Special Thursday Afternoon Blog on Turmoil in Iran
June 18, 2009
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Eight days ago I had a very pleasant meeting for several hours with a gentleman of the Shiite Faith originally from Teheran in Iran. He was well versed on Iranian history, and I learned some things about the Shah of
Iran who was deposed, and then died of cancer. It made me see the Shah in a much more favorable light than I had held him in the past. One of the last things he said to me I did not completely understand.
He told me to watch for the ‘green’, indicating he was of those of these ‘green’ proponents.
You can imagine how shocked I was when I saw the long waves of green banners, markers, and faces when Ahmadinejad was declared the winner in the election. Now I understand what he meant.
I am not giving his name or the city where we visited, since I am afraid it might be personally detrimental to him.
Regardless of how this turns out in Iran, these protests have made it obvious to me there is more opposition to the Mullahs than I thought.
Begin Excerpt from DEBKAfile Special Report
Protesters in funereal black march silently in tense Iran
DEBKAfile Special Report
June 18, 2009, 8:55 PM (GMT+02:00)
The tensely awaited opposition rally scheduled for Thursday, June 18, took place with hardly any incident. DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources suggest that the rival camps contesting the presidential election results – and in essence the future of the Iranian regime – appear to have agreed on a temporary truce on the sixth day of their violent confrontation.
Tens of thousands of protesters in funereal black, joined briefly by their leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, marched in a silent procession of mourning and solidarity with their dead fellows – eight according to official figures, but in reality between 32 and 45. They made no attempt to provoke the security forces, who stood by and watched.
So what was behind the apparent truce? DEBKAfile offers three possibilities:
1. The heads of the two camps, the one headed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the other by Mousavi, are secretly negotiating an end to the crisis.
2. Both camps are frantically seeking a compromise figure to put forward as president.
Ahmadinejad and Mousavi would both agree to withdraw their candidacies to save the Islamic Republic and in the name of national unity.
Neither theory is confirmed.
3. They two sides have called an interregnum in clashes to build up their strength and regroup for Friday, June 18. The regime will try and raise an audience of millions to attend the official sermons in the main cities, while the “reformists” will try and match their numbers for demonstrations against those sermons.
Once again, the potential for a bloodbath on a huge scale is acute.
Marking Khamenei’s diminishing authority, one of the losing presidential candidates, Mehdi Karroubi, has summoned his followers to demonstrate against the fraudulent election in the same place and at the same time as the supreme ruler’s sermon in Tehran.
This is an unheard-of provocation against the supreme ruler.
While avoiding overt clashes, the authorities have ordered the daughter and son of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani not to leave the country. His daughter Faezeh is one of the heads of Mousavi’s staff and funnels family funding and organizational talent to the “reformist “cause.
This step is seen by Iranian sources as part of the bitter Ahmadinejad-Rafsanjani quarrel.
Thursday too, Iran’s prosecutor general reported that the intelligence service had exposed a foreign terrorist network, with alleged Israeli links, which had conspired to carry out large-scale massacres in the central mosques of Tehran and other towns on election-day.
This accusation appears to be preparing the ground for impugning opposition leaders as collaborators with foreign undercover agencies bent on sowing death and destruction in the Islamic Republic.
Begin Excerpt from Jerusalem Post
‘Every knock on the door would send me into a panic as I waited’
June 18, 2009
SABINA AMIDI, Special to The Jerusalem Post , THE JERUSALEM POST
After reporting for The Jerusalem Post in secret for the past few weeks, I have left the indescribable chaos now gripping the Islamic Republic of Iran. Gaiety and optimism have turned to anarchy in Teheran, and I no longer felt safe.
The day I arrived in Teheran could not have felt more normal. Walking out of the airport, I saw my family waiting for me near the entrance with a bouquet of flowers and a car to take us to my grandmother’s house. After a few comfortable hours with my relatives following a traditional Persian breakfast of tea, fresh bread and cheese from the corner bakery, I immediately hit the streets.
I saw a Teheran that was bursting with excitement and, dare I say, “liberties” that were reminiscent of the city’s former self. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s suffocating four-year presidency seemed like it might soon become a memory.
Men and women of all ages flocked to the streets en mass to show their support for reformist presidential hopeful Mir Hossein Mousavi. At these informal rallies, youngsters handing out the now-famous green ribbons openly flirted with members of the opposite sex.
By night, the parade of Mousavi supporters transformed boulevards into live concerts.
As Persian pop music echoed down avenues, men and women danced carefree, celebrating their “predestined victory” over the incumbent president until the small hours. For the first time in 30 years of Islamification, Teheran had gotten its groove back.
I stayed close to the excited “green” demonstrators on many occasions. To my surprise and relief, the Basiji paramilitary troops did not disturb us; there was not a single person arrested or harmed on those pre-election nights.
Before they “got the party started,” the hungry campaigners would eat at a hip café to watch the live presidential debates. The parking lots were filled with cars decorated like a newlyweds’ – with green balloons, green flowers, green paint, and Mousavi’s face plastered all over the vehicles.
It was like New Year’s Eve – minus the champagne, of course. And then came Election Day, June 11.
Tensions grew strong on June 12, as Teheran held its breath for the final results. A group of student volunteers sent telephone text messages that spoke of rumors of “foul play.”
I was outside a fruit market when the election results were broadcast on the radio, and I saw at least 20 people truly stop in their tracks to listen.
I waved down a cab. Sitting in the back of the broken-down Paykan (an Iranian-made car), I saw a small picture of Ahmadinejad on the dashboard. “So, he won?” I asked the driver.
Looking in his mirror, he nodded.
I debated whether I should get out of the country right away, even though I had not participated in the “riots.” I had actually witnessed a plainclothes official slap down a young woman who was standing a meter in front of me. All I could do was watch; I have never felt so helpless. The woman’s screams will stay with me.
After the results came
the mayhem. At one point, as I stood on my grandmother’s roof, I could see smoke in the distance and people banging desperately on strangers’ doors to let them in.
We locked ourselves away. In the distance we could hear “Death to Khameini” and “Death to Ahmadinejad” until the chanting grew so loud that the windows shook. That first night we had no dinner. We did not dare leave the house.
When I did venture out for a few hours, the streets were littered with broken glass and ash. I walked past a group of young men who referred to themselves as the “green children.” They used walkie-talkies to communicate with their counterparts.
The riot police and Basiji were standing on every corner.
A protester prepared for them, carrying a canteen of vinegar and a handful of masks. “If we dip the masks in vinegar, the [pepper] spray will not burn our eyes,” he said, pointing to the men sitting on
their motorcycles.
The growing violence and government crackdowns inspired my abrupt departure from Iran in mid-week. My reporting for the Post – as honest and professional as I knew how to make it – nevertheless meant I had a direct connection with Israel that was unheard-of in Teheran, and dangerous. I was putting myself at risk by prolonging my stay.
During my last two days in Teheran, every knock on the door sent me into a panic, as I thought, “This is it. I have been caught.”
If I had been captured as an “Israeli spy,” Ahmadinejad might have had an excuse to depict the riots into a Zionist plot. I needed to get out.•
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