I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used. (All my work is released under Creative Commons (CC). You can freely use it and re-post it wherever you'd like to. Just provide a link to the original source at the bottom.)
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Tuesday, June 30 in Iran.
1. 1. Today, people gathered at Vali Asr Square -the entire place was packed with Security Forces. Guards at Vanak Square were reportedly breaking car windows (those that honked their horns) which is a sign of the current protests. After security forces tried to arrest a young girl, some clashes broke out. (There was no further news about this event so confirmation is partial only.)
2. About 10 people were arrested at Tajrish Square after a group of people gathered there and chanted against the regime. Clashes were also reported at Satarkhan Street and Jomhori Street. The Independent Youth was also planning to organize a protest today in Tehran, however, reports were scarce and no confirmations could be obtained of the protests.
3. Today, more than 2,000 people gathered in front of the Islamic Republic Court in Urumieh asking about their detained relatives. So far, thousands have been rounded-up during protests, as well as during day and night-time raids all over the country. The number cannot be verified but it is said to be in the thousands. Mousavi and Karoubi have denied having sanctioned yesterday’s protests.
4. Mousavi has been reported by Iran Press TV to only be accepting of a new election. Mousavi's campaign today called the widespread arrests “immoral and illegal.” Furthermore, they said that the torture of detained civilians could produce anti-revolutionary sentiments amongst the people, thus damaging the Islamic Revolution severely. There were reports of a National Strike being organized and propagated on Mousavi’s website, but it cannot be confirmed through independent sources.
5. The Iranian government has meanwhile banned Mousavi’s ally, Abolfazl Fateh, from leaving the country. Abolfazl Fateh today said that elections were “a deeply political concept and militarizing them was uncommon, costly and worrisome.” He said that their campaign would only release word on GhalamNet. Meanwhile, Mousavi's website – GhalamNet – today denied sending new letters to the Guardian Council and rejected GC spokesperson's claims yesterday about receiving fresh Mousavi demands. On the cyber side, Ayatollah Montazeri's website has been taken down by the Ministry of Interior after he denounced the elections and called the government clamp-down on peaceful protesters against Islam.
6. Today, Khatami called for a change in the security presence on the streets of Iran, as well as for the formation of an independent commission to investigate complaints against the election. He added that, “force should not be used to make people do what one wants them to.” He added that the general trust of the Iranian people have been damaged by such tactics.
7. Karoubi announced in a letter to that Iranian people that he didn’t recognize the government’s legitimacy. Karoubi said that he entered the election for "change" and that hidden forces had blatantly changed the outcome. Karoubi objected to widespread arrests and asked officials for the immediate release of all detainees, as well as reparation of their reputation. He expressed readiness to work with individuals and groups because he perceived the republic, Iran and Islam to be in danger.
8. Ayatollah Taheri stated that Mousavi's rights had been violated. Taheri - the former Friday Imam of Isfahan - called Ahmadinejad's appointment illegal. He added that the old enemies of Imam [Khomeini] were sending the Islamic Republic to the museum with their actions [meaning it will be removed and become part of history if these actions don’t stop]. In response, a member of parliament today openly criticized Taheri and said that he was longer a senior cleric. After him, Pezeshkian – a reformist MP – told the parliament that God's enemy was he who stood against the people.
9. Ahmadinejad declared that an attempt at a 'soft overthrow' of the regime had failed. This comes after a partial recount of 10% of the vote by the Guardian Council which resulted in slightly more votes of Ahmadinejad!!! Mohammad Yazdi, a cleric and member of the Guardian Council, announced today that he could personally testify as to the impartiality of the election. He added that Mousavi will be barred from taking part in any future elections.
10. Tehran's notorious Evin prison is reportedly packed to capacity now and security forces are housing the detained in football stadiums. So many people are put in Tehran’s prisons that prisoners only have standing space. Reports say guards are preventing prisoners from sleeping by keeping them standing all night. Amnesty International today warned that the opposition leaders arrested in Iran were at risk of being tortured.
11. Maziar Bahari was forced to confess at a press conference that the protests were pre-planned and organized from abroad. Bahari is an adroit Iranian-Canadian Journalist and filmmaker, who has written for Newsweek and the New Statesman. Meanwhile,the torture of university students continues in the Ministry of Interior. Some Iranians traveling to Iran for the holidays have been taken in for questioning directly at the airport as they tried to leave the country. They were questioned because of updated information on their Facebook accounts.
12. There is still no news about Mojtaba Tehrani, an Etemad Melli correspondent. Three days have passed after his arrest. Another correspondent of Etemade Melli, Mahsa Amrabadi, who has been in detention for two weeks, has only been allowed to briefly call her family. Her whereabouts are unknown.
13. On the good side of things, Isfahan's judicial sources announced the freedom from detention of 280 people who'd been arrested during the protests. Hundreds more still remain in detention. But today, it was announced that the legal prosecution of detained prisoners has started. The man in charge, Saeed Mortazavi, has led many to believe that dozens will probably be sentenced to death as he is notorious in seeking and getting death sentences for dissidents in Iran.
14. Police today entered Tehran University's dorms at the request of the president of the university, reportedly. However, the president, Mr. Kohkan, later denied he had asked them to do so. Amir Hossein Shemshadi, in charge of Mousavi's youth campaign, contacted his parents from inside Evin today and told them he would not be freed anytime soon
15. The Daily Khabar was stopped from printing its daily paper for the fourth time this week. Tehran public prosecutor and Cultural Ministry officials also stopped the publication of Etemade Melli newspaper today following its plans to publish a letter by Karoubi. Pressured by security forces, the session of the Journalists Union of Iran was also canceled. The sessions were to be focused on detained journalists.
16. The chants of Allah o Akbar continued tonight even though Basijis have threatened people with arrests and destruction of property if they continue to do so. One chanter has already been killed in the past days.
** Thank you all for translating! We still need more people with translations if they’re willing to do so. Email me if you are willing to help and if you are not asked to help, it still doesn’t mean you’re not AWESOME! You can still publish the translations on your blogs. @josh_612 and @gfanhoto please send me the link to your German and Portuguese translations at dbosca@gmail.com and anyone else who's done another language! Everyone else, who wants to be part of this, please let me know. A hearty thanks to everyone and a special thanks to Sahar joon for proof-reading!
Read this if you want to help or get help!
Helpers:
A. We currently are trying to get the Brief out in as many languages as possible. If you can translate the brief for us in a language other than English, Italian and Hebrew, please let us know. It comes out every day so it'll be an every day thing - who knows for how long - so it's for the long haul. But if you can even do a summary, it will be great!
B. You could retweet this link and let more people know about what’s going in Iran. The mainstream media has completely and utterly failed to get the message across so please, be the voice for Iranians.
C. The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English:
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi:
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in Iran
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Green Brief #13
I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used. (All my work is released under Creative Commons (CC). You can freely use it and re-post it wherever you'd like to. Just provide a link to the original source at the bottom.)
In Italian: http://giagro.wordpress.com/29062009...fine-giornata/
In German: http://kyrah.net/gr88/gb13.html
In Portuguese: http://tinyurl.com/mk8lta
In Hebrew (Summary) http://tinyurl.com/mqooe8
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Monday, June 29 in Iran.
1. There was a human chain planned for today. The plan had been to form it between Tajrish Square and the Railway; however, the route was guarded heavily by Basijis, plainclothesmen and security forces. Nonetheless, people at gathered Mellat Park, Valiasr Field, Vanak and Valiasr Avenue and were trying to form a human chain. The police tried to disperse the crowd and stop the human chain from being formed. There were reports of clashes as well which cannot be fully confirmed. Reports of police smashing people’s windows for honking their horns and slashing their tires with knives.
2. Cell phone services were cut off around Valiasr as well as other parts of Tehran. The Basiji had Daneshjo Park under their control and helicopters were flying all over the place, especially over Valiasr. Today was one of the few times when the government cut off phone lines in order to disrupt communications between protesters and hinder their coordination of the event. During the event, several people were arrested as well. Most of Tehran was crawling with Basijis carrying sticks, some on motorcycles sporting camouflage vests. Protesters and some other people were wearing green wristbands in support of Moussavi.
3. Larijani, the speaker of the parliament today said that CNN had given money and cell phones to protesters to portray a wrong image of Iran. He added that the unrest was not an important event and it will be easily overcome and that it was just another experience for the Islamic Republic.
4. Two former Ministers of Interior have asked the Ministry of Interior to form an independent commission to investigate the problems related to the election. They have asked for the release of all the detained protesters as well and for the Iranian media to let protesters’ demands be heard. They have also requested an investigation into the deaths of protesters and other crimes committed during the protests and ask that people should be compensated for their losses.
5. Bijan Khajehpour a renowned Iranian political economist was detained at the airport in Tehran on Saturday upon arrival from the UK. Sources were unsure about his whereabouts but assumed he was in Evin prison. Dr. Mehdi Khazali, the son of Grand Ayatollah Khazali, who unlike his father is a critic of the government and Ahmadinejad, was also arrested. The Iranian media also announced the arrest of some people who were posing as Basijis. Yesterday’s arrest of Homa Roosta has now been confirmed to not be true.
6. Human rights groups claim that so far over 2,000 people are still in detention. Reports have surfaced that there is no more space left for women in Tehran’s official prisons. Human rights’ activists report on unsanitary and inappropriate conditions for imprisoned women protesters in Iran's overcrowded jails. At least 60 of imprisoned women are in the public wards and have only been given a blanket and are forced to sleep in corridors.
7. Today, Amnesty International expressed concern about the political leaders who have been arrested and claimed that they faced torture in detention. This is while a member of the National Security Council announced today that they were not going to release any of the political prisoners any time soon.
8. Members of the National Security Council met with Khatami today. A special commission has been ordered to be formed by the Judiciary to take up the cases of the people arrested in the recent unrests. Ahmadinejad has reportedly asked the Judiciary to investigate the murder of Neda Agha-Sultan. In a letter, Ahmadinejad asked the head of the Judiciary for answers in the death and called the killing ‘suspicious’.
