Iranian Leaders Condemn U.S. & Vow To Crush Opposition Protesters.."Death To America!"

Government Supporters Pack Iranian Cities To Condemn Opposition, U.S.


Thousands of Iranian political supporters jammed the streets of the capital and other cities Wednesday in response to anti-government rallies during Sunday's observances of the holy day of Ashura.

As crowds headed toward Revolution Square, they cried "Death to America," "Death to Israel," and "Death to Moussavi." The latter refers to Mir Hossein Moussavi, the main opposition candidate in Iran's June 12 presidential election that swept incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into office for a second term.

Moussavi and his followers declared the election fraudulent, touching off a wave of protests over the summer that left several demonstrators dead and dozens jailed.

No government opponents were seen at Wednesday's rally in Tehran, said CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr from the capital. Opposition Web sites advised their supporters to stay home.

After the rallies, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported that "two known plotters" have left Tehran for northern Iran. The identities of the two could not immediately be confirmed.

Bozorgmehr, who watched the demonstrations from the sidelines, said that at Vali Asr square, the crowd was so dense he could not make his way through on foot. From a bridge, he overlooked an area from Imam Hossein Square to Revolution (Enghelab) Square, a distance of about 18 kilometers (11 miles).

There were "easily hundreds of thousands, if not over a million people," he said. There also were protests in Tabriz, Shiraz, Arak, Gilan and Sistan-Baluchestan province, according to government-funded Press TV.

Wednesday's rallies, which also denounced France and the United Kingdom, lasted at least two hours, and state television ran messages across the bottom of the screen indicating the nationwide gatherings were "huge."

"Millions of Iranians gather to condemn insulting Ashura," one ticker read. Others reported that marchers had renewed their allegiance to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, supported the Iraniansystem and renewed their allegiance to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led Iran for a decade after the 1979 revolution.

Ahmadinejad said Wednesday's march showed that the harsh criticism by foreign nations can never have a negative impact on his country.

"The officials of these countries should understand that their attempts will not affect the Iranian nations' equations, stances and idealistic and perfectionist move," Ahmadinejad told reporters at the end of a Cabinet meeting.

He said the United States and certain European countries were trying to foment unrest in Iran, and described those efforts as futile, the state-owned Fars news agency reported.

The president also advised President Obama and his European allies to learn from the experiences of their predecessors.

"Officials of the U.S. and certain European states showed again that they have embarked on wrong plans, stances and attitude," Ahmadinejad said.

Protest organizers distributed a news release after the march that condemned the Ashura demonstrations. They accused those who participated of acting against Ashura, the holy Quran, Islamic values and the Islamic Republic, according to ILNA (Iranian Labour News Agency).

The declaration called the rioters "Mofsed Bel Arz" (corrupt on Earth) and said they had waged war against God. The declaration also demanded that Iranian authorities review the country's relations with Britain and France, which, along with the United States, have criticized the Iranian government's intolerance for anti-government protesters.

The document praises Iran's state media for their "courageous work" in exposing the "plotters" and those in the media who were influenced by foreign spy agencies and had "incited people to riot."

Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran's chief prosecutor, told reporters Tuesday that seven people were killed in Sunday's riots. The toll makes them the bloodiest since June, when demonstrations over the disputed election left at least eight dead.

Sunday's face-offs came on the anniversary of Ashura, a major Shiite Muslim holy day that marks the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, as a martyr.

Among the seven who died was Moussavi's nephew, Seyyed Ali Moussavi, who was buried quickly on Wednesday with security personnel watching from nearby. There were no demonstrations or disturbances during the burial, and several plain-clothed and uniformed security personnel patrolled the area.

The Iranian parliament held a closed session Wednesday to discuss punishment for "insults that were made" (to the holy Ashura Day) in Sunday's anti-government protests. State media sourced an official as saying that around 500 people had been arrested in conjunction with the weekend clashes.

The crowd shouted slogans denouncing government reformists: "[Mohammad] Khatami should be defrocked," referring to the moderate former Iranian president who sought democratic reforms; and "Karrubi is illiterate and should leave politics and religion," a reference to former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, a backer of Khatami.

