Darius11 12 #1 June 14, 2009 I posted this in the other thread but think this needs its own thread. There is blood on the streets of Iran right now. The election was a fruad and the results are untrue. These are what friends in Iran are posting when they can. Most lines are down. "To all non-Iranian friends: please help spread the news of the outrage and disgust of the Iranian people with the election results. Unfortunately, the western media is not currently doing a good job of exposing this blatantly fraudulent election. This is not the will of the Iranian people; they are mostly in shock or despair, and the braver ones are being mercilessly beaten on the streets. PLEASE SHARE" "Here's a status from 5 minutes ago for those who give a shit with whats happening in the Region: In Tehran right now-the regime is beating people with machetes; mobile telecommunication lines are down (how conveniently); and civil protesting has now turned into a blood bath against the people. Some scenes and pictures sent remind you of the Tiananmen massacre. My brother is one of those guys speaking his heart." "a reporter in Tehran reports: "Some Employees of the Department of Internal Affairs announced that the real election results are as follows: Moosavi (reformist candidate): 19,075,623 votes, Karroobi (reformist candidate) 13,387,104 votes, Ahmadi Nezhad (incumbent) 5,698,417 votes, and Rezaei 3,754,218 votes." This makes a lot of sense to all of us." I hope the people win for once.I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Darius11 12 #2 June 14, 2009 http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/13/iran.election/index.html full story above CNN QuoteTEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- As street protests and voter skepticism rose over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory, the incumbent leader hailed the vote, saying it was a "great ordeal" but one that pointed "the way to the future." The quote below is from a friend on facebook Quoteup to 3 am Tehran was still on fire. Protest is going on. and mousavi is locked in his house.I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #3 June 14, 2009 I thought Obama's coming had fixed this already! Of course the media will not say any election in Iran is worthless. Regardless of the results. Iran's president serves at the pleasure of the Mula's (sp) But we all know Obama's "speach" fixed all "America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SpeedRacer 1 #4 June 14, 2009 wtf are you smoking? the thread is about the iranian election, not Obama or his speech. Speed Racer -------------------------------------------------- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lawrocket 3 #5 June 14, 2009 I am an American. How will our leadershop respond? This is one of the reasons I'm glad I'm not POTUS. Is there a correct response? I have a number of Persian friends (I hung out with them in law school. I was scheduled to visit after the Bar exam - departing September 21, 2001. Plans changed (my commander thought it a bad idea). All the caviar I would have smuggled...) I have a very special place in my heart for the Persians. This is awful... My wife is hotter than your wife. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kelpdiver 2 #6 June 14, 2009 I'm seeing western media report this here in SF. But what is the West to do, exactly? I think you've clearly articulated a position that we should stop meddling in that region. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,994 #7 June 14, 2009 > wtf are you smoking? the thread is about the iranian election, not >Obama or his speech. ODS; it's a terrible thing. People afflicted with it feel the need to blame every ill in the world on Obama, and find a reason that anything good has nothing to do with him. You'll find them saying things like "murder in the streets? That's not CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!" Recovering economy? Coincidence! On the plus side, it will certainly pass in 20 years or so, when another party change/election cycle gives them another target for their obsessions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kelpdiver 2 #8 June 14, 2009 Quote On the plus side, it will certainly pass in 20 years or so, when another party change/election cycle gives them another target for their obsessions. Sooner than that, perhaps. CDIF is pretty much gone, right? It's only been 8 years. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ErricoMalatesta 0 #9 June 14, 2009 Stealing an election? Re-electing a nutcase for another 4 years? Iran and the US - how are they not good friends? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dmkellett 0 #10 June 14, 2009 Mate, I used to say if it was south of Dover then it was corrupt and and all elections were fixed. However the last 11 years of new labour in the UK has proven to me that this is no longer true. ALL POLITICS is fraudulent. New labour are nearly as bad as the Islamic fundamentalist nutcases in Persia. they are certainly as corrupt. It pains me to think i helped vote these losers in...... D Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy9o8 2 #11 June 14, 2009 The end result may be what the Iranian military decides to do. In 1979, despite the millions of angry people in the street, the Shah was able to hold onto his power as long as the military continued to back him. For a while, protesters were massacred in the streets (like now). But when the military finally decided he wasn't worth the trouble, and abandoned him, the people in the street prevailed, and the Shah was finished. Can Ahmadinijad maintain control of the military? That's the crux right there. We'll see. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ErricoMalatesta 0 #12 June 14, 2009 QuoteThe end result may be what the Iranian military decides to do. In 1979, despite the millions of angry people in the street, the Shah was able to hold onto his power as long as the military continued to back him. For a while, protesters were massacred in the streets (like now). But when the military finally decided he wasn't worth the trouble, and abandoned him, the people in the street prevailed, and the Shah was finished. Can Ahmadinijad maintain control of the military? That's the crux right there. We'll see. Military and US are interchangeable? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy9o8 2 #13 June 14, 2009 QuoteQuoteThe end result may be what the Iranian military decides to do. In 1979, despite the millions of angry people in the street, the Shah was able to hold onto his power as long as the military continued to back him. For a while, protesters were massacred in the streets (like now). But when the military finally decided he wasn't worth the trouble, and abandoned him, the people in the street prevailed, and the Shah was finished. Can Ahmadinijad maintain control of the military? That's the crux right there. We'll see. Military and US are interchangeable? Not necessarily (even though that sort-of was the case in Iran in 1979). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #14 June 14, 2009 Quote wtf are you smoking? the thread is about the iranian election, not Obama or his speech. You must not have heard him (Obama) taking credit for the (mybe) up coming change in that country"America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #15 June 14, 2009 Quote wtf are you smoking? the thread is about the iranian election, not Obama or his speech. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6493623.ece ...must be good....."America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,994 #16 June 14, 2009 >CDIF is pretty much gone, right? It's only been 8 years. Well, 16 years from the start of the Clinton presidency. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomAiello 26 #17 June 14, 2009 Do you have any good sources for real time information? The stuff in the press is probably too old to really reflect the situation (which appears to be moving fast), as well as being very patchy (since western reporters aren't exactly having an easy time getting information or getting it out). If I lived in Iran (or were an Iranian living abroad), I'd be pretty concerned and/or taking some action. As an American, my tendency is to think this isn't really any of my business, but rather something the people of Iran need to take up with their government.-- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ErricoMalatesta 0 #18 June 15, 2009 http://www.juancole.com/ has a fair assessment. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushmc 23 #19 June 15, 2009 www.juancole.com"America will never be destroyed from the outside, if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerryzflies 0 #20 June 15, 2009 Quote Quote wtf are you smoking? the thread is about the iranian election, not Obama or his speech. You must not have heard him (Obama) taking credit for the (mybe) up coming change in that country You can certainly take credit for completely misunderstanding what you read.If you can't fix it with a hammer, the problem's electrical. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybill 22 #21 June 15, 2009 Hi Dari., Break out yer' old Crosby Stills and Nash tunes.... "Something happenin' here, What it is ain't exactly clear, There's a man with a gun over there, Tellin' me I got to beware!........ The song was poignant when it came out and is today!!SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sundevil777 102 #22 June 15, 2009 Quote"a reporter in Tehran reports: "Some Employees of the Department of Internal Affairs announced that the real election results are as follows: Moosavi (reformist candidate): 19,075,623 votes, Karroobi (reformist candidate) 13,387,104 votes, Ahmadi Nezhad (incumbent) 5,698,417 votes, and Rezaei 3,754,218 votes." This makes a lot of sense to all of us." Where did you see this reported? If this gets accepted within the general Iranian public, and is widely distributed by the media/underground media there, then what do you think will happen? What do you think will happen even if the "official" results go largely unchallenged in the media? What is the state of the media/underground media there? I am very interested to know your opinions on this. What do you think an Iran ruled by the supposed "real" winner would be like/what would change? How do you think the mullahs would react? We've disagreed on many things in this forum, but I'm confident we both hope for a free and democratic Iran, that would be a great positive influence for peace in that region. I really want to know what you think.People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
24fps 1 #23 June 15, 2009 I'm a member of an online community of documentary filmmakers. The following is an account given by independent filmmaker James Longley. He has been updating the folks on the forums and has given permission to to re-post whats going on: 3:51 pm About three hours ago I was interviewing people on the street in downtown Tehran with my translator, not far from the Ministry of Interior building. There were some riot police about 100 meters away at the other end of the street. A couple people spoke to the camera – one young woman was saying that "The riot police are beating people like animals. The situation here is very bad; we need the UN to come and help with a recount of the votes!" At about that time a plain-clothes security guy started grabbing my arm, and together with several uniformed police they dragged me and my translator off to the Ministry of Interior building. I fared much better than my translator, whom they punched and kicked in the groin. They ripped off his ID and snatched away both our cameras. A passing police officer sprayed my translator in the face with pepper spray, although he was already being marched along the pavement by three policemen. Unfortunately my camera was still recording and the battery was dislodged in the hubbub, destroying the video file of the interview. As we reached the Ministry of Interior building they separated us and dragged my translator by his arms across the floor and down a flight of stairs; he eventually regained his footing on the second two flights of stairs leading downward to the holding cell, where about twenty people who had already been grabbed off the streets were kneeling on the floor in the darkened room with their hands tied behind their backs. All during this process my translator was being kicked and sworn at. The police told him how they "would put their dicks in his ass" and how "your mother/sister is a whore" and so on. At one point he was beaten with a belt buckle. At another moment, they beat him with a police truncheon across his back, leaving a nasty welt. My translator kept on insisting that he was an officially authorized translator working with an American journalist – which is perfectly true. At this time I was above ground, in the entrance to the ministry, yelling over and over at the police to "Bring me my translator!" It was clear that they didn't intend to beat me – although they may have wanted to – because I was a foreigner. After a few minutes they relented and sent someone off to retrieve my translator from their holding cell, three floors down in the Ministry of Interior building. They came into the holding cell and shouted "Where is the translator?!" and then, when he identified himself, they beat him again for "not telling them he was a translator." An English-speaking riot policeman tried to sweet-talk me, saying that in a riot situation anything can happen. I might have taken him more seriously had a riot actually been taking place when we were arrested. He also asked my translator to convince me not to report what had happened. Eyewitnesses are reporting that fully-credentialed foreign journalists are similarly being detained all over Tehran today. The deputy head of the Ministry of Guidance just told me on the phone that other journalists have also been beaten, and that the official permissions no longer work. Also, foreign journalist visas are not being extended, so all of those people who were allowed in to cover the elections are now being forced out in the messy aftermath. All in all, it made me really question what I am doing in this country. It has become impossible to work as a journalist without the risk of physical violence from the government. -- I thought it might add to the conversation.something funny and unique Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kelpdiver 2 #24 June 15, 2009 Quote All in all, it made me really question what I am doing in this country. It has become impossible to work as a journalist without the risk of physical violence from the government. This was the first time he realized this? And isn't that uncertainty part of the allure as a journalist/document filmer? It's not nearly so interesting covering Kansas or Belgium. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
24fps 1 #25 June 15, 2009 To give James some credit, it was not this bad in Iran last week. But that is part of what we do. I've been working on a sports documentary for a year now. While it does pays the bills I will admit I'm itchin' to be back in the heat of things. something funny and unique Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites