When Jacko Went Down, He Took the Internet With Him

In terms of well-known celebrities, few are bigger than Michael Jackson. Love him or hate him, pretty much everyone on the planet knows him. And that caused big problems for a lot of huge websites today with the news of his passing.

It was probably to be expected that Twitter would struggle as reportedly hundreds of thousands of tweets came in about Jackson in a very short amount of time. While I only got a couple actual Fail Whales, the site was really sucking wind for much of the hour that people were trying to get information about him. But Twitter was hardly the only site that was struggling.

Various reports had the AOL-owned TMZ, whichbroke the story, being down at multiple points throughout the ordeal. As a result, Perez Hilton’s hugely popular blog may have failedas people rushed there to try and confirm the news. Then it was the LATimes which had a report saying Jackson was only in a coma rather than dead, so people rushed there, and that site went down. (The LATimes eventually confirmed his passing.)

link: TechCrunch

Ayatollah Montazeri Speaks Out on Behalf of the Opposition

5:55 pm: Message from Ayatollah Montazeri: “Worldly positions are not permanent” According to Mowj news, Ayatollah Montazeri “harshly criticized the inappropriate actions of the authorities.”

Ayatollah Montazeri praised the people of Iran for proving their braveness and maturity once again by participating in political and social scenes and expressed his regret that in reaction to people demanding their rights the authorities “have taken an approach and committed actions that is beyond imagination by any just human being.”

Montazeri said “I have been involved in the struggles against the previous (Shah) regime and the establishment of the Islamic Republic as much as I can. I feel ashamed in front of the people and clearly announce thatbeloved Islam…is different from the behavior of the current rulers. These actions and policies being done under the banner of religion will certainly cause large segments of people to become cynical regarding the principles of Islam and theocracy and will ruin the hard and valuable work of the Islamic ulema.”

Montazeri harshly criticized the militarization of the society saying “In a country and a regime which is proud of being Islamic and Shiite, and only 30 years after the victory of the revolution when people still remember the last scenes of the past regime, how could they turn Tehran and other large cities into a big garrison while the world is watching? They have put our brothers in the armed forces against the people. By using plainclothes agents, who are reminders of baton-carrying agents of Shah, cowardly shed the blood of the youth and men and women of this land.”

Montazeri then posed questions to authorities asking “was this the strategy of Prophet Mohammad and Imam Ali? They never cursed and accused their enemies and didn’t silence them by the sword…Now, a group of people thinking that they can commit any crime because they see themselves as being close to the government; attack student dorms, beat them and throw them down the building, commit chain murders and terrorize intellectuals of this nation and be immune from punishment; this is not compatible with any religion and custom.”

Montazeri advised the people to “pursue their reasonable demands while maintaining their calm.” He also advised the authorities, asking them to stop using harsh and irrational measures which destroys people’s trust and exacerbates the separation between them and regime. “[The authorities] should not create divisions among the people, apologize for their past mistakes, and understand that worldly positions are not permanent.”

--niacINsight

Opium Eating Alien Wallabees and their Sinister Artifacts

From Boing Boing:

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," (Tasmania attorney general) Lara Giddings told the hearing (on poppy crop security).

"Then they crash," she added. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

Dark Down Below: Looking for Secrets of the Universe under South Dakota

Scientific American Blog reports:

Dark matter, written into theory to explain the behavior of massive celestial objects far above us, could be detected by heading down below—nearly a mile into the Earth. That’s the hope, anyway, of an experiment scheduled to begin next year in a South Dakota gold mine that closed in 2002.

