Iran: An Electoral Crisis! #iranelection

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20/08/2009 — Green Brief #59

Protests / Unrest

1. On Thursday, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to give a speech that is being broadcasted live on IRIB. Protesters have decided to chant on rooftops throughout the speech showing their discontent. The speech was scheduled for today, but was postponed, due to wide-spread reports that people would try to cause a black out by over using electricity. The speech is to be aired at 9 PM Tehran Time.

2. A general strike was observed in Sanandaj City, Kordestan province. Shops were closed in most parts of the city in remembrance of an attack on Kordestan province 30 years ago. Basijis and police had earlier threatened city merchants not to take part in the strike. Reports indicated that police and Basij also clashed with some merchants who were refusing to open their shops and many merchants were injured – this could not be confirmed right away.

3. Kamil prayers will be held on Thursday, in Tehran’s Dar-u-zahra Cultural Center, for the release of detainees and the mourning of protesters who have been killed so far. The prayers are held weekly on Thursdays.

Opposition

4. Karroubi has announced he is ready to present evidence of the rape of detainees by prison guards. He sent a letter today to Ali Larijani, to set up a meeting between him and various heads of government institutions. According to Karroubi, the meeting will explain whether he is wrong or Friday prayer Imams, who have lambasted him for raising his voice. He has asked these people to be present during the meeting for him to present the evidence:

– President Ahmadinejad

– Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani

– Ali Larijani, the head of the Parliament

– The head of the Expediency Council,

– The head of the Assembly of Experts and of the Expediency Council Hashemi Rafsanjani

– Attorney General Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi

– Members of the parliamentary committee set up to assess the condition of detainees

5. Karroubi also alleged that Hossein Ta’eb – the head of the Basij – was one of the main perpetrators of the phony TV interview, with the family of a woman who claimed to be the real Taraneh Mousavi. In response to his statement, Hojatoleslam Seyed Hossein Shahmoradi – who happens to be the brother of the claimant’s wife – released a statement criticizing Karroubi for divulging the information. According to Shahmoradi, he had told Karroubi about the incident and the fakeness of the claimant in confidentiality.

6. Reports from Qom indicate that Grand Ayatollah Seyed Mousa Shabiri Zanjani – a cleric who has been a teacher of Khamenei and his sons – held a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Lutfullah Safi Golpaygani and has shown great concern over the killing of protesters. According to reports, he got so upset during the meeting that he began to cry.

Shabiri Zanjani has also met with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in his summer residence in Khaveh, near Qom. He is a key cleric who has been instrumental in freeing Montazeri from house arrest.

7. The Defense of Human Rights Society – an Iranian human rights organization – has asked the government to immediately release its members who have been detained in the post-election violence. The Society released a statement saying that their only job was to defend human rights and that they did not engage in political activities. Members of the organization, Mohammad Ali Dadkha, Abdol Fatah Soltani and a few others are still in detention. Three that were detained have now been released.

Government / International

8. Ahmadinejad unveiled his 21-member cabinet on Wednesday. MPs will start examining the nominees for different ministries in four days and will hold a vote for each member on the 30th of the month. PressTV reported Vice Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Reza Bahonar saying on Thursday, that it was likely that several of the ministers would be rejected by the assembly. Bahonar indicated that up to five nominees would possibly be rejected.

Here is a list of the names and posts of cabinet members (as well as some notes about them below):

Agriculture: Sadeq Khalilian

Commerce: Mehdi Ghazanfari

Communications and IT: Reza Taqipour

Cooperatives: Mohammad Abbasi (Retains his post)

Culture and Islamic Guidance: Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini

Defense: Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi

Economy and Financial Affairs: Seyyed Shamseddin Hosseini

Education: Sousan Keshavarz (Female)

Energy: Mohammad Aliabadi

Foreign Affairs: Manouchehr Mottaki (Retains his post)

Health: Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi (Female)

Housing and Urban Development: Abdolreza Sheikholeslami

Industries and Mines: Ali Akbar Mehrabian (*See note (a) below)

Intelligence: Heyder Moslehi

Interior: Mostafa Mohammad Najjar

Justice: Morteza Bakhtiari

Labor and Social Affairs: Ali Nikzad

Oil: Masoud Mir Kazemi

Road and Transportation: Hamid Behbahani (Retains his post)

Science, Research and Technology: Kamran Daneshjoo

Welfare and Social Security: Fatemeh Ajorlou (Female) (*See note (b) below)

(a) It is worth noting that Ali Akbar Mehrabian, the cabinet member for Industries and Mines, retains his post although he was convicted in court, a few weeks ago, for the stealing of another inventor’s invention.

(b) There may also be a problem for the Minister of Welfare Fatemeh Ajorlou who is also facing legal trouble.

9. Several conservative MPs have criticized Ahmadinejad’s choice of ministers. Many have shown discontent over his choice of three women for ministries. One MP from Oromieh said that it is possible, that these women would face difficulties in the next cabinet [because of their gender].