9. State TV says Iran’s top legislative body has confirmed Ahmadinejad victory in the disputed June 12th Presidential election after a partial recount. The Guardian Council’s leader, Jannati said that the GC deemed the complaints and irregularities irrelevant and thereby can confirm the results. Clashes were reported in Tehran after people took to the streets protesting the Guardian Council's ruling. (This cannot be fully confirmed). People also started shouting ‘Death to Dictator’ on their roofs, after GC confirmed the victory of Ahmadinejad.
10. Since official results of Ahmadinejad’s win, only 11 countries congratulated Ahmadinejad on his 'victory'. These countries are Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, the People’s Republic of China, Oman, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela.
11. The office of the Islamic Association of Sistan and Baluchestan University was set on fire by anonymous people today. The office is a hotbed of reform student activity.
12. Mohseni, Iranian Minister of Information, said today that he had met with Mousavi and had told him that the path he had taken had no end. He added that he told Mousavi that his insistence on annulling the election would achieve nothing but create more problems for him and his followers.
13. Five out of nine British Embassy staffers arrested earlier in the wee were released today. The rest are currently being held at an undisclosed location and include senior staff members. The government issued a statement saying that the detained staffers had connections with the unrest in Iran. . The EU threatened a mass pullout of its ambassadors from Iran if the staffers were not released.
14. The spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Iran has stated that they don't want to close any embassies. He added that the arrest of the local staff of some embassies was not breaking international conventions. He added the remaining four staffers will be dealt with according to the law.
15. Keyhan, a newspaper close to Khamenei, slammed Mousavi today and called him a criminal. Also in a TV confession, another of Mousavi’s staffers was forced to say that the Iranian election protests were preplanned. Press TV announced today that reports of Iranian soccer players being punished for wearing green bands during their game with South Korea are false, after FIFA inquired about their reported lifetime ban which was placed by the Iranian Football Federation.
*Today, the source that had claimed of reports of persiankiwi’s arrest has tweeted that she talked to persiankiwi and pk is still free. Pk told the source that they simply don’t have access to resources for tweeting at this point. **Also a HEARTY thanks to Amandapanda for spending her precious time and energy on debriefing me to help compartmentalize the work.
Read this if you want to help or get help!
Helpers:
A. We currently are trying to get the Brief out in as many languages as possible. If you can translate the brief for us in a language other than English, Italian and Hebrew, please let us know. It comes out every day so it'll be an every day thing - who knows for how long - so it's for the long haul. But if you can even do a summary, it will be great!
B. You could retweet this link and let more people know about what’s going in Iran. The mainstream media has completely and utterly failed to get the message across so please, be the voice for Iranians.
C. The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English:
http://torir.org
http://torir.brokep.com
http://img1.anonbw.com
Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi:
http://torir.org/index.html.fa
Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in Iran
Helpers with expertise in the field of medicine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
In Italian: http://giagro.wordpress.com/29062009...fine-giornata/
In German: http://kyrah.net/gr88/gb13.html
In Portuguese: http://tinyurl.com/mk8lta
In Hebrew (Summary) http://tinyurl.com/mqooe8
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Monday, June 29 in Iran.
1. There was a human chain planned for today. The plan had been to form it between Tajrish Square and the Railway; however, the route was guarded heavily by Basijis, plainclothesmen and security forces. Nonetheless, people at gathered Mellat Park, Valiasr Field, Vanak and Valiasr Avenue and were trying to form a human chain. The police tried to disperse the crowd and stop the human chain from being formed. There were reports of clashes as well which cannot be fully confirmed. Reports of police smashing people’s windows for honking their horns and slashing their tires with knives.
2. Cell phone services were cut off around Valiasr as well as other parts of Tehran. The Basiji had Daneshjo Park under their control and helicopters were flying all over the place, especially over Valiasr. Today was one of the few times when the government cut off phone lines in order to disrupt communications between protesters and hinder their coordination of the event. During the event, several people were arrested as well. Most of Tehran was crawling with Basijis carrying sticks, some on motorcycles sporting camouflage vests. Protesters and some other people were wearing green wristbands in support of Moussavi.
3. Larijani, the speaker of the parliament today said that CNN had given money and cell phones to protesters to portray a wrong image of Iran. He added that the unrest was not an important event and it will be easily overcome and that it was just another experience for the Islamic Republic.
4. Two former Ministers of Interior have asked the Ministry of Interior to form an independent commission to investigate the problems related to the election. They have asked for the release of all the detained protesters as well and for the Iranian media to let protesters’ demands be heard. They have also requested an investigation into the deaths of protesters and other crimes committed during the protests and ask that people should be compensated for their losses.
5. Bijan Khajehpour a renowned Iranian political economist was detained at the airport in Tehran on Saturday upon arrival from the UK. Sources were unsure about his whereabouts but assumed he was in Evin prison. Dr. Mehdi Khazali, the son of Grand Ayatollah Khazali, who unlike his father is a critic of the government and Ahmadinejad, was also arrested. The Iranian media also announced the arrest of some people who were posing as Basijis. Yesterday’s arrest of Homa Roosta has now been confirmed to not be true.
6. Human rights groups claim that so far over 2,000 people are still in detention. Reports have surfaced that there is no more space left for women in Tehran’s official prisons. Human rights’ activists report on unsanitary and inappropriate conditions for imprisoned women protesters in Iran's overcrowded jails. At least 60 of imprisoned women are in the public wards and have only been given a blanket and are forced to sleep in corridors.
7. Today, Amnesty International expressed concern about the political leaders who have been arrested and claimed that they faced torture in detention. This is while a member of the National Security Council announced today that they were not going to release any of the political prisoners any time soon.
8. Members of the National Security Council met with Khatami today. A special commission has been ordered to be formed by the Judiciary to take up the cases of the people arrested in the recent unrests. Ahmadinejad has reportedly asked the Judiciary to investigate the murder of Neda Agha-Sultan. In a letter, Ahmadinejad asked the head of the Judiciary for answers in the death and called the killing ‘suspicious’.
9. State TV says Iran’s top legislative body has confirmed Ahmadinejad victory in the disputed June 12th Presidential election after a partial recount. The Guardian Council’s leader, Jannati said that the GC deemed the complaints and irregularities irrelevant and thereby can confirm the results. Clashes were reported in Tehran after people took to the streets protesting the Guardian Council's ruling. (This cannot be fully confirmed). People also started shouting ‘Death to Dictator’ on their roofs, after GC confirmed the victory of Ahmadinejad.
10. Since official results of Ahmadinejad’s win, only 11 countries congratulated Ahmadinejad on his 'victory'. These countries are Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, the People’s Republic of China, Oman, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela.
11. The office of the Islamic Association of Sistan and Baluchestan University was set on fire by anonymous people today. The office is a hotbed of reform student activity.
12. Mohseni, Iranian Minister of Information, said today that he had met with Mousavi and had told him that the path he had taken had no end. He added that he told Mousavi that his insistence on annulling the election would achieve nothing but create more problems for him and his followers.
13. Five out of nine British Embassy staffers arrested earlier in the wee were released today. The rest are currently being held at an undisclosed location and include senior staff members. The government issued a statement saying that the detained staffers had connections with the unrest in Iran. . The EU threatened a mass pullout of its ambassadors from Iran if the staffers were not released.
14. The spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Iran has stated that they don't want to close any embassies. He added that the arrest of the local staff of some embassies was not breaking international conventions. He added the remaining four staffers will be dealt with according to the law.
15. Keyhan, a newspaper close to Khamenei, slammed Mousavi today and called him a criminal. Also in a TV confession, another of Mousavi’s staffers was forced to say that the Iranian election protests were preplanned. Press TV announced today that reports of Iranian soccer players being punished for wearing green bands during their game with South Korea are false, after FIFA inquired about their reported lifetime ban which was placed by the Iranian Football Federation.
*Today, the source that had claimed of reports of persiankiwi’s arrest has tweeted that she talked to persiankiwi and pk is still free. Pk told the source that they simply don’t have access to resources for tweeting at this point. **Also a HEARTY thanks to Amandapanda for spending her precious time and energy on debriefing me to help compartmentalize the work.
Read this if you want to help or get help!
Helpers:
A. We currently are trying to get the Brief out in as many languages as possible. If you can translate the brief for us in a language other than English, Italian and Hebrew, please let us know. It comes out every day so it'll be an every day thing - who knows for how long - so it's for the long haul. But if you can even do a summary, it will be great!
B. You could retweet this link and let more people know about what’s going in Iran. The mainstream media has completely and utterly failed to get the message across so please, be the voice for Iranians.
C. The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English:
http://torir.org
http://torir.brokep.com
http://img1.anonbw.com
Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi:
http://torir.org/index.html.fa
Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in Iran
Helpers with expertise in the field of medicine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
You Are Winning
Once again, this is another open letter to any of the brave Iranian protesters who may be reading.
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
I hope you are doing well. I hope you are all safe. I am sure there are still many of you feeling afraid or pessimistic about the current situation. While I certainly hope this is not the case, I feel I must say a few words in case you do have such feelings.
First and foremost, I must say this: You are winning. Now, I’m sure many people might feel I may be exaggerating or just plain naïve, but I am not. I have seen all that has happened in the past two weeks. I might not be right there with you, as I am halfway across the world, but I have seen the events as they have played out since the very beginning.
In the past two weeks, the firm hold the regime had upon its people has been shattered, destroyed as a result of their own unwillingness to listen to the voice of their people and their own acts of injustice. Their efforts to suppress the voice of the people have been cruel, inhumane in many cases, but they have not had the effect the regime wanted.
