iPouya | A Source on Politics, World Affairs, Society, and Cinema

1. Iran ‘lifts block on SMS texting’: Reports from Iran say that SMS text messaging services have been unblocked for the first time since disputed presidential elections. However, Iranian news agencies say there are still technical problems. Text messaging and social networks were widely used by protesters in mass rallies following the election. 

2. Hardline Pressure Mounts to Arrest Mousavi: “A group of hardline Iranian members of parliament want the judiciary to prosecute defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi over post-election unrest that rocked the Islamic Republic last month. “Those who hold illegal rallies and gatherings should be legally pursued,” MP Mohammad Taghi Rahbar was quoted as saying by the hardline Javan newspaper on Thursday. It said Rahbar was among several MPs preparing to write to the judiciary complaining about Mousavi’s activities after the disputed June 12 election. It did not say how many lawmakers backed the petition. In another sign of mounting hardline pressure, state television said a student branch of the pro-government Basij militia, which helped police suppress pro-Mousavi street protests, had urged the attorney-general to take him to court.”

3. Iran Now Harder To Bomb: “This is not a minor issue for Israel, nor for American military planners who might have harbored hopes of reviving the idea of a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear sites. A former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Meir Dagan, let slip the dilemma facing anti-Iranian hawks when he told journalists recently: ‘If the reformist candidate Mousavi had won, Israel would have had a more serious problem because it would need to explain to the world the danger of the Iranian threat, since Mousavi is perceived internationally arena as a moderate element.’ In effect, Dagan said, Ahmadinijad was Israel’s choice because it would have been a lot easier to send a wave or two of F-15s to bomb Iran if the world knew that Iranians had, indeed, overwhelmingly reelected such a cretin. Now, images of street protests vastly complicate that calculus. Imagine the revulsion if such air strikes, as they regularly do in Afghanistan, led to the unintended deaths of dozens or more of the very Iranians who are being cheered in the streets today?” [I think you can also make the argument that it is now easier to bomb Iran. The disputed election results and the post-election crackdown has seriously discredited the regime in the eyes of the international community, so much so that an Israeli attack on its nuclear facility will not be condemned the way it would have been if Israel attacked before the post-election fall out.]

4. Ayatollah Mohsen Kadivar on Post-Election Iran: “This Iranian form of theocracy has failed. The rights of the Iranian peoples are trampled upon and my homeland is heading towards a military dictatorship. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad behaves like an Iranian Taliban. The supreme leader, Mr. Ali Khamenei, has tied his fate to that of Ahmadinejad, a great moral, but also political mistake.”  

“When he [Khamenei], together with Ahmadinejad, speaks about foreign countries being behind the protests in Iran, he very much reminds me of the king (the Shah). He used the same arguments and could not recognize that he was witnessing a national and democratic protest movement of his own people. Towards the end, the shah only thought of holding up his regime. Today, Mr. Khamenei does not think any differently.”

5. Selling Iran: Ahmadinejad, Privatization and a Bus Driver Who Said No: Since his election in 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under the guidance of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, has overseen a regime dedicated to the privatization of state-controlled industries. The intention of the regime, as stated by the newly appointed Governor of the Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyyed Shams Al-din Hosseini, is to privatize 80% of state-owned industries by 2010. This mandate was made real just prior to the disputed elections as a state-owned bank, Saderat, announced it would offer 6% of its shares to private investors (Press TV, 6/8/09). Other significant privatizations during Ahmadinejad’s reign include the postal service, two other state-run banks, Tejerat and Mellat, and, in February 2008, a 5% bloc of shares in the publicly owned steel maker, Foulad-e Mobarakeh, was sold out in eight minutes (Iran Daily, 2/14/08). In total, since 2005, 247 enterprises have been processed by the Iran Privatization Organization, the state-ministry specifically charged with overseeing privatizations (Iranian Privatization Organization website).