10. Asgar Aowladi, today denied that a meeting was held between him, Rafsanjani, Haddad Adel and others. This news was widely reported in some government-owned websites yesterday. (Read full report in Brief #58)

11. Former Minister of Intelligence Mohseni Ejaie – who has been widely accused of being one of the main forces behind the brutal suppression of peaceful protesters – is expected to be nominated as the next Attorney General by Sadegh Larejani. Ejaie was sacked by Ahmadinejad days before his inauguration.

12. The leadership council of the Assembly of Experts held a meeting today, postponing the meeting of the Assembly till after Ramadan – which is in a week. Other details were not disclosed.

13. The governor of Tehran province, Moteza Tamaddon criticized Karroubi today, stating that if he cannot prove his allegations, then legal steps should be taken against him. He added that during his and other MPs’ visit to Evin on Tuesday, detainees rejected that they had been raped.

14. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran, would continue a new course in its foreign policy and that Europeans states should “adapt to new realities”.

15. Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad is in Tehran on a two-day trip, holding meetings with various Iranian officials.

16. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias will be visiting Iran in September.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

17. Partially confirmed reports have emerged of a released detainee, who had been drugged and raped. According to reports, the detainee had been given heavy doses of rohypnol – a sedative, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic, amnestic, hypnotic and skeletal muscle relaxant – and then brutally raped. According to a doctor, who helped with the case while the victim was in hospital, the victim had contracted Chlamydia infection – a common sexually transmitted disease because of the abuse.

18. Partially confirmed reports have emerged that the parliament, may have received a confidential letter from Karroubi 20 days before his public letter to Rafsanjani. According to Iqbal Mohammadi – an MP from Marivan – Karroubi only sent the letter to Rafsanjani after he had not received a reply from the parliament.

19. A un-named MP has told opposition websites, that the news of the parliamentary committee’s ‘fact-finding’ mission to Evin were lying about their meeting with Mostafa Tajzadeh. According to the MP, what the committee members quoted as Tajzadeh’s words, were pre-written and given to them by Saeed Jalili – the Secretary General of the National Security Council.

Reports indicate that Tajzadeh is held outside Evin, while committee members told the press that they met Tajzadeh at Evin.

20. Mehdieh Mohammadi, the wife of political commentator and reporter Ahmad Zeidabadi, said that her husband has been kept in extreme conditions in prison. According to Mohammadi, Zeidabadi had been kept in an unlit 1×1.5 meter room for the first 17 days of his arrest, where he went on a hunger strike. During this period, no sounds reached the room and no one came to talk to him. He described the cell to his wife as a ‘grave’.

After 17 days, his health deteriorated and he was found unconscious in his cell. He was taken to a doctor who told him to eat. He was then taken back to the same cell where started showing signs of dementia, he told his wife, in a meeting 52 days after his arrest, that he wanted to kill himself but couldn’t find anything to do the job with. He spent a further two weeks in this cell. After repeated cries, he was taken to a different cell. He told his wife, during the meeting, that he has been forced to tell the court, in the next trial, that he would never take part in anything related to politics.

21. Isa Saharkhiz – a reporter – is under severe psychological pressure and claims that he will sue the government once freed. His ribs were broken after being beaten by security forces and he has yet to receive proper medical care for his injuries. He has told his interrogators that he would not talk without his lawyer and the parliamentary committee for assessing the condition of detainees present.

22. Kevan Samimi has also been put in solitary confinement and has been repeatedly beaten by prison guards. Samimi is a journalist and a political activist fighting for political prisoners’ rights.

23. Azad University student Hesamat Salamat, has been released after a month and a half in prison. Also released were Journalist Zhila Bani-Yaghoub and Sadegh Nowroozi, a member of reformist party Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization. Reports suggest that Mehsa Amrabadi and Somayeh Towhidlo would be released soon as well.

24. Mohammad Reza Jalayeepour was supposed to be released today, but he was not. It was expected that he would be released on August 20.

25. Photographer Stayar Emami, of Jam e Jam newspaper, was reportedly released on Sunday after a month in detention. After the current releases, the number of journalists in prison stands at 35.

26. Seven executions have been put on hold by the new Judiciary Chief after taking office. These include one young person who is now a 21 year old who was accused of murder at the age of 16.

27. No news has emerged since the disappearance Sohrab Leqaie, a Baha’i from Ghayem Shahr. He was arrested a month ago by agents of the Intelligence Ministry.

Media

28. Hossein Entezami – the representative of editor-in-chiefs in the Committee to Oversee the Media – has also criticized the ban on Etemaade Melli. He added that the country was not in need of such actions.

29. Reports have emerged that Karroubi has threatened, that unless Etemaade Melli’s ban was not lifted, he would revive his project of running a TV channel. He was forced to shelve plans four years ago for Channel “Saba” a satellite channel, after direct intervention by Ali Larijani, then chair of the National Security Council, who deemed the plan “an act against national security”. Karroubi then founded the Etemade Melli newspaper to reach the masses.

30. Keyhan Daily – the mouthpiece of Khamenei – threatened all reformist parties not to support Karroubi. It also criticized the meetings of reformists with Montazeri and other clerics in Qom.

