Re: Fighting for our votes???19 ppl were killed last day & Mousavi said he's ready to die too but no
The groups of protesters are smaller but the confrontations more violent. The bloggers are still getting word out via twitter. They are so brave. I have the link to the twitter stream but am afraid to post it here.
Be careful. the Iranian 'government' has been arresting people who help get information out. They plant their own people in the twitter streams and also since some have now been caught they will torture them and others they know are in danger. They twitterers are always moving to not be found. The government is now supposedly looking for instances of high phone use, assuming they may be part of getting word out. I do not know if they do the same for internet.
Edit
I don't know how easy it is for you to read english or how long you dare stay on line. The articles are long and there is new 'news' or strong rumors. You may want to read my last post first.
Here is an article from today that summarizes:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D991643O0&show_article=1
CAIRO (AP) - Protesters and riot police clashed in the streets around Iran's parliament Wednesday as hundreds of people converged on a Tehran square in defiance of government orders to halt demonstrations demanding a new presidential election, witnesses said.
Security forces appeared to vastly outnumber the demonstrators, and they beat protesters gathered on Baharestan Square with batons and fired tear gas canisters and rounds of ammunition into the air, witnesses told The Associated Press. They said some demonstrators fought back while others fled to another Tehran plaza, Sepah Square, about a mile (2 kilometers) to the north.
A helicopter could be seen hovering over central Tehran, where a witness told the AP that the area was swarming with hundreds of riot police who were trying to prevent people from gathering even briefly. Thousands more security officers filled the surrounding streets, said the witness, who declined to give his name for fear of government reprisals.
Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered journalists for international news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from reporting on the streets.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's refusal earlier Wednesday to bow to demands from protesters effectively closed the door to any compromise with the opposition.
The wife of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was defiant, saying protesters refused to buckle under a situation she compared to martial law.
Mousavi's official Web site had said a protest was planned outside parliament. But the site distanced him from the action, calling it independent and saying it had not been organized by the reformist candidate.
Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a former university dean who campaigned beside him, said on another of his Web sites that his followers had the constitutional right to protest and the government should not deal with them "as if martial law has been imposed in the streets."
She called for the release of all activists and others arrested at protests.
Mousavi, a former prime minister, saw his campaign transform into a protest movement after the government declared that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the June 12 election. Mousavi says the result was fraudulent, and Western analysts who have examined available data on the vote said there were indications of manipulation.
Khamenei has ordered protests to end, leaving Mousavi with the choice of restraining followers or continuing to directly challenge the country's ultimate authority despite threats of escalating force.
"On the current situation, I was insisting and will insist on implementation of the law. That means, we will not go one step beyond the law," Khamenei said on state television. "For sure, neither the system nor the people will yield to pressure at any price." He used language that indicated he was referring to domestic pressures.
He told opposition supporters once again to halt their protests and accused the U.S., Britain and other foreign powers of fomenting days of unprecedented street protests over the vote.
Meanwhile Wednesday, a conservative candidate in the disputed presidential election said he was withdrawing his complaints about voting fraud for the sake of the country, state television reported.
The announcement by Mohsen Rezaie, a former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, moved the cleric-led government one step closer to a final declaration of victory for Ahmadinejad. State TV reported that Ahmadinejad would be sworn in sometime between July 26 and Aug. 19.
Iran also said that it was considering downgrading ties with Britain, which it has directly accused of spying in recent days.
The government accused Britain of using spies to foment the protests and Iran expelled two British diplomats Tuesday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that two Iranian diplomats were being sent home in retaliation.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was asked about the option of reducing diplomatic relations with London after a Cabinet meeting in Tehran.
"We are studying it," Mottaki said, according to state television.
State media have said that at least 17 people have been killed in postelection unrest, including 10 protesters shot during the largest demonstration on Saturday.
Mousavi's supporters flooded the streets of Tehran and other cities after the presidential vote, massing by the hundreds of thousands in protests larger than any since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Security forces initially stood by and permitted the demonstrations.
Amateur footage of a 27-year-old woman bleeding to death from a gunshot on a Tehran street unleashed outrage at home and abroad.
Despite the heavy security, a few Iranians apparently dared to venture onto the streets to pay tribute to that victim, who has been identified as Neda Agha Soltan.
On Wednesday, smoldering embers of candles were clearly visible on a street corner in central Tehran, where a vigil was held the night before for the slain young woman.
Another opposition figure, reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, had called for a day of mourning Thursday for those killed in protests since the election.
Saeed Razavi, the spokesman for Karroubi's campaign, said on the candidate's official Web site later that any mourning was canceled because authorities hadn't given permission.
He said the mourning would be next week at the University of Tehran or near where those slain were buried.
Also, a Mousavi aide confirmed that police had raided offices of a newspaper owned by the candidate and detained 25 editorial employees.
Ali Reza Beheshti said the raid took place Monday evening in central Tehran as editorial members were preparing to relaunch the newspaper, Kalemeh Sabz, or the Green Word. The paper had been absent from newsstands for more than a week.
"Police in uniform raided the office and detained 25 members of the editorial staff," Beheshti said.
Amnesty International said Wednesday it was concerned that arrested demonstrators were at risk of torture or other ill treatment. It urged Iranian authorities to give the detainees access to their families, lawyers and any medical treatment they might need.
"Anyone detained solely for their peaceful expression of their views regarding the outcome of the election should be released immediately and unconditionally," it said.
Two players on Iran's national soccer team, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Ali Karimi, resigned for personal reasons, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. The pair were among several team members who wore wrist bands in green—the color of Mousavi's opposition movement—before a World Cup qualifying match played last week against South Korea in Seoul.
