Khamenei Moved to Secure Location.
Notes from the sources outside Tehran in communication with the resistance and the bystanders, nothing confirmed, nothing can be confirmed. Above is fifteen rough seconds of a murder. No name, no location, appears to be a cell phone recording, sometime in the last news cycle, possibly at Revolutionary Square in East Tehran. Reports from source of indiscriminate by the security apparatus. Casualty counts very incomplete. Thirty mentioned, also fifty KIA. Also a report that the security forces pursued the demonstrators into the neighborhoods for the first time, and that there are arrests, beatings, severe abuse. Mousavi issued a dare to the regime within the last hours, saying that what happens next is on Khamenei. The Ayatollah is reported moved for security purposes to the citadel built near the old Shah's sister's house.
Rafsanjani.
Ayatollah Rafsanjani is directing the Mosavi resistance. Reports that Rafsanjani has been at the mullah dominated city of Qom the last days, negotiating with other mullahs. Rafsanjani said to have demanded Ahmadinejad resign, that the country be led by a counil for the interim, that a new election be held under supervision. The large city of Isfahan reported in support of Rafsanjani; and the links between Isfahan and Qom said to be controlled by Mousavi supporters. Mullahs in the large religious city of Mashad said to be among demonstrators against regime: this is confirmed by trusted source. This list is a long way around identifying that the Twelver regime is under assault. Men go to war, historians teach us about the 2oth century, not when they are strong but when they believe that waiting will make them weaker than the present.
Obama Administration.
The video coming will get worse. The White House rewrite script of Friday, replaced by Saturday, will not hold up to more shot down daughters on the ground with faces painted in blood and the stare of the dead. "The whole world is watching" trope by POTUS is so old it has whiskers when you use it in response to a mobile phone glimpse of a fresh corpse. The murdered woman has a name. We will get it. The Twelvers are a murder cult. War crime tribunals are coming once we outlast the missiles and the nukes. I do not have the Farsi of the scream on the video, but we get the point. Grief and rage and insanity coming. Reminds of that moment in May 4, 1970 when we 20-somethings saw that the chaos of the Vietnam war had just come home to Kent State and that the guys in charge in Washington had lost control of the narrative. "Four dead in Ohio" is what we called it once upon a time in America. "What if you knew her, and saw her dead on the ground, how can you run when you know?" This is trouble with a boldface capital T. Long knives. Jaw jaw back in the drawer. Warm up the jets. Move the fleet. The Twelvers are going for all of it. Eye on the Kim regime. IDF lock and load.
Her name is Neda, which roughly translates to "voice" in Persian. You can hear her father scream her name on the original tape.
Mousavi has been Rafsanjani's boy - JB helps confirm my suspicions that Rafsanjani is trying to orchestrate events into a coup where his faction will replace Khomenei and Ahmadinejad. Meanwhile, the people want them all gone but may be stuck with Rafsanjani after all their blood is spilled.
Didn't a bunch of student protesters take to the streets of Tehran back in the late Seventies, too? I seem to remember hearing something abut how a bunch of folks in this country supported their brave and idealistic struggle against some tyrannical regime or other. There was even talk of spreading democracy and so on. I'm not sure, but I think that the ailing strongman finally skipped town. How'd that work out, anyhow?
As is always the case, the people suffer when the big boys can't get along. BC makes a good point. America has no dog in this fight. Nothing will change for us whoever wins. I'm dying to know how Obama sees this. He's being awfully circumspect. Still, he must have a private preference. Is he beginning to realize that the regime he once embraced (or still embraces) consists of murderous thugs? Or is he quietly rooting against the people. Is he as blind to the the Iranian people's plight as he is to the plight of the American muddle class. Does he view them as a potential threat once the effects of his re-distribution policies begin to hit home? Is that why he is reconstituting catalist; funding ACORN; and organizing his private Civillian National Security Force?
