This weblog was created to act as a platform for the voice of secular pro-democracy activists in and outside Iran who are struggling against the religious dictatorship of the Islamic clerics in Iran. Follow me on https://gettr.com/user/potkazar or My Telegram Channel https://t.me/SledgeHammerNews
My favourite quote:
"Evil only prevails when the good stay silent"
Often pictures speak louder than words.
The flag of the Islamic Republic replaces the Union Jack in the UK Embassy compound, albeit upside down. Sign of things to come?
Down with English!
Pulp Fiction poster, probably the biggest gain from yesterday's action:
Yesterday's hero, hiding behind the prize booty:
Riot police putting up a stiff resistance against the looters
This is the same riot police which crack downed so efficiently on thousands of Iranian protesters after the June elections in 2009.
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, quickly climbed up the promotion ladders after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Soon after the revolution he was sent to Madrid to head the Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA in Spain. He was deported from Spain after he openly called for the murder of Salman Rushdie during a radio program. The expulsion served Javanfekr well however and he was promoted to the head of IRNA in Khamenei's office when he was the president of the Islamic Republic and later the head of IRNA in the Supreme Leader's office, when Khamenei became the Supreme Leader. It was said that no news or telext leaves the Supreme Leader's office without Javanfekr's approval.
Javanfekr managed to get back to Spain in year 2000 during Khatami's presidency until he left IRNA and joined Ahmadinejad's office when he was the mayor of Tehran. He has remained loyal to Ahmadinejad ever since and is now the press advisor to Ahmadinejad as well as the head of the government organ, Iran Press Institution. Hence as an important effective Ahmadinejad ally, he has become one of the targets by the 'principalists' in the factional infighting.
Last Sunday, the courts sentenced him to six months prison for publishing 'vulgar' pictures in an article 'incompatible with Islamic values and standards', as well as a three year ban on any journalistic work. The controversial article for which he was sentenced was an article in Khatoon, one of the magazines under his responsibility, which simply discussed and questioned why the chador, favoured by the religious hardliners as the 'superior dress code for women', should be regarded as the 'superior veil'?
One day after Javanfekr's sentence was passed, he was holding a press conference at the Iran Press Institution, when judiciary and intelligence agents came to arrest him. The attempts to arrest him however were met with stiff resistance by the employees, many of whom have ties and connections with the intelligence ministry and even took part in suppressing the post-election protests. Even tear gas was said to have been used inside the building. Footages of the event released on youtube, show employees burning paper to counter the effects of tear gas. While the massive melee was going on, Javanfekr was frantically making phone calls to stop the judiciary agents from arresting him. Ahmadinejad's threats to take counter measures and 'spill the beans' finally convinced the judiciary to issue the order for retreat and although more than 30 newspaper employees were injured and arrested, Javanfekr was spared.
Javanfekr then made statements which said 'stating a different opinion is not a crime and the country should not be dragged into a situation where there is no freedom to criticise'. Rich words from someone who himself has had a hand in cracking down dissent. Of course the freedom, Javanfekr is talking about is for his own faction's freedom only and not for anyone else.
There are important conclusions from this incident.
- If you have strong connections in the Islamic Republic, even a court sentence against you can be useless
- On the contrary, you can be imprisoned and put under house arrest like Moussavi and Karroubi, along
with your other family members, without even a trial or a sentence passed against you
- Unlike Khatami, Ahmadinejad stands by his loyal troops
- Ahmadinejad's faction have information so sensitive at their disposal which can always stop the principalists at their track
This is Islamic Republic! Three decades after the 1979 Islamic revolution which was supposed to rid Iran of all social malaise, what is left of the revolution is just the fancy slogans. A total failure in all fronts. The dangerous cocktail of mixing religion and politics now awaits the other countries in the Middle East.
Today is the anniversary of the state murder of Iran's great historian and literary figure, Ali Akbar Saeedi Sirjani. A great visionary who through his works warned the nation of the terrible consequences of a religious dictatorship.