1. Mousavi’s Latest Statement: Mir Hussein Mousavi issued a statement today in response to Guardian Council certifying the election results. Mousavi said the majority of the people including him do not recognize the legitimacy of the current government. He expressed his fears about a grave danger facing the country because people no longer trust the government. According to Mousavi, it is not too late to regain people’s trust and reinstate the rule of the law. Denying the fact that people have lost their trust in the government is not beneficial, he said. He requested an end to the militarization of the society, revising the election laws, honoring the article 27 of the constitution (freedom of assembly), freedom of media, reactivating news websites, and a ban of illegal government intervention in restricting communication and monitoring people’s activities among other things.

2. Khatami Weighs in: “In boldly worded statements posted on their Web sites, Khatami accused Iran’s leadership of a ‘velvet coup against the people and democracy,’ and Mousavi said the government’s crackdown on demonstrators was ‘tantamount to a coup.’”

3. My Friend in Iran on the Election Results: “My theory is that pro-Mousavi and anti-Ahmadinejad analysts are generalizing based on anecdotes from areas where Mousavi was indeed in the lead, including, most prominently, in the city of Tehran (Mousavi was 51% in central and south Tehran, and 62% in northern Tehran, according to official results), to conclude that the same must have been the case everywhere else, and since it didn’t pan out that way, the result must be a fake. Frankly, i find that unconvincing. It seems more a case of Tehranis and the intelligentsia refusing to accept that they’ve been upstaged by the provinces. And if indeed the provinces were won by Mousavi, how come we see nowhere near the intensity of the Tehran protests anywhere else in the country?”

4. Secretary of State: Hilary Clinton on Iran: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refrained from comment Monday on the reelection of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but pointed to a “credibility” gap for Iran’s leadership. “I’m not going to speculate on, you know, what happens with their internal regime,” the top US diplomat said. “Obviously, they have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process, and I don’t think that’s going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots,” Clinton added.

5. Basij militia calls for Mousavi to be prosecuted over post-election unrest: Iran’s opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi today became the target of the notorious Basij militia as it called for him to be prosecuted for his role in the greatest political unrest in Iran since the Islamic revolution. In a letter to the country’s chief prosecutor, the Basij accuse Mousavi of involvement in nine offences against the state, including “disturbing the nation’s security”. That charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

6. ‘Hacktivists’ target Iran’s leadership online: A sharp clampdown by Iranian authorities may have quelled street protests, but the fight goes on in cyberspace. Groups of “hacktivists”- Web hackers demanding Internet freedom - say they are targeting Web pages of Iran’s leadership in response to the regime’s muzzling of blogs, news outlets and other sites. It’s not clear how much the wired warriors have disrupted official Iranian sites. Recent attempts by the Associated Press to access sites for state news organizations, including the Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars, were unsuccessful - with a message saying the links were “broken.”

7. Battle for Iran shifts from the streets to the heart of power: In a move with even greater potential significance, according to several reports Rafsanjani has been lobbying fellow members of the powerful 86-strong Assembly of Experts, which he chairs, to replace Khamenei as the supreme leader with a small committee of senior ayatollahs, of which Khamenei would be a member. If Rafsanjani were successful, the constitutional change would mean a profound shift in the balance of power within Iran’s theocratic regime. “Although Hashemi Rafsanjani is not a popular politician in Iran any more, he is the only hope that Iranians have … for the annulment of the election,” said an Iranian political analyst who asked not be named. “He is the only one who people think is able to stand against the supreme leader.” The membership of the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint the supreme leader, is split between those supporting Rafsanjani and those who have gravitated around the highly influential ultra-hardline cleric Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, who is widely seen as both a supporter of Ahmadinejad and the president’s religious mentor. Yazdi is also believed to have his own ambitions to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader. Like Ahmadinejad, he is fiercely opposed to the push by reformists for more democratic representation in Iran.