The regime wanted to silence those who disagreed with their decisions, but it has instead made even more people speak out against their numerous violations of human rights. Even many high profile clerics are speaking out against the Supreme Leader’s crackdown now. A prime example is the recent speech by Ayatollah Mousavi Ardabeli. Many other politicians and clerics have spoken out as well, some even joining the protesters in the streets, but still the regime continues with crackdowns. The more they continue, the more people are appalled, and the more people speak out. A rift has formed within the government that stretches to its very foundations.
All of this after just a two week period of time! Making such a huge impact in such a small amount of time is not easy (in fact, I’d say it’s downright unheard of) but you have done that, my friends. You are winning. It’s easy to think otherwise, seeing all the cruelty at the hands of Besij thugs and being fed demoralizing misinformation and lies from State TV…but the fact remains: You are winning.
The supporters of the crackdown are now cornered cats, clawing wildly in every direction. They are afraid. They are doing everything they can to stop you and it is simply not working. They are doing whatever they can to demoralize and depress you, but I know you will not give in. The world may seem dark at times, but at dawn, the sun will always rise. You are that sun, my friends. You and your hope for a better future will be the dawn.
Still, I’m sure many of you do not feel that way. Many of you have lost a lot over the course of the past few weeks. Many of you have had to endure heartache that no person should ever have to go through. Many of you probably feel that, in the end, this is a lost cause. While I can understand that feeling, I feel I have to tell you that you can win and, as I’ve said, you’ve already accomplished much.
I know sometimes it can seem that winning is impossible. It’s hard to see the people who have died, the people who are suffering, and not feel despair. It’s hard not to feel afraid all the time, to feel cold and empty as if your soul has left you. It is a terrible feeling, one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I am sorry you have to feel such feelings and I wish I could do more to take that pain away…but I’m telling you, even though sometimes you may feel like things are hopeless and can never get better, look at what’s happening. More people are speaking out against the crackdown and supporting the protesters.
The majority of the people within the country, including many citizens who previously supported president Ahmadinejad, are now disapproving of the unjust acts the regime is inflicting upon their own people. More of the hardliners within the regime are beginning to become nervous, making ridiculous claims that other countries such as Britain are behind the protest and overall simply refusing to accept that their time is coming to an end. The State TV and those supporting the crackdowns are unable to keep their own lies straight, blaming at least four completely different sources for Neda’s death, none of which are even close to being remotely believable. You have shaken the very core of the regime. You are winning. So please, please, never feel that things are hopeless. That is simply what the regime wants you to believe, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. You are not alone. You cannot be silenced. And you will win.
The Sea of Green is moving ever stronger. It’s gone beyond an election, beyond all of us. The Sea of Green now stands for all that is right, even in a world that can sometimes seem so wrong. Your voices all shout for justice, for a country where such cruelty cannot be committed against its own people, for a better future for you, your children, and your children’s children. Your voices are getting louder each day (the rally yesterday and the deafening chants in the night should be proof enough of that). You will never be silenced, no matter how much the current regime tries.
I hope this has been at least a little helpful to some of you. Please do not feel despair when you have already accomplished so much. I hope you and all those close to you will be safe. Never allow yourself to be silenced and never doubt yourselves. Take care.
Yours Faithfully,
Corey
Green Brief #12
I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used. (All my work is released under Creative Commons (CC). You can freely use it and repost it wherever you'd like to. Just provide a link to the original source at the bottom.)
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Sunday, June 28 in Iran.
1. URGENT: Rumors of Mousavi’s arrest are being spread around the blogosphere and twitter. So far, no reliable source has confirmed this. At the time of the writing of this brief – 9:27 PM ET – he is still free.
2. Thousands of people gathered in Tehran's Ghoba Mosque today at a rally planned to coincide with the 7 Tir bombing that killed Ayatollah Beheshti and 70 other prominent clerics in 1981. The mosque was filled and the streets and alleys leading up to the mosque were completely crowded by protesters chanting "Where's our vote?" Reports indicate that the number was somewhere between 3 and 10 thousand. Beheshti's son addressed the crowd and said that the current regime was pushing people backwards and was not in touch with current realities of the world. He said that the Sea of Green could stand this and were protesting.
3. Mahdi Karoubi was able to join the protests spoke to protesters. Mousavi wasn't able to make it to the center of the crowd and was forced to deliver his message by calling a cell phone as the receiving phone was put on a loudspeaker. Other prominent members of the reform movement were also present, including the wife and daughter of Rafsanjani. Mousavi urged people to continue fighting for their legitimate demands and announced that he would not stop pursuing their collective goals. Rezaei also issued an open letter to the GC today asking them to investigate the whole election & all protests & complaints.
4. Later, intense clashes broke out between the security forces and protesters. Several shots were heard from the vicinity of the mosque. Fires were started in the area and smoke could be seen coming out of some streets from afar. Police violently beat some protesters in order to disperse them. Although the protesters had received a permit by the government, they were still attacked by the police under the pretense that people were only allowed to be inside the mosque. Protesters were beaten, tear gas was used and many protesters were hauled away and arrested by the security forces. Some of the high-profile arrests today included Reza Ataraan - a movie star and filmmaker -, Shokoofeh Azar, reporter for Sarmaye Emrooz, and Kambiz Norouzi, legal secretary of journalists' union. The actual number of protesters arrested today could not be confirmed, but several dozens people were likely arrested, reliable sources indicated. There were also reports of protests in other parts of the city and clashes as well, yet they could only be partially confirmed.
5. Rafsanjani today spoke to reporters today and said that the election had created a complex situation and that enemies were trying to create a divide between the regime and people. He praised Khamenei's decision to extend the period for complaints to the Guardian Council about the election. Khamenei today said that people shouldn’t stoke emotions and both sides should not create tensions and inflame the youth. He also accused the world of meddling with the affairs of Iran and warned them to back off of Iranian affairs.
6. In a letter addressed to the Guardian Council, Karoubi said that the election was engineered in such a way that people's presence was only a pre-designed show. Karoubi: For every candidate a share of the vote was previously defined. He added that before the election a member of GC said that the leader had chosen Ahmadinezhad and it's not wise to cross him and that the small share of the votes assigned to him will not stop the pursuit of people’s demands.
7. Yesterday, it was reported that 9 UK Embassy staff from Tehran were arrested. Today, reports have surfaced that at least 4 of them have been released. It is being reported that the rest are not being kept at Evin, but rather at an undisclosed location. They were all accused by the Iranian government of having a hand in the protests which they claim are 'riots'.
8. A representative of Tabriz spoke in the Parliament today and said that it was not fair to listen to only one-side of the dispute and ignore the cries of the other side completely. He called upon the government to not act against the country’s laws when dealing with people. Ahmadinejad's supporters in the parliament tried to force him from continuing his speech by yelling and shouting at him.
9. A government spokesperson today said that there have been no serious incidents during the protests and that people should go to courts to complain if they’ve been beaten with sticks. The bodies of some protesters who've been killed so far are being released to their relatives if they quietly bury them. Mousavi's head of campaign, Ghorban Behzadian Nezhad and all but three staff members of his newspaper were released today.
10. A selected team of the parliament's security commission will meet with Mohammad Khatami regarding the recent events. The team will meet Ahmadinezhad as well. Previously they met Ayatollas Javadi Amoli, Mousavi Ardebili and Sobhani. Amoli said today that the separation of powers was not a recent phenomenon and it had existed before in Islam and called for it. Ayatollah Javadi Amoli previously criticized the government in Friday prayer in Qom. Amoli said that if someone's the judge, jury and executioner, then there was a problem.
11. Insurance companies are shunning people. They're being told that the government has told them not to talk to rioters. This is after people went to insurance companies after the destruction of property or death of a loved one.
12. The Min. of Interior has been asked to cancel the permits of IIPF, the Combatant Clerics and Mojahedin-Enghelab parties. They are going to legally pursue them and if found guilty of a crime - the protests have been called law-breaking and a crime - their permits will be cancelled. It is being reported that the online results of the election released by the Ministry of Interior are continuously being changed.
13. Tonight people are continuing their chants of Allah o Akbar as Basijis have started to harass them. During past days plain cloths went door to door and warned people to stop chanting. Website of ministry of internal affairs which uploaded election statistics keeps updating files as people find more errors in the results.
Read this if you want to help or get help!
The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi: Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in Iran
Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us:
Helpers with expertise in the field of medicine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8d1b292b-4dbf-4867-ab46-ab34c064ec2f)
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Sunday, June 28 in Iran.
1. URGENT: Rumors of Mousavi’s arrest are being spread around the blogosphere and twitter. So far, no reliable source has confirmed this. At the time of the writing of this brief – 9:27 PM ET – he is still free.
2. Thousands of people gathered in Tehran's Ghoba Mosque today at a rally planned to coincide with the 7 Tir bombing that killed Ayatollah Beheshti and 70 other prominent clerics in 1981. The mosque was filled and the streets and alleys leading up to the mosque were completely crowded by protesters chanting "Where's our vote?" Reports indicate that the number was somewhere between 3 and 10 thousand. Beheshti's son addressed the crowd and said that the current regime was pushing people backwards and was not in touch with current realities of the world. He said that the Sea of Green could stand this and were protesting.
3. Mahdi Karoubi was able to join the protests spoke to protesters. Mousavi wasn't able to make it to the center of the crowd and was forced to deliver his message by calling a cell phone as the receiving phone was put on a loudspeaker. Other prominent members of the reform movement were also present, including the wife and daughter of Rafsanjani. Mousavi urged people to continue fighting for their legitimate demands and announced that he would not stop pursuing their collective goals. Rezaei also issued an open letter to the GC today asking them to investigate the whole election & all protests & complaints.
