Iran Lockdown

Laura Secor writes:

Silence seems to have rolled over Iran’s burning landscape, not because the situation has calmed, but because we know it less and less. Reporters have been banned, communications slowed, and civic organizations that might aggregate information in ordinary times have ceased to function. One exile who usually has an inside line to events unfolding in his country complained to me yesterday that he knows nothing, because all of his friends have been arrested. A normally outspoken analyst inside Iran told me that, as much as he would love to talk, he was in hiding, having been threatened by the office of Tehran’s chief prosecutor. But over here, the conversation must go on, and it has adopted a new, increasingly speculative, trope. The struggle in Iran, we are hearing, really comes down to a fight among the élites inside the power structure.

link: Laura Secor: Burning Silence in Iran: News Desk: Online Only: The New Yorker

Iran: "What Powers This New Militancy"?

What powers this new militancy? The Islamic Republic is not a dictatorship in the normal sense of the word. Its practitioners believe they are doing God's work on earth. Guiding the wayward by persuasion and coercion is among their chief tasks. Nearly every young person in Iran, particularly young women, can recount dozens of stories of humiliation and discrimination at the hands of government agents and supporters. For them, each rock thrown at the police, each hand-to-hand combat with the militiamen and vigilantes, each confrontation with the heavily armed Revolutionary Guards is not just an act of political defiance but a cathartic experience of personal liberation.

Unlike their wide-eyed parents with their utopias and romanticization of revolutionary violence, the new young revolutionaries are sophisticated and canny. They have few illusions about the magnitude of the problems facing their country or the complexities of living in a highly traditional and religious society. For example, despite the fact that they are overwhelmingly secular, their slogans mingle political and religious themes to avoid alienating the faithful. Their response to Obama's initially measured rhetoric is another sign of a new political sophistication at work: everyone understands that US meddling would be the proverbial kiss of death to the opposition's cause.

link: Iran's New Revolutionaries

George Will "Admits Public Health Care Option Will Cut Costs"

[George] Will's argument is apparently this: The government does not need to make a profit and will have greater leverage with providers; therefore it will deliver the same service for less money. That's unfair!

Is this really the best argument that one of the most prominent intellectual conservatives can mount against the public option?

I'm a big believer in the profit motive in 99 percent of all cases. If the government decided to open a non-profit hamburger stand, I doubt that it would compete successfully against Five Guys. If it tried to open a non-profit airline, I doubt that it could offer the same value as JetBlue. Insert joke about General Motors and/or the Post Office here. The point is, I think the profit motive is generally well worth it in terms of the incentives it creates to cut costs, develop new products, improve customer service, and so forth.

But health insurance is not like those things.

link: FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: George F. Will Admits Public Option Will Cut Costs

Mousavi's Web Site: "The Measure of a Nation Is Its Vote"

:17 pm: Mousavi’s facebook page now contains four posters of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, highlighting one of his more famous quotes:

“The measure of a nation is its vote.”

link: niacINsight

Grim Twitter Bulletins from Iran

we must go - dont know when we can get internet - they take 1 of us, they will torture and get names - now we must move fast - #Iranelection about 11 hours ago from web

Everybody is under arrest & cant move - Mousavi - Karroubi even rumour Khatami is in house guard - #Iranelection - about 11 hours ago from web

they pull away the dead into trucks - like factory - no human can do this - we beg Allah for save us - #Iranelection about 11 hours ago from web

Lalezar Sq is same as Baharestan - unbelevable - ppls murdered everywhere - #Iranelection about 12 hours ago from web

they catch ppl with mobile - so many killed today - so many injured - Allah Akbar - they take one of us - #Iranelection about 12 hours ago from web

in Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher - Allah Akbar - #Iranelection RT RT RT about 12 hours ago from web

reports of street fighting in Vanak Sq, Tajrish sq, Azadi Sq - now - #Iranelection - Sea of Green - Allah Akbar about 12 hours ago from web

rumour they are tracking high use of phone lines to find internet users - must move from here now - #Iranelection about 12 hours ago from web

phone line was cut and we lost internet - #Iranelection - getting more difficult to log into net - #Iranelection about 12 hours ago from web

link: persiankiwi (persiankiwi) on Twitter

Women at "The Root of the Current Unrest" in Iran

"Iranian women are very powerful and they want their freedom," said one woman in Tehran who said she's been taking part in the protests. Like all women in Iran interviewed for this story, she did not want to be named, fearing government retribution. "They're really, really repressed, and they need to talk about it."