8. Professor Hamid Dabashi: U.S. dollars could kill Iran’s protest movement: Obama can help this budding seed of hope for civil liberties even more emphatically by altogether cutting the budget “to promote democracy in Iran,” evidently channeled through the U.S. Agency for International Development. Ken Dilanian of USA Today reports, “the Obama administration is moving forward with plans to fund groups that support Iranian dissidents.” This financial aid is not only a waste of taxpayer money under these severe economic circumstances, but is in fact the surest way to kill that inborn and grassroots movement. It mostly will be abused by expatriate and entirely discredited opposition groups ranging from the monarchist supporters of Reza Pahlavi to the members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization, and it will in turn strengthen the hand of the regime to denounce the Green Movement as funded by Americans.

1. Guardian Council Confirms Ahmadinejad’s Victory: “The secretary of the Guardian Council in a letter to the interior minister announced the final decision of the Council… and declares the approval of the accuracy of the results of… the presidential election,” the state broadcaster said. A partial recount of the election carried out on Monday showed no irregularities in the vote, Iran’s English-language Press TV television station added, according to Reuters news agency.

2. Rafsanjani Falls in Line: Associated Press: For the first time since the election, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani spoke publicly about the unrest, claiming that “suspicious hands” were trying to open rifts between the people and the Islamic system. Professor Juan Cole: “Rafsanjani has clearly decided to defer to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on handling the outcome of the elections, and has come out as critical of the crowd politics and occasional turbulence they produced. As a multi-billionaire and man of the establishment, he may well have been frightened that the massive street rallies for Mousavi a week ago signalled a danger to the status quo, which he is attempting to preserve. From Rafsanjani’s point of view, Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and others have been making a slow-motion coup, reducing the sigificance and openness of the of the system by excluding the reformists from running for office. Wanting to go back to 1997 is not the same as wanting a revolution.”

3. Sunday, First Demonstration “in days”: “About 5,000 protesters marched slowly and silently through Tehran on Sunday near a mosque where the government was allowing a demonstration for the first time in days. Authorities were riding on motorcycles alongside the marchers, who are telling each other to walk slowly and drag their feet. Police were telling the demonstrators to move faster. Some of the protesters were telling the police that they have the legal right to protest in peace. The marchers are walking from north to south down a major street, Shariati Street, near the Ghoba Mosque, where a memorial is being held in honor of a hero of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The gathering is officially meant to honor Mohammad Beheshti, who was killed in a bombing on this date 28 years ago. It follows two weeks of protests against the official results of the June 12 presidential elections, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won.”

4. Sunday Demonstration Broken Up: “Witnesses said riot police used tear gas and clubs to break up a crowd of up to 3,000 protesters who had gathered near north Tehran’s Ghoba Mosque in the country’s first major post-election unrest in four days.”

5. Don’t Assume Ahmadinejad Really Lost: [Baer, a former CIA field agent with much field experience in the Middle East is usually a good source which is why I wanted to post this piece of his.] “For too many years now, the Western media have looked at Iran through the narrow prism of Iran’s liberal middle class — an intelligentsia that is addicted to the Internet and American music and is more ready to talk to the Western press, including people with money to buy tickets to Paris or Los Angeles. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a terrific book, but does it represent the real Iran? (See pictures of Iran’s presidential election and its turbulent aftermath.) Before we settle on the narrative that there has been a hard-line takeover in Iran, an illegitimate coup d’état, we need to seriously consider the possibility that there has been a popular hard-line takeover, an electoral mandate for Ahmadinejad and his policies.”

6. More Focus on the Revolutionary Guards: “Eight of the 21 posts in the president’s cabinet are held by former members, according to Ali Alfoneh, an analyst at Washington’s American Enterprise Institute. Among them are Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, whose agency ran the election, and Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar. Another five places are occupied by past Basij commanders. The state broadcasting arm is headed by Ezzatollah Zarghami, a former guard. At least one-third of Iran’s parliament members are former guards, according to Nader. Under Ahmadinejad’s predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, 65, only three ministers had belonged to the guards or Basij.”