"The blood that runs in my veins is a gift to the leader," one person yelled, referring to the Supreme Leader.

According to Bozorgmehr, "The march was orderly and I saw no sign of security forces in any large numbers. The crowd was a mix of men, women and children, as well as large religious processions accompanied by loud speakers denouncing Sunday's protests."

According to NoroozNews, a pro-reformist news Web site, at least six journalists and political and civil rights activists were arrested early in the day.

Among them were Badr-Alsadat Mofidi, director of the Professional Journalists' Association; Keyvan Mehregan; political director of the Eetemad Meli newspaper; Nasrin Vaziri, who covers parliament for the semi-official ILNA; and Morteza Kazemian, a staff writer and political activist for the opposition Web site Rahesabz.net, who was detained at 1 a.m.

Another journalist, Masha-Allah Shams Alvazein, was arrested Tuesday morning, NoroozNews said. According to its report, "three young agents showed up at his house with a nameless arrest warrant, and about one hour after he resisted and asked for a name-specific arrest warrant, two older agents showed up and threatened to take him by force if he did not go willingly."

NoroozNews said Mansoureh Shojaey, a women's rights activist, also was arrested Wednesday, shortly after midnight, at her house.

There are reports that a prosecutor has signed arrest warrants for 200 journalists, NoroozNews said.

In Jerusalem on Wednesday, international representatives of jurists, parliamentarians, human rights activists and Iranian dissidents held a news conference to reveal their petition for additional sanctions against Iran.

They cited the country's "harsh crackdown on opposition demonstrators" as well as its defiance over its nuclear program.

Leading the coalition of about 60 people was Irwin Cotler, a former Justice Minister of Canada, now a Liberal Party member of the Canadian Parliament. He accused the Iranian government of "gross violations of international law."

"What we are witnessing in Ahmadinejad's Iran is a toxic convergence of four distinct yet interrelated dangers: the danger of a nuclear Iran, the danger of state-sanctioned incitement to genocide, the danger of state sponsorship of international terrorism and the danger of a massive assault on human rights," Cotler said.



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Sources: CNN, Google Maps

Iranian Gov't Making Examples Of Opponents, Arrestees

Washington Post----

TEHRAN -- The Iranian government stepped up pressure Tuesday on opponents challenging the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, setting up a special court to try detained protesters, carrying out new arrests and launching a campaign to publicly vilify those calling for a new vote.

Authorities also formally rejected the opposition's demands to annul the disputed June 12 presidential election on grounds of massive fraud and set a deadline of mid-August for Ahmadinejad's inauguration and the confirmation of his new cabinet.

But in an apparent effort to assuage the opposition, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agreed to give a powerful supervisory body an additional five days to review the complaints of fraud.

President Obama's remarks Tuesday on the tumult seemed to strike a chord with at least some opposition supporters in Iran.

In an affluent North Tehran neighborhood, where people watched Obama's White House news conference on a big-screen satellite television, one woman commented: "He is following the right line. He should not give the regime an excuse to blame the U.S. for the protests."

Reporters "should grill him on human rights," a man said of Obama, while trying to work around censored Web sites on his computer.

On a day of relative calm after security forces broke up protests Monday, the government vowed to make an example of detained "rioters" and teach them a lesson. Hundreds of Iranians have been arrested in the past 10 days since the Interior Ministry declared that Ahmadinejad outpolled his nearest rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, by nearly 2 to 1. Mousavi has vowed to continue protesting despite a government ban on demonstrations and a public warning from Khamenei.

Truckloads of police in riot gear deployed at Tehran's main squares Tuesday to prevent a recurrence of the protests, and there were no signs of significant opposition gatherings.

A senior official of Iran's judiciary, which is controlled by the ruling Shiite Muslim clerics, said Tuesday that a special court would try detained protesters, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

"Those arrested in recent events will be dealt with in a way that will teach them a lesson," the official, Ibrahim Raisi, was quoted as saying. "The rioters should be dealt with in an exemplary way, and the judiciary will do that." Raisi did not elaborate.

