Iranian photographers capture the crisis

By GottaLaff

Here's the link. Take a look at the stunning photos.

A few excerpts from that site:

Rejoice or Despair?

From one of our friends in Iran: "Everyone is so energized and pumped up but no one knows how it will all end so enthusiasm and anxiety are inseparable and unavoidable. The city is burning with equal doses of energy and rage and thugs who look like they've been unleashed from the city jail roam the streets wielding sticks and batons. The contrast between the civility of yesterday's mass protest and the brutality of the thugs (they don't even deserve to be called police or security) is almost unbearable. We cannot decide whether to rejoice or despair. "

Reporter arrested in Iran

A Demotix reporter has been arrested and had his camera seized in Iran.

The contributor, who submitted videos from the streets of Tehran to Demotix, contacted us late last night after being released from custody by police. His camera, car and ID card were seized by police, and he was told to report back to police today, 17 June, to be handed to a judge.

While in custody, he was led by officials to believe that were he to be found guilty as a spy, he could be executed.

He said, “Just pray for me. Ten years ago in ‘Koye daneshgah’ [Tehran University] I was arrested, and it's a nightmare for me to repeat my memories...”

VIDEO: Ahmadinejad regime prepares fraudulent ballots before Iran election

By GottaLaff

Via Mother Jones:

David Corn relays this report from a "reliable witness" inside Iran:

...HAS HIT THE FAN...TOHID SQUARE ON FIRE, PEOPLE ARE CHANTING, ALL ALONG SATTER KHAN STREET CHAOS, THEN SUDDENLY QUIET, PEOPLE EATING ICE CREAM, ETC., THEN MORE CHAOS, ROCKS, FIRE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREETS, CHANTS CHANTS CHANTS AND IT IS NOT YET NIGHT...TEHRAN IS ON FIRE TONIGHT... [...]

There are also clandestine videos being released on YouTube and elsewhere, most of them shot on cell phones, showing the beating, tear gassing, and shooting of protestors. This one, sent to us by an Iranian reporter, reportedly shows how the Ahmadinejad regime prepared stacks of fradulent ballots before the election even began:

How Bush 2000 of them.

At least one Iran watcher in Washington has a dark view of what lies ahead. Daniel Brumberg, acting director of the Muslim World Initiative of the US Institute of Peace, tells Mother Jones:

The regime seems to have an effective plan for quelling the protests. I think they will prevent any major mobiization inthe streets. All Khatami allies, clerics and lay, will be purged, forced to confess on TV that they are agents of the US. Welcome to Stalinism with an Islamist flavor: Iran moves to dictatorship. Sorry to be so grim, but that is my guess.

Read the rest of this really terrific, albeit disturbing, article here.

H/t: David Corn

The Green Revolution is Electrifying in Its Courage on the Streets: America Needed That in 2000

By GottaLaff

Mark Karlin gives us a Bonus Dose of BuzzFlash:

If the American public who was outraged by the theft of the election from Al Gore in 2000 were as courageous and defiant then as the Green Revolution in Iran is now, we may not have had to endure 8 years of destruction to America and the world under Bush and Cheney.

That's not to say there weren't public demonstrations in the U.S. in 2000 -- as the much under-reported opposition protests during Bush's first inauguration proved in January of 2001 -- but they paled by comparison to the sense of longing and outrage demonstrated not just in words, but with bodies, in Iran.

Please go read the whole thing here.

VIDEO: One person killed in gun shooting in tehran, iran, 20th june

By GottaLaff

Warning: Graphic:

One young man was killed by millitia at shadmehr st., Azadi St. in tehran election rally

Statement from President Obama on Iran

By GottaLaff

Via White House.gov:

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

John McCain: "Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran."



Imagine if that fool had been elected President of the United States.

Why is Obama Speaking Softly about Iranian Election? Ask North Korea

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash:

Why is Obama Speaking Softly about Iranian Election? Ask North Korea

I tried to post this yesterday, but Blogger was broken.

Iranian Traffic Engineering: The Chart

By GottaLaff

Via The Motley Moose:

Arbor Networks provides a good view on Iran's connection to the Internet via the Internet Observatory. The fat healthy traffic to the left of the dropoff is what Iranian Internet traffic looks like at normal times, the cliff denotes the election and to the right of that you see traffic increasingly "leaking" past the imposed restrictions.

