I’m personally not interested in what Juan Cole says. The demonstrations are continuing but the regime is using water cannon exclusively as far as I can gather down here. They’ve realized murder is counter-productive and Neda has become a national symbol of regime brutality, more so than Zahra Kazemi who was illegally taking pictures outside Evin Prison despite signs along the walls forbidding photography.
And no, it’s by no means over.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 16:48 utc | 3

Don’t forget the boredom factor. It will take quite a bit more bloodshed to draw people away from Jon and Kate.

Posted by: dh | Jun 21 2009 17:02 utc | 5

Not just Atlanta, either. This thing’s really gone viral.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Iranian-Americans demonstrated on the streets of Washington on Wednesday evening, marching from the Iranian diplomatic offices to the Russian embassy, in protest of both governments’ actions.
The demonstration came in the wake of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Moscow on Tuesday, despite allegations of ballot fraud in Ahmadinejad’s re-election last week.
“We’re hoping that the world attention does not end from what the Iranians are doing right now, because this is not going to end in the next few days, because this is a long haul, a long battle,” said Washington protest and group organizer Morteza Ahmady. “Iranians are very capable of deciding their own destiny.”
The group Whereismyvote.org organized the demonstration of about 100 people and aims to build support for its “global protest” this Saturday.
“I think it’s a very new thing from a historical point of view; it’s a civic movement. People try to keep it as nonviolent and civil as possible,” said group organizer Negar Mortarzavi.
In Russia, Ahmadinejad was welcomed as the “newly re-elected president of Iran,” with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov telling reporters, “the issue of elections in Iran is an internal affair of the Iranian people.”
Eighty-five percent of the country’s 46 million eligible voters went to the polls last Friday, an unprecedented turnout, Iran’s interior ministry said. When the ballots were counted, the government declared Ahmadinejad the winner, with 62.63 percent of the vote. The man many analysts had widely expected to win, Mir Hossein Moussavi, received 33.75 percent.
The speed with which the election results were released insulted the Iranian people, said Ahmady, who cited that as a sign of fraud.
Moussavi’s camp has demanded new elections.
Sarah, a Washington protester who would give only her first name, agreed.
“We’re not saying that pro-Ahmadinejad supporters don’t exist; they do exist,” she said. “And we’re saying that, yes, if they indeed did win the vote, then the election should be theirs, because we are a democratic people. But we don’t feel comfortable with the numbers that came out of Iran. And we’re not saying that we don’t accept it altogether. We’re just asking for a revote.”

Iranian-Americans protest outside Russian embassy
Seriously, though, what do these “protesters” hope to accomplish by protesting in D.C. outside of the Iranian and Russian Embassies? What could possibly come of such an act? Is it just pure symbolism?
Note the part I bolded. Sorry, but that’s definately Color Revolution tactics and has Intelligence Services written all over it. Global protest?

Posted by: Obamageddon | Jun 21 2009 17:18 utc | 7

“They’ve realized murder is counter-productive”
Its about time. I hope you are right about that. I think I’ve been saying it all week. It is true of course, that if such a demonstration happened in Egypt, Mubarak would gladly kill 10 times as many and the world would barely notice. But that is not much comfort to protesters in Iran.
If Parviz is right and the government can contain the protests without death or serious injury, then the worst may be over. If demonstrators are willing to push things to the point where police “are forced” to kill, then maybe not.

Posted by: Lysander | Jun 21 2009 17:21 utc | 9

but business is business so cnn & sister in arms huffington post continue in their hysteric fashion

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 21 2009 17:27 utc | 11

@jbc – @8 Iran’s central government should begin to delegate more authority to provincial governments with respect to those issues/reforms that can be addressed locally i.e lifestlye issues, moral codes, religious codes, marriage laws …
Just wondering … would that not likely be more suppressive if every local wingnut can up their own rules?

