L'ambasciata italiana a Teheran è stata attaccata con lo slogan "A morte l'Italia, a morte Berlusconi". Una risposta alle frasi del premier italiano contro l'Iran dette in conferenza stampa in Israele, quando aveva paragonato (in modo piuttosto esplicito) Ahmadinejad a Hitler.
Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate and now the darling who plays guitar on Fox News, wants to engage in mass murder.
Is Mike Huckabee really a psychopath or is he simply sucking up to the neocons?
“The U.S. should support an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear installations if the Jewish state, fearing diplomacy has failed, ultimately takes that course of action, stated former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee,” reports WorldNetDaily.Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate and now... more
L'Iran di Khamenei e Ahmadinejad ha recentemente impiccato due uomini, accusati di aver partecipato alle proteste dopo le elezioni e di essere "nemici di Dio" perché appartenenti a storici movimenti di opposizione, i monarchici e i socialisti dei Mujaheddin del popolo. Si tratta dell'ennesima intimidazione contro il movimento verde, pronto a mobilitarsi ancora in vista dell'11 febbraio, il 31° anniversario della rivoluzione del 1979. http://www.inaltreparole.net/it/esteri/iran070210.htmlL'Iran di Khamenei e Ahmadinejad ha recentemente impiccato due uomini, accusati... more
A 31 anni dalla rivoluzione iraniana, il progressista Mousavi indica Ahmadinejad come il nuovo monarca iraniano.
Dalla rielezione di Ahmadinejad nel giugno del 2009, vi sono frequenti manifestazioni contro il conservatorismo del Presidente.
La violenta repressione del Governo di Ahmdinejad ha portato a decine di morti in piazza, migliaia di arresti, torture in carcere e pena capitale per 5 manifestanti.
Nel 1979, i progressisti iraniani deposero lo scià Reza Pahlavi in favore della Repubblica Islamica.2 febbraio 2010
Tehran, Iran
A 31 anni dalla rivoluzione iraniana, il progressista... more
Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
Free the Mourning Mothers and Account for their Grievances
Security forces attacked and detained 30 members of Mourning Mothers in Laleh Park and surrounding streets in Tehran around 4 p.m. local time on Saturday, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported. Mourning Mothers is a group of mothers whose children have been killed in recent events.
More than a hundred police and plain clothes agents attacked today's gathering and transferred the detainees to the Vozara Detention Center in Tehran."No culture permits such violence to be unleashed against mothers. How can this government, which claims to have moral and religious authority, treat mothers who have lost their children in such a way? The Iranian officials should know that the activities of Mourning Mothers will not stop until their legitimate grievances are properly addressed," said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign's spokesperson.
An eyewitness, in an exclusive interview with the Campaign, described today's event as the following:
"I was in Laleh Park today around 4 p.m. More than a hundred police and plain clothes agents had occupied the park and its perimeter. They would not allow anyone to even sit on the benches or congregate. Every Saturday, the Mourning Mothers and their supporters gather in the Park. Today after about 70 mothers had entered the park, security forces engaged them and started chasing them, grabbing them, and forcing them into police vans. They used a lot of violence and insults in the process. One of the mothers who is 75 years old has been taken to a hospital."
After the killing of Neda Agha Soltan and Sohrab Aarabi by government forces during the summer protests, Mourning Mothers was formed by women whose children have been killed recently and their supporters. Many civil society activists as well as mothers whose children had been executed in previous years, as well as mothers whose children have been arbitrarily detained or disappeared at the hands of the security and intelligence forces have joined the group. The group's principle demand is for the authorities to be accountable for the deaths, disappearances, and detentions of their children.
The eyewitness told the Campaign that: "After the detentions of the Mothers, their families and other members of the group went to the Vozara Detention Center and forced the officials there to confirm and provide them the names of the detainees. The officials announced 30 names to them. Tomorrow, family members and their supporters will go back to demand their release from the judge in charge.
The Campaign called on the judicial authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all the detainees and to identify and prosecute all of the agents responsible for the attack and detention of the Mourning Mothers.Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
Free the Mourning Mothers... more
The regime may fall? In Iran broken out again the protests in the streets, that never really stopped since the election in June, won by Ahmadinejad with many suspicions of fraud. These days the opposition took advantage of Shiite religious festival of Ashura, which commemorates the death of the grandson of Muhammad, Husayn ibn Ali, killed in 680 AD by the troops of the Caliph Yazid. In the current political climate the Iranian religious feast has a special meaning. http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/world/iranrivolta281209.htmlThe regime may fall? In Iran broken out again the protests in the streets, that never... more
Il regime può cadere? In Iran è scoppiata di nuovo la protesta nelle strade, mai veramente interrotta dalle elezioni di giugno vinte da Ahmadinejad con molti sospetti di brogli. In questi giorni l'opposizione ha approfittato della festa religiosa sciita dell'Ashura, che commemora la morte del nipote di Maometto, Husayn ibn Ali, ucciso nel 680 d.C. dalle truppe del califfo Yazid. Nell'attuale clima politico e religioso iraniano la ricorrenza assume un particolare significato. http://www.inaltreparole.net/it/esteri/iranrivolta281209.htmlIl regime può cadere? In Iran è scoppiata di nuovo la protesta nelle... more
Iranian president dismisses western deadline to accept deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today dismissed a year-end deadline set by the US for Iran to accept a UN-brokered deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.