Miscellaneous

31. Swissinfo reports:

“Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has been fired from his position at a Netherlands university over connections to an Iranian-funded television channel. In a statement, the municipality of Rotterdam and the Erasmus University of Rotterdam said that the Swiss-born theologian’s hosting of a program on Iran’s Press TV was “irreconcilable” with his position as a guest professor.”

Scholar fired over ties to Press TV http://bit.ly/TXh7O

International Protests

32. On Thursday, August 20, at 4:30 pm American student activists will gather outside the Nokia Store at 5 East 57th Street in Manhattan to protest Nokia’s complicity in the crackdown against Iranian protesters. Link for more info: http://tinyurl.com/nmkj8n

Source: Why We Protest

11/08/2009 — Iranian speaker calls for detainee rape probe

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Iran’s influential parliament speaker has called for an investigation into allegations that post-election detainees were raped while in custody, state-run media said.

Ali Larijani said that a special parliamentary panel “had carried out investigations into the situation in [Iranian] jails and the treatment of detainees and it should also look into whether jail rape allegations are true or false,” Press TV reported, citing Tabnak, a Web site associated with opposition politician Mohsen Rezaie.

Source: CNN

10/8/2009 — Report: Iranian prison chief dismissed, arrested

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Authorities have fired and arrested the chief of an Iranian jail that was closed amid allegations of mistreatment of detainees held for protesting June’s disputed election, Iranian media reported Sunday.

Source: CNN

10/8/2009 — Top Iranian general: Let’s prosecute opposition leaders

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — A senior official with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard is calling for the prosecution of two key opposition leaders and a former president, accusing them of fanning the protests that have gripped the nation since its disputed presidential election two months ago

Source: CNN

5/8/2009 — Ahmadinejad sworn in as riot police quell protest

Reporting from Beirut — Iran’s president began a contentious second term today, vowing to strive for “national greatness” as police firing tear gas and swinging truncheons quelled a demonstration outside the parliament where he was sworn in.

Battered by a weeks-long protest movement alleging fraud in his reelection, and weakened by challenges from within his own conservative camp, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would dedicate himself to serving the Iranian people and to taking bold steps on the world stage.

“It is not important who voted for whom. What we need is national greatness,” he said in a speech broadcast live on television after he was sworn in by the judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. “We are representing a great nation. It needs great decisions and great deeds. We need to take great steps.”

As he spoke, hundreds and possibly thousands of demonstrators tried to push their way into the surrounding Tehran’s Baharestan Square, with thousands of security forces and plainclothes Basiji militiamen on motorcycles chasing and arresting them, according to witnesses and accounts in the reformist online media.

Security forces dispersed the crowd before a larger rally could gather.

Source: LA Times

3/8/2009 — Swiss push for meeting with U.S. hikers detained in Iran

(CNN) — Swiss diplomats are trying to meet with three American hikers being held in Iran, the Swiss Embassy in Tehran said Monday.

The embassy would not say whether Iranian authorities had responded to their request or if diplomats had met the Americans.

Four American friends — seasoned travelers — were hiking through Iraq’s Kurdistan region last week before three of them crossed the unmarked border with Iran, where Iranian authorities detained them.

Kurdish officials identified the hikers as Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, CNN confirmed Sunday. The fourth hiker, Shon Meckfessel, stayed behind in Iraq.

“My husband and I are eager for the best welfare and conditions for our son, Josh, and for the other two companions he’s with,” Laura Fattal of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, told CNN Radio. “And that is our only concern, his welfare and the best conditions for him.”

Meckfessel, a graduate student at the University of Washington, was identified by his grandmother, who told CNN that he stayed behind because he felt sick. Meckfessel met with a consular official at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the embassy said.

“My grandson has asked me not to talk to the media,” said Irene Meckfessel of Carmichael, California, before hanging up Saturday.

Don’t Miss

• Three U.S. hikers detained by Iran named
• Iranians held by U.S. in Iraq return home

Iran’s state-run media reported that Iranian security forces arrested the three Americans on Friday on charges of illegally entering the country from Iraq’s Kurdistan region and that the matter is under investigation.

The United States and Iran do not have diplomatic relations, and Switzerland represents U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran, which is why the Swiss are trying to meet the detainees. Watch as concern grows the situation could escalate into an international incident »

Friends of the travelers said that the trio have spent time or have lived in Western Europe and the Middle East.

Sandy Close, executive director of the nonprofit Pacific News Service, described Bauer, a photographer whose material occasionally has been posted on her Web site, as a “gifted linguist and photographer with wanderlust for travel and a student of Arab cultures. He’s a remarkably talented guy.”

On a profile on a travel Web site, Shourd describes herself as a “teacher-activist-writer from California currently based in the Middle East.”

Fattal shared his friends’ love of travel and learning, and was described as “fiercely intellectual” by his friend, Chris Foraker, who spoke to CNN affiliate KVAL-TV in Eugene, Oregon.

Foraker said he met Fattal during a study abroad program in 2003, and the two worked together at the Aprovecho sustainable living research center in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

The four travelers spent Thursday night at the Miwan Hotel in Sulaimaniya, Iraq, said hotel owner Mudhafer Mohammed.