Posted by: b | Jun 21 2009 17:35 utc | 13

Well, bang on cue at 10 p.m. this evening the streets of Tehran rang with the deafening sound of Allah Akbar and Death to the Dictator, louder than anything I’ve heard before. A few thousand protestors are battling the Guards in downtown Tehran and there are still protests across the country.
Iran Khodro, Iran’s largest automobile manufacturer, is on strike in sympathy with the protesters.
5 of the key figures in Iran’s revolutionary history have condemned the vote rigging, namely:
1. Rafsanjani, former 2-term President and Chairman of the Council of Experts which chooses the Supreme Leader.
2. Larijani, Chief Nuclear Negotiator under Khatemi Speaker of the current hardline Parliament.
3. Moussavi, the 8-year prime minister and the rightful President
4. Khatemi, 2-term President.
5. Karroubi, former Parliamentary Speaker whose reformist newspaper is the most widely read in Iran (yet he ended up allegedly with only 300,000 votes!?!)
… plus many SENIOR Grand Ayatollahs including Montazeri, Sanei, Taeri (= more senior than Khatemi who is simply an ‘Ayatollah’),
…. not to forget the 50 million pissed-off Iranians.
I love the caption of this thread. There’s not an immediate change of government and you think “it’s over”, thereby ignoring the fact that it took one whole year of on-again, off-again demonstrations to get rid of the Shah.
It’s over? The title is not only wildly premature but follows the same pattern visible in every other thread except mine …

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 17:56 utc | 15

Sorry for the typo: I meant more senior than Khamnei.
Here’s Iran Khodro’s declaration:
Strike in Iran Khodro:
We declare our solidarity with the movement of the people of Iran.
Autoworker, Fellow Laborers (Laborer Friends): What we witness today, is an insult to the intelligence of the people, and disregard for their votes, the trampling of the principles of the Constitution by the government. It is our duty to join this people’s movement.
We the workers of Iran Khodro, Thursday 28/3/88 in each working shift will stop working for half an hour to protest the suppression of students, workers, women, and the Constitution and declare our solidarity with the movement of the people of Iran. The morning and afternoon shifts from 10 to 10:30. The night shift from 3 to 3:30.
Laborers of IranKhodro
So whoever thinks this was a Gucci-Revolution (personified by the infamous Parviz), and not broad-based as I have stated all along, is uninformed at best and ideologically handicapped at worst. B, didn’t you jump the gun a little with this thread?

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 18:02 utc | 17

I suspect most Teherani could live with occasionally having to defer to different codes when they travel out into the country for a few days.
Jony_b_cool:
What utter rubbish. Have you ever been to the north, 800 km of Caspian coastline where th rules are more relaxed than Tehran? Or to Kermanshah where you are offered alcoghol without even asking for it?
This is a broad-based, nationwide demand for personal and political freedom. Foreigners are continually blinded by the regime’s rent-a-crowds you see on CNN and have not the foggiest clue what is going on in my country. People actually leave Tehran and visit the Caspian for more freedom. Please comment only on what you’ve personally witnessed.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 18:09 utc | 19

Sorry, jony, I’ve promised myself (and Lizard) to reform. I just saw red when I saw the title of this thread which is in complete contrast to events on the ground.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 18:18 utc | 21

Parviz.. quite dribbling so much shit you idiot.
I love it how you think you speak on behalf of “50 million pissed off Iranians”. You don’t even speak for one.

Posted by: Ehsan | Jun 21 2009 18:20 utc | 23

Sorry, still lurking …
Jeez, Obamageddon, how old are you? Honestly. This thread is about whether “it’s over” or not, and I gave a simple example of how long such things can take even in the best of circumstances. And you pipe up with some asinine comment that condemns my nation to eternal corruption and damnation. Clean up your own nation first before spitting at mine. Your post was nothing but fatuous “lipstick on a pig” drivel.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 18:33 utc | 25

also, an 85% turnout was reported and if we can assume that was higher than expected, we would expect that some polling-stations would have experienced & reported delays as a result of ballot-papers running out. And one would expect a pretty uniform pattern of run-outs across the country. Hence, some correlations & patterns may be visible by applying elementary and easily understandable statistics on the run-outs, where they occurred, where they did not occur, who won there, …
ideally, the required data is available at the MOI. But some of it should be available from local newspapers or from local officials, candidate-representatives too & possibly voters.
it would be particularly interesting to examine those voting precincts that reported really high turnouts but no accompanying run-out.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Jun 21 2009 18:35 utc | 27

“On another thread, you claim that you support an Islamic Republic”
O-My-Godden, What have you been drinking? or should I say, smoking?
Please provide the link to any thread where I’ve ‘supported’ the Islamic Republic.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 18:41 utc | 29

Parviz et al: what do you thik about MK Bhadrakumar’s article on Asia Times (Asia Cautions US on Iran, June 20). He seems to see this event as an ill-timed and dangerous attempt by the clerics, using Rafsanjani as their stalking horse, to counter the attacks on their privileges and authority lead by Ahmadinejad.