Neda's death changed the game. It's no longer a struggle between elite factions. An Iranian tweet captures the emotion on the streets: "What should we do for revolution to reach its final destination? Or should we be satisfied with Mousavi in power under the same regime?" Mousavi and his backers opened the flood gates. There's no turning back.
Having no dog in the fight applies to anyone anywhere on the globe, doesn't it?
A few Islamic fundamentalists, manifesting in the form of terrorism, have proclaimed war on US and all freedom loving people. Remembeer?
And mostly against their own people, who they say they care for so much for.
Obama and the NSC are not blind to the evolution of this extraordinarily dynamic situation. Saturday's written statement from the WH on the sit in Iran was posted exclusively to the WH Twitter profile.
>Obama and the NSC are not blind to the evolution
Perhaps not, but two things are clear:
1) This bunch is not fast on its feet except when it comes to reflexive denunciations of conservatives and Republicans. Those are the only real enemies they ever see when they scan the horizon.
2) Cognitive lock comes easily to them. They will arrange their policy responses around trying to preserve as much as possible of their original plan to negotiate with the ruling thugs because they do not expect them to lose. They don't expect the thugs to lose because they didn't see this whole explosion coming. And they didn't see it coming because they had this great plan . . .
Iran revolt 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PkB0ATbNkI
Iran revolt 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyKQSekWq-4
Iran revolt 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNrYy7oTqGw
Fighting off repression to earn one's freedom is bloody, nasty and serious business, but something that only you can do for yourself. My prayer is that the Iranian people are tough enough, resourceful enough and committed enough to see this to a successful conclusion.
In the end, it may be the one thing that can save the people of Iran from what will surely be hell on earth when the Israelis are forced to eliminate the unacceptable nuclear threat from the Butchers of Qom.
Let Us Hope!
With the obvious intrigue and mischievousness and mystery, I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe that the Iranian situation is actually mercurial.
Having found a broken medical thermometer the other evening, I struggled with the realization that a toxic poison had been let loose in our home and worse than that, I immediately knew that I had left the thermometer on the kitchen counter after checking one of my kids because he had been vomiting earlier and had felt a little warm. Yes, there was no doubt, he had gotten it and had bitten the end off of it and not only had ingested mercury, but, also had microscopic glass in his system, as well as, the little bulbous end that housed the poison.
After questioning the four year old and understanding what he was telling me, it was undeniable that he had done exactly as I thought. I snatched him up and started trying make him throw up even more than he was already and went to the internet to get information and speedily read through the offerings (one with a headline that 100 trained personnel had been mobilized to a residence somewhere in the US because of a broken thermometer) and then panic ensued. The search was on for the poison, the glass, and mostly for the comfort that all was well and that there was no chance that this kid had bitten the thermometer, swallowed the mercury and glass, and was in immediate danger.
In short, with the help of a flashlight, I found the glass pieces and the bulb, and on the tiled floor I found all these tiny beads of bright silver scattered about and a larger bead of the ?metal?. Not having seen this phenomena of nature on the loose in many years, I just had to play with it and I pushed the larger bead around using a leaf that was shed by my Ficus for a prod and collected all of the little beads into the larger mass.
Being relieved, I turned my attention back to the child and why he had told me that he had bitten the end off of the thermometer. He said, “See, I told you I didn’t swallow it.” Apparently, he had just been repeating what I was asking him. Obviously, he had gotten the thermometer out of its case and dropped it on the floor and I had wrongly assumed the worst.
Mousavi may have had a transfiguration into the largest bead of elemental mercury that is not magnetic, but, by nature, may be capable of integrating all the broken off little beads back into the larger mass. First comes the panic of the liquid being described as a metal (or is it the metal having the properties of a liquid?)
According to a post today at Infidel Bloggers Alliance, her name was Neda Soltani.
They have what is purported to be a photo of her, as well as a second video of her death throes, this from a different angle.
As awful as it is to watch, it is important.
As the video unfolds, she seems to be in shock, so we might comfort ourselves that she is unaware.
The screams of her father build as we see the life escaping from her.
And this