Bauer, Shourd and Fattal left early Friday in a taxi for Ahmed Awa, a touristic town near Iraq’s border with Iran, planning to hike in the mountains there, according to Peshrow Ahmed, spokesman for the security manager of Sulaimaniya.

Ahmed Awa police spotted the hikers at one point Friday, Ahmed said, and warned them that they were near the Iranian border — which is not m

arked — and that they should be careful.

The group was in contact with Meckfessel in Sulaimaniya until about 1:30 p.m. Friday,

when they reported they were “surrounded by Iranian soldiers,” Ahmed said. No further communication was received.

Mohammed said the hikers said they had come to the area because they heard it was safe, saying they were considering a trip to Ahmed Awa. But he said he advised them against it.

“I warned them m

an

y times,” Mohammed said.

“When they told me that they are planning to go to Ahmed Awa, I told them, ‘Don’t go there because it is unsafe for you because you’re American and Ahmed Awa is very close to the Iranian border,’ ” he said.

Meckfessel left the hotel about 4:30 p.m. Friday, Mohammed said, asking him to take care of their luggage and saying he would not return. Later, he said, Sulaimaniya security forces took the luggage from the hotel.

Source: CNN

3/8/2009 — 85yo Woman wants her vote back

3/8/2009 — Iran leader approves Ahmadinejad presidency

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed the second term presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday after a disputed election that plunged Iran into its worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Source: Reuters

3/08/2009 — Ex-military chief questions Iran trial motives

One day after Iran opened a mass trial of more than 100 opposition figures, defeated presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei questions the fairness of the move, calling for a trial of the security forces who broke the law.

The first court session for opposition activists and protesters convened in Tehran on Saturday only days before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to be sworn in for a second term.

The Saturday court charged several politicians, including former vice president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, of planning the post-election riots ahead of the vote and sparking unrest through “allegations of vote fraud.”

In reaction to the trial, Secretary of the Expediency Council Rezaei adopted a critical stance over the handling of the cases of the post-vote detainees and questioned the true motive behind the timing of the court session.

“Recent events which brought severe damage upon the nation and the Islamic Republic were caused by two groups; one group were rioters and the second group comprised of self-driven individuals and security forces who violated the law,” Rezaei said in a letter to Iran’s Judiciary Chief, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, on Sunday.

Rezaei, who challenged Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election, argued that with two types of defendants, the authorities should move to hold two types of court proceedings.

“Otherwise justice and fairness will not be administered and it is even possible that insecurity does not come to an end and calm is not restored to the society,” Rezaei warned.

He said while Saturday’s trial only dealt with the first group of the accused, the question remains as to when the second trial is set to begin and why it was not held at the same time with the first court session.

Rezaei called on the country’s judiciary chief to put to trial “the security forces who attacked Tehran University’s dormitory and classes in Isfahan University”, “those responsible for battering the prisoners including Mohsen Ruholamini”, and “those responsible for assaulting peaceful protestors in the street”.

Rezaei, who was the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps for sixteen years, called for the second trial as police chief Ismail Ahmadi-Moqaddam acknowledged in July that some law enforcement officers went to “extremes” during the post-election protests.

“Some of our officers went to extremes during these events and caused damage while pursuing protestors,” Brig. Gen. Ahmadi-Moqaddam conceded, vowing to ‘deal firmly’ with the officers who had broken the rules.

Reformists were quick to condemn the trial as a sham staged by supporters of the incumbent president.

After the disputed vote in June, Iran witnessed widespread protests as supporters of defeated presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi took to the streets to protest Ahmadinejad’s re-election as president with a massive margin.

At least 30 people were killed and hundreds of others injured in the course of the protests staged by supporters of the opposition who dismiss the official election results as “fraudulent” and call for its annulment.

Iranian authorities argue that foreign agents fueled the post-vote violence, causing the deaths.

Source: PressTV

3/8/2009 — Conservative calls on Iran to hold second trial

TEHRAN, IRAN (AP) — A conservative who ran in Iran’s disputed presidential election has criticized the government for not putting people on trial who attacked opposition protesters and tortured detainees.

Mohsen Rezaei sent a letter to Iran’s judiciary chief saying the post-election unrest would likely continue if those who harmed opposition supporters were not brought to justice.

Sunday’s report on Rezaei’s Web site comes a day after Iran began its first trial against protesters and activists following the June 12 vote.

The opposition claims President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the election through fraud.

Iran’s parliament says at least 30 people have been killed in post-election unrest. The son of one of Rezaei’s top aides died while in detention.

Source

3/08/2009 — Slow Updates

Away with work again so internet access is sporadic.

Check out Revolutionary Road for some great updates.

31/07/2009 — Lots of videos collected from various sources

30/07/2009 — More updates from today’s mourning

30/07/2009 –Security forces, protesters face off in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Security forces in Iran on Thursday confronted thousands of protesting Iranians across the city, first at a cemetery and later at a prayer venue and near a government building, witnesses and news reports said.

Clashes erupted at the cemetery as two of Iran’s main opposition leaders tried to join the several thousand people at a memorial for the slain woman who became the symbol of Iran’s post-election violence, witnesses said. The gathering was banned, but the participants ignored the government strictures.

However, security forces barred opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi from the gravesite of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old woman shot in election protests on June 20, witnesses and news reports said. More than 3,000 people were gathered at Agha-Soltan’s grave, a witness said.

Mourners arrived on the religiously significant 40th day after the fatal shooting in Tehran. For Iranians, a predominantly Shiite Muslim population, the 40th day after a death marks the last official day of mourning.

At the cemetery, security forces used tear gas to clear the area of demonstrators and mourners. A witness said riot police and Basij militia were at the scene, but the confrontations with people in the crowd involved the militia.

Source: CNN

29/07/2009 –More than “Velvet Revolution”: The Battle Within Iran’s Intelligence Ministry

Interesting read and a good source of information

In a week filled with confusions, intrigues, and confrontations within the Ahmadinejad Government, this may be the most extraordinary story of all.

On Monday afternoon, the pro-Green Movement website Mowj-e-Sabz announced, “Coup in the Ministry of Intelligence”. While public attention was focused on the President’s firing of his Minister of Intelligence, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie, there was much more happening below the headlines. Two Deputy Ministers and a number of experts — Mowj-e-Sabz claimed more than 20 — had been “forced into retirement”.

The cause? Ministry officials had been told to compile a report, based on files and interviews of detainees, on whether the quest for a “velvet revolution” by outsiders was responsible for post-election conflict. Their investigations produced the answer: No. There was no proof that “foreign” elements had instigated the protests as part of a plan for regime change.

It was an answer that did not satisfy President Ahmadinejad. He dismissed the Vice Ministers of Intelligence and of Counter-Intelligence. According to Mowj-e-Sabz and other press reports, established a parallel service, “Tehran Intelligence”, led by Hojatoleslam Ahmad Salek and Hojatoleslam Hossein Ta’eb, both of whom are affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Was this dispute over the “velvet revolution”, rather than the Cabinet argument over the First Vice President, the real reason for Minister of Intelligence Ejeie’s dismissal? Does the replacement of Ministry officials by activists close to the Revolutionary Guard, combined by Ahmadinejad’s assertion that the Ministry reports to him rather than the Supreme Leader, constitute a “coup” by the President and the IRGC against their own Government?

I’m not sure I would go so far as to answer “Yes”. But I do think that the irony is that any notion of an outside “velvet revolution” has been overtaken by an inside bureaucratic war. How far this war spreads could define the next phase of the post-election challenge to the Iranian system.

29/07/2009 — Some updates from United4Iran

Some late updates as i’ve been away with work.
More U2 Awesomeness

Press coverage so far: Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC Persia, New York Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, Ms., and many more

29/07/2009 — Hearts & Minds — A Letter From Fayah

Nothing  I can say can say it better then the original…

Through all of this work with Iranian protesters, I have come into contact and become friends with three people there.

For their safety, I can’t give you any details of who they are, but I’ll give you their names, since they’re very common there.

Rashid.

Fayah.

Ali.

Two of them have become very influential on a grass roots level, partially because they are in contact with so many people internationally, and have access to better information than most.

Through many, many email conversations, I have grown to love and admire and deeply respect these people, these friends.

Two of them are planning to deliberately seek martyrdom on Thursday. Here’s what Fayah wrote to me:

“I love life. I love to laugh and be with my friends. There are so many books I want to read, movies I want to see, people I want to meet. I want to marry, to be a good wife and mother. I want to grow old with the people I love, to feel the sun on my face, to see the ocean, to travel.

My country is in a terrible state. People have no jobs. There is no money. People have no freedom. Women must hide themselves from the world, and we have no choices.

Our people–we are not terrorists. We hate terrorists. And that is what our government has become. They kill our people for no reason. They torture us in their prisons because we want freedom. They make our country look evil, they make our religion look evil.

We are fighting for our freedom, for our religion, for our country. If we do nothing while injustice abounds, we become unjust. We turn into the ones we hate.

I have to fight. I have to go back on the streets. I will make them kill me. I will join Neda, with my friends, and then maybe the world will hear us.

I never thought I would become a martyr, but it is needed. The more of us they kill, the smaller they become, the more strength the people will have. Maybe my death will mean nothing, but maybe it will buy my country freedom.

I am very sad that I will never be a mother, that I will never do the things I love, but I would rather die than do nothing and know that I am to blame for the tortures, the murder, the hatred.

Please tell the world how much we love life. That we are not terrorists. We just want to be free.”

[Note: I have corrected spelling, removed identifying details, and cleaned up the word order a bit...English is her fourth language.]

Please, my friends, remember these names:

Rashid

Fayah

Ali

Please keep them in your thoughts and your prayers.

Gods bless the people of Iran.

If any of you want to reprint Fayah’s letter, or disseminate it in any way, please do so. We are her voice, and it needs to be heard.

