How To Bounce A Dead Cat

You Goose It, Of Course!

So, your stock market is heading south for the summer and you need to lift it north? No problem. Just watch the following video to see how to do it right.

Karl Denninger narrates as we watch our very own SPX index manipulated higher over the night of July4th-5th.

As an aside, I found nothing in the new finance reform that would correct this kind of crap. Then again, it is already against the law. Like Denninger is often saying: Where are the cops?

(edit: Look HERE for background info on the title of this post.)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Arbitrarily Disseminating

From the UN website:

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”

So, for no particular reason (other than that, as I read this tonight it struck me how many UN members seem to have forgotten signing it), Wordout is pleased to disseminate and display the following Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

* All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

* Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

* Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

* No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

* No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

* Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

* All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

* Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

* No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

* Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

* (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
* (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

* No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

* (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
* (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

* (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
* (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

* (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
* (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

* (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
* (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
* (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

* (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
* (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

* Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

* Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

* (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
* (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

* (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
* (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
* (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

* Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

* (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
* (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
* (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
* (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

* Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

* (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
* (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

* (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
* (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
* (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

* (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
* (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

* Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

* (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
* (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
* (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

* Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Bad Cars

How Bad Does It Have To Get?

That’s what Dylan asks, and I’d like to have that answer myself.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It will be interesting to see how this all works itself out, considering how firmly ensconced is the Goldman Sachs influence over our federal government.

Memo From The Ministry Of Truth

Found at the ChinaDigitalTimes website:

largeChinaMinoTruth

Translated below, with highlights by me:

All chief editors and managers:

Google has officially announced its withdrawal from the China market. This is a high-impact incident. It has triggered netizens’ discussions which are not limited to a commercial level. Therefore please pay strict attention to the following content requirements during this period:

A. News Section

1. Only use Central Government main media (website) content; do not use content from other sources
2. Reposting must not change title
3. News recommendations should refer to Central government main media websites
4. Do not produce relevant topic pages; do not set discussion sessions; do not conduct related investigative reporting;
5. Online programs with experts and scholars on this matter must apply for permission ahead of time. This type of self-initiated program production is strictly forbidden.
6. Carefully manage the commentary posts under news items.

B. Forums, blogs and other interactive media sections:

1. It is not permitted to hold discussions or investigations on the Google topic
2. Interactive sections do not recommend this topic, do not place this topic and related comments at the top
3. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which attack the Party, State, government agencies, Internet policies with the excuse of this event.
4. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others have a different tune from government policy
5. On topics related to Google, carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions
6. Chief managers in different regions please assign specific manpower to monitor Google-related information; if there is information about mass incidents, please report it in a timely manner.

We ask the Monitoring and Control Group to immediately follow up monitoring and control actions along the above directions; once any problems are discovered, please communicate with respected sessions in a timely manner.

Addition guidelines:

Do not participate in and report Google’s information/press releases
Do not report about Google exerting pressure on our country via people or events
– Related reports need to put [our story/perspective/information] in the center, do not provide materials for Google to attack relevant policies of our country
– Use talking points about Google withdrawing from China published by relevant departments

And Now For Something Completely

Detainees at Camp X-Ray Original caption: Deta...
Image via Wikipedia

This is a bit long, but I hope you’ll read through it anyway. Things like this have been going on too long, and if we don’t soon get a grip on who we are, we may not like who we become.

The Same

Apparently, we’re still basically saying that we don’t give a damn about the fact that we torture folks, even when we know that they have never done anything against us.

We are such a great nation.

There were 3 guys in Guantanamo. They all died on the same night in June 2006. The US government says they all committed suicide.

Supposedly, even though in isolation, with zero contact, they all decided to tie their hands behind their backs, then stuff wads of cloth very far down their throats, then put a mask on so they wouldn’t accidentally spit out the wads while they were choking, then climbed up on a wash basin in their cells, then put their heads through a noose made of more sheets than were issued to prisoners, then jumped off the sink, hanging themselves, simultaneously.

There are other accounts, however. From “The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle” published in Harpers Magazine (bold emphasis mine):

When I asked Talal Al-Zahrani what he thought had happened to his son, he was direct. “They snatched my seventeen-year-old son for a bounty payment,” he said. “They took him to Guantánamo and held him prisoner for five years. They tortured him. Then they killed him and returned him to me in a box, cut up.”

Al-Zahrani was a brigadier general in the Saudi police. He dismissed the Pentagon’s claims, as well as the investigation that supported them. Yasser, he said, was a young man who loved to play soccer and didn’t care for politics. The Pentagon claimed that Yasser’s frontline battle experience came from his having been a cook in a Taliban camp. Al-Zahrani said that this was preposterous: “A cook? Yasser couldn’t even make a sandwich!”

“Yasser wasn’t guilty of anything,” Al-Zahrani said. “He knew that. He firmly believed he would be heading home soon. Why would he commit suicide?” The evidence supports this argument. Hyperbolic U.S. government statements at the time of Yasser Al-Zahrani’s death masked the fact that his case had been reviewed and that he was, in fact, on a list of prisoners to be sent home. I had shown Al-Zahrani the letter that the government says was Yasser’s suicide note and asked him whether he recognized his son’s handwriting. He had never seen the note before, he answered, and no U.S. official had ever asked him about it. After studying the note carefully, he said, “This is a forgery.”

Also returned to Saudi Arabia was the body of Mani Al-Utaybi. Orphaned in his youth, Mani grew up in his uncle’s home in the small town of Dawadmi. I spoke to one of the many cousins who shared that home, Faris Al-Utaybi. Mani, said Faris, had gone to Baluchistan—a rural, tribal area that straddles Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan—to do humanitarian work, and someone there had sold him to the Americans for $5,000. He said that Mani was a peaceful man who would harm no one. Indeed, U.S. authorities had decided to release Al-Utaybi and return him to Saudi Arabia. When he died, he was just a few weeks shy of his transfer.

Salah Al-Salami was seized in March 2002, when Pakistani authorities raided a residence in Karachi believed to have been used as a safe house by Abu Zubaydah and took into custody all who were living there at the time. A Yemeni, Al-Salami had quit his job and moved to Pakistan with only $400 in his pocket. The U.S. suspicions against him rested almost entirely on the fact that he had taken lodgings, with other students, in a boarding house that terrorists might at one point have used. There was no direct evidence linking him either to Al Qaeda or to the Taliban. On August 22, 2008, the Washington Post quoted from a previously secret review of his case: “There is no credible information to suggest [Al-Salami] received terrorist related training or is a member of the Al Qaeda network.” All that stood in the way of Al-Salami’s release from Guantánamo were difficult diplomatic relations between the United States and Yemen.

Law and Legacy

Two of the families opened legal proceedings against the United States. This week, Judge Ellen Huvelle dismissed the lawsuit because of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. In short, her answer to the families was “So sorry! My hands are tied. Besides it’s obvious they were guilty because the military said so. Nothing we can do here!”

Apparently, the Bush administration’s legacy is still with us. And with this decision, it becomes a part of the Obama legacy. If things like are allowed to stand, it becomes the legacy of all of us.

Read this, from Harpers again. You’ll see that the esteemed judge made at least one blatantly false statement:

[…]

In the lawsuit, the families of Yasser Al-Zahrani and Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed Al-Salami sought damages under the Alien Tort Claims Act, arguing that the two prisoners had been wrongfully imprisoned, tortured, and subjected to cruel, unusual, and inhuman punishment. In dismissing the suit, Judge Huvelle did not parse the claims brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of the families of the deceased prisoners. Rather, she concluded that Congress had stripped the court of jurisdiction to hear and resolve such cases when it enacted the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Pete Yost of the Associated Press reports:

The judge said the two detainees were properly determined by the U.S. military to be enemy combatants. Citing an appeals court decision, Huvelle said judicial involvement in the “delicate area” of how detainees are treated could undermine military and diplomatic efforts by the U.S. government on the terrorism front.

Al-Zahrani, 22 years old when he died, was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 and he was 17 years old when he was transferred to Guantanamo in 2002, according to the suit by the men’s families. Al-Salami was arrested by local forces in Pakistan in March 2002.

Judge Huvelle’s conclusion that the detainees were “properly determined” to be “enemy combatants” runs contrary to the evidence. Both men were turned over to U.S. forces for bounty payments, and a thorough investigation of their cases by American military intelligence concluded that there was no meaningful evidence to link either man to either Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Al-Zahrani had been placed on a list to be released back to Saudi Arabia, immediately behind Mani Al-Utaybi, who also died under still unexplained circumstances on June 9, 2006, at approximately the same time as Al-Zahrani and Al-Salami, according to pathologists.

The decision to dismiss the cases follows from a Bush Administration effort to block judicial examination of any case involving the death or mistreatment of prisoners at Guantánamo, which was incorporated in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 as one of the last measures adopted by the G.O.P.-controlled Congress following elections that delivered control to the Democrats. Although President Obama, as an Illinois senator, voted against the act and joined in calls for its repeal, his administration has yet to take steps to overturn it. The measure, as applied by Judge Huvelle, placed the United States in breach of its obligations under the Convention Against Torture. Article 14 of the Convention provides:

Each State Party shall ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. In the event of the death of the victim as a result of an act of torture, his dependents shall be entitled to compensation.

Extraordinary

Both men were turned over for bounty payments? Extraordinary Rendition, indeed.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 doesn’t supersede any treaty we’ve entered into with another nation. New laws are supposed to take into account any provisions of all treaties currently enforced. Laws which do not cannot be passed without a repudiation of the treaty.

And even if the intent of the law in question was to keep the civilian justice system from invading the military justice system, which is apparently what it was trying to do, these guys had been determined non-combatants, not the enemy.

For the judge to blatantly lie about that as an excuse to get out of hearing a difficult case says much about our judicial system, and much about us.

States of Torture – UK and US

pets are like people
Image by eye of einstein via Flickr

Barack “Barky” Obama

In a fit of political incorrectness, I want to remind you about Guantanamo, the base that Barky Obama said would be closed. I want to remind you about the change we believed in – the open and transparent government our candidate promised us, if we would just elect him.

One thing is clear, Barky boy’s promises are about as transparent as so much hot air. Whether it’s the fact that he chose to be the savior for the banking system at the expense of the people, or the fact that his proposed budget sets impossible standards to reach a goal that is based on intentionally fabricated figures, or the fact that the US extraordinary rendition program is still going strong, the truth is that we are all beginning to see right through him.

Let me state my position clearly:

I see very little difference in the policies of the Bush and Obama administrations. Especially when it comes to their positions on the use of terror, I mean, torture. I am against what obviously is the current and recent official policy. In my opinion, especially since we, the USA, charged and executed Japanese soldiers for the very specific charge of waterboarding, everyone involved should be brought to trial and charged as war criminals. After all, we set the precedent for this.

The chances of that happening are slim, but at least the whole thing isn’t getting swept under the rug. Across the big lake, they’re starting to bring some things out in the open. From the NYTimes(emphasis mine):

There are times when governments fight to keep documents secret to protect sensitive intelligence or other vital national security interests. And there are times when they are just trying to cover up incompetence, misbehavior or lawbreaking.

Last week, when a British court released secret intelligence material relating to the torture allegations of a former Guantánamo prisoner, Binyam Mohamed, it was clear that the second motive had been in play when both the Bush and the Obama administrations and some high-ranking British officials tried to prevent the disclosure.

[…]

At issue in the British court were seven paragraphs derived from American intelligence documents. The Bush administration claimed the material contained top-secret information and threatened to cut off intelligence sharing with Britain if it was released. Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated those threats, despite President Obama’s campaign promises of openness and the rule of law in his detainee policy.

The paragraphs contained no real secrets. Mainly, the document — a summary of information that American intelligence provided to Britain’s security service, MI5 — echoes previous disclosures by the C.I.A. and Mr. Mohamed’s harrowing account of his ordeal.

But what it does contain is the assessment by British intelligence that his treatment violated legal prohibitions against torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners.

barky's promise

A spokesman for President Obama expressed “deep disappointment” in the court’s decision, which might have been shocking except that Mr. Obama has refused to support any real investigation of Mr. Bush’s lawless detention policies. His lawyers have tried to shut down court cases filed by victims of those policies, with the same extravagant claims of state secrets and executive power that Mr. Bush made.

The full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing the Justice Department’s attempt to shut down a civil lawsuit brought by Mr. Mohamed and four others — on a flimsy national security claim that has been rendered even flimsier by the British court.

“I’ve seen the papers you are not allowed to see”

That’s the subheading of an article appearing in Saturday’s TimesOnline, a British publication. We are not being told the whole truth about torture” is written by the lawyer for the Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed, the British citizen who was tortured while in American captivity. (again, emphasis mine)

The British public isn’t permitted to see the classified evidence about Mr Mohamed’s abuse. As his lawyer, I am — albeit in the US — and this places me in a fairly good position to call Dr Howell’s bluff. I cannot reveal anything not in the public domain but I can suggest, sad to say, that Dr Howells has been less than forthright; either that, or evidence has been hidden from him and his committee.

[…]

There is, the Court of Appeal told us this week, a “vast body” of secret evidence that has not been revealed. Yet, in making his own public assessment on the innocence of every intelligence officer, Dr Howells lacks the appearance of objectivity. Nor was he fair in his criticism of Lord Neuberger. The assertion by a politician that we should take his word for it is no substitute for a full and impartial inquiry.

smarmyDick

And finally, from Harpers(emph mine all mine):

Former vice president Dick Cheney, on the other hand, seems proud of his criminal misadventures. On Sunday, he took to the airwaves to brag about them.

“I was a big supporter of waterboarding,” Cheney said in an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. He went on to explain that Justice Department lawyers had been instructed to write legal opinions to cover the use of this and other torture techniques after the White House had settled on them.

[…]

What prosecutor can look away when a perpetrator mocks the law itself and revels in his role in violating it? Such cases cry out for prosecution. Dick Cheney wants to be prosecuted. And prosecutors should give him what he wants.

Who the hell are we anymore? Nothing will happen to this guy, even though he effectively admitted to being a war criminal on national TV. I’d like to slap that smarmy smile right off his face.

Hey Dick, let’s go hunting…

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #72

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #72 (September 9 – Shahrivar 18)

By: Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator and twitter.com/joshshahryar

(This report has been compiled through reports by twitter users in Iran and aboard, as well as contacts inside and outside Iran. Media outlets have been credited where used. As reports coming from Iran cannot be fully authenticated if the report confirms something, at best it confirms that several reliable sources agreed upon it. This report is released under Creative Commons (CC) and can be republished under the condition that a link to the original source is provided.

Protests / Unrest

1. Partially confirmed reports from Tehran and other cities suggest that the government is sending some students home from their dorms, in anticipation of the September 18 protest. According to the source, these students had been identified as taking part in protests and the government is not taking any chances with them. It is unclear how many have been sent home, but the number could be in the hundreds. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the government is in the process of closing the dorms.

2. Greens all across Tehran are making and distributing flyers in major cities to get protesters out on the streets. An example, the flyer for Mashhad: http://bit.ly/7KJJG

3. New reports suggest that agents of Tehran’s Attorney General’s office took 15 boxes of papers and documents from the office of the Defenders of Prisoners’ Rights. The office was raided yesterday and closed down by the order of the Attorney General.

4. Yesterday, we reported that a protest may have occurred in Tehran – but could not confirm if it had taken place. (This protest was unrelated to the gatherings in front of Evin Prison and the Islamic Courts.) Today, a video has surfaced depicting the protest. We cannot confirm if this protest was held yesterday as yet: http://bit.ly/3ggSpf

5. Gatherings were held, on the occasion of the 19th of Ramadan in Tehran, Tabriz, Gorgan and Zanjan. The gatherings were attended by many reformists and Greens.

Reports in Persian:

Tehran: http://bit.ly/181wYc

Tabriz: http://bit.ly/CWQEk

Gorgan: http://bit.ly/13DC0

Zanjan: http://bit.ly/xNbVm

6. Chants of Allah o Akbar were heard louder than previous nights and some protesters denounced the government for arresting Alireza Beheshti.

7. Workers of Haft Tapeh Agricultural and Industrial Plant went on strike and held a protest on Wednesday. Hundreds of workers demanded that their wages be paid on time, overtime be paid and wages be increased. Protesters gathered in front of the management office and stayed there until the end of their working day.

Opposition

8. Mir Hossein Mousavi released a statement in response to the arrest of Alireza Beheshti and other reformists. Full translation by his Facebook team is copied below, (I have corrected some of the obvious translation ambiguities):

In the name of God, the Compassionate and the Merciful

The news of arrests of our dear brothers Dr. Seyyed Alireza Beheshti and Morteza Alviri, heads of the special committee investigating the abuse of victims of the recent events, and General Moghaddam head of the Veterans’ Committee of my election campaign have created a wave of shock and ambiguity in [the hearts of] those faithful to the Islamic establishment. They have been imprisoned while they are only guilty of following the revolutionary path, defending the serving of justice for the bloods that were unjustly shed and helping the families of the innocents that were imprisoned after the election. They are now in prison while those responsible for the recent disasters are free and the authorities are claiming that they will surely investigate the committed crimes. Are you going to do this by destroying the evidence of the crimes and imprisoning those who were following up on the victims’ rights?!

People’s dignities are protected in their children. Now people are asking those who claim to guard the Islamic Republic how they claim to be honoring the dignity of Ayatollah Dr. Beheshti – the innocent martyr of the revolution – by treating his family in such a way.

People of Iran:

It is obvious that your efforts to restore peace to the society are not going to be responded wisely. Dangerous days are ahead. Arresting individuals like Dr. Beheshti is a sign that forecasts more dangerous events. But evil is doomed and what benefits people will remain. Maintain your calm and awareness. The new series of events that have started, same as the other pathetic actions these days, won’t bring anything for your opponents but damage. Be careful not to let them provoke you and while destroying themselves not to harm your home and country.

I specially offer my condolences for the defamation of the innocent Beheshti to the children of that martyr, his students, followers, admirers and all devotees of the revolution and Islam; and pray to God that this sorrow which has been created in the hearts of our people would be compensated by enduring the honor of this family.

Mir Hossein Mousavi
September 9,2009

9. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mehdi Karroubi, yet again, reaffirmed his commitment to getting justice for the oppressed. Excerpts are as follows:

“I feel I am obliged to defend the rights of people,” Karroubi said. “Political changes can come in two forms,” he said. “The change we are calling for is change within the system and constitution, the observation of citizenship rights.”

He was not specific about the opposition’s strategy, but sketched out goals for the coming months: loosen news media restrictions, freedom of assembly, an end to trials of opposition figures and revised laws to prevent the hard-line Guardian Council from having the final say on elections.

Full Interview: http://bit.ly/ov7fL

10. New reports from Qom indicate that Khamenei had attempted to sway the clerics opposed to Ahamdinejad in Qom by sending Sheikh Mohammad Yazdi to speak to them. Yazdi was shunned by the clerics in Qom and now relations between Khamenei and these clerics is degenerating.

Grand Ayatollah Safi-Golpayegani had sent a letter to Khamenei about female ministers in the government, expressing his opposition, however, Khamenei sent back a reply, stating that he was the Supreme Leader and other clerics should stay out of government affairs.

Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani has met with Ayatollah Safi-Golpayegani and expressed regret over congratulating Ahmadinejad and said he was tricked into doing so by the government.

Other reports indicate that some of the opposition clerics want to invite Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani from Iraq, to come to Iran and assess the situation. This proposal has been welcomed by most of the clerics and will be acted upon soon.

11. According to government-owned websites, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, in a telephone conversation from prison with Karroubi complained about being depicted as a traitor by Karroubi’s newspaper. This could not be confirmed through reformist or independent news services.

12. The Reformist Women’s Association released a statement decrying the treatment of prisoners and the government’s lack of action against perpetrators of violence against protesters.

13. 300 professionals, managers and laborers – who have worked in the past with Shapur Kazemi, the detained brother of Zahra Rahnavard – sent a letter to Sadegh Larijani asking for his immediate release.

Government / International

14. In a meeting with officials from the government, in the presence of Ahamdinejad, Khamenei praised Ahamdinejad as an ‘energetic’ and ‘tireless’ individual and said that he prayed for him and some other people from the government frequently.

15. According to reports, the official in-charge of Kahrizak Detention Facility who had been arrested and released has been rearrested by the order of Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani. According to reports, he had been released after spending only a few hours in detention, after pressure by some high-ranking officials in the government.

16. Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani today said that what had happened in the detention centers had inflicted a huge blow on the standing of the regime. He said that the Judiciary would pursue these violations carefully and vigorously.

He also said that some had tried to call the elections fraudulent and attempted to stray outside ‘the circle of legality’. He said that law-breaking had become rampant and it had been observed in the aftermath of the elections how such actions had inflicted a great cost on the Islamic regime. He said that these violators shouldn’t think that they’re not being watched and the Judiciary should pursue the perpetrators of any such law-breaking legally.

17. The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy, Rear Admiral Morteza Saffari, said that Iran’s enemies had shifted to a strategy of waging “soft war” against the country. He said that a “media war” had been launched against Iran and efforts were being made to stir up “civil disobedience” in the country, which were parts of the enemy’s soft war against Iran. “The US strategy to confront the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on soft measures,” but the US was also continuing its threats to launch a military attack, he noted.

18. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the French newspaper Le Figaro on Wednesday, that Ahmadinejad was an ally and a friend and they had agreed to transfer nuclear technology to Venezuela during his visit to Tehran last week.

19. Iran presented their new package of proposals to the group of 5+1 nations. The package was presented on Wednesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to the ambassadors of China, France, Germany, Russia and Switzerland – on behalf of the US – and the British charge d’affaires in Tehran. No details have emerged of what the proposals in the package were.

20. Reports have emerged, that the IRGC may be implicated in the events that occurred on 9/11, including providing terrorist organizations with money, logistics and even a direct involvement by Iran in the events of 9/11. The reports so far are sketchy and caution must be exercised until more information is made available.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

21. Mohammad Ozlati-Moqaddam, a former IRGC commander and head of the veteran’s faction of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s campaign, was arrested at his home. Ozlati-Moqaddam, who formerly served in the IRGC political bureau alongside Hossein Shariatmadari and Hossein Safar-Harandi, was arrested on Tuesday. Officers went to his residence and arrested him after searching his home.

22. Partially confirmed reports indicate that Alireza Beheshti has been badly beaten after a heated altercation with one of his captors. The reports suggest that his skull was broken and he was hospitalized. There, he was punched again by another of his captors, injuring his face. After receiving treatment he was taken to an undisclosed location.

