Bloggingheads: Iran's Military State, Opposition Movement

Sources: Bloggingheadstv

Iranian Gov't Stops Revolution Protests; Human Rights Violations

Senator Joe Lieberman Explains (on first video below) How Congress Plans To Help Stop Iran's Unacceptable Regime & Violation of Human Rights.

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Iran’s Show Of Force Quashes Protest Attempts


A massive Iranian security presence, including riot police and gangs of motorbike-riding militia, appeared to snuff out attempts Thursday by anti-government protesters to orchestrate counter-demonstrations on the anniversary of the revolution that created Iran's Islamic republic.

Police clashed with protesters in several sites around Tehran, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Gangs of hard-liners also attacked senior opposition figures as they tried to attend the rallies — including the wife of the head of the reform movement.

Plainclothes Basiji militiamen beat 65-year-old Zahra Rahnavard with clubs on her head and back until her supporters formed a human ring around her and whisked her away, according to the Web site of her husband, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Foreign media, including NBC News, were only allowed to cover the official ceremonies in Freedom Square, where hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathered to mark the revolution's 31st anniversary.

NBC's Ali Arouzi reported that he and the handful of other accredited reporters in Iran were bused into the official rally in Freedom Square, penned into a certain section, barred from talking to even the government supporters and then bused out of the area. He said they were told that they were absolutely prohibited from going out independently to film activities on the streets of Tehran.

The anniversary celebrations were an opportunity for Iran's clerical regime to tout its power in the face of the opposition movement, which has persisted in holding mass street protests since disputed presidential elections in June in defiance of a fierce months-long crackdown.

Based on the reports out of Tehran, the security clampdown appeared to have succeeded in preventing a major opposition turnout. Their numbers were not immediately known — but opposition Web sites spoke of groups of protesters in the hundreds, compared to thousands in past demonstrations.

Official media made no mention of clashes or arrests and state television said "tens of millions of people" attended rallies in support of the revolution across the country of 70 million.

One protester told The Associated Press she had tried to join the demonstrations but soon left in disappointment. "There were 300 of us, maximum 500. Against 10,000 people," she told an AP reporter outside Iran.

"It means they won and we lost. They defeated us. They were able to gather so many people," she said. "But this doesn't mean we have been defeated for good. It's a defeat for now, today. We need time to regroup." She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by authorities, who have jailed protesters for talking to foreign media.

Internet disruptions

Tehran residents also reported Internet speeds dropping dramatically and e-mail services such as Gmail being blocked in a common government tactic to foil opposition attempts to organize.

Heavy numbers of riot police, members of the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militiamen deployed at key squares and major avenues in the capital to prevent protests from marring the annual mass rallies for the revolution's anniversary.

State television showed images of thousands upon thousands carrying often identical banners marching along the city's broad avenues toward the central Azadi, or Freedom, Square. There, the massive crowds waved Iranian flags and carried pictures of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic state, and his successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a nationally televised address in the square, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, reiterating that Iran is now a "nuclear state."

'Death to the dictator'
Ahmadinejad made no mention in his speech of Iran's political turmoil.

For days ahead of the anniversary celebrations, anti-government Web sites and blogs have called for a major turnout in counterprotests. Groups of opposition protesters gathered Thursday in several locations around Tehran, wearing green clothes and waving green balloons — the opposition's signature color.

Meantime, opposition Web sites sought to gather as much information as possible from the protests.

* "Security forces fired tear gas to disperse a group of protesters who were trying to march toward Azadi Square as they chanted 'death to the dictator,'" the Web site Rahesabz said, reporting an unknown number of arrests. Police and Basijis on motorbikes swept toward central Tehran, where protesters and security forces clashed in several locations, it and other opposition Web sites reported.

* The Web site, Iran's Green Voice, said security forces fired shots and teargas at supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi staging a rally in central Tehran. Mousavi and his wife attended one of the rallies, it said.

* Another opposition site, Norooz, said 30 people were arrested in one Tehran square.

* The various sites, many run from outside of Iran, also featured videos allegedly taken during protests. The Website, IranNewNow, had a live blog based on reports from the streets with many of the uploaded YouTube videos.

While msnbc.com can not confirm the provenance, date and other information about these clips, we are posting some here as there is no other source of video from the street protests.