7. Bon Jovi and Andy in Solidarity with Protesters in Iran: “Stand by Me”

8. iPouya on the UCI Teach-in: I went to Saturday’s UCI teach-in and there was one thing during the open mic session near the end that I think specifically warrants address. An Iranian man went up and said that he was baffled at the fact that all those Americans who were honking in the streets of Irvine in solidarity with the street vigils and demonstrations on Irvine’s street corners failed to show up to the teach-in. He argued that all of the world’s population should be concerned about what’s happening in Iran and that, at the least, those people who expressed concern through their car horns should have attended the teach-in at UCI.  I don’t mean to generalize (actually I do), but this is such typical Iranian rubbish. They expect the world to care about what they care about, but refuse to participate in anything that doesn’t concern Iran. In other words, these same people are indifferent about human rights in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, China, you name it, but their egos tell them that the world should focus on Iran!  If they want non-Iranians to pay attention to Iran, then they must also form coalitions with other people struggling in the world.

Tribute to Michael Jackson: Arguably the most famous musician in world history died yesterday and like many, I was shocked and saddened to hear the news. When my brother and I were little, we didn’t have any cassette tapes (this is long before the era of CDs) but we had one tape, and that was of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and that’s all we needed. Here’s his greatest song and the most amazing music video ever made. And see this video here to see how international both Michael Jackson and Thriller continues to be.
Remember Michael and don’t forget about Iran.

1. The Media Blackout: is working very effectively. With virtually all foreign journalists kicked out of the country, there is minimal information coming out of Iran. (Picture is dated June 15)
2. G8 ‘deplores’ Iran poll violence: “Foreign ministers from the world’s main industrialised countries have issued a statement “deploring” post-election violence in Iran. The G8’s comments were not as strong as France and Italy had wanted, after Russia warned against isolating Iran.”

3. GRAPHIC Footage: Protester shot in the head (June 20, 2009)

4. Rafsanjani has enough support to remove Khamenei: According to unconfirmed reports Rafsanjani is currently lobbying and meeting with members of the Assembly of Experts to gain support for the removal of Khamenei and for replacing the position of Supreme Leader with a form of collective leadership. According to Al-Arabiya, high-up sources say that Rafsanjani has already gained enough support within the Assembly for the removal of Khamenei, but has found less of a positive response to the proposal to replace the position of Supreme Leader altogether.

5. George Galloway on Iran: See the video here.

6. Obama Moves to Fund Iranian Dissidents: “Despite President Barack Obama’s persistent claims that the United States is not meddling in the post-election furore in Iran, the administration is moving forward with plans to subsidize Iranian dissident groups to the tune of $20 million in the form of USAID grants.”

1. Thursday’s Rally: “Thursday: Opposition leaders had called for a day of mourning on Thursday, but some reports say it has been cancelled.”

2. Contrast to the Iranian Revolution - Weak Leadership in Karroubi: “Meanwhile, another opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, has put off a march of mourning for at least 17 people killed in post-election protests. The march had initially been set for Thursday but has been postponed for at least a week, according to a website linked to Karroubi, who was also a presidential candidate.”

3. Weak Leadership in Moussavi: “…Mr. Moussavi, the defeated candidate who embodied the hopes of reformers, posted a notice on his Web site of a late afternoon rally in front of the Parliament, but he distanced himself from the action, saying it was not organized by the reform movement. It is not clear how far Mr. Moussavi, a former prime minister who is essentially an insider thrust into the role of opposition, would go to defy the system. He has not been seen since Thursday. So as the crackdown infuriates protesters, there is a greater gap with their ostensible leader, political analysts said.”