4. Later, intense clashes broke out between the security forces and protesters. Several shots were heard from the vicinity of the mosque. Fires were started in the area and smoke could be seen coming out of some streets from afar. Police violently beat some protesters in order to disperse them. Although the protesters had received a permit by the government, they were still attacked by the police under the pretense that people were only allowed to be inside the mosque. Protesters were beaten, tear gas was used and many protesters were hauled away and arrested by the security forces. Some of the high-profile arrests today included Reza Ataraan - a movie star and filmmaker -, Shokoofeh Azar, reporter for Sarmaye Emrooz, and Kambiz Norouzi, legal secretary of journalists' union. The actual number of protesters arrested today could not be confirmed, but several dozens people were likely arrested, reliable sources indicated. There were also reports of protests in other parts of the city and clashes as well, yet they could only be partially confirmed.
5. Rafsanjani today spoke to reporters today and said that the election had created a complex situation and that enemies were trying to create a divide between the regime and people. He praised Khamenei's decision to extend the period for complaints to the Guardian Council about the election. Khamenei today said that people shouldn’t stoke emotions and both sides should not create tensions and inflame the youth. He also accused the world of meddling with the affairs of Iran and warned them to back off of Iranian affairs.
6. In a letter addressed to the Guardian Council, Karoubi said that the election was engineered in such a way that people's presence was only a pre-designed show. Karoubi: For every candidate a share of the vote was previously defined. He added that before the election a member of GC said that the leader had chosen Ahmadinezhad and it's not wise to cross him and that the small share of the votes assigned to him will not stop the pursuit of people’s demands.
7. Yesterday, it was reported that 9 UK Embassy staff from Tehran were arrested. Today, reports have surfaced that at least 4 of them have been released. It is being reported that the rest are not being kept at Evin, but rather at an undisclosed location. They were all accused by the Iranian government of having a hand in the protests which they claim are 'riots'.
8. A representative of Tabriz spoke in the Parliament today and said that it was not fair to listen to only one-side of the dispute and ignore the cries of the other side completely. He called upon the government to not act against the country’s laws when dealing with people. Ahmadinejad's supporters in the parliament tried to force him from continuing his speech by yelling and shouting at him.
9. A government spokesperson today said that there have been no serious incidents during the protests and that people should go to courts to complain if they’ve been beaten with sticks. The bodies of some protesters who've been killed so far are being released to their relatives if they quietly bury them. Mousavi's head of campaign, Ghorban Behzadian Nezhad and all but three staff members of his newspaper were released today.
10. A selected team of the parliament's security commission will meet with Mohammad Khatami regarding the recent events. The team will meet Ahmadinezhad as well. Previously they met Ayatollas Javadi Amoli, Mousavi Ardebili and Sobhani. Amoli said today that the separation of powers was not a recent phenomenon and it had existed before in Islam and called for it. Ayatollah Javadi Amoli previously criticized the government in Friday prayer in Qom. Amoli said that if someone's the judge, jury and executioner, then there was a problem.
11. Insurance companies are shunning people. They're being told that the government has told them not to talk to rioters. This is after people went to insurance companies after the destruction of property or death of a loved one.
12. The Min. of Interior has been asked to cancel the permits of IIPF, the Combatant Clerics and Mojahedin-Enghelab parties. They are going to legally pursue them and if found guilty of a crime - the protests have been called law-breaking and a crime - their permits will be cancelled. It is being reported that the online results of the election released by the Ministry of Interior are continuously being changed.
13. Tonight people are continuing their chants of Allah o Akbar as Basijis have started to harass them. During past days plain cloths went door to door and warned people to stop chanting. Website of ministry of internal affairs which uploaded election statistics keeps updating files as people find more errors in the results.
Read this if you want to help or get help!
The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi: Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in Iran
Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us:
Helpers with expertise in the field of medicine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.
(Reposted from the original site.)
A Taste of Persian Culture: The Story of Luck
(This story was published by permission. Original story is here, and lessons on speaking Parsi may be found on the same site. Thank you, Hassan!)
Image by youngrobv (Rob & Ale) via Flickr
Years ago, a poor peasant was trying to change his life. Whatever he tried was useless; he was still poor and helpless. One day, while working on his land, he thought: "I have done everything I could to get a better life. Why can't I change it? Maybe my luck is sleeping in a very far away land! I'd better go and awaken my damned luck. It will certainly change my life!" He then decided.
He then left everything to find his sleeping Luck. Days and nights passed as he traveled impatiently toward his luck. Somewhere on the way, he came across to a very weak lion. "Where are you going man?" The lion asked. "I'm going to awaken my sleeping luck to change my life." The man replied proudly. The lion said, "I have been seriously sick for a long time. Please tell your luck about my situation and ask him to prescribe something for me so that I can get well again." The man agreed and kept on traveling.
After some time he met a farmer sitting under an old tree crying. "Why are you crying?" The man asked as he came close to him. The farmer said, "I'm so poor that I can't feed my family properly. My children are always hungry. I don't know what will happen to them in future. By the way, who are you and where are you going now?" the farmer asked. "I have been as helpless as you till now. But I'm now going to find my luck that is sleeping in a very far away land. Then I will be helpless no more," The man answered proudly. The farmer then requested the man to ask his luck about his situation and find him a way out of his difficulties. The man agreed and left.
Somewhere on his way, he entered a village whose ruler was very old and disappointed. The village gatemen took the man as a stranger to the ruler. The man explained the whole story to the ruler. The ruler said: "I consider myself unsuccessful as I have no son who could inherit my position. I'm so old now and people don't obey me any longer. Please tell your luck about my problems and ask for a solution." The man agreed and went.
He finally found his luck sleeping in a very old shack. He awakened his luck very enthusiastically and explained everything to him. "Don't worry," The luck said, "From now on I will be with you in whatsoever you are doing. Tell the ruler that if he lets his only daughter marry, she will give birth to a very smart son who can handle the job. The farmer has got a precious treasury under the same tree where he is always crying. The lion must have the brain of a stupid human to treat his disease." After the man listened to the luck carefully, he became so happy because his luck had been awakened now.
On the way back, the man went to the ruler and explained it all to him. "What a good opportunity this is!" The ruler thought, "This man can save my dynasty. I'll ask him to marry my daughter," he decided. The man nevertheless rejected the ruler's offer and said, "I have just awakened my luck. I'm going to be a lucky man. I can't have myself chained here! I'm going to find my bright future."
He then went to the farmer and helped him find the treasury. "Come and stay here with us. We will be rich enough to have a very happy life together," The farmer said pointing to the treasury they had found. The man laughed and said, "Stay here? You must be kidding! I have just awakened my luck. I am going to be a lucky man."
At the end, he went to the lion and explained the whole story to him. "What an unbelievably stupid man this human is!" The lion thought, " He has rejected such excellent offers so carelessly to find a better life in the future. I don't believe I'll find one more stupid than him. If I want to get well again, the brain of this stupid man will be the best medicine for me!" The lion then decided.
By: Hassan H.Saturday, June 27, 2009
Green Brief #11
I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used. (All my work is released under Creative Commons (CC). You can freely use it and repost it wherever you'd like to. Just provide a link to the original source at the bottom. I trust austinheap)
Here are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Saturday, June 27 in Iran.
1. Mousavi has rejected the Guardian Council's decision to look into discrepancies in only 10% of the vote. Mousavi has said that as he mentioned in two letters before to the GC, there are simply far too many irregularities for them to accept the election. A new one must be held in order to give people their voice back.
2. A prominent supporter of Mousavi was forced to confess on national TV that protests were pre-planned and that they have broken laws. However, reports strongly indicate that the media had already pre-written the statements because they sounded far more official than a speaker can come up with impromptu. More and more protesters are being prepped through intimidation and torture to make confessions.
3. Iran's paramilitary Basij are carrying out brutal nighttime raids, destroying property in private homes and beating civilians in an attempt to stop nightly protest chants, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also said the Iranian authorities are confiscating satellite dishes from private homes to prevent citizens from seeing foreign news.
4. Ahmadinejad warned the US of repercussions if it continues to meddle in Iranian affairs. He also sent out a message to the people saying that the days of liberal democracy were over. (In the sense that no more reform and change against Islamic law will be allowed to take place.) He warned that in the next 4 years he will take a tougher approach. This happens while Ahmadinejad's first deputy, Parviz Davoudi, was denied a US visa by the US State Department. Iranian ambassador to the UN blamed the US government for it.
5. At the same time, a government spokesperson blatantly accused other countries of meddling in Iranian affairs and instigating the current protests and violence. Fatemeh Rajabi, spokesperson & symbol of women in Ahmadinazhad's government in a separate statement also called Mousavi and Khatami the faces of corruption in the country.
6. The Guardian Council commission on investigating 10% of the vote was rejected by Mousavi today. He said that 10% was not enough and the elections have to be annulled. He added that an impartial commission should be set up to help arbitrate the issue. The other two candidates also didn't send representatives to the commission. This is after the commission was criticized by others - including a prominent MP and Mahdi Karoubi - for being too one-sided and the investigation of irregularities in only 10% of the vote insufficient. This is while the GC yet again called the elections the 'best in Iran's history so far'.
7. Javan newspaper - which is closely linked to the IRG - has reported that instigators of violence and the forces behind the protests have been identified. According to Javan, a group of actors were involved and this group created flyers and statements! It accused these individuals - 15-20 people according to Javan - of hiring thugs and distributing weapons that were used in violence. It also reported the arrest of three prominent Iranian film personalities.
8. Tehran's district attorney stated that he didn’t know how many people have been arrested so far but that he had met several at Evin Prison. The detainees are continuously under mental & sometimes physical torture. IRNA reported that Iran banned Mousavi’s ally Abolfazl Fateh from leaving the country. It is being reported that it's possible that the fate of the people that have been arrested would be known by the end of the week. The name of the girl who was shot in Baharestan and died later in the hospital is reportedly Sheler Khezri.
9. Amnesty International confirms on CNN: people disappearing from hospitals. Hundreds of people missing. Amnesty International asked the Iranian authorities to immediately release dozens of journalists who are at risk of torture in detention. The UN also asked the government to prevent further violence and bloodshed. More people were arrested today including journalists and bloggers as well as other people of some clout in the Iranian society. Karoubi's newspaper, Etemade Melli's chief editor was asked to appear before a court.