Security forces also briefly detained the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and her husband, who are both senior pro-reform politicians, according to the couple's son, Ali.

The granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi, and her husband Mohammad Reza Khatami, who is the brother of a former pro-reform president, were held for less than an hour before being released, their son told the AP.

Text messaging, Internet service hobbled

Iranian authorities again tried to squeeze off text messaging and Web links in attempts to cripple protest organizers. Internet service was sharply slowed, mobile phone service widely cut and there were repeated disruptions in popular instant messaging services such as Google chat, though some were sporadically accessible.

Many Internet users said they could not log into their Gmail account, Google's e-mail service, since last week.

"We have heard from users in Iran that they are having trouble accessing Gmail," Google said in a statement. "We can confirm a sharp drop in traffic and we have looked at our own networks and found that they are working properly."

Opposition members went on roof tops late Wednesday and shouted Allah-u-Akbar ("God is greatest") in protest — echoing similar cries after the disputed June election as well as anti-shah protests more than three decades ago.

The opposition claims that Ahmadinejad's victory in the June 12 election was fraudulent and that the true winner was pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets against the government in the weeks after the vote, prompting a massive wave of arrests.


Sources: AP, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Youtube

Iranian Police vs Protesters, Again...Internet Blocked, Again

Witnesses: Iranian police clash with protesters


Security forces and pro-government militiamen with batons and tear gas were clashing with thousands of opposition protesters outside Tehran University on a day of planned student demonstrations, witnesses said Monday.

The witnesses said Basiji militiamen waded into the crowds of protesters, beating men and women on the heads and shoulders with batons, while security forces fired tear gas.

At least two women supporters of opposition leader Mr. Hossein Mousavi were arrested and authorities shut down the mobile phone network in central Tehran to stop opposition protesters from contacting each other, the reformist website Rah-e Sabz said.

Thousands of security forces surrounded universities ahead of protests that pro-reform students called for Monday. It was not immediately known if demonstrations broke out inside campuses because authorities have taken dramatic steps to seal them off, shutting down cell phones in the area and covering fences with banners and signs to hide anything going on inside.

"There are hundreds of riot police, (they are) everywhere around Tehran University and nearby streets," said another witness, who asked not to be named.

The large security operation suggested that authorities planned to make good on their promise to deal harshly with protesters marking the day in 1953 when three students were killed in an anti-U.S. protest. The occasion has in recent years been used by students to stage pro-reform demonstrations.

Journalists working for foreign media organizations were banned from covering Monday's planned protests. They were told late Saturday by the Culture Ministry that their press cards would be suspended for three days starting Monday.

Mousavi support

Government opponents were hoping for a large turnout for Monday's demonstrations to show their movement still has momentum despite a series of government crackdowns since the country's disputed presidential election in June.

Mousavi threw his support behind the planned student demonstrations and declared that his movement was is still alive. A statement posted on his Web site said the clerical establishment cannot silence students and was losing legitimacy in the Iranian people's minds.

"A great nation would not stay silent when some confiscate its vote," said Mousavi, who claims President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the June 12 election victory from him by fraud.

Iran's universities have been strongholds of the opposition movement that grew out of the disputed June election, and authorities have besieged campuses nationwide with a wave of arrests and student expulsions.

The pro-government Basij militia has also recruited informers on campuses to blow the whistle on any opposition troublemakers, according to students.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, accused the opposition Sunday of exposing divisions in the country and creating opportunities for Iran's enemies.

Rooftop chants

Despite heavy rain Sunday night, rooftop cries of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" and "Death to the Dictator" were heard from many parts of Tehran on Sunday night. The protest reprised one of the main tactics of the anti-shah movement in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and was revived in the days and weeks after the disputed elections.

The rooftop chants had not been heard since the opposition's last attempt to mobilize, a Nov. 4 rally coinciding with state-sanctioned events to mark the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover. That demonstration drew far fewer protesters than at the height of the summer's unrest. But it still provoked a violent response from security forces.

For weeks after the disputed June presidential election, demonstrations triggered by claims of massive fraud in the vote brought hundreds of thousands to the streets, but the relentless crackdown that followed has taken a heavy toll.