4. iPouya on the Importance of Leadership: This is sharp contrast to the leadership of the Iranian Revolution. Khomeini was thrust into the political spotlight in 1963, when he led an uprising against the Shah. He was personally involved in the uprising and was consequently jailed for months and threatened with death.  When he was released, he immediately resumed his fiery sermons and was jailed again and later exiled where he continued his agitation until the revolution triumphed 14 years later. Compare his defiance, personal involvement, and stubborness to Mousavi and Karroubi’s internet statements, vacilation, and back peddling. Effective leadership is supremely important to any movement so forgive me for saying this, but today’s movement in Iran is lacking.

5. The beginning of the end… at least for now: “It’s beginning to look like the end of the line for the Mousavi opposition in Iran. From the million-plus demonstrators that choked Tehran’s streets a week ago, Tuesday saw only a handful of protesters brave enough to incur the wrath of police and paramilitary forces. This followed two days in which protest numbers dropped off considerably.”

6. MPs Snub Ahmadinejad’s Victory Party: “Nearly two thirds of MPs appear to have stayed away from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election victory party. All 290 MPs were invited to attend the party, Iran’s press reports, but only 105 turned up. …But the high number of MPs who stayed away is another indication that the disputed election has split the nation, says the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen in Tehran.”

7. Mujahideen the Opportunists: So Maryam Rajavi speaks (with a picture of Neda conveniently positioned behind her). Someone, anyone, QUICK, GIVE ME A SHOE TO THROW!!!

8. Who’s Really in Charge in Iran?: “What has been going on since 2005 is the shift of the center of power from the clergy to the Pasdaran,” or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said a political analyst with years of experience in Iran who feared retribution if identified. “In a way one could say that Iran is no longer a theocracy, but a government headed by military chiefs.”

9. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri Warns the Regime: “If Iranians cannot talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful,” Montazeri said in a statement to AFP.

10. Women on the Frontlines: “Political protest is not new to Iranian women. Yet, the extent of their activism in this election is unprecedented in the years since the 1979 revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed shah and created an Islamic regime, some Iranians and Iran experts say. They cite several factors, including a growing population of young women who are hungry for social freedoms, the participation of prominent women during the campaign and promises by opposition candidates for advances in women’s rights.”

1. Wednesday: “Eyewitness reports say there have been clashes near the parliament building in the capital Tehran, in the streets around Baharestan Square.” Reports suggest that the number of protesters was around 300.

2. Thursday: There is general agreement amongst the media that there are going to be protests tomorrow, maybe the largest we’ve seen this week.

3. Khamenei Vows No Retreat: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Wednesday he would not budge in response to protests over a disputed election that has sparked the biggest street demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. “I had insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue … Neither the establishment nor the nation will yield to pressure at any cost,” Khamenei said.

4. Mousavi Arrest/House Arrest Rumors: Rumors abound that Mousavi is either under house arrest or his physical arrest is imminent. One of the reasons why people believe he could be arrested is because of this article in Kayhan, a newspaper closely affiliated with Khamenei: “Its following these murderous acts that the wave of people’s desire for revenge from Mir Hossein Mousavi is increasing day by day, and Mir Hossein will not be able to avoid assuming responsibility under the guise of attending memorial services for the victims, or childish acts like lighting a candle…”  It seems like the official state media is preparing the population for his arrest.

5. Iranian candidate Mohsen Rezaie withdraws voting complaint: “He said, as a ’selfless soldier for the Islamic republic,’ he could not pursue his allegations given the ‘critical’ and ‘pivotal’ political and social conditions of the country. He said controlling the situation was more important than election results.” At the end of the day, these candidates belong to the system, even if they got burned by the handling of the elections. In other words, they have a vested interest in the continuity of the status quo.

6. Monday Night “Allahu akbar” Chants: See the video here. I’m not sure about the date of this video because although it says Monday (June 22), the video is also dated June 23. Nevertheless, the echo of “Allahu akbar” is tantalizing.