Eye in the Sky Witness: Volcano from Space

Astronauts on the International Space Station snapped this photo of Sarychev Volcano's eruption earlier this month. The volcano, on the Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan, hadn’t erupted in 20 years, and this blow launched ash more than 1,495 miles (2,406 kilometers) away. Planes were diverted from the area to avoid engine damage from superheated particulates.

link: Volcano from Space: Scientific American Gallery

Iran: Fraudulent Numbers

There's an interesting article in the Washington Post today exploring one line of reasoning suggesting that the Iranian election is fraudulent. Basically, it comes down to this: the results aren't random enough. In a fair election, you'd expect that each digit, from 0 to 9, would be the final digit the results in each region roughly ten percent of the time: you'd see a vote count like 12,437 just as often as 12,435. But in fact certain digits come up more often:

The numbers look suspicious. We find too many 7s and not enough 5s in the last digit. We expect each digit (0, 1, 2, and so on) to appear at the end of 10 percent of the vote counts. But in Iran's provincial results, the digit 7 appears 17 percent of the time, and only 4 percent of the results end in the number 5. Two such departures from the average -- a spike of 17 percent or more in one digit and a drop to 4 percent or less in another -- are extremely unlikely. Fewer than four in a hundred non-fraudulent elections would produce such numbers.

link: Nice analysis of why the Iranian election is probably fraudulent : Cognitive Daily

Clean Technologies: The Big Eight

As lawmakers gear up to vote this week on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, a new study has identified eight clean energy technologies that could be dramatically scaled up in the coming decade to deliver large carbon reductions as well as some 4.5 million new jobs globally. The study, backed by venture capitalists as well as academics and business leaders, lists the promising technologies as biofuels, nuclear energy, wind, solar concentrators, geothermal, building efficiency, construction materials and photovoltaic solar.

link: Road Map for Reducing Emissions Unveiled - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

New Book On Stonhenge

Clear, intelligent and often highly amusing, this study achieves something new in the voluminous literature on Stonehenge. Rather than adding to the interpretations, Hill explores what the stones have meant to observers over the centuries. Inigo Jones's Stong-Heng Restored (1655) ascribed it to the Romans. In 1675, Aylett Sammes insisted that it was a temple to Hercules, a god borrowed by Druids from visiting Phoenicians. Hill might be interested to know that this distant association continues in the West Country. It has suggested that clotted cream arrived with Phoenician tin traders.

This excellent study is original in a way that even its author may not have expected. The late John Michell pointed out that she was "the first female Stonehenge author" in 500 y

link: Stonehenge, By Rosemary Hill - Reviews, Books - The Independent

Scanning the Mummies: It's Not "Begging the Question" (please, get that right!) But We Do Want To Know

The images produced on the latest mummies at North Shore will have to be studied for months before researchers gain new insight into ancient Egyptian funeral practices. In the meantime, some revelations brought to light by the scans beg more questions yet: Pa-seba-khai-en-ipet seems to have a tube lodged inside him, running from his mouth through his esophagus and into the top of his chest. Bleiberg said he and Makaryus are pretty certain that was not the cause of death, and that it was inserted post-mortem. Purpose? That might be lost to the ages

link: CT scans reveal mummies' long-lost secrets - CNN.com

O Arizona: Al Sharpton Kicks Ass and Takes Names, and the First One, Right There in the A's, is ARPAIO

Sharpton was so reasonable by comparison to Arpaio, whose favorite word for the evening was "garbage," that even nativist Dobbs seemed to lean toward Sharpton. The reverend spoke of the "hundreds of people coming forth" with stories of racial profiling and civil rights abuses. He said he asked the sheriff for arrest data that could prove or disprove allegations of racial profiling. But the MCSO doesn't keep such data, Arpaio told him. (Interestingly, Arizona's Department of Public Safety has kept such information on the stops it makes, thanks to a successful ACLU lawsuit.)

link: Phoenix News - Al Sharpton Whups Sheriff Joe, and Courtney Bisbee’s Innocence Claim Is Shot Down by a Judge - page 4

Hamas Says US Must Do More for Peace In Mideast; Obama Says "Yeah, You're One Too"

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal on Thursday called on the United States to take a more active role in the Mideast peace process "so that America and the rest of the world can take a break from the headache of the region."

"We appreciate the new language Obama used toward Hamas, and it is the first step in the right direction toward launching direct dialogue without any preconditions," Meshaal said in his address from Damascus, Syria. "We welcome this."

link: Hamas leader: Obama must do more for peace - CNN.com

Manifested Glory Ministries Church Does Not Hate Gay People. Uhh, Demons. Uhh, Gay People. Uhh, Demons.