Seeking to deny the protesters a chance to reassert their voice, authorities slowed Internet connections to a crawl in the capital. For some periods on Sunday, Web access was completely shut down — a tactic that was also used before last month's demonstration.

The government has not publicly acknowledged it is behind the outages, but Iran's Internet service providers say the problem is not on their end and is not a technical glitch.

Confining Journalists

Seeking to confine journalists working for international media to their offices during the protests, Iran's Culture Ministry suspended accreditation allowing them to report from the streets from Monday to Wednesday.

The ministry also warned the few remaining pro-reform newspapers not to publish "divisive" material, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Largely swept off the streets, the opposition relies on the Web and cell phone service to organize rallies and get its message out.

The call for Monday's demonstrations was put out on dozens of Web sites run by supporters of opposition leaders Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, who both ran against Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election. Most of those sites have been repeatedly blocked by the government, forcing activists to set up new ones.


Sources: MSNBC

President Obama Releases Statements On Iran's Violence...Urges Iranian Leaders To "Stop Unjust Actions"

Huffington Post----

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran's government to halt a "violent and unjust" crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Tehran's postelection response.

Obama has sought a measured reaction to avoid being drawn in as a meddler in Iranian affairs. Yet his comments have grown more pointed as the clashes intensified, and his latest remarks took direct aim at Iranian leaders.

"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."

Obama has searched for the right tone in light of political pressures on all sides. On Capitol Hill, Congress pressed him to condemn the Iranian government's response. In Iran, the leadership was poised to blame the U.S. for interference and draw Obama in more directly.

Obama met with advisers at the White House as developments in Iran grew more ominous, with police seen beating protesters.

"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo, Egypt, this month.

"The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government," Obama said. "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."

Protesters in Iran have demanded that government cancel and rerun the June 12 elections that ended with a declaration of overwhelming victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says he won and claimed widespread fraud.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there was no ballot rigging. He warned of a crackdown if protesters continued their massive street rallies.

Then on Saturday, police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in open defiance of Iran's clerical government. Witnesses described fierce clashes after some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" in downtown Tehran.

Obama's criticism came one day after both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to condemn the actions by the Iranian government against demonstrators and moves to interfere with Internet and cell phone communications. That was seen in part as a veiled criticism of Obama's response, too.

The president already was on record as saying the United States stood behind those who were seeking justice in a peaceful way. He responded to critics that he hadn't been forceful enough in support of protesters, telling CBS News: "The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do."

That was Friday, before the conflict in Iran appeared to deepen.

Obama has refrained from passing final judgment on the underlying question of the legitimacy of the election itself, although he has expressed "deep concerns" about it.

The president returned Saturday to his theme that the world is watching the way the Iranian government's response.

Obama cited Martin Luther King's statement that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

"I believe that," the president said. "The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people's belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."

Police clashed with protesters around Tehran immediately after the presidential election and gunfire from a militia compound left at least seven dead, but further force remained in check until Saturday's developments.


Whitehouse.gov

Today, President Obama made the following statement concerning Iran:

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.


CBS News Interview with Harry Smith: President Obama's Message to Iran


Watch CBS Videos Online

CBS News Harry Smith sat down with President Barack Obama in an exclusive interview. This is a partial transcript of the President's remarks on Iran. More of the interview will air Monday morning on the CBS Early Show.

Q: Let's move on to news of the day. The Ayatollah Khamenei gave his - speech today and gave his sermon. He said that the election in Iran was, in fact, legitimate. He said, quote/unquote, "the street - street demonstrations are unacceptable." Do you have a message for those people in the street?

A: I absolutely do. Well, first of all, let's understand that this notion that somehow these hundreds of thousands of people who are pouring into the streets in Iran are somehow responding to the West or the United States. that's an old distraction that I think has been trotted out periodically. And that's just not gonna fly.

What you're seeing in Iran are hundreds of thousands of people who believe their voices were not heard and who are peacefully protesting and - and seeking justice. And the world is watching. And we stand behind those who are seeking justice in a peaceful way. And, you know, already we've seen violence out there. I think I've said this throughout the week. I want to repeat it that we stand with those who would look to peaceful resolution of conflict, and we believe that the voices of people have to be heard, that that's a universal value that the American people stand for and this administration stands for.

And I'm very concerned based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made that the government of Iran recognize that the world is watching. And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is - and is not.

But the last point I want to make on this - this is not an issue of the United States or the West versus Iran. This is an issue of the Iranian people. The fact that they are on the streets under pretty severe duress, at great risk to themselves, is a sign that there's something in that society that wants to open up.

And, you know, we respect Iran's sovereignty. And we respect the fact that ultimately the Iranian people have to make these decisions. But I hope that the world understands that this is not something that has to do with the outside world. This has to do with what's happening in Iran. And, I think ultimately the Iranian people, will obtain justice.

Q: People in this country say you haven't said enough, that you haven't been forceful enough in your support for those people in the street, and which you say?

A: To which I say the last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do. That's what we've already seen. We shouldn't be playing into that. There should be no distractions from the fact that the Iranian people are seeking to let their voices be heard.

Now, what we can do is bear witness and say to the world that the, you know, incredible demonstrations that we've seen is a testimony to, I think what Dr. King called the the arc of the moral universe. It's long but it bends towards justice.

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Huffington Post, CBS News, MSNBC

Mayhem, Violence Intensifies Between Iranian Police & Protesters...Suicide Bombing Reported

MSNBC----

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TEHRAN, Iran - As police beat and fired tear gas at protesters in Tehran who defied a ban and the country's supreme leader, the nation's police chief said Saturday that his response would only get tougher if anti-government protests continue.

In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama urged Iran to halt the "violent and unjust" crackdown, his bluntest language yet on the crisis. "Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," Obama said in a written statement.

Opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi did not appear at the main clashes near Revolution Square on Saturday, but a supporter said he did make a public address in southwest Tehran, urging backers to stage a national strike if he is arrested.

"Mousavi said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path," the ally, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone.

And the semi-official Fars news agency later reported that Mousavi had issued a statement to supporters that he was not challenging the Islamic state. But, he reportedly added, by not allowing legal rallies, the Islamic state could face "dangerous consequences."

In central Tehran earlier Saturday, eyewitnesses described fierce clashes near Revolution Square after some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!"

Police responded with tear gas, water cannons and guns but it was not immediately clear if they were firing live ammunition.

No fatalities were reported and the head of Iran's police said his men had been ordered to act with restraint — this time.

"We acted with leniency but I think from today on, we should resume law and confront more seriously," Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam said on state television. "The events have become exhausting, bothersome and intolerable. I want them to take the police cautions seriously because we will definitely show a serious confrontation against those who violate rules."

Blockade around Freedom Street:

Police and militia did try to bar people from entering Freedom Street, which runs from Freedom Square to Revolution Square, to prevent a mass gathering, witnesses said.

NBC News Iran bureau chief Ali Arouzi said he had never ever seen so many police on the streets at once.

Witnesses said between 50 and 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and pro-government militia and taken to a hospital. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes.

Some protesters fought back, setting fire to militia members' motorcycles, witnesses said.

Helicopters hovered overhead, as ambulance sirens echoed through the streets and black smoke rose over the city.

Tehran University was cordoned off by police and militia while students inside the university chanted "Death to the dictator," witnesses said.

In the south of the city, supporters of Mousavi set on fire a building used by backers of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a witness said, and police there then fired into the air to disperse them and Ahmadinejad supporters.

Mousavi late Saturday repeated his demand for the election to be annulled.

In a letter to Iran's Guardian Council, which investigates voting fraud allegations, Mousavi listed violations that he says are proof that the June 12 vote should be annulled. He said some ballot boxes had been sealed before voting began, thousands of his representatives had been expelled from polling stations and some mobile polling stations had ballot boxes filled with fake ballots.

"The Iranian nation will not believe this unjust and illegal" act, Mousavi said in the letter published on one of his official Web sites.

Suicide bombing reported:

Also Saturday, a suicide bomber died and three people were wounded at the entrance to the shrine of Iran's revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, state television said.

It was not clear if the bombing was related to the election protests.

On Friday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned opposition leaders to end street protests or be held responsible for any "bloodshed and chaos" to come.

The statement effectively closed the door to Mousavi's demand for a new election, ratcheting up the possibility of a bloody confrontation.