"When religion and state intertwine
A mighty power will emerge
Capable of doing wrongs with ease
That not even the King would dare"
I was so saddened to learn about the trial in Tunisia over the broadcasting of the animated movie, Persepolis. The Tunisian revolution which was supposed to be about the overthrow of a dictator will soon descend into a religious dictatorship, if the secular Tunisians remain silent about this sort of thing. Once again, my favourite quote by Edmund Burke "Evil Only Prevails, When the Good Remain Silent" manifests itself in our own times.
The animated movie, Persepolis, is not about attacking sacred values at all. Only a religious zealot moron could come to such a conclusion. It is in fact a brilliant depiction of how a revolution against dictatorship is hijacked by such extremists. It is a movie that pre-warns ordinary people what will happen if they remain silent and allow the extremists to take over.
All Iranians who have experienced religious dictatorship will identify with the Persepolis movie. I remember watching it with my elder son in cinema. When the little girl, the main character of the film, stood up to her teacher, who was regurgitating the official revolutionary propaganda, and delivered the real truth, I was so overwhelmed that much to the embarrassment of my 10 year old, I got up in the middle of the movie and started clapping, only to have my shirt pulled by my 10 year old and be told "we just sit down and watch the movie ok? no clapping".
The nonsense of the trial however can best be summed up by the following statement made by Nabil Karoui, the owner of the private Nessma television, which broadcast the movie:
"I am very sad when I see that the people that burned my house are free while I am here because I broadcast a film which was authorised" and he rightly described the trial as the "death of freedom of expression".
A huge explosion shook most of Tehran on Saturday. At first it was said a CNG fuel depot had exploded but finally the official confirmation was the explosion had happened at the Modares base in Bidganeh village 50 km SW of Tehran. Even though the explosion was well outside Tehran, almost all residents of Tehran, even to the East of the city, said they either heard or felt its shock waves.
There have been many speculations as to the real cause of the explosion, one common rumour has been that it was the Israelis who had attacked and destroyed the base, because it stored Shahab 3 missiles. Whatever the real cause of the explosion, I thought this poster by a group calling itself the Cyber Soldiers of the Supreme Leader was worth posting on my blog. The caption reads "Just one depot shook all of Tehran, See what will happen if it falls day and night on Tel-Aviv"
Islamic Republic is at the point of imploding. Huge astronomical fraud and embezzlement is draining the country's coffers dry. Iran's environment is in danger, one of the most beautiful lakes in Iran, the Lake Oroumiyeh is on its death bed. Iran's national heritage is facing damage beyond repair. Today it was reported huge cracks are appearing at Iran's ancient site of Persepolis, the very embodiment of Iran's identity. The state's enthusiasm for brinkmanship is threatening the country with a terrible war and further sanctions.
But none of the above are considered a threat to Iran's national security, instead what the state is more worried about is the likes of young Arya Aramnejad who dare to criticise and stand by their convictions.
Last Tuesday, Arya Aramnejad attended the court in Sari, which was set up to review his appeal sentence. On his way back, he was kidnapped by state security apparatus and taken away. His whereabouts is still unknown.
His friends in Babol, issued the following statement addressed to the Supreme Leader, after Arya's disappearance:
"In the Name of God who Stands by the Innocents and is the Enemy of All Tyrants
It has to be said, without much introduction needed, that you jail the best sons and daughters of this country. Not a single day goes by where the disgraceful actions and scandals of your men doesn't shock the world. The events around the world are proving that no amount of brutal crackdown and suppression can stop the just demands of the people and yet you continue to clamp down on the slightest of dissent.
You tolerate all the huge multi billion embezzlements and corruption around you and yet you can not tolerate the slightest criticism by the best sons and daughters of this country. What untold secret are you trying to protect with these arrests and imprisonments? What scandal do you think you will be covered up by arresting Arya?
You accused your opponents of lacking insight and two years later we see how much insight you had when you backed those whom you are now referring to as the 'deviant trend' of exorcists and sorcerers. Is it not so that you are enraged because it is clear it is the likes of Arya who have the insight and not you?