State-run Iranian radio has reported that more than 450 people were detained in clashes with security forces around Tehran's Azadi Square on Saturday, when 10 people were killed and at least 100 wounded. In addition, according to international advocacy groups, dozens of Iranian journalists have been arrested.

Despite acknowledged irregularities, Iran's Guardian Council, which is responsible for confirming election results, ruled out a new vote, saying the problems were not serious enough to change the outcome.

"If a major breach occurs in an election, the Guardian Council may annul the votes that come out of a particular affected ballot box, polling station, district or city," council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodai said, according to state-run news media. "Fortunately, in the recent presidential election we found no evidence of major fraud or breach in the election. Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place."

The council has agreed to a random recount of 10 percent of the ballots, but Mousavi and another opposition candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, have rejected the overture.

The council also asked Khamenei, who holds ultimate political and religious authority in Iran, to give it five more days to examine opposition complaints, extending a deadline that was to expire Wednesday. The council chairman, Ahmad Jannati, requested the extension "in order to remove any ambiguity" over the election results, state media said.

Khamenei approved the extension Tuesday.

There was no indication, however, that authorities were backing off their support for Ahmadinejad's reelection, which Khamenei effectively endorsed in a televised sermon during Friday prayers last week.

Moreover, a parliamentary board announced Tuesday that Ahmadinejad would be sworn in for his second term between July 26 and Aug. 19. Lawmakers will also review credentials of cabinet ministers during that period, IRNA reported.

And in an apparent effort to discredit the opposition, state television broadcast interviews with "rioters" who confessed to being influenced by Western news media.

A semiofficial news agency allied with Ahmadinejad also harshly denounced a group of Shiite religious figures close to former president Mohammad Khatami. The semiofficial Fars News Agency said members of the group, the Association of Combatant Clerics, were acting like "Zionists" and monarchists and "have now officially joined the anti-revolutionaries," a term used for enemies of Iran's political system.

In a letter, the group wrote that "the people of Iran, who with thousands of hopes, wishes and excitement came to voting boxes, are now gathering the bodies of their youth out of blood and soil, and are in mourning. Should these justice-seeking objections be answered with bullets that rip through the hearts of their children?"

In an indication of splits within the Majlis, or parliament, a group of 24 lawmakers summoned Interior Minister Sadegh Mahsouli to answer questions about what they described as the government's crackdown on reformists, including a nighttime raid early last week on student dormitories at Tehran University. The raid, in which student protesters were beaten and dorm rooms ransacked and burned, was carried out by pro-government militiamen, officials have acknowledged.

The lawmakers chastised Mahsouli for failing to identify and arrest the attackers and for "a lack of crisis management," the state-run Press TV reported.

Sources: Washington Post, MSNBC

Iranian Gov't Retaliates Against Journalists Who Helped Expose Its Cruel Dictatorship To The World

Washington Post----

In the first days after Iran's disputed election, journalists covered it openly.

Then, as government militias cracked down, they were told to stay in their offices. Now, many are being arrested -- so far, a Canadian Iranian reporter for Newsweek, a Greek reporter for the Washington Times and several dozen Iranian reporters, including a group arrested en masse at their office.

It is unclear why the journalists were arrested or what, if anything, they will be charged with. The detentions could, some experts say, be a scare tactic. Or, as with so much of what is happening in Iran now, they could be the beginning of a new phase in which old rules don't necessarily apply.

Maziar Bahari, 41, a documentary filmmaker who has covered Iran for Newsweek for nearly a decade, was arrested Sunday morning at his mother's house. The magazine has retained a lawyer for him, but no one has been able to ascertain where he is.

The Washington Times yesterday confirmed the arrest of Iason Athanasiadis, a journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who was covering the election. Friends said he disappeared last week as he prepared to leave Iran. The Iranian government announced his arrest yesterday, and the Greek government is pushing for his release.

Twenty-five employees of Kalemeye Sabz, the official newspaper of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, were arrested Monday for "illegal activities," and an additional dozen or two Iranian journalists have been detained, according to watchdog groups.

