"...dealt with without mercy.": The Iranian Crisis

Iranian students have turned up in enormous numbers to protest the election outcome in Tehran, Iran. Police and Musavi supporters clashed in Tehran immediately after the election with many reported injuries and the Basiji militia even involved themselves in attacks at the university. The Basiji, also reportedly left 7 people dead on Monday. It is reported the protest includes over 2 million students and other protesters. They believe that the recent June 12, presidential election was fixed so the present ruler President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would stay in office as it's President. This regime is abusive, oppressive and terroristic. Opponents of Ahmadinejad, believe opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the actual winner by the people's vote.

In a speech on Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the Supreme Leader of Iran reiterated that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's right to rule stands saying, "The Islamic state would not cheat and would not betray the vote of the people.," and a stern warning went out that any ongoing opposition would be sternly dealt with by a "crushing response from police and the forces at Khamenei's disposal — the powerful Revolutionary Guard and their volunteer citizen militia, the Basiji." His own warning to opposition leaders is to end street protests or be held responsible for any "bloodshed and chaos" to come.

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

It is reported that, despite the warnings, resistance came quickly. As nightfall came in Tehran, "Death to the dictator!" and "Allahu akbar" — "God is great", could be heard from many roof tops. It continues each night as others join in to unite in the cause.

One of the things these students and other protesters are angry about is the lack of action by President Obama. It is their belief that the United States should intervene and take action against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his regime.

These protests are being met with violence from the government trying to beat them back, but they are not being easily persuaded to disassemble. A large percent of the population of Iran is tired of the reigning government and the ill-treatment of it’s people. They are ready for a peaceful existence with other nations.

I am very concerned about the plight befalling the Iranian people. I don’t believe a country should suffer dictatorship and oppression. Dictatorship always leads to abuses of power. I fear Iran's nuclear power and possible chemical warfare stockpiles under the present leadershipp. The possibility of entering into another war with yet another country does not make me happy either. South Korea , Iran who will be next? Our soldiers are already in so many other countries in either peace keeping missions or active wars. When is it too much to keep us safe here at home? Our budget deficit is already so overwhelming that our own people are suffering from already with cut backs in Social Security, Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, Education etc… How can we possibly afford it? We are effectively bankrupt!

Can we morally not intervene when people are oppressed, abused and murdered? It is hard to turn a deaf ear to such horrifying cries of injustice. So there it is, what should we do? What can we do?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born on October, 28th 1956. He is the sixth President of Iran, elected in 2005 and re-elected in the disputed election of 2009.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  had previously been the mayor of Tehran and the governor general of Iran's Ardabil Province. Ahmadinejad has been a critic of the United States and Israel and backs strengthening Iran's relations with Russia, Venezuela, Syriam and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

Iran under the leadership of Ahmadinejad is refusing to end nuclear production with claims that its nuclear program is for electricity generation, denying any nuclear weapons programs.  

About The Opposition Leader, Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh was born on September 29, 1941. He is an Iranian Reformist, serving as the fifth and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981-1989 until constitutional changes removed the post of Prime Minister. Earlier he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and is a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the High Council of Cultural Revolution.  He is also a painter and an architect, holding a Masters Degree in Architecture. Mousavi was the Editor-in-Chief of the official newspaper of the Islamic Republic Partly, the Jomhouri-e Eslami early in the revolution.  Now he serves as the president of the Iranian Academy of Arts. Mousavi was a candidate in the 2009 presidential election that is disputed by he and his followers.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's refusal earlier Wednesday to bow to demands from protesters effectively closed the door to any compromise with the opposition.

Riot police in Iran's capital fired tear gas and bullets in the air Wednesday in clashes with protesters who converged on a square near the parliament building in defiance of government orders to halt demonstrations demanding a new presidential election, witnesses said.

Security forces — who vastly outnumbered the small group of demonstrators — beat the protesters gathered on Tehran's Baharestan Square with batons and fired tear gas canisters and rounds of ammunition into the air, witnesses told The Associated Press. They said some demonstrators fought back while others fled to another Tehran plaza, Sepah Square, about a mile (2 kilometers) to the north.

Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered journalists for international news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from reporting on the streets.

By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer Brian Murphy

It is looking more and more like the United States will be drawn into the political unrest in Iran. The question is only the timing and how involve in the end will we become? At what point do we intervene when human rights are being squashed and people are being killed? Will this tension end in genocide of all who oppose the present administration?

President Obama:

"We are going to monitor and see how this plays itself out before we make any judgments about how we proceed," Obama said Tuesday. He reiterated that the United States has "core national-security interests" at stake in Iran. "We have provided a path whereby Iran can reach out to the international community, engage, and become a part of international norms. It is up to them to make a decision as to whether they choose that path." "The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days," Obama said. "I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost." "The United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering with Iran's affairs," Obama said. "Some in Iran — some in the Iranian government, in particular — are trying to avoid that debate by accusing the United States and others in the West of instigating protests over the election. These accusations are patently false."

