Iranians may be ready to vote Ahmadinejad out of power

great news!

 

signed,

THE ENTIRE WORLD





seriously dada, give me a f*****g break.

 

We've been spoiled by peaceful revolutions in Ukraine, Lebanon, etc.. Its pretty easy to be idealistic about this.

 

I don't think Iran will ever be the same again.

It is no longer a democracy, and there's no point to future elections under the current system now. It's like Saddam Hussein having elections and winning with 98% of the vote.

The government is determined not to let go of it's power. Elections were fine so long as the right person won. When that didn't happen, they changed the results.

Now it seems the current gov't will do whatever it takes to maintain that power. Including the use of oppression. The cutting off of media isn't just going to be interpreted by protestors, but the whole of the country. Now everyone in Iran knows the gov't will do what it takes to hold power and prevent demonstrations, including manipulation of the media in the forms of jamming, propaganda, and censorship.

I think the opposition leadership, and all those sympathetic to it, will be ousted and purged - completely replaced with hardline leaders. Iran will become a different place. And whether or not it cracks remains to be seen. It could take a year, or 50 years.

 

Seriously LEARN TO READ !!!!

I was responding to a guy saying the Middle East was in conflict because of the Western colonization.....

I agree, the entire WORLD is in conflict.....

SHEESH !!

DD

 

A petition:

To the U.S. soccer team players:

Please consider wearing green wristbands in your upcoming match in the Confederations Cup finale. It would be a sign of solidarity and compassion for your fellow soccer brethren who were banned from the game they love and face unthinkable repercussions for simply adorning a green wristband symbolizing peace and freedom. This is not politics, it is human rights. Any slap on the wrist you may face from FIFA pales in comparison to what the Iranian soccer team faced, and what the Iranian people face.

Make us proud. Make the world proud.



copy and paste this message here

 

I'm speechless.

This regime has suppression down to a science.

 

Glad to hear that Azadre and I'm glad your friend is safe.

 

The "Supreme Leader" is another ******* Saddam. I hope soccer teams around the world start wearing those green wristbands.

 

some amazing photos

http://www.pbase.com/masud/irans_disputed_election&page=5

 

Now that's great news. Glad to hear it.

 

Thank you.

 

My impressions of Iran, from what little I know (lol), seem to be of a nation that is much more divided by so many things than the impressions I had before had led me to believe. Now, when I see Iran's hardliner movement gatherings with "Death to America" chants abound...I begin to believe that there are many more people in Iran who don't necessarily feel that way about America or the West. I don't feel they are all together as one nation. I don't think Ahmad can give a speech talking about a united Iran...because that is a lie now and everyone has seen it. It is out in the open. This is about one group of people wanting change and another group of people wanting to hold power doing business as usual. The hardliners strike me as a group that will never get past historical American involvement in Iran. I'm not sure if these people want war with the West or chanting is a form of stress relief. They come across as a very angry group and with less objectivity. Their lame West-blaming for anything that doesn't go their way displays this less objectivity. I don't seen any kind of reconciliatory tone from them. They want America to bow down and confess our past sins like we are at a confessional or something. And, then, maybe we can talk. We will never make progress toward peaceful relations if that hard attitude doesn't change. Same thing with North Korea. What you see is one side trying and one side resisting...deflecting all criticisms/questions to Western imperialism. That's how I see it. And, I don't think that can continue many more years without an inevitable conflict...unless both sides can change.