A U.S. pastor defended a video posted on YouTube of an exorcism of a gay man, saying the Manifested Glory Ministries church does not hate gay people, it just does not believe in their lifestyle.

The video, which has sparked outrage among gay rights advocates, shows a young man writhing around on the floor at the Stamford, Connecticut church.

link: U.S. pastor defends video of exorcism of gay man | Lifestyle | Reuters

Killer Cows

With its limpid eyes and slow gait, the cow is generally a placid creature. But once this gentle giant - typically weighing about 1,000lb (450kg) - has a calf to protect, it's best to steer clear.

Liz Crowsley, a vet, has been trampled to death by a herd of cattle while walking the Pennine Way with her two dogs. And a fortnight ago, a cow left David Blunkett with a black eye and a cracked rib. Also on a walking holiday, the former home secretary was accompanied by his guide dog Sadie.

link: BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Why do cows attack?

India: Private Schools for the Poor

University of Newcastle professor James Tooley journeyed to Hyderabad, India in early 2000 at the behest of the World Bank, to study private schools there. Or, more specifically, to study familiar private schools—that is, those that served the children of middle-class and wealthy families. But while on a sightseeing excursion to the city’s teeming slums, Tooley observed something peculiar: private schools were just as prevalent in these struggling areas as in the nicer neighborhoods. Everywhere he spotted hand-painted signs advertising locally run educational enterprises. “Why,” he wondered, “had no one I’d worked with in India told me about them?”

link: The Private Schools No One Sees by Liam Julian, City Journal 19 June 2009

Enceladus May Harbor Life

Scientists have found new evidence that could point to there being life on a moon of Saturn. Researchers have uncovered signs that there is an ocean under the icy surface of Enceladus which may harbour life.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Saturn moon could harbour life

Mousavi Defiant

The defeated Iranian presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has said he will keep challenging the election result.

But the number of people on the streets has been considerably smaller than in past demonstrations, and a planned day of mourning was cancelled.

Restrictions have been placed on the BBC and other foreign news organisations in Iran. Reporters are not allowed to cover unauthorised gatherings or move around freely but there are no controls over what they can say.

link: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Mousavi urges crackdown defiance

Monkeys Recognize Faces (Hence the Incident in Zimbabwe, Where a Monkey Peed on the President?)

A visual illusion has provided clues about how monkeys recognise faces. In a study, rhesus monkeys responded to the "Thatcher effect", a strange phenomenon that makes it difficult to detect changes in an upside down face. The study, in the journal Current Biology, is the first to show this effect in non-human animals. The authors say this suggests that the ability to identify a familiar face may have evolved in an ancestor common to humans and rhesus monkeys.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Monkeys fall for visual illusion

War of the Squirrels: Prince Charles Takes On Rodentdom

Greys carry virus and are more aggressive The red squirrel is indigenous to Britain and as recently as the 1940s was spread throughout the country. Its numbers reached a peak of 3.5m in the late 19th century. However, the introduction of grey squirrels from America in the 1870s had a debilitating effect on the reds. Grey squirrels, whose numbers have grown to an estimated 3.3m, have cut the population of reds in several ways. More than half the greys carry the squirrelpox virus, which is deadly to reds but to which the greys are immune. They are also bigger and compete aggressively for food, and have driven the red squirrel out of its natural habitats, particularly in southern England. About 75% of Britain’s remaining red squirrels are in Scotland.

link: Briefing: Squirrel populations - Times Online

RIP Charlie Mariano, Jazz Saxophonist

The alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano had two distinctly different musical personalities. On the one hand he was an incisive bebop soloist who extended the ideas of Charlie Parker with skill and panache, contributing to many recordings with Stan Kenton, Shelly Manne and the bands of his former wife Toshiko Akiyoshi. On the other he was a restless musical explorer whose style was uncategorisable, investigating Eastern music and learning to play the “nagasvaram”, fusing Indian music with jazz, playing free improvisations with the cream of the European avant-garde, and pioneering rock fusion, most famously in his own group Osmosis and in the multinational United Jazz and Rock Ensemble.

link: Charlie Mariano: jazz saxophonist | Times Online Obituary

The President and the Monkey: A Morality Tale

A monkey urinated on Zambian President Rupiah Banda as he spoke to assembled journalists at a press conference this week.