Administration officials said later that the nuclear issue remains a central focus of Obama's Iran policy, but they do not know how the election struggle will affect the administration's efforts. The Iranian government has not responded officially to an offer made in April by the United States and its partners to reopen talks on suspending the nuclear program.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2009376193_iranobama24.html?syndication=rss

Iran commissioned three new Ghadir-class submarines for its naval fleet at a Monday ceremony, (June 1,2009) bringing the total number of the sonar-evading vessels to seven. Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar turned the three submarines over to naval officials at the Bandar Abbas port city near the Straits of Hormuz. Reports of the submarine in the Iranian Student News Agency say the launch is an effort to "arm the military with new strong capabilities." The Ghadir class is a smaller vessel with a displacement of around 120 tons. The semiofficial Fars News Agency in 2007 said the Ghadir class was equipped with stealth technology.

Ghadir is a class of midgit submarines built in Iran. It is named after Ghadir Khumm  a place in Saudi Arabia that is holy to Shia Muslims.

The submarine is said to be a sonar-evading stealth submarine which is equipped with state-of-the-art electronic equipment and can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously, but no information was given on the range of these weapons. Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei"Today, you have been able to design and build many of the military requirements. We have become self-sufficient from other countries," to Iran's navy commanders on the day the submarine was launched. New Ghadir submarines were delivered to the Iranian navy on June 2009. Information found in Wikipedia.

Iran's Neda Agha Soltan, Martyr of Her Country

Her name is said to mean "voice" or "calling" in Farsi. According to an account in the Huffington Post, quoted by Hot Air the murder of Neda Agha Soltan was as senseless and as random as a drive by shooting in any crime ridden American city.

"--Neda was at the protest with her professor and several other students and that the fatal shot was fired by a Basij driving by on a motorcycle. No rhyme or reason; I wonder if he even aimed." Think of the Basij as the Hitler Youth of the Islamic Republic, young kids from the countryside barely able to shave, given indoctrination and guns to enforce Islamic morality."

Robin Wright of Time Magazine has an excellent piece on Neda Agha Soltan and the meaning of martyrdom in Iranian political history.

"The belief in martyrdom is central to modern police as well as Shiite tradition dating back centuries in Iran. It too helped propel the 1979 revolution. It sustained Iran during the eight-year war with Iraq, when over 120,000 Iranians died in the bloodiest modern Middle East conflict. Most major Iranian cities have a Martyrs' Museum or a Martyrs' cemetery."

It will be one of the great ironies of history if the concept of martyrdom, as illustrated by the senseless shooting of a young Iranian woman, Neda Agha Soltan, is used against the very regime that was born and sustained by martyrdom.

The concept of martyrdom in a fight for freedom is not unique to Iran. History is replete with stories of such people, such as American's Nathan Hale ("I have but one life to give to my country.") or Ireland's John McBride, of whom Yeats wrote "He, too, has been changed in his turn, Transformed utterly: A terrible beauty is born."

Mark Whittington

Since the protests have begun, hundreds of protesters have been detained. Among those who have been detained are academics and university students, journalists,  and ordinary citizens just wanting basic human rights changes in their lives. They will be tried by a special court which has been set up just for the purpose of those taking part in opposition to the present government. Which certainly sounds biased to me!

Friday, Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami who is a senior cleric spoke out in a sermon at Tehran University. He believes that those who are taking part in the protests should receive, "harsh retribution for dissent."

"Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction,"

"Anyone who takes up arms to fight with the people, they are worthy of execution," he said.

"We ask that the judiciary confront the leaders of the protests, leaders of the violations, and those who are supported by the United States and Israel strongly, and without mercy to provide a lesson for all."

Khatami said those who disturbed the peace and destroyed public property were "at war with God," and said they should be "dealt with without mercy." He reminded worshippers that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rules by God's design and must not be defied.

KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer

This man is seriously promoting the death penalty for protests! He never mentioned that any of these people actually killed anybody. Talk about human rights violations. It is a death sentence in his belief to want a different leader, government system, less oppressive way of life. God forbid the United States or Israel believe in your rights because if they do, he would have you "dealt with without mercy."

President Barack Obama: "Their bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice," Obama said. "The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. In spite of the government's efforts to keep the world from bearing witness to that violence, we see it and we condemn it."

We see it, we condemn it vocally, but we can do nothing about it?

JULY 2, 2009 UPDATE

Information gathered from(LAT)

Accordidng to the Guardian Council, Ahmadinefad's reelection is confirmed. Other officials, including the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have urged an end to the questioning of the election.

"From now on we will have a government which, from the point of view of ties with the public, is in the weakest of positions," said opposition leader MIr-Hossein Mousavi. Posted on his website he went on to say, "A majority of society, of which I personally am a member, do not accept the legitimacy of this government."

Opponents of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are still calling the current government illigitimate. They say they have no intention of backing down regardless of the warnings of violence against them if they continue to protest.They are giving a deaf ear to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other leaders.

The Basiji militia is accusing opposition leader MIr-Hossein Mousavi of disturbing the nations security as well as making other allegations against them and is asking prosecutors to investigate him for possible prosecution.

(CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader blamed enemies and outsiders on Monday for the turmoil that followed last month's presidential elections, according to an Iranian news agency.