The election seemed to open the floodgates for airing that sense of frustration.

Claims by Ahmadinejad's chief rival for the presidency, Mir Hossein Mousavi, that the election was riddled with fraud were the catalyst for days of protest following the vote. The government's harsh response — evidenced in hundreds of arrests, the deaths of over a dozen demonstrators, clampdowns on the media, the refusal of the country's theocratic leaders to entertain the possibility of a re-count — fueled popular discontent across wide swaths of the population.

But there is an extra layer of resentment and anger among many of Iran's 35 million women. Many fear that a second term for a man who was first elected in 2005 in part on a platform of restoring "Islamic values" will only prove to be worse than the first.

"The root of the current unrest is the people's dissatisfaction and frustration at their plight going back before the election," said Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi. "Because women are the most dissatisfied people in society, that is why their presence is more prominent."

link: The Associated Press: Women in Iran's protests: head scarves and rocks

Ahmadinejad's People Run Everything In Iran: Anyone Surprised? Raise Your Hands

Mr. Ahmadinejad has filled crucial ministries and other top posts with close friends and allies who have spread ideological and operational support for him nationwide. These analysts estimate that he has replaced 10,000 government employees to cement his loyalists through the bureaucracies, so that his allies run the organizations responsible for both the contested election returns and the official organs that have endorsed them.

“There is a whole political establishment that emerged with Ahmadinejad, which is now determined to hold on to power undemocratically,” said one American-based Iran analyst, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of his work in Iran. “Their ability to resist the outcome of the election means they have a broad base as a political establishment.”

link: News Analysis - Ahmadinejad Reaps Benefits of Stacking Key Iran Agencies With His Allies - NYTimes.com

Khamenei Urges Tolerance, in his Own Charmingly Inflexible Way

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged parliamentarians Wednesday to tolerate the voices of the opposition, government-run Press TV reported.

Khamenei made the remarks to a group of lawmakers in Tehran, Press TV said.

The report came hours after witnesses said police had broken up a planned demonstration outside the parliament building in opposition to the outcome of the June 12 presidential elections.

But Khamenei added that the Islamic establishment and people "will never give in to coercive demands with regards to Iran's presidential elections," Press TV said. "Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized the significance of law and order and said violating the law would lead to dictatorship.

link: Khamenei urges tolerance, Iranian media report - CNN.com

SC Gov.'s Picture Removed from Family Values Website: He Got Disappeared for Disappearing

Previously, the website for the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit 2009 featured a picture of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, advertising that he was a potential speaker. But Pam Spaulding points out that following Sanford’s announcement of an affair, his picture was quickly removed from the website.

link: Think Progress » Home Page

Right Wing Radio Host Arrested for Violent Threats

Today, FBI agents went to the New Jersey home of white supremacist blogger/radio host Hal Turner and arrested him “on a federal complaint filed in Chicago alleging that he made internet postings threatening to assault and murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago in retaliation for their recent ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago and a suburb,” according to a statement released by the Justice Department. A summary of Turner’s dangerous tirade against the judges:

Internet postings on June 2 and 3 proclaimed “outrage” over the June 2, 2009, handgun decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer, of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, further stating, among other things: “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.” The postings included photographs, phone numbers, work address and room numbers of these judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location.

Turner’s posts also “referred to the murder of the mother and husband of Chicago-based federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow in February 2005,” saying, “Apparently, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court didn’t get the hint after those killings. It appears another lesson is needed.” In the Justice Department statement, U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald — who announced the charges — said, “We take threats to federal judges very seriously. Period.”

link: Think Progress » Home Page

SC Gov. Finds "Dear Dear Friend" in Argentina at the End of the Rainbow--I Mean the Appalachain Trail

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's press conference Wednesday afternoon was just one more piece in an already strange tale. In a rambling statement during which he teared up at times, Sanford apologized to everyone possible: his wife and children, his staff, the people of South Carolina, the press.

