Report: Iranian youth defy ayatollah

[Sarge]

Well, let's see how far this gets. It is from World Nut Daily

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49265

Iranian young people staged anti-government protests in Tehran and other cities across the country today, using the annual Persian "fire festival" celebration to burn effigies and pictures of the country's leaders and set cars ablaze belonging to the State Security Forces, according to the London-based independent news agency Iran Focus.

In the southwestern city of Ahwaz protestors set fire to an effigy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Similar demonstrations were reported in Garmsar, southeast of Tehran, and in the southern city of Rafsanjan.

Youth in Tehran reportedly burned pictures of Khamenei and Islamic revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, according to dissidents who reported to Iran Focus.

The independent news service said it received a photo from the protesters who set fire to pictures of leaders that had been placed on lampposts along Tehran's Mirdamad Street.

The demonstrations were part of the traditional "fire festival" celebration, or "Feast of Wednesday," on the last day of the Persian year, in which people jump over bonfires to "drive away evil."

Iran Focus said the demonstrations took place despite a massive crackdown by the country's paramilitary police to prevent people from turning tonight's festival into organized anti-government protests.

Dissidents sent the news agency a photo of a young man who was detained by security forces for taking part in a demonstration outside the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the western city of Khorramabad earlier today.

A de facto martial law was imposed in several volatile cities in the northwestern province of Kurdistan as paramilitary police, the Revolutionary Guards and plainclothes agents of the secret police moved in.

Iran Focus reported a heavy police presence at every major junction, square and highway in and around the cities of Sanandaj, Piranshahr and Mahabad.

On Saturday in Piranshahr, banks, police cars and government buildings were set on fire as violent clashes erupted between security forces and angry residents. Protests began after state security agents shot and killed a young man in his car at a checkpoint. Young protesters set fire to at least five police vehicles. Widespread clashes also were reported Friday in the Kurdish city of Mahabad in northwestern Iran after a detained man reportedly was shot by security agents.

Iranian leaders, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have attempted to stamp out the annual festivities but largely have been unsuccessful, resulting in clashes between security forces and festive crowds.

This year, Iran's main opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, appealed to Iranians nationwide to take part in celebrations and turn them into an anti-government protest.

In recent months, expatriate Iranian pro-democracy groups in the United States and Europe have been calling for regime change in Tehran, arguing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ultra-conservative regime has reversed important reforms instituted by the two previous presidents, Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Muhammad Khatami. The new administration systematically has replaced all top officials of the national and provincial governments with Revolutionary Guards militants, many of whom have intelligence or security backgrounds.

Ahmadinejad appointed Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi in January to head the new National Security Council and also serve as the country's Interior Minister. International human rights groups have accused Pour-Mohammadi of systematic extra-judicial killings of opposition figures, including activists and intellectuals.

Analysts see the Iranian regime under the leadership of Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei renewing extreme measures to repress internal dissent as the country presses forward defiantly with its nuclear program, re-opening "research and development" uranium enrichment at Natanz. But internal dissatisfaction is building throughout the country, observers say, as Ahmadinejad fails to deliver on his campaign promise to redistribute Iran's windfall oil profits to the country's middle class and poor.

In January, a television station run by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah terrorist group announced Ahmadinejad canceled his trip to Iran's southern city of Ahvaz after a security tip warning him Arab dissidents planned to assassinate him with a series of bombings. In fact, two bombs exploded in Ahvaz on the day he was to arrive.

As WorldNetDaily reported, on Dec. 15, gunmen ambushed Ahmadinejad's motorcade, leaving his driver and one of his bodyguards dead, however the hard-line leader escaped injury because he was not in the car at the time.

[skinfan133]

it'll be interesting to see what reaction comes out in the long run. opression of free speech and expression is the biggest sign of totalitarianism.

[dreamingwolf]

you know it what we all want froma geo-political out look for our national security outlook, but I also think if the youth can reclaim Iran it will reintroduce the Persian culture to the world and that will well out weigh any benefit to us on a global scale. That region of the world has introduced many things that has made this world better, if their youth could shake off the yoke that is posturing that area to be a regressive force it would be a great moment in history.

[Ancalagon the Black]

I hope the proponents of "nuke um" are reading this article.

[ChocolateCitySkin]

It's too bad that it's entirely unrealistic for n coup to happen Without our help. Iran is Very pro-west.

[Chief skin]

as long as the assahollas are running the show we have a problem,only compounded with the nuke research, then throw in the problem in Iraq. We will be streched to thin to intervene in Iran

[SkinInsite]

So when are the tanks going to show up.