Iran's regime cracks down on opposition and media

[steven johnson]

Source: Guardian

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last night dismissed protests over last week's election as the work of "tension seekers" following a fourth day of protests in Tehran, and appeared to rule out any change to the outcome of the poll by referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the "elected president".

According to the official result, Ahmadinejad won 63% of the vote to 34% for Mousavi, a moderate former prime minister and architect.
Ominously, the government ordered ­foreign journalists not ­permanently based in Iran to leave the country at once, and banned resident correspondents from reporting from the streets, a move seen as possibly heralding an intensification of the crackdown.

The regime appeared to be following a dual strategy of partial concessions on ­Friday's vote combined with arrests of opposition figures who could give ­coherence to the protests. Those detained yesterday included Muhammad Ali Abtahi and Saeed Hajarian, both Mousavi supporters.
In his remarks, Khamenei called for ­tolerance and said those disputing the result were ­tarnishing the ­"beautiful" image created by the record 85% turnout.

Read more: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/16/iran-protests-election-recount

[WestSeattle2]

1. If anyone believes we're not meddling they're horribly

naive. You can bet we have assets inside the country fomenting dissent and coordinating opposition.

Right on, it's about time. Time for that repressive regime to take a fall. The Iranian people deserve to be free. And to think one speech by our president ignited the fuse. Eight years of crazy cowboy theatrics did nothing to advance our cause, yet one speech by a president who knows what he's doing, and is actually qualified for the damn job, is producing results.

[defendandprotect]

2. And you think the US wants to set Iran free?

Meanwhile, I hope they succeed in chasing the religious whacko out --

but this crack down makes clear that the reported "win" is probably

fiction.

[WestSeattle2]

3. This is just the first domino....

the rest will take months or even years. I'd be willing to bet that within 5-10 years Iran will rid themselves of their so-called theocracy and become much more westernized. Will there be substantial changes if the current "winner" is deposed. No, of course not. But it will be a significant slap-down of the religious Reich that rules that country and that will give the resistance momentum to continue to demand more and more changes.

[defendandprotect]

5. Evidently, the win was 19 million . . . in a Diebold type play --

I don't see any way that the current guy will be forced to step down --
but it would be great if it happened.

Obviously, the religious right knows its time is well over -- that was clear
15 years ago.

Behind it all, however, IMO, it is often the dictator who keeps religious authority
in place. Patriarchy can't exist without it's organized patriarchal religion.

[ohio2007]

4. MSM journalists relying on Iranian 'citizen journalists' (video)

Traditional media turn to internet for Iran coverage

International media said Wednesday they were skirting the ban on reporting from the streets of Iran by using a flood of emails, Twitter messages and phone calls from people inside the country. Iranian authorities accused some foreign media of being the "mouthpiece of rioters" Wednesday in the wake of demonstrations by supporters of the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who wan More..ts a fresh election. So with foreign media now barred from taking to the streets to report on the aftermath of the disputed election, heavy use is being made of so-called user-generated content.



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