Cheat Sheet
The Iranian authorities are moving full speed ahead with damage control. In an attempt to placate protesters, the Associated Press reports that on Monday, Iranian officials began a recount of 10 percent of the ballots from the disputed presidential election—odd considering that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Guardian Council have already said the vote was free from major fraud. In addition, Iran released five of the nine British Embassy employees it detained on Sunday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also asked a top judge to investigate the death of Neda Agha Soltan, the woman whose gruesome death made world headlines as footage of it was released on YouTube.
The stillness in Iran lasted five days--but protesters are out in full force again. Up to 3,000 protesters marched near a mosque in north Tehran on Sunday, fighting against riot police armed with tear gas and truncheons. Because of the extremely restrictive media ban in Iran, it's difficult for reports—including one of an alleged police beating of an elderly woman—to be confirmed. Those in North Tehran form a large base for defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi who, at the end of last week, rejected the Guardian Council's proposal to begin a partial vote recount. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, called for national unity on Sunday, saying, "I admonish both sides not to stoke the emotions of the young or pit the people against each other...Our people are made of one fabric."
It may be the one getting all of the media’s attention, but Iran isn’t the only country with a crackdown. Former first lady Laura Bush takes to the op-ed page of The Washington Post to draw attention to the worsening situation in Burma where, she writes, “In the past 21 months, the number of political prisoners incarcerated by the junta has doubled.” Two Burmese were recently jailed for praying for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and 3,000 villages have been “forcibly displaced.” She suggests a solution that might not make her husband happy: “The Security Council has already referred the crisis in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. It should do the same for Burma.”
Has the trouble in Iran just become an international crisis? The Iran government has reportedly imprisoned eight local workers from the British Embassy in Tehran. The government accuses them of playing a “significant role” in fomenting protest. On a more encouraging note, The Guardian reports, “The power struggle inside Iran appears to be moving from the streets into the heart of the regime itself this weekend amid reports that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is plotting to undermine the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” Tensions are also rising between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, who has pledged to investigate the violence.
And the verbal spat continues: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck back at President Obama on Saturday for praising protesters who showed “bravery in the face of brutality.” Ahmadinejad responded to Obama’s comments—which also called the current violence in the region “outrageous” and hailed defeated candidate Mousavi as “[capturing] the imagination” of Iranians—by asking: "Why did he interfere and comment in a way that disregards convention and courtesy?" He went on to say the West would regret its “meddlesome stance.” Meanwhile, defeated candidates Mousavi and Karroubi rejected the offer by the Guardian Council to go over the election results by a special committee, saying the review would not be independent or broad enough. At least 17 people have been killed and 100 injured in the post-election violence.
Nothing to see here, folks. Authoritarian regimes around the globe are censoring internet reports of Iranian protests out of fear it could antagonize their own repressed citizenry, the Washington Post reports. In China, bloggers and Twitter users have tinted their sites and user profiles green in support of Iranian demonstrators and some observers have noted parallels between the protests and China's own clashes in Tiananmen Square in 1989. "The Iranian people face the same problems as us: news censorship and no freedom to have their own voices," 28-year-old blogger Zhou Shuguang told the Post. China's Communist Party is reportedly trying to echo Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's accusations by portraying unrest in Iran as a Western conspiracy rather than a homegrown movement. In Cuba, President Raul Castro has blocked all news coming out of Iran, though information still is finding its way into the communist country, while Burma also is working to stop Iranian reports from attracting attention.
The day after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded that President Obama “show your repentance,” Obama advised Ahmadinejad “to consider looking at the families of those beaten or shot or detained. That’s where Mr. Ahmadinejad and others need to answer their questions.” Obama was at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who announced that Germany and the United States stand side-by-side in opposing the Iranian violence and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Of the protesters, Obama said "Their bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice.”
The rhetoric continues to worsen in Iran: A leading cleric declared in a nationally broadcast sermon on Friday that some of the country’s reform leaders are “worthy of execution.” The Associated Press reports that “Iran's ruling clergy has widened its clampdown on the opposition since a bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, and scattered protests have replaced the initial mass rallies.” Also on Friday, Mir Hossein Mousavi’s official website was hacked, leaving it blank.
Cutting off yet another avenue that Iranian protesters hoped could yield results, Iran's Guardian Council said Friday that no significant fraud had taken place in this month's disputed elections. "The Guardian council has almost finished reviewing defeated candidates' election complaints ... the reviews showed that the election was the healthiest since the revolution ... There were no major violations in the election," the council's spokesman said, according to Reuters. The decision comes as the mass protests of last week have dwindled thanks to a violent police crackdown. Nonetheless, Iranians upset with the election still are finding ways to register their displeasure, chanting "Allahu Akbar!" at night from their rooftops, for example. On Friday, supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has not given up his challenge of the election results, release thousands of green and black balloons in tribute to Neda Agha Soltan, who was killed during the protests.
For the first time, Iranian opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi spoke out about being isolated and pressured by authorities to withdraw his challenge to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contested presidential win. USA Today reports that 70 university professors were arrested on Wednesday night after visiting Mousavi. While Ahmadinejad took to State TV to rant against Obama, Mousavi released a statement through his official Web site on Thursday saying authorities had "completely restricted" him and expressing frustration with "recent pressures" to drop his political stance. Mousavi's message does not appear to be falling on deaf ears: Tehranian newspapers are reporting that only 105 of 290 Iran's parliament members attended Ahmadinejad's victory party on Tuesday. Among the high-profile abstainers was Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, an Ahmadinejad appointee and close ally of the supreme leader's.
Although he may have put himself in jeopardy by doing so, the Iranian doctor who tried to save Neda's life has come out to address her final moments. Dr. Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in England, revealed his identity as one of the men depicted in the viral video of Neda's death. He noted that Neda died in less than a minute, and his attempt to stop bleeding from the wound in her chest was unsuccessful. Hejazi says that he did not sleep for three nights after the incident. He also mentioned that the Basij member who supposedly shot Neda was quickly grabbed from his motorcycle by protesters, who took his ID card. As he was accosted by protesters, the Basij shouted that he did not want to kill her. Hejazi said that he believes his statements will prevent him from returning to Iran, but that he didn't want Neda's "blood to have been shed in vain."
The "when in doubt, blame America" strategy got Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this far, so why stop now? The Iranian president whose disputed re-election ignited the current unrest in Tehran went after President Obama in an interview with an Iranian news agency, demanding an apology for his recent condemnation of violence by the Iranian government. “I hope you will avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and express regret in a way that the Iranian people are informed of it," Ahmadinejad said. He added: "Our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously Bush used to say." Ahmadinejad has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since the election. His words come as the opposition claims some 70 university professors have been arrested. While protests are becoming less common in the streets than last week, some 100 MPs reportedly refused to attend a victory party for Ahmadinejad, a symbolic act of defiance that shows that the divisions on the street are at play in the government as well.
Another violent day in Iran: A rally of as many as 2,000 people today is the subject of numerous contradictory reports, as many blogs have posted video and tweets that paint a picture of a brutal, violent crackdown by 500 government forces. The Associated Press reported that gunshots were fired into the air, but reports elsewhere cited significantly more violence. Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish quotes a dramatic phone-call broadcast on CNN of a protester describing the horrific scene. "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," the woman said. The Lede backs up this story, saying that several Iranian bloggers have reported hearing gunshots at the rally. One tweet picked up by the Huffington Post and Andrew Sullivan is the most disturbing of all, "In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher...Fighting in Vanak Sq, Tajrish sq, Azadi Sq - now.." Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said reiterated that the election results will stand and the government has reportedly banned the family of Neda, the slain woman whose death has become a rallying cry for protesters, has been evicted from their home and is not allowed to mourn.