 

12:23 PM ET -- Suspicious ballot photos posted by Iran state media? A reader writes, "I believe this is well worth reporting: many interesting photos are being put on the web as I write, a good number of them published by IRNA itself (see here). These are images from the recent Guardians Council TV broadcast session where they 'recounted' some ballot boxes and found out that indeed Ahmadinejad's votes were higher than previously counted. These pictures show two things very clearly: 1) that a whole lot of the ballots that are being recounted are fresh, crisp, unfolded sheets - which makes no sense, given that people typically had to fold these sheets before they can slip them into the ballot boxes, and 2) that the handwriting on so many of the sheets which are votes for 'Ahmadinejad' are the same handwriting (and very clearly so)."







http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/30/iran-uprising-live-bloggi_n_222970.html

 

[rquoter]

12:26 pm: Iran commander: Police Behavior Legal; Neda’s death blown out of proportion

According to Jame Jam Online news, the commander of the armed forces announced today that “during recent turmoil in Tehran no police officers were killed but 20 of the rioters have been killed.” Commander Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam also added “1032 people were arrested by the police and many of them have been freed.” Moghaddam said “the police were able to control the riots with minimal violence. The behavior of the police regarding the illegal gatherings was completely legal.” Mghaddam also claimed that Neda Agha Sultan’s death was “staged” and Arash Hejazi, the physician who tried to save Neda, “is now being pursued by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the International Police” for “blowing the story out of proportion.”

[/rquoter]
It actually surprises me that these so-called "authorities" can appear more craven and depraved than they alread had. Those comments (death was staged, doctor blew the story out of proportion) would even make Dick Cheney blush.

 

Incredible. I've seen this type of behavior from despots, oligarchies, and the like for decades, but it still can surprise. The whole world knows they are lying, as well as large numbers of their own people, yet they not only continue this farce, but expand upon it. What absolute ****s. The theocracy is an abomination and a stain upon the Muslim religion.

 

Apparently Dr Hejazi has fled the country in fear of his life. Seems the gov wants to charge him for Neda's death.

unbelievable

 

The hard-liners are consolidating control in Iran with an iron fist. This whole exercise may end up setting back the cause of freedom a decade if their power isn't broken soon. The moderates could lose influence.

 

The best/most hopeful analogy I saw was the Easter Rising. Viewed from the perspective of 1916, it would seem a brutal, repressive and nearly absolute victory for the British.

In fact, less than a decade later an independent and free Irish state would sign a treaty with the United Kingdom. The brutal repression and resultant publicity around the Easter Rising completely ended the myth of the "benevolent English big brother", and radicalized a whole generation who might otherwise have gone with the status quo. The brutal repression and English "victory" was a large enough kick to the structure of things in Ireland, that it started the whole system wobbling until it eventually fell over and shattered.

Obviously this isn't exactly the same, but one can make a pretty good case that the more the authorities repress the people, and the more they seek to impose their absolutism in the short term, the more likely they make their own eventual demise. Through their "victory" they delegitimize and marginalize themselves among the greater population. The biggest injustice, of course, is that people like Neda have to pay the price and don't get to see the result.

 

There are some hardline clerics that have come out against the leadership too, though. While the street protests are shrinking, I think the protests at the higher levels are growing. Check this out:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/07/a-conservative-cleric-revolts.html

From a speech by conservative mullah Haddi Ghaffari:


"Khamenei, your recent actions and behavior has brought shame to us clerics. Our image in the streets and bazaars has been tarnished as everyone is placing us in the same category as Ahmadinejad.” “Khamenei, you are wrong, your actions are wrong. I believe in the velayat e fagih more than you.”

“I’m not preaching these messages so that I could be associated with the West. I loathe the West and will fight to the last drop of my blood before I or my land succumbs to the West. On the contrary, I’m preaching these messages on the count that the respect for our profession is gone.” “Young people are not praying anymore, whose fault is that? It is your fault Mr. Khamenei, it’s your fault for placing us in the same line as that lunatic Ahmadinejad.”


Some info on Ghaffari:

Ghaffari [was a former minister under Khomeni and] played a major role in the creation of Hezbollah–he is no reformist by any stretch of the imagination, and his frontal assault on Khamenei would have been extremely taboo prior to the election.


This is where Obama's strategy is really paying off. This guy likely doesn't say a word if Obama is openly supporting the protesters and making this a US vs. Iran thing.