Posted by: senecal | Jun 21 2009 18:45 utc | 31

This thread is about whether “it’s over” or not, and I gave a simple example of how long such things can take even in the best of circumstances.
If the time frame is from 1979 until today, it’s still not over, so how old are you that you can’t think in multiple perspectives? The revolution never ended, or was never resolved adequately. Deposing the Shah was only one leg of that campaign. Another leg was replacing his opressive monarchical rule with a form of Government that was the antithesis of the previous tyranical system. That leg never manifested. The Mullahs usurped the Iranian people’s hopeful future and coopted what could have been a complete revolution. So, we’re in agreement in a general sense. These things take a long time. This particular revolution is 30 years and counting so far.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Jun 21 2009 18:46 utc | 33

My final, final goodnight. I hope Ehsan has some really juicy Faustian nightmares.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 18:48 utc | 35

Parviz, how can you sleep at a time like this? I know I couldn’t. Arenaline keeps me up, as it does most normal people. Of course, if it’s just a job, I can understand the fatigue and the need for rest after a long day’s work.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Jun 21 2009 18:53 utc | 37

37, for the record, I’ve never supported the essence of the Islamic Republic. I HAVE supported the Islamic Republic’s support of Hamas and Hezbollah, but that’s not the same thing.
Lysander, you guessed right. I’m still awake. Let’s see how long I can stay awake, but I have to feed my family too and they’re pissed of because my wife only sees me behind a computer all evening (after being away all day).

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 18:56 utc | 39

After wavering between this and that and here and there, I’m saying this is a color revolution full of Western and Israeli black ops. My sympathies to all the sincere people.

Posted by: yuri | Jun 21 2009 19:00 utc | 41

Israel the excuse it needs to divert attention from its own atrocities, and maybe even bomb Iran.

Since when does Israel need excuses and justifications?

Posted by: yuri | Jun 21 2009 19:02 utc | 43

@outside @38 – Angela Merkel et al now call for a new election
This is a sign that it is indeed over. Only now the ‘western leaders’ dare to say such things because now they know that saying so will not change anything.
As Arnold expressed:

Obama until now had remained publicly neutral because he understands that a statement in support of the protesters is far more likely to discredit them than to inspire them. As it has become clear that there is nothing left to lose, Obama is now free to speak to his domestic audience that wants the US president to openly take the side of protest against Ahmadinejad’s government.

Same goes for Merkel …

Posted by: b | Jun 21 2009 19:06 utc | 45

(44):
“Yet you support Moussavi and his good friend, Rafsanjani, and what are they aside from the “essence” of the Islamic Republic?
More vicious lies. I am on record on this Blog as stating that I and everyone I knew were going to boycott the election till the sparks really flew in the final week of campaigning and 2 candidates said the Constitution needed to be changed. Grow up, will you?
Why do you keep trying to paint me as ‘defender of the Islamic Republic’, or ‘defender of Rafsanjani’ whom I’ve constantly referred to as the most corrupt person on Earth? Your constant misrepresentations seem designed consciously to exhaust me by forcing me to continually deny your lies and prevent me from providing other information such as in my next thread. Stop it.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 19:34 utc | 47

Paviz,
realistically, this has overall been a big plus for the reformist movement and the mullahs are more than a little nervous. One big obstacle for the reformists I suspect is Ahmadinejad’s impressive ability to cultivate the poorer segments of Iranian society. Thats the element the reformists do’nt have an answer for. But the reformists should be very careful not to follow a course that so weakens Iran internally that it is overwhelmed and subsequently partitioned by outsiders.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Jun 21 2009 19:43 utc | 49

In a statement on his website, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri called for three days of national mourning for those killed. This is Montazeri’s way of getting people to strike informally since people attending funerals cannot be shot. This was the tactic that brought down the Shah since there were funerals each and every day on the 3rd and 40th day after the deaths, so after the first 30 deaths it was continuous and never-ending, with those unrelated to the victims attending in solidarity. I shall attend the Neda funeral tomorrow at the Niloofar Mosque in Abbas Abad, Tehran.
“It’s Over”? No, “It’s Just The Beginning” which would have been a more appropriate title for those witnessing the events and with a knowledge of how the Pahlavi Dynasty was brought to its knees.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 19:57 utc | 51

Iran’s religious clerks in Qom and members of the Assembly of Experts are considering the formation of an alternative collective leadership to replace that of the supreme leader. This is why Rafsanjani (Chairman of the Council that elects the Religious Leader) has been so quiet and has spent so much time in Qom with senior dissident Ayatollahs.
Rafsanjani’s daughter Faezeh was released just now after a brief detention, so it’s definitely ‘Game On’.
Khamenei screwed up by arranging the national fraud. He would have gotten away with it under normnal circumstances when a mass boycott (as occurred 4 years ago) would have seen the monkey re-elected by default. But the debates were the turning point in 30 years of repressive, fanatical and equally hypocritically religious rule. They were what persuaded me and my friends not just to vote but to turn out in force. Same as occurred with many of the previous 20 million boycotters.
b, do you still think Ahmadinejad won fair and square?