Another violent day in Iran: The Associated Press reports that "Protesters clashed with riot police again today around Iran’s parliament, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneisaid the country won’t annul the results of last week’s disputed presidential election." The AP adds that gunshots were fired into the air, but reports elsewhere report significantly more violence. Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish quotes a dramatic phone-call broadcast on CNN of a protester describing the horrific scene. "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," the woman said. The Lede backs up this story, saying that several Iranian bloggers have reported hearing gunshots at the rally. One tweet picked up by the Huffington Post and Andrew Sullivan is the most disturbing of all, "In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher . . . Fighting in Vanak Sq, Tajrish sq, Azadi Sq - now . ."
It's McCain vs. Obama all over again, and pundits can't get enough. A vocal critic of Obama's Iran policy, McCain may have been a target when Obama accused his Iran policy detractors of partisan bickering, noting "only I'm the president of the United State." But the man who wishes he was president kept speaking out, and pulled his military trump card, citing "long years of experience on these issues." Time Magazine’s Joe Klein, who reported from Iran during the election, has now jumped into the fray. On Monday, when asked about McCain’s remarks, Klein said, "Be quiet. You don't need to do this. You know? You know what you're doing is a self-indulgent at this point. Sen. McCain, if he's going to talk about this, should also talk about the fact that the United States supported Saddam Hussein in the Iran/Iraq war for eight years. Every one of those protesters out in the streets, every last one of them believes the United States supplied Saddam Hussein with the poison gas that has debilitated tens of thousands of Iranian men."
Things are looking troubling in Tehran: According to Reuters, “riot police and Basij militia appeared to have largely quelled mass protests against the June 12 poll.” Also, a conservative candidate, who originally disputed the election results, withdrew his complaint on Wednesday. And The Huffington Post has translated a report from a newspaper loyal to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that lays the groundwork for the arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi. It claims, “Tens of dead and injured, widespread destruction of public property, widespread fires, and hundreds of citizens' cars destroyed are the results of two weeks of dodging the law and the selfishness of Mir Hossein Mousavi.”
Mir Hossein Mousavi will not be speaking to his millions of supporters anytime soon if the Iranian secret police have anything to say about it. Mousavi is under 24-hour guard, and must be "careful what he says," according to Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who has emerged as an unofficial spokesman abroad for reformist sympathizers. Makhmalbaf, an Iranian film director, also claimed that security forces are speaking Arabic, indicating that they are foreign enforcers brought in to crack down on protesters. This claim could not be confirmed by the Independent. Lastly, Makhmalbaf claimed that "Within the last ten days, there has been a meeting between Mousavi and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," though, judging by his house arrest, nothing positive came of it.
Ignoring the protests of millions of its own citizens, Iran's parliament has pledged to inaugurate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president by mid-August, the LA Times reports. The announcement is another blow to reformist protesters, who already suffered the disappointment of the Guardian Council's announcement that they found no evidence of "major fraud." The LA Times also reports that the streets of Tehran have been relatively calm today; a likely result of the intensified oppression ordered by Ayatollah Khamenei. Meanwhile, the Iranian government continued lashing out at "foreign influences" by recalling its ambassador to Britain. A Reuters article reveals that Iranian television is claiming the death of Neda, which has become an icon of the reformist movement, was actually staged.
In case there was any doubt, demonstrators in Iran can now strongly be sure that President Obama is on their side: He pronounced himself “appalled and outraged” by the “threats, beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days.” “I strongly condemn these unjust actions,” he said at a news conference. "I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran's affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."
President Obama’s critics are getting what they asked for: He will host a press conference at 12:30 on Tuesday in order to condemn the Iranian government’s use of violence against protesters. The president has so far avoided any strongly worded condemnations for fear that the Iranian government might be able to rally people to its cause by claiming the U.S. is intervening in its affairs.
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