Would it not have been better that instead of all these arbitrary arrests which are proving to be useless, you apologised to the people and made up for your dark past deeds?
The arrest of our kind and wise friend Arya will serve you nothing and shows the depths of your imprudence. We advise you before your time runs out to choose wisdom and righteousness.
So we are told just about every protest, every cry for freedom and every liberation movement around the world is in support of the Islamic Republic and its Supreme Leader. Today, the Supreme Leader's message to these liberation movements was read on state TV while video footages of these protests was played over the Supreme Leader's voice as his message of solidarity to the protesters not to give up and stay resolute to the end was broadcast to the dispossessed and the downtrodden across the world.
The Baseej has even set up a website - http://www.wsfall.com/ - both in English and in Persian in support of the Wall Street occupiers.
The only thing is though, you never see any of these protesters carry a picture of the Supreme Leader or any other IRI figures. Instead sometimes you see them actually carrying pictures of the very victims of the Supreme Leader's absolute rule or express solidarity with the dissidents in Iran. Like this protester in Wall Street who is showing a picture of Peyman Aref, the Iranian dissident student who spent two years in prison and received 74 lashes. Peyman has once again been imprisoned for having prayed by Neda's graveside last week:
It is such simple acts of solidarity that undermine the entire investment of despots to jump on the bandwagon and their hollow propaganda in claiming their leadership of protests.
Ebrahim Yazdi is in his eighties now, but three decades ago, he was instrumental in bringing about the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was always seen next to Ayatollah Khomeini during the Ayatollah's stay in Neauphle-le-Chateau, helping to conduct and translate Ayatollah Khomeini's numerous interviews with the Western media. Yazdi also accompanied Ayatollah Khomeini on his flight back to Iran and became the deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister in the first provisional government after the revolution.
During the terror months of the post-revolution era, some say Yazdi even presided as the judge in the revolutionary kangaroo courts that summarily executed thousands of people accused of being part of the Shah's regime and some say that Yazdi and Bazargan supported a general amnesty. In any case Yazdi was seen in many summary trials like in the footage below, sitting on the left telling General Rahimi to order the surrender of his men:
As always however, revolution devours its own children and as the clerics consolidated their power in the aftermath of the US embassy hostage taking, Yazdi's fall from favour also became inevitable. The clerics no longer felt they needed to fool the population with their useful idiots. Unlike their promises before the revolution, they were not going back to the mosques and letting the politicians do the dirty work of politics and government. Once intoxicated with power, they wanted to rule alone and many more internal purges were ahead.
Yesterday, Yazdi now in his eighties and perhaps somewhat wiser than three decades ago, wrote an open letter to Rached Ghannouchi, the Islamist leader of Hizb Al-Nahdah which won the recent election in Tunisia, advising him not to make the same mistakes made by Yazdi and his generation of Iranian revolutionaries in 1979.
In the letter Yazdi says "We overthrew a dictator only to replace one dictatorship with another" and asks Ghannouchi to safeguard three important principles in order for the Tunisian revolution not to become another failed revolution:
1 - To respect, accept and encourage pluralism
2 - To be tolerant of different views
3 - To apply co-operation and compatibility amongst the different political factions
I never thought one day I would help disseminate the words of someone like Ebrahim Yazdi, but the words of a former revolutionary Islamist who helped bring about the Islamic Republic in Iran will perhaps have more mileage amongst Tunisia's Islamists than mine.
Perhaps the Iranian Left should also now pull their fingers out and start educating Europe's Left about how the Leftists in Iran were destroyed and massacred by the very people they helped bring to power.
I remember when I took part in an IVLP visit five years ago, we had a brief welcome meeting with a US state department official for the Middle East region. I can't remember her name, Dianne something but I remember she told us she was Egyptian by birth. What I remember most about our conversation however, was when she said "We are not after a regime change in Iran, we want to change the behaviour of the regime!"
"That's good", I replied as I was tapping thoughtfully on my forehead with a pen. "And how do you want to change the behaviour of the regime?" I asked with immense curiosity.