As Iran faces a renewed US drive for further sanctions, Ahmadinejad made light of the threat. "If Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you," he told supporters in the southern city of Shiraz. He said the west could give Iran "as many deadlines as they want, we don't care".
In an interview aired on US television yesterday, Ahmadinejad dismissed documents apparently describing Iranian efforts to make a nuclear trigger as "fabricated and distributed by the US".
The president brushed away a report in last week's Times newspaper that cited confidential Iranian technical documents detailing a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the part of a nuclear warhead that triggers detonation.
"No, I don't want to see them at all. I don't," he said. "They are all fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government," Ahmadinejad told ABC News.
David Axelrod, a top White House adviser, said the charge that the US had forged the documents was "nonsense".Iranian president dismisses western deadline to accept deal to swap enriched uranium... more
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said a document apparently showing that Tehran plans to test a trigger for a nuclear bomb is a US forgery.
LINK : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8425704.stmIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said a document apparently showing that... more
The passing of an Iranian cleric has led to a new surge of opposition protesting in the Iranian city of Qom. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri was one of the top clerics of Shia Islam and has been a key voice criticizing the regime in Tehran. He died in his sleep Saturday. Tehran Bureau has a fantastic obituary tracing his involvement in the movement that brought down the Shah through his opposition to Khamenei's role as Supreme Leader.
Montazeri's burial in Qom has attracted mourners from around the country and as more and more people have gathered, the event has turned more and more into an opposition protest against the regime.
The New York Times Lede Blog has been collecting mourning videos coming out of Qom and elsewhere in the country:
'Thanks to the reader who wrote to explain that the chant heard in this clip — “aza, azast emrooz, rooze azast emrooz, rahbar sabz iran pish khodast emrooz” — means, “mourning, there’s mourning, there’s mourning today; today is the day of mourning, the leader of Green Iran is with God today.” The reader explains, “While Montazeri was not considered the leader of the Green Movement, this points to him as the spiritual head of the Greens.”'
Despite the best efforts of the Iranian regime to defuse opposition protests, they seem to be unstoppable. Perhaps not in the same sizes as the demonstrations in June and July, but the fact that the opposition continues to use big events like this as a platform for protest shows its stubborn tenacity in the face of violence and media clampdowns.
Either Iran just got real aggressive in the last 24 hours or someone is out to make the Islamic Republic look bad. Real bad. First, last night, Twitter goes down. And it's replaced by this 1995-future-world "You got hacked" graphic.
Now I've never heard of the Iranian Cyber Army, but I commend them on using Gmail, which is really the superior web-based email service. The group's website did not tie them directly to the government, though a Farsi poem on the home page would point to them being supporters of the government.
From the CS Monitor:
Several lines of poetry in Farsi at the bottom of the “Cyber Army” page refer to the “Leader,” which is the common term used in Iran for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, suggesting that those who were behind the message could have been loyalists to Iran's Islamic system of rule. The verses read: “If the Leader orders, we will rush forward / If he asks us, we will offer our heads / If he wants us to be patient, we will tolerate and bear it.”
Meanwhile, in Iraq, authorities claim that Iranian soldiers have seized an oil well near Amara, just across the border from Iran. Iran's government has denied the claim and I've yet to find any independent source confirming the report.
So did the Islamic Republic decide to tear it up Thursday night (it is the new Friday, I hear)? Are its supporters lashing out (government-friendly hackers and an independently acting group of soldiers?). Or is there a plot to sully Iran's image underway?
A defecting member of the infamous Basij militia, the men who wounded and killed in the aftermath of the Iran elections in the summer, talks to Lindsey Hilsum about what he witnessed.
"I've lost my world and I've lost my religion" - the words of a former Iranian Basij militia member who says he witnessed killings and tried to stop rapes during the uprising that followed the disputed Presidential election in June.
After months of stories by witnesses and victims, we are now getting a picture of what went on by a man who claims he was part of the group ordered to carry out attacks.
He is now seeking refuge in the UK and has spoken exclusively to Channel 4 News about the orders the Basij were given to ensure President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election.A defecting member of the infamous Basij militia, the men who wounded and killed in... more
Here's one from the Department of We Are The World: Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address the U.N.'s climate summit in Copenhagen. Say what you will about these two gentlemen—the support for terrorists, the Holocaust denial, the suppression of civil liberties—at least nobody can accuse them of being global warming "deniers."