7. Chomsky on Iran: Fast forward the first 3 minutes and the rest is Chomsky’s insight.

8. Translation of Iran Slogans and Signs: See the images and translations here.

9. The Daily Show’s “Jihad Walk”

10. Surveying Arab Sentiments on the Iranian Demonstrations: “Most Arab governments dislike the current Iranian regime, so you would think they would be pleased to see it toppled, or tempered by its own people. Yet, if such change were to occur through street demonstrations choreographed via a web of digital communications, whispered messages, and rooftop religious chants in the middle of the night, Arab leaders of autocratic regimes would be unhappy — because they would sense their own vulnerability to similar mass political challenges. The fact is not lost on anyone that the Iranian regime effectively withstood and defied American-Israeli-European-UN pressure, threats and sanctions for years, but found itself much more vulnerable to the spontaneous rebellion of many of its own citizens who felt degraded by the falsification of election results by the government. Arab regimes and leaders have worked themselves into a lose-lose situation whereby they would be unhappy if the Iranian regime stayed in power, and unhappy if it were removed through popular challenge. The same awkwardness defines the perspectives of Arab citizens. Most Arabs do not want to live in an Iranian-style political system that blends theocracy with autocracy; but many were pleased to see the pro-American Shah overthrown by Quran-carrying demonstrators. They would also be unhappy to see the Iranian regime overthrown because they enjoy its defiance of the United States, Israel and the UN in particular, along with its development of a nuclear capability. At the same time, ordinary Arabs would feel jealous were the demonstrators in Iran able to topple their regime for the second time in 30 years — because this would highlight the chronic passivity and powerlessness of Arab citizens who must suffer permanent subjugation in their own long-running autocratic systems without being able to do anything about it. Whether Iranian street demonstrations challenged the Shah or the Islamists who toppled him, Arabs watch all this on television with a forlorn envy.”

1. Guardian Council rules out vote nullification: “Iran’s Guardian Council rules out the possibility of nullifying the country’s June 12 Presidential election, saying there has been no record of any major irregularity.”

2. Today’s Strike: So there were rumors that a public strike was supposed to go into effect today but I haven’t received any news about it and I’ve looked all over. I’m assuming it didn’t go through. All sources, however, agree that a national day of mourning and protests will happen this Thursday.
3. Iran to create special court to try election protesters: “Ebrahim Raisi, a top official in Iran’s judiciary branch, said tribunals will be set up after a preliminary investigation to process hundreds of “rioters” and “thugs” caught in security sweeps during the unrest. ‘The judiciary will set up special courts for those cases which are passed on to the judiciary,’ he said in comments broadcast on state television. ‘Hopefully, they will receive their legal punishments and our dear people will be informed of their punishments.’”
4. Iran bans election protest footballers: A”ccording to the pro-government newspaper Iran, four players – Ali Karimi, 31, Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32, Hosein Ka’abi, 24 and Vahid Hashemian, 32 – have been ‘retired’ from the sport after their gesture in last Wednesday’s match against South Korea in Seoul.”

5. Obama Succumbs to Right-wing Pressure: “Mr Obama said: “The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost.’ He said: ‘The United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not at all interfering in Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society.’ Mr Obama said of the allegations of meddling: ‘This tired strategy of using old tensions to scapegoat other countries won’t work anymore in Iran. This is not about the United States and the West. This is about the people of Iran, and the future that they - and only they - will choose.’

6. Slight majority approves of Obama’s handling of Iran [before he buckled to right-wing pressure]: “According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 52 percent give the president high marks for his response to the crisis in Iran while 36 percent disapprove. The poll is the first survey to come out in the wake of the country’s disputed election just over a week ago.”
7. In Iran, everyone thinks their view represents the view of the majority: “‘Look who supports Ahmadinejad, it’s just sectarian groups, a minority,’ said Parisa, a 26-year-old woman at a rally for Mr. Moussavi last week. At a rally the next day for Mr. Ahmadinejad, Muhammad Ali, a 49-year-old English teacher, said with equal sincerity: ‘Ahmadinejad belongs to all the people, not just one group. But Moussavi and the others, they are just from a narrow sector.’”