Banda shouted: “You have urinated on my jacket,” and paused as he looked up to see the animal playing in a tree just above his chair. "I will give this monkey for lunch to Mr Sata," he joked, referring to opposition leader Michael Sata, who Banda defeated in last year's elections.

link: Video: Monkey relieves itself on Zambian president - Times Online

Book Review: The Hamburger

What do Alger Hiss and the hamburger have in common? According to the editors of a new series of books, they are both "Icons of America" -- yet both have had their patriotism questioned. In "The Hamburger," historian Josh Ozersky dispenses quickly with the claim that the hamburger -- never mind its name -- has its roots in Hamburg, Germany: "It doesn't matter if Mongols used to ride around with minced horsemeat under their saddles, on their way to some hamburger-fueled havoc in the thirteenth century," he pronounces. "The hamburger is an American invention."

link: Book Review: 'The Hamburger: A History' by Josh Ozersky and Other Paperbacks - washingtonpost.com

O Arizona: What Were You People Thinking? Don't Tell Us: We Don't Really Want To Know

The Supreme Court ruled today that Arizona school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old girl when they subjected her to a strip search on the suspicion she might be hiding ibuprofen in her underwear. The court ruled 8-1 that such an intrusive search without the threat of a clear danger to other students violated the Constitution's protections against unreasonable search or seizure. Justice David H. Souter, writing perhaps his final opinion for the court, said that in the search of Savana Redding, now a 19-year-old college student, school officials overreacted to vague accusations that Redding was violating school policy by possessing the ibuprofen, equivalent to two Advils. What was missing, Souter wrote, "was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear," Souter wrote.

link: Supreme Court Rules School's Strip Search of Girl Was Illegal - washingtonpost.com

Horror in the Congo

At least half a million people have fled a rebel campaign of village burnings and retaliatory killings, including a massacre of more than 100 people in which several civilians were decapitated. At the same time, people are also fleeing the advance of their own predatory army -- a toxic mishmash of mostly unpaid, underfed, ill-trained former militiamen churned into the military after various peace deals.

According to an army spokesman, the deputy to the commander in charge of the operation is an ex-militia leader and wanted war crimes suspect known as the Terminator. Villagers say soldiers are killing people accused of collaborating with the rebels. And in scenes that conjure the brutalities of Belgian colonial rule, commanders are forcing locals to carry supplies across the forest, killing those who collapse from exhaustion.

link: Fresh Nightmares in Congo's Drive Against Rwandans - washingtonpost.com

Sotomayor on the Death Penalty

The case record shows [Sotomayor] was curious enough about the defense arguments that she ordered prosecutors to produce data on the race of defendants considered for the death penalty. But it also shows she was tough on defense lawyers, repeatedly challenging their claims that minority defendants were disproportionately singled out.

She even rejected the same kind of statistical argument against capital punishment that she had made years earlier as a lawyer, saying it was not sufficient to prove discrimination.

“We gave her enough ammunition that she could have struck down the death penalty,” recalled David A. Ruhnke, a defense lawyer in the case. “Whether it would have stood up in the U.S. Supreme Court, who knows? But we gave her enough room to do it — had she wanted to reach out and do it — and she didn’t.”

In the end, Judge Sotomayor never ruled on the merits of the death penalty, even though her remarks made clear that she was unlikely to find it unconstitutional. Some two years into the case, she was elevated to the federal appellate bench in New York, and the case was handed to another judge, who declined to strike down the law. Both defendants pleaded guilty and avoided execution.

link: In ’98 Case, Clues to Sotomayor’s Views on Death Penalty - NYTimes.com

Get Your Knock-Knock Jokes! Only $.02 Apiece!