Then he got around to the point: "The bottom line is this: I've been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina."

As part of that admission, Sanford also announced that he will resign as chairman of the Republican Governor's Association in order to have time to reconcile with his family and with South Carolinians.

link: War Room - Salon.com

Ancient Flutes Made of Vulture Bones

The most significant of the new artifacts, the archaeologists said, was a flute made from a hollow bone of a griffon vulture, skeletons of which are often found in these caves. The preserved portion is about 8.5 inches long and includes the end of the instrument into which the musician blew. The maker had carved two deep, V-shaped notches there, and four fine lines near the finger holes. The other end appears to be broken off; judging by the typical length of these bird bones, two or three inches are missing.

Dr. Conard’s discovery in 2004 of the seven-inch, three-holed ivory flute at the Geissenklösterle cave, also near Ulm, inspired him to widen his search of caves, saying at the time that southern Germany “may have been one of the places where human culture originated.”

link: Stone Age Flutes Are Window Into Early Music - NYTimes.com

Arjman Arrested? -- Iran

Ardeshir Amir Arjman, who is in charge of Mousavi campain's legal matters is arrested. #iranelection 1 minute ago from web

They send emails using addresses of detained journalists & political/HR activists 2 their colleagues. B careful #iranelection 7 minutes ago from web ارد

ی ر امیرارجمند مسول حقوقی ستاد میرحسین موسوی بازداشت شد 12 minutes ago from web

Allah Akbar call in Tehran and other cities begins. Tonight is just like the previous. #iranelection 23 minutes ago from web

link: (iranbaan) on Twitter

Iran Regime Says Neda Killing A Mistake: Meant To Kill A DIFFERENT Young Woman. Oopsie.

Iran said the gunman who killed Neda Agha-Soltan may have mistaken her for the sister of an Iranian "terrorist," the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday.

In death, Neda Agha-Soltan has emerged as a powerful symbol of opposition to the Iranian government.

Iran blamed the death of the woman known to the world simply as Neda squarely on "those groups who want to create division in the nation," saying they planned the woman's killing "to accuse the Islamic republic of ruthlessly dealing with the opposition," according to IRNA, Iran's state-run news agency.

The report said the investigation into her death is ongoing, "but according to the evidence so far, it could be said that she was killed by mistake. The marksmen had mistaken her for the sister of one of the Monafeghin who had been executed in the province of Mazandaran some time ago."

Monafeghin refers to the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, or PMOI, which promotes a secular, Marxist government for Iran, and has waged a violent campaign against the fundamentalist Islamic regime, including bombings that killed politicians, judges and Cabinet members.

link: Iran says Neda's death may be tied to 'terrorist' group - CNN.com

SC Gov: Something Bubbling to the Surface?

NOT ALONE? We're getting some word from down in South Carolina that Gov. Sanford may not have been alone down there in Buenos Aires. Something may be ready to bubble to the surface. --Josh Marshal

link: Talking Points Memo | Breaking News and Analysis

Rafsanjani Angling to Remove Khamenei?

Behind the scenes Khamenei's arch rival, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is believed to be working to remove the Supreme Leader and is even reported to be considering abolishing the post of Supreme Leader altogether in what would be the biggest constitutional change since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Rafsanjani is the head of Iran's Expediency Council and crucially the Assembly of Experts which is responsible for overseeing and if necessary removing the Supreme leader. He is also a prominent backer of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate who has become the focal point for protestors.

link: Rafsanjani has enough support to remove Khamenei: reports - International Business Times

Baharestan Square: Tear Gas, Batons, and Cables

About 10 special forces vans are manoeuvring in Sharak-e-Gharb. #iranelection 41 minutes ago from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Everybody is under arrest & cant move - Mousavi - Karroubi even rumour Khatami is in house guard - #Iranelection - 24 minutes ago from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Today in Baharestan not only tear gas was used, they also severely attacked people with batons & cables. #iranelection

link: Inside Iran Only SM Feed - FriendFeed

Baharestan Square, Tehran

4.08pm: CNN just interviewed someone who was at Baharestan Square. She tells of a massacre and a massive assault by policemen. The witness was hysterical and speaking very fast.