23. Sayed Ali Akbar Kheradnejad, a recently freed detainee, spoke of the horrors of detention with an Iranian human rights organization. According to Kheradnejad, who was taking part in a protest in Tehran’s Waliasr Square two months ago, security forces forced pepper spray in his eyes, beat him with a baton and then arrested him. He was repeatedly locked away with other prisoners and left to starve for days or given food that was meager and unhealthy. They were beaten repeatedly, blindfolded, interrogated and finally, kept in overcrowded cells. He added that some people had been so brutally tortured, he had heard, even some of the men who had taken part in the torture were opposed to it being so brutal.

24. Partially confirmed reports suggest that Sadegh Noroozi – a reformist politician – was released today.

25. Yesterday, we reported that 15 journalists had been summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence and interrogated about a letter a group of journalists had written to the Judiciary Chief. New reports suggest that agents of the ministry told the journalists that if their names were signed under any letters or statements in the future, they would be arrested. The journalists were given 3 options; deny their signatures, have their case sent to court or work for the Ministry of Intelligence. Reportedly, the journalists declined to accept any of the offers.

26. Isa Saharkhiz – a detained Iranian journalist – has told his family that technology sold to the government by Nokia was directly responsible for his arrest. His son Mehdi Saharkhiz has expressed the willingness to sue Nokia and is in touch with legal counsel over the issue.

27. New reports indicate that the trial of the violators of Kahrizak Detention Facility will not be held in public.

Miscellaneous

28. Greens at the Venice International Film Festival: http://bit.ly/Ucrqa

29. Greenings in Qom: http://www.mowjcamp.com/article/id/27711

30. A beautiful website designed to commemorate Neda and her friends: http://neverforget.us/

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

31. Project Green Light might just be the thing for you! : http://twitpic.com/gk3c5

32. For information on protests organized against Ahmadinejad’s speech in the UN Check: http://united4iran.com/

33. Transportation info: Maryland & Virginia to NYC For Sep 23 Protest: http://bit.ly/lHNrp

34. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: http://protests.sharearchy.com/

35. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj

36. A to the point website for helping traumatized Greens: http://healingthegreensoul.blogspot.com/

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: [email]dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: http://tinyurl.com/mjxrz3

– Information on Tor: http://torir.org

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: http://aic.openmsl.net/wiki/index.php/Green_Brief

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): http://ded1.hybrid-optix.com/greenbriefs.html

– A hearty thanks to S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #71

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #71 (September 8 – Shahrivar 17)

By: Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator and twitter.com/joshshahryar

(This report has been compiled through reports by twitter users in Iran and aboard, as well as contacts inside and outside Iran. Media outlets have been credited where used. As reports coming from Iran cannot be fully authenticated if the report confirms something, at best it confirms that several reliable sources agreed upon it. This report is released under Creative Commons (CC) and can be republished under the condition that a link to the original source is provided.

Protests / Unrest

1. The government flexed their muscles today by seizing and closing Mehdi Karroubi’s office. Officials from Tehran’s Attorney General’s office entered the building during the day, forced Karroubi and his staff to leave and confiscated documents, CDs and computers. Until further notice, Karroubi’s office is currently under government control.

2. The office of Karroubi’s newspaper, Etemaade Melli was also raided and closed. Documents, computers, films and CDs were confiscated and the office was locked down. All staff members were forced to give their names, addresses and other information and then sent home.

3. This comes, as the planned protest for September 18 is gaining a lot of support amongst the populace. Karroubi today, yet again confirmed that he would be participating and invited all Greens to participate.

4. The Attorney General’s office also sent officials, to close down the office of the human rights organization Defenders of Detainees’ Rights. Material from the office, located in Tehran was confiscated. Further information in the next Brief.

5. More than a hundred members of detainees’ families gathered under a bridge close to Evin Prison this evening and chanted against the government. They were surrounded and threatened by security forces, but they did not stop chanting. They were joined by more people from the area. The protest lasted for more than an hour.

6. More than a hundred family members of detainees also gathered in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court – the main judicial body in the country. They were also surrounded by security forces. There were unconfirmed reports of other gatherings and clashes in other parts of the city as well.

7. In Qom, a man was arrested with his family while they were through a busy streeet. Armed plainclothesmen stopped his car in the middle of the road and after meeting with resistance, shot him in the shoulder. He was dragged away while chanting, “Death to Khamenei”. His crime and where the family was taken could not be confirmed.

8. Iran’s Police Chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam has warned reformists against using September 18 for protesting. According to him, it would only show the true colors of reformists who are going to use the day for political purposes. He said people had accepted the results and rejected that the elections were fraudulent. He also added that no rape had occurred at Kahrizak.

9. A high-ranking IRG commander, Ali Fazli, said they will be holding meetings with officials in Iranian universities to counter any unrest that might occur as a result of protests planned for next week.

10. Greens are holding prayer gatherings in Tehran, Qom, Tabriz and Shiraz to mark the final days of Ramadan. The gatherings are non-political and are being used by Greens, praying for the release of detainees and the reform of the regime.

11. Yesterday, we reported the government was banning dozens of university students from continuing their education. Today, it has been reported that a women’s rights activist and campaign worker for Mir Hossein Mousavi’s election bid Leila Sehat has been barred from continuing her education at Tehran University.

12. On the occasion of the first Qadr night, Allah o Akbar was heard all across Tehran and other parts of Iran.

13. After the government banned the annual gathering for commemorating Ayatollah Taleghani at Hosseiniya-e Ershad, his family has asked all those who want to gather to come to the office of his son on Wednesday to commemorate the cleric’s life.

Opposition

14. Karroubi’s son, Hossein Karroubi, today said that his father was being intimidated by the government into giving up his support for the investigation of rapes in Iranian detention centers. He said his father was very serious about the cases and was not going to give up that easily.

15. The Imam’s Way faction of MPs released a statement today denouncing IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari’s accusations against reformists. The statement said that these allegations were baseless and were being pitted against people who had spent their entire lives following the footsteps of Imam Khomeini.

16. Sazemane Mujahidine Enghelab (Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization) today released a statement asking newly-appointed Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani to step down if he couldn’t deal with the rampant lawlessness of government agencies. The organization called upon Larijani to step up and deal with the illegal activities of security forces, especially in the aftermath of the elections. They also accused security forces of trying to coerce Javad Imam into confessing by abducting his daughter and holding her for 24 hours.

17. In a meeting with members of reformist student groups, Grand Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani harshly criticized what had happened in the aftermath of the elections. Zanjani said that power was not the source of legitimacy, but rather legitimacy was the source of power. He added that some think – clearly hinting at the government – that if by playing with words, they could change that. However, he said this had been the monarchy’s ideology and not the Shi’ite Imams’ ideology, which emphasized that no one was above the law.

Government / International

18. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, sought to quell people’s anger today. Speaking at an Iftar party with a group of MPs, Larijani called for diminishing, and not exaggerating, the political disputes in the country amid what he described as a “critical juncture” in the political arena. Every healthy government and society witnesses “ideological, tactical, and strategic differences of opinion,” he said. “The country is currently going through a complicated phase, and right and wrong are mixed up,” Larijani said.

“If we want to help the country pass this critical situation with little cost [so that] the people are not affected with these differences, we should not create disputes or raise issues that take the [existing] disputes in the society to another level,” Larijani added. He went on to stress, that in situations like this “there is doubt about certain issues; we should heed the Leader’s views and advices.”

19. Khamenei will be leading the Friday prayers on September 11. Since June, this is the first time he is going to be taking the pulpit. Sources inside Iran, strongly suggest he will be calling for another crackdown – possibly against reformist leaders this time.

20. Brigadier Yadullah Javani – the head of IRGC’s political office – in response to criticism over IRGC’s increasing political role, said that the country’s atmosphere had changed and the IRGC no longer viewed itself solely as a security organization. He added, the IRGC would continue to fight with people opposed to the regime.

21. Also today, a high-ranking official, in the intelligence branch of the IRGC, backed Commander Jafari’s statements, that accused reformist leaders of attempting to weaken Khamenei. He said they had clear evidence, which had been handed over to the Judiciary, and in case the necessity arose, it would be given to the public as well.

22. A government source claimed, the attack, on the office of the committee to investigate the plight of detainees, was ordered by Ahmadinejad personally. He added, Ahmadinejad had always been against the committee and wanted to send a clear message out to the reformists.

23. Sources inside the government also indicated, that the new Attorney General of Tehran, does not want the trials of reformist to be broadcast. He also believes that the trial of the perpetrators of abuse at Kahrizak, should also not be tried in public.

24. The governor of Tehran Province Morteza Tamaddon, has said that the National Security Council has appointed a panel to investigate the attack on Tehran Universtiy’s dorm.

25. The Iranian government has reportedly launched an investigation into public complaints regarding the post-election unrest, with a focus on charges of prisoner abuse. The Supreme National Security Council has formed a committee to look into the cases of those who sustained losses, of any kind, after the June 12 presidential elections. The officials are investigating the charges of mistreatment made by a number of detainees who were held at the Kahrizak detention center, which is located in southern Tehran. This committee is not linked to the committee formed by the parliament for the same purpose.

26. Ahmadinejad has reportedly cancelled the nomination of two ministers that he nominated only yesterday. Fatemeh Alia and Ali Zabihi were introduced to the parliament as the ministers of education and energy. However, today, a new letter was sent to the parliament, asking them not to consider either Fatemeh Alia or Ali Zabihi and new names would be sent to them.

27. Ali Motaheri, MP from Tehran, today accused Ahmadinejad of attempting to buy the support of voters who had backed reformists by nominating women for ministerial positions. He said Ahmadinejad might even legalize the use of satellite dishes to appease people.

28. Iran is set to submit a new nuclear package to the West on Wednesday.

29. Tehran has been excluded from the upcoming summit of nations bordering the Caspian Sea. The meeting will be held in the city of Atkau in Kazakhstan on Thursday and will be attended by representatives of Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the host nation.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

30. Some rape victims have taken their cases and evidence to Ayatollah Javad Amoli in Qom, who is the interim Friday prayers Imam of the city. It has been reported, that after the seizure of Karroubi’s office and its subsequent closure, Ayatollah Javad Amoli and Ayatollah Yusuf Sane’ie have opened the doors of their offices to anyone who has a complaint of abuse, torture or rape. Both have promised to pursue the cases.

31. There were three high-profile arrests today. A clear sign the government is going to broaden its crackdown on reformists. First, a senior aide to Mousavi, Alireza Beheshti – the son of Ayatollah Beheshti, who was one of the leaders of the Islamic Revolution – was arrested. He was Mousavi’s representative in the reformist committee, investigating the deaths, arrests and the condition of detainees in the aftermath of the elections. He was arrested by order of Tehran’s Attorney General by security forces.

32. Later in the day, Morteza Alviri, Mehdi Karroubi’s representative on the same committee, was arrested from his home. His home was thoroughly searched and many documents together with other material was confiscated. This comes after the office of the committee, of which Alviri and Beheshti are members of, was attacked yesterday and almost everything from the office was confiscated by the order of the Attorney General.

33. Also arrested was Mohammad Dawari, a journalist and the editor of Sahaam News, a news website close to Karroubi. He had also been working with Etemaade Melli newspaper after the Chief Editor, Mohammad Ghouchani was arrested by the government.

34. A day after 300 journalists wrote to the new Attorney General of Tehran, asking him to stop illegal actions by his office and allow reformist newspapers to publish again, 15 signatories of the letter were summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence and threatened. The journalists were also told they were no longer allowed to travel outside of Iran.

35. Reporters Without Borders called for the release Ali Asguar Jamali, a blogger and doctor based in the northern city of Qasvin. Jamali, who was arrested along with other activists for “inciting actions against national security including protests and insults against government officials by means of publications and meeting,” as reported by the news agency Fars on 2 September. A Qasvin judge was quoted by Fars News as saying that Jamali was arrested as the head of a group of activists and as a “doctor having immoral relations with his patients.” The court also claimed that “alcohol and evidence of membership of counter-revolutionary groups were also found in his office.”

36. There were reports today that at least 30 people were arrested by security forces from Shohada Square where a gathering was held. This news could not be confirmed.

37. New reports, arriving from Tehran, indicate the government has created at least one clandestine security force unrelated to other security organizations solely for arresting dissidents. This force is tasked with searching and arresting low-key reformist organizers of protests.

Media

38. Raja News – a conservative news outlet, which is a strong backer of Ahmadinejad – today published an article complaining that protesters were using buses in Tehran as a stage for protests. According to Raja, people were chanting from buses while they were going through the streets of Tehran, creating unrest!

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

39. For information on protests organized against Ahmadinejad’s speech in the UN Check: http://united4iran.com/ and also check this story out about efforts to stop Ahmadinejad from staying in New York: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regiona…LoqWoXlyno6JyK

40. An event is being organized in Brussels in remembrance of people who’ve been wrongfully killed by the Iranian regime in the past 30 years.
For Information Call: 0032 486 48 43 65

41. Transportation info: Maryland & Virginia to NYC For Sep 23 Protest: http://bit.ly/lHNrp

42. A fundraising event is being held in Richmond, California for the New York City protests on September 23 and 24. Link: http://tinyurl.com/n5adyj

43. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: http://protests.sharearchy.com/

44. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj

45. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens:
http://healingthegreensoul.blogspot.com/

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: [email]dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: http://tinyurl.com/mjxrz3

– Information on Tor: http://torir.org

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: http://aic.openmsl.net/wiki/index.php/Green_Brief

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): http://ded1.hybrid-optix.com/greenbriefs.html

– A hearty thanks to S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #70

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #70 (September 7 – Shahrivar 16)

By: Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator and twitter.com/joshshahryar

(This report has been compiled through reports by twitter users in Iran and aboard, as well as contacts inside and outside Iran. Media outlets have been credited where used. As reports coming from Iran cannot be fully authenticated, if the report confirms something, at best it confirms that several reliable sources agreed upon it. This report is released under Creative Commons (CC) and can be republished under the condition that a link to the original source is provided.

(This Brief also has material from September 6 included, but since most of September 6 was covered in September 5, I did not repeat most of the news.)

Protests / Unrest

September 7

1. At around 4:30 PM Tehran time, security forces entered the office of Mousavi’s campaign committee, who are pursuing the fate of detainees, without any warrants or court orders. They confiscated all documents and material inside the office and took it with them to an undisclosed location. When asked about a warrant or court order, the security forces told the office personnel, that the confiscated documents and material, were not going to be returned, so there was no need for a court order or a warrant.

The committee, which is headed by Alireza Beheshti – the son of Ayatollah Beheshti – had been set up, by the Mousavi campaign, to investigate the cases of the detainees, to determine the number of casualties, as well as investigating disappearances and other issues related to violence against protesters.

The committee’s office was one of the few places, where people could come, file complaints and speak of violence against them. This was important, as security organizations have turned a blind eye towards victims and in some cases, even arrested the victims who complained.

2. The government has banned the annual gathering to commemorate Ayatollah Taolghani. The gatherings for Shabe Qader at Imam Masooma’s Shrine in Qom, will continue as planned. However, instead of the usual speakers; Ayatollah Amini, Ayatollah Javad Amoli, Ayatollah Ostadi and Nategh Nouri, this year, the speakers will be pro-government clerics; Ahmad Khatami, Ayatollah Sediqi, Dr. Rafi’ie and Alireza Panahiyan. Reports had indicated that the Greens were going to join the gatherings and this appears to be an attempt, by the government, to stop the Greens from having venues to gather.

3. Reports indicate that dozens of people gather, in different parts of Tehran, every night and chant against the government. These gatherings are quick and simultaneous.

An example of such a protest from September 03 in Shahrake Gharb:

http://bit.ly/3L3evK

September 06 from Vanak Square: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJ3cRFuP9Y

September 06

4. Flyers are being distributed across Iran for the protest on September 18. Reports indicate that since the backing of reformists, people have started to organize in mass numbers, in order to make the protest as successful as possible. Pictures of flyers: http://bit.ly/WBXJk

5. Dozens of students from across Iran, are losing their right to study in universities, as the government starts to punish them, for taking part in protests. Reports indicate that these students, are being suspended from their universities or outright barred from ever joining higher education facilities because they have either been photographed during protests or have been detained.

Tabriz, Shiraz and Tehran are the main cities where this is happening.

Opposition

September 7

6. Former President Seyed Mohammad Khatami, today said that they were opposed to those, who in the name of fighting Western liberalism, were using fascist tactics and totalitarian ideas to force people, to where they thought was best. He warned all those who cared, to think of rebuilding national solidarity and yet again restore trust that the current system could help solve the problems.

He hinted that he was in favor of Islam remaining in the government, yet he was opposed to those who were using it to commit wrongdoings. Speaking about the current crisis, he said they believed the election was a great opportunity, which had been wasted. He said that people had hoped, to come forward and take part in the election and this could have been an event to restore people’s trust.

His speech indicated that, if in the coming months, nothing was done to right the wrongs that had been committed, then it would be too late to reform the affairs.

7. On September 5 Grand Ayatollah Safi-Golapyegani visited the Imam Sajjad seminary in Qomm, to meet and confer with Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi. The meeting, which took place on September 5, was held behind closed doors. According to Ayatollah Golpayegani’s official website, the two Shia Sources of Emulation, discussed and reached a mutual decision on different issues. Safi-Golpayegani had previously called the elections ‘a grand lie’. Makarem-Shirazi has yet to take sides. Makarem-Shirazi however, refused to congratulate Ahmadinejad and did not show up to meet him on his first visit to Mashhad.

8. Other reports coming in from Qom, indicate that clerics are slowly gearing up to get involved. According to these reports, pro-Khamenei clerics are attempting to gather support for Ahmadinejad, on the grounds that Khamenei has backed him, while opposing clerics are declaring Khamenei’s authority null and void.

After reports of the meeting between Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sane’ie and Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, it has now been confirmed that Sane’ie has also met with Ayatollahs Safi-Golpayegani, Mousavi Ardabeli, Shabiri Zanjani, Bayat Zanjani, Mousavi Tabrizi, Sayed Javad Shahristani (who is the representative of Grand Ayatollah Seyed Ali Sistani of Iraq) and Said Hasan Khomeini.

Reports also confirm that in the past two months, Ayatollah Shabiri Zanjani has met with Ayatollah Sane’ie and Ayatollah Montazeri. Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani met with Sane’ie, on the day his office was reportedly about to be attacked by pro-government forces.

Sane’ie and Zanjani’s meeting, reportedly resulted in both clerics reaching the conclusion, that clerics needed to take sides and show opposition to the atrocities being committed in the name of Islam. Sane’ie’s meeting with Montazeri’s was also about the same issue. It has now been reported, that both clerics discussed actions that could be taken in solidarity with other clerics.

9. Ayatollah Sane’ie, in a meeting with students, called all allegations levied against reformists during their trials a lie. He added that no one, should stay silent when it came to people’s rights and that their rights needed to be defended.

10. The Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers, in reply to IRGC Commander Ali Jafari, released a statement saying, making the system healthier was more important than saving the system.

The Assembly, which is composed of reformist clerics, asked the government to immediately release all political prisoners, openly apologize to all victims of the unrest, compensate all those who have lost property, put all political, judicial and military personnel and individuals, who have committed illegal acts on trial, prosecute them and stop all lies against politicians, clerics and scholars.

11. The Combatant Clerics Association, also released a statement saying that the Association, intended to file legal complaints, against Commander Jafari and accused him of violating Imam Khomeini’s will.

12. The Islamic Iran Participation Front has released a statement, condemning IRGC Commander Ali Jafari’s statements, in which he accused several high-ranking reformist leaders of attempting to weaken Khamenei. The reformist party asked for legal action against Jafari and accused him of slander.

13. Ali Hoseiniyan – an MP, who is a member of the Imam’s Way faction of parliament and is considered Rafsanjani’s de facto representative in parliament – also blasted Jafari and asked the military court to prosecute him for slander. In response to Jafari’s accusations against Rafsanjani’s son, Mehdi Hashemi, Hoseiniyan asked Jafari where he was, when Hashemi was a toddler and went to meet his father in prison during the Shah’s rule.

September 6

14. Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani accused some elements in the government of attempting to purge Imam Khomeini’s ideals from the government and said that soon, they might close the doors of Khomeini’s shrine on people. He expressed grave concern over the government’s discontinuation of Shabe Qadr gatherings at Khomeini’s shrine.

15. Shirin Ebadi – Iranian women’s rights activist and a Nobel Prize Laureate – asked those who wished to participate in the protests globally, in support of the Sea of Green, to post questions on her Facebook page. Readers can post their questions on her Facebook account’s wall. Link: Shirin Ebadi | Facebook

16. MP Hossein Hashemian – the head of Imam’s Way faction of MPs in the parliament – also blasted Jafari and called his accusations lies. He also indicated that several officers in the IRGC, were planning on tending their resignations because of his statements and because of the IRGC’s increasing role in politics.

Government / International

September 7

17. Farhad Tajari – a member of the committee to assess the events in the aftermath of the elections and detainees – told Mehr News, the committee had held a meeting with the new Attorney General, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi and discussed some of the weaker modes of conduct by prison guards. He said they had discussed the release of individuals whose crimes were forgivable, like university students and lecturers, whose role had been not so influential.

He also said the second category of detainees, who had an influential role in the events after the elections, had been detained, without a long-term detention permit and not enough evidence had been provided to prosecute them. Therefore, he said, it was asked, they be put on trial and their cases pursued quickly, so they could be punished or released.

He asked Ahmadinejad, to provide evidence against those, he had claimed, were responsible for the mistreatment of detainees. Earlier in the day, Ahmadinejad at a press conference, said the mistreatment of detainees in detention centers, as well some arrests and the attack on universities, were by elements linked to violence, who had infiltrated the ranks of security forces.

18. Khamenei asked Ahmadinejad, to listen to criticism by supporters of the government. Sources claim it was in reference to his attempt at appointing female ministers.

19. “The government should have a deeper, wiser and more effective presence in all fields and defend national interests and the ideals of the Islamic establishment,” Ahmadinejad said, during the first meeting of his new cabinet. He also introduced Fatemeh Alia and Ali Zabihi to the parliament, as the proposed ministers of education and energy. The third vacant cabinet seat, the position of welfare minister, has yet to be filled. It is worth mentioning that Fatemeh Alia, is the fourth woman Ahmadinejad has proposed as a cabinet member, after the appointment of one minister and rejection of two by the parliament.

This comes as many clerics and at least one conservative MP, has asked Ahmadinejad not to nominate more women to the cabinet.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

20. The identity of five new casualties of Sea of Green have been revealed. According to sources, the new casualties include Mohammad Naderipour from Serjan and Majid Kamali from Imamshahr. Naderipour was a member of Mousavi’s campaign in Serjan. The other three have only been identified by their last names. As soon as full information is at hand, we will post.