Knock knock jokes by Bob Dunn, featuring Enoch Knox (get it?). These knock knock jokes are worth what you paid for them. In this case, with 49 jokes in the book, about 2/10 of a cent each. Set your expectations accordingly.

link: Ten Cents Knock Knock

Sears Tower Going Off The Grid (Mostly)

The Sears Tower, that bronze-black monument that forms the 110-story peak of the skyline here and stands as the tallest office building in the Western Hemisphere, will soon have another unique feature: wind turbines sprouting from its recessed rooftops high in the sky.

The building’s owners, leasing agents and architects said Wednesday that they are literally taking environmental sustainability to new heights with a $350 million retrofit of the 1970s-era modernist building — and the turbines are only the tip of the transformation. The plan, to begin immediately, aims to reduce electricity use in the tower by 80 percent over five years through upgrades in the glass exterior, internal lighting, heating, cooling and elevator systems — and its own green power generation.

In such a huge tower, with 4.5 million square feet of office and retail space, 16,000 windows and 104 elevators, the project is bound to be one of the most substantial green renovations ever tried on one site, planners said. The Sears Tower is significantly larger than the 102-story, 2.6-million-square-foot Empire State Building, for instance, which is also undergoing renovation to reduce energy consumption.

“If we can take care of one building that size, it has a huge impact on society,” said Adrian Smith, an architect whose firm designed the Sears Tower renovation. “It is a village in and of itself.”

link: Sears Tower Is Going Green - NYTimes.com

Voltaire, I Fart in Your General Direction: The Memoirs of Duc de Sainte-Simon

Like Voltaire, Saint-Simon saw the end of France's immemorial glory approaching, though he viewed that end from a sharply different angle. In his memoirs, the Duc treats Voltaire like a scurrilous upstart and dismantles any claim he might have to literary eminence. Voltaire, whose real name was Arouet, was the son of a notary who had served as the Duc's lawyer, and was therefore a lowborn fellow. He was exiled, wrote the Duc,

for writing monstrously satirical, monstrously impudent verses. I should not waste time over such trifles, had not this Arouet, now a famous poet and academician under the pseudonym Voltaire, also become, after many disastrous adventures, something of a personage in the world of letters, even winning a kind of reputation among certain sorts of people.

In Saint-Simon's estimation, the most celebrated writer of his time is transformed into a jumped-up homunculus, a guttersnipe whom no person of true distinction would regard with anything but contempt.

link: The Claremont Institute - Highborn Fools

Ice-cold in Coyoacan: A New Biography of Leon Trotsky

The story of Trotsky's last years in Mexico, where he arrived in January 1937, is the subject of this haunting and dramatic reconstruction of life and death in exile. The detail is fascinating, almost voyeuristic, culled from the personal records of a group of enthusiastic Trotskyists and from Trotsky's own voluminous archive, which he sold to Harvard University in 1940 for $6,000 partly because he was strapped for cash and partly because he could not be sure that Stalin would not send a fireraiser to destroy his records, just as Stalin had Trotsky expunged from the photographs of the revolutionary years. News that his archive had arrived safely came, ironically enough, on the very day that his assassin expunged Trotsky himself.

link: Literary Review - Richard Overy on Stalin's Nemesis by Bertrand M Patenaude

Doctor Who Saw Neda Die Exiled For Telling His Story

The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments.

Dr Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in the south of England, said he ran to Neda Agha-Soltan's aid after seeing she had been shot in the chest.

Despite his attempts to stop the bleeding she died in less than a minute, he said.

Video of Ms Soltan's death was posted on the internet and images of her have become a rallying point for Iranian opposition supporters around the world.

Dr Hejazi also told how passers-by then seized an armed Basij militia volunteer who appeared to admit shooting Ms Soltan.

Dr Hejazi said he had not slept for three nights following the incident, but he wanted to speak out so that her death was not in vain.