"We have a website" came the sobering reply from another state department official who was sitting across the table.
Hearing his reply, I dropped my pen on the table in shock and said "Vow! That must be some website" and asked for the site's url and visitor stats. I never got the visitor stats but the website was the biggest load of cyber bollocks I had ever come across. It was also no surprise to me that no one I was in touch with had ever heard of it.
Today, I had the misfortune of watching Hilary Clinton talking to a popular VOA presenter and answering the questions Iranians around the world had apparently sent for her. Watching Hilary Clinton's interview reminded me of that farcical conversation with the US state department officials during the IVLP welcoming meeting five years ago.
In answer to one of the questions, Hilary Clinton talks about the effectiveness of the Islamic Republic in filtering the internet and limiting all kinds of information access with the outside world. A huge problem indeed for the pro-democracy movement in Iran whose lifeline is access to information.
Traditionally the VOA presenter asks his guests at the end of his program to look at the camera and say whatever they like to the viewers in under one minute. Hilary Clinton too was asked to do the same and it was in her one minute uninterrupted message, where she unravelled her 'big gift' to Iran's freedom fighters, ANOTHER WEBSITE! A cyber US embassy for the people of Iran! What are the chances of the regime in Iran, not filtering this cyber embassy, now that it has been announced by the US Secretary of the State?
At a time, when the Islamic Republic is shutting down the VPN ports and tightening its internet filtering technology and is said to be six months away from creating the "Clean Internet", the US secretary of state thinks a US Cyber Embassy by the end of this year, is of any use??
What happened to the 'Internet in a Suitcase' plans? Was that all marketing hype too?
But why not take the most effective step? Stop the regime from jamming TV satellite stations which they do with such impunity.
"In an interview with an American reporter, I told him in the last 25 years, none of Iran's presidents or deputy presidents ever met with the Libyan dictator, although we have been friends with the people of Libya, but you show me one European president or prime minister who didn't travel to Libya"
The above was part of Ahmadinejad's speech to the people in Birjand, NE Iran, during his latest one of his provincial tours, as reported by Iranian news sites.
and below are some pictures from 25 years ago:
Parviz Davoodi, one of Ahmadinejad's deputies four years ago in Libya:
One thing that most of my generation of Iranians learned from the 1979 revolution was, not to chant death to something, if we did't have something better to replace it with.
In the above AP video, the Baseej "students" are demonstrating outside the Swiss embassy, US interest section, in Tehran. They are expressing solidarity with the "Wall Street Uprising" and the "American Spring". The video starts with chants of 'Death to Capitalism' - is the Islamic Republic not a capitalist economic system? - and at (00:08) their banner is shown which reads:
'Student Solidarity Protest On Wall Street Unti Capitalism Movement'
It took me a few seconds to try to understand what the banner was supposed to mean but of course they meant they were expressing solidarity with Anti and not Unti Capitalist Movement as the writing on the banner suggests. Still we should be pleased that it didn't say 'Student Solidarity Protest on Wall Street Auntie Capitalism Movement'.
Not the brightest kids on the block, the Baseej students of course, for if they had a two digit IQ, they wouldn't be in the Baseej militia in the first place.
Nasrin Sotoudeh's family, her husband Reza Khandan, her daughter Mehraveh and her four year old son, Nima visited the recently freed Iranian student activist, Peyman Aref today.
Peyman Aref is still convalescing from the 74 lashes he received for insulting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a punishment he received on top of spending two years in prison for his peaceful protests against the fraudulent presidential election results in June, 2009.
The visit by Sotoudeh's family was yet another solidarity gesture by Peyman Aref's well wishers who have been shocked at the barbaric flogging of this 29 year old student activist.
As Sotoudeh's family were leaving, Peyman told Nasrin Sotoudeh's four year old son, Nima, "Next time I see you, I hope it will be with your mummy". When Nima replied, "mummy is never coming back", Peyman said he felt himself choking and struggled to hold back his tears until Nima had left and he could pour out his tears at the injustice of a paranoid regime which is hurting so many innocent lives.
