Filed under: Asia, Middle East | Tags: Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, aqazadeh, Azad, Azadi, Basij, Green Revolution, Iran, Iran Elections, Iranian Elections 2009, Iranian Revolution, Islamic Republic, Khodi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mir Hussein Mousavi, Mohamed Khatami, Nationalism, Revolutionary Guards
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25 June – 1 July 2009
Issue No. 953
Source: Al-Ahram Weekly Online
Western coverage of the political turmoil in Iran in the aftermath of the 12 June presidential election has for the most part presented a uniform image of the conflict: thousands of young, liberal, and defiant supporters of presidential challenger Mir-Hussein Mousavi have been protesting against what they see as massive fraud, a “coup” to re-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The government, fearful of a popular uprising, has responded with massive use of force, killing and injuring protesters, arresting activists and politicians, and imposing an information blockade.
Analysts repeatedly ask themselves and others, “Is this a revolution?” And, more expectantly, “Are we witnessing the end of the Islamic Republic?” Whatever we are to make of the question of fraud (there apparently were some irregularities, but no evidence of widespread fraud), Ahmadinejad retains a huge popular base that is not prepared to forfeit its position. Rather than viewing the events of the past 12 days as signs of a revolution-in-the-making, we should be (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1979 Iranian Revolution, Americans, Azad, Azadi, Basiji, CIA, Electoral Fraud, Green Revolution, Hojatolislam Mohamed Khatami, Iran, Iran Coup D'etat, Iran Election, Iran Election 2009, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mirhossein Mousavi, Protest, Riot Police, Shah of Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran, Tehran University, Zionist
Click here to view PART ONE of this interview.
Filed under: Asia, Middle East | Tags: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Barack Obama, Basiji, Electoral Fraud, Electoral Fruad Iran, Green Revolution, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Iran Protests, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mir Hussein Mousavi, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Neo-Con, Obama, Protests, Revolutionary Guard Corps, State Repression, Tehran, Zionist
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19 June 2009
Source: Common Dreams
The growing nonviolent insurrection in Iran against the efforts by the ruling clerics to return the ultra-conservative and increasingly autocratic incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinjead to power is growing. Whatever the outcome, it represents an exciting and massive outpouring of Iranian civil society for a more open and pluralistic society.
Ironically, defenders of Ahmadinejad’s repression are trying to blame everyone from the U.S. government to nonviolent theorist Gene Sharp to various small NGOs engaged in educational efforts on strategic nonviolent action as somehow being responsible for the popular uprising in Iran. It appears to be based upon the rather bizarre assumption that millions of Iranians would somehow be willing to pour out onto the streets in the face of violent repression by state security forces only because they have been directed to do so by people from an imperialist power which overthrew their last democratic government and subsequently propped up (more…)
Filed under: Asia, Middle East, North America | Tags: Ali Khamenei, Arab, Baloch, Barak Obama, Basiji, CIA, Election Fraud, Green Revolution, Hossein Mousavi, Imperialism, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Iran Protests, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kurds, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mass Protests, Mossad, Pakistan, Protests, State Repression, Tehran, Zionism
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18 June 2009
Source: The Hindu
The paranoia about interference from the West is worrying — but it may also be justified.
Long-term instability in Iran is an alarming prospect for western countries keen to resolve disputes over the country’s nuclear programme and other contentious issues. But continuing political weakness in Tehran is also likely to produce the opposite effect — increased regime concern about external attempts to interfere, destabilise, and exploit its vulnerabilities. This paranoid trend threatens unpredictable, even dangerous consequences – but may be justified.