He doubted that he would be able to return to Iran after talking openly about Ms Soltan's killing.

link: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran doctor tells of Neda's death

RIP Hanne Hiob, Daughter of Brecht

Hanne Hiob, a German actress who was a daughter of the playwright Bertolt Brecht, died on Tuesday in Munich. She was 86.

Her death was announced by the Berlin office that represents Brecht’s descendants. No cause was given.

Ms. Hiob was the daughter of Brecht and his first wife, the opera singer Marianne Zoff. She was born in Munich on March 12, 1923. She grew up with her mother and trained as a dancer and actress, later performing at theaters in West and East Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

link: Hanne Hiob Actress and Brecht’s Daughter, Dies at 86 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

The Falcon Hears the Falconer

Le Fauconnier

Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the laws to other poems never completely take. --A. R. Ammons

Thought

milktooth

Every thought derives from a thwarted sensation. --E.M. Cioran

The Theater of Memory

Zoriah

“Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.”

--Walter Benjamin

Iran: Torturing Logic

Andrew Sullivan reports:

Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett and Seyed Mohammad Marandi defend the Iranian election results once again. This paragraph stands out:

[T]he Iranian government responded to the post-June 12 protests in a manner consistent with its own constitutional procedures — and with far less bloodshed than when the Chinese government suppressed the Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.

Clive Crook, who defends the Leveretts – wrongly in my opinion – on other accounts, writes:

Good Lord. Does that make the shooting of unarmed protesters all right? No doubt one could say that the Soviet Union's response to dissent was lawful in the same way.

link: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Ofer Wolberger Photos

bagger: Ofer Wolberger

Picasso Draws with Light

Wooster Collective: Shit We're Diggin': Picasso's Light Graffiti from 1949

Holocaust: Expanding Memory

Timothy Snyder writes:

The largest group of Holocaust victims—religiously Orthodox and Yiddish-speaking Jews of Poland, or, in the slightly contemptuous German term, Ostjuden —were culturally alien from West Europeans, including West European Jews. To some degree, they continue to be marginalized from the memory of the Holocaust. The death facility Auschwitz-Birkenau was constructed on territories that are today in Poland, although at the time they were part of the German Reich. Auschwitz is thus associated with today's Poland by anyone who visits, yet relatively few Polish Jews and almost no Soviet Jews died there. The two largest groups of victims are nearly missing from the memorial symbol.

An adequate vision of the Holocaust would place Operation Reinhardt, the murder of the Polish Jews in 1942, at the center of its history. Polish Jews were the largest Jewish community in the world, Warsaw the most important Jewish city. This community was exterminated at Treblinka, Be zec, and Sobibor. Some 1.5 million Jews were killed at those three facilities, about 780,863 at Treblinka alone. Only a few dozen people survived these three death facilities. Be zec, though the third most important killing site of the Holocaust, after Auschwitz and Treblinka, is hardly known. Some 434,508 Jews perished at that death factory, and only two or three survived. About a million more Polish Jews were killed in other ways, some at Chelmno, Majdanek, or Auschwitz, many more shot in actions in the eastern half of the country.

link: Holocaust: The Ignored Reality - The New York Review of Books

Michele Bachmann: Turning Japanese

Talking Points Memo reports:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is taking her refusal to fully fill out her Census form, which is a crime punishable by a $5,000 fine, to a whole new level: Invoking the memory of the Japanese internment during World War II, and the evil role that the Census played in it!

During an interview this morning on Fox News, Bachmann mostly focused on the danger of her personal information falling into the hands of the dreaded menace ACORN. But at one point, she made a very interesting appeal to history:

"Take this into consideration. If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps," said Bachmann. "I'm not saying that that's what the Administration is planning to do, but I am saying that private personal information that was given to the Census Bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up, in a violation of their constitutional rights, and put the Japanese in internment camps."

At this point even Megyn Kelly, who had been gladly dishing out the anti-ACORN talk along with Bachmann, had to take a step back and raise the point that the Japanese internment was a long time ago and we haven't had such abuses since then.