This morning another student, 22 year old Amin Niayifar, top student in Tehran's Technical University, also received thirty lashes as part of his sentence for insulting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Niayifar who was arrested during the Ashura protests had been sentenced by the notorious Judge Pir-Abbassi to six months in prison, 18 months suspended sentence and 30 lashes.
On the day Ameneh died, Iran's VPN ports were already shut down. Access to the worldwide web was cumbersome and limited but suddenly some reported that their mobile networks had stopped working too. Usually this is a sign that something has happened and the regime is trying to stop the spread of some news.
The news in this case was the tragic fate of AKU student, Ameneh Zanganeh, the only child of a war martyr, who had worked hard to get into the university as a post-graduate student, studying polymers.
Her death was a series of blunders which describe the incompetence of Iran's current officials.
Ameneh should have been allocated a place at the uni's dormitories as she was entitled to but instead she had to sleep in the uni's prayer room which lacked basic facilities like shower and bathroom.
Iranian student activist, Payman Aref, was sentenced to one year in prison for his role in the post-(S)election protests, but he was also sentenced to 74 lashes for insulting Ahmadinejad. In fact the 'insult' was nothing other than a polite open letter to Ahamdinejad. Today, Payman Aref received his 74 lashes.
US anchormen who carry out uneducated interviews with Ahamdinejad seem unable to challenge him when he spurts out sentences like 'Iran is the freest country in the world and anyone can criticise me' and it is left to people like Payman Aref and Somayeh Tohidlou who show the hollowness of Ahmadinejad's regurgitations with their wounded flesh and skin.
The Autumn Wind May Flog the Green Trees
But the Wind Goes and the Trees Stay Upright
And they will be Green Again
It was a palpable story. The suicide of two young Iranians, Nahal and Behnam, had all the elements for a gripping movie, a mixture of love, social pressure, politics and the sheer feeling of gloom and despondence felt at present by so many young Iranians in the repressive state of the Islamic Republic. When the story hit the headlines, for me however, the most important headway was that the world also learned about the kidnapping and disappearance of Iranian human rights activist, Kouhyar Goudarzi and the shameful imprisonment of Kouhyar's mother, who was dragged out of the bath by security forces in her home, and is now imprisoned in Kerman prison.
This was one of those rare opportunities where the news story had a spin which appealed to mass audiences across the world. Newspapers all over the globe from US, to Italy, to Turkey and many more that I have probably not come across yet, duplicated the story. One would have thought Iranian expat opposition would then cease the opportunity and use this international awareness to campaign for the release of Kouhyar and his mother. It seemed the death of Nahal and Behnam may not have been in vain and some good may come out of it. That is until, the Iranian expat 'journalists' and Iranian 'opposition' websites started meddling in the story.
It seemed for these so called Iranian opposition journalists, the most important thing was not to use the story to pursuit Kouhyar's case but to find out whether Nahal and Behnam had sex or not?! Their method of investigation was also not the tedious procedure of going through Nahal's facebook and blog posts to build a picture of what went on but the more laid back option of talking to Nahal's immediate family on the phone. Calling Nahal's father for example, knowing full well the social pressure at least, which he must be under to talk freely and asking questions which more or less implied, 'where they having sex?' or "was your daughter against the regime?" and expecting the poor father to tell the truth about his divorced daughter going out with a much younger boy and being a supporter of the Green Movement.
Roozonline, an Iranian opposition website, with a limited and specific readership and columnists who all more or less represent very similar points of view, a narrow spectrum of Iranian elite intellectuals, printed one of these silly 'investigations' in finding out whether Nahal and Behnam had consummated their relationship. The website went one step further however, they even imposed their backward values on a picture of Nahal by photoshopping, see picture above, a small part of Nahal's belly which was showing as she raised her arms in the air while standing on top of a hill.
This is the very same website which lampooned the hardline Islamic Republic daily, Kayhan, for photoshopping Catherine Ashton's picture. A clear case of the pot calling the kettle black by a site which claims to represent Iranian opposition and is probably receiving a grant from some European body.