8. The UK-Iran Diplomatic Row: “In a fresh diplomatic move, Britain is expelling two Iranian diplomats in response to Tehran’s decision to order two UK diplomats to leave Iran following allegations UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called ‘absolutely without foundation’.”

9. iPouya on Reza Pahlavi… again: So Reza Pahlavi recently spoke about the uprising in Iran over the disputed presidential election at the National Press Club in Washington. If I was there, I would have thrown a shoe at him, especially when he put on a show by crying. I said this before and I’m going to say it again: “He has nothing to do with this movement and I have not seen a single image of him on the streets in Tehran. I’ve seen people hoisting up pictures of Mousavi and Khatami among the opposition and Ahmadinejad, Khomeini, and Khamenei among the regime supporters, but absolutely nothing of Pahlavi. Does he know that he’s doing more harm than good? People who want the protests to continue should not smear the demonstrators by tagging their constroversial and absolutely irrelevant selves to the movement.”
10. Professor As’ad AbuKhalil on the Washington Post’s Suicide Bombing Double-Standard: The Washington Post: “In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while unrest continued across Tehran in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.” As’ad AbuKhalil: “I wonder if Palestinian bombings were ever described as ‘fraught with symbolic significance.’

11. Googoosh’s New Song in Solidarity with Protesters: See the music video for “Man hamoon Iranam” here.
12. Conan O’Brien on Iran’s efforts to legitimize the elections: Watch the entire video here.

1. Monday: The crackdown was in full effect on Monday and the demonstrations continue to dwindle, but this may be far from over. Indeed, reports indicate that Mousavi has called for a national strike on Tuesday. We’ll have to wait and see if it this actually plays out.

2. Important Lessons in History - 1963 and Now: The protests and the subsequent crackdown may have reverberations for years to come. In 1963, Khomeini led an uprising against the Shah and was exiled for 14 years for his agitation. More importantly, the ferocity of the crackdown led to the deaths of anywhere between 15,000-20,000 people. Although the movement was crushed, the repercussions would haunt the Shah’s regime until it was finally deposed in 1979. For starters, the brutality of the suppression convinced many that peaceful protest was ineffective in the face of a ruthless machine so two major guerilla groups emerged in the aftermath, the Mujahideen-e Khalq and the Fadaiyan-e Khalq, both of which launched a guerilla war against the Shah in the 1970s and contributed to the aura of sacrifice and radicalization that greatly impacted the people’s decision to fight for revolution in 1978-1979. Secondly, the barbarity of the crackdown in 1963 pushed many Iranians against the regime as the Shah’s government exposed itself for what it was, a dictatorship that did not represent the will of the Iranian people and was willing to kill them en masse to preserve its own hide. The suppression taking place in Iran now is nothing compared to what happened in 1963, but it’s still early and the regime has the capacity and the will to take harsher measures. In the weeks, months, and years ahead, we shall see if such parallels between now and 1963 are sound.

3. Her Name was Neda Agha Sultan (1983-2009): “She had been sitting with her music teacher in a car, stuck in traffic, when she decided to get out because of the heat. ‘She got out of the car for just for a few minutes [and] that’s when she was shot dead,’ said Kaspin Makan. Mr Makan quoted eyewitnesses as saying she appeared to have been targeted deliberately by ‘paramilitaries in civilian clothing’. He added that officials had prevented mourners holding a memorial service at a mosque on Monday. ‘The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story,’ he told the BBC. ‘They were afraid that lots of people could turn up.’

4. Khamenei’s Appointment as Supreme Leader in 1989: I recently found some rare archival footage on Khamenei’s appointment as Supreme Leader after Khomeini’s death in 1989. It’s interesting to see how Rafsanjani, now one of Khamenei’s most ardent opponents, championed him at this decisive and historic meeting. See the video here.