21. Tehran Bureau reports:

“One of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s photographers, who had been violated in Kahrizak, personally informed the Leader about the incident, leading to the closure of the detention center. He was arrested during the post-election unrest and taken to Kahrizak where he was violated and tortured.

According to the source, he reportedly told the Leader, ‘What they did was inhumane and in violation of all human rights… When they did those things to me, in my eyes it was you who was doing them.’ It was after hearing his accounts that the Leader ordered the closure of the notorious detention center.

During the election, he worked as Mir Hossein Mousavi’s documentary maker and was one the cameramen who made Mousavi’s campaign films.

22. According to Saham News, Mehdi Karroubi, disputed claims made by two members of the special judiciary committee, tasked with investigating jail rapes, that he had presented them with no documented proof of his allegations. The opposition cleric turned over a medical report on one jail rape victim, tortured in detention and signaled his readiness to turn over more proof.

“I offered them three documents at the meeting,” Karroubi said. “The first was a video statement by the individual who has gone missing because of threats issued by the representative of Judge Saeed Mortazavi. My second document was about the [sexual] assault of a woman. The third was a document about one man who was subjected to various calamities after his arrest and I offered a CD and the medical examiner’s report on him as well. In that session I also offered two verbal reports as well.”

Karroubi went on to elaborate, on the two oral reports he had offered at the meeting. “One of the reports was about Taraneh Mousavi… I told them her family [is so scared] after the incident that they refuse to even let the girl who was with their daughter on that day [when she was taken] into their home anymore… [I told them] that you, as the officials of this country, must visit the family yourselves and find out the truth of [the] matter… Go to Karaj city’s Imam Khomeini Hospital and seek the doctor’s opinion about the injuries on this girl’s body… I gave them a second report as well.”

September 7

23. Seven Christian converts, who had been detained for more than three weeks have been released on bail.

24. Zahra Towhidi has been released.

25. Saeed Shariati has reportedly spent Thursday night’s Iftar dinner with his family and then has been promptly taken back to prison. Abtahi was allowed to do the same a few days ago.

26. Atefeh Imam – the daughter of detained reformist Javad Imam – was arrested on September 7 from Taloghani Avenue, but released today.

September 6

27. Idris Ariashokoh and Ziauddin Saboori – two senior officials at the Ministry of Interior – have been detained for the past 80 days. News about the detention has only now surfaced.

28. On Saturday, a young man was beaten and injured by security forces at Laleh Park and later arrested.

Media

September 7

29. Saeed Hajjarian, Saeed Shariati and Atrianfar have been forced to take part in a round table discussion on IRIB by the government. During the discussion, the speak of why they changed their views. It will be broadcasted by IRIB soon.

September 6

30. Keyhan has called Mousavi’s demands, from his 11th statement, a plan that has been written by the CIA.

31. IRIB broadcasted a documentary on Kahrizak, which was slightly more impartial, yet refrains from following the more serious allegations levied against the detention facility. It is worth mentioning that the documentary shows Kahrizak, after it has received a fresh coat of paint and has been considerably cleaned up.

Miscellaneous

32. Shajarian joined the Green Movement with a new masterpiece called put down the guns: http://bit.ly/s3rJi

33. Social Gaming with Conscience! Play4Iran: http://bit.ly/32kL7u

34. A cartoon sent by Iranian cartoonists to the 9th Bi-Annual Caricature Festival in Tehran:

http://www.persiancartoon.com/site_f…toon-bieni.jpg

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

35. Greens in Stockholm breaking Nokia cell phones: http://bit.ly/NokO

36. Something for French Greens to consider: www.whereismyvote.fr

37. Transportation info: Maryland & Virginia to NYC For Sep 23 Protest: http://bit.ly/lHNrp

38. Green Stockholm, Earth, Sea and Air: http://bit.ly/hPpnB

39. A fundraising event is being held in Richmond, California for the New York City protests on September 23 and 24. Link: http://tinyurl.com/n5adyj

40. For more information on the NYC protest, please check http://standbyiran.org or http://united4iran.org/)

41. A petition to be signed and sent to ambassadors as well as their contacts: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcnj8jzc_8dxb9vbgf

42. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: http://protests.sharearchy.com/

43. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj

44. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: http://healingthegreensoul.blogspot.com/

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: [email]dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: http://tinyurl.com/mjxrz3

– Information on Tor: http://torir.org

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: http://aic.openmsl.net/wiki/index.php/Green_Brief

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): http://ded1.hybrid-optix.com/greenbriefs.html

– A hearty thanks to S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

Nameless No More

NamelessImage by …-Wink-… via Flickr

I struggled a bit with myself before publishing this. Wordout is not an obituary column and yet, to not report this would be, in a way, to deny the sacrifices these people and their families have made.

People have been shot to death in the streets of Tehran, dropped from the roofs of buildings, raped and tortured to death and then their bodies burned. Some simply disappeared for weeks or months before their bodies turned up at morgues. Many are still missing.

There are certainly more than 72 deaths. We’ll probably never know all their names. But we do know these names, and we know they died in an honorable attempt to secure their rights as free members of their own society.

As always, my thanks to Josh for providing the research and the info.
~jon

Iran’s Victims: The 72 People Killed in Post-Election Conflict

By: Josh Shahryar

Norooz, the official news outlet of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, has published the names of 72 people who have died to date during protests on the streets, in detention, or from injuries sustained during the violence in the aftermath of the elections. This is only a list of those deaths that could be fully confirmed; the number of casualties could be much higher.

The list includes 12 women and 60 men, the majority of whom were under 35. About half died in two major protests, the first mass demonstration of 15 June and the “illegal” gathering on 20 June. The list does not include many names that have surfaced in the past few days, such as the slain detainee Saeedeh Pour-Aghaie.

The overwhelming majority of people on the list have died in Tehran. There are a few in Isfahan and no word on casualties in other cities. Bullet wounds seem to be the major cause of death, followed closely by beatings with batons and torture at prisons.

The first 25 names are those whose families have contacted the campaigns of Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi to confirm the death of their loved ones.

1. Mr. Hossein Akhtar-Zand, 32 years old. Died on June 15 in Isfahan after being thrown down a three-story building by Basiji militia.

2. Mr. Kianoosh Asa, post-graduate student. Died on June 15 in Tehran’s Azadi Square after being struck by a bullet fired by plainclothesmen. His body was identified nine days later and collected from a morgue in Tehran by family members.

3. Sohrab A’rabi, 19, high school student. Died of injuries sustained under torture at Evin Prison in Tehran. A’rabi’s mother was informed of his death nearly a month after his disappearance.

4. Mr. Alireza Eftekhari, 29, reporter. Died on June 15 of a brain hemorrhage after being struck with batons on the head and other parts of his body. His body was returned to his family on July 13.

5. Neda Agha-Soltan, 27, philosophy student. Died on June 20 on Tehran’s Kargare Shomali Avenue of a gunshot wound to the heart, fired by a plainclothesman. Buried at Beheshte Zahra’s Section 257 the next day.

6. Amir Javadifar, 25, student of industrial management at Qazvin’s Azad University. Died on July 9 of a seizure inside a van while being moved from Kahrizak to Evin. Had been blinded by blows to his head and face.

7. Moharram Ghagini Gheshlaghi, 34. Buried in Beheshte Zahra’s section 256, row 156, grave #13.

8. Masood Khosravi. Died on June 15 at Azadi Square and is buried at Beheshte Zahra.

9. Abbas Disnad, 40, laborer. Died after being beaten with batons on the head.

10. Ramin Ramezani, 29. Died of internal bleeding in a hospital after being released from detention. Buried at Beheshte Zahra. Section 257, Row 46, Grave #32

11. Mohsen Rohulamini, 25. Died on July 9 after sustaining injuries during torture in detention.

12. Ashkan Sohrabi, 18, IT student at Qazvin University. Died on June 20 at the junction of Rodaki and Sarsabil Avenues in Tehran after being shot by Basijis and other security forces thrice.

13. Amir Hossein Toufanpour, 32. Died on June 19 after being shot thrice in the leg, arm, waist and side. There were visible bruises on his neck and a deep hole on the back of his head which was filled with cotton and a broken arm. His nose seemed to have been broken as well.

14. Saeed Abbasifar Golchini, 24, seller of shoes and purses. Died on June 20 in Tehran after being struck by bullets fired by security forces.

15. Mostafa Ghanyan, graduate student at Tehran University. Died on June 15 in Tehran University’s dorms during a raid by security forces. Buried in the courtyard of Imam Reza’s shrine on June 18 under tight security.

16. Ali Fathalian. Died on June 20 in front of Lolagar Mosque. Buried in Beheshte Zahra. Section 9, Row 110, Grave #22.

17. Hadi Fallahmanesh, 29, laborer. Died in Tehran and is buried in Beheshte Zahra – section 53.

18. Ahmad Kargar Nejati. Died of torture wounds in the hospital. Buried in Beheshte Zahra – section 213, Row 15, Grave #35.

19. Behzad Mohajer, 47. Died on June 15 of a gunshot wound to the chest. Body kept at Kahrizak detention facility’s morgue.

20. Nader Naseri. Died on June 20 at Khosh Avenue in Tehran. Buried in Babol.

21. Ahmad Naeemabadi. Died of a gunshot wound at Azadi Square. Shot fired by IRGC’s Ashoura 117 Battalion.

22. Masood Hashemzadeh, 27. Died on June on Shademan Avenue in Tehran of a bullet to the chest which tore through his lungs and caused severe internal and external bleeding. Buried in northern Iran.

23. Mehdi Karami, 17. Died on June 20 at the junction of Janatabad and Kashani avenues after he was badly beaten and his throat was slit by a knife. Body was kept at Payambar Hospital in Ashrafi Isfahani Boulevard.

24. Naser Amirnejad, 25, student of aviation and space technology at Azad Islamic University in Tehran. Died on Mohammad Ali Jinnah Street in Tehran after being sprayed with bullets by Basijis. Body was kept at Payambar Hospital’s morgue and was buried in a village close to Yasuj.

25. Mahmood Raeesi Najafi, construction worker. Died on June 28 after being shot by security forces on Azadi Square and beaten badly with batons. Died at home 13 days later.

[The families of deceased protesters below have not gotten in touch with Karroubi’s or Mousavi’s campaign offices and are under pressure from the Government to refrain from public acknowledgement of the death, let alone the cause of death, of their loved ones.]

26. Mobina Ehterami. Died on June 15 at Tehran University’s dorm. Body was buried in secret without her family’s knowledge.

27. Neda Asadi

28. Saeed Esmaeeli Khanbeen, 23. Died of blows to the head.

29. Morad Aghasi

30. Hossein Akbari. Died of blows to the head.

31. Vahed Akbari, 34, laborer. Died on June 20 at Vanak Avenue of a bullet wound to the lower side. Buried at Beheshte Zahra – section 261.

32. Mohsen Entezami

33. Mohsen Imani. Died on June 15 in Tehran University’s dorms. Body was secretly buried without his family’s knowledge.

34. Fatima Barati. Died on June 15 in Tehran University’s dorms. Body was secretly buried without her family’s knowledge.

35. Mohammad Hossein Barzegar, 25, laborer. Died on June 17 on Hafte Tir Square in Tehran of a bullet shot to the head. Buried on June 21 in Beheshte Zahra, Section 302.

36. Jafar Barvayeh, lecturer at Chamran University of Ahvaz and candidate for doctoral degree at Tehran University. Died in Baharestan Square in Tehran of a bullet shot to the head. Forensics report that he died of a brain hemorrhage.

37- Yaghoub Barvayeh, graduate student of theatre arts at University of Art and Architecture in Tehran. Died on June 25 of a bullet wound to the head after being shot in front of Lolagar Mosque by Basijis from the roof of the mosque.

38. Soroor Boroomand, 58, died on June 15 on Mohammad Ali Jinnah Avenue in Tehran.

39. Hameed Besharati, 26. Died on June 20 in Tehran after being shot by security forces several times.

40. Farzad Jashni. Died on June 20 in Tehran.

41. Bahman Jenabi, 20, employee of a radiator repair shop. Killed in Tehran.

42. Mohsen Haddadi, 24, computer programmer. Died on June 15 at Nosrat Avenue in Tehran after being shot in the forehead. Buried on June 23 in Beheshte Zahra – section 262.

43. Shalir Khezri. Died on June 16 at Baharestan Square in Tehran.

44. Fatima Rajabpour, 38. Died on June 15 on Mohammad Ali Jinnah Avenue in Tehran.

45. Babak Sepehr, 35, died on June 20 in Tehran after being sprayed with bullets by security forces.

46. Fahimeh Salahshour, 25, high school graduate. Died on June 15 at a hospital of internal bleeding after being hit by batons on the head at Valiasr Square on June 14 in Tehran.

47. Tina Soodi, university student. Died on June 20 at Enghelab Square in Tehran after being shot.

48. Hasan Shapouri

49. Ali Shahedi, 24. Died in the Tehran-Pars police station on June 21. Forensics could not determine the cause of death; however, the family believes he was killed after being struck with batons on the head at the station.

50. Kasra Sharafi. Died on June 15 in Tehran University’s dorms. Body was secretly buried without family’s knowledge.

51. Kambiz Shoa’ee. Died on June 15 in Tehran University’s dorms. Body was secretly buried without family’s knowledge.

52. Davood Sadri, 27, shopkeeper at Salsebil Avenue. Died on June 20 in front of Lolagar Mosque in Tehran after being struck with a bullet in the head.

53. Seyyed Reza Tabatabayee, 30, bachelor’s degree in accounting. Died on June 20 on Azerbaijan Avenue in Tehran. Family forcefully sworn to secrecy by security forces and buried on June 24 in Beheshte Zahra – section 259.

54. Vahid Reza Tabatabayee, 29, bachelor’s in English. Died on June 24 in Baharestan Square in Tehran of a bullet wound to the head. Buried on June 27 in Beheshte Zahra – section 308.

55. Hossein Tahmasebi, 25. Died on June 15 in Nobahar Avenue in Kermanshah after being attacked and beaten by security forces.

56. Salar Tahmasebi, 27, undergraduate student of trade management in Rasht. Died in Jumhoori Avenue of a bullet to the forehead. Buried on June 23 in Beheshte Zahra – section 254.

57. Meisam Ebadi, 17, worked at a carpet store in Tehran. Died in Sadeghiyeh in Tehran.

58. Abolfazl Abdollahi, 21, graduate student majoring in electrical sciences. Died on June 20 in front of Sharif Industrial University after being shot in the back of the head. Buried on June 23 in Beheshte Zahra – section 248.

59. Hamid Araghi. Died in Azadi Square, Tehran after being shot.

60. Pour Kaveh Ali, 19. Died on June 20 in Tehran.

61. Hossein Alef. Died on June 17 in Isfahan.

62. Reza Fattahi

63. Parisa Kolli, 25, BA in Literature. Died on June 21 in Keshavarz Boulevard in Tehran of a gunshot wound to the neck. Buried on June 24 in Beheshte Zahra – section 259.

64. Mostafa Kiarostami, 22. Died on July 17 of blows to the head with batons in front of Tehran University. Was there to take part in Friday prayers.

65. Mohammad Kamrani, 18. Was beaten badly on Valiasr Square and died of his injuries on July 9 in Mehr Hospital, Tehran.

66. Hamid Maddah Shoorcheh, activist working for Mir Hossein Mousavi’s campaign headquarters. Died on June 15 in Mashhad shortly after being released of injuries sustained during torture in detention. Forensic experts ruled a brain hemorrhage as the cause of death.

67. Maryam Mehrazin, 24. Died on June 20 in Tehran as a result of gunfire by security forces.

68. Taraneh Mousavi. Died on June 28 after she was arrested in front of Ghoba Mosque. Charred body was found between Karaj and Qazvin.

69. Iman Namazi, undergraduate student of architecture in Tehran University. Died on June 15 in Tehran University’s dorms after the attack by security forces and plainclothesmen on the dorms.

70. Mohammad Nikzadi, 22, BS in architecture. Died on June 16 in Vanak Square, Tehran after being shot in the chest. Buried in Beheshte Zahra – section 257.

71. Iman Hashemi, 27, laborer. Died on June 20 on Azadi Avenue, Tehran. Died after being shot in the eye. Buried in Beheshte Zahra – section 259.

72. Milad Yazdanpanah, 30. Died on June 20 in Tehran after being shot by security forces.

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #69

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #69 (September 5 – Shahrivar 14)

By: Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator

(This report has been compiled through reports by twitter users in Iran and aboard, as well as contacts inside and outside Iran. Media outlets have been credit where used. As reports coming from Iran cannot be fully authenticated, if the report confirms something, at best it confirms that several reliable sources agreed upon it. This report is released under Creative Commons (CC) and can be republished under the condition that a link to the original source is provided.

Protests / Unrest

1. Dozens of people have been arrested in Sistan o Balochistan province in the past ten days. The whereabouts of the detainees is not known at this point. The detainees are all linked to Baloch nationalist groups or Baloch opposition movements. This comes as the government is battling Kurd nationalists on the northeastern border, where clashes have left tens of people dead in the past several weeks.

2. Partially confirmed reports indicate that dozens of people held a gathering, in front of the Supreme Court building in Tehran and demanded that their relatives be released. There are confirmed reports that gatherings in front of Evin Prison, by families of detainees, continue even though the government is trying to force them to stop the daily ritual. About 50 broke their fast in front of the prison again today.

3. Nightly chanting in Tehran and other parts of Iran continue. Even though news about this is scarce, multiple witnesses have come forward and testified that this has been going on non-stop. The government is actively trying to catch and fine people who climb on their roofs to engage in this form of protest. This is a video of a young child chanting ‘Allah o Akbar’ and ‘Marg Bar Dictator’ from his window with his neighbors responding to his chants from September 4.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEzE7Mw_gnE

4. This year’s Eid Prayers, will not be held in Imam Khomeini Mosalla. (Mosalla is usually a large area, close to a mosque, designed specifically to be used for huge prayer processions.) The reason that has been cited, is ongoing construction. Even though the construction has been going on at the site for years, it has never been used, as a reason, to move Eid prayers from the site. There is speculation that the government has moved the procession because they fear Greens would use it as a gathering point. This year’s prayers will be held in Tehran University’s mosalla, which is considerably smaller than Imam Khomeini’s, which can house up to 2 million people at a time.

Opposition

5. Mir Hossein Mousavi released his 11th statement today calling for continued civil disobedience. Mousavi, yet again, decried the clamp down on peaceful protesters and accused the government of creating crises. His rather long statement contains praise for protesters and harsh criticism of the government’s actions.

He outlines a series of demands, which hardliners must meet, to get the country out of the crisis in which it finds itself. He also speaks about the movement “The Green Path of Hope”. According to Mousavi, the government must help the situation by:

Forming a truth commission, one whose findings and verdicts are likely to be accepted by all sides, to investigate the violations of law, fraud during and after the election, and punishing those who were responsible.

Revising the election law in such a way that free and fair elections can be held.

Identifying and punishing those who were responsible for the crimes committed by all organs of the government, including military, police, and the media.

Helping those who have been hurt and injured after the elections, especially those who have lost loved ones; releasing from prison all the campaign workers and political activists; dismissing the bogus charges against them; restoring their credibility, and ending all the threats against them.

Putting into practice Article 168 of the Constitution by defining precisely what constitutes a political offense, and using a jury when the offenders are put on trial.

Guaranteeing freedom of the press, and changing the biased behavior of the Voice and Visage in order to eliminate all the limitations on its programs so that the political parties can use the Voice and Visage to express their positions regarding various issues, and revising the law that governs the Voice and Visage to make it responsive to people’s demands.

Putting to practice Article 44 of the Constitution regarding privatization so that private radio and television stations can also be created.

Guaranteeing the right of the people to gather and demonstrate by putting into effect Article 27 of the Constitution.

Passing legislation forbidding the military from intervening in political as well as economic affairs.

(Because of the importance of this statement given the current situation, I am not going to copy and paste portions which I believe are more important than others because frankly, my view is rather subjective and I think it does not do justice to the whole statement to pick and choose. Reading it in full is highly recommended.)

Full statement in English with valuable commentary

(Courtesy of Tehran Bureau) http://tehranbureau.com/mousavi-gree…hope-movement/

6. At an Iftar Party, Mehdi Karroubi today said that he would continue to move, towards the realizations of the objectives of the revolution and its martyrs and vowed to carry on ‘till death. He said, their greatest cause for concern, after the election, was the danger to the republic, but since both the republic and Islam were inseparable, they were also worried about the fate of Islam. He added, they feared that the republican dimension of the government might gradually be forgotten.

He added that, “the people are completely ready for any action that is in line with a legal Islamic framework.” Karroubi said that post-election incidents should not be hyped but nor should they be buried and overlooked. “We must make an attempt at damage control and find the perpetrators. We must find out how and why we were blindsided.”

Regarding the ban on his newspaper Etemad-e Melli and his party’s website, Karroubi said, “Journalists should not be worried; they close one newspaper, we can always open another.”

He also addressed the crackdown on the internet. ”You filter sites, [but] there is always filter-breakers [proxy software]! No matter how hard you try to impose limitations, the intelligent children of our country will know what to do [how to confront you].”

“Limitations can make things difficult but they will not limit action; these days there are plenty of websites and news can [always] get out.”

(Translation courtesy of Tehran Bureau.)

7. In a meeting with a group of reformists students, Ayatollah Montazeri, yet again, asked for the release of detainees and criticized the government. He asked the students to pay heed to their studies and said that the future would be theirs. He criticized the government for detaining people in the name of Islam and said, “They speak of the regime, but they mean an individual,” a clear jab at Khamenei.

He yet again criticized Khamenei, without being explicit, by saying, “They say that one individual’s vote is the standard; Imam Khomeini said that the standard is the people’s vote.” (Another clear jab at Khamenei, considering how his vote swayed the parliament’s selection of ministers.) Montazeri called the trials illegal and unIslamic.

8. Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastegheyb’s latest remarks, from September 2, are a stinging rebuttal to his critics. During a sermon, he reportedly said, that those who had brutally suppressed the protesters, were going to hell for what they have done. He said people who had beaten others during the protests, on the street, had committed great sins.

9. Qudratullah Alikhani – a reformist MP and a member of Foreign Affairs Commission in the parliament – criticized Jafari’s statements, in which he had accused reformist leaders of attempting to weaken Khamenei. Alikhani said that Jafari’s statements, were doing nothing but creating distrust amongst the populace and were hurting the regime further.