Watch the video. The exact translation of Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi's speech, made last Friday, is written below. Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi is the strategist and theoretician for the ruling hardline faction in Iran and has been a member of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council for nine years. Some of the former political prisoners in Iran also claim he was one of their interrogators.
Translation:
'Whereas before the operational units had to go to the fronts in the South and West of the country, they should now prepare themselves to go to North Africa, go to East Asia, go to the heart of Europe. We now have to be prepared for global operations. My generation is getting old, the next generation must now be trained for the next three or four decades, to be prepared to go to the help of their Muslim brothers in North of Africa, in the South of Africa, in East Asia, in Middle Asia and free Muslims in the heart of Europe.
Its all done now, it has become global, the revolution is exported, we kept saying the revolution must be exported, the revolution IS exported now and on its way, our units are now present throughout the five continents and they are fighting everywhere against the imperialist oppressors , we have to make the preliminary preparations for the coming of Imam and prepare for an international Jihad and not be scared of anyone.
This America and the West, they go and bomb, loot and occupy any where they like and even officially say we came and we will come again too. Yet if we say quietly, we provide moral support for our brothers in Iraq and Palestine, they say 'you shouldn't, you are terrorists'. No, we should provide explicit support, you explicitly say you come to occupy and we should explicitly say and we are here to confront your occupation, we have a religious duty. The Islamic revolution of Iran is the mother of all Islamic revolutions, and Iran is the second home of all the Jihadi combatants around the world.
These were what Imam Khomeini said in his speeches, have you forgotten them? Imam Khomeini said, we should eliminate Israel, we should free Quds, and yes we will, we are doing it. If they say we can't, we will reply, well we have been doing it until now and it is happening. Look at Lebanon, look at Gaza, we will liberate the rest too. Put your heads up and say yes you explicitly say you occupy and we explicitly say we are standing by our Muslim brothers. This is all in our constitution.
Sadly after Imam Khomeini, some came and said we want to ease the strained relations with the West, with imperialism. What does that mean? Did Imam Khomeini try to do this? Imam said the war between the poor and the rich, the war between the dispossessed and the oppressors, the liberation of Muslims and used to say, we will not allow you to have any interests.
You think its a joke that within 7 months, four Arab regimes collapse? God willing, three or four more will also collapse in the next few months and few years. We have to prepare for a global battle, our intelligence units, operation units and subversion units [laughs] have to be prepared, instead of when they were told go to this part or that part of Iran, they should now be told they have to prepare to go anywhere in the world. They have to be prepared to go and fight in Latin America, go to East of Asia and fight, go to Middle Asia and liberate their Muslim brothers, go to the heart of Europe, just like when our units set foot in Lebanon, the situation n Lebanon and Palestine changed. When they went to Bosnia, the situation in Bosnia and the Balkans changed, until then Muslims in Bosnia kept getting hit, its only when the message of our martyrs and the style of our Jihad went to Bosnia that the situation in Bosnia changed. The cards only turned when they went to Lebanon, Palestine and Gaza. Everyone says the Gaza resistance is the work of Iran, The Israeli Prime Minister said himself, there is an Islamic Republic in Lebanon and there is an Islamic Republic in Gaza. Now another Islamic Republic is being set up in the Sinai desert in Egypt after the recent operations. If the Israelis retreat in the West Bank, there will be another Islamic Republic there too. On the whole the Israelis thought they would encircle our revolution but in fact we have encircled them'
Ever since the warning cries by the environmentalists in Iran about the demise of the Lake Orumieh and the crackdown against them by the Islamic Republic, I have been keen to solicit the help of environmental groups around the world. I simply can not accept that the world will sit by and watch a beautiful lake disappear, resulting in catastrophic climate change, major population displacement and loss of wild life. Specially as experts claim the demise of the lake is not environmental and simply the release of water from the 88 dams which have stopped its water supply, at least during the rainfall season, can have immediate effect in reinvigorating the lake’s prospects.