Continued protests could spark a bloody crackdown on Mousavi's supporters, or greatly weaken the government by forcing it back away from its threat of violence.

A report on Press TV listed the fallout from the unrest, including 700 buildings and 300 banks damaged and 400 police hurt. It gave no similar list for the protesters. At least seven people have died, according to the official Iranian count, but the total could be more.

It was not clear if Mousavi has the power to halt street demonstrations even if he orders his supporters to stay inside.

Iran's Interior Ministry raised the possibility of directly punishing the 67-year-old former prime minister, saying he would "be held responsible for the consequences of any illegal gatherings." The ministry accused him of supporting protests that "have lead to the disruption of security and public order," State Security Council secretary, Abbas Mohtaj, said in a statement on the ministry's Web site.

Guardian Council:

Mousavi and another presidential candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, did not attend a meeting with Iran's Guardian Council on Saturday, state TV said. The council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei, investigates voter fraud claims.

A conservative candidate, former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei, did attend, state TV said.

The state's English-language channel said the Guardian Council had agreed to a recount of 10 percent of the votes, without providing details.

State TV also said the Association of Combatant Clerics, a group linked to former President Mohammad Khatami, a Mousavi ally, had told supporters to stay off the streets. The report could not immediately be confirmed.

Since the June 12 election, Mousavi has become the figurehead for a broad collection of demonstrators — from the most liberal-leaning reformists to religious conservatives. Some could be prepared to take their protests to the limit, but many others have no interest in an all-out mutiny against the country's Islamic system.

Mousavi's speaking curbed:

A spokesman for Mousavi said Friday the opposition leader was not under arrest but was not allowed to speak to journalists or stand at a microphone at rallies. Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf told the AP from Paris it's even becoming difficult to reach people close to Mousavi. He said he has not heard from Mousavi's camp since Khamenei's address Friday morning.

Iranian authorities have interfered with the Internet and mobile phone networks and placed strict limits on the ability of foreign media to cover recent events, banning reporting from the street and allowing only phone interviews and information from officials sources such as state TV.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other European Union leaders have expressed dismay over the threat of a crackdown and both houses of the U.S. Congress approved a resolution Friday condemning "the ongoing violence" by the Iranian government and its suppression of the Internet and cell phones.

In an interview taped Friday with CBS, President Barack Obama said he is very concerned by the "tenor and tone" of Khamenei's comments. He also said that how Iran's leaders "approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard" will signal "what Iran is and is not."


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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Mousavi Joins Protesters At Huge Rally In Tehran

MSNBC----

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

After another day of massive demonstrations against last week’s disputed presidential election, Iranian authorities and protest leaders uneasily awaited a rare public statement Friday from the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei planned to deliver a sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran, something he does only two or three times a year, the Iran’s state-run Press TV reported Thursday. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and two other main presidential candidates, who have echoed Mousavi’s allegation that the election was rigged, said they would attend the sermon, Iran’s al-Alam Arabic television channel reported.

There was no immediate word on whether President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would attend. Ahmadinejad, who election authorities declared won in an landslide last week, generally shows up whenever Khamenei speaks.

“The massive turnout of the Iranian nation in the Friday prayers congregation will manifest the solidarity and unity among Iranians,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency said. But U.S. officials and specialists in Iranian politics said the sermon could give Khamenei the opportunity to make a definitive statement on the election and its aftermath.

Mousavi’s movement has forced Khamenei into the center of the growing crisis, questioning his role as the final authority on all critical issues. So far, he has tolerated the demonstrations, urging the people to pursue allegations of election fraud within the limits of the cleric-led system.

Mousavi joins protesters:

Mousavi boldly joined tens of thousands of black-clad supporters Thursday in the streets of Tehran to honor demonstrators killed in clashes over Iran’s disputed election.

Witnesses said many in the mammoth crowd wore green wristbands, toted green balloons and carried flowers as they filed into Imam Khomeini Square, a large plaza in the heart of the capital named for the founder of the Islamic Revolution. Green is Mousavi’s campaign color.

Demonstrators marched silently until they arrived at the square, where some chanted “Death to the dictator!” and “Where are our votes!” witnesses said.

