Anarchy in the Iran

[dannubis]

Well, the suspect should be taken from his home without a warrant, receive a totally new status (let's call it unlawfull combatant) so he can not have the protection of the geneva convention, get tossed in a prison camp somewhere on a godforsaken island and held there for 5 years without a trial. After that he should just be released because all the evidence that he was guilty in the first place doesn't exist.

How do you like that answer? I bet you need to clean your keyboard right now.

[Docfeelgood]

Have you ever even lost a loved one in your long, miserable life? Did that not give you any proper perspective on things like this?

Better them than me.

[Wezil]

That's debatable.

[Docfeelgood]

Iranian Protester Shot In Head

I imagine it's hard to tweet about your protesting experience when your eyes have been shot out.

http://nothingtoxic.com/media/124605...r_Shot_In_Head

[BeBMan]

Iran has detained eight local staff at the British embassy in Tehran on accusations of having a role in post-election riots, local reports said.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded their release, saying the arrests were "quite unacceptable".

Relations between the countries are strained after Tehran accused the UK of stoking unrest, which London denies.

Some 17 people are thought to have died in street protests after the disputed 12 June presidential poll.

Tehran has expelled two British diplomats in the past week, and the UK has responded with a similar measure.

The arrests were first reported by the semi-official Fars news agency.

"Eight local employees at the British embassy who had a considerable role in recent unrest were taken into custody," Fars said, without giving a source.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed "deep concern" over the arrest of local staff on Saturday.

"This is harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable," he told reporters at an international conference in Corfu. "We want to see (them) released unharmed."

He said the British government had made a strong protest and denied accusations that the UK was behind unrest in Iran.

Poll verdict

Meanwhile, Iran's powerful Guardian Council was due to give its verdict on the result of the disputed presidential election, which handed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a decisive victory.


IRAN UNREST
12 June Presidential election saw incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected with 63% of vote
Main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi called for result to be annulled for electoral fraud
Street protests saw at least 17 people killed and foreign media restricted

Q&A: Election aftermath
How Iran is ruled
Who's who in Iran
Iran: Send your questions

But the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Tehran says there is much politicking taking place behind the scenes, and that the five-day deadline for the Guardian Council to return its verdict may be extended.

Our correspondent says there is an attempt to form a committee - including the disappointed presidential candidates - to oversee the recount of 10% of the votes, a move which they are resisting.

Another parliamentary committee is holding discussions with the grand ayatollahs in an attempt from pro-Ahmadinejad forces to put on a show of unity, he adds.

But opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has not backed away from his claim that the election result was fraudulent, and has refused to support the Guardian Council's plan for a partial recount.

Mr Mousavi has been calling for a full re-run of the vote, but said on Saturday that he would accept a review by an independent body.

However the Guardian Council has already defended President Ahmadinejad's re-election, saying on Friday that the presidential poll was the "healthiest" since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8122871.stm

[Wezil]

Does anyone still think revolution will succeed this time around?

Sorry Neda but it looks like you should have stayed home.

[BeBMan]

In the short run there is not much unarmed (or even lightly armed) civilians can do against a regime controlling all the means to use force and willing to use them. Maybe a general strike, but since people still need to live from something it is probably not easy to do for long, and under repressive measures. In the long run we'll see.

[Wezil]

In the long run we will all be space dust.

Yes, the regime will fall, just not today, tomorrow or next week. They survived this.

[BeBMan]

If the opposition doesn't do anything at all then the regime will never fall anytime before we're all space dust. The current events are important because the opposition made a clear effort instead of just accepting everything. That is something to count on. It also exposed major differences between different parts of the electorate, and within the ruling elite.

I wished the opposition would gain more, but it seems atm they can't. Doesn't mean it was all in vain though.

[Wezil]

I understand your point but I disagree. I think the regime will be strengthened by the victory. Watch for serious payback in the coming months.

[Kitschum]

I dispute that it was meant as a revolution by more than a small minority of protesters. I still believe a lot of it was venting their frustrations, and that they were never quite clear themselves with what they actually wanted to or thought they could achieve.

The most surprising thing for me was how many Iranians (of all generations, and in all big cities) were willing to step into the streets, and how long it lasted before the killings started. The police seems to have been largely sympathetic and let it go on for a while before the higher-ups said no more and let loose the basijiha. And now they will follow up with individual arrests and prosecutions of alleged "leaders", "spies" and "traitors". Just like after 18 tir (protests in 1999) when Khatami betrayed the students who voted for him.

It's heartbreaking because it was so easy to get caught up in the early optimism. I remember reading reporters describing the happy mood during the first few days of protests. That evaporated very quickly.

I am not encouraged, as the hardliners were likely caught off-guard by the size of the protests. Perhaps they really believed that Ahmadinejad was as popular as the state-controlled media says he is. But now they are forewarned, and they will be quicker to respond in the future. I am also disappointed, but not exactly surprised by the meek response of Mousavi to the violence. He is too entangled in the system to be credible. I know it's not brave to make a pessimistic prediction, but I don't think we will see protests on this scale again for a long time (many years), but I hope I am wrong.

RIP Neda Soltani and everyone else.

[Wezil]

It will take (at least) another crisis. The election results weren't enough to do it apparently.

[BeBMan]

I dispute that it was meant as a revolution by more than a small minority of protesters. I still believe a lot of it was venting their frustrations, and that they were never quite clear themselves with what they actually wanted to or thought they could achieve.

Maybe, but that's how many of those things started. Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Solidarnosc in Poland or (East-)Germany in 1989 just to name a few all started since people were fed up with certain issues, but didn't neccessarily all want to bring down the *whole system* initially, or had all a clear and unified vision what to do or to achieve. Those things developed over time in the course of the events.

Of course it's heartbreaking what's going on right now, no doubt.

If it will really strengthen the regime (re Wezil) or not is however still open IMO.

[SlowwHand]

The asshats in charge blame Britain.

Iran sparks new row with Britain over election
By Fredrik Dahl – 23 mins ago

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has detained several local British embassy staff, sparking a new row with Britain on Sunday that underscored the hardline leadership's effort to blame post-election unrest on foreign powers, not popular anger.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded the release of all the staffers still held and said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a "strong, collective response" to any such "harassment and intimidation" against EU missions.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced what he called "interfering statements" by Western officials following Iran's disputed presidential election.

"If the (Iranian) nation and officials are unanimous and united, then the temptations of international ill-wishers and interfering and cruel politicians would no longer have an impact," state radio quoted him as saying.

The West and Iran are at odds over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, as well as its handling of the unrest.

The United States, Britain and their allies have long urged Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment they suspect is aimed at bomb-making. Iran says its nuclear aims are entirely peaceful.

Khamenei on June 19 called Britain the "most treacherous" of Iran's enemies, which he accused of orchestrating the unprecedented outpouring of protest after the June 12 poll.

The streets of Tehran have sunk back into a sullen calm after riot police and religious basij militia crushed huge demonstrations in which at least 20 people were killed.

"Everybody is depressed, everybody is afraid," said one Mousavi voter in his 20s in northern Tehran

[Sirotnikov]

George Galloway spent several hours denouncing the protests, Israel and Zionism. He called upon the world to accept Ahmadinejad's re-election and called on the protesters to go home and accept the will of the people.