"I was going towards Baharestan with my friend. This was everyone, not just supporters of one candidate or another. All of my friends, they were going to Baharestan to express our opposition to these killings and demanding freedom. The black-clad police stopped everyone. They emptied the buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on. We went on until Ferdowsi then all of a sudden some 500 people with clubs came out of [undecipherable] mosque and they started beating everyone. They tried to beat everyone on [undecipherable] bridge and throwing them off of the bridge. And everyone also on the sidewalks. They beat a woman so savagely that she was drenched in blood and her husband, he fainted. They were beating people like hell. It was a massacre. They were trying to beat people so they would die. they were cursing and saying very bad words to everyone. This was exactly a massacre... I don't know how to describe it."

3.55pm: Opposition candidate and pro-tem Mousavi ally Mehdi Karroubi has cancelled a memorial demonstration that had been planned for tomorrow. A spokesman says no location was available. If anyone has more details from his Farsi-language webpage, let me know.

link: Iran crisis: live - 24 June 2009 | News | guardian.co.uk

Iran: Crackdown and Confusion

Update | 10:33 a.m. The Associated Press reports that before today’s rally in Tehran Mir Hussein Mousavi’s Web site “distanced him from the protest, calling it independent and saying it had not been organized by the reformist candidate.”

Confusion over the direction of the protest movement may be a sign that the pressure being exerted on Mr. Moussavi and others who have contested the results of the June 12 presidential election is working.

My colleagues Nazila Fathi and Alan Cowell report on the confusion in Iran’s capital:

On Wednesday, people on some of Tehran’s streets circulated a five-page flier calling on opponents of the election to demonstrate outside the Parliament building in the capital with their families and to gather on Thursday at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic revolution. [...]

The origin of the flier was not clear and it was not known how widely it was being distributed. The flier was issued jointly in the names of Mr. Moussavi and Mr. Karroubi and it said Mr. Moussavi would make a public appearance.

Update | 10:21 a.m. According to a report from AFP, the authorities have swept up people working for a newspaper set up by Mir Hussein Moussavi’s campaign. AFP reports: “Police have arrested 25 journalists and other staff at Mousavi’s Kalemeh Sabz (Green Word) newspaper — which was shut down about 10 days ago — one of its editors said.”

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

Iran Breaking News: Baharestan Square

Security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons beat back protesters who flocked to a Tehran square, sources say.

link: CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

Bagram Airbase Detention: Detainees Tortures and "Released Without Charge"

The BBC recently interviewed 27 former detainees who were held at the Bagram Airbase detention facility between 2002 and 2008. All but two of the detainees said they had been ill-treated. According to the investigation, the detainees were “beaten, deprived of sleep, hung from the ceiling and threatened with dogs. Four claimed officials had put a gun to their head and threatened to kill them.” One inmate said:

‘They did things that you would not do against animals let alone to humans.

‘They poured cold water on you in winter and hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol or a gun to your head and threatened you with death.

‘They put some kind of medicine in the juice or water to make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you.’

All the detainees were ultimately released without charge.

UPDATE
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright, a Defense Department spokesman, claimed that conditions at Bagram "meet international standards for care and custody."

link: Think Progress » BBC investigation of Bagram finds detainees were ‘beaten,’ ‘hung from the ceiling.’

Khamenei's Power Eroded?

For two decades, Khamenei's word has been law in Iran, where the supreme leader is considered by some as God's representative on Earth. Today he is reviled, not revered, by thousands of supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he was defrauded in the June 12 presidential elections.

Unprecedented chants of "Death to Khamenei!" by some protesters underscore an astonishing blow to the 70-year-old cleric's standing.

"The election dispute may further erode his religious and political authority, especially among the traditional clergy, leaving him even more dependent on the Revolutionary Guard," Iran's most powerful and feared security force, said Ali Nader, an Iran expert with the RAND Corp.