He added that Imam Khomeini, had explicitly asked the Basij and IRGC, not to mingle in politics or they will both hurt themselves and the country.

10. Mohammad Hashemi, one of the leader of Kargozaran Party – which is considered close to Rafsanjani – said that if the gatherings at Imam Khomeini’s shrine, have been cancelled because of political considerations, then he was not sure where the country was really headed. “When Imam and his shrine are no longer safe, then it’s not certain where the revolution is really going.” Due to mounting pressure by the government, on the family of Khomeini, Ihya prayers, held annually at his mausoleum, have been canceled this year.

(During Ramadan, Shia Muslims stay awake on three nights — the 19th, 21st, 23rd — to pray for salvation and mercy, as they believe their fate, in the following year is determined on these nights. The prayer ceremony held on these three very important nights, on the Muslim calendar, is known as Ihya.)

Every year, Imam Khomeini’s mausoleum, was the site where thousands gathered on Ihya nights in Ramadan. Ali-Akbar Nateq-Nouri, Seyyed Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rohani each led the ceremony on one of the three nights.

Government / International

11. Ahmadinejad warned the West today, that he was not going to back down, in the face of pressure, to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment program. “If some believe that through accusations, impoliteness, insults, and spreading of lies they can force us to retreat from the values of the revolution, they are gravely mistaken,” Ahmadinejad said, in a meeting with war veterans, according to IRNA. The remarks came after diplomats, from the six world powers known as P5+1, met in Frankfurt to discuss Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and warned Tehran over their nuclear activities.

12. Hasan Sobhani-nia, an MP from Khorasane Razavi, told ILNA that a former IRGC commander, was likely to be appointed as the governor of Khorasane Razavi, after the province’s incumbent governor was appointed as the head of the Department of Environmental Protection.

13. Khamenei called on the artists, during a meeting in Tehran with members of the Iranian arts community, to make a strong presence in the ‘ongoing soft war’. He added that the ‘ongoing soft war’ could not be fought through a ‘political approach’, offering the presentation of ‘the truth’ through a “full-fledged and influential artistic manner” as the alternative.

His remarks are the first acknowledgment, that Iranian and International Greens, who have spent the past three months creating songs, videos, posters, paintings and numerous other works of art to fight the regime, are starting to really get under his skin.

14. Afshin Ghotbi – the head coach of Iran’s national soccer team – said in an interview, he had received an invitation letter, from Khamenei’s office, to take part in Ahmadinejad’s inauguration and his attendance was not a political statement but a show of respect to the leader.

15. Hugo Chavez met with Ahmadinejad on his trip to Tehran today.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

16. Alauddin Boroujerdi, Chairman for the Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security of the Parliament, rejected the claim by Norooz – the media outlet of IIPF – that they had a confirmed list of 72 people who had, so far, been killed in the unrest and many more may have died in the violence.

He said that earlier, Morteza Alviri – a Karroubi aide – had alleged that 69 people had died in the violence, yet after a week’s notice, he still had not been able to provide concrete proof, that the number of people who have died in the violence, was that many.

(I’m still working on a complete translation of the list, as well as further details, should be released some time today.)

17. A leaked interview with Abdullah Ramezanzadeh – a former spokesperson during Khatami’s presidency – has surfaced. According to Parlemaan News – which is a reformist news website – Ramezanzadeh gave the short interview, while in court to defend himself, a couple of days ago. He said he was being interrogated at night, for up to 8 hours, while he was blindfolded and was under tremendous pressure, to confess to having a hand in the unrest, following the election. He said he was yet to be officially charged with a crime.

Ramezanzadeh also reported that he had been badly beaten while being arrested. He claimed to have had a fractured skull and broken teeth because of the initial beatings. He added that he had been kept in solitary for the initial two months and had only been moved to a better cell after Ramadan started.

18 Reports coming out of Iran, suggest that several prominent political prisoners; Ghouchani, Abtahi, Hajjarian and Ramezanzadeh, might be released by the end of Ramadan. These reports indicate that newly-appointed Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani, plans to speed up the release of many prisoners. Full confirmation is not at hand at this point.

19. Arrests continue. Arash Geety, a student activist from Zanjan, has been arrested and is being kept at the Intelligence Department of Zanjan province.

20. Shayesteh Amiri and Roshanak Siasi have finally been released. Siasi is a member of the Kargozaran Party and a women’s rights activist.

21. More than 300 reporters, have sent a letter to the new Attorney General of Tehran Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, asking for the release of all detained journalists.

Media

22. Jordan has shut down Press TV’s main bureau in Amman. It is still not clear what caused this, however, Jordan had asked Press TV and Al-Alam TV, to renew their accreditation with the government.

Miscellaneous

23. Green graffiti in boys’ dorm, Sharif University: http://bit.ly/urJBc

24. Green graffiti in girl’s dorm of Ferdowsi University in Mashad: http://bit.ly/VOvsI

25. “Leader” Street is changed to “Leader the murderer” Street : http://bit.ly/4I4PO

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

26. A fundraising event is being held in Richmond, California for the New York City protests on September 23 and 24. Link: http://tinyurl.com/n5adyj

(For more information on the NYC protest, please check http://standbyiran.org or http://united4iran.org/)

27. Payam Parsinejad and Younus Abissy will be cycling from Boston to New York in support of the Green Movement. They will start their three-day long journey on September 7.

26. A petition to be signed and sent to ambassadors as well as their contacts: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcnj8jzc_8dxb9vbgf

27. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: http://protests.sharearchy.com/

28. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj

29. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: http://healingthegreensoul.blogspot.com/

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: [email]dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: http://tinyurl.com/mjxrz3

– Information on Tor: http://torir.org

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: http://aic.openmsl.net/wiki/index.php/Green_Brief

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): http://ded1.hybrid-optix.com/greenbriefs.html

– A hearty thanks to S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #67-68

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #67-68 (September 3,4 – Shahrivar12,13)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC) under the condition that you provide a link to the original source.)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Thursday-Friday, September 3-4 – Shahrivar 12-13.

Protest / Unrest

September 3

1. It can be confirmed that the September 18 protest, now has the endorsement of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi and they will all be joining the protest. Where and when exactly, on that day, the protest will be held and the scope is not yet clear.

2. It has now been confirmed that a few days ago, families of detainees who had gathered outside Evin Prison, to break their fast, were attacked and scattered by security forces. Reports indicate, the attack took place on September 1. Some sources, however, also cite September 2 as the day of the attack. As yet, we cannot confirm the exact date.

3. As more news of dissent amongst laborers reaches across Iran, economic reasons are being cited as the driving force behind the dessent. According to several websites, the cost of living, since Ahmadinejad’s election in 2005, may have risen by more than 100%, yet many workers are vocally complaining about not being paid their meager wages in the past several months.

4. The Mourning Mothers Association will be holding another vigil at Laleh Park Saturday, September 5.

September 4

5. For the first time in 20 years, nightly vigils at Imam Khomeini’s shrine will not be held. It was feared the Greens would flood the premises and try to get their message out using this gathering.

Opposition

6. Karroubi in response to IRGC Commander Ali Jafari’s allegations, that reformists were attempting to weaken the Supreme Leader, hinted that certain people should stop meddling in politics, as politics were a totally different area than the military – a clear indication that IRGC should stay out of politics.

Karroubi who was at the mourning for the deceased Iraqi cleric Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, also added he had met with the three-member commission, set up by the Judiciary and had explained to them the evidence he had, at hand, of the instances of rape. He said they would be holding more meetings in the near future.

He also added, one of the victims, that had been referred to the authorities, had gone missing for several days. He did not clarify when the victim had returned or what had happened while he was missing.

7. Hasan Rohani, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a former national security chief – said that attacks on prominent personalities, during the trials, were against Islamic Sharia and the national interest of Iran. Rohani also added that Jafari’s statement – mentioned above – and the IRGC press secretary Sardar Javani’s statement calling Mousavi a hypocrite, would only hurt the regime and weaken people’s trust in it.

Reza Tabish – the Secretary General of Imam’s Way faction of MPs – had earlier also blasted such accusations against reformist leaders.

September 4

8. Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, in an interview today, said that the health of the election was still very questionable and what happened after the election, while very important, should not overshadow the importance of what happened to the election. She also strongly condemned the “show trials” and the crimes committed after the election. She went on to stress that all these were indicative of a “velvet coup” and it was clearly a deception, that people were being accused of starting a “velvet revolution’ instead.

Faezeh Hashemi added that an independent commission, to investigate the election, should had been set up instead of leaving it up to the Guardian Council to decide. She also added that only investigating what happened at Tehran University or Kahrizak was not enough and the killings and havoc that was wreaked during the protests should be investigated as well.

She also blasted the IRIB for its one-sided coverage of events and added that what has happened, in the aftermath of the election, were signs that the system was about to become both undemocratic and unIslamic.

9. Reports indicate that Karroubi has openly encouraged people to join the Qods day Friday prayers. Keyhan had earlier reported that Rafsanjani was going to lead the prayers on that Friday. This could not be confirmed through independent sources.

(However, should Rafsanjani lead the prayers, I will be live-blogging his sermon in English on Anonnet and later release a transcript.)

10. Partially confirmed reports indicate that Grand Ayatollahs Sane’ie and Montazeri have held another meeting. Both clerics have expressed concern over the current crisis and showed their displeasure over the continued arrests of political activists. Both later prayed that the country could come out of the crisis sooner and that all prisoners be released.

Government / International

11. The parliament voted on Ahmadinejad’s proposed cabinet and approved 18 of 21 ministers. Here is a list of the approved cabinet members and their posts:

Agriculture: Sadeq Khalilian

Commerce: Mehdi Ghazanfari

Communications and IT: Reza Taqipour

Cooperatives: Mohammad Abbasi (Retains his post)

Culture and Islamic Guidance: Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini

Defense: Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi

Economy and Financial Affairs: Seyyed Shamseddin Hosseini

Foreign Affairs: Manouchehr Mottaki (Retains his post)

Health: Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi (Female)

Housing and Urban Development: Abdolreza Sheikholeslami

Industries and Mines: Ali Akbar Mehrabian

Intelligence: Heyder Moslehi

Interior: Mostafa Mohammad Najjar

Justice: Morteza Bakhtiari

Labor and Social Affairs: Ali Nikzad

Oil: Masoud Mir Kazemi

Road and Transportation: Hamid Behbahani (Retains his post)

Science, Research and Technology: Kamran Daneshjoo

These proposed ministers failed to get the required vote of confidence:

Education: Sousan Keshavarz (Female)

Energy: Mohammad Aliabadi

Welfare and Social Security: Fatemeh Ajorlou (Female)

12. The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar, has disclosed that Khamanei had sent a message to the parliament, stating that he wished to see Ahmadinejad’s cabinet passed – although no one should feel any pressure. It has been indicated, by unnamed MPs, that many more ministers would have been rejected, if Khamenei had not sent the message to sway the opinion of the Parliament. “If we had not received the leader recommendations, probably eight or nine ministers would have failed to win the vote of confidence, and that would not have been a good start for the government,” he added.

13. Reports indicate that the newly appointed Minister for Labor Ali Nikzad’s work plan, that he submitted to the parliament, shows unemployment numbers that are vastly different from those claimed by Ahmadinejad. According to confirmed sources, the numbers actually match those provided by Mousavi and Karroubi during the election campaign.

14. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi, the former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, together with many hardliners who have been accused of having a direct hand in the violence against peaceful protesters, joined the 40th day mourning ceremony of Mohsen Rohulamini at his house. Rohulamini died under torture at Kahrizak.

15. The live broadcast of the cabinet vote was disrupted when a parliamentarian was overheard saying, “If anyone cheats [in counting the votes for the cabinet member], we’ll send them to Kahrizak.” The live broadcast was promptly cut after the remark was made. The broadcast resumed later.

September 4

16. The Czech Republic reportedly declined to sell pepper spray and taser guns to Iran last year, over fears that these might be used, by the government for torture, according to Al-Arabiya.

17. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Tehran early Saturday morning to meet with the Iranian Supreme Leader and Ahmadinejad.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

September 3

18. Partially confirmed reports say the body of a teenage detainee has been returned to his family after more than a month. Alireza Azadpour – a reisdent of Kermanshah – disappeared on July 19 while attending a rally. His family was unable to find him, even though they had tried to inquire about his whereabouts from the various security agencies. His body was handed over to his family on August 23 on the condition that they would not hold a funeral.

September 4

19. A list of the 72 people, that can be confirmed, who have died during the protests or in prison, has been released by The Participation Front and published on Norooz.com. (I am going to translate and release the list after writing this Green Brief later in the day.)

20. Unconfirmed reports suggest that reformists, who have been forced to confess, are being tortured at one of the IRGC headquarters in Qasre Feirouzeh, a locality in eastern Tehran province. Further details are ambiguous at this point.

21. Amnesty International has confirmed that Caspian Makan – the fiancé of Neda Agha-Soltan, is in detention and might be facing torture. (This was reported by media organizations weeks ago including GB.)

22. Abbas Mirza Aboutalebi has been released from prison after nearly three months in detention. He was arrested on June 12 and is a top campaign manager for Mousavi, as well as an important reformist.

Miscellaneous

23. Scroll down to see more Marg Bar Dictator and Marg Bar Khamenei: http://bit.ly/NHNmg http://bit.ly/gjWXL

24. Green graffiti for Quds Day celebrations: http://bit.ly/6RwhP

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

25. A petition to be signed and sent to ambassadors as well as their contacts: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcnj8jzc_8dxb9vbgf


26. PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR SAFETY’S SAKE: http://tinyurl.com/r2ow2c

27. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: http://protests.sharearchy.com/

28. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj

29. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: http://healingthegreensoul.blogspot.com/

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: [email]dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: http://tinyurl.com/mjxrz3

– Information on Tor: http://torir.org

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: http://aic.openmsl.net/wiki/index.php/Green_Brief

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): http://ded1.hybrid-optix.com/greenbriefs.html

– A hearty thanks to S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #64-66

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #64-66 (Aug31-Sept2 – Shahrivar 9-11)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC) under the condition that you provide a link to the original source.)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Monday-Wednesday, August 31-September 2 – Shahrivar 9-11.

Protests / Unrest

August 31

1. More than 50 students of Tehran’s various universities, have been summoned for questioning, by the Ministry of Intelligence. No word yet, as to why they have been summoned, however, rumors suggest it will serve as a warning to other students, not to protest in the future.

2. Dozens of Sea of Green supporters, gathered in front of the Russian Embassy in Brussels, Belgium. The protesters demanded that torture should be stopped in Iran and decried Russian support for the Iranian regime.

September 1

3. Dozens of members of the detainees’ families, gathered in front of Evin prison, once again, and broke fast. The gathering happens most days now, with only brief interruptions.

September 2

4. Several reformist leaders (not the top ranking) will be appearing at Daruzahra in Tehran, starting Thursday for ten nights. They will be attending special sermons and recitations of the Koran, along with ordinary people from all walks of life. Prayers will be held for the release of prisoners and protesters who have died in during the protests.

5. The meeting of former MPs, that was supposed to be held in the coming days, has been cancelled. Reportedly, the meeting was cancelled because of threats from security forces.

6. Supporters of the Sea of Green, are planning a protest in Stockholm on the 5th of September. Further details will be released in the next brief.

7. Families of detainees gathered in front of Evin once again. Pictures of them breaking their fast in front of the prison: http://bit.ly/Ko0dI

Opposition

August 31

8. Karroubi has formally sent a letter, to the chief of IRIB Ezatullah Zarghami, asking him to allow Karroubi’s representative to be present, during discussions regarding the evidence of rape in detention centers. Lately, IRIB has been holding forums and broadcasting statements by critics of Karroubi’s stance on this matter. Karroubi, in his letter, asked Zarghami to allow him the opportunity, to answer his critics, during these forums, stating that both sides of the story needed to be told.

9. Partially confirmed reports suggest that Seyed Mohammad Khatami, is not going to attend the Shabe Qadr gathering at the end of the month, at Imam Khomeini’s shrine. Earlier, it had been reported that Nategh Nouri and Khatami were both going to attend the gathering and speak. However, pressure has been increased on both Nategh Nouri and Khatami, as the government-run media reported the two of them were solely joining the gathering, to speak about the Green Movement. It has been rumored that Nouri might also cancel his attendance.

10. Reports suggest that Hashemi Rafsanjani’s son Mehdi Hashemi, has left Iran for the UK. Several reformists on trial, during their forced confessions, accused Mehdi Hashemi of several crimes, including telling the editor of Jamhooriyat newspaper, to write articles attacking Ahmadinejad’s first four years in office.

September 1

11. Mir Hossein Mousavi met with one of his top campaign managers Hamzeh Ghalebi, who has recently been released from prison.

12. Mehdi Karroubi has said that one rape victim had disappeared, after he told the family to contact authorities about the victim’s ordeal. He blamed Saeed Mortazavi for the disappearance and said, if anything happens to the victim, it would be Mortazavi’s doing. He also praised Larijani’s decision to form a 3-member committee, to investigate the crimes, that have been committed during the post-election violence. He went on to say it was a positive step towards rebuilding people’s trust.

September 2

13. The Green Path of Hope will soon officially declare its existence, it has been reported. The official announcement could come within days. For practical purposes, the movement is going to be known as Rasa – the acronym of the movement’s name in Persian.

14. Mehdi Karroubi has sent an official letter to Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, thanking him for his support. In the letter, Karroubi humbly shows his gratitude for Montazeri’s support, during the post-election turmoil and his various repudiations of attacks by the media, other organizations and individuals against Karroubi.

15. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi stated today, that since Khamenei has given the order to investigate crimes that were committed in the post-election unrest, investigations into what happened at Kahrizak and Tehran University’s dorm should be started as soon as possible. He added that those who are responsible for these crimes, need to be put on trial so that the trust of the people could be restored.

16. More than two hundred reformist students and university professors, have published an open letter calling for the release of Mohammad Reza Jalaiepour.

Government / International

August 31

17. Khamenei’s representative in the IRGC Mojtaba Zonnouri, has attacked reformist leaders. He said that several reformist leaders had gone to Arab kings and sheikhs and begged for money. He also said that those who had provoked the public to go out and take part in the unrest were equally responsible for the blood that was shed during the turmoil.

18. News has surfaced that Saeed Mortazavi – the butcher of Evin – had been proposed to be Khamanei’s senior advisor on human rights, however, the proposal met with criticism and has been shelved.

19. Reports indicate that Sadegh Larijani – the head of Iran’s Judiciary – has stated that some detainees need to be released swiftly. It is unclear if or when this is going to happen.

20. Former candidate Mohsen Reza’ie is rumored to be replacing the current head of IRIB, Ezzatullah Zarghami. Full confirmation of this development could not be obtained.

September 1

21. In response to IRGC Commander Jafari’s claim, that out of the 29 people who have been killed during the protests, 20 were Basijis, reformist MP Nasrullah Torabi, inquired why the Basijis’ names had not been released and why there had only been one Basiji, who’s funeral was officially announced. He accused Jafari and others, of finding ways to shed responsibility, before the crimes committed in the past two and a half months, were fully investigated.

22. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered that 40 Iranian ambassadors, be removed from their posts and be replaced. Confirmed reports suggest, the ambassadors were removed from their posts, due to their support for the green movement. Reports also indicate that dozens more will be replaced, after the expiration of their term, with people who have shown loyalty to Ahmadinejad.

23. Ali Saeedi – a representative of Khamenei at IRGC – has thanked those responsible for obtaining confessions from Saeed Hajjarian and other reformists. He also praised their valuable actions which resulted in swift confessions.

24. IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari, accused reformists of directly causing the violence after the election. He added that the goal of the reformist leaders, was to weaken the Supreme Leader. He accused Khatami, Ayatollah Mousavi Khoyeni (no relation to Mir Hossein Mousavi), Mehdi Hashemi (Rafsanjani’s son), Abtahi, Tajzadeh and Atrianfar, of directly taking part in the elections, solely to replace Khamenei from the helm of power. He cited unreleased confessions of detainees as the source of his information.

The Association of Combatant Clerics, of which Khatami is a member, quickly denounced Jafari’s statements and called the accusations grand lies.

25. French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised and showed admiration for the Sea of Green while on a trip to Germany. He also added that the Iranian people deserve a better leadership than the current one.

September 2

26. Saeed Mortazavi, during the inauguration ceremony for the new Attorney General of Iran, said that while he was Tehran’s AG, his organization had a glowing record of quelling both the 1999 protests and the current ongoing turmoil. For his brutal suppression of peaceful protesters, Mortazavi has earned the nickname of “butcher of Evin” by journalists and human rights activists.

27. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, criticized anyone who called Khamenei a dictator. Speaking during an event hosted in Hamadan, Yazdi said that anyone who opposes the Supreme Leader and considers another source higher than him was committing idolatry, as the Supreme Leader of Iran is considered God’s representative.

28. Reports have surfaced that President Barack Obama has recently sent a letter to the Iranian leadership. Neither the date nor the contents of the letter have been made public. Whether the letter has been sent or not cannot be confirmed at this point.

29. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is to arrive in Tehran on an official visit on Saturday, according to Iranian media.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

August 31

30. Hasan Bayadi, the deputy chairman of Tehran’s city council – announced that the nameless graves, in Beheshte Zahra, contained bodies that had been buried after orders were received from the courts and the deaths had been certified by a coroner. He said it was nothing new and hundreds of people, who could not be identified, were buried every year. He said the council had appointed two people, to investigate the claims that 40 unmarked graves in Beheshte Zahra, were the graves of protesters, who had been killed and buried, without informing their families.

31. A report by a coroner’s commission, has determined that Mohsen Rohulamini, had indeed died under torture and he had not contracted meningitis, as had been previously stated as the official cause of his death. The report suggests that Mohsen was under stress, kept in unsanitary conditions and had been beaten severely.

32. Unconfirmed reports suggest that two people close to Rafsanjani’s son, Mehdi Hashemi and daughter Fatemeh Hashemi – perhaps with family ties to them – have been arrested on suspicion of subversion. Full confirmation is not at hand at this time. Only their last names are mentioned in the reports as Dawaie and Rajabi.

33. Saleh Nikbakht, a lawyer to former deputy economy minister Mohsen Safayi-Farahani, stated that Farahani’s treatment during his first 18 days of detention was so horrific, he could not bear to discuss what happened. He then added that conditions improved after those first 18 days.

34. Reports suggest that Naseh Fareedi – a member of the committee to defend political prisoners – has been released after 78 days in detention.

35. Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Zabihi and Dr. Abdurrahim Soleimani – both prominent clerics of Qom and supporters of Mousavi – have been released after weeks in detention.

36. Reports have emerged that political prisoners, have been shown fake footage, suggesting that Mousavi and Karroubi had been arrested, to break their spirits and pressure them to make false confessions.

September 1

37. Dariush Qanbari – a spokesperson for the Imam’s Way faction of MPs, who are mostly reformists – said that those who have committed criminal acts at Kahrizak, need to be put on trial in public. He also said that it needs to be determined, whether they were directed to do so by higher authorities, or they had violated the rights of detainees without such orders.

38. Seven Christian converts from North Tehran, who were detained a month ago, are still being kept in detention. They were arrested with 18 others, by security forces and plainclothesmen, yet the other 18 were released after being interrogated.

39. Abtahi was allowed to break his fast at home with his family, for one night, then was promptly taken back to prison.

Picture: http://bit.ly/4EhGUz

40. The coroner’s office in Tehran, has sent a report, on the conditions that brought about Mohammad Kamrani’s death to the Judiciary. Although contents of the report were not released, it has been confirmed by Kamrani’s family and other sources that he died at Loqman Hospital, as a result of injuries he sustained under torture at Kahrizak.

41. Khamenei is now reportedly trying to buy the silence of the torture victims of Kahrizak. According to reports from some families, Khamenei’s office asked several of them to come in for meetings. They were interviewed and sent home. After a few days, some families whose loved ones had been tortured more severely than others, were asked to return to the office where they were given money termed as “the Supreme Leader’s conciliation”. They were also told indirectly not to talk about the torture or give interviews to media outlets.

September 2

42. The coroner’s office in Tehran has denied claims, made by the Tehran city council’s deputy head, they had issued birth certificates for the nameless bodies buried at Beheshte Zahra’s 302 section.

43. Reliable reports suggest that the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, has set up a team to find out who leaked the news about the nameless victims buried at Beheshte Zahra.

44. Sayed Alireza Beheshti – a member of a reformist commission, investigating the deaths, detentions and torture in the aftermath of the elections – today said they had received word of 3 more victims. They were now positive that at least 72 people had been killed in the unrest. He rejected IRGC Commander Jafari’s statement that 20 Basijis had died in the violence and only 9 civilians had lost their lives.

45. Another victim, unrelated to the list of names Beheshti mentions, has surfaced as a victim of the violence. Mahmoud Raiesy Najafi – a resident of Tehran – was badly beaten with batons while he was coming home from work near Azadi square, only three days after the elections. He later died because of the injuries he sustained. This can only be partially confirmed at this point.

46. At least five university students, from Mashhad’s Ferdowsi University, have been arrested and transported to an unknown location. All the students are members of Karroubi’s campaign staff.

47. Human rights activist Rasool Badaqi has been arrested. Security forces searched his house and confiscated many of his personal items , including his writings.

48. Journalist Isa Saharkhiz’ detention has been extended for two more months. He has already spent two months in prison.

49. Ali Ehsani – a Baha’i from Semnan – who was arrested on charges of subversion earlier this year, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment.

Media

September 1

50. Raja News website published an article, severely criticizing Grand Ayatollah Sane’ie, calling him a megalomaniacal narcissist and embodied the Quranic verse about falling into the satanic trap of egotism.

Miscellaneous

August 31

51. Photos: Green Iftar in Qom http://bit.ly/2h32Xl

September 2

52. Protester sneaks in through IRIB’s live broadcast: http://bit.ly/K5zAj

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

53. A petition to be signed and sent to ambassadors as well as their contacts: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcnj8jzc_8dxb9vbgf


54. PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR SAFETY’S SAKE: http://tinyurl.com/r2ow2c

55. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: http://protests.sharearchy.com/

56. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj

57. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: http://healingthegreensoul.blogspot.com/

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: [email]dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: http://tinyurl.com/mjxrz3

– Information on Tor: http://torir.org

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: http://aic.openmsl.net/wiki/index.php/Green_Brief

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): http://ded1.hybrid-optix.com/greenbriefs.html

– A hearty thanks to S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

Fair & Balanced, Lies & Truth – NiteOwl v Afrasiabi

Green IranImage by Nariman-Gh via Flickr

Fair and Balanced

You’ve probably noticed that the mainstream media’s reporting simply sucks when it comes to the Iranian election and its aftermath. Recently, the Huffington Post published an article on their website calling for President Obama to recognize and congratulate Ahmadinijad.

The article, though well-written and seemingly reasonable, wasn’t reasonable at all. It was literally full of misinformation and blatant lies. I’m sure that the controversial nature of it paid off good for HuffPo, but it forever made me change the way I view their reporting.

Media outlets do this more than we want to admit. They say they are providing fair and balanced reporting, when all they are actually doing is looking for ratings. In the case of HuffPo, ratings are clicks and links. They published lies. They won what they were after. But they lost me.

Lies and Truth

“Fair and balanced” is a great ideal, when you’re talking about opinions that naturally differ between folks. But when you’re talking about hard, cold facts there’s no room for opinion. Hard cold fact may not be all the truth there is, but it can never be thrown out like it didn’t exist. What is, simply is – and if you have a differing opinion, too bad for you. You are wrong. That’s what good journalists used to call honesty.

To be fair, they can publish whatever they want. In balance, it’s their site, just like Wordout is mine.

But to be honest, they obviously seem not to care very much about the truth. I don’t trust them at all.

NiteOwl v Afrasiabi

I’ve been republishing the Nite Owl Green Briefs for a couple of months. Again, Josh proves his value to us all by releasing this article in rebuttal of the HuffPo’s piece of… well.


Context:

About ten days ago, I read an article by Kaveh L. Afrasiabi – a known Ahmadinejad apologetic – on the Huffington Post. Afrasiabi had attempted to somehow nullify the protests and throw out the evidence against the fairness of the election in the most childish way possible – by giving out false information. I wrote a rebuttal that took me days because I wanted to make sure I debunked his arguments and exposed the false information and at the same time, provide the reasons as to why I thought the elections were rigged.

I sent the rebuttal to the Huffington Post four days ago because I wanted to make sure at least they’d know they’d published inaccurate information about such a sensitive matter. I got an email asking me to send a picture and a short bio to the HuffPo. I sent it within the hour thinking it is going to get published. 48 hours later, I sent another email inquiring whether it was NOT going to be published. 72 hours now and I haven’t gotten anything back. I’m publishing my rebuttal here. It’s rather long, but it had to be.

If you liked it and you think it is the truth, please spread it around. Remember, his arguments – some just flat out wrong – were read by millions on HuffPo so we have to work extra hard to get it to as many people as possible.

Best,

Josh Shahryar / NiteOwl

Afrasiabi’s article on HuffPo:

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, Ph.D.: Obama Should Congratulate Ahmadinejad

————————————————————————–

As a journalist who has been covering the Iranian Election, almost every day for the past two months from my puny little computer, I was shocked and dismayed when I read Kaveh L. Afrasiabi’s article on the Iranian Election Crisis. Published in the Huffington Post on August 20, 2009 and titled “Obama Should Congratulate Ahmadinejad,” the article urges President Obama to accept the outcome of the election and congratulate Ahmadinejad on his victory.

It must be pointed out, that throughout his article, Mr. Afrasiabi misrepresents the truth, omits key details, and at times simply presents inaccurate or false information to support his point of view. Fortunately, we live in a time of ‘information overload’ where the truth is easy to find, and we all know that there are always two sides to any given story.

Unlike Mr. Afrasiabi – who fails to mention on his Huffington Post profile that he has been a staunch supporter of Ahmadinejad for years – I concede that I have been drawn to the plight of millions of Iranians. I am an insignificant ‘International Green’ who supports Iranians in their struggle to obtain their rights. After reading Mr. Afrasiabi’s article, I had no other choice than to write a response – and I do so as an admirer and supporter of the Sea of Green – not as a representative.

Extracts of Mr. Afrasiabi’s article are included – without any touch-ups or rephrasing below in italics. My comments, rebuttals, and what I believe to be the “whole story” follow the extracts.

There are several good reasons why president Barack Obama should join his White House guest this week, Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak, as well as the UN’s Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, and dozens of other world leaders who have extended congratulations to Iran’s duly re-elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not to do so reflects a poor judgment on the White House’s part, particularly since Obama has yet to fulfill his own post-election promise of responding to Ahmadinejad’s letter that congratulated him for his victory.

Contrary to what was stated, neither UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, nor President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has congratulated Ahmadinejad. Mr. Ban Ki-Moon did send a letter to Ahmadinejad after the elections. His spokesperson, Marie Okabe, later clarified that the letter should not be construed, in any way, as congratulating Ahmadinejad. According to Ms. Okabe, “The letter takes advantage of the occasion of the inauguration to express the hope that Iran and the United Nations will continue to cooperate closely in addressing regional and global issues.” She went on to add, “It is not accurate to refer to this as a congratulatory letter.”

In regards to Mr. Mubarak, the Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s website did report, three weeks ago, that Mr. Mubarak had sent a note to Ahmadinejad congratulating him on his re-election. However, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has since denied the report. Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossam Zaki’s response to the media about the story was, “I cannot confirm the authenticity of the report.” Furthermore, Arab League Secretary General, Amr Moussa’s act of congratulating Ahmadinejad cannot, in all honesty, be considered as an endorsement by Arab League Members – including Egypt.

Iranian media and government-run websites have claimed that the Japanese Premier, Taro Aso, has also congratulated Ahmadinejad. However, it comes as no surprise, that this report cannot be confirmed either.

Notwithstanding the above, there indeed have been some world leaders who have congratulated Ahmadinejad. A closer examination, however, reveals that out of the two dozen or so congratulatory notes, the majority were sent either by countries without a democracy or by heads of countries that do not wish to upset Iran’s Supreme Leader – given their geographic proximity and strong regional interests.

It is ludicrous to think that the leaders of China, North Korea, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Syria, Qatar and Tajikistan would be, in any way, concerned about the fairness of an election. Let us not forget that the above-mentioned countries are dictatorships, strong-arm monarchies or have national leaders whose own elections were considered controversial.

The countries of Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Armenia and Iraq fall into the second category of “not wanting to upset Iran’s Supreme Leader.” Turkey – because of the Kurdish issue; Lebanon – to appease Hezbollah; Armenia – because Iran is one of the few neighbors with which it has friendly relations – and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq – because their interests strongly demand good relations with Iran, regardless of the leadership.

This leaves out Brazil, India, Russia, Venezuela, Indonesia, Yemen and Hamas-held Gaza. As for countries such as Japan, Nations in the EU bloc, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – all countries that rank at the top when it comes to democracy – none have congratulated Ahmadinejad. Thus, Obama’s refusal to send a congratulatory note actually shows sound judgment on his part, as he heads a Nation that is a world-leader in democracy.

First, with the dust of the post-election turmoil settling and the absence of any hard evidence of “rigged elections” becoming more and more transparent, time is actually on the side of Ahmadinejad, who has been much vilified in the western press, and maligned at home by his reformist challengers, as the grinch who “stole” the election.

Unfortunately, the sum of evidence presented by Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to corroborate their allegations of widespread fraud in the June 12th elections simply doesn’t add up. This author has examined in depth both the official complaints of losing candidates, as well as the various reports issued by their “truth committee”, and has found them to be dreadfully lacking in substance, contradictory, and thick on irrelevant innuendo, such as passing off such pre-election “irregularities” seen in television debates as evidence of election fraud.

The description of, “‘the dust of post-election turmoil settling” baffles the mind. The Iranian people have been protesting at every opportunity – in spite of an extremely high security presence. They have been shot at, beaten, tear gassed, imprisoned, tortured, and in many cases brutally killed. How has the dust settled?

In late June, thousands gathered at Ghoba Mosque and around Tehran. Thousands more turned out, facing the brutality of the security forces on July 30th. Hundreds were chanting in support of Karroubi, in front of Etemaade Melli’s office less than two weeks ago, although he explicitly asked them not to. Nightly, people chant “Alloha Akbar” from their rooftops, despite the threat of being shot at, fined, arrested or imprisoned. When the opposition calls for a protest, the people of Iran protest, not only in Tehran. We must keep in mind the thousands that gathered around the country, whose voices cannot be heard because of the government’s media blackout. The claim that, “The protests are over,” can only be made, IF and WHEN:

* Protests are no longer illegal; meaning that people can protest without the fear of reprisal
* Opposition Leaders call for a protest
* No one shows up

The truth of the matter is, if there are no “grand protests,” it is not because people don’t want to protest, but because the opposition has not called for one.

Regarding the claim, “The elections were not rigged,” the mere fact that ‘defeated’ candidates and reformist politicians – and their followers – were not the only ones to have cast doubt on the results should merit speculation. Many others have challenged the validity of the results, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who expressed his doubt during his sermon at Friday Prayer’s, as well as Khatami, who released a statement calling for a “referendum” over the issue.

For the sake of argument, let us set aside for a moment, that the previous Supreme Leader Rohullah Khomeini and the current Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamanei are dictators in the guise of religious sanctity. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami and Hashemi Rafsanjani are all two-term heads of the Iranian Government. Even if we discount Mousavi as a stakeholder in the election, dismiss Khatami as a reformist, what about arch-conservative Rafsanjani? Then again, these people are politicians and you never know what Rafsanjani might be hoping to gain from this.

Then what about a class of Iranian leaders who have little to nothing to gain by questioning the legitimacy of the government? Where do the clerics stand? In case anyone missed their comments here is what they have to say:

Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri

“No one in their right mind could believe the election results…”

(One might say he has something to gain because he is a clear choice to replace Khamenei, if he is to be replaced, so let us proceed with the rest)

Grand Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani

“Every healthy mind casts doubt on the way the election was held…”

Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani

Called the election results announced by the government “a grand lie…”

Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sane’ie

Referring to the opposition leader, “God maintain unity with you gentlemen, that your victory is unity, the masses will also follow…”

Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi

Declared his intention not to congratulate Ahmadinejad on the announced results of the Presidential election.

Grand Ayatollah Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili

“We do not have to pacify the protest by force” in a meeting in late June with the Guardian Council, according to widely-quoted story from the Iranian Labor News Agency. “Let the people decide who is right and who is not.”

Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri

Called the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “illegitimate” and “tyrannical…”

Ayatollah Hossein Zarandi

Posted a letter in support of opposition leader Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s Friday sermon.

Ayatollah Sayyed Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi

Praised Rafsanjani’s sermon, declared that the Guardian Council was biased [in regards to the elections] and that people have a right to demonstrate.

Ayatollah Hashemzadeh Harisi

“Distrust of the people is a fact and it must be confessed.”

Ayatollah Haj Shaykh Ebrahimi Amini

“Errors had occurred” during the election, said Amini in a June 12 on KhabarOnline.

Of course, there are Ayatollahs who have supported the elections’ results, but not a single Grand Ayatollah is on that list, except for Khamenei himself. These are Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi and Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani.

That is six Grand Ayatollahs and four Ayatollahs – not including Rafsanjani – directly questioning the legitimacy of the election against one Grand Ayatollah and seven Ayatollahs. Clerics-wise, the opposition is a clear winner.

As for the media, most of the reformist media outlets have been banned. But even among Iran’s government-owned media, there is dissent. Press TV’s website has recently started to insert the word ‘disputed’ before the word ‘elections.’ In such circumstances, how could one possibly assume that everything has gone back to normal?

I am going to take the liberty of answering comments with similar claims or arguments together. Arguments written by Dr. Afrasiabi are in italics:

Second, lest we forget, Mousavi alone had more than forty thousand representatives at nearly ninety percent of the voting centers and, yet, his complaint to the oversight Guardian Council refers only to the few hundreds who were not allowed to monitor the balloting, without bothering to mention that nearly all his eyes and ears who monitored the process failed to report and document any major irregularities. According to the election officials, Mousavi had lodged complaints about merely 89 centers, indeed a minuscule number compared to more than forty-five thousand such centers throughout Iran.

Fifth, compared to the past, the 2009 election was more transparent, as the government has published all the ballot box data pertaining to more than sixty thousand boxes receiving nearly forty million votes — on average each box contained some 875 votes, making it easy to tally; hence the rapidity of the vote count, thanks in part to the system’s electronic upgrade.

Unlike the US – where election results are announced by thousands of officials from precincts at county and then state levels – in Iran, you simply get a final spreadsheet, prepared for your convenience, by the Ministry of Interior. It is unnecessary in Iran to stuff ballots, buy voters or duplicate voting cards – because the checks and balances, found in the US system, are simply absent.

The equivalent of this in the US would look like this: The Department of Homeland Security, in close coordination with the FBI, sealing ballot boxes as soon as voting ends, tallying the votes behind closed doors, and then publishing the results. There are no other sources to corroborate the results that the Ministry of Interior publishes. It just needs a stamp from the Guardian Council. This makes “rigging the vote” a much easier reality than possible in the US. You simply need the Ministry of Interior on your side to achieve the desired result. The way in which the Ministry of Interior has collaborated with security forces in brutally suppressing peaceful protesters, clearly signals where their allegiance lies.

Third, by all indications Mr. Mousavi, who improperly declared himself the “definite winner” exactly one hour after the voting had stopped, put the cart before the horse by first challenging the election results and then fishing for evidence, a hopeless cause as his own truth committee has undermined the argument that Ahmadinejad did not win the rural votes, by complaining that Ahmadinejad “purchased votes” by distributing cash and food to some 5.5 million villagers, as well as raising salaries, in the weeks ahead of election day.

Mousavi has repeatedly said that he received news from multiple sources that the results would likely be rigged on Election Day. But here is a good reason as to why Mousavi might have declared himself the winner: Fatemeh Rajabi, who is considered the lead female-backer of Ahmadinejad in Iran, and who runs Rajanews.com, published quotes on RajaNews – which many consider a rather embarrassing slip of the tongue. Rajanews.com quotes an anonymous Iranian Member of Parliament as saying, “Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, called Mousavi on the evening of the elections and congratulated him on his victory.” Larijani is a conservative and is also the father-in-law of Khamanei’s son.

The website further quotes the MP by stating this about a Larijani: “What he did on the afternoon of Election Day, by calling Mousavi and congratulating him on the finalization of his presidency, cannot be overlooked. As the head of a branch of power, he is considered to have access to firsthand and classified information and news. When he congratulated Mousavi, at a time when voting hours had not even ended yet, it made him delusional and encouraged him to take the seditious and provocative positions and behaviors which disturbed people’s security and calm and significantly harmed the might and honor of the system.”

Was this not a strong enough motivation for Mousavi to believe that he had won the election, despite reports that the vote would be rigged? Furthermore, the argument that Ahmadinejad did not win the rural vote still stands. Simply because people are stating that he ‘did not win it,’ does not mean that he ‘did not attempt to buy it.’

Fourth, such complaints, including Mousavi’s allegation of improper use of government resources, such as means of transportation, by the incumbent president, are not strictly speaking germane to allegations of “widespread fraud” at the ballot boxes, nor are unprecedented in Iran’s young electoral system, in light of similar complaints in the past elections including against the reformist ex-president, Mohammad Khatami.

I completely agree with the first part of this comment. Yes, improper use of governmental resources, by the Incumbent President before the election, is irrelevant in this case. However, the notion that the Iranian democracy is ‘young,’ and as such, these things are not unprecedented, is but a lame duck excuse. Afghanistan is a young democracy. Iraq is a young democracy. Timor-Leste is a young democracy. Iran is not. Perhaps the word ‘dysfunctional’ would be a good substitute for the word ‘young.’

Sixth, the pitfall of pro-Mousavi demonstrators in Tehran who were carrying the sign “where is my vote?” was that they were not actually protesting that their own votes had been rigged; how could they since they won a solid majority in the country’s capital, with Mousavi receiving 52 percent of the votes there, some 300,000 more than Ahmadinejad. The problem with those demonstrators and their leadership was that they somehow felt that they should have also won in the rest of the country — an undue expectation, among other things, because of Mousavi’s late entry to the race after a twenty-year absence from politics and his limited campaign compared to Ahmadinejad’s extensive trips to every single province, particularly the “deprived” areas such as Kerman, Chahar Mahal, South Khorasan, etc, where he won by a solid majority.

First of all, even with 52% of the vote in Tehran for Mousavi, he was able to amass at least a million supporters, if not more, to come out on to the streets – several times – to show their patronage. Why was Ahmadinejad, if he won around 40% of the vote in Tehran, only able to draw a few thousand, possibly less, to come out and support him?

Ahmadinejad even had someone “Photoshop” the pictures taken of his supporters, to give the appearance of a larger crowd – a fact since unmasked. The only plausible explanation for the vast disparity between the numbers of supporters on the streets for each candidate would have to be that the votes were stolen from Mousavi in Tehran. If this is the case, it makes perfect sense for Mousavi supporters to protest with signs that ask, “Where is my vote?”

Secondly, as widely attested, the protests were not confined to only Tehran. Protesters carried the same placards across most cities in Iran. Even in states where Ahmadinejad had garnered tons of support. As reported, protests have so far been authenticated in the cities of Ahvaz, Shiraz, Gorgan, Tabriz, Rasht, Babol, Mashhad, Isfahan, Zahedan, Qazvin, Sari, Karaj, Tabriz, Shahsavar, Orumieh, Bandar Abbas, Arak and Birjend. Many of these cities lie in provinces where Ahmadinejad was claimed to be the “clear winner” – in a country where more than 60% of the population is urban. Why is it that his supporters did not rally ‘to counter’ Mousavi’s supporters? Why were thousands on the streets of Tabriz if Ahmadinejad has won this city?

The argument that, “Ahmadinejad was simply more well-known than Mousavi,” ignores the fact that Mousavi has been a reformist leader for a while now. He was considered by many reformists to be the front-runner for their candidacy in the 2005 Presidential Election. He entered the 2009 election three months prior to the vote. Certainly, if he was not well-known enough to the youth, Khatami’s withdrawal of his candidacy – and subsequent support for Mousavi – did send a very clear message to the populace. Khatami had served as the “face of reform” for the past decade or so, thus making his actions quite clear to his followers.

Ahmadinejad’s improper use of government resources obviously gave him an advantage against Mousavi. Had the elections been transparent the situation that exists today could have been avoided. The protests would not be so widespread, Mousavi would not have received such support from the clerics, and Rafsanjani would certainly not be doubtful.

Seventh, in addition to Tehran, Mousavi also won in Yazd, Zahedan, Zanjan, Ardabil, and his hometown of Shabestar, a total of 46 voting districts mostly dominated by ethnic minorities, whereas the majority Persians voted solidly for Ahmadinejad, reflecting the race’s ethnic undercurrent.