Press TV, an English-language version of Iranian state television targeted at foreigners, estimated the crowd at hundreds of thousands and said the people listened to a brief address from Mousavi, who called for calm and self-restraint. The size of the crowd could not be independently verified.

Foreign news organizations have been banned from covering the protests over the election last Friday, which the government declared that Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. Mousavi and his supporters claim that the election was rigged and that he was the true winner.

The demonstrators included people from all walks of life. Young, trendy girls with their scarves pushed back on their foreheads joined women in chadors, the traditional cloak worn by Iranian women in public, NBC News reported.

Americans, many of Iranian descent, have joined the protests in cities across the United States. Shouting slogans and holding signs, several hundred people demonstrated Wednesday evening outside the Iranian interests section in Washington, D.C. The protesters denounced Ahmadinejad and called for a new election.

Organizers planned for a march Thursday evening to the Chinese Embassy to protest China’s recognition of the election results, followed by a similar march to the White House on Saturday.

Limited recount:

Trying again to satisfy the protesters’ demands, Iran’s main electoral authority invited Mousavi and the two other main candidates to a meeting. Al-Alam said the three candidates would meet with the Guardian Council on Saturday.

The unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts, which is close to Khamenei, has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities.

Mousavi charges that the Guardian Council is not neutral and that it supports Ahmadinejad, and he has demanded an independent investigation and a new election.

The council’s spokesman, Abbasali Khadkhodaei, said Thursday that it received a total of 646 complaints from the three candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad.

The council provided few other details, but the number of complaints raised the possibility that even a limited recount could turn into a far larger and messier exercise than the government desires.

People in the streets:

The huge protests began Monday, when hundreds of thousands turned out in a large procession that recalled the scale of protests during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Seven demonstrators were shot and killed that day by pro-regime militia in the first confirmed deaths during the unrest.

The massive gathering was followed by three days of marches along Tehran’s main avenues, presenting one of the gravest threats to Iran’s complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged out of the Islamic revolution that brought down the Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The ruling clerics still command deep public support and are defended by Iran’s most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard, as well as a vast network of militias.

But Mousavi’s movement has forced Khamenei into the center of the growing crisis, questioning his role as the final authority on all critical issues.

Protest targets:

For the moment, protesters have focused on the results of the balloting rather than challenging the Islamic system of government. But a shift in anger toward Iran’s non-elected theocracy would sharply change the stakes. Instead of a clash over the election results, it would become a showdown over the foundation of Iran’s system of rule, the almost unlimited authority of the clerics at the top.

The Iranian government has directly accused the United States of meddling in the deepening crisis. A statement by state-run Press TV blamed Washington for “intolerable” interference. The report cited no evidence.

“Despite wide coverage of unrest, foreign media have not been able to provide any evidence on a single violation in the election process,” state radio said Thursday.

The government has blocked certain Web sites, such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are vital conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence. Many other sites, including Gmail and Yahoo, were unusually slow and rarely connect.

Mousavi has condemned the blocking of Web sites, saying the government did not tolerate the voice of the opposition.


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Sources: MSNBC, Huffington Post, Google Maps

Iran Updates: Dueling Rallies, Limited Recount of Votes...Pres. Obama Speaks Cautiously, Deeply Troubled By Escalating Events

MSNBC----

"There are people who want to see greater openness."

"I am deeply troubled by the violence that I've been seeing on television."

"I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability for folks to peacefully dissent, all those are universal values and need to be respected."

President Barack Obama....June 16, 2009

Iran’s Islamic leadership agreed to conduct a limited recount of votes following last week’s disputed presidential election, a spokesman said Tuesday, as thousands of people took to Tehran’s streets.

Iranian state media said the government organized a massive rally to demand punishment for those who violently protested the announced results of Friday’s balloting, which the government said had been won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi claimed he won the election and has demanded a new election.

Authorities banned all foreign news reporting from the streets, making it difficult for Western media to confirm the reports that thousands of Iranians had gathered for demonstrations and counterdemonstrations Tuesday.

Reports from eyewitnesses said gunfire came from the roof of a building in Tehran used by a state-backed militia after some supporters of Mousavi set fire to the building and tried to storm it.

Eyewitnesses said violence broke out at a rally in central Tehran, where plainclothes militia beat pro-reform protesters with sticks. Some of the plainclothes officials were reported to be chanting “Death to America.”

