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. 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.
   
2. 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.)
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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]
   
6. 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!"
   
7. 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.
   
8. 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.)
   
9. 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
   
10. 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.

Green Brief #6

(Reposted from the original page)

Please retweet this link. I'm Josh Shahryar AKA NiteOwl - @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 and have tried maximally to avoid listening to media banter. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my tweets to have happened in the past day and in the past week in Iran. Remember, this is all from tweets. There is NOTHING included here that is not from a reliable tweet. No news media outlets have been used in the compilation of this short brief as I would like to call it.

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Monday, June 22 in Iran. (If I cannot positively confirm, I have indicated that I can't.)

1. Protests were held throughout Tehran today. The main protest was held at 7 Tir Square where 3-5 thousand people gathered to remember and mourn Neda – the protester killed on Saturday. However, soon hundreds of IRG, police, Basij and plainclothesmen gathered and violently tried to disperse the protesters. It took hours to disperse all the protesters. The security forces used batons and fired tear gas shells as well as firing weapons in the air. Dozens of people were injured, including many women. Helicopters were flying over Tehran for the second day. There were also reports of helicopters firing tear gas shells at people – they have not been fully confirmed.

2. There was also a gathering of about 1,000 people in Valiasr Avenue, meeting security forces who sparked a confrontation. It was not as violent as the one on 7 Tir, but many people were injured there as well. There was a huge rally held by Ahmadinejad’s supporters at Valiasr for his victory speech. The participants were mostly people from the provinces, children and older Iranians. There were also a large number of government employees.

3. News of protests around the country was not relayed through tweets much today; however, sources confirmed that at least some rallies and protests were held in Tabriz where protesters met with violent attacks by the security forces. Later in the night as people chanted Allah o Akbar from the rooftops, there were reports of clashes in northern and western Tehran between protesters and security forces. Chants of Allah o Akbar also echoed across the country. Candles were lit throughout the country in memory of protesters that have been killed so far. The number of confirmed deaths stands close to 50 now and there have been more than a thousand injured.

4. Sources claim that the government is considering expelling some diplomatic missions because they’ve helped protesters or are accused of masterminding the unrest. The government earlier in the day alleged that the US had paid 400 million dollars to people in order to organize unrest in Iran. They also blamed the UK and Germany – saying the latter was coaxed into taking action by Israel – how Israel manages to coax other countries was beyond our sources… The Guardian Council has now announced that there were 3 million extra votes cast. Other information is unreliable at this point or various sources exist.

5. The government is actively trying to suppress news from getting out. BBC and Al-Arabiya’s correspondents were told to get out in 24 hours, twitter sites are being hacked, people are being tricked into getting out late at night by others chanting in the streets who are actually Basijis and the spread of spam and propaganda on twitter. The government has also established dozens of sites with pictures of protesters, asking people to identify them. At least two of these sites that were based abroad have been taken down by hackers sympathetic to Iranians today.

6. There are sporadic reports coming in from Qom at this point. Sources claim that Rafsanjani who was in Qom has had meetings with clerics inside Qom. It has been also reported – but not confirmed – for the past three days that Ayatollah Montazeri has declared a three days’ mourning period. It likely is a hoax because it has not been confirmed by anyone. What can be confirmed is that the Council of Combatant Clerics – which includes in its members Rafsanjani and Nateq Noori – have backed the protesters. Khamanei is going to lead Friday prayers in Tehran. If there was a speech, we'll have a translation availble here within the hour.

7. Hamzeh Ghalebi, head of Mousavi's youth headquarters and Reza Homaye, another reformist and backer of Mousavi, have been arrested. There have been arrests of numerous other reformists and backers of Mousavi, Karoubi, Noori and Rafsanjani. The total number of people that have been arrested is still anyone’s guess. Reports indicate somewhere between five and ten thousand.

8. Tuesday has been declared a national strike by Mousavi and his backers. Already close to half of the shops in Tehran were closed on Sunday. (Sunday is not a holiday in Iran; Friday is.) It has been reported that in the provinces, people are excited about the news and many important figures in provinces are openly or secretly backing the call. The government is threatening people that they’ll be fired if they didn’t show up at their jobs on Tuesday.

9. Thursday, rallies will be held in Tehran. The location of the major rally in the city has not been disclosed. According to sources, this has been done so that the government couldn’t be prepared. In anticipation, the government has placed thousands of police and Basiji inside Tehran, turning stadiums into headquarters and areas for gathering for these security forces.

10. Our sources have strongly denounced the commercialization of the Sea of Green (That’s what most of them call the protests) by various people around the world. They have especially disliked how some people put advertisements on twitter with #iran or #iranelection on them as well as #neda. They have also shown outrage over the fact that Nokia and Siemens were exposed to have supplied the Iranian government with equipment to help censor their voices on the internet and over cell phones.

11. Finally, Mousavi has yet again called on the people of the world to rally in support of the plight of Iran’s people on Thursday. This is the second time Mousavi has called on citizens of Planet Earth to stand up and support the voices of Iranians.


Read this if you want to help or get help!

Iranians who are trying to connect to twitter or other sites and need a way to connect please try these!:

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: http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-cu...onymously.html

“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 human error will always manifests itself in even the most flawless of non-mathematical things. However, this includes nothing from the Western media, including the BBC which I have been generously using to inform people and I laud them for their courageous journalism.

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.

People Who Want to Send Me Tweet Links: You don't need to find me, I will find you. Don't hassle yourself. Your voice will be heard through millions of others like me.

People Who Want to Hunt Me Down: I'm an Afghan. If you ever tried to attack me, you'll see my back only after your back has met the ground.

P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.

Iranian Video

During the night after Khamanei’s hardline speech to the people, we hear just how the city of Tehran calls to the Most High: God is Great!

And a woman with a video explains to us just how this night works, from the perspective of real people still in Iran.

Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is a day of destiny.

Tonight, the cries of Allah-o Akbar are heard louder and louder than the nights before.

Where is this place? Where is this place where every door is closed? Where is this place where people are simply calling God? Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akbar gets louder and louder?

I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether the number increases. It shakes me. I wonder if God is shaken.

Where is this place that where so many innocent people are entrapped? Where is this place where no one comes to our aid? Where is this place that only with our silence we are sending our voices to the world? Where is this place that the young shed blood and then people go and pray -- standing on that same blood and pray.  Where is this place where the citizens are called vagrants?

Where is this place? You want me to tell you? This place is Iran. The homeland of you and me.

This place is Iran.

Thank you! Those outside Iran wish you all health and life! Peace be upon you!