Pinning blame for Iran’s post-election turmoil on (more…)
Filed under: Indian Subcontinent | Tags: Afghan Taliban, AfPak, Benazir Bhutto, Buner, Chand Bibi, Colonialism, Fata, Feminism, Flogging, Honour Killing, Imperialism, Iran, ISI, Madrassa, Malakand, Maulana Fazlullah, Militarism, Mujahideen, Mullah Omar, Nizam-e-Adl, Pakistan, Pakistani Army, Paternalism, President Asif Ali Zardari, Protests, Punjab, Racism, Saba Mahmood, Sharia, Shirin Ebadi, Sindh, Sufi Mohammed, Swat, Swat Flogging, Swat Taliban, Taliban, Tehreek Nifaz e Sharia Mohammadi, US bombing, US Drone Attacks, US Invasion, War, Women's Rights, Yusuf Raza Gilani
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( Dated Piece | 30 April 2009 )
Source: Open Democracy
The distorting glare of the mainstream media obscures a more complex reality in restive Pakistan
Who are the ” Taliban” in Pakistan? Islamist militants in the country have won significant international attention after wrestling control over the Swat Valley, the restive region in northern Pakistan where elements of sharia law are now in place. Yet these militants do not self-identify as “Taliban”, unlike the Afghan Taliban who chose the name for themselves, and preferred it to the then generic term “mujahideen”. The term “Taliban” means students; the original Taliban were educated in madrassas, religious schools. Groups and individuals that are being labelled the “Taliban in Pakistan” (TIP) are very different from their Afghan counterparts in important respects. It is pertinent not just to think through the implications of these differences but also to raise questions about why distinguishing details are being lost in the media frenzy of recent months.
In Swat, the group that has gained the most notoriety in recent months calls itself Tehreek Nifaz e Sharia Mohammadi (TNSM). This can be roughly translated as the “Movement for the (more…)
Filed under: Asia, Middle East | Tags: 2009 Election Iran, Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Montazeri, Bush Administration, CIA, CIA Destablization Plan, CIA orchestarated Protests, Color Revolution, Colour Revolution, Covert "black" Operation, Georgia, Iran, Iran Election 2009, Iran Protests, Iranian Government, Iranian Protests, Islamic Republic, Kenneth Timmerman, London telegraph, Military, military attack on Iran, Montazeri, Mousavi, National Endowment for Democracy, Neoconservative, New Yorker, popular revolution, Protests, Reactionary, Seymore Hersh, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran, Ukraine, Washington
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19-21 June 2009
Source: Counterpunch
A number of commentators have expressed their idealistic belief in the purity of Mousavi, Montazeri, and the westernized youth of Tehran. The CIA destabilization plan, announced two years ago (see below) has somehow not contaminated unfolding events.
The claim is made that Ahmadinejad stole the election, because the outcome was declared too soon after the polls closed for all the votes to have been counted. However, Mousavi declared his victory several hours before the polls closed. This is classic CIA destabilization designed to discredit a contrary outcome. It forces an early declaration of the vote. The longer the time interval between the preemptive declaration of victory and the release of the vote tally, the longer Mousavi has to create the impression that the authorities are using the time to fix the vote. It is amazing that people don’t see through this trick.
As for the grand ayatollah Montazeri’s charge that the election was stolen, he was the initial choice to succeed Khomeini, but lost out to the current Supreme Leader. He sees in the protests an opportunity to (more…)
Filed under: Asia, Middle East | Tags: American Zionists, Argentina, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollahs, Azeri, Azeris, Barak Obama, Bolivia, Brazil, Bush Administaration, Chavez, CIA, CIA coup, CIA Propaganda, Clerics, CNN, East-Azerbaijan, Electoral Fraud Hoax, Ethnic Voting, European Union, Evo Morales, Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, Hossein Mousavi, Imperial Destablization, Iran, Iran Election 2009, Iran Protests, Iranian Clerics, Iranian Youth, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanon, Lula da Silva, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mass Media Elite, Middle Class, National Security, Neo-Con, Neo-Conservative, Netanyahu, New York Times, Northern Tehran, Obama Regime, Palestine, Peron, Pro-US Candidate, Propaganda, Senator Kerry, Tehran, Tehran University, Venezuela, Wasghinton Post, Western Media, White House, Working Class, Zionist
18 June 2009
Source: Global Research
“Change for the poor means food and jobs, not a relaxed dress code or mixed recreation… Politics in Iran is a lot more about class war than religion.”
- Financial Times Editorial, June 15 2009
Introduction
There is hardly any election, in which the White House has a significant stake, where the electoral defeat of the pro-US candidate is not denounced as illegitimate by the entire political and mass media elite. In the most recent period, the White House and its camp followers cried foul following the free (and monitored) elections in Venezuela and Gaza, while joyously fabricating an ‘electoral success’ in Lebanon despite the fact that the Hezbollah-led coalition received over 53% of the vote.