A chart is worth a thousand words.

BBC Caught In Mass Public Deception With Iran Propaganda

By GottaLaff

News corporation uses photo from pro-Ahmadinejad rally, claims it represents anti-government protest

UPDATE: I've been told to consider the source, and that Ahmadinejad hasn't been around for a couple of days, so... I copy and paste, you decide.

UPDATE #2, courtesy of Oliver Willis: Those guys are crazy conspiracy theorists. 9/11 truther nutjobs.

So: Take this post with a grain o' nutjobs. I'll leave it up just to expose them.

Wrong. No. And not too wise, I might add:

The BBC has again been caught engaging in mass public deception by using photographs of pro-Ahmadinejad rallies in Iran and claiming they represent anti-government protests in favor of Hossein Mousavi.

An image used by the L.A. Times on the front page of its website Tuesday showed Iranian President Ahmadinejad waving to a crowd of supporters at a public event.

In a story covering the election protests yesterday, the BBC News website used a closer shot of the same scene, but with Ahmadinejad cut out of the frame. The caption under the photograph read, ‘Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi again defied a ban on protests’. [...]

As soon as the truth about the misrepresented images surfaced on the WhatReallyHappened website yesterday, the BBC changed the photo caption on their original article. The caption now reads, ‘Tehran has seen mass demonstrations by all sides since the disputed election’.

This is not the first time the BBC has been caught red-handed using crude image and video framing techniques for the purposes of political propaganda.

Much more here.

Do they not realize the consequences of this kind of deception, especially in light of the enormity of this story?

GOP: You Either Believe in Democracy for Both Iran and U.S. or You Don't Believe in Democracy

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash:

GOP: You Either Believe in Democracy for Both Iran and U.S. or You Don't Believe in Democracy

So who are these lefty, pinko, crazed politicians? Why, they are House Minority Leader John Boehner, former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. [...]

Where was this Republican outcry in 2000 or 2004? The Iranian government has called for a partial recount, just like the Bush team wanted in 2000.

And this doesn't even dive into irregularities over preventing and deterring people from getting to vote in all of the above cases.

Republicans are fond of being more concerned about those in other countries rather than focus on those at home. Democrats haven't been completely blameless, either, often going along with their misguided policies.

There's your nibble. Now go for the whole enchilada here.

Quotes of the Day

Michigan Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

Here’s Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), via The Hill:

Oppressed minorities includeHouseRepubs: We are using social media to expose repression such as last night’s D clampdown shutting off amends

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

VIDEO: Iran Boils Over--Dramatic recap of the past week

By GottaLaff



Via

Bush’s Man In Iran Lauds Obama’s Handling Of Iran Crisis

By GottaLaff

Hmm, a Bushie gives props to Prez O? Why yes. And appropriately, in this case. How very unRovian:

[G]uess who is praising Obama’s approach and saying Obama’s right to refrain from McCainian chest-thumping: George W. Bush’s top negotiator with Iran, Ambassador Nicholas Burns.

In an interview today with NPR, Burns praised Obama’s handling of the crisis, and said that a more aggressive response would actually play into the hands of President Ahmadinejad.

“President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see a very aggressive series of statements by the United States that would try to put the U.S. in the center of this,” Burns said. “And I think President Obama is avoiding that quite rightly.”

“This is not a dispute for the U.S. to be the center of,” Burns said at another point. “It’s up to Iranians to decide who Iran’s future leaders will be. He said he respects Iran’s sovereignty. I think it was important to do that.”

Burns said that Obama was right to refrain from throwing the U.S.’s weight around while giving props to reformers. He praised Obama for being “low-key” while saying he’s concerned about the plight of reformers and inspired by them, which Burns called a “balancing act.” Audio here.

It’s worth recalling that this is, in a sense, a replay of the 2008 election. McCain repeatedly suggested that Obama couldn’t be trusted to respond to bad actors or crises with aggressive enough displays of American force and will-power. Obama responded that chest-thumping could sometimes prove less productive than a lighter diplomatic touch.

Video- Lugar bucks McCain on Iran, Agrees with Obama that U.S. should not get involved

Bite that John.

Cartoon of the Day

Via.