iranians opposing your authoritarian leadership.

  Only one problem, Iran's reformers aren't accepting the propaganda or the repressive response or the authoritarian leadership...patiently chanting "Death to Dictators".

• UPDATED 11/02/2009 UPI, Reformists are committed, Khatami says.

• UPDATED 09/11/2009 Reuters, Iran leader issues stern warning to opposition.

  A regime that begins killing and threatening its own people is not a regime likely to last long—it just locks on to a declining spiral.

  Particularly when the people you begin killing and threatening are as educated as the Persian Iranians—the gasping regime is the one deploying swords.

  Wonder how long before the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his side-kick Ahmadinejad are replaced?

• UPDATED 09/05/2009 Reuters, Iran's Mousavi defiant after MPs back Ahmadinejad.

• UPDATED 09/01/2009 UN 64th Session Agenda.

  Iran's precarious putative president Ahmadinejad is expected to address the UN General Assembly.

  Instead of working to deny Ahmadinejad entry protesters should use the opportunity to highlight how poorly served Iran, Iranians, and the world is by such an obsequious, vacuous, and nationalistic leader.

• UPDATED 07/30/2009 NYT, Clashes as Iranians Gather to Mourn
• UPDATED 07/29/2009 UPIAsia, Will Khamenei dump Ahmedinejad?
• UPDATED 07/29/2009 CSM, Why Iran's conservatives are airing their dirty laundry
• UPDATED 07/21/2009 NYT, Ex-President in Iran Seeks Referendum.
• July 17, 2009 Protests:
  • UPDATED 07/17/2009 Economist, Taking sides
  • 7/17/2009 BBC, Call for Iran protesters' release.Includes short video clip.
  • UPDATED 07/16/2009 Reuters, Ahmadinejad opponents to attend weekly Iran prayers.

• UPDATED 07/09/2009 NYT, IIran Security Forces Move to Crush Renewed Protests.

  Other reports of the Basij ripping off the license plates of vehicles honking in support of protesters is precious and so symbolic—why use a digital camera when you can use force to rip the plate from its mounting!

  Wonder if the Basij chewed on the plate after ripping it from the vehicle?

  Fortunately, protesters report that authorities refrained from shooting at them. See Green Sheet #23 below above—protesters were shot at with rubber bullets and beaten.

• 2009 UPI, Iran pres. candidate urged to start party.

• UPDATED 07/04/2009 NYT, Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election.

  "How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of the infringements is a legitimate one,"--BBC quoting Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers--

• UPDATED 07/01/2009 Guardian, Mir Hossein Mousavi calls Iranian government illegitimate.

  Although the protests have yet to deliver credible elections they have conclusively displayed for the modern world’s delight a proud, confident, and determined Iranian people quite capable of eliminating just another unwanted authoritarian regime!

• UPDATED 06/30/2009 NYT, Iran Seeks to Close Door on Further Protests.

• UPDATED 06/26/2009 UPI, G8 tells Iran to respect human rights.

  Every nation, not just the G8 must demand of every peer nation respect for and adherence to minimal basic human rights, including the right of its people to peacefully assemble and speak freely for the purpose of demanding responsive change from their own government or another nation's government.

  "...Their [Iranian protesters] bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice,...The violence perpetrated against them [Iranian protesters] is outrageous. In spite of the government's efforts to keep the world from bearing witness to that violence, we see it and we condemn it."--AP, quoting U.S. President Barack Obama @ Merkel-Obama joint Washington press conference--

• UPDATED 06/24/2009 Al Jazeera, Iran's Neda killing 'was illegal' to say the least.

  Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi has expressed a desire to represent Neda in death to ensure those responsible for her murder are held accountable.

  Hopefully, each protester detained or charged by authorities will receive independent and vigorous legal representation and defense in accordance with internationally accepted minimum legal standards and the rule of law.

  Using Iran's judiciary to "teach protesters a lesson" is inconsistent with internationally accepted minimum legal standards and the rule of law. It also discredits Iran's judiciary and renders its judges little more than buffoons.

  • UPDATED 06/26/2009 International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Killed and Detained Since 12 June

• UPDATED 06/22/2009 NYT, Former President at Center of Fight Within Political Elite.

  • UPDATED 06/22/2009 Time, Top Ten Players in Iran's Power Struggle

• UPDATED 06/21/2009 NYT, Iran Tense After Day of Violent Clashes.
  

  Seeing this picture reminds me of the 1975 movie Rollerball (YouTube Trailer) which is a depiction of the 1974 futuristic book Roller Ball Murder.

• UPDATED 06/21/2009 CNN, Rallies in France, Germany, U.S. support Iranian demonstrators.

  "Now, it's not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling -- the U.S. President meddling in Iranian elections. What I will repeat and what I said yesterday is that when I see violence directed at peaceful protestors [sic], when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed, wherever that takes place, it is of concern to me and it's of concern to the American people. That is not how governments should interact with their people.

  And my hope is, is that the Iranian people will make the right steps in order for them to be able to express their voices, to express their aspirations. I do believe that something has happened in Iran where there is a questioning of the kinds of antagonistic postures towards the international community that have taken place in the past, and that there are people who want to see greater openness and greater debate and want to see greater democracy. How that plays out over the next several days and several weeks is something ultimately for the Iranian people to decide. But I stand strongly with the universal principle that people's voices should be heard and not suppressed."--United States President Barack Obama, June 16, 2009--

• UPDATED 06/20/2009 NYT Lede, Saturday: Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election.
• UPDATED 06/20/2009 NYT, A Struggle for the Legacy of the Iranian Revolution.

• NYT, Ruling Cleric Warns Iranian Protesters.

  • BBC 'The Islamic Republic would not cheat'. Short video segment of Khamenei's Tehran University Friday prayer speech, with English voice over.

-----notes-----

1. Our president must feel slighted that Britain has now become the external evil against which Ayatollah Khamenei asserts Iran must fight.

It probably doesn't have anything to do with BBC's switching from the jammed Hot Bird 6 satellite to a more jam resistant W2M satellite for its Persian Farsi broadcast into Iran.

However, proving old habits are hard to break there was still plenty of "Death to America" chanting during Khamenei's speech.