In Washington, President Barack Obama acknowledged that he was in a difficult position in trying to craft the U.S. response to the unrest in Iran, which has seen Washington as a bitter enemy for 30 years.

“I think that the world has deep concerns about the election,” Obama said at a news conference Tuesday with the visiting president of South Korea. But he said it would not be “productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling ... in Iranian elections.”

The president said he stood with “the universal principle that people’s voices should be heard and not suppressed,” but he stressed that “how that plays out over the next several days and several weeks is something ultimately for the Iranian people to decide.”

Republicans criticized Obama for not being tougher on Tehran. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in an interview on NBC’s TODAY show that Obama should speak out about Iran’s “corrupt, flawed sham of an election.”

Mousavi backers blanket streets:

NBC News staff in Tehran were not allowed to report from the streets or to send video supporting any reports. But an NBC News producer sent messages describing some of the scene at the Mousavi rally.

The crowd reached about 100,000 people in less than three hours. Images of Mousavi were spray-painted in green on every street corner, and supporters carried banners reading “Mir Hossein Mousavi our true president.”

The crowd remained peaceful, sending messages to one another to stay calm and not to chant anything hostile.

With traditional reporting silenced and e-mail and many Web sites shut down by the government, much of the information from Tehran was coming through social media Internet services like Twitter.com and Facebook.com, which can be accessed through mobile devices and cell phone networks.

Twitter postponed a scheduled blackout for maintenance Tuesday so as not to silence the protesters after the U.S. State Department lobbied it to keep its service running during the unrest, a State Department official said. The official said the United States wanted to highlight “Twitter’s role as an important means of communication — not with us — but horizontally in Iran.”

Messages from people claiming to be eyewitnesses to the violence were flowing into Twitter at the rate of hundreds a minute. Numerous reports of gunfire were being posted, and videos purporting to capture demonstrators’ being beaten — and, in at least one case, killed — were also being published on YouTube.com.

“After this is all over, the people of Iran will always remember how people from all over the world supported them,” said a message that appeared to come from Tehran.

One Twitter user called the banned communications “cyberwarfare at its best,” and there were unconfirmed reports that Iranian security forces were fighting back by creating their own Twitter accounts to spread their version of events.

The independent, nontraditional reporting from participants illustrated the difficulty Iranian authorities were having in clamping down on the protesters and the worldwide attention that is bolstering their actions.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and experts in Islamic, to investigate the election results after he met with Mousavi on Sunday.

A spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, was quoted on state TV as saying the recount would be limited to voting sites where candidates claim irregularities took place. But he did not rule out the possibility of canceling the results entirely, which would be an unprecedented step.

There was no immediate word from Mousavi on the announcement, who had said Monday that he was not hopeful that the council would address his charges.

As waves of messages went out alleging that seven people had been killed after crowds tried to storm a compound linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guard, Iranian state radio decided Tuesday to confirm the reports, calling the demonstration an “unauthorized gathering.”

Government seeks to cool passions:

The huge rallies also showed the resolve of Mousavi’s backers and have pushed Iran’s Islamic establishment into attempts to cool the tensions after days of unrest.

The death toll reported Tuesday was the first in Tehran since the post-election turmoil gripped Iran and could be a further rallying point in a culture that venerates martyrs and often marks their death with memorials.

Mousavi said in a message in his Web site that he would not be attending any rally, and he asked his supporters to “not fall in the trap of street riots” and to “exercise self-restraint.”

Ahmadinejad traveled to Russia on Tuesday after delaying the trip for a day. He did not mention the election or the unrest, instead focusing his rhetoric on the United States.

“America is enveloped in economic and political crises, and there is no hope for their resolution,” he said through an interpreter. “Allies of the United States are not capable of easing these crises.”

A Web site run by Iran’s former reformist vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, said he had been arrested by security officers, but it provided no further details. Abtahi’s Web site, which is popular among young Iranians, has reported extensively on the alleged vote fraud after Friday’s election.

Britain and Germany, meanwhile, joined the calls of alarm over the rising confrontations in Iran. In Paris, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to discuss the allegations of vote-tampering and the violence.


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Sources: MSNBC, Day Life, Google Maps