With the above in mind, I started writing to the major environmental groups I knew of, i.e. Friends of the Earth, The UK Green Party and Greenpeace. The first two did not even reply to me, but Greenpeace UK told me to contact Greenpeace International, which I did and this is what Greenpeace International wrote back:
"Dear Potkin Azarmehr,
Thank you for this email. Greenpeace are organized in a geographical manner, and no office would get involved with an issue unless the local office invited them. As there is no Greenpeace office in Iran, the ‘local’ Greenpeace office would be Greenpeace International –
So what does that mean? Greenpeace will let dictatorships destroy our planet and will only take direct action in democratic countries where doing so is safe? where normal democratic campaigns to persuade voters will also suffice?
Apparently so, as this further correspondence shows:
Hello Potkin,
I’ve checked with Greenpeace International and their response was that as we don’t have any presence in Iran, we don’t want to get involved in an Iranian issue. I appreciate that all you’re asking for is a statement, but we try not to have that sort of limited involvement – we either campaign on something, where we become expert on the issue and have a strategy to change it, or we try to stay clear.
There are reasons for this – we want to make the most effective use of our resources, and so put them all into the four or five issues where we’re focussed.
I’m very sorry to have to disappoint you.
Best of luck,
Graham Thompson
Supporter Services
Greenpeace UK
Which is absolutely pathetic. Even if Greenpeace is unable to take “direct action” inside Iran, because they have no offices in Iran, the Islamic Republic have many representations and centres of interest across Europe and the rest of the world where they can be targeted.
In conclusion what kind of a message does that send to dictatorships who are plundering the environment with impunity? If you want groups like Greenpeace off your back, simply make sure they don’t have a local office.
How can the Iranian state TV news program avoid getting the news wrong when the entire establishment is delusional about being the leader of the Arab Spring? Pro-government newspapers are full of it and the Friday Prayer leaders keep reminding the faithful during their sermons; Islamic Republic is the leader of the Arab awakening in the area and the people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya want nothing other than an Islamic Republic based on the model in Iran!
Such declarations however, need some kind of tangible evidence to be backed up and if there is no such news, why not make it up?
Accordingly, the Iranian state TV here, used the Reuters footage which shows Gaddafi supporters ransacking the abandoned American embassy, five months ago as the footage for their incredible lie that the Libyan rebels have taken over the US embassy and kicked out its American personnel:
The news anchor confidently announces:
“The revolutionary people of Libya then went towards the US embassy and took it over. The US government has still shown no reaction to this action by the revolutionary people of Libya. “
See the Reuters visuals used in this incredible news hoax by Iran State TV news, broadcast from its channel one: http://youtu.be/aFJcz0oewk0
What sparks off a revolution and how does this spark happen? The situation before a revolution is like the boiling water inside a pressure cooker or the potential for explosion inside a gunpowder barrel. On the surface, the potential stresses and strains may not be visible to all. Pent up social tensions and anger which is kept at bay and hidden, is held in place by a powerful force, but the tensions can blow up beyond control any moment with a single spark. This is what makes revolutions unpredictable and often embarrass the academics and diplomats who couldn't see the revolution coming. Often the spark is caused by a news which suddenly stirs the emotions to a breaking point. Examples can be seen in all uprisings and revolutions and throughout the ages.
Regimes which came about through a revolution, often know this too well and are experts in dampening the sparks or carefully letting off the steam before everything boils over. Islamic Republic which came about through a revolution and understands its mechanism very well, is perhaps one of the most skillful operators in quickly dampening the spark.
In the last year alone, we have seen three examples of this. In February this year thousands of Iranians, encouraged by the successes of Tunisian and Egyptians, poured into the streets, At least two people were confirmed to have been killed by Islamic Republic's security forces. The outrage felt against the hypocrisy of a regime, which was claiming to champion the Arab Spring, yet killed its own people for sympathising with the people of Egypt and Tunisia could have reached the boiling point. Instead the regime hijacked the funerals and claimed the two were killed by protesters! Families of the victims were put under enormous pressure to stay silent. When friends of Jale Sane, one of the victims, released his pictures wearing green wrist bands and standing next to Ayatollah Montazeri, the spiritual leader of the Green Movement, the regime responded by saying 'Jale was one of our undercover agents, who shopped the opposition members for us'.