10. Today a group of people including women's rights activists assembled in Laleh Park to light candles in memory of Neda and other martyrs. The protesters were dispersed by the police and plainclothesmen using violent tactics. There were also many policewomen. Many people were arrested and hauled away. Reporters of Keyhan and Fars newspapers were taking people pictures with cameras.
11. Reports have suggested that there is a bitter divide developing between military leaders on what the military’s role should be in the current unrest and whether they should step in. (This could be not confirmed unfortunately through the most reliable sources). Reports of clerics meeting in secret to discuss the current unrest have surfaces from Qom, Tabriz and Mashhad. It is being suggested that even though clerics had participated in the protests a few days ago, they might join in larger numbers if further protests are held.
12. Ayatollah Mousavi Ardabeli has released a statement stating that the election has weakened the regime. He added that the Guardian Council should allow for people to pursue their demands and asked the people to pursue their complaints through legal means as well as asking the government to let people express their discontent through the media. He deplored violence and said that no violence must be used to pacify protestors.
13. It is being reported that very careful planning is being carried out for a successful national strike. This is while in a meeting with members of the National Security Council, Karoubi said that he'll continue to legally pursue annulment of the elections.
14. Sunday is the anniversary of 7 Tir martyrs and there will be a gathering in "Ghoba" Mosque. It has been organized after getting a permit from the government. Mousavi asked Iranians abroad to continue their protests. Chants of Allah o Akbar were heard in Tehran, Tabriz and other parts of Tehran again.
15. Sea of Green is largely peaceful. Reports that Sea of Green is actively seeking to hunt and kill security forces being forcefully denied by sources. Here's a heartwarming video of youth protecting Police from angry protesters when they were surrounded by people. The youth keep yelling, "We're all Iranians! We're all Iranians!" YouTube - جوانان غیور ایران حتی از نیروهای ضد شورش که توسط مردم محاصره شده بودند نیز حمایت میکنند ، آیا اینها اغتشاش گرند !؟
16. (On persiankiwi, I don’t know any of the tweeters personally. I stopped using him/her as a source since the day of the Baharestan protest. I only stated that he has been arrested as a caution so that people would be careful. The second most reliable source after pk reported that pk had been arrested so I was forced to go ahead and warn people. But some people have harshly attacked me for this. I whole-heartedly apologize if anyone thinks I’m trying to mislead them. The Green Briefs are only one source out of hundreds. Please use your own judgment and trust whichever source you think is more reliable in getting news from Iran. I will hence stop trying to convince people that I have good intentions. It is futile as well as VERY stressful and time-consuming.)
Read this if you want to help or get help!
The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi: Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in Iran
Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us:
Helpers with expertise in the field of medecine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.
(Repost from the original site.)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1acf53fe-dd4a-4bae-8479-95e545be5b51)
Here are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Saturday, June 27 in Iran.
1. Mousavi has rejected the Guardian Council's decision to look into discrepancies in only 10% of the vote. Mousavi has said that as he mentioned in two letters before to the GC, there are simply far too many irregularities for them to accept the election. A new one must be held in order to give people their voice back.
2. A prominent supporter of Mousavi was forced to confess on national TV that protests were pre-planned and that they have broken laws. However, reports strongly indicate that the media had already pre-written the statements because they sounded far more official than a speaker can come up with impromptu. More and more protesters are being prepped through intimidation and torture to make confessions.
3. Iran's paramilitary Basij are carrying out brutal nighttime raids, destroying property in private homes and beating civilians in an attempt to stop nightly protest chants, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also said the Iranian authorities are confiscating satellite dishes from private homes to prevent citizens from seeing foreign news.
4. Ahmadinejad warned the US of repercussions if it continues to meddle in Iranian affairs. He also sent out a message to the people saying that the days of liberal democracy were over. (In the sense that no more reform and change against Islamic law will be allowed to take place.) He warned that in the next 4 years he will take a tougher approach. This happens while Ahmadinejad's first deputy, Parviz Davoudi, was denied a US visa by the US State Department. Iranian ambassador to the UN blamed the US government for it.
5. At the same time, a government spokesperson blatantly accused other countries of meddling in Iranian affairs and instigating the current protests and violence. Fatemeh Rajabi, spokesperson & symbol of women in Ahmadinazhad's government in a separate statement also called Mousavi and Khatami the faces of corruption in the country.
6. The Guardian Council commission on investigating 10% of the vote was rejected by Mousavi today. He said that 10% was not enough and the elections have to be annulled. He added that an impartial commission should be set up to help arbitrate the issue. The other two candidates also didn't send representatives to the commission. This is after the commission was criticized by others - including a prominent MP and Mahdi Karoubi - for being too one-sided and the investigation of irregularities in only 10% of the vote insufficient. This is while the GC yet again called the elections the 'best in Iran's history so far'.
7. Javan newspaper - which is closely linked to the IRG - has reported that instigators of violence and the forces behind the protests have been identified. According to Javan, a group of actors were involved and this group created flyers and statements! It accused these individuals - 15-20 people according to Javan - of hiring thugs and distributing weapons that were used in violence. It also reported the arrest of three prominent Iranian film personalities.
8. Tehran's district attorney stated that he didn’t know how many people have been arrested so far but that he had met several at Evin Prison. The detainees are continuously under mental & sometimes physical torture. IRNA reported that Iran banned Mousavi’s ally Abolfazl Fateh from leaving the country. It is being reported that it's possible that the fate of the people that have been arrested would be known by the end of the week. The name of the girl who was shot in Baharestan and died later in the hospital is reportedly Sheler Khezri.
9. Amnesty International confirms on CNN: people disappearing from hospitals. Hundreds of people missing. Amnesty International asked the Iranian authorities to immediately release dozens of journalists who are at risk of torture in detention. The UN also asked the government to prevent further violence and bloodshed. More people were arrested today including journalists and bloggers as well as other people of some clout in the Iranian society. Karoubi's newspaper, Etemade Melli's chief editor was asked to appear before a court.
10. Today a group of people including women's rights activists assembled in Laleh Park to light candles in memory of Neda and other martyrs. The protesters were dispersed by the police and plainclothesmen using violent tactics. There were also many policewomen. Many people were arrested and hauled away. Reporters of Keyhan and Fars newspapers were taking people pictures with cameras.
11. Reports have suggested that there is a bitter divide developing between military leaders on what the military’s role should be in the current unrest and whether they should step in. (This could be not confirmed unfortunately through the most reliable sources). Reports of clerics meeting in secret to discuss the current unrest have surfaces from Qom, Tabriz and Mashhad. It is being suggested that even though clerics had participated in the protests a few days ago, they might join in larger numbers if further protests are held.
12. Ayatollah Mousavi Ardabeli has released a statement stating that the election has weakened the regime. He added that the Guardian Council should allow for people to pursue their demands and asked the people to pursue their complaints through legal means as well as asking the government to let people express their discontent through the media. He deplored violence and said that no violence must be used to pacify protestors.
13. It is being reported that very careful planning is being carried out for a successful national strike. This is while in a meeting with members of the National Security Council, Karoubi said that he'll continue to legally pursue annulment of the elections.
14. Sunday is the anniversary of 7 Tir martyrs and there will be a gathering in "Ghoba" Mosque. It has been organized after getting a permit from the government. Mousavi asked Iranians abroad to continue their protests. Chants of Allah o Akbar were heard in Tehran, Tabriz and other parts of Tehran again.
15. Sea of Green is largely peaceful. Reports that Sea of Green is actively seeking to hunt and kill security forces being forcefully denied by sources. Here's a heartwarming video of youth protecting Police from angry protesters when they were surrounded by people. The youth keep yelling, "We're all Iranians! We're all Iranians!" YouTube - جوانان غیور ایران حتی از نیروهای ضد شورش که توسط مردم محاصره شده بودند نیز حمایت میکنند ، آیا اینها اغتشاش گرند !؟
16. (On persiankiwi, I don’t know any of the tweeters personally. I stopped using him/her as a source since the day of the Baharestan protest. I only stated that he has been arrested as a caution so that people would be careful. The second most reliable source after pk reported that pk had been arrested so I was forced to go ahead and warn people. But some people have harshly attacked me for this. I whole-heartedly apologize if anyone thinks I’m trying to mislead them. The Green Briefs are only one source out of hundreds. Please use your own judgment and trust whichever source you think is more reliable in getting news from Iran. I will hence stop trying to convince people that I have good intentions. It is futile as well as VERY stressful and time-consuming.)
Read this if you want to help or get help!
The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi: Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in Iran
Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us:
Helpers with expertise in the field of medecine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.
(Repost from the original site.)
Information From “Why We Protest”
My name is @UtahPirate. I have asked the owner of this site to publish this anonymously. I do this because there have now been three reports I am aware of, of people being attacked in the United States (where I live) by Iranian nationals who are apparently pro-Khameni/Ahmadinejad. These attacks are not lethal and have so far not been truly harmful, but they are worrisome. Anonymity is therefore warranted and prudent.
(For the record, the owner of this blog is not in control of all aspects of it and so my own information is available, for those who dig hard enough.)
I have reposted several items of interest from the Why We Protest – Iran forums, since they say that people should. The reason for this is that the forums are apparently under attack by Iranian Regime forces—and the servers aren’t particularly stable to begin with. This results in a large number of outages, and a significant amount of downtime for the site. Maintenance is ongoing, as far as I’ve been told.
The posts which have been reposted should be clearly identifiable because of a link to notify our readers of the original source. These include all of the Green Briefs, and several other items of interest. These will appear as dated on the original date of posting (so far as we can ascertain—NiteOwl has been exhausted, and expressed that he couldn’t really remember the dates. Luckily for NiteOwl, the approximate dates are listed in the forums).
