Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's Funeral

[twa]

So a religious government killing people on one of the holiest days in their religion and turning religious conservaives against them is actually turning it against the opposition?

You hadn't heard?...It was obviously the work of subversives and criminals financed by the Mossad and the Great Satan.

The authorities have confiscated the body to get to the bottom of it and see the criminals punished.

Watch and learn.

added

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=210791

http://www.iran-daily.com/#

What protests?...there have of course been a few acts of terror against those faithfully celebrating Ashura that we have increased security greatly to deal with....this affront to Islam will not go unpunished.

Want more?

http://www.newsweek.com//frameset.aspx/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F34607740%2Fns%2Fworld_news-mideastn_africa%2F

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

You hadn't heard?...It was obviously the work of subversives and criminals financed by the Mossad and the Great Satan.

The authorities have confiscated the body to get to the bottom of it and see the criminals punished.

Watch and learn.

added

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=210791

I get what you're saying. But it doesn't work when you're the one killing people. If they had just let the "rioters" smash and burn things, then you can put it all on them and blame the US/Israel/Etc for inciting it. THEY ruined the Day of Ashura. THEY dirtied it. THEY are not real, good, pure Iranians/Muslims/Shia.

But when you go out and start shooting people, it's on you. Remember when this first started and there was a "bombing" (that nobody believed) at some holy shrine? Then the government was trying to put violence on the protestors. Now they completely own the violence. It overshadows any bull**** conspiracy theory you put out there. Especially one that the people are tired of hearing and don't believe anymore. It's basically abandoning their claim of a pure-and-just theocracy and announcing themselves as full-blown facists. By killing people yesterday they killed their legitimacy. But maybe they just don't care? I don't know. It just seems unecessary to me given their position of power, which is why I said it doesn't make sense.

You are right though, it's going to get very ugly. With the forfeiture of legitimacy the only way they're keeping power is through brute force. All of this is going to go one of two ways, full blown revolution and an overthrow of the current system OR the most oppressive and brutal dictatorship that Iran has ever seen in modern times. There is no return to the former status quo at this point in my opinion.

[ACW]

GACOLB, are you Muslim, or do you just know someone who is?

[twa]

I get what you're saying. But it doesn't work when you're the one killing people. If they had just let the "rioters" smash and burn things, then you can put it all on them and blame the US/Israel/Etc for inciting it. THEY ruined the Day of Ashura. THEY dirtied it. THEY are not real, good, pure Iranians/Muslims/Shia.

I wish them luck, they are gonna need it unless a major group throws their support behind them.

When you control the media,security,military,religious hierarchy ,have your own private forces and refuse to lose,you usually don't.

Real,good and pure is subject to interpretation and I'm sure they prefer their own....and will do their best to impose it.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

GACOLB, are you Muslim, or do you just know someone who is?

No, I'm not a Muslim. But I spent about a year observing Jumu'ah, Friday Prayer's at a Mosque and would meet with the Imam afterwords and discuss the religion. So I'm pretty well acquainted with it. I also know several Muslims that I talk to a lot. And actually on here I've talked several times to SkinsHokieFan through PM's. He's helped me with some school projects on the topic. I find religion interesting and I figure it doesn't hurt to know about Islam, especially these days.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I wish them luck, they are gonna need it unless a major group throws their support behind them.

When you control the media,security,military,religious hierarchy ,have your own private forces and refuse to lose,you usually don't.

Real,good and pure is subject to interpretation and I'm sure they prefer their own....and will do their best to impose it.

Yup. But I think the more stuff like this goes on they lose the religious hierarchy. And for the first time, the control of the media does nothing thanks to Twitter, youtube, etc. That's one of the most fascinating aspects of all this. Revolution in the Age of the Internet.

The wildcard in all of this is the military in my opinion. That's what's going to make or break this revolution. We can only pray that they break for the people and against the regime, like I think the religious heirarchy has started to.

[SoCalSkins]

Yup. But I think the more stuff like this goes on they lose the religious hierarchy. And for the first time, the control of the media does nothing thanks to Twitter, youtube, etc. That's one of the most fascinating aspects of all this. Revolution in the Age of the Internet.

The wildcard in all of this is the military in my opinion. That's what's going to make or break this revolution. We can only pray that they break for the people and against the regime, like I think the religious heirarchy has started to.

This is a pretty good write up:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/26/iran-protests-government-washington-opinions-contributors-ramin-ahmadi.html

[twa]

This is a pretty good write up:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/26/iran-protests-government-washington-opinions-contributors-ramin-ahmadi.html

This one is pretty good as well:silly:

Document states Khamenei & regime authorities preparing to escape to Russia

http://planet-iran.com/index.php/news/5943

added

Iran opposition leaders face execution

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2009/December/middleeast_December681.xml&section=middleeast

A representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday opposition leaders were “enemies of God” who should be executed under the country’s sharia law.