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 20:13 utc | 53

b, re your comment:
“the crisis will now peter out. Unfortunately the damage done to Iran’s image will only be repaired over a longer time frame. That was certainly not the intend of the people on the streets in Tehran, but likely the intend of the people who planed and started this.
As emes correctly asks above, exactly who is supposed to have organized this forest fire? Please re-read my post 53 for the answer.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 20:16 utc | 55

it’s over
when parviz has clearly retreated from the possibilities of a general strike into an ‘informal’ one(whatever that means) we know that this movement does not have the support of the masses

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 21 2009 20:34 utc | 57

Outsider, that was a cheap trick, posting in my name.

Posted by: Outsider | Jun 21 2009 20:36 utc | 59

Sorry, b, I did a reverse impersonation in 59.
Seriously, this habit should be banned. It’s both dangerous and reduces the credibility of your Blog when it’s so simple to enter another person’s name instead of your own. It reduces the Blog to a kindergarten for little boys like outsider.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 20:42 utc | 61

The Paper:
Parviz, Montazeri has been openly against the regime for quite a while and wasn’t able to change anything. He has been mostly under house arrest for at least a decade for that same reason. Don’t put his statements as something surprising or as the cleric class supporting this stupid powerplay.
Montazeri bravely but foolishly opposed Khomeini while the latter was still alive. The time wasn’t ripe for Montazeri’s proposals. In politics ‘Timing’ is everything. Khruschev would have been as successful as Gorbachev if Khruschev had tried to liberalize Communism several decades later.
Like the Soviet Union in the Eighties, the Islamic Regime is a system rotting internally under the weight of corruption, backwardness, global arrogance, pure reliance on militarization and control of the populace through domestic barbarity. Montazeri’s (and Grand Ayatollah Sanei’s and Grand Ayatollah Taeri’s and the Qom Seminary’s and the Association of Combatant Clerics) encouragements are now fuelling the already blazing fire.
“Stupid power play”? I believe in different horses for different courses. I don’t claim the powers of prophecy or wander around like the Monkey claiming there’s a halo around my head and that “the entire U.N. was hypnotized by my maiden speech and not a single person blinked for 30 minutes”, but I DO know that the clergy has lost its aura, the respect of the people and, more importantly, the FEAR of the people. They’re still out there facing down the goons and the Kalashnikovs and, believe me (This is also for you, emes) there are intensive secret debates among even the Guards who don’t really want to kill the young unarmed students, women and children. Believe it or not, the Guards still retain respect for having defended the country against Iraq. Now they’re being asked to do something totally contrary to their past history.
Don’t count on knee-jerk obedience by the military apparatus.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 21 2009 20:48 utc | 63

Even Perez had his moment of sincerity:

“Everything evil and repulsive about the Iranian regime is reflected in the personality of Ahmadinejad, so in that context he’s better for Israel,” he added.

VOA News

Posted by: emes | Jun 21 2009 21:05 utc | 65

So, to see thought out and coordinated action in Iran we could wait for IR ceding it’s power (which will never hapen) or for a war. There is no third coordinated way.
Understood, but without a coordinated effort, and instead a fragmented protest that doesn’t represent the entirety of the Iranian people, and not even the majority, or their will, this thing is doomed to fail. If it has no purpose other than to scream “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,” then it’s nothing more than running in place. You’ll never get from Point A to Point B, because there is no agreed upon Point A or Point B.
Now, if the purpose of the protests, unwitting protesters aside, is to induce a head-splitting crackdown complete with summary executions for the protesters, then I would say, yes, there is a chance of success for that, however limited. If that’s the purpose, and it may be, then Israel is either very lucky, or more skilled than even Alice The Kurious imagined.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Jun 21 2009 21:29 utc | 67