We would hope that NiteOwl would continue his excellent work in sifting through the news, tweets, and other sources of information to arrive at the most accurate information possible, given the limited resources and opportunities for information coming out of Iraq. As we are able, we will continue to bring information here.
Also, I am told that this blog has so far remained free from a significant amount of downtime. I (and this blog’s owner) wanted to thank the provider, Blogspot, for the excellent work in keeping its blogs up and running. While there have been reports of a few blogs being compromised, this hasn’t been one of them. Keep up the great work, Blogspot!
As a final note, we have updated our arrest list as of a few days ago. This will continue to be updated as we receive information. We duplicated the lists because of efforts by pro-regime hackers to take down the web site of the UN Council on Human Rights in Iran. Since the lists are sometimes not available there, they will be made available here as circumstances permit.
Green Brief #10
(Fresh News from Iran, reposted from the original web site)
I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used.
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Friday, June 26 in Iran.
- No large rallies or protests were held today. There were unconfirmed reports of small gatherings in isolated areas of the city, but for the most part, Tehran didn't seem to witness the same as it has been for the past two weeks. Sources indicated that it was in no way a sign of giving up, but rather a brief interval in more protests that are to come. They added that currently, the Sea of Green is organizing and regrouping as well as coming up with new ways to defy the authorities and also know of the fate of their leaders in order to progress.
- At 1 PM, however, a large number of people in Tehran took to roofs and released green balloons to show solidarity with the Sea of Green and to commemorate protesters who've died so far. (Link showing the balloons: http://bit.ly/17jRGN ) At night, the people again took to the roofs and chanted "Allah o Akbar" and "Death to the Dictator". They also burned candles and held vigils. There was confirmation of the death of one protester who was fired upon by security forces as he chanted from his rooftop. Reports of vigils also came from Mashhad.
- Khamenei was supposed to lead Friday prayers in Tehran and give a speech; however, he was a no show. Ayatollah Sayyid Ahmad Khatami a hard-line cleric and a member of the Assembly of Experts who has strong ties with Khamenei and Ahmadinejad lead the prayers in his stead. He claimed that the protesters were acting against Allah, branded them 'rioters' and called for their suppression through any means possible. He also added that the government will not bend against pressure and that Neda was killed by protesters. This is backtrack from the government's earlier statements that Neda had been ordered to be killed by a BBC correspondent.
- Reports indicate that the reason why Khamenei did not attend the prayers was Ayatollah Montazeri's statements yesterday that denounced the government's suppression of the protesters' 'legitimate demands'. This, according to sources, creates a divide between the powerful clergy which has pressured Khamenei just enough to stop him from giving out another speech of the caliber he gave last week. 4. Whether Montazeri's current stance will develop into something of a bigger boost to protesters remains to be seen.
- (For those who don't know, Montazeri was Khomeini's designated successor until just a few months before Khomeini's death; he openly criticized the Islamic regime and was sidelined in favor of Khamenei. He still wields enough considerable support among the more moderate clergy and is popular among liberal Muslims in Iran.)
- Meanwhile, on the government's official English News channel, Press TV, George Galloway, a British MP representing the constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow, 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. He did not indicate which people he meant when he made that statement.
- A reliable source indicated that Khomeini's family has thrown its lot behind the protesters. Although they denied calling out for a protest tomorrow, they indicated that they were with the protesters and claimed to be supporting the protesters lawful demands and don't consider Ahmadinejad's government legitimate anymore. This, coupled with Montazeri's statements and Larijani's lethargy, is a strong indication that the clergy are divided in what to do with the protesters and that there is a considerable level of public support now for the protesters among the religious elite.
- The spokesperson of the Guardian Council announced today that a commission had been formed to recount 10% of the ballots cast with representatives of the candidates present. The commission includes Ali Akbar Velayati, Hadad Adel, Eftekhar Jahromi, Aboutorabi Fard, Dari Najafabadi and Hossein Rahimian. He also gave candidates 24 hours to appoint representatives that would join the commission in the recount.
- As reported before, the government is heavily charging people for the return of their dead family members' bodies who were killed during the protests. Families are being charged thousands of dollars and are also required to sign a waiver that states they won't sue the police and that Mousavi is the reason behind the death of their loved ones. More people were arrested today including Mohammad Mostafaie, who is a prominent lawyer and important reformist.
- The Iranian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden was attacked today by angry Swedish-Iranians after a peaceful protest. It has been reported that as the protesters neared the gate, one of the guards tried to force the protesters away which enraged them and they tried to take over the Embassy. The police were forced to call for back up to control the protesters.
- The government is continuously attacking and arresting Iranians who are using twitter to get the message out to the world. Several of our sources have so far been arrested or have stopped using twitter altogether, yet the remainder have pledged to continue until the last minute. Amidst the somber mood, some emotional moments can also be seen. One Iranian tweeted: "I would rather our Iranian youth were tweeting about Michael Jackson than having 2 face this death & horror. Lets set them free to do so."
(There is simply too much on the tweets about where Mousavi is at this point. According to last reports, he was being sternly watched by the government and his movement is restricted, but it's an ever evolving situation.)
Read this if you want to help or can give help!
The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi: Tor: ?????? Tor
Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us:
[URL is malformed; removed: try the Iran Protest website ]
Helpers with expertise in the field of medecine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.
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Friday, June 26, 2009
Green Brief #9
(This was posted from the original site)
I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used. (There was precious little today to offer so I waited very long)
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Thursday, June 25 in Iran.
1. Protesters continued to swarm the streets of Tehran today, however, the number of security forces deployed to stop them from gathering in large numbers proved effective. We had previously reported that large numbers of motorcycles have been brought into Tehran by the government and given over to Basij and other security forces. They are being used very efficiently to mobilize the security forces and protesters are being hunted down wherever they are suspected to be. In the mess, several people who aren't protesters have also been beaten as the beatings have turned to indiscriminate persecution of citizens of Iran.
2. News of protesters came from different parts of Tehran, but confirmation as always have been a bit tricky as twitter sources continue to give out information that is sometimes uniform and at times widely divergent. What we were able to confirm was that a large mass of people that tried to gather at martyred protester Neda's grave site was beaten and dispersed. No one was allowed to stand near her grave for more than a few seconds as police actively sought to beat the protesters out of the area. There were reports of Basijis firing at people from atop a mosque in Tehran. It can be partially confirmed, however, the number of casualties cannot be.
3. The Minister of Interior in the mean time has declined to issue a request for the holding of requests by Mousavi's supporters. He has stated that any permits need to be sought in person at least 7 days before the planned date. (There are reports, however, that Mousavi has been granted a permit for a small rally tomorrow.) Chants of Allah o Akbar and Ya Hossein echoed across Tehran yet again and there were reports of protests in Shiraz by university students and a strike in Tabriz. (I can only partially confirm this as only a few of my reliable sources could confirm it.)
4. As reported yesterday, no massacre can be confirmed to have occurred in Baharestan square. Readers have sent me several photographs of bodies with gaping wounds that might suggest the use of axes - I have confirmed ISOLATED use of axes in the previous report -, however, all of the photos have been from past protests. As of yet, the claim by Mainstream Media that there was a massacre at Baharestan cannot be confirmed. (At the time of the writing of this brief, many have retracted their previous statements and some have actually began to kill the story that was used to increase viewership of US TV networks...)
5. In new statements today, Mousavi, Khatami and Rezaei have pledged their support for the cause of the protesters yet again. Mousavi released a statement today declaring that he won't back down from their legitimate demands. He also accused the people who have rigged the election of the violence that has wracked Tehran and continues to destabilize the country. Rezaei who has taken back his complaints to the Guardian Council regarding the election has yet against said that he has not abandoned the protesters. According to him, he has only taken back the complaints and the cause of the protesters and just and must be followed until successful. Khatami declared today that everyone should stand up because opportunities like these are rare and will not be granted again.
6. There were reports today indicating that several journalists that have been arrested in the past few days have been transferred to Evin prison. A Washington Time correspondent who was arrested yesterday was about to leave the country through Tehran's main airport when he was arrested. The government's media outlets have claimed that John Layne - the BBC correspondent in Tehran who was forced to leave Tehran days ago - was behind the murder of Neda. They claim that he hired people to gun her down so he could then report on it and use it in a documentary he is making.
7. Seyed Alireza Beheshti Shirazi, the editor in chief of Kalameh Sabz newspaper which is pro-Mousavi, who was arrested yesterday, has still not been released. Of the 70 professors that were arrested after meeting Mousavi yesterday, 66 have been released by the Iranian government. The fate of the rest remains unknown. More and more people were arrested today for even wearing green signs or any clothing that had the color green. The Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights has announced that they are ready to provide legal aid to recent detainees and their families. For a list of people so far killed and arrested as well as released, please check this link: List of Killed and Arrested – English
8. Government sources now confirm that eight Basijis have so far been killed in the protests. The number cannot be confirmed using our sources. So far, even the most impartial twitter sources have not confirmed that any protester has succeeded in taking the life of a Basiji. (Apparently, many have wished for their death and would show great joy if it can be confirmed as their brutality has been quite pronounced in the past few days.) Sources also claim that Basijis are receiving extravagant amounts of money as per diem in order to secure their loyalty.
9. A group of Iranian lawyers - most of them female - have released a statement, asking the government to cancel Nobel-laureate Shirin Ebadi's law license. They claim that she has acted unconstitutionally by contacting governments outside Iran and asked them to interfere in Iran's internal affairs. They also accuse her of breaching Islamic verdicts.
10. Meanwhile, Ali Abbaspour, a prominent parliamentarian and the head of the education committee in the parliament, has told the media that they are insistent on impartial investigations being carried out on the attacks in various universities inside Tehran and other parts of the country. Reports also indicate of Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani's continued marginalization by the government. He is being reported as one of the top men inside the regime who is slowly moving towards the cause of the protesters.