28/07/2009 — Iran’s Protesters: Phase 2 of Their Feisty Campaign

Phase 2 has begun. Six weeks after millions took to the streets to protest Iran’s presidential election, their uprising has morphed into a feistier, more imaginative and potentially enduring campaign.

The second phase plays out in a boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. Just try buying a certain brand of dairy product, an Iranian human-rights activist told me, and the person behind you in line is likely to whisper, “Don’t buy that. It’s from an advertiser.” It includes calls to switch on every electric appliance in the house just before the evening TV news to trip up Tehran’s grid. It features quickie “blitz” street demonstrations, lasting just long enough to chant “Death to the dictator!” several times but short enough to evade security forces. It involves identifying paramilitary Basij vigilantes linked to the crackdown and putting marks in green — the opposition color — or pictures of protest victims in front of their homes. It is scribbled antiregime slogans on money. And it is defiant drivers honking horns, flashing headlights and waving V signs at security forces.

Source: Time

28/07/2009 — In Iran, Leader orders closure of post-vote prison

Amid reports of the mistreatment of detainees who protested against the result of the presidential vote, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution orders officials to shut down a “non-standard” prison.

The head of Iran’s National Security Council said Monday that Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had demanded that the prison which did not measure up to the required standards to be shut down.

“In the course of recent events, the Leader has ordered officials (to take measures), so that no one, God forbid, suffers injustice,” Saeed Jalili said in a statement.

The presidential election in June, which lead to the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, was followed by massive protests by supporters of the defeated candidates.

Thousands were detained in the aftermath of the vote, many of whom have since been released. According to Judiciary spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi, at least 300 people remain behind bars.

Jalili, who is also the representative of the Leader in the powerful council, added that Ayatollah Khamenei had insisted that officials were obliged to “precisely” probe into incidents in which wrongdoings may have been committed against detainees.

The Leader has repeatedly advised officials to abide by the law and personally follows up on the fate of detainees, Jalili added.

Source: Press TV

26/07/2009 – GreenBrief #39

Source: Iran: Why We Protest

26/07/2009 — Solidarity for Iran during GreenDay Concert

Source

25/07/2009 — United4Iran’s Photostream

25/07/2009 — Protesters chase off PressTV Camera Man in London

25/07/2009 — BBC’s images from around the world

25/07/2009 — Protests in Melbourne – More Here

25/07/2009 — Unveiling of the Green Scroll

25/07/2009 — CNN Coverage of world wide protests

Images of the protests in Stockholm Sweden – Here

24/07/2009 — Senate passes Iran VOICE Act.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate voted unanimously last night to adopt bipartisan legislation that will help strengthen the ability of the Iranian people get access to news and information and overcome the electronic censorship and monitoring efforts of the Iranian regime. The Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act was introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Robert Casey (D-PA) as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. Among the key features of the VOICE Act: * Authorizes $30 million to the Broadcasting Board of Governors to expand Farsi language broadcasting into Iran by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Radio Farda and the Voice of America’s Persian News Network. The funds may be used to develop additional transmission capability to counter Iranian government efforts to jam radio, satellite, and Internet-based transmissions; establish additional proxy server capability and anti-censorship software to counter efforts to block access to websites in Iran; develop technologies to counter efforts to block SMS text message exchange over cellular phone networks; and hire, on a permanent or short-term basis, additional staff for Radio Farda and the Persian News Network. * Authorizes $20 million for a new “Iranian Electronic Education, Exchange, and Media Fund,” which will support the development of technologies, including websites, that will aid the ability of the Iranian people to gain access to and share information; counter efforts to block, censor, or monitor the Internet in Iran; and engage in Internet-based education programs and other exchanges with Americans online. * Requires a report by the President on non-Iranian companies, including corporations with U.S. subsidiaries, that have aided the Iranian government’s Internet censorship efforts, including by providing deep packet inspection technology. * Authorizes $5 million for the Secretary of State to document, collect, and dissemination information about human rights in Iran, including abuses of human rights that have taken place since the June 12 Iranian election.

24/07/2009 — WORLD WIDE DEMONSTRATIONS – Global Day of Action

Human rights groups and Iran activists are organizing a massive “Global Day of Action” on Saturday, hoping to rally people in more than 60 cities in support of Iran’s democracy movement. The rallies are to take place from Kabul to Kansas City, from Tokyo to San Francisco and include a march in Washington, from the local office of the United Nations to the national Mall, said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Mr. Ghaemi said the demonstrations will be live-streamed to Iranians on YouTube and other Internet sites in hopes of encouraging them to persist in their rejection of disputed results in Iran’s June 12 presidential elections. The Iranian government says the landslide victor was incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, hundreds of thousands of Iranians have turned out in the streets – risking arrest and even death at the hands of security forces – to decry the results as fraudulent and demand a new vote. Source: Washington Times

24/07/2009 — A day With basidj members In Tehran 24/07/2009 –Haystack Update from Huffington Post

I’ve spent some time here discussing Haystack, a brand new tool developed by tech guru Austin Heap and his team to help Iranians break through their country’s Internet firewall. Haystack has a brand new website — you can check it out here. This afternoon, Austin Heap and his team will be here in Washington DC, explaining Haystack and demonstrating the technology. (If you’re in the area and would like to attend, email me at the address above. Space is extremely limited but I’ll try my best.) But more importantly, I wanted to let you know that Austin has just posted an important request for donations of USB thumb drives.