Like the Soviet Union in the Eighties, the Islamic Regime is a system rotting internally under the weight of corruption, backwardness, global arrogance, pure reliance on militarization and control of the populace through domestic barbarity.
If that’s the case, then why not wait until the rot has so permeated the corpse there can be no effective defense against the people’s will. There’s no need for an uprising at this time. Allow time to take its course, and start planting the seeds of a new system now, so when the time comes, the new system can use the rotting corpse of the former system as fertilizer for a healthy one?
Of course, that would require you and others to finally, once and for all, to define what you really want, and AGREE upon it. That’s a tall order, from what I gather. The Iranian people are not a monolithic group of one mind.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Jun 21 2009 21:35 utc | 69

Even when the whole thing settles up we will still see a lot of problems. If they are able to finally control the opposing movement and if the iranian leadership has the slightless suspicion of open collaboration by the US or other western powers it will search some payback (as they are used to do, for example in the 80s and 90s). What do they will use? May be Iraq? For example some kind provocation that would produce mass demostrations against the US presence in Iraq would be quite ironic when the western media would try to disregard the ‘democratic’ voice of the people.
Of course from the other side all our ‘freedom loving’ western powers will also further the campaign to destroy Iran as a independent power and the propaganda pitch will go up by a few notch. So much for those that were seeing reproachment with Obama (soon to be called Bush The Third). I still see an attack (not an invasion) quite more possible after this event than before. Regime change failed, may be they will keep trying for a bit more disestabilization, perhaps more sanctions. But they will eventually go, with bloody Netanyahu, for the main plan.

Posted by: ThePaper | Jun 21 2009 21:56 utc | 71

bbccb

Posted by: zadeh | Jun 21 2009 22:10 utc | 73

parviz
please, there has been nothing serious in your posts since you suggested there were shock troops of hamas or hezbollah.. you are a one man propaganda bureau. evangalism in anyone’s arguments reveals their essential hollowness
hal
f this thread & many other have been given over to the most fantastic concoctions – it is clear that the repressive state apparatus in iran is concentrating control but in that they are no different from many other states – but the fabrications torn from whole cloth have made it even harder to determine exactly what that apparatus is doing
put simply – i do not trust to any degree – what our iranian friends here are telling us – its agenda is too clear, its purpose concentrated, its methodology eerily similar to other incursions here in the past
i hope the real situation will oblige them to be truthful & something that passes for information can be shared – not the cnnisation of the soul we have been witness to for the last few days

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 21 2009 22:24 utc | 75

I do not know more about Iran
Well, arnold?

Posted by: slothrop | Jun 21 2009 23:08 utc | 77

I think all the talk throughout the years on this blog worshiping “the people” who dare oppose oppression, blah, blah, has been solidly qualified by a veneration deserved of the people so long as they are incontrovertibly hostile to “America.”
That’s really all it boils down to.
The bizarre condescension of some here like arnold, who admits (and a visit to his website confirms completely) that he knows jackass about Iran, is comical and terrifying at once. It highlights another intellectually mortifying contradiction. For years here, the greatest sensitivity to the inherent wisdom of indigenous political actors has dictated, rightly so, a presumption that in the absence of information, some faith is owed by us to the intelligence of people “on the ground” who know better than we do why someone would risk death protesting a perceived tyranny.
Well, fuck all that! One man’s revolution is another moa blogger’s counter-revolution. damn.

Posted by: slothrop | Jun 21 2009 23:27 utc | 79

http://www.informationdissemination.net/2009/06/reality-of-generation-ys-virtual-world.html
approach of the “pork” crowd

Posted by: constant | Jun 21 2009 23:38 utc | 81

Sloth, I don’t see any purpose in engaging.

Posted by: Arnold Evans | Jun 22 2009 0:02 utc | 83

Parviz and other Iranians, especially those sympathetic to the protesters, I still really would like to hear what, as specifically as you can, you are trying to accomplish, and how the protests tie into your strategy for that.

Posted by: Arnold Evans | Jun 22 2009 0:04 utc | 85

Parviz @ 3:
They’ve realized murder is counter-productive and Neda has become a national symbol of regime brutality, more so than Zahra Kazemi who was illegally taking pictures outside Evin Prison despite signs along the walls forbidding photography.
Yah, how dare that evil stupid bitch take a picture near a sign forbidding pictures. She should have been raped by the entire Repuplican Guard not just one or two in a dungeon. The sepah should have been awarded a medal for pulling her fingernails out for defending the Islamic Republics honer and integrity and protecting the laws of the people. How dare she take a picture of protesting students that might possibly discredit the Islamic regime. Most appalling is that nobel laureate whore Shirin Ebaidi having the gall to actually defend her. They should have dragged that slut out in the street and skinned her alive.