This argument seems to suggest that ‘ethnic divides’ played a role in determining the outcome. Simply put, it argues that Ahmadinejad won, because he is Persian and Mousavi lost because he is Azeri. There were no official exit polls to give a clear view of which ethnic group voted for whom. Let us examine the cities mentioned, and then look at some other examples:

Yazd is solidly Persian – both the city and the province. Mousavi won the city by 148,090 votes to Ahmadinejad’s 133,792, but lost the province with 337,178 votes going Ahmadinejad and 255,799 to Mousavi.

Ardabil Province – where the city of Ardabil is located, and East Azerbaijan Province, where Shabestar is located – are both dominated by the Azeri ethnic group, from which Mousavi hails. East Azerbaijan is the mainstay of Iran’s Azeri culture. Surprisingly, Ahmadinejad won both Ardabil and East Azerbaijan – the latter with a considerable margin. Zanjan is primarily an Azeri Province – yet Ahmadinejad managed to win it.

Mr. Afrasiabi’s statement regarding Zahedan, however, may be correct. The city is located in Sistan o Baluchistan Province – largely populated by the Baluch minority. Mousavi won both Zahedan and the province.

If the ethnic argument held, Mousavi clearly should have won a majority of provinces that are dominated by ethnic minorities – with plenty of leeway. However, this does not appear to be the case at all. Let us now examine some of the major provinces that are predominantly non-Persian:

Ilam, for the most part is Kurdish: Ahmadinejad 58% – Mousavi 38%

Kurdistan, for the most part is Kurdish: Ahmadinejad 61% – Mousavi 42%

Kermanshah, mixture of Kurds, Persians and Turks: Ahmadinejad 51% – Mousavi 42%

Khuzestan, a mix of Arabs, Persians, Lurs, Laks, Qashqais and Afsharis: Ahmadinejad 63% – Mousavi 27%

North Khorasan, a mix of Persians, Turks, Tats and Kurds: 73% Ahmadinejad – 24% Mousavi

The only two provinces Mousavi managed to win were indeed non-Persian for the most part. These include Sistan o Baluchistan, as mentioned above, and West Azerbaijan which is predominantly inhabited by Kurds and Azeris. Yet, Mousavi barely managed to win West Azerbaijan by 49% of the votes to Ahmadinejad’s 46%, and Sistan o Baluchistan by 51% to Ahmadinejad’s 46%.

Eighth, with respect to the question of how Ahmadinejad’s challengers could have done so poorly in their own home provinces, there is actually nothing unusual about this, and suffice it to say that in the 2005 elections, two candidates — Mehr Alizad and Bagher Moin — lost badly in their birth provinces.

Of the two candidates mentioned above, Bagher Moin actually did not run in the 2005 Presidential Elections. Two other candidates – Bagher Ghalibaf and Mostafa Moin – took part. Similar names, but not the same person.

As for the reference to Mehr Alizad, I am left to deduce that Mr. Afrasiabi designated this as a ‘nom du plume’ for Mohsen Mehralizadeh. Mehralizadeh ran in the 2005 Elections and handily won three provinces – Ardabil, East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan. He garnered almost 4.4% of the total vote. Contrary to the claim he did not win his home province, Mehralizadeh was born in Maragheh, East Azerbaijan.

What Mr. Afrasiabi fails to mention are the more substantial arguments – presented by Mehdi Karoubi and Mohsen Rezaei – as evidence in support of electoral fraud:

Karroubi took part in the 2005 Elections and won more than 17% of the total votes in the first round. Mysteriously enough, this very same candidate, was only able to secure less than 1% (0.85% to be exact) of the vote in the 2009 Elections.

With respect to Rezaei, the results showed that he had won 681,851 votes. However, credible sources quoted the candidate as claiming to have conclusive evidence – in the form of voter registration cards – of higher number of votes. Before Rezaei’s voice was ‘muffled’ by the regime, a credible source claimed on June 17th that, “Mohsen Rezaei, until yesterday afternoon, found evidence that proves at least 900,000 Iranians – based on their national ID cards – voted for him.” Furthermore, there is evidence on Rezaei’s website that shows his vote count ,actually going down rather than going up, by about 33,000 votes – while candidates’ tallies were being broadcasted on National TV during a four-hour span.

Ninth, for sure the 2009 presidential elections was not problem-free and the government conceded the irregularity of excess votes in some 50 towns affecting 3 million votes. But, in some areas where this occurred such as Yazd or Shemiranat, Mousavi actually won, and mostly this phenomenon was attributable to summer travel affecting Caspian resort towns — there are no registered voters in Iran, and Iranian voters can vote anywhere with proper identification.

It is doubtful that the Guardian Council – the government entity responsible for finding discrepancies in the 2009 Election – is, or was at any time, serious about investigating allegations of fraud. There is no better example for this, than the mere fact that the Guardian Council announced, “No fraud had taken place” before any evidence of voter fraud was even presented to them. To make matters worse, they soon came up with a 3 million vote ‘irregularity,’ which is an alarming number of votes considering the fact that the total number of votes cast was 39 million.

What is more, the Guardian Council has a horrible track record of anti-reformist acts and decrees. The most prominent example is when during the 2004 elections, it barred hundreds of candidates from taking part in the election, including 80 sitting MPs. The majority of these disqualified candidates were reformists. This gave the hardliners a more than comfortable majority in Iran’s Parliament in the elections that followed. In addition to that, many people – including eminent clerics as mentioned previously – and reformists, have accused the Guardian Council of siding with a single candidate: Ahmadinejad. Suffice it to say, the doubt and suspicion created by the Guardian Council, by their own actions, is sufficient to warrant distrust of their investigations into voting fraud.

Tenth, Iran’s election system may not be fraud proof but it is for all practical purposes “rigged-proof” in light of the elaborate oversight by two sets of monitors, tens of thousands of monitoring representatives by the candidates, and the participation of some 60,000 election staff chosen at local levels primarily from among the ranks of teachers and the like, who are responsible for counting the votes. As of this date, not one of them has come forward corroborating the allegations of ballot box fraud.

We have already examined Iran’s flawed electoral system, so we need not cover it again. As for the “not one of them has come forward” comment, I consider this to be an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has been following the news in Iran. Are we forgetting the fact that dozens of people have been placed in jail, tortured, forced to confess and put on trial on charges of planning to overthrow the regime – simply because they cried foul? These people include the likes of a former Vice President. When a former Vice President receives such appalling treatment, how can one expect ordinary teachers to raise their voices about what has transpired?

The notion of ‘coming forward’ exists in countries that respect a person’s right to free speech, the right to question their government’s actions, and the right to a fair trial when accused. Conversely, a country which bans foreign media, jails reporters and arrests embassy staff members, is not a place where people deem it safe to come forth and present evidence of fraud. To our amazement, however, people did stand-up to the regime and raised their voice. Those courageous people are now forced to confess, as evident on Iranian state media, to the crime of speaking their minds.

Eleventh, even if all the three million above-mentioned votes had gone Mousavi’s way, he would have still fallen short of beating Ahmadinejad, who defeated Mousavi with a margin of two-to-one, by receiving 11 million more votes — or 63 percent compared to Mousavi’s 33 percent — just as predicted by the Washington-based pollsters of Terror Free Tomorrow, whose pre-election opinion survey led them to predict a first round victory by Ahmadinejad, a conclusion they stuck in their post-election piece in the Washington Post, where they conceded that the voting results “may reflect the will of Iranian voters.” Their views have been endorsed by, among others, the US statistical guru, Nate Silver, who has stated that the Iranian elections results are “valid based on statistical analysis.”

This argument has been used, over and over again for the past two months, by the Iranian Government via government-owned media. In all honesty, this is nothing more than a well-planned tactic to counter any criticism of the vote. A basic, “Hey, Mousavi would not have won, even if we gave him those 3 million votes in question.”

Many polls were held before the election, and there were an equal number of them showing Mousavi as the winner. ILNA, the news agency linked to Rafsanjani – showed that just prior to June 4th, Mousavi was ahead with more than 54% of the vote to Ahmadinejad’s 25%. Maziar Bahari – a Newsweek reporter who was arrested during the post-election turmoil – reported a week before the Election, that according to government-funded polls Newsweek observed, about 16 to 18 million Iranians stated that they intended to vote for Mousavi, while only 6-8 million said they planned on voting for Ahmadinejad.

There are various statisticians and organizations who have attempted to crack this case from behind their desks, thousands of miles away from Iran. Among them is Chatham House, one of the world’s leading organizations in analyzing and promoting the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. Chatham House released a detailed report on June 21st titled, “Preliminary Analysis of the Voting Figures in Iran’s 2009 Presidential Election.” A summary of the repot is quoted below:

“Working from the province by province breakdowns of the 2009 and 2005 results, released by the Iranian Ministry of Interior on the Farsi pages of their website shortly after the election, and from the 2006 census as published by the official Statistical Centre of Iran, the following observations about the official data and the debates surrounding it can be made:

· In two conservative provinces, Mazandaran and Yazd, a turnout of more than 100% was recorded.

· If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory was primarily caused by the increase in voter turnout, one would expect the data to show that the provinces with the greatest increase in voter turnout would also show the greatest ‘swing’ in support towards Ahmadinejad. This is not the case.

· In a third of all provinces, the official results would require that Ahmadinejad took not only all former conservative voters, all former centrist voters, and all new voters, but also up to 44% of former reformist voters, despite a decade of conflict between these two groups.

· In 2005, as in 2001 and 1997, conservative candidates, and Ahmadinejad in particular, were markedly unpopular in rural areas. That the countryside always votes conservative is a myth. The claim that this year Ahmadinejad swept the board in more rural provinces flies in the face of these trends.”

As for Nate Silver, here is another quote by him published in an article for Wired.com on June 15th: “You could get a couple of university students to figure out a way to create a whole set of results that seem plausible and contain randomness and regional variation,” he says. “There’s no particular reason to have confidence in the results, but it’s probably not going to be fruitful to try and find some master key in the ways the numbers look.”

Indeed, much to the chagrin of reformist-friendly pundits in the West, close analysis of the election results gives absolutely no objective basis for leveling the charges of a rigged election. Ahamadinejad won fair and square by receiving some 24 million votes by an electorate that is enamored of his economic populism, fierce nationalism, austere life-style, promotion of Iran’s nuclear rights, standing up to Uncle Sam, etc — this despite a barrage of Western media propaganda prior to the elections that constantly vilified Ahmadinejad.

Mr. Afrasiabi posted statistics from US-based Terror Free Tomorrow organization to support his argument in regards to the electoral results. Let us examine another recent poll, by the same organization, and analyze Ahmadinejad’s above-mentioned qualities that supposedly make the Iranian people enamored with him.

The poll – conducted in May of 2009 – showed that 88% of Iranians wanted economic improvement to be the government’s top priority, while 56% claimed that Ahmadinejad had failed to keep his campaign promise of “putting oil money on the tables of the people.” The simple fact of the matter is, Ahmadinejad’s brand of ‘economic populism’ has turned the Iranian Economy into an utter mess. Certainly, he has tried to spread the wealth that windfall oil prices brought in, but he has not created any wealth, nor has he created any new jobs – the prime concern in Iran where two-thirds of the population is under the age of 30.

Official unemployment rates stand at 17% – up about 5% from when he took office. Financial experts, outside of Iran, believe the rate to be actually much higher. Although Ahmadinejad’s economic charts during the Presidential Debates showed inflation to be at 14%, Iran’s Central Bank puts the figure at 23.6%. The most damaging evidence against Mahoudanomics, is the fact that Ahmadinejad mismanaged the economy – putting the country in a huge budget deficit even after record oil prices brought in billions of extra dollars. According to the CIA World Fact Book for the year 2009-2010, Iran’s oil revenues stand at $51 billion – while the expenditure has skyrocketed to $103 billion. Need I say more?

Terror Free Tomorrow’s poll also demonstrated that 55% percent of Iranians supported recognizing Israel and Palestine as independent states in exchange for ‘normal relations’ with the United States. This suggests that over half of the population does not hate the US – so why would “standing up to Uncle Sam” be a reason for Iranians to love Ahmadinejad?

Mousavi is not anti-Nationalistic either. He has stated time and again that, “Iran’s Nuclear Program would not be suspended under any condition” and that “Iran has a right to carry on its peaceful nuclear ambitions.” As a matter of fact, all four candidates had the same stance on this issue. Mousavi, on the other hand, isn’t as ‘anti-Uncle Sam’ as Ahmadinejad, and is clearly more willing to take part in dialogue with other nations.

As for the comment on austerity, kudos to Ahmadinejad – this was a non-issue during the elections.

In conclusion, notwithstanding the above suggesting an election fraud hoax that does not withstand the weight of critical scrutiny, it does not bode well for Obama’s policy of Iranian engagement to be disengaged from the world’s growing recognition that Ahmadinejad was unfairly accused of stealing an election that he actually won fair and square. Even the British diplomat in Tehran attended Ahmadinejad’s inaugural ceremony, as did several dozen other foreign diplomats, including from several European nations, in a sign of approval of the election results.

Are we to believe that any ambassador, who attended Ahmadinejad’s inauguration ceremony, did so with their leader’s official endorsement of Ahmadinejad? I for one have not seen any official notes or letters from the UK or Sweden that would lead one to such a conclusion. Here are the statements that have been officially made about why two EU ambassadors attended the inauguration:

British Foreign Office Spokesperson: “We have several issues we need to address with the government, including its nuclear program and human rights, and to do that we need to keep channels of communication open.”

Swedish Foreign Minister: “We always have our ambassador on site in every possible … country, regardless of the regime in question. As an observer, they are better when they are present than when they are absent.”

Sadly, the US has lagged behind, partly due to the negative influence of pro-Mousavi Iranian pundits and academics, many of whom rushed to sign a petition to the UN Secretary General deploring the Iranian government’s “disrespect” for the votes of Iranian electorate. Fortunately, the astute UN Secretary General exercised independent judgment and rightly reached the conclusion that despite their academic credentials, the signatories of that petition were fundamentally wrong in their unreflective sounding board for the losing candidates; hence his crucial decision to congratulate Ahmadinejad for his electoral success. Following Ban’s footstep, Mr. Obama must now do the same, in the interest of fairness to Ahmadinejad and his mass of Iranian supporters throughout Iran; otherwise the risks to his ship of Iran diplomacy remain rather large.

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has not congratulated Ahmadinejad. Fortunately, President Obama, unlike Mr. Afrasiabi, realizes this. Moreover, President Obama has shown sound judgment by firmly standing on the side of democracy and human rights in Iran for the past two months. The primary concern of the US, in respects to Iran is its nuclear program. No candidate – not even Mousavi – declared that they would back down on this issue. Thus, this subject is completely off the table.

What is on the table is the fact that the Iranian Regime has stolen the people’s vote. What is on the table is the fact that they have committed evil by brutalizing its populace for demanding their rights. What is on the table is the fact that they have forced a leader upon their people. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – a true leader of men – once said, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” Iranians are protesting; Obama must continue to reject the false leader.

Original at WhyWeProtest

Some interesting comments I found over at EnduringAmerica

#
hass says: September 1st, 2009 at 15:23

Sorry, but there is in fact no real evidence of election fraud in Iran. The site IranAffairs.com has listed each of the claims and counter-claims, and the fraud claims do not withstand scrutiny.

But aside from that, just ask yourself this: Mousavi, the opposition leader, was a former Prime Minister and is a regime-insider. He was specifically vetted and precleared by the regime to run for office. We’re supposed to think that his election posed such a danger to the same regime that they resorted to massive election fraud? No, sorry, that makes no sense.

The Reply

#
whereismyvote says: September 1st, 2009 at 16:44

@ Hass
I wish I had the pager number of the person you have contacted to get your great Ganja… I want some please too. Is there any means to send me some via internet?

Please stop quoting an unsubstanciated report by a site as proof. What better proof of fraud do you want other than half the regime standing up and saying there was fraud? Lets discount the people, but can you also discount the mullahs themselves that cried foul?

Some facts for your education, although I suspect with the smoke of Ganja not fully settled its penetration chances are low:

1) 3 of the 4 candidates claimed fraud, not Mousavi
2) Process and proceedure and constitutional law was broken. According to Iranian constitution the electoral body publishes the results, and after 3 days of deliberations all parties submit their claims of fraud, after that the Guardian council reviews all results and submits a report. The leader then decides. This process has been followed for 30 years. In this instance it was short cut. some 12 hours after closure of polls, the supreme leader announced the results. How can we trust the decision when process was not followed?
3) All candidates can specify 1 volounter to be at the polling booth and present at the counting centere. During this election the volounteers of Mousavi and Karoubi and Rezaie were barred from entery. No indipendant means of verification now exists.
4) Mousavi and Karoubi had designed a system of using volounterrs outside polling stations to do exit poll surveys and the results to be transmitted to the head office using SMS message network for statistical analysis. The SMS network was cut off.
5) 2 1/2 month after the dispute, still we do not have poll station results. In Iran each voter gets a vote stub, plus a stamp in his / her identity card. Poll station results can be verified. How, here it is…. If 100000 people show up with stubs and an affidavit claiming they voted for Mousavi at poll station A, this can be verified against the actual votes, which bear their birth certificate number and the stamp which proved they voted. Unfortunately this did not happen
6) The Ministry of Interior printed some 13 million additional voter cards ( exact number under question now) and has not ever achnowleded what happened to these 13 million additional cards it printed. These cards should be blank and exist somewhere with their serial numbers and stubs intact, but we have been unable to get any information on them. They were stuffed into the boxes at a great hurry when the polls were closed, to ensure AN victory.
7) I can go on till 200 if you wish, but I would be boring the average reader of this forum, that has been witness to much of it……. Please read many analysts and independent people that have published the results of in depth analysis proving many of these points. Ignorance is not justification for shallow comments.

But you raised one point that needs direct address:
Mousavi was a staunch rival of Khamanei for 8 years prime minister run that he had. Mousavi was unconditionally backed by Khomeini as the light of his eyes… Mousavi was selected as a safe candidate to create an arena where by the western world and Iranian people could be shown that there is hope and change. AN government and the SL did not think in their life that Mousavi has a chance. For good measure Karoubi was also thrown in to split the reform vote, and then all other conservatives banned from running such as Ghalibaf that got into an open confrontation w.r.t his wish for running. The remaining candidates were all banned too. That left the field well in control of AN, and Rezaie, which has no hope, no support and no chance of ever winning was allowed to run too to please Rafsanjani and some traditional conservatives that felt disenfranchised. All the pieces were in play for a good solid AN win, however Mousavi proved charismatic, the people proved vigilant and the AN strategy weak. AN performance during the TV debates also made him a laughing stock and the people really turned off him. Additionaly AN miscalculated the dislike of people against him, and beleived all the BS that his croneys surrounding him had told him.

The coupe was organized so quickly, that they had no time to cover their fingers. They left finger prints of the crime everywhere.

Sir, the AN government got votes, we acknowledge it, and we acknowledge that he got 8 million votes, but Mousavi and Karoubi got close to 34 million votes, and Rezaie the remainder. Still AN was declared the winner… What else do you want to know? I can not make night day, nor can I make someone who has made their mind up, change it…

To know reality, you need to sometimes have lived it. I have lived it, in Iran in elections in its aftermath. This does not make me special but allows me to express my opinion knowing the truth I witnessed w my eyes. I ask have you really lived it? I can tell you that the dislike of AN is deep and across economical, religious and political lines. I have gone to small towns in the poor part of the country and people dislike AN, I have gone to the poor part of Tehran, to Qom, to Mashhad and the like, and the dislike is deep. The people wanted change, wanted hope wanted something and someone else. People hate and dislike the Pasdaran, the Basiji and the small class of idologs that have taken control.

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #61-62

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #61-62 (August 26-27 – Shahrivar 4-5)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC).)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Wednesday and Thursday, August 26-27 – Shahrivar 4-5.

Protests / Unrest

August 26

1. Reports have emerged that there is a strong possibility of workers’ strikes in Iran. Reports suggest that over 200,000 workers have not been paid their wages in months and this could lead to strikes in the very near future. This comes as the workers in Fars province’s main automobile factory have been on strike over the issue for the past five days. Other reports suggest that unemployment in Tehran alone has risen by 3% in the past few months.

August 27

2. Reports of a small gathering of Greens in a park in Oromieh have surfaced. The greens gathered together to break their fast on the night Thursday and prayed for the release of prisoners and the success of the Sea of Green. Pictures: http://bit.ly/30b9D

Opposition

August 26

3. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s family has filed a lawsuit against Ahmadinejad for his statements during the presidential debates and sent an official complaint to the Judiciary, according to Mehdi Rafsanjani – Rafsanjani’s son. Ahmadinejad had accused Rafsanjani of corruption during the debates.

4. Reports have also emerged that Hashemi Rafsanjani has sent information about two detainees who’re victims of rape in Iran’s detention centers to Khamenei, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Full confirmation of this is not at hand. The unconfirmed report names one of the victims as Ghaim Montazer who had been raped with a bottle.

5. Grand Ayatollah Montazeri called Iran’s government a dictatorship in the name of Islam. He said that it was neither Islamic and nor a republic. He further added that the true color of the system was shown after the election when thousands were arrested and then brutally tortured. He added, “The biggest oppression … is despotic treatment of the people in the name of Islam,” he on his website, “I hope the responsible authorities give up the deviant path they are pursuing and restore the trampled rights of the people.”

6. Karroubi has sent a congratulatory letter to Sadegh Larijani – the new Judiciary Chief – telling him that he has the responsibility to restore national trust after the blatant law-breaking that has taken place in the aftermath of the elections.

7. Mohammad Khatami has dismissed the confessions and trials once again. He also rejected the allegations leveled against him during the most recent trial by Kayan Tajbakhsh. He said that contrary to what the confesser claims, he has not met with George Soros in New York. George Soros is a billionaire philanthropist who has been linked with the Rose Revolution in Georgia in the past.

8. Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani also denied allegations that were leveled against him. Mehdi Karami – One of the men on trial – had claimed that Mehdi had used government money to fund his father’s campaign in 2005.

August 27

9. Shirin Ebadi condemned the trial of reformists and other Iranians linked to protests following the elections once again.

10. The government is creating fake blog entries in the name of reformist leaders to show that they are being treated fairly. Abtahi’s blog is the latest that is being updated.

11. Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani has held a meeting with Ayatollah Sane’ie about the recent developments. The meeting has been held at Ayatollah Sane’ie’s residence. Further details will be released at a later date.