5. Street Battles - Little Victories Count: See the video here.

6. Losing Faith in the System: “Khamenei also said, ‘Trust in the Islamic Republic became evident in these elections.’ In fact I believe the loss of trust by millions of Iranians who’d been prepared to tolerate a system they disliked, provided they had a small margin of freedom, constitutes the core political earthquake in Iran. Moderates who once worked the angles are now muttering about making Molotov cocktails and screaming their lungs out after dusk.”

7. As’ad AbuKhalil on the Western Media’s Hypocrisy: [Although I think the coverage on Iran is necessary and important, the hypocrisy is obvious in that the protests and reform movements that take place in countries that are America’s allies do not nearly receive the same kind of attention and most certainly should!] “But the hypocrisy is quite stunning. They are admiring the dare of the [Iranian] population when the Palestinian population shows more dare. They are outraged at the level of repressive crackdown by the regime when Israeli crackdowns on demonstrations are far more brutal and savage. They are admiring the participation of women in a national movement, when Palestinian women led the struggle from as far back as the 1930s (see the private papers of Akram Zu`aytir). They are outraged that the Iranian government is repressing media coverage, when the Israeli government is far more strict: when it was perpetrating slaughter in Gaza few months ago, the Western press was not allowed any freedom of movement except the hill of death where Michael Oren led reporters to watch Israeli brutal assualt on the Palestinian civilian population from a distance. The media coverage in the US and UK prove beyond a doubt that increasingly the Western press has been serving as a tool for the various Western government. If the government cheers, the media cheer, if the government condemns, the media condemns, etc. And would the Western media ever be as unrestrained in its glamorization and glorfication of demonstrators and demonstrations in Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Jordan as they are now?”

1. Saturday’s Crackdown: I’ve been saying that it was bound to happen and now it’s happening. The footage of the crackdown coming out of Iran is massively disturbing, especially the one covering the death of a girl named Neda. I have to warn you, the video is traumatic. See it here but only if you have the stomach for it. Here’s another troubling video of attacks occurring at night at people’s residences, presumably punishment for participating in protests earlier. And here’s a video of a man killed. Here’s al-Jazeera’s coverage of Saturday. But be warned, the violence Iran saw yesterday is nothing compared to what the regime is capable of and is willing to do. It’s just a taste of what’s to come, should the protests continue.

2. World Solidarity in Support of The Demonstrators: Here’s a video/photo essay chronicling world solidarity (30 cities) in support of the people in Iran.

3. The Internal Power Struggle: The internal power struggle is brewing. Reports suggest that Rafsanjani has been busy rallying clerics in Qom against both Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. Here’s an al-Jazeera video updating us on that power struggle. Furthermore, 5 of Rafsanjani’s family members have been arrested, including his daughter Faezeh. They have all been released but reports indicate that Faezeh may still be in custody. All of this shows the severity of the internal showdown.

4. Khatami Criticizes Khamenei: “Prohibiting people from expressing their demands in a civilized manner will have dire consequences… Linking the healthy movements of the people with foreign interference is a flawed political practice, which leads to alienating the people from the government…”

5. iPouya Featured in the Harvard Crimson: I usually don’t have anything important to say, and when I do, the interviewers leave out the important stuff in favor of my trivial words, but I stand by this one sentence of mine: “He adds that he believes the massive media coverage of the election in the West, though not always accurate, is ultimately a good thing, considering that a lot of democratic movements in the Middle East are not reported at all.”
6.  Lack of Leadership: In another stark contrast between 30 years ago and now: “The BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says there is an apparent absence of strong leadership of the protests. ‘The protesters have got so many options at the moment of course but we just don’t know how the actual leaders of the protests will react,’ one Tehran resident told the BBC. He said the defeated presidential candidates and leading politicians who had been associated with the protest movement - Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami - were ;’taying in the background’. ‘I think this is possibly a negative sign for the opposition,’ he said.”