"Journalists have been getting rounded up, a few each day," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, a spokesman for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, adding that they are hard to count because many people have gone into hiding

According to the CPJ, more than 40 journalists and media staff members have been arrested since the election. Dayem said he believes they are in Tehran's Evin Prison. Others have been detained and released.

About 15 reporters for U.S. news media are still in Iran, including some dual citizens. Most U.S. journalists who were covering the election have left, as their visas expired. The BBC's bureau chief, who lives in Iran, left in recent days at the request of the government. Because it is difficult for Western, and especially American, journalists to get visas to Iran, many who work there for foreign media organizations are dual citizens. Iran, however, treats them as Iranian citizens.

"Dual-citizen journalists often report on subjects the Iranian government considers the most sensitive and endure inconceivable degrees of scrutiny," said Azadeh Moaveni, an Iranian American who has reported from Iran for Time magazine in recent years. "Bahari's journalism these past years has always struck me as textbook objective, which suggests that during this crisis the rules may be changing."

The arrest of Bahari, who holds Iranian and Canadian citizenship, carries unpleasant echoes of the case of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian Iranian journalist who was arrested in 2003 and died in custody. Since then, other dual nationals have been detained, most often on accusations of espionage, and usually released after several months. The most recent, Iranian American reporter Roxana Saberi, was released last month.

Such arrests tend to garner more publicity than do the arrests of Iranians who have no other citizenship, some of whom are detained for significantly longer.

In the past week, as news media restrictions tightened, ordinary citizens filled the void, posting videos, pictures and written accounts online. In recent days, Iranians say, government forces have targeted people with cameras.

The detention of a journalist presents a delicate situation for editors, who must decide whether to publicize it or try to resolve it quietly. Editors at Newsweek and the Washington Times yesterday stressed the balanced reporting their reporters have done in Iran.

"We don't know about anything he was doing that would have raised Iran's concerns," John Solomon, executive editor of the Washington Times, said of Athanasiadis.

A Tehran resident who said he is a good friend of Athanasiadis said the reporter used to live in Iran and had returned recently to report on the elections.

"We're worried about him, and I don't think he thought he would get arrested," said the friend, who gave only his first name, Farhad, adding that Athanasiadis was preparing to leave the country. "We talked on the phone and said goodbye. But I guess he stayed on."

Bahari's editor, Christopher Dickey, said Bahari, whose partner in England is five months pregnant, had been "treated with respect" during earlier questioning and during his arrest.

"The big risk for Maziar is that his case will be judged not on the basis of Maziar's reporting but on the basis of an idea about him, on the idea of the foreign press" as conspiring against the regime, Dickey said of Bahari, adding that if government authorities read his reporting on the recent protests, "they'd see very quickly how balanced it was."

"We hope this is a kind of 'roundup and release' scenario," he said, "a way of saying to those pushing the edge of the envelope, 'Step back, we're watching you.' "


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Sources: Washington Post, CTA.ca, Newsweek, MSNBC, Blue Star Chronicles, Google Maps

Italy, France, Finland Willing To Aid Wounded Iranian Protesters...19 Reported Dead In Tehran

UPI.com----

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- A European Union-wide proposal to coordinate aid for wounded Iranian demonstrators was expected to be discussed Wednesday in Stockholm, ministers said.

Ministers of Italy, France and Finland called for a common EU response for people seeking assistance in the violent aftermath of Iran's June 12 election in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner over his nearest rival, moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

In demonstrations in Tehran Saturday, official Iranian media outlets reported at least 13 people died and more than 400 were wounded.

Embassies of several EU countries opened their gates to wounded protesters, including Italy, which said it instructed its mission in Tehran to assist "where there is a request or need for help from injured demonstrators," EUobserver reported Monday.

However, Sweden, which is about to assume the rotating EU presidency, said it cannot grant asylum. Belgium also said it would not allow opposition protesters to seek refuge in its embassy in the Iranian capital.

The Austrian foreign ministry said its embassy in the Iranian capital would render first aid, but no one has come to its compound.