For some context on how this fits into Bachmann's overall worldview, keep in mind that she's previously warned of the threat of "re-education camps" where young people would be indoctrinated into the government's official philosophy.

link: Bachmann Warns Of Link Between Census, Japanese Internment | TPMDC

Iran: Regime Iron Fist Tactics

Tehran Bureau reports:

From an academic listserv; received today 25 June (but dated June 23). The situation however is ongoing:

Reliable sources report that Mr. Ramezanzadeh and Mr. Tajzadeh, both prominent reform politicians, along with a handful of their colleagues, are under mounting pressure in section 209 of Evin prison to give televised confessions of high treason. The goal is to establish charges of conspiracy for a velvet revolution that would encompass the reform candidates in the election as well.

Mrs. Mohtashamipour, the wife of Mr. Ramezanzadeh, has appealed to the public, on behalf of her husband who is under torture in Evin, not to believe any televised “confessions” from any of the leaders of reform. Of the people in section 209, we are particularly concerned for the health and well being of Mr. Said Hajjarian, who suffers from pre-existing infirmities related to injuries he received during a botched assassination; and Mr. Ramezanzadeh, who has apparently been severely roughed up and, according to his family, is in poor health.

link: Iran updates – Tehran Bureau

Possible Iran Compromise?

25 June: Possible compromise? [I also heard the same thing independently from a good source today. It is of course unconfirmed; even if true, the authorities may change their mind as well. tb]:

The following is from Mehdi Noorbaksh, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology:

There is a possibility, and I am saying a possibility, for a compromise on the election result among the involved parties in Iran in the next couple of days. I received a call from Iran late last night indicating that there is a possibility for a runoff between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad.

link: Iran updates – Tehran Bureau

Iran Update

Iran updates – Tehran Bureau

Iran: Mousavi Issues Statement

11:02 am: Mousavi’s 8th statement: “I will not leave the scene in response to the deception, the essence of which has become clear to the people”

Kalemeh posted the text [Persian] of Mousavi’s latest statement addressing the people of Iran, where he criticized the state media and internet sites related to the government and Kayhan newspaper for distorting the truth. “They have used the resources that belong to you to not only cover up the violations and recent hurtful events but also to blame the person who has accompanied you in demanding your rights.”

Mousavi says the government is trying to ignore the violations that occurred during the elections and the violence and murders that ensued afterward. “If those responsible for the 18 Tir 1378 [July 9, 1999] were legally dealt with, we would not have witnessed a repetition of those atrocities in broader dimensions and bolder distortion of the facts.”

Mousavi announced his readiness to respond to all the “accusations” and said that he is not willing to give up in the face of threats or for personal interests. In the end, Mousavi asked the people to continue the protests while remaining peaceful and avoiding the “trap of ill-wishers” who try to attribute the movement to foreign elements. “It is up to us to offset this evil conspiracy with our behavior and speech.”

link: niacINsight

Iran: Karroubi Issues Statement

10:44 am: Karroubi’s latest statement [Persian]: Mehdi Karroubi’s official newspaper etemademelli carries a new statement from him today. Mr. Karroubi used very strong language to say that he does not agree with the results of the elections. “There is strong syndicated electoral mafia in Iran that has interfered and changed the results of the elections. We must locate the cancerous leadership of this syndicate and destroy it.

"He further elaborated by stating that “we anticipated cheating to take place at the election; however, the underlining assumption was that with a huge turnout of voters the cheating would become insignificant”.

“The results of the election have left a bad taste in our mouths and the mouths of the voters. As a result we have witnessed demonstrations.”

With regards to the arrested individuals, Mr. Karroubi stated that “the arrested individuals must be released as soon as possible.”

The chief editor of his newspaper, Mr. Mohammad Ghochany, has himself been arrested, and Mr. Karroubi expressed his disappointment by stating, “I am the owner of this newspaper, and I will take responsibility for anything that is said or published in etemademelli.”

Lastly, Karroubi make a reference to Ayatollah Khomeini by quoting one of his famous quotes: “The measure of a nation is its vote.” He concludes that the Iranian people must fight for their rights and not accept injustice.

link: niacINsight

Iran: Strikes

It is reported that all retailers in the bazaar of Saghez (Kurdistan province of Iran) have gone on strike starting Tuesday in support of citizens demonstrating against handling of recent Iran election results.

link: niacINsight

Iran: Middle East Regional Realpolitik

The rancorous dispute over Iran’s presidential election could turn into a win-win for Arab leaders aligned with Washington who in the past have complained bitterly that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was destabilizing the region and meddling in Arab affairs, political analysts and former officials around the region said.

The good-news thinking goes like this: With Mr. Ahmadinejad remaining in office, there is less chance of substantially improved relations between Tehran and Washington, something America’s Arab allies feared would undermine their interests. At the same time, the electoral conflict may have weakened Iran’s leadership at home and abroad, forcing it to focus more on domestic stability, political analysts and former officials said.

“When Iran is strong and defiant they don’t like her and when Iran is closer to the West they don’t like her,” said Adnan Abu Odeh, a former adviser to King Hussein of Jordan.

link: niacINsight

Iran: Divide Within the Governing Elite?

Update | 9:18 a.m. As The Times reported earlier this morning, it seems that some members of Iran’s Parliament might prefer not to be seen with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad these days: “at least three Iranian newspapers reported that only 105 of 290 members of the Iranian Parliament invited to a victory party for him Wednesday night actually attended the event, suggesting a deep divide within the political elite over the election and its aftermath.”

link: Latest Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com

Iran: Bloggers Threatened

Update | 9:36 a.m. Several of the bloggers we have been following on Twitter, who have apparently been writing from inside Iran, have been accused of being Israeli spies by a blogger who seems to be a supporter or member of the Iranian government.

In a dramatic dialogue taking place through Twitter, this pro-government blogger, writing in Farsi on Twitter, warned three prominent opposition bloggers on Thursday that they will soon be arrested. The pro-government blogger wrote that the opposition bloggers had been identified by the authorities after photographs of protesters were posted on an Iranian Web site, Gerdab — which is the Farsi word for “whirlpool.”

The pro-government blogger also wrote in English, in reply to another Twitter user, that these opposition bloggers who have been filing regular updates on the protests on the micro-blogging site: “are spy of moosad, the election is true and clean.”

In reply, one of the opposition supporters still posting updates on Twitter warned other users of the site, in Farsi, to beware of this pro-government blogger.

link: Latest Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com

Mousavi Under House Arrest; Iran Internet Jammed

Update | 10:43 a.m. According to report on the Farsi-language Web site Gooya.com, which is run from outside Iran, sources in Tehran say Mir Hussein Moussavi is in fact under house arrest.

Update | 9:52 a.m. Omid Habibinia, an Iranian blogger in Switzerland who has been tracking developments in Tehran, writes: Internet Speed is near Zero in Tehran right now, cant get news.

link: Latest Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com

Ahmadinejad to Obama: Butt Out

Thursday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the declared winner in the disputed June 12 election, told President Obama to stop "interfering" in Iran's affairs, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"The question is, do you want to use this kind of literature to address Iran and create a dialogue?" Ahmadinejad said. "If this is your position, then there is nothing to talk about."

link: Iran opposition delays rally after crackdown - CNN.com

Iran Memorial Postponed

(CNN) -- An event to remember the victims of Iran's post-election protests has been postponed Thursday, a day after security forces crushed a planned demonstration.

The postponement was announced on the Web site of presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi's party Wednesday evening.

"Thursday's ceremony was meant to commemorate the 'the martyrs of the republic and freedom,' " the statement on the party site said.

The event was postponed for a week, but the site did not offer an alternate date.

link: Iran opposition delays rally after crackdown - CNN.com

Iran: Professors Arrested?

Posting on Moussavi's site: He met w/ university professors Wed. Afterward, cops arrested 70 who attended #iranelection 21 minutes ago from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

link: Inside Iran Only SM Feed - FriendFeed