To a gathering in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Western governments of having "clearly meddled in the internal affairs of Iran" and the American and European media of depicting Iranians "as rioters," according to Fars News Agency.

He warned that meddling from presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers would hurt those nations' relations with Iran, according to Fars.

He said Iranians would see through the "lies" of Western governments and "know that your objective is to create doubt amongst them and propagate hate against the system of the Islamic Republic."

 He continued saying, "The crackdown on the media followed widespread dissemination of video of the mass protests. Khamenei described American and European media coverage of the protests as "disrespectful to the people of Iran."

The Supreme Commander went on to say, "Despite any internal differences, Iranians would come together against their "enemy." This was directed at the United States and other countries who were sympathetic to the opposition.

"When it comes to confronting the enemy, even with various differences and viewpoints, [Iranians] will become united and be as one punch against them," he said. Remindingthe United States and other countries that they were willingto fightagainst them.

When a country is violently suppressing its people and stacking the deck in its elections then other countries need to intervene. If it happened here, I would only hope that someone would care enough to help us.

Tuesday, July 7th 2009, Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the balloting "the most free election anywhere in the world." speaking of last months disputed election results.

"It was a great event," he said in a nationally televised address.

Criticism of government "is the key to the success of a nation," Ahmadinejad said during Tuesday's speech.

Everyone has criticisms, he said. "I have my own." "That actually is the key to the success of a nation," he said. Ahmadinejad also said the government should be reorganized, mentioning the areas of employment, housing and economic development.

I do not think I would call it a great event. The disputed election results led to eventual riots and violence in the streets with approximately 20 deaths and around 1,000 arrests. I do not see how Ahmadinejad can truly believe that the election in Iran was " the most free election anywhere in the world. " If so many people believed that the ballots were not properly counted and their votes were not truly heard to the point of an uprising against the "elected", then one must wonder what really is going on! Why all the violence against the protesters? Why all the arrests? Why all the censorship of the media? If the present regime has nothing to hide then why are they not opening up to the press?

The opposition still believes that the vote was rigged in favor of Ahmadinejad and are guilty of fraud. Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohammad Khatami, the three top reformist leaders further agree that discontented Iranians' only crime was "their protest against the cheating during the election," according Moussavi's Web site GhalamNews.irhis.They blamed security forces and police for the attacks on student dormitories and the "savage behavior of plainclothesmen, with the support of security forces."

Ahmadinejad made his speech following a plea from Iran's three top reformist leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohammad Khatami to put an end to the "security atmosphere" in the country, referring to what they say is the government's violent and severe response to the protesters.

"The wave of useless arrests must stop immediately, and those arrested previously and who have not committed any crimes must be freed immediately, and security forces must return to their barracks," said a statement from Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohammad Khatami after their meeting Monday.

The group stressed that continuing the current security atmosphere "would only promote extremism within political movements." and went on to say, "If a modicum of wisdom had been used, and if lies and disrespect had been avoided, this issue would not have turned into a national crisis," the statement said.

The group chose three people -- former campaign workers and friends -- to act on behalf of Moussavi and Karrubi to follow up on the situations of those arrested and to help families affected by the violence.

U.S. President Barack Obama criticized the violence against protesters in Iran. He said,"The events that we have seen over the last several weeks haven't just disturbed us in America, they have disturbed the world,"

"Violence, detentions, have been, I think, not only heartbreaking, but really raised issues of where the Iranian leadership wants to take their country. We have to wait and see how the dust settles." Obama added: "We have to continue to speak out and bear witness to the fact that that Iranian people need to be treated with justice and fairness." (Information gatheredfrom CNN)

Our President does need to bear witness to the fact that "the Iranian people need to be treated with justice and fairness." We do need to "Speak out." This kind of injustice and dictatorship breeds the type of regimes that we are fighting against in Iraq and Afghanistan. The kind that gain nuclear and (chemical weapons) and eventually threaten to use them against us and our allies, just like North Korea is. If we do not stop leaders like these before they gain enough power to strike, then shame on us!

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"Our only aim is to condemn the widespread and systematic violations of the Iranian people's human rights and to call for full restoration of their human and civil rights," the group United For Iran said on ts Web site.

Across about 100 cities and 6 continents protesters unite today for a global day of protest which was organized by a group called United For Iran. It is supported by, Amnesty International, Humans Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, as well as other Human Rights groups.

The color green, symbolic of the opposition movement in Iran could be seen in waving flags, wristbands and shirts in a show of solidarity among the protesters from European countries to the United States and many others, along with their banners and protest signs.

"Enough is enough," said Parviz Chahi, a demonstrator in London. "How many people do they have to sacrifice?"

In Berlin, Germany, about 2,000 people turned out to rally for Iranians. A moment of silence was held, and about 40 people have been participating in a hunger strike over the past three days, CNN Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen reported.

United For Iran is asking that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon send a delegation to Iran. They are seeking an investigation into the fate of political prisoners. They are demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, including journalists. They are requiring an end to state-sponsored violence. They are seeking freedom of the press. Furthermore, they are calling Iran to adhere to international agreements it has signed.

Ahmadinejad's swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for the first week of August.