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This is from the New York Times (one of our largest and best papers).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/middleeast/25iran.html?bl&ex=1245988800&en=948520d3f4de6dd5&ei=5087%0A
Fresh Clashes as Ruling Cleric Says Iran Will Not Yield Sign in to Recommend
Published: June 24, 2009
TEHRAN — Hundreds of protesters clashed with waves of riot police and paramilitary militia in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that the authorities would not yield to pressure from opponents demanding a new election following allegations of electoral fraud.
Times Topics: Iran It was impossible to confirm the extent of the new violence in the capital because of draconian new press restrictions on coverage of the post-election mayhem. But the witnesses reached by telephone said the confrontation, in the streets near the national Parliament building, was bloody, with police using live ammunition.
Defying government warnings, hundreds, if not thousands of protesters, had attempted to gather in front of the parliament on Baharestan Square, witnesses said. They were met with riot police and paramilitary militia, who struck at them with truncheons, tear gas and guns. One witness said he saw a 19-year-old woman shot in the neck. Others said the police had shot in the air, not directly at demonstrators.
Some opposition supporters said that presidential candidate and opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi had been scheduled to address the crowd, but initial reports indicated that he had not appeared.
The violence came as additional details emerged about the sweeping scale of arrests that have accompanied the nation’s worst political crisis since the 1979 revolution. A New York-based human rights group, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, listed the names Wednesday of 240 detained in the crackdown. Iranian state media have reported 645 arrests, but the total number of detained may be as high as 2,000, the organization said, citing human rights activists in Iran.
Among them are people arrested in a Monday night raid of a campaign office for Mr. Moussavi in Tehran, Press TV, state television’s English-language satellite broadcaster, reported Wednesday. The government said the office was being used as “a headquarters for psychological war against the country’s security,” and claimed that evidence had been found of “the role of foreign elements in planning post-election unrest.”
Also detained are 102 political figures, 23 journalists, 79 university students and 7 university faculty, the human rights organization said. By official reckonings, at least 17 demonstrators have been killed.
Earlier Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei told legislators that he “insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue,” according to accounts in the state-run media. “Neither the establishment nor the nation will yield to pressure at any cost.”
Coupled with the clampdown on the new demonstration, arrests and other developments, the Ayatollah’s comments reinforced the impression that the authorities have resolved to use all levers of power to choke off protest.
The coalition opposed to the election results suffered a setback Wednesday when one candidate formally withdrew his complaints of vote-rigging, opening a rift among those who had challenged the outcome of the June 12 election.
Some opponents maintained their defiance, calling for continued protests and the release of detainees. Despite efforts to silence dissent and despite an appearance of disarray in opposition ranks, Zahra Rahnavard, Mr. Moussavi’s wife who has played an influential role in the opposition, issued a call Wednesday for the immediate release of Iranians detained in election protests, his Web site reported.
“I regret the arrest of many politicians and people and want their immediate release,” Ms. Rahnavard declared. “It is my duty to continue legal protests to preserve Iranian rights.”
The candidate who withdrew his complaint of election fraud, Mohsen Rezai, had initially complained that while the official count gave him 680,000 votes, he had evidence that 900,000 people voted for him. But on Wednesday, Press TV reported, he decided to abandon the complaint, saying the current “political, social and security situation has entered a sensitive and decisive phase which is more important than the election.”
Trailing Mr. Moussavi and the former Parliament speaker, Mehdi Karroubi, Mr. Rezai was the most conservative of the losing candidates and had been under strong pressure from Iran’s rulers to pull back from the confrontation.
Mr. Rezai was quoted as calling the ballot a “clear sample of religious democracy,” sharing language with a powerful defense of the ballot in a sermon last Friday by Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mr. Rezai’s decision to withdraw, regional analysts said, represented an incremental but significant step back for the opposition, since his status as being part of and loyal to the system adding credibility to the overall electoral challenge.
The electoral controversy continued to boil, spilling over Iran’s own borders, as President Obama issued on Tuesday his harshest condemnation of events there yet, saying he was “appalled and outraged” by the attacks on civilian protesters.
“I strongly condemn these unjust actions,” Mr. Obama said during a news conference at the White House.
Iran’s leadership pressed its own charges that foreign powers had meddled in its internal affairs and instigated the widespread protests. State television showed people identified as protesters saying they had been influenced by foreign news media, Reuters reported.
“I think we were provoked by networks like the BBC and the Voice of America to take such immoral actions,” one young man said.
The government has also worked to underscore that it is under attack by terrorists seeking to take advantage of the post-election turmoil. Press TV, quoting the national intelligence minister, said Wednesday that dozens of alleged terrorists have been arrested in the past week, including suspects in the alleged bombing last Saturday of the shine of Ayatollah Imam Khomeini in Tehran that wounded three.
The arrested were linked with “the Zionist and non-Zionist regimes outside the county,” the intelligence minister, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, was quoted as saying. Britain announced it had expelled two Iranian diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to Iran’s decision a day earlier to expel two British diplomats. Iran also lashed out at the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, for his call to end “arrests, threats and use of force.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said on Wednesday Tehran was reviewing whether to downgrade ties with Britain, which Iran has accused of interference in its disputed presidential election, the ISNA semi-official news agency said.
“We are reviewing this issue,” Manouchehr Mottaki said, according to ISNA. He was also quoted as saying Iran would not participate in a meeting of the G-8 countries this week in Italy to discuss Afghanistan with regional powers. The G-8 brings together industrialized nations including the United States and Britain along with other western countries, Japan and Russia.
Nazila Fathi reported from Tehran and Alan Cowell from London. Michael Slackman and Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo, and Sharon Otterman from New York.
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