The statement by cleric Abbas Vaez-Tabasi coincided with rallies by tens of thousands of government supporters calling for opposition leaders to be punished for fomenting unrest after June’s disputed presidential election, state media said.

“Those who are behind the current sedition in the country ... are mohareb (enemies of God) and the law is very clear about punishment of a mohareb,” the representative of Khamenei, who possesses ultimate authority in Iran, said on state television.

Under Iran’s Islamic sharia law the sentence for “mohareb” is execution.

..

The establishment intensified a crackdown on the reform movement on Sunday by rounding up leading moderates to try to end street protests after the deadly weekend clashes erupted during the Shi’ite Muslim religious ritual of Ashura.

At least 20 opposition figures have been arrested since Sunday, including three senior advisers to opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, his brother-in-law and a sister of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, opposition websites said.

Ebadi said on French radio France Info that Iranian authorities were trying to silence her by arresting her sister.

..

On Tuesday, state TV showed footage of huge pro-government rallies in various cities, with demonstrators carrying pictures of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The crowed chanted: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader Khamenei” and “Death to hypocrites”.

The elite Revolutionary Guards accused the foreign media of joining hands with the opposition to harm the Islamic state. The British ambassador to Tehran was summoned by the Iranian government to be accused of “interference” in state matters.

..

Authorities blame what they call foreign-backed “terrorist groups” for the killings, including the death of Mousavi’s nephew Ali Habibi Mousavi Khamene.:yawnee:

[SoCalSkins]

My wife came back from visiting Tehran today after being there for a month. I made my wife promise not to go out during the protests. She said it was pretty crazy. My cousin's wife was shot during the Ashura protests. The bullet hit her above the groin and went out above her buttock. She was pretty lucky it wasn't too bad.

They were worried about taking her to the hospital because they take the wounded to prison. They couldn't find a surgeon on that day and ended up having a veterinarian suture her wound at home and a surgeon saw her the next day. She is doing well and plans to go back out if she can walk okay on the 40th day after Ashura which is Arbain and will be the next big uprising day.

The people are just fed up and their fear is gone. When well off middle aged women with children get shot and are willing to go back out on the streets, it is only a matter of time before these tyrants are out of power.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I don't agree with the knock on Obama in the final paragraph, but the rest of this is a pretty good summary of what's going on in Iran now:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDIxODc4OGY3NTljNTE2MDhjOGE4MGIwMDYzY2ViMzk=

What's Happening in Iran Right Now

Michael Ledeen

12/28 09:38 PM

Here are the key points from Iran over the last 3-4 days: First, in line with my basic sermon these many years, if you study the videos you will see many many women in the front ranks. They have every reason to be there, as the Islamic Republic (like so many Islamic regimes) is built on the sludge of misogyny.

Second, many of the evil Basij goons wore masks. This is new, and it indicates fear that they will be identified and hunted down. The conflict is ever more violent: On several occasions, crowds attacked security forces, even dragging them out of cars — and then, cursing them, letting them run away.

Third, in another ominous development for the regime, people from the southern (lower-class) neighborhoods of Tehran joined in. The revolt is now very broad based. But it is not yet powerful enough for the Bazaaris to join: Today the Tehran Bazaar was open for business.

Fourth, the regime has been stripped of religious legitimacy by its own panic-driven brutality. By invading mosques and hosseiniyas, by assaulting family members of leading clerics (Grand Ayatollah Sanei is under house arrest), and by ordering murder on Ashura, the supreme leader has violated a whole series of previously sacrosanct rules. I will be surprised if we do not soon hear from Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

Finally, there is still no national strike of the sort that paralyzed the shah's regime 31 years ago. But this may come: There were Twitter reports yesterday saying that Mousavi was calling for a strike on January 7.

There is now a state of emergency throughout the country (although some cities are still in open revolt), and many angry calls for the arrest of Mousavi and Karroubi, which would surely provoke more massive demonstrations and perhaps even the use of weapons by the people (even today, Molotov ****tails were thrown at security forces in central Tehran). If this were a normal regime, I'd expect a cooling-down period; but it isn't a normal regime, so it's unpredictable.

Meanwhile, the Western world clicks its collective tongue and criticizes "the violence" and the lack of respect for rights of free speech and assembly, as if that were the point. Not a single Western "leader" has found the nerve and the common sense to denounce the regime and call for regime change. Indeed, President Obama couldn't drag himself away from the beach and the basketball court on Oahu to say anything at all. Nor could our secretary of state. Or Robert Gates, for that matter, whose men and women are being blown up in Iraq and Afghanistan, courtesy of the mullahs.

[Switchgear]

I read that yesterday and thought about posting it, but I didn't know if Ledeen was a valid source or not.

I was at a party last night, there was a conservative (i.e. Obama hating) guy there that was saying it's a sign of how weak Obama is that he hasn't come out in support of the protestors. I told him I don't know enough about internal Iranian politics to know if that would be helpful or not.