The recently concluded, June 12, 2009 elections in Iran are a classic case: The incumbent nationalist-populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (MA) received 63.3% of the vote (or 24.5 million votes), while the leading Western-backed liberal opposition candidate Hossein Mousavi (HM) received 34.2% or (13.2 million votes).
Iran’s presidential election drew a record turnout of more than 80% of the electorate, including an unprecedented overseas vote of 234,812, in which HM won 111,792 to MA’s 78,300. The opposition led by HM did not accept their defeat and organized a series of mass demonstrations that turned violent, resulting in the burning and destruction of automobiles, banks, public building and armed confrontations with the police and other authorities. Almost the entire spectrum of Western opinion makers, including all the major electronic and print media, the major liberal, radical, libertarian and conservative web-sites, echoed the opposition’s claim of rampant election fraud. Neo-conservatives, libertarian conservatives and Trotskyites joined the Zionists in hailing the opposition protestors as the advance guard of a democratic revolution. Democrats and Republicans condemned the incumbent regime, refused to recognize the result of the vote and praised the demonstrators’ efforts to overturn the (more…)
Filed under: Asia, Middle East | Tags: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Azerbaijan, Azeri, Dictatorship, Electoral Fraud, Expediency Council, Green Campaign, Hamedan, Iran, Iran Accountability Act, Iran Election 2009, Iranian Elections 2009, Iranian Interior Ministry, Iranian People, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Iranians, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hussein Musavi, Mohsen Rezaei, Orumieh, Pesident Obama, Protests, Rasht, shiraz, Tabriz, Tehran University Massacre
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16 June 2009
Source: The Bullet
Since the June 12 elections declaring incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner, large scale violence not seen for a decade has erupted in cities throughout Iran. Running against former Prime Minister and opposition candidate Mir Hussein Musavi, news of Ahmadinejad’s election victory from the Interior Ministry came less than an hour of the closing of the polls with astonishing statistics. With the massive turnout of around 85% of Iran’s 46 million eligible voters, Iranian election officials credited Ahmadinejad with a 62.6% victory, and announced Musavi’s defeat with a mere 33.8% of the total votes cast. In response to the outrageous figures, the opposition leader has since Friday night been accusing both Ahmadinejad and the Interior Ministry of having cheated in the election and voting process.
Calling the election results a “dangerous charade,” Musavi also submitted an official formal request to the Guardian Council on June 14 to protest against the results. While victory for Ahmadinejad was not (more…)
Filed under: Asia, Middle East | Tags: 1979 Iranian Revolution, Azad, Azadi, Basiji, Electoral Fraud, Hojatolislam Mohamed Khatami, Iran, Iran Coup D'etat, Iran Election 2009, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mirhossein Mousavi, Protest, Riot Police, Shah of Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran, Tehran University
Filed under: Asia, Middle East | Tags: 1979 Iranian Revolution, Azad, Azadi, Azadi Square, Basiji Militia, Electoral Fraud, Engelob Square, Hojatolislam Mohamed Khatami, Iran, Iran Election 2009, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Massacre Tehran University, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Protest, Reza Khan, Riot Police, Shah of Iran, Sharif University, Sohrab Sepehri, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran, Tehran University
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16 June 2009
Source: The Independent
It was Iran’s day of destiny and day of courage. A million of its people marched from Engelob Square to Azadi Square – from the Square of Revolution to the Square of Freedom – beneath the eyes of Tehran’s brutal riot police. The crowds were singing and shouting and laughing and abusing their “President” as “dust”.
Mirhossein Mousavi was among them, riding atop a car amid the exhaust smoke and heat, unsmiling, stunned, unaware that so epic a demonstration could blossom amid the hopelessness of Iran’s post-election bloodshed. He may have officially lost last Friday’s election, but yesterday was his electoral victory parade through the streets of his capital. It ended, inevitably, in gunfire and blood.
Not since the 1979 Iranian Revolution have (more…)