Government / International

August 26

12. Khamenei confessed that he had seen no proof that opposition leaders were linked to foreign agents, mainly the US and the UK. However, he added that the mass protests had been planned in advance and there was no doubt about it.

13. Hamidreza Katouzian said that the parliament was investigating the claims of the killings and mass burials of protesters in Beheshte Zahra. Katouzian is a member of the parliamentary commission to investigate the condition of detainees.

14. Conservative MP Ahmad Tavakkoli asked Sadegh Larijani to put Tehran’s Attorney General Saeed Mortazavi on trial for banning Etemaade Melli. According to Tavakkoli, Mortazavi did not have the authority to ban Etemaade Melli according to the country’s media laws.

15. An unidentified MP told Parlemaan News that it had been proven that several detainees had been raped with batons and bottles. The MP is also a member of the parliamentary commission to investigate the condition of detainees, according to the website.

16. Ali Larijani has admitted that the trials that are being held have their flaws. According to reports, Larijani said this after an MP from Semnan Mostafa Kavakabian criticized the way the trials were being held and said that they did not meet the standards set by the constitution.

17. Partially confirmed reports suggest that the government is preparing itself for another wave of protests very soon and deems the situation far from stable. This was echoed by the Deputy Chief of Staff Jazayeri today, who warned that the turmoil was not over and could resurface at any time.

18. “Since Basij forces entered the scene on June 16, they never used any weapon in the missions entrusted on them and they were just equipped with some tools for their personal defense in their missions,” General Abdullah Araqi, an IRGC Commander in charge of Tehran Province, said today.

19. An unnamed conservative MP has divulged that he no longer believes in the reports by the parliamentary committee to investigate the condition of detainees. According to the MP, the family of a detainee who had been raped contacted him and he forwarded their contact and information to the committee. Later the family contacted him back and told him that they are now under pressure to recant their claims.

20. A group of former governors and other former government officials from the reform governments have sent a letter to Sadegh Larijani asking him to take a bold step and release all prisoners.

21. Reports have emerged that both France and the US are planning on imposing tougher sanctions against the Iranian regime.

22. Reports have emerged of a meeting between the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and the Canadian Foreign Minister during a summit in Turkey. This could not be fully confirmed off hand. The story published on Mehr News does not provide many details. In the past, the Iranian media have published similar reports about international leaders that have proven false.

August 27

23. Reports have emerged that several key government ministers will be speaking at Friday prayers in Tehran and possibly other cities.

24. An unnamed MP has confirmed that Hossein Fedaie – an MP from Tehran – was directly involved in the prisoner abuse in Kahrizak. Two other MPs, Parvez Sorouri and Alireza Zakani were also aware of the situation at Kahrizak. (The GB reported weeks ago about Fedaie’s role in the abuse). All three MPs are former Basijis.

25. Germany and France have threatened to impose tougher sanctions on Iran unless it shows willingness to discuss its nuclear program.

Arrested / Released / Killed

August 26

26. Reports have emerged that at least two – and possibly three – faculty members of Tehran University were arrested last night. This report could only be partially confirmed at this point.

27. The former head of Beheshte Zahra Cemetery’s management office denied that any mass burials of dead protesters had taken place at the cemetery. Scroll down to watch pictures of the unmarked graves of dead protesters in Beheshte Zahra:
http://norooznews.ir/news/13653.php

28. Karroubi’s son Hossein Karrubi and Mohammad Javad Haghshenas, the
editor-in-chief of Etemaade Melli – who had been arrested and released on bail on August 25 will be facing charges of publishing ‘unsubstantiated accusations’ in court.

29. Iranian Ambassador in France has accuse French citizen Clotilde Reiss of ‘nuclear espionage’.

30. University student Saeeda Kurdinejad has been released.

August 27

31. Saeed Hajjarian’s doctor has told his daughter that he strongly suspects her father had been drugged prior to his trial.

32. Several political activists were arrested from Mashhad on Monday. These include Farshad Azizi who is a member of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s campaign. They were arrested on Monday evening from the city and their current location is unknown.

33. Human rights activist and lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani has finally been released from Evin on bail. Also released was journalist Farbia Pajooh.

Media

August 27

34. Reports have emerged that IRIB and Keyhan have been explicitly ordered not to publish anything against Rafsanjani.
Miscellaneous
35. Graffiti in support of the Sea of Green in different Iranian cities: http://bit.ly/11Nm43
36. Ahmadinejad’s poster greened in city of Kerman: http://bit.ly/B6p3F

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

37. A petition to be signed and sent to ambassadors as well as their contacts: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcnj8jzc_8dxb9vbgf

38. PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR SAFETY’S SAKE: Safeguard Your Personal Info and Your Finances! – Why We Protest – IRAN

39. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: Protesting for Iran until they don’t have to

40. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: Julia’s Blog: Protests and rallies in Germany (subject to change w/o notice) (Courtesy of @jkshalmani)

41. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: Healing the Green Soul

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: dbosca@gmail.com

*Correction: In the last Green Brief, it was erroneously reported that Ahmadinejad had called the husband of proposed Health Minister a peach and very edible. In fact, Ahmadinejad had called the outgoing Health Minister a peach and expressed the desire of consuming him.

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: For Bloggers, News Sites and Forum who want to republish the Green Brief Plesae Read! – Why We Protest – IRAN

– Information on Tor: Tor Browser Bundle

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: Category:Green Brief – Anonymous Intelligence Collective

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): The Green Briefs

– A hearty thanks to Sahar joon and S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #60

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #60 (August 20 – Mordad 29)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC).)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Thursday, August 20 – Mordad 29.

In German: http://tinyurl.com/nhzc3a

Protests / Unrest

1. Reports indicate that on Thursday night, dozens of youngsters gathered on streets in the Apadana district of Tehran and chanted against the government and Ahmadinejad. The timing coincided with Ahmadinejad’s speech and his introduction of the new cabinet. Protesters chanted “Death to Dictator”, “Our pain is your pain; join us!” and sang Yaare Dabestani – a patriotic song. Apadana district is where deceased protester Sohrab A’rabi lived.

2. Thursday also coincided with the 40th day of his murder and his family held a short ceremony at Beheshte Zahra. The family later released a statement saying that they didn’t want to create unrest, thus, they didn’t invite people to join them in the ceremony.

3. Reports indicate that factions within Qom, who are displeased with Grand Ayatollah Sane’ie’s support for the reformists, are planning on holding a protest to denounce him. Leaflets have been distributed across the city for this purpose. There is also word that supporters of Sane’ie will be gathering in front of his office to counter the protest. No word of when the protests will be held has reached out yet.

4. Sane’ie in the meantime, has asked people not to gather in his support, saying that this would give a tool to those who wanted to create tensions.

5. Reports have also surfaced that people all around Iran chanted against Ahmadinejad and the government during his speech last night. According to confirmed sources, chants were heard throughout Tehran. In several parts of Tehran, people gathered on streets and chanted. People in their cars and motorbikes honked their horns in support.

6. There are reports of chanting from other cities in Iran as well; indicating the Sea of Green is very active in many places throughout Iran. Cities include Isfahan, Shiraz, Ahvaz, Abadan, Kermanshah and Qazvin.

7. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the government is still reviewing whether it should close universities for a semester for fear of student protests. It had earlier been dismissed by the government that such a plan was being considered.

8. Mohammad Araghi – the commander of IRG in Tehran – has alleged that over 300,000 people had formed a clandestine organization called “Vote Organization” or “Sazemane Rai” that had orchestrated that mass protests after the elections. He added the organization had been formed before the elections.

9. Confirmed reports indicate the police violating people’s right to privacy in Iran. According to these reports, the police are frequently entering homes forcibly and break down the doors if no one opens the door to them. Most of the time, these operations take place without any warrants – a clear violation of the Iranian constitution.

A picture of police climbing over a door: http://www.mowjcamp.com/files/file/19809

Note the green graffiti on the wall that says, “Marg Bar Khamenei” (Death to Khamenei)

Opposition

10. Fatemeh Rake’ie, the Secretary-General of the Innovative Muslim Women’s Society, today said that Mir Hossein Mousavi’s new movement was a representation of Imam Khomeini’s ideals. Rake’ie, a former MP, said Mousavi was expected by Iranians to lead the reformists and those in search of change.

11. 72 alumni and current university students have sent a letter to the members of the Assembly of Experts calling for the removal of Khamanei.

Government / International

12. Ali Larejani – the speaker of the Iranian Parliament – today said the parliament was ready to receive Mehdi Karroubi’s complaints and evidence. Larejani added that they would hear Karroubi’s words and would contact the victims through their phone numbers and addresses, after they’ve been given to them by Karroubi. He further said that they had no desire to keep secrets from the people and this would be done efficiently and transparently.

13. Mahmood Ahmadinejad today in his speech said that the Ministry of Intelligence had not done its duty, thus, the unrest took place. He didn’t blame Mohseni Ejaie – the former Intelligence Minister – personally. He also added that change was needed in the ministry. He added that “God willing we will get to a 70-million strong intelligence system.” (Gestapo anyone?)

In another part of his televised speech, Ahmadinejad criticized deputy speaker of parliament Bahonar for saying that five of his ministers would possibly be rejected by the parliament and said that it was not a good thing for the country.

Ahmadinejad during his speech said that he really liked the husband of Marzieh Dastjardi – the proposed Minister of Health – and sometimes thought he was like a peach and felt like eating him:

Link to video (Farsi):

14. Confirmed reports indicate that Tehran’s Attorney General Saeed Mortazavi – another government official thought to be responsible for the suppression of protesters, arrests and tortures – will be replaced by Morteza Bakhtiari – a former head of Iran’s Prisons Department.

15. Reports have emerged that Ahmadinejad’s pick for Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, is wanted by the Interpol. He was listed in an international arrest warrant issued by an Argentine judge on November 9, 2006 for being a suspected participant in the Argentine-Jewish Mutual Association bomb attack in Buenos Aires in 1994. Vahidi is also considered by many to be the founder of IRG’s Lebanon Corps.

Link to Vahidi’s wanted page on Interpol’s website: http://tinyurl.com/nzj44f

16. Kazem Seddiqi will now be appointed to the list of clerics leading Friday prayers; while this week’s prayers will be lead by Ahmad Jannati – reports indicate.

17. Conservative MP Hamid Rasa has published an OP-ED severely criticizing Ayatollah Sane’ie’s speech in Gorgan, calling him the Imam of Zarar Mosque – a prayer center established by enemies of Mohammed who claimed to be Muslims which was later destroyed by Mohammed’s decree.

18. Reports indicate that Hamid Reza Foladgar – a member of the Article 10 Commission on Political Parties – has said that any political party joining the Green Path of Hope would lose its permit to operate.

19. The Supreme Audit Court of Iran has convicted Esfandyar Rahim-Mashaei, of a series of financial charges. He was sentenced to two months suspension from his government post, the Jomhuriye Eslami daily reported on Thursday. The paper did not give further detail on the nature of the charges, but said they were in connection with the period that Rahim-Mashaei served as the head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization.

20. Kerman Friday prayers Imam Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Yahya Jafari, has also said that Mehdi Karroubi should get 80 lashes for raising the issue of rape. He criticized Karroubi for not sending the letter to then head of Judiciary Hashemi Shahroudi instead of Rafsanjani.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

21. Short report by Mehdi Saharkhiz on what happened to one of the victims of violence during peaceful protests: http://onlymehdi.tumblr.com/post/167723567

22. Journalist Emsael Azadi’s son Mohammad Azadi, was arrested last night in front of Etemaade Melli newspaper. Mohammad’s father spent several hours begging and going from one department to another to get his son’s insulin to him as he has diabetes. At one point, during his search to find his son’s whereabouts, he was told by security officials his son should die because he had written slogans against the government. He was finally able to get the insulin to him; but is still unable to locate where he is being kept.

23. Security forces broke into a Baha’i woman’s house on Wednesday, in the city of Sari, searched her house without a warrant and took her away using a search warrant that had been issued for a date three weeks ago. The 24 year’s whereabouts are unknown.

24. Mostafa Tajzadeh contacted his family today telling them he might remain imprisoned throughout Ramadan – the Islamic holy month of fasting which is starting on Saturday. Faizullah Arab-Sorkhi also called his family for the first time after 45 days of being in detention.
(Correction: In the last Brief, we erroneously reported that Ramadan would be starting next week.)

25. The families of three Americans arrested in Iran, while on a hiking trip, have yet again pleaded with the Iranian government to free their loved ones. They asked the Iranian government to grant the three Americans consular access. They have also created a website and will update information about the detainees’ whereabouts:
Link: http://www.freethehikers.org

Media

26. Reports from Tehran’s Islamic Court have emerged, that Keyhan has not been banned. Abolhasan Pour-Hosseini – an official from the court – told IRIB that no such order had been given. Earlier it had been reported, that a court in Iran, had banned Keyhan after complaints by Mousavi and the order had been referred to Attorney General Mortazavi for his approval.

International Protests / Events / Warnings / Efforts

27. A flash protest against Nokia, near Madison Square Garden in New York and another protest in front of Nokia’s flagship store in New York today.

Full report: http://tinyurl.com/lwy5pv

28. PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR SAFETY’S SAKE: Safeguard Your Personal Info and Your Finances! – Why We Protest – IRAN

29. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: Protesting for Iran until they don’t have to

30. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: Julia’s Blog: Protests and rallies in Germany (subject to change w/o notice) (Courtesy of @jkshalmani)

31. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: Healing the Green Soul

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: For Bloggers, News Sites and Forum who want to republish the Green Brief Plesae Read! – Why We Protest – IRAN

– Information on Tor: Tor Browser Bundle

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: Category:Green Brief – Anonymous Intelligence Collective

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): The Green Briefs

– A hearty thanks to Sahar joon and S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #59

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #59 (August 19 – Mordad 28)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC).)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Wednesday, August 19 – Mordad 28.

Protests / Unrest

1. On Thursday, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to give a speech that is being broadcasted live on IRIB. Protesters have decided to chant on rooftops throughout the speech showing their discontent. The speech was scheduled for today, but was postponed, due to wide-spread reports that people would try to cause a black out by over using electricity. The speech is to be aired at 9 PM Tehran Time.

2. A general strike was observed in Sanandaj City, Kordestan province. Shops were closed in most parts of the city in remembrance of an attack on Kordestan province 30 years ago. Basijis and police had earlier threatened city merchants not to take part in the strike. Reports indicated that police and Basij also clashed with some merchants who were refusing to open their shops and many merchants were injured – this could not be confirmed right away.

3. Kamil prayers will be held on Thursday, in Tehran’s Dar-u-zahra Cultural Center, for the release of detainees and the mourning of protesters who have been killed so far. The prayers are held weekly on Thursdays.

Opposition

4. Karroubi has announced he is ready to present evidence of the rape of detainees by prison guards. He sent a letter today to Ali Larijani, to set up a meeting between him and various heads of government institutions. According to Karroubi, the meeting will explain whether he is wrong or Friday prayer Imams, who have lambasted him for raising his voice. He has asked these people to be present during the meeting for him to present the evidence:

– President Ahmadinejad

– Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani

– Ali Larijani, the head of the Parliament

– The head of the Expediency Council,

– The head of the Assembly of Experts and of the Expediency Council Hashemi Rafsanjani

– Attorney General Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi

– Members of the parliamentary committee set up to assess the condition of detainees

5. Karroubi also alleged that Hossein Ta’eb – the head of the Basij – was one of the main perpetrators of the phony TV interview, with the family of a woman who claimed to be the real Taraneh Mousavi. In response to his statement, Hojatoleslam Seyed Hossein Shahmoradi – who happens to be the brother of the claimant’s wife – released a statement criticizing Karroubi for divulging the information. According to Shahmoradi, he had told Karroubi about the incident and the fakeness of the claimant in confidentiality.

6. Reports from Qom indicate that Grand Ayatollah Seyed Mousa Shabiri Zanjani – a cleric who has been a teacher of Khamenei and his sons – held a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Lutfullah Safi Golpaygani and has shown great concern over the killing of protesters. According to reports, he got so upset during the meeting that he began to cry.

Shabiri Zanjani has also met with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in his summer residence in Khaveh, near Qom. He is a key cleric who has been instrumental in freeing Montazeri from house arrest.

7. The Defense of Human Rights Society – an Iranian human rights organization – has asked the government to immediately release its members who have been detained in the post-election violence. The Society released a statement saying that their only job was to defend human rights and that they did not engage in political activities. Members of the organization, Mohammad Ali Dadkha, Abdol Fatah Soltani and a few others are still in detention. Three that were detained have now been released.

Government / International

8. Ahmadinejad unveiled his 21-member cabinet on Wednesday. MPs will start examining the nominees for different ministries in four days and will hold a vote for each member on the 30th of the month. PressTV reported Vice Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Reza Bahonar saying on Thursday, that it was likely that several of the ministers would be rejected by the assembly. Bahonar indicated that up to five nominees would possibly be rejected.

Here is a list of the names and posts of cabinet members (as well as some notes about them below):

Agriculture: Sadeq Khalilian

Commerce: Mehdi Ghazanfari

Communications and IT: Reza Taqipour

Cooperatives: Mohammad Abbasi (Retains his post)

Culture and Islamic Guidance: Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini

Defense: Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi

Economy and Financial Affairs: Seyyed Shamseddin Hosseini

Education: Sousan Keshavarz (Female)

Energy: Mohammad Aliabadi

Foreign Affairs: Manouchehr Mottaki (Retains his post)

Health: Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi (Female)

Housing and Urban Development: Abdolreza Sheikholeslami

Industries and Mines: Ali Akbar Mehrabian (*See note (a) below)

Intelligence: Heyder Moslehi

Interior: Mostafa Mohammad Najjar

Justice: Morteza Bakhtiari

Labor and Social Affairs: Ali Nikzad

Oil: Masoud Mir Kazemi

Road and Transportation: Hamid Behbahani (Retains his post)

Science, Research and Technology: Kamran Daneshjoo

Welfare and Social Security: Fatemeh Ajorlou (Female) (*See note (b) below)

(a) It is worth noting that Ali Akbar Mehrabian, the cabinet member for Industries and Mines, retains his post although he was convicted in court, a few weeks ago, for the stealing of another inventor’s invention.

(b) There may also be a problem for the Minister of Welfare Fatemeh Ajorlou who is also facing legal trouble.

9. Several conservative MPs have criticized Ahmadinejad’s choice of ministers. Many have shown discontent over his choice of three women for ministries. One MP from Oromieh said that it is possible, that these women would face difficulties in the next cabinet [because of their gender].

10. Asgar Aowladi, today denied that a meeting was held between him, Rafsanjani, Haddad Adel and others. This news was widely reported in some government-owned websites yesterday. (Read full report in Brief #58)

11. Former Minister of Intelligence Mohseni Ejaie – who has been widely accused of being one of the main forces behind the brutal suppression of peaceful protesters – is expected to be nominated as the next Attorney General by Sadegh Larejani. Ejaie was sacked by Ahmadinejad days before his inauguration.

12. The leadership council of the Assembly of Experts held a meeting today, postponing the meeting of the Assembly till after Ramadan – which is in a week. Other details were not disclosed.

13. The governor of Tehran province, Moteza Tamaddon criticized Karroubi today, stating that if he cannot prove his allegations, then legal steps should be taken against him. He added that during his and other MPs’ visit to Evin on Tuesday, detainees rejected that they had been raped.

14. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran, would continue a new course in its foreign policy and that Europeans states should “adapt to new realities”.

15. Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad is in Tehran on a two-day trip, holding meetings with various Iranian officials.

16. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias will be visiting Iran in September.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

17. Partially confirmed reports have emerged of a released detainee, who had been drugged and raped. According to reports, the detainee had been given heavy doses of rohypnol – a sedative, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic, amnestic, hypnotic and skeletal muscle relaxant – and then brutally raped. According to a doctor, who helped with the case while the victim was in hospital, the victim had contracted Chlamydia infection – a common sexually transmitted disease because of the abuse.

18. Partially confirmed reports have emerged that the parliament, may have received a confidential letter from Karroubi 20 days before his public letter to Rafsanjani. According to Iqbal Mohammadi – an MP from Marivan – Karroubi only sent the letter to Rafsanjani after he had not received a reply from the parliament.

19. A un-named MP has told opposition websites, that the news of the parliamentary committee’s ‘fact-finding’ mission to Evin were lying about their meeting with Mostafa Tajzadeh. According to the MP, what the committee members quoted as Tajzadeh’s words, were pre-written and given to them by Saeed Jalili – the Secretary General of the National Security Council.

Reports indicate that Tajzadeh is held outside Evin, while committee members told the press that they met Tajzadeh at Evin.

20. Mehdieh Mohammadi, the wife of political commentator and reporter Ahmad Zeidabadi, said that her husband has been kept in extreme conditions in prison. According to Mohammadi, Zeidabadi had been kept in an unlit 1×1.5 meter room for the first 17 days of his arrest, where he went on a hunger strike. During this period, no sounds reached the room and no one came to talk to him. He described the cell to his wife as a ‘grave’.

After 17 days, his health deteriorated and he was found unconscious in his cell. He was taken to a doctor who told him to eat. He was then taken back to the same cell where started showing signs of dementia, he told his wife, in a meeting 52 days after his arrest, that he wanted to kill himself but couldn’t find anything to do the job with. He spent a further two weeks in this cell. After repeated cries, he was taken to a different cell. He told his wife, during the meeting, that he has been forced to tell the court, in the next trial, that he would never take part in anything related to politics.

21. Isa Saharkhiz – a reporter – is under severe psychological pressure and claims that he will sue the government once freed. His ribs were broken after being beaten by security forces and he has yet to receive proper medical care for his injuries. He has told his interrogators that he would not talk without his lawyer and the parliamentary committee for assessing the condition of detainees present.

22. Kevan Samimi has also been put in solitary confinement and has been repeatedly beaten by prison guards. Samimi is a journalist and a political activist fighting for political prisoners’ rights.

23. Azad University student Hesamat Salamat, has been released after a month and a half in prison. Also released were Journalist Zhila Bani-Yaghoub and Sadegh Nowroozi, a member of reformist party Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization. Reports suggest that Mehsa Amrabadi and Somayeh Towhidlo would be released soon as well.

24. Mohammad Reza Jalayeepour was supposed to be released today, but he was not. It was expected that he would be released on August 20.

25. Photographer Stayar Emami, of Jam e Jam newspaper, was reportedly released on Sunday after a month in detention. After the current releases, the number of journalists in prison stands at 35.

26. Seven executions have been put on hold by the new Judiciary Chief after taking office. These include one young person who is now a 21 year old who was accused of murder at the age of 16.