On the contrary, the two leaders, who met in Caracas last month for at least the 11th time, have been nothing if not cooperative when it comes to environmentally friendly and carbon-neutral technologies. Bicycles, for instance: In 2005, Chávez directed his government to "follow seriously the project of manufacturing Iranian bicycles in Venezuela." An Iranian dairy-products plant (no doubt ecologically sensitive) also set up shop hard on the Colombian border, in territory controlled by Colombia's terrorist FARC.
In six months there are never been good news from Iran. After Ahmadinejad won the election with a long series of frauds the repression against the protests has never ceased. Now Ayatollah Khamenei has threatened the opposition on television, declaring that "will be eliminated" and many Iranian blogs fear that the reformist leaders, Moussavi and Karroubi, could be arrested. Over the last 6 months more than 100 journalists were arrested and 50 have fled the country. http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/world/iranrepressione131209.htmlIn six months there are never been good news from Iran. After Ahmadinejad won the... more
Da sei mesi a questa parte non vengono mai buone notizie dall'Iran. Dopo che Ahmadinejad ha vinto le elezioni con una lunga serie di brogli la repressione contro le proteste non è mai cessata. Ora l'ayatollah Khamenei ha minacciato l'opposizione in tv, dichiarando che "sarà eliminata" e molti blog iraniani temono che i maggiori leader riformisti, Moussavi e Karroubi, potrebbero essere arrestati. Negli ultimi 6 mesi più di 100 giornalisti sono stati arrestati e 50 sono dovuti fuggire dal paese. http://www.inaltreparole.net/it/esteri/iranrepressione131209.htmlDa sei mesi a questa parte non vengono mai buone notizie dall'Iran. Dopo che... more
Yesterday was National Students Day in Iran. Traditionally, the Iranian President comes to a campus and addresses its students. Yesterday Ahmadinejad made no such appearance. Instead, thousands of Iranian students took to the streets of several cities to protest the regime.
From the LA Times: "...[A]mateur videotape posted on the Internet showed thousands of anti-government students chanting slogans and gathering on various campuses around the country. Credible reports of protests emerged from campuses in the central Iranian cities of Esfahan, Shiraz and Kerman, in the eastern city of Mashhad and in the western cities of Tabriz, Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam as well as in Rasht on the Caspian Sea."
The New York Times Lede Blog has a great round up of coverage from yesterday, including several videos. This video is of students at Ami Kabir University pulling down its gates.
These protests seem to have shifted from the aims of the first round of protests in the summer. Instead of being focused on the disputed election, there were various reports of protesters calling out the regime itself. From Newsweek:
"The first wave of dissent after the elections was explicitly focused on voter fraud, both from a genuine belief that the system would investigate the results and also so that protestors couldn't be accused of trying to overthrow the system. But as the government crackdown increased, the position of the opposition began to harden. The slogans today are the clearest indication yet that at least some elements of the opposition are not only challenging the results of the presidential election, but the regime itself. One video posted on the Internet today even showed a protestor burning pictures of both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad. This may not sit well with the moderate elements of the opposition, and the student protestors may have overplayed their hand."
The cycle of protests leading to harsher crackdowns leading to more radical protests leading to harsher crackdowns continues. What will become of Iran's opposition? Will they all end up jailed or repressed? Or are we looking at a crack in the very foundation of Iran's theocratic regime?
Iran said Wednesday it would produce whatever nuclear fuel it needed on its own, the latest indication it was rejecting a U.N.-backed deal aimed at reining in Tehran's nuclear program over fears it is geared to produce weapons.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will enrich its uranium to an even higher level on its own, after expressing frustration over the ongoing negotiations over the U.N. deal to exchange its low-enriched uranium for more highly enriched fuel rods.
One day, Ahmadinejad announce that Iran will build 10 nuclear power plants and will enrich uranium as he pleases, the day after other government officials say that the dialogue is still possible.The theater will go on like this for who knows how long. Meanwhile, in reality, the Iranians have yet to complete a nuclear power plant, and the Russians that are building it will complete it, perhaps, only in the course of next year. http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/world/irannucleare301109.htmlOne day, Ahmadinejad announce that Iran will build 10 nuclear power plants and will... more
Un giorno Ahmadinejad annuncia che l'Iran costruirà 10 centrali nucleari e arricchirà l'uranio come gli pare e piace, il giorno dopo altri esponenti del governo dichiarano che il dialogo è ancora possibile. Il teatrino andrà avanti in questo modo chissà per quanto ancora. Intanto in realtà gli iraniani non hanno ancora una centrale nucleare completa, e i russi che la stanno costruendo la finiranno, forse, solo nel corso del prossimo anno. http://www.inaltreparole.net/it/esteri/irannucleare301109.htmlUn giorno Ahmadinejad annuncia che l'Iran costruirà 10 centrali nucleari e... more