Posted by: Sam | Jun 22 2009 0:14 utc | 87

@ yuri why are you attributing the actions of the Iraqi resistance onto the motives of the Iranian protesters?

I’m not, I’m illustrating that the protesters, IMO of course, have been hijacked and are easily made use of by provocateurs and assassins and they are leaving their nation open to Machiavellian schemers. I don’t see a change in tactics which is my main criticism because what Iran wants is really none of my business.
In my estimation, and as Parviz himself pointed out a while back, ( Khamenei’s Aura of Invincibility Shattered ) things are not going to go back to normal. This should be a major success and one to be made use of without taking down the nation. Mousavi, as far as I can tell, is indeed open to the accusation that the deaths will be on his head.
As for the comments section, it is a trial and unfortunately the fascinating and important information gets quickly swamped with accusations. Pity.

Posted by: yuri | Jun 22 2009 0:19 utc | 89

@Debs is dead
I did pick up on it, it just wasn’t worth replying to, like most of the other comments on this thread and others. They are so basically wrong, that I don’t know where to start, and believe me I’ve tried.
It’s been a huge mistake for me to post on this blog. A big waste of time. Hours and hours, finding numbers, facts, articles, giving background of the situation. Painstakingly answering people’s questions, one after another. But glub glub the same shit always floats to the top.
Here‘s Eric Hooglund (foremost scholar on Iran for 30 years) analysis of the myth of AN winning the poor rural areas.
I also suggest just not posting any more stories on Iran. If you really think it’s over, it’s over. Please I beg of you, leave Iran alone. Talk about Israel or Iraq or something. Dennis Ross. Do the world a favor. No more long threads of uneducated opinions, by thickheaded people unwilling to do basic background reading.

Posted by: Amir S. | Jun 22 2009 0:23 utc | 91

would like to echo Thrasyboulos @ 90

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 22 2009 0:42 utc | 93

Debs is dead @ 84:
at the sight of such naked vitriol, all it does for normal humans is lead them to question yet again why any Iranian who cares about what is going on in Iran would bother to join in.
Actually for such a small community there has been a lot of Iranians that have joined the discussion. Those that get attacked by the regulars are not attacked because they are Iranian but for their views they have posted. This is normal to question one’s motives when something seems awry. Most of the attacks have been agianst Parviz because nobody can figure out where he is coming from and he has openly posted bullshit like armed Lebanese Arabs on the streets of Tehran suppressing the people.
He has distorted the conversation so much that posters like Cynthia actually thought this was a secular uprising against the theocracy and used Parviz name as proof. He says he is agianst the theocracy even he devotes a front page post to praising the cleric Khatemi and predicting he would win the election and it would enshrine a new era of prosperity and a grand bargain with the US. If he wouldn’t attack the regular posters with name calling and denigration he probably wouldn’t be attacked himself.

Posted by: Sam | Jun 22 2009 1:18 utc | 95

Iran does not have Republican Guards
Just a slip of the tongue while busy reading and posting Degonfly. Sorry for the error.
in case your mother tongue is Arabic, not Persian.
Now that’s a first. I’m a 100% whitey.
Some references on this is highly appreciated.
I already posted the link yesterday but just for you I’ll do it again:

Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in Iranian custody on July 11, 2003, almost three weeks after she was arrested for taking pictures outside a prison during a student protest in Tehran.
…
Evidence of a very brutal rape.
A skull fracture, two broken fingers, missing fingernails, a crushed big toe and a broken nose.
Severe abdominal bruising, swelling behind the head and a bruised shoulder.
Deep scratches on the neck and evidence of flogging on the legs.

CBC
Your welcome

Posted by: Sam | Jun 22 2009 2:30 utc | 97

Sam, the CBC has shown itself to be completely unreliable so far as news from Iran is concerned.
And you are not much better: the case of Zahra Kazemi was considerably more complex than the faux factoids with which you regale your unwitting readers. You note too that it occurred in 2003, during the Presidency of someone who was not Ahmedinajad or a supporter of his policies.
As to your self-characterisation as “100% whitey” it probably encapsulates your ability to comment on Iranian society.

Posted by: ellis | Jun 22 2009 3:07 utc | 99