A spokesman for Norway, which is not a European Union member but is recognized as an international negotiator, said its embassy in Tehran had "not accepted any refugees," the EUobserver said.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said that the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the Czech charge d'affaires and "his 26 colleagues from the European Union" in Tehran. Through a spokesman, Kohout said the EU diplomats were summoned "and they were not allowed to present their positions."


19 Reported Dead In Tehran, Iran----

TEHRAN, June 20 (UPI) -- At least 19 people were killed Saturday in clashes between police and protesters in Tehran, hospital sources told CNN.

CNN said there were unconfirmed reports the death toll was much higher, at least 150. Video posted on the Web showed police using nightsticks, water cannon, tear gas and fire hoses, with some footage of protesters who looked like they had been shot.

The massive protests occurred despite a warning Friday from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and other anti-government leaders could be held liable for any damage done by demonstrators.

Most of the demonstrations since the government proclaimed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had defeated Mousavi 2-1 in last week's presidential election have been peaceful. On Saturday, some protesters fought back when police confronted them, witnesses told The New York Times.

Press TV, a government-run broadcaster, reported the government saying 300 police officers had been injured. Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan, the acting police chief, told the Fars News Agency police had received about 2,000 complaints from people asking for vigorous action against the protesters.

Khamenei, in a speech during Friday prayers, said Ahmadinejad had won an "overwhelming victory" and banned any further demonstrations.


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Sources: UPI.com, Google Maps

Iran Government Cracks Down On Demonstrators, Blames U.S. For Chaos, Police Arrest Ex-Iranian Leader's Daughter

MSNBC----

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's government said Sunday it arrested the daughter and four other relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the country's most powerful men, in a move that exposed a rift among the ruling Islamic clerics over the disputed presidential election.

State media also reported at least 10 more deaths, bringing the official toll for a week of confrontations to at least 17. State television inside Iran said 10 were killed and 100 injured in clashes Saturday between demonstrators contesting the result of the June 12 election and black-clad police wielding truncheons, tear gas and water cannons.

Police and members of the Basij militia took up positions in the afternoon on major streets and squares, including the site of Saturday's clashes. There was no word on any new clashes Sunday, although after dark many people in Tehran went to their rooftops to shout "Death to the dictator" and Allahu akbar," a common form of defiance in recent days.

State-run Press TV reported that Rafsanjani's eldest daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, and four other unidentified family members were arrested late Saturday. On Sunday evening, it said the four others had been released but that Hashemi remained in detention. However, Iran's ambassador to France Seyed Mehdi Miraboutalebi said on France's RFI radio that Hashemi had been released.

Serious divide among clerics:

Last week, state television showed images of Hashemi, 46, speaking to hundreds of supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. He alleges fraud in the June 12 election, which the government said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won.

After Hashemi's appearance, hard-line students gathered outside the Tehran prosecutor's office and accused her of treason, state radio reported.

The arrests are the strongest sign yet of a serious divide among Iran's ruling clerics.

Also Sunday, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on state television that the number of people questioning the election results was large and "this group should be respected and one should not mix this big population's account with a small group of rioters."

Rafsanjani, 75, heads two powerful institutions. One of them, the cleric-run Assembly of Experts, has the power to monitor and remove the supreme leader, the country's most powerful figure. The second is the Expediency Council, a body that arbitrates disputes between parliament and the unelected Guardian Council, which can block legislation.

The assembly has never publicly reprimanded the unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since he succeeded Islamic Revolution founder Aytollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. But the current crisis has rattled the once-untouchable stature of the supreme leader with protesters openly defying his orders to leave the streets.

Underscoring how the protesters have become emboldened despite the regime's repeated and ominous warnings, witnesses said some shouted "Death to Khamenei!" at Saturday's demonstrations — another sign of once unthinkable challenges to the virtually limitless authority of the supreme leader.

Rafsanjani was deeply critical of Ahmadinejad during the presidential campaign and has the potential to lead an internal challenge to Khamenei.


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Sources: MSNBC, Huffington Post, Google Maps