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POPSProtests flare in Iran's capital .... "....opposition protesters warned the Obama administration -- which is seeking to engage Iran to defuse a confrontation over Tehran's nuclear program -- that now's not the time for a deal." Hmmm....and this: "...Protesters chanted, "Death to the dictator" and "Russia is the den of espionage,".....
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POPSHard to Imagine, Australia Brings Israel, Iran Together of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East. Contact between Israeli and Iranian officials is sporadic and only takes place at international forums - no formal meetings between the two countries have occurred since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Officials from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other regional countries also took part in the three-day meeting and it is believed the talks floated an idea for a further regional conference - possibly hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - to outline the broad aims of a treaty to create a Middle East nuclear-free zone. Similar ideas have stalled in the past over the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and questions of security guarantees for Israel. But last month's talks in Egypt attempted to skirt such obstacles by focusing on proposals to safeguard any fissile material in the region that could potentially be used for nuclear weapons.
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POPSWhy are feminists like Azar Nafisi called "right wing" "neo cons?"
The quotes in the clip are welcome antidotes to the attitude our Beloved Leader is flacking towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. But the article itself leads into the story of <p>"a vibrant and beautiful young girl, Neda Agha-Soltan, and not the men who rule over Iran has become a symbol of Iranian people's fight for democracy and pluralism. Her murder, like those of Politkovskaya and Estermirova, gives the lie to the claims of those who vainly tried to silence them, and reminds the rest of us that we neither should or can evade the truth and its consequences."</p> The article is about a journalism award in honor of the Russian journalist, Ana Politkovskaya. She says that it was Politkovskaya's <p>"single-minded commitment to truth, and her demand for justice, that made her so dangerous to the tyrants in her country and inconvenient to leaders of western democracies.</p> More than this, Nafisi takes us on a world historical tour of feminists and feminism.
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POPSNeda Agha-Soltan's Fiance Has Been Released From Evin Prison in Iran Amnesty International had been calling for Makan's release, claiming he had been ill treated in prison and subject to coercion and torture. The circumstances of his release and his imprisonment are not immediately clear, and Amnesty International has apparently suspended its appeal but is continuing to monitor Makan's situation. Others involved in the circumstances surrounding the now-famous videotaped death of the young Neda Agha-Soltan have fled Iran in fear for their own lives, including Dr. Arash Hejazi, who attended to Neda after she was shot, and the television journalist who interviewed Caspian Makan after Neda's untimely death.
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POPSMass Trial of Iranian Protesters Deepens Nation's Divides
possibly more, in prison. Among the defendants are several prominent reformist opposition activists including former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, former vice speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mohsen Mirdamadi. Pictures from the courtroom showed a thin-looking Mr. Abtahi and a grim Mr. Mirdamadi, both in prison uniforms, sitting in the front row. More than a hundred defendants could be seen sitting in the packed courtroom, many of them handcuffed but without prison uniforms. State media didn't provide further details about the trial, and there was no information on when it would end or when a verdict would be expected. Iran's former reformist President Mohammad Khatami criticized the country's first trial of activists and protesters following the disputed presidential election as a sham.
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POPSAs a CIA spy, I saw in Iran what the West cannot ignore While the current Iranian president and his followers need to be removed and the people given freedom, I don't think the US making a move on its own can or should happen. First we are already stretched too thin on the military side of things. Economically we cannot afford to this. Politically, it has to be a total buy in for other major players (this probably won't happen). The current president is a sociopath and I feel terrible for those Iranians that have attempted to stand up for their freedom and for those that lost their lives doing so. The guy and his followers are nuts and dangerous to their own people and to the world.
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POPSThe Obama opiate: Crisis deepens, crowds cheer
"The destabilization of Iran, a product of massive US covert operations (and overt political manipulation) continues unabated, built upon the pretext of “restoring democracy”—a “stolen election” hoax, and an aggressive “color revolution” spearheaded by Anglo-American surrogates, aspiring puppets, and hordes of intelligence assets and so-called “liberals” touting “democracy”. The Iranian corridor remains critical, for the control of Central Asian and Middle East energy, and the Anglo-American empire is intent upon controlling it. A blatant coup in Honduras has been carried out in the classic fashion, according to the same intelligence playbook that has been at the core of US-Latin America policy since the Iran-Contra era; the same destabilization tactics used in recent years to topple the governments of Venezuela and Haiti. Domestically, Obama has endorsed the continued surveillance of the American people, and an even more ironclad electronic police state. While the average Ameri
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POPSIran Begins First Trial of Postelection Crisis » A prosecutor used Saturday's hearing to press the government's claims that the opposition is a tool of foreign enemies. He accused the three biggest opposition parties of receiving money from foreign non-governmental organizations as they plotted a government overthrow. The charges, read out in court by the prosecutor from a 15-page indictment, included attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system, Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reported. Reformists denounced the trial and said the defendants had no access to lawyers.
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POPSProtest Movement in Iran: Fighting the Arrogance of Power Deutsche Originalfassung: Protestbewegung im Iran - Gegen die Arroganz der Macht (de.qantara.de) Im Iran spricht niemand mehr von Wahlbetrug. Längst drehen sich die Debatten um die Ignoranz des Regimes gegenüber der Bevölkerung und die Geringschätzung ihres Denkvermögens.
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POPSIranians Rape Virgin Girls Before Executing Them And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die. "I remember hearing them cry and scream after was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her." Apparently, this was known. From a book review in 2002: It remains to be said that the fate of women in the prisons of the Iranian Islamic Revolution is worse than the fate of men. It is not necessarily because women are less resistant and less tolerant to torture, but because women are considered from the theological perspective of the Iranian regime to be an element of seduction, and their bodies a place of evil and impurity. The torture of a woman's body may take the form of rape. Despite the necessity of secrecy that imposes itself in these cases . . .
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POPSIranian Student Protests (1999) Also known as 18th of Tir and Kuye Daneshgah Disaster Persian فاجعه کوی دانشگاه in Iran 7"13 July 1 were, at that time, the most widespread and violent public protests to occur in Iran since the early years of the Iranian Revolution. The protests began on July 8 with peaceful demonstrations in Tehran against the closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam. Following the demonstrations, a student dormitory was raided by riot police that night during which a student was killed. The raid sparked six days of demonstrations and rioting throughout the country, during which at least three other people were killed and more than 200 injured. In the aftermath of these incidents, more than seventy students disappeared. In addition to an estimated 1200-1400 detainees, the "whereabouts and condition" of five students named by Human Rights Watch whom are believed to be detained by Islamic authorities remain unknown" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_student_protests,_July_1999
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POPSWho Was Neda Agha-Soltan Face of a Revolution? Neda has not been the only person to die during the anti-government protests. Iranian state television has reported 10 deaths, while the radio has reported 19. Many believe the true total is much higher
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POPS A Profoundly Dangerous Message Because never at any time since the revolution has public criticism been as open and as bitter as now. The state television channel as the mouthpiece of the regime is increasingly mocked for its lies. We watched in disbelief as it broadcast cookery shows during the upheaval. Now we view staged confessions by some of the countless individuals rounded up after the election. A colleague quietly left a piece of paper on my desk tallying recent news items on IRIB. Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman shot dead during a street protest, was mentioned three times; Uighur Muslims in China eight times and the killing of an Egyptian-born Muslim woman by a racist in Germany 140 times. Until recently, it was almost unheard of to utter criticism and the name of the Supreme Leader in the same breath. But now, even Ayatollah Ali Khamenei does not escape, and I don't mean just in conversations between trusted friends. My own father, seriously mistrustful of talking about anything . . .
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POPS7.9.2009 Iran Blogging 18 tir Tonight, via reader Wilcoy, a new post. 7:30 PM ET -- "Russia, Iran will never forgive you." From a reader, "Just wanted to say that one of the photos you linked to says 'Russia, Iran will never forgive you'. Iranians care a lot about how other countries respond to this crisis." Russia, as readers know, has celebrated Ahmadinejad's election "victory" and said little about the subsequent violence. 7:27 PM ET -- Allah-o Akbar! Earlier today, the NYT reported: An Iranian blogger wrote on Twitter about one hour ago that in the Amirabad district of Tehran, "people are all on the roofs" to resume the nightly ritual of shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is Great!") -- a form of protest turned against the Shah in the 1970s. Video from tonight... 7:12 PM ET -- "We are in this together." New York Times: A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kagar Street, paused for a minute and said, "I am not scared because we are in this together."
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POPSIran Opposition Finds New Ways to Protest Khamenei ordered Iran election fraud, says ex-president VIENNA,AUSTRIA Jul 07 2009 Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is personally behind the alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election, former Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr claimed in Vienna late on Monday. "The regime is edging closer to the abyss and is holding on to power solely by means of violence and terror," said Banisadr, who was Iran's first elected president following the 1979 Islamic revolution. The regime wanted to keep the population in a permanent state of uncertainty and fear and so systematic terror was institutionally organised and controlled by the regime and Khamenei, he added. "They don't want Iranians to be able to even think about protests in their own homes." Intellectuals and students were the main targets since they were regarded as the driving force behind the resistance, Banisadr continued. "Reformers and liberal pragmatists are to be wiped out."
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