Jale's family members were either forced to keep their silence, or those who did talk, were kidnapped or imprisoned. Of course the truth finally emerges but the immediate spark is avoided.
Another example was when the 54 year old Haleh Sahabi, was kicked and punched by security forces during her own father's funeral. The thought of this devout Muslim woman being kicked and punched by security forces which caused her death at her own father's funeral stirred the strongest of emotions in most Iranians. The regime quickly pretended to be whiter than white as if they had not imposed any restrictions or security crackdown on the funeral. State TV talked to the hospital staff who all toed the official line and said, Haleh had died of a natural heart attack, while ignoring all the witnesses who were at the funeral and witnessed the assault on Haleh.
The most recent example is that of Somayeh Tohidlou. Again a devout Muslim woman whose only crime for falling foul with authorities was her skillful campaigning for Moussavi, one of the approved candidates by the establishment itself. When Somayeh posted a heart wrenching statement of the humiliation she felt when her lashing sentence was carried out, the outpour of emotions was instantaneous and significant enough to gather further momentum. Her namesake with another Somayeh, the seventh convert to Islam, who was lashed and tortured to death, stirred the emotions even further. So much so that it is reported none of the female guards accepted to carry out the lashing and Somayeh was flogged by a male guard. The establishment sensed danger and the pro-government newspapers quickly denied she was ever lashed at all. No one however, believed the lies of pro-government news sites like Raja News. BBC Persian then came to the help and dampened the spark by saying they had talked to one of Somayeh's family members who told them the lashing was symbolic and did not cause too much physical pain.
The regime's intentions are blatant and obvious; to further humiliate the resistance while avoiding the spark which could consolidate the people into yet another push. Fake executions, one of the favourite punishments of prisoners in Iran can best describe these 'symbolic' punishments. A prisoner is made to believe it is the last seconds of his life, all the stage is set, the procession and the hanging gallows are all made to look real. The guards enjoy the fear and the trembling shown by the prisoner and mock the victim in order to break the spirit. It may all be 'symbolic' but the pain of humiliation which breaks the spirit is too real.
"Be happy, for if you wanted to humiliate me, I confess that I feel my entire body is suffering with degradation."
These are the words written by Somayeh Tohidlou on her blog after she received fifty lashes yesterday while her hands and feet were chained together.
Somayeh Tohidlou, a PHD student in Iran was one of Mir Hussein Moussavi's campaigners.
Somayeh was arrested one day after the 2009 fraudulent elections. Eight men broke their way into her house at 3:00 am and searched her residence for an hour, confiscating her camera, laptop and other belongings. She was sentenced to one year prison and fifty lashes but was finally released on a $200,000 bail. Her sentence of fifty lashes, for having insulted the 'president' remained however and it was executed yesterday.
Today, Somayeh's facebook page was inundated with messages of support. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former advisor to Khatami, wrote: "Everyone who knows Somayeh Tohidlou, regard her as a symbol of reasonableness, moderation and character. Today when I learned she had received 50 lashes for having insulted the 'very respectable president', I felt it was the Iranian pride which had been flagellated and not Somayeh's body. Somayeh, you are the only one who has not been humiliated as a result of this sentence"
And indeed, Somayeh should feel the proudest. It is this regime which has humiliated itself by whipping Somayeh and it is the rest of us who should feel humiliated for having allowed this to happen. It is us, Iranian men, who sit by and allow our mothers and sisters to be treated in this way who should feel the humiliation and it is us, the Iranian expats, who allow the likes of Ahmadinejad to travel around to UN and grab the limelight in his TV interviews and make absurd remarks such as 'Iran is the freest country in the world' and receive celebrity treatment by incompetent American interviewers, who should feel humiliated.