11. Finally, we can now confirm that Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri has broken his silence and denounced the current spate of violence that's been carried out against peaceful protesters. He asked the people of Iran to seek their rightful demands through peaceful means. He also criticized the government's actions and said that the violence carried out against protesters is clearly different from what Islam teaches.
12. Ayatollah Khamenei has a planned speech during the Friday prayers today in Tehran. That will commence at 2:30 AM Pacific Time. I will upload the transcript of the speech in English within an hour of it's delivery on iran.whyweprotest.net and posting a link on my twitter account. You can also tune into BBC if you want to see it live with an English translation. (If I wasn’t able to do the translation, please forgive me.)
(There is simply too much on the tweets about where Mousavi is at this point. According to last reports, he was being sternly watched by the government and his movement is restricted, but it's an ever evolving situation.)
Read this if you want to help or get help!
The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Farsi: Tor: ?????? Tor
For the more savvy, try these if you want to connect from Iran:
67.174.201.136:9001 AE4DE948A8F37F18D886C5545F375AB246647837
(trad. tor port)
67.174.201.136:3074 AE4DE948A8F37F18D886C5545F375AB246647837
(xbox live port)
(Thanks to Alexander)
Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us:
Helpers with expertise in the field of medecine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Green Brief #8
(Reposted from the original site)
I'm Josh Shahryar AKA NiteOwl - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used. (There was precious little today to offer so I waited very long)
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Tuesday, June 24 in Iran.
- 1. The event of the day was the protest held at Baharestan Square in the late afternoon. Although the exact number cannot be fully known, my sources claimed somewhere between 5,000-10,000 people tried to join the rally. Things got violent when security forces that had been waiting there for hours moved in as soon as a small crowd had managed to gather. They used force to brutalize the protesters and scatter them faster then they could regroup. Police were also patrolling the areas around Baharestan and people were attacked even as they fled Baharestan and go to the outer edges of the area. This continued for at least two hours.
- Force was utilized without discrimination; however, media reports about a complete massacre cannot be confirmed by my more reliable sources. What I can confirm is at least 3 people were killed; the police used batons to beat people quite viciously - leaving dozens injured, not just in Baharestan but also in the areas around Baharestan. Shots were also fired and at least 2 of the fatalities were as a result of gunfire. Tear gas was also used to disperse them. We cannot confirm the use of axes on protesters. It could have been isolated incidents. But a wide-spread use cannot be confirmed. There were reports of killings at Lalehzar as well. Lalezhzar is a park in Tehran which has been completely taken over by security forces and is being used as a quasi-de fact base. Pictures are scarce and videos cannot be confirmed at this point either. The police were checking cell phones throughout the area as well as in other parts of the city and deleting images or videos or confiscating the phone altogether.
(I have to add a personal note here. I am not anti-protester and neither am I against the freedom of Iran from the grips of such a repressive regime. The Green Briefs are VERY one-sided and TOTALLY pro-protester. However, I think the event was overblown partly because the people who participated were terrorized by the brute nature of the event and at the same time, the word 'massacre' got lost in translation a little. I apologize if you find my denial of this outrageous, but I will not confirm something like this. It could easily be a government ploy to scare people from joining further protests.) - The area was surrounded also by vans and cars belonging to the security forces. Injured protesters and those protesters the police could hold onto were promptly thrown into these vehicles and moved to undisclosed locations. It has been suggested that Evin prison is being used to house most of the prisoners, but the sheer number of protesters easily could mean that make-shift prisons have been built around Tehran to house these people. Some sources indicated as well, but this cannot be confirmed right away. Most shops around Baharestan were closed so people had nowhere to hide. Cell phone service was also jammed so no help could arrive for those stranded and the vicious and wide-spread beatings and arrests could continue.
- The security forces were being heavily helped by helicopters. They flew all over the city and informed security forces of places where people had gathered. Security forces arrived in minutes and dispersed crowd. However, people were extremely persistent. Gatherings and small rallies took place in several places and the quicker they were dispersed the quicker more sprang up. This continued late into the night until people dispersed on their own. The sheer tenacity of the protesters is heartening and many twitter sources indicated that no matter what happens they will go to streets and protest. Hezbollah e Ansar were also spotted from time to time. Plainclothesmen also did their part of the arrests as they drove around the city in motorcycles.
- There were also other arrests in Iran today. At least 70 university professors and other professionals held a meeting today with Mousavi at the end of which, all of them were arrested as they exited the meeting area. Reports also confirm that Mousavi's chief lawyer, Ardsher Amir Arjman has also been arrested. There is no real confirmation of whether Mousavi has been arrested or he's free. However, there are strong indications and SOME sources that claim he is currently under house arrest. For a partial list, please click here: [link removed due to being malformed]
- Several foreign nationals were arrested today as well. Among them is Iason Athanasiadis - a Greek national who works for the Washington Times. The identity of other people detained cannot be confirmed at this point. The media lockdown is continuing in Iran as the government tries to stop the spread of news of what's happening inside the country. Saw a quote that I wanted to share by an Iranian twitter user: "Saving Iran... one tweet at a time!"
- As reported before, Mohsen Rezaei is being reported to have withdrawn his complaints regarding the election. However, it seems that his office believes he has been sidelined by the government through pressure and intimidation. His office today told the Guardian Council that that they need to tell the people the real reason why they quit or they will publish the real reasons themselves. Reports also abound that Rafsanjani is preparing a plan of action and will make an announcement on Friday, but this cannot be fully confirmed. Mousavi, Rafsanjani and Rezaei also held a meeting with officials from the National Security Committee of Iran. No news as to the issues debated or decisions made can be confirmed yet.
- The chants of Allah o Akbar continued throughout the night in Tehran and reports indicate that it also occurred in many cities around the country. Confirmed reports also indicate that plainclothesmen put some trees on fire near the homes of people who were chanting in Sharake Gharb. It is being reported that on June 25 at 1 PM, people will fly ceremonial balloons from their homes. The balloons will be green to symbolize the movement and black for the dead protesters. Reports indicate that tomorrow's mourning rallies in Tehran have been canceled as well. (I will no longer post information about protests that are to come here. Too many Iran-gov people are reading this and it might help them.)
- Khamanei spoke to a meeting of members of the Majlis of Iran (Majlis = Parliament). Click here to read it: Khamenei Speech to Parliamentarians June 24 (Excerpts English) - Why We Protest – IRAN
- Finally, reports indicate that the Iranian ambassador in Copenhagen has 'threatened' the Danish government by telling them that they are watching the Danish media very closely...
Read this if you want to help or get help!
The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:
English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain
Fars: Tor: ?????? Tor
For the more savvy, try these if you want to connect from Iran:
67.174.201.136:9001 AE4DE948A8F37F18D886C5545F375AB246647837
(trad. tor port)
67.174.201.136:3074 AE4DE948A8F37F18D886C5545F375AB246647837
(xbox live port)
(Thanks to Alexander)
Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us:
[Link malformed; removed.]
Helpers with expertise in the field of medecine, translation and such:
“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.
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An Open Letter to the Brave Protesters in Iran
This is a letter from an American to all the brave protesters in Iran right now. I hope this reaches some of you.
I imagine there are many of you right now that are having doubt. I think there are many of you that are afraid and, sadly, there may even be some of you who feel like hope is lost. In such times, it’s hard for people not to feel like that.
However, I am here to tell you that not to give into that fear. The government is working tirelessly to instill that fear in you. They have killed people, beaten them, jailed them. They have made you think they are everywhere. They are trying to make you feel you are alone. But you are not alone. There are still now many who feel the same way you do. There are still those who don’t believe the government should be allowed to do this to people and are willing to fight with everything they have for that. They are in the streets, they are next to you, they are shouting from the rooftops, they are with you. You are not alone.
Not only that, but there is support for you all around the world. There are many people out there who, if they were able to, would be right there with you now, fighting with you if they had the chance. I know because I am one of them. I cannot tell you how much it hurts me to be so far away, unable to be there with you. I have never met you all but the messages I have seen from you and those like you have tugged at my heart. They have moved people from all over the world. We are with you. We will do anything we can to help you. And, I can honestly say, if I could be with each of you right now to give you the encouragement you need in person, I would.
Unfortunately, all I can do is write this letter to you. So I think I speak for all the supporters around the world (who are too numerous to count) when I say we are with you. We are moved by what you are going through. Our heart aches when we see what your government is doing to you. And, most importantly, we believe in you. We have seen your courage, we have seen what you are fighting for, and we know in our hearts if you keep fighting you will achieve it. You will have your voices heard and your dream for a better country will become a reality. We believe in you, so make sure that you also believe in yourself.
There is a reason the government wants you to be afraid and feel alone. In fact, the reason is quite simple. The truth is that the government is far, far more afraid of you than you are of them. That is why they have resorted to such cruel acts, why they try to silence your voice, why they try to prevent communication. They know they are outnumbered, so they try to make you think you are alone. They try to make you think you are helpless because they know you are not. They try to make you think you can’t bring about change, because they KNOW that you can. They think what they are doing will make everyone lose hope and have their dreams turn into dust, but that is impossible. The government cannot stop the ideals you believe in. No force on this earth is able to do that. And if you’re willing to fight for what you believe in with everything you have, you will be able to succeed.
Sometime it may be hard to believe that, especially since many people have died. But the things you believe in, the cause you fight for, can never die. Many have died, but that is exactly why you must go on. It is not right for people to be killed by their government simply for wanting their voices heard. It is not right for a sixteen year old girl to be murdered in cold blood simply for being a bystander. It is not right for evil men to be allowed to kill and beat their own people, while the State TV insists they are doing the right thing. No person deserves such oppression, so that is why you must continue on. You must show the government that they cannot treat their own people so unjustly. If you continue stand up for what is right, if you continue to see the truth, if you continue to believe in yourself and make sure those around you believe in themselves too, you can change things for the better. Your beliefs, your ideas, are strong and ideas can never be stopped with a bullet.