Khamenei, to be sure, has spent years meticulously cultivating support in the powerful military and judiciary, and that could mean he remains secure in the country's top job.

link: Iran's Khamenei may be a casualty in vote crisis | TPM News Pages

SC Governor Hikes Appalachian Trail in Buenos Aires

Sanford said he had considered hiking on the Appalachian Trail, an activity he said he has enjoyed since he was a high school student. "But I said 'no' I wanted to do something exotic," Sanford said "... It's a great city." ... Sanford said he was alone on the trip. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline.

link: Sanford: Appalachians, Argentina, What's The Difference? | TPMMuckraker

Zahra Rahnavard: As If Iran Under "Martial Law"

10:53 AM ET -- Mousavi's wife: Iran under 'martial law.' AP reports, "The wife of Iran's opposition leader is comparing a government crackdown on protests to martial law. Zahra Rahnavard campaigned beside her husband, Mir Hossein Mousavi. She says on one of his Web sites that his followers have the constitutional right to protest and the government should not deal with them 'as if martial law has been imposed in the streets.' She is calling for the release of all activists and others arrested at protests."

link: Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

Neda's Doctor Flees Iran

10:15 AM ET -- Doctor who tried to save Neda flees Iran for London. Via reader Fintan, author Paulo Coelho -- who was a friend of the doctor, Arash, who tried to save Neda's life -- posts an email he received yesterday:

Dearest Paulo,

Trying to leave the country tomorrow morning. If I don't arrive in London at 2 pm., something has happened to me. Till then, wait. My wife and my son are in (edited). Their phone (edited) Her email (edited) Please wait till tomorrow. If something happens to me, please take care of (name of wife) and (name of son), they are there, alone, and have no one else in the world. Much love, it was an honor having you as a friend.

Arash

He updated today to say Arash had arrived safely in the UK.

link: Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

Iran/U.S.: Diplomacy "All But Dead"

After the news conference, administration officials said there was little they could do to influence the outcome of the confrontation between the government and the protesters. And more so now than even a few days ago, they said, the prospects for any dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program appear all but dead for the immediate future, though they held out hope that Iran, assuming it has a stable government, could respond to Mr. Obama’s overtures later in the year.

link: Obama Condemns Iranian Crackdown - NYTimes.com

Tehran: Minister of Intelligence

9:51 am: BBC Persian reported on the Minister of Intelligence Golam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei saying “those who are provoking the people to take part in the demonstrations should be held responsible and arrested for criminal charges”. He did not mention Mousavi and his staff explicitly.

He also hinted that those individuals, both foreign and Iranian, who have been arrested or detained over the last week and a half will be released once they have been questioned.

Finally, he indicated that since the election there have been 18 casualties in Tehran.

link: niacINsight

Tehran: "it was like a mouse trap"

all shops was closed - nowhere to go - they follow ppls with helicopters - smoke and fire is everywhere #Iranelection about 1 hour ago from web

ppl run into alleys and militia standing there waiting - from 2 sides they attack ppl in middle of alleys #Iranelection about 1 hour ago from web

so many ppl arrested - young & old - they take ppl away - #Iranelection - we lose our group about 1 hour ago from web

saw 7/8 militia beating one woman with baton on ground - she had no defense nothing - #Iranelection sure that she is dead about 1 hour ago from web

they were waiting for us - they all have guns and riot uniforms - it was like a mouse trap - ppl being shot like animals #Iranelection about 1 hour ago from web

I see many ppl with broken arms/legs/heads - blood everywhere - pepper gas like war - #Iranelection about 1 hour ago from web

just in from Baharestan Sq - situation today is terrible - they beat the ppls like animals - #Iranelection RT RT RT about 1 hour ago from web

link: persiankiwi (persiankiwi) on Twitter

Iran Arrests Foreign Nationals: "against all diplomatic norms"

Iranian authorities said Wednesday they have arrested several foreign nationals, some with British passports, in connection with the country's post-election unrest.

Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ezhei told reporters that some with links to the West and Israel had planned bombings ahead of the June 12 presidential election, the government-funded Press TV reported Wednesday.

"England is among the countries that fan the flames with their heavy propaganda, which is against all diplomatic norms," the intelligence minister was quoted in the semi-official Fars news agency. "And the BBC Farsi has also played a major role. Also, a number of people carrying British passports have played a role in the recent disturbances."

link: Iran arrests foreign nationals in connection with protests - CNN.com