27. No news has emerged since the disappearance Sohrab Leqaie, a Baha’i from Ghayem Shahr. He was arrested a month ago by agents of the Intelligence Ministry.

Media

28. Hossein Entezami – the representative of editor-in-chiefs in the Committee to Oversee the Media – has also criticized the ban on Etemaade Melli. He added that the country was not in need of such actions.

29. Reports have emerged that Karroubi has threatened, that unless Etemaade Melli’s ban was not lifted, he would revive his project of running a TV channel. He was forced to shelve plans four years ago for Channel “Saba” a satellite channel, after direct intervention by Ali Larijani, then chair of the National Security Council, who deemed the plan “an act against national security”. Karroubi then founded the Etemade Melli newspaper to reach the masses.

30. Keyhan Daily – the mouthpiece of Khamenei – threatened all reformist parties not to support Karroubi. It also criticized the meetings of reformists with Montazeri and other clerics in Qom.

Miscellaneous

31. Swissinfo reports:

“Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has been fired from his position at a Netherlands university over connections to an Iranian-funded television channel. In a statement, the municipality of Rotterdam and the Erasmus University of Rotterdam said that the Swiss-born theologian’s hosting of a program on Iran’s Press TV was “irreconcilable” with his position as a guest professor.”

International Protests / Events / Efforts / Warnings

32. On Thursday, August 20, at 4:30 pm American student activists will gather outside the Nokia Store at 5 East 57th Street in Manhattan to protest Nokia’s complicity in the crackdown against Iranian protesters. Link for more info: Project Nur Protests Nokia’s Role in Iran

33. PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR SAFETY’S SAKE: Safeguard Your Personal Info and Your Finances! – Why We Protest – IRAN

34. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: Protesting for Iran until they don’t have to

35. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: Julia’s Blog: Protests and rallies in Germany (subject to change w/o notice) (Courtesy of @jkshalmani)

36. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: Healing the Green Soul

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: For Bloggers, News Sites and Forum who want to republish the Green Brief Plesae Read! – Why We Protest – IRAN

– Information on Tor: Tor Browser Bundle

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: Category:Green Brief – Anonymous Intelligence Collective

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): The Green Briefs

– A hearty thanks to Sahar joon and S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #58

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #58 (August 18 – Mordad 27)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC).)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Tuesday, August 18 – Mordad 27.

Protests / Unrest

1. Tehran’s Attorney General, Saeed Mortazavi, announced today that the 4th trial of people, who were arrested in relation to the violence and unrest, following the election, has been postponed to next Tuesday. According to Mortazavi, the postponement was requested by the defendants’ lawyers to prepare the defenses. It has been reported that Saeed Hajjarian may be prosecuted in this next trial – confirmation is only partial at this point.

2. 65 detainees continued their indefinite hunger strike in Evin prison, amid rumors that prison guards were still torturing them.

3. It has been reported that Ahmad Zeidabadi, who has been in prison for some time, was force fed by the guard Zeidabadi is a former student leader, political analyst and reporter. He is in frail health at this point and is also rumored be put on trial next week.

Opposition

4. Alireza Beheshti, a close aide of Mir Hossein Mousavi, said today that Mousavi himself had chosen the name of the new movement, ‘the Green Path of Hope’. According to Beheshti, the movement strived to protect society’s rights. He added that Mousavi had thought about forming a political party, however, he had decided not to do so because it would have been ineffective.

He also added, the idea of forming a new political party, had been abandoned because most political parties in the country were run by the establishment and were not able to do much for the society. Instead, he said the new movement was more of a social network, between people who had been united in the aftermath of the election.

According to Beheshti, different committees are currently being formed within the movement. The central committee would consist of 5 or 6 members and would include Mahdi Karroubi and Mohammad Khatami. The advisory committee would be larger with 30 or 40 members and there would also be committees to oversee the government’s actions.

Newspapers and other media would also have their place within the movement to further its goals. He also criticized newspapers who had written articles denouncing the movement, saying they knew little and distorted facts.

5. Mousavi today supported Karroubi’s stance on the abuse of detainees in detention centers and praised him. Mousavi said it was regrettable that in an Islamic country, authorities could not stand someone even mentioning [abuse] and blasted, especially the government-run media, for criticizing Karroubi harshly. “All this paranoia tells of frightening news that we are yet unaware of.” He added that those who had committed these inhumane acts were a few individuals inside the government.

He criticized the government for asking abused detainees to present four witnesses – as is customary in Sharia law for victims of rape. “Those who have committed crimes are the government’s hands [members]; isn’t the government interested in knowing what these hands do to people?”

He said that it was not possible to heal these wounds without listening to these people and providing them swift justice and that force and denial weren’t the remedies.

He asked clerics and other spiritual leaders of Iran for help and support in this and other matters and said that if clerics did not interfere, they would be committing a grave sin – even though they would be spared criticism from the government.

Full Text of Karroubi’s criticism of media and government from yesterday:

In English (Courtesy of Enduring America): http://tinyurl.com/m5tgut

6. IIPF (Islamic Iran Participation Front) released a statement announcing their complete and firm support of Karroubi, condemned the government-run media and the government for their harsh criticism of Karroubi. The statement also denounces the ban on Etemaade Melli newspaper.

7. Reports indicate that Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani has also released a statement in support of Karroubi. He said he was deeply saddened by what had been described in the letter and hopes that none of it proves to be true. He asked the government, however, why there were clear differences between what the parliamentary commission was stating, what the Judiciary was accepting and what the media was reporting about the detention centers. He added that if the continued spate of criticisms, directed at personalities who were key to the Islamic Revolution continued and the government did not do enough to solve the current crisis, the Islamic Republic might fail. He quoted Prophet Mohammed’s saying, “A government of infidels [over Muslims] might remain, but a government of tyranny will not”.

8. Ayatollah Sane’ie’s website released a statement by him clarifying that he had not called anyone a ‘bastard’ and that his mentioning of the word was in reference to another incident he had described earlier in his speech.

Here are more detailed excerpts of his words from Gorgan in English:
http://theseaofliberty.com/iran/saanei.html (Courtesy of @homylafayette)

9. Reformist leader Abdollah Nouri traveled to Qom along with other reformists to meet with Ayatollah Montazeri and Hojatoleslam Shahrestani – the son-in-law of Ayatollah Sistani. In separate meetings, the reformists discussed the current situation with the clerics and asked for the clerics in the city to get involved in the current restive situation and asked them to enter the scene. Other reformists include Ghomahossein Karbaschi – a former mayor of Tehran and no relation to the current mayor -, Mohammad Hojjati – a former Minister of Agriculture -, Hojjatoleslam Abdul Majid Ma’adikha and Ali Hekmat.

10. Government-owned websites – including one owned by Ahmadinejad’s son – have reported that Rafsanjani met with government officials including Hadad Adel and Asgar Aowladi. During the meeting, Rafsanjani repeated his words from the Friday prayers and added that he had no conflicts with Khamenei. He, however, added that he did not partake in Ahmadinejad’s inauguration because of discontent over Ahmadinejad’s appointment of Masha’ie. The report could not be verified through any other sources.

11. Shirin Ebadi accused the government of holding Mousavi’s brother-in-law – Shahpour Kazemi – hostage in order to silence the reformist leader. Kazemi, 70, has no background in politics, yet was arrested two months ago and has been in detention since. The news of his arrest was kept by his sister, Zahra Rahnavard – Mousavi’s wife – for weeks because according to her, she and her husband wanted to highlight the people’s plight.

12. Dozens of students from Tehran’s different universities – mainly Sharif Industrial University, Tehran University and Amir Kabir University – sent a letter to Rafsanjani, asking him to fulfill his duty as the head of the Assembly of Experts. The letter accuses Khamanei of having the direct responsibility for the death, torture and arrests of peaceful protesters and political activists. The Assembly of Experts is the body responsible for the election of the Supreme Leader as well as his dismissal. Lately, pressure has been mounting on the Rafsanjani, as the head of the body, to at least investigate the crimes that have been committed in the post-election turmoil and if found guilty, hold Khamanei accountable for them.

Government / International

13. Khamenei’s representative to the IRG, Hojatoleslam Ali Saeedi, said today that the masterminds behind the post-election violence were still free. He added the nation wanted these people to be arrested, so action should be taken and added that the confessions during the trials, had uncovered the role of foreigners and embassies in the post-election violence. He said that the turmoil had exposed troublemakers, who had been fooled by those behind the revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

14. Daoud Zare’eyan – an official in Iran’s government-owned telecommunication company today – said that the government was taking all the steps necessary to combat anti-internet filtering technologies. He was responding to news that the US government was working on technologies to combat internet filtering in Iran, China and other countries.

15. Reports are emerging that some high-ranking clerics have held a meeting with Khamanei and accused his son, Mojtaba Khamanei, of having a hand in the violence that followed the election. The reports also indicate that Khamanei rejected these claims. Full confirmation of this could not be obtained.

16. Hamid Katouzian – a member of the parliament’s committee on assessing the condition of detainees – said today that Karroubi is welcome to give them evidence of rape in Iranian detention centers. He added that he would investigate the evidence and ensure the safety of witnesses and victims.

17. Strategic Forecasting Inc. (STRATFOR) has reports that Khamanei has created an elite new security force, dedicated to his protection called Haydaryan. Stratfor reports that this new militia had taken part in the suppression of peaceful protests following the elections. This could not be confirmed by other sources.

18. The governor of Tehran province has released a statement saying the government would compensate the victims of street violence and is willing to pay for property damage. However, proof of injury must be provided in order to receive monetary compensation. He added that if health insurance had paid for their injuries, they would not be compensated.

Arrested / Released / Killed / Torture

19. Disturbing news of torture continues to flow out. Dr. Ali Mohammad Dadkha – an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist – is under severe pressure, to make a confession, stating that the human rights organization he works for is working against the government. Reportedly, besides the beatings, he was pushed and rolled down the stairway of a three story building several times, taken back up and rolled down again to break his nerve.

20. Faizullah Arab-Sorkhi – a reformist leader – has also been tortured badly. After refusing to confess, he was repeatedly beaten severely and then moved back to solitary confinement. The torture so severely affected his body the guards were forced to first move him to the medical care center inside Evin and then finally to an IRG hospital in north Tehran.

21. A Tehrani, who has just been released from Evin, spoke of unimaginable psychological torture. According to him, he was repeatedly put under extreme pressure by the interrogators, who kept telling him that they would break him. He was told that killing him would not be a sin, since him and the likes of him, were acting against the Islamic Revolution. One guard reportedly told him to confess and his confession would be published in newspapers bringing him fame. Another guard said, “We even broke Abtahi. We’re going to easily break you”. He was shown confessions of others – which he claimed were very similar in grammar and usage of words. The Tehrani said that after a few days, he finally, out of extreme fear, signed the pre-written confession to get out.

22. The sister of a detainee, who has just been released, called VOA and said that after his release, her brother is unrecognizable because of weight loss and refuses to speak a word. She adds – amid sobbing cries – that he looks as if he has gone mad and simply stares at the ceiling.

The details of her brother’s current state are so moving that VOA newscaster Elnaz Kiani could not stop herself from crying:

Video (Persian): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-hm-5B3LFk

23. Saeed Hajjarian’s daughter reports that security forces have interrogated her brother several times, denied them visits and finally a couple of days ago, a large number showed up at their doorstep with more questions. According to her, all this is being done to put psychological pressure on her father, to break him down and obtain a confession.

24. Partially confirmed reports indicate that detained reformist Abdollah Ramezanzadeh’s condition has deteriorated and he has been moved to a hospital. Abdollah Ramezanzadeh is a former government spokesperson, who served under Mohammad Khatami during his presidency.

25. Partially confirmed reports say that Reformist MP Alikhani – the same Alikhani, who criticized the government openly in the parliament, the video which was shared widely around the internet – has been denied access to Evin prison. Alikhani was planning on visiting the prison and talking to detainees.

26. Human rights activists Haleh Sahabi and Kaveh Mozafari were released.

Media

27. Keyhan Daily has a new allegation, “The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) had a major hand in the unrest that followed the elections.” The paper goes on to blast the US for causing the deaths of Iranians.

(O…K…)

Miscellaneous

28. Six members of Iran’s football team have been bestowed with the Sports for Peace Award. The footballers tied green armbands in support of the Sea of Green during Iran’s World Cup qualifier game two months ago against South Korea.

International Protests / Events / Efforts / Warnings

28. PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR SAFETY’S SAKE: http://tinyurl.com/r2ow2c

29. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: http://protests.sharearchy.com/

30. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj (Courtesy of @jkshalmani)

31. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: http://healingthegreensoul.blogspot.com/

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: For Bloggers, News Sites and Forum who want to republish the Green Brief Plesae Read! – Why We Protest – IRAN

– Information on Tor: Tor Browser Bundle

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: Category:Green Brief – Anonymous Intelligence Collective

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): The Green Briefs

– A hearty thanks to Sahar joon and S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest

NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #57

Location of IranImage via Wikipedia

News From Iran

The Green Brief is the best source of information from Iran, gathered from sources which are verified as well as they can be, under the circumstances. Nearly all of this information is gathered via twitter sources from inside Iran. An extremely small set of sources, considering the millions of Iranians who, not so long ago, carried on conversations with the world.

Josh, aka NiteOwl, has become a voice for some of them, and a valuable window for the rest of the world. I can’t stress how much I personally appreciate Josh and his small team for the work they’re putting into all this. As an American, it might seem strange that I would care at all. I can only stress that we are all brothers, sisters, and cousins on this world. We all come from a different place and we each have a unique journey.

We all share that.

The Green Brief #57 (August 17 – Mordad 26)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC).)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Monday, August 17 – Mordad 26.

Protests / Unrest

1. In anticipation of the protest planned in front of Etemaade Melli’s office, in support of Karroubi, dozens of security forces were stationed in the vicinity of the newspaper office from early in the day. Dozens more were in the streets leading to the office, which is located near Karim Khan Bridge. Witnesses reported that many plain clothed security could be seen wearing green masks in front of the office.

2. Hundreds tried to gather in front of Etemaade Melli’s office, in defiance of the government. Women outnumbered men during the protest. People chanted “Allaho Akbar”, “Noble People of Iran; Support Us!”, “Down With the Deceitful Government” and “Death to the Dictator”, as they tried to get closer to the office’s gates. They also made the victory sign.

3. Security forces started beating protesters as soon as they got close to the main gate and dispersed them. Riding motorbikes, Basijis also joined the security forces, herding protesters away from the main gate and onto the streets. This forced many people to move towards Valiasr Square. Many abruptly stopped midway and chanted slogans again.

4. According to confirmed reports, besides beating many protesters very badly, security forces also employed cameramen, to take pictures of protesters, to identify people so they could be arrested later. Partially confirmed reports also suggested the use of tear gas during the protest. Several people were badly injured after being hit by batons. The arrest of at least a dozen protesters can be confirmed. Even after the protesters left the scene, many security forces remained to ensure they did not return.

5. Independent of the gathering in front of Etemaade Melli, it has been reported that during the evening, dozens of family members of slain protesters and political prisoners, gathered at Laleh park in protest and held a small rally.

6. As previously reported, 65 detainees at Evin are on an indefinite hunger strike. Reports indicate that these detainees are housed in the 7th Quarantine section of the prison. Their names could not be obtained.

7. Note: I have been asked by a few readers why some news items, being covered by the international media, as well as being posted on twitter, are not covered in the Briefs; for example, the government arresting and fining people who chant Allaho Akbar from their rooftops. The reason is, these items have been covered by the Briefs over the weeks and I continue to report them from time to time however, putting them in every Brief is repetitive. The only section repeated in each Brief are the ‘ads’ under the International Protests section.

Opposition

8. It has been a quiet day for the opposition. The main news was that Karroubi’s son confirmed that Etemaade Melli had been banned because of Karroubi’s reply to the criticism, directed at him by the government, government-owned media and hardliners.

9 In a meeting on August 16, former President Khatami told former parliamentarians that the true protectors of the Islamic Republic were not those “who showed in recent months that they are uprooting the republic and Islamic nature of the establishment, but rather the reformists who were upholding the stability of the republic”. He also criticized the rampant lawlessness that followed the election and those who had broken the law whilst dealing with peaceful protesters.

Government / International

10. The inauguration ceremony of Sadegh Larijani, as the head of Iran’s judiciary was held today in Tehran at in the main Judiciary building. Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ali Larijani, Ahmad Jannati, Mohsen Rezaie, Sardar Safavi, Sardar Jafari, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, Ali Younusi, Sayed Mohammad Jahrami, Saeed Mortazavi, Ahmad Reza Radan, Mohammad Javad Larijani, Abbasali Kadkhodaie and other high-ranking officials, including MPs and ministers attended the ceremony.

11. Sadegh Larijani, in his speech said “Nobody should dare or reserve himself the right to act against the law, violate people’s right or take away their security and peace of mind”. He hinted that those who had broken the law and violated people’s rights will be brought to justice.

PressTV’s report on the event then adds, [The new judiciary chief then admitted that Iran’s judicial system has been suffering from various shortcomings, which he said should be dealt with respect to their priority. “In this critical mission, I vow not to show mercy to wrongdoers,” the newly-appointed judiciary chief said, promising to subject them to the court of law.]

12. During the ceremony, Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani sat on either side of Sadegh Larijani and it appeared they exchanged a few words.

Ahmadinejad criticized power-holders and the rich during his speech – a clear sign of his attack on Rafsanjani. PressTV quoted him as saying, “If the power-holders and the wealthy are taken to court, then there would be no place left for those who hold lower ranks to commit any wrongdoings”. He also praised the statements made by Sadegh Larijani.

Partially confirmed reports suggest that Nategh Nouri left the ceremony the minute Ahmadinejad stood up to give his speech.

13. During his speech, Rafsanjani warned the government against unjust verdicts for the defendants of recent trials. He added that, if the nation felt that detainees were not treated fairly, “society will descend into chaos”. He added that the fair treatment of detainees will further the trust among the nation’s people.

14. Partially confirmed reports from two sources, indicated that the new Judiciary Chief Larijani, plans on replacing Attorney General Saeed Mortazavi, who has been accused, as one of the principal men behind the torture and mistreatment of the detainees, besides being personally involved in the arrest of many high-ranking reformists – including Hajjarian.

15. Other reports indicate that Ali Akbar Mehrabian, who has been presented as the new Minister for Industries and Mining and Fatemeh Ajorlou, who has been presented as the new Minister of Welfare and Social Security, are going to face hurdles in the parliament because of court indictments in the past.

16. The Iranian Chief of Joint Staff, Fairouzabad, published a letter addressed to the Hidden Imam – the 12 Shi’ite Imam, who disappeared centuries ago and is said to come at the end of times – in ISNA on August 12, the letter called the protesters violent and praised the Basijis for their actions during the protests.

Full Text in English: MEMRI: Latest News

17. Khamenei has appointed Hashemi Shahroudi – the retired head of Iran’s Judiciary – to the Expediency Council and the Guardian Council.

18. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked Iran to drop all charges against Clotilde Reiss.

19. The European Students’ Union released a letter yesterday condemning the Iranian government’s attacks on university dorms. The letter accused the government of attempting to violently suppress peaceful protests in Iran.

20. Reports indicate that Jordan’s King Abdullah, sent a letter congratulating Ahmadinejad on his victory in the election.

Arrested / Released / Killed

21. New reports confirm the death of another protester, Hossien Beg Araghi, who was killed on June 20 by a single bullet to the heart on Enghelab Avenue. Araghi was 22 years old and a resident of Nabard Boulevard in southern Tehran. It has been reported that the shot was fired by plain clothed security man, while on his way home.

His body was returned to his family, five days later, after they paid a hefty sum of money. Araghi was laid to rest at Beheshte Zahra Cemetery.
Picture: http://hra-iran.net/images/phocagall…beyg-iraqi.jpg

22. Reports indicate that Hedayat Aghaie has now given a confession, stating he had a hand in the unrest.

23. Hasan Souri – a reformist from Borujerd – was arrested and taken to Tircheh Block detention center in Borujerd. Reports also indicate that a high-ranking cleric in Qom, who holds many scholarly positions and was the manager of Mousavi’s campaign wing for clerics has been arrested.

24. Good news, Amir Mohsen Mohammadi, Kaveh Mozaffari, Dr. Hosseinali Arab and Ali Asghar Khodayari were released from Evin.

Media

25. PressTV broke another barrier and displayed a bit of honest reporting.

In one of their reports, published on their website about Sadegh Larijani’s inauguration, they stated, “Following the controversial trial of post-vote detainees, a Principal lawmaker, Hamid Resaie, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that “the confessions have opened the way to dealing with the leaders of the unrest. There is no longer any reason to tolerate or compromise”.

So far, it is the only government owned newspaper that has accepted the trials are controversial.
Link to the story (English): Ahmadinejad wants certain power-holders in court

26. The websites of Reja and Iran Daily, have jointly published an article calling for Ayatollah Sane’ie, to be lashed for calling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a bastard at the end of his speech in Gorgan and for accusing the government of torturing detainees. The article also insults Sane’ie many times calling him a “slanderer”, “sinner” and “lewd”. It is worth noting that Iran Daily is considered the mouthpiece of Ahmadinejad.

27. The government has now banned Aftaabe Yazd – another newspaper who published Karroubi’s letter – as well as Sarmayeh.

28 Officials from the Judiciary are supposed to be meeting with the editor-in-chief of Etemaade Melli, to discuss the issues that brought about the temporary ban on the newspaper.

Miscellaneous

29. Pictures of Greens’ graffiti in Iran: Untitled.jpg (image)

International Protests / Events / Efforts / Warnings

30. PLEASE READ THIS FOR YOUR SAFETY’S SAKE: Safeguard Your Personal Info and Your Finances! – Why We Protest – IRAN(Jon’s note: US citizens should read this)

31. For an unofficial list of upcoming protests in the US: Protesting for Iran until they don’t have to

32. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: Julia’s Blog: Protests and rallies in Germany (subject to change w/o notice) (English and German) (Courtest of @jkshalmani)

33. A to the point website for help traumatized Greens: Healing the Green Soul

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: dbosca@gmail.com

To Helpers

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: For Bloggers, News Sites and Forum who want to republish the Green Brief Plesae Read! – Why We Protest – IRAN

– Information on Tor: Tor Browser Bundle

This page contains a listing of external mirrors of the GB, as well as various information about the GB. Links to translations are also encouraged: Category:Green Brief – Anonymous Intelligence Collective

– (A list of all the Green Briefs): The Green Briefs

– A hearty thanks to Sahar joon and S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.

Original GreenBrief at WhyWeProtest