I understand you may be afraid. But I want to make sure you know that true bravery is not being without fear, but knowing you are afraid and doing the right thing anyway. You have this bravery inside you. I have seen this. The world has seen it and knows this too. So do not forget that. You have shown myself and the world what true bravery is. You have stood up for what’s right. You’ve defied injustice and refused to accept oppression. For that, all of you are heroes. Never forget that. Don’t doubt yourselves.
I’m sure you already know this, but I feel I should repeat that the State TV and reality are two very, very different things. The State TV is now nothing more than a way to spread fear and doubt. They will lie, they will intimidate, and they will do anything if they think it will make you doubt yourself. They are puppets dancing at strings. Do not let them get to you. Do not believe their lies. There are ways for you to find out the truth. Use them. And help others find the truth as well.
There are still ways you can communicate. Find them, use them, and make sure the others who are with you know of it as well. You are not alone. You are intelligent. You are capable of great things. All of this is possible if you believe in yourself, make sure doubt is not allowed to spread, and you keep thinking. The regime’s tactics are changing, so your tactics must as well. You are smart people, much smarter than me, and you are capable of strategy. Communicate as securely as you are able in any way you can. Know when to communicate securely and what to say publicly. Use what you know of the government’s tactics to your advantage. Do not be deterred. Share your ideas, stand together, help one another, stay united. Remember, despite what your oppressors want you to believe, you are not alone in this and you will never be alone.
Most importantly, do not feel like you can’t do anything to make your country a better place. You can. The potential to do so exists in every person and, united together, nothing can stop you. The government believes that if they lie enough, if they are cruel enough, your spirit will be broken and your ideas will fade away. It is up to every one of you to prove them wrong. Let your voice be like thunder and your spirit like iron. Show the regime that you will never be deterred, that you will never give up, that you are a force unlike anything ever seen before. You can do this. Never believe otherwise.
I hope my letter has been of some help. I honestly wish I could do more to help but there is only so much I can do from this corner of the world. The rest is up to you. My belief, my hope, and my heart goes out to all over you. I wish you the best.
Yours Faithfully,
Corey
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
We Believe In Iran: An American Perspective
This is sure to be a bit long, but I’m asking you to all bear with me. I feel this is very important to say. Even if you believe you don’t care much about the Iran issue or want to hear about it (especially if you don’t), I’m asking you to read this all the way though. All I’m asking for about five or ten minutes of your time. I feel that’s pretty reasonable.
I am an American. I have never been to Iran. In fact, as far as I know, I don’t even know anyone whose been to Iran. Still, like many people, I have been following by the news coming out of Iran. And it has affected me on a very personal level.
For those of you who do not know already, a concise summary of what sparked these events can be found here: http://blacklillian.deviantart.com/journal/25319378/
In a nutshell, a dictator was reelected into office, but the terms of his victory were suspect. People supporting the reformist candidate named Mousavi voiced their opinion that the election was rigged and took to the streets. People peacefully protested in the streets and the government sent forces to beat them, jail them, and even kill them, just for protesting in the street. Still, people continued to protest. The protests got large and larger until today, after a previous statement by the Supreme Leader of Iran, the government cracked down. It prevented people from getting to scheduled rallies, beat people, shot tear gas at them, and even killed them.
I’m sure many of you read that past sentence yet do not get the sense of what I am talking about. Many brave Iranian protesters have risked their safety to report what they are seeing on Twitter and other areas of the net, and many brave people from around the world are working around the clock to make sure as much information about this gets out as much as possible. Hearing the Iranians tell their stories, voice both their doubts and resolve, post pictures and videos of what’s happening in their country, is moving on a level that I cannot begin to convey…
I have seen photos of Iranian women whose heads have been smashed against the ground. I have seen pictures of men beaten and bruised to the point where they can not open their eyes. I have seen video of a woman shot and murdered in cold blood, guilty of nothing other than having an opinion different than that of the state. I have heard a brave Iranian see the violence that happened today and respond “I feel terrible and that is why I will go back to the streets.”
I had kept up on the news before today and, since rallies were scheduled after the Supreme Leader issued a stern warning to protesters, I knew something decisive would happen today. If it had been up to me I would have been on Twitter, posting and reteeting news that might be of some benefit to the Iranians…hell, if it had been up to me, I wish I could have been there for them somehow…but, I am sad to say, at that critical moment, I was at work. Doing a menial job that, in the grand scheme of things, served no importance at all.
I had been glued to news from Twitter and other sources for days. All throughout the day, as I performed the job, I could not help but think what was happening. When I could get a chance, I got to a computer and logged on at work, something I am not supposed to do at all. And I saw the violence that was happening, the horrors of it…and I saw that the people were still taking to the streets. I saw that people had doubts and were afraid, but they most still wanted to take to the streets.
The entire day, I felt like I was in a daze. The world seemed unreal. The day was one of the longest I ever experienced. Every moment I worked I was screaming at myself “What the hell are you doing? You should be doing something to help. I don’t know what, but dammit, do something!” I wanted to leave, and yet I could not. I barely remembered most of what I did all day, since my mind was focused on Iran. I did not feel like myself. I must not have looked like myself either. Several people asked me if anything was wrong. I lied and said I was fine. When they walked away, I wondered why I hadn’t told the truth. I told myself they wouldn’t have understood (I had tried to spread the word to several people before without much avail), but I still regretted not telling the truth. But even then I continued to lie…
I looked around and saw people going about their lives like everything was normal. Many probably had no idea what was going on. Many more, I suspect, must have heard something but was either decided not to worry about it, thinking it wasn’t worth their time to think about, believing it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Of course, among them I am sure there were people who were just keeping up appearances, acting like nothing was wrong while their feeling ate away at them from the inside. People lying just like me.
There were points in the day when, after thinking about all those innocent people…many of them who could have been dying while I was doing totally purposeless shit...I found it was too much for me. I went to the bathroom, found a stall, and shed a few tears as quietly as I could manage. I would compose myself as quickly as possible and return outside, nobody appearing to notice any difference (or if they did, not asking about it). I had to do this more than once. By the end of the day, I felt so overwhelmed that I felt physically sick feeling like I could vomit.
When I was finally done with work, I returned home, finally able to get a good grasp of what was going on (at least as much as humanely possible from the info available). I felt unclean. People were dying half way around the world and I had acted like nothing was wrong. I am a liar, a fucking coward. I should have done something, said something to people. In my last hours at work, I tried to think of what I would say to people who asked what was wrong if I had any backbone. I tried to word it right then, knowing writing was the only thing I seemed to be able to do right, resolved to write it when I got home.
That’s where I am now. If I was not a liar, if I was not a coward, this is what I would tell people.
I would tell people that people are fighting for their lives and dying for the chance to live in a place where their voices are heard, where they can express their opinions without being beaten or murdered. They are fighting with the hope that in the future, their country can be a better place than it is now, where the government will not be able to treat people the way it is treating them now. Many of them are afraid and have doubts, but are fighting anyway, because in their heart, they know it is the right thing to do even if the government and their media tells them it is wrong. They are exhibiting more bravery than I ever knew existed. They are much stronger than I. They are heroes and my heart and prayers go out to them.
And they need support.
I’ve seen with my eyes that there must be people who either don’t know about this issue or, more likely, aren’t following it closely. I urge everyone reading this to do so. Educate yourself. There are places like http://iran.whyweprotest.net/ and http://www.twitter.com/protesterhelp where you can follow what’s actually going on. Human rights are being violated. This isn’t just about politics, this isn’t about an election, it’s about people having their rights violated and being killed for it. Most of them are in their twenties, college students, like a lot of us out there. They’re fucking kids and people are trying to murder them for wanting to make their country a better place. They’re not at all different from us and they’re getting killed. Look at the information out there. Look at the videos, look at the pictures. If you can look inside yourself and tell yourself that its not worth your time to take it personally, than go ahead. But if there’s one thing the support this cause has generated outside Iran has shown me already its that most people are basically good at heart and share the common ideals of justice and peace, so I doubt many of you will be able to tell yourselves that honestly if you looked at all the information out there.
Maybe you feel you can’t do anything, and that is a feeling I understand. But there is always something you can do. Just because you can’t be there fighting with them doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference, can’t do something. If you’re telling someone who didn’t know about this issue before and educating them about it to try to get the involved, you’re doing something. If you’re twittering news from RELIABLE sources to get the right info out there, you’re doing something. If you’re posting a piece of art or writing in an effort to spread awareness of what’s happening in Iran, you’re doing something. If you’re marching in a protest in your own country to support the cause, you’re doing something. If you’re posting a link to info about the cause, you’re doing something. If you’re spreading this piece around, you’re doing something (and feel free to do so if you feel it worthy to spread around. Link, post in journals or forums, blatantly steal, I don’t care what). If you’re wearing green clothes or wristbands and people ask why and you tell them, you’re doing something. If you’re calling someone in the US government or UN to do something about this, you’re doing something. Even if you’re following the news and telling others you’re doing so, you’re doing something. But for God’s sake, don’t do nothing. Don’t just forget about it. Don’t just lie to yourself and pretend this isn’t happening and it’s not important. You may come to feel bad about yourself like I have if you do so.
The people of Iran are not just changing their country. I believe they are changing the world. I used to believe people were desensitized to events and injustice far away from them, but I seen that is not the case. This could be the first step in making our generation rediscover our conscience.
Thank you for your time. If my tone has been too preachy, I apologize. If you have considered this worth reading, I ask you spread it around in any way you deem appropriate. If not, I apologize for the inconvenience, but still ask you educate yourself on the issue further.
After writing this, I do feel a little relieved. I feel a bit less like a liar and a coward now…but I still am not sure if it’s enough. But, then again, I’m the kind of person who feels like they can never do enough, I guess…
Yours Faithfully,
Corey
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