It's frustrating to see so many people say he can't do it because it will undermine the protests, that it will make it seem like we're behind them. The Iranian government has said since day 1 that this is all the work of Israel, Britain and the US, it's not like staying effectively silent about it has made them tone down their rhetoric.

I just hope that the administration is playing this correctly. I'd hate it if there was a successful revolution that wound up setting up another anti-American government because we didn't support them.

[Bang]

I don't agree with the knock on Obama in the final paragraph, but the rest of this is a pretty good summary of what's going on in Iran now:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDIxODc4OGY3NTljNTE2MDhjOGE4MGIwMDYzY2ViMzk=

I agree, the last paragraph is very short sighted.

It's a tricky situation, we know their modus operandi is to take ANYTHING the US says or does, and use it as an excuse to continue and further their evil. If the US condemns the regime, then Ahmadildo will just declare that they have discovered proof that the US is meddling, and use that as an excuse to slaughter people.

I think we're doing the right thing by remaining quiet. Besides, does anyone on earth really need us to declare we are against the regime? Some things really don't need to be said, and I can't think of anyone who would doubt which side we support in this... except maybe some self serving journalist trying to create controversy to further his story.

All a declaration would do is play into the hands of the brutal regime.

~Bang

[SoCalSkins]

Crazy video of the crowd taking on the Basijis:

[twa]

Iran's opposition leaders Mousavi and Karoubi may have fled Tehran for their lives

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6444

Iran's state media claimed the two purported fugitives had fled to Mazaneran Province (on the coast of the Caspian Sea) ahead of the angry population. According to our sources, the Iranian authorities appear to be gearing up to feed the Iranian street more drama and fuel its anger.

The opposition website Rahesabz said "members of the Revolutionary Guards and the intelligence ministry had picked up Mousavi and Karroubi in the city of Kelar-Abad to protect them from the anger of the people."

If this is true, they are both in custody and can expect to be put on trial for treason against God and the Islamic regime, charges which carry the death sentence.

[SoCalSkins]

^^^^

That appears to be a false report. This is a very good site that aggregates a bunch of news and commentary:

http://enduringamerica.com/

[DariusCyrus]

Crazy video of the crowd taking on the Basijis:

wow... these Iranian people are very brave for even coming out and protesting, just shows how much they love their country.. but to surround the faggot ass basiji ****es... wow... well, i don't know if those were basijis, seemed like regular riot cops... but those ***** ass basijis should be beaten with a stick until their bones are like powder... damn i hate the ****in basijis whores...

[visionary]

No, I'm not a Muslim. But I spent about a year observing Jumu'ah, Friday Prayer's at a Mosque and would meet with the Imam afterwords and discuss the religion. So I'm pretty well acquainted with it. I also know several Muslims that I talk to a lot. And actually on here I've talked several times to SkinsHokieFan through PM's. He's helped me with some school projects on the topic. I find religion interesting and I figure it doesn't hurt to know about Islam, especially these days.

I'm not Muslim or Iranian, but I've always found Iran and the Middle East very interesting and have been impressed with the young people (and now much more than the youths) of Iran in particular for their struggles against the establishment there over the years.

I spent a lot of time talking with Iranians and Iranian ex-pats during the summer and pretty much made this site http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/ my home for a few months.

(hanging out with some really impressive people I'm lucky to have talked to)

I haven't been keeping as up to date with things in Iran as I'd like to, but I'm glad to see that people like NightOwl and Oxfordgirl are still keeping everyone informed whenever I go on twitter.

[visionary]

There's some really good pictures on here http://tehranlive.org/ from Ashura.

(this guy was arrested for a while a few months back but he was back at it for Quds and has some great stuff this time too)

[twa]

Just a bump for updates

Moussavi declare himself willing to die...Mullahs seem willing to accept his death...and many more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/world/middleeast/02iran.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

On Friday, New Year’s Day, residents of Tehran woke to a police presence in central Tehran, with officers stationed at several major intersections and squares. The authorities also deployed civilian members of the Basij militia equipped with batons, riot helmets and shields.

Forces were concentrated at Vali Asr Square, Seventh Tir Square and Revolution Square. Motorcycle-mounted police and plainclothes forces were seen patrolling the stretch of road between Revolution Square and Freedom Square.

Photographs and reports were circulating on the Internet about new heavily armored police vehicles that were delivered to Tehran over the last few days. The reports said they were Chinese-made vehicles with twin water cannons capable of delivering powerful jets of hot and cold water, as well as chemical irritants.

The show of force came in tandem with threats of prosecution for the many opposition supporters who had been arrested, and those leaders who had not.

...

On Thursday, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry issued “a stern warning, asking rioters not to be manipulated by foreigners seeking to once again dominate Iran,” according to the state-run Press TV.

Iran’s prosecutor general, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, warned opposition leaders on Thursday that they could face trial if they did not denounce this week’s antigovernment protests.

The deputy chief of judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, told the official news agency IRNA on Thursday that those detained in Sunday’s unrest would be charged with violating public order and “mohareb,” meaning being enemies of God, a charge punishable by death.

..