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If you’ve got some mini USB drives hanging around, going unused, or if you’d like to buy a few at your local electronics store and send them Austin’s way, click here for instructions.

24/07/2009 — Clinton: Iran unable to respond to overtures.

The United States is still willing to ‘reach out’ to Iran but political turmoil there means Tehran is not now in a position to respond, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the BBC on Thursday.
President Barack Obama made diplomatic overtures to Iran before its June 12 election, but Clinton told the BBC: “We haven’t had any response.”

She added: “We’ve certainly reached out and made it clear that’s what we’d be willing to do, even now, despite our absolute condemnation of what they’ve done in the election and since, but I don’t think they have any capacity to make that kind of decision right now.”

7/22/2009 — 7:47 — Grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini ‘leaves Iran to avoid presidential inauguration’

The grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran‘s Islamic revolution, is reported to have left the country to avoid attending Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidential inauguration.

Hassan Khomeini, a supporter of the defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has travelled to an unnamed “neighbouring country” to escape official pressure to be present at next month’s swearing-in ceremony, according to the pro-reformist news website, Salaamnews.

His absence would be a blow to the authorities’ hopes of using the hallowed Khomeini family name to confer legitimacy on the event in the face of allegations that Ahmadinejad owes his re-election to fraud.

Source: Guardian

7/22/2009 — 5:19pm — CNN’s coverage of the hunger strike

7/22/2009 — 10:00am — MPs told over 300 people have been killed in Iran riots

More than 300 people have died in the Iranian riots which have swept the country since June, MPs were told yesterday.

A report said thousands more had been injured and 10,000 arrested.

Labour peer Lord Corbett said: “If we allow these people to die without being noticed we will lose a huge opportunity for change.”

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The riots followed claims last month’s Iranian elections were rigged.

Protests are continuing in Tehran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the government.

Source: Mirror

7/22/2009 — 08:36 –Ayatollah Watch

A good source for keeping up with where all the Ayatollah’s stand on the events within Iran.

From the Excellent people at Tehran Bureau

7/22/2009 – CNN Coverage of latest protests

7/21/2009 — Phone Call from Iran

I found this on Why We Protest – Iran and its very much worth the read and to listen to the emotion in the audio, even if you do not understand Farsi – Here

Here’s the translation:
Phone call from Iran!!

I have translated this phone call, so people of the rest of the world has a better wiew on the peoples condition in Iran!!
It may have lots of english error, due to my lack of english knowledge!! I am sorry for that!!

But the most important messege this phone call from a 66 years old lady is giving, is that people WILL NOT GIVE UP!! UNTIL THE THEIR GET THEIR JUSTICE!! UNTILL THE ENTIRE REGIME HAS CHANGED!!

Translation:
My name is Maral, I am talking from Tehran, I have reached ur phone with a lots of difficulty!
I am 66 years old lady, we are group of 3, that have contact with each other and going out for protest togheter, and we are our own leader! I am the youngest one in this group,the next two are 70 and 73 years old! We are fighting side by side with our young once!
You dont know whats going on here, you only see it on Moives that some one got killed… and when the casting of the movie is finish, he rise up and laughing, for the mistake he may have done in that scene!
But this time, when someone got shooted at, he dont rise up anymore, for he know that its not a movie anymore! But his soul is smiling!
Its like war-movie, but the real war is for soul and body, for freedom, its war for escaping from the big prison, named Iran!! People whant either to die or live normal!! Now the fear is gone, no one is afraid for anything anymore!! Poeple are in the street for gaining a nomarl Life, for to breath normal, and ecaping from this Big prison!
They stole peoples mony to spend it on terror, to support Hamas, Hizbollah and etc.. they have taked away peoples Pride, Dignity,Soul,Mind,Faith,Trust,Belive!! They have stolen so much that people are full of Anger now, they are not afraid anymore, For they have nothing to lose anymore!!
I my own God I belive, I have seen so much thing that I am so sure that people will not give up untill they have get what is belonging to them!!Untill that day that people have opend the door of this Big Prison! Justice has to be taken, you can not give it!! Where are those parent that sacrifyed everything they had to a group of savage!!Its time to rise up now,their time is here, rise up because of ur children, We have to take back our Justice! Dignity has to come back to Iran!! You dont know what they do to people here!You are watching a Movie, its
like a tragic-movie, a movie of Horror, a movie that all its actress has been training in 30 years, and recived a Phd degree for that!! And playing this reality movie now, and publishing their own historys!!! This is a movie of Justice, and the seeking for Justice!!
After all I have said now, let me also say the positive thing from this last days…
You dont know that before this uprising people was so full of anger, hate and furustration!
Every one lived with the illusion that they lived in a tiredless life! But the journey is over now, and everbody want to travell back to their home now!!For this “hotel” is smelling very bad now.. the mission is over now, they are paying back for the hotel now! They are not afraid to pay anymore! they just want to pay the price to get back to their home!! They will return and strat from ground zero!! You dont know hwo much people in the streets, in mals, etc have changed .. has been so gentle now..everybody is happy and smiling now! The furustration is gone now! with two finger they show each other the Victory sign! Car which are passing each other, do that while they are showing eachother Victory sign!! and get respond from other cars!! There is no more fighting among the people anymore like before!
Everyone who has been beaten up and fallen, just rise up and countiue their Own way for freedom! I AM ONE OF THEM MY SELF!! I the age of 66 I was beaten up, and falled to the ground!!! My knee is still wounded!!BUT I AM HAPPY..
Everyone is polite and respectfull now! The cars show respect to people which are crosing the road!! When I complained before, they told me that I live in a dream land!! But now people apologize and showing respect to eachother!!
Is that something that traitor wanted!!( reffering to khamenei) They dont let people have a free mind!!everone respect eachother!!
I dont know if this regime are from another Planet??
Everything has changed! even the owner in Buttics has not so many costumer anymore, they are still happy!!
Everybody is in Alarm mode, a War mode, for closing their shops…
You dont know about the nights in our streets!! everynight at 22.00 when people are chanting “God Is Great”!! And Tehran is shaking!! Its like a wave of Muic and Melody!!People get such a relaxing felling to listen to that!! I know about the entire city!! Niyavaran, Mahomide, Shahrake-gharb,eslam-shahr, afsariye… I have friends in all this places, and we have contact with eachother, for cheking where the sounds are coming from!!People are chanting “God is Great” ” Death of Dictator”
Once I was vittnes my self, when people was chanting from their windows, 5 Basiji members come and 20 on motor-bike, arrived our street!! the fired in the air, and at the same time, they arrested several people in our street!! But people still continued to chant against them!! when people arrest some of them, they become quaite and are so afraid for the people!! Their power is only in they weapons!! as long as they have it in their hand!!But their are nothing!!
I know that WE WILL WIN!! For Justice belong to us!!
Some day before the election, was a holiday, and I was invited to a place, and I wsa getting a Taxi to go there! Outside a mousqe was a ghatering of 20 supporter of this regime for this holiday!! I say with my own evey, that people didnt care about them! girls was walking with red head-scarf and boys was vering red T-shirts beside them!!
But since it was the election time, the regime didnt stopp anyone for the way they was dressed up, you could even go naken, they still would not care!!
But even we in a war now, but people mode is good, the faith is good, the Hope is back!no one is afraid anymore!!
About our Neda they told us that it was the foreginers, but from what this regime did during the last revolution they know exactly what to do!! They know who to make the Lie!! because they did it them self!! They have training in that! They say that foreginers killed Neda, but no one belives them!!
If they tell people that its day now, people will say that its night!!

Before the election in the street was many young people that was giving flyers for different candidates!! one day I was taking a Taxi, some young boys and girls come to give me flyers, I didnt want to take that, But the driver take one of the flyers! and when the taxi driver turned the flyer, on its back it was written: DONT VOTE!!!
And I was regretting for not taking one, for having a evidence!!

There is so much conflict among them self, that at the end, they have to eat up them self!!

Source: Here

7/21/2009 – Khamenei overrules Ahmadinejad, fires his deputy

Fractures within the fractures?

The Supreme Leader has ordered Ahmadinejad’s first deputy to resign from Ahmadinejad’s cabinet just days after his appointment, according to the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament. Deputy Speaker Aboutorabi said, “eliminating Mashaei from key positions and the first deputy position is a strategic decision by the regime. The Supreme Leader’s opinion about the removal of the Mr. Rahim Mashaei from the position of president’s first deputy has been submitted to the President in writing.”

Source: Niac

7/21/2009 — Reuters: Demonstarations in Tehran

Reuters is reporting new demonstrations in Iran.

Iranian riot police detained dozens of pro-reform protesters in central Tehran on Tuesday, a witness said.The witness said the protesters were chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the government, including: “Ahmadinejad — resign, resign” and “Death to the dictator.”

The witness added: “Riot police are taking dozens of protesters into their cars and they are taking them away.”

7/21/2009 — 8:58pm – Blackout Planned

It looks like the opposition is planning a blackout tonight at 9pm Iran time. This tactic has been denounced by the government, and should be interesting to see if it has an impact on the powergrind. I know here in Australia when everyone turns their AirCon on during summer we have rolling blackouts.

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7/20/2009 — 8:58PM – Haute Couture goes Green

Green has never looked so good. Italian designer Guillermo Mariotto wore a Neda Alive shirt to honor Neda, who was killed during the Iranian election aftermath. Mariotto’s attention to detail is quite admirable as every model on the catwalk wore a green ribbon on their wrist.

Source: NIAC

7/20/2009 — 7:38PM – Al Jazeera: Iran’s power struggle

7/20/2009 — 7:30om — Iran and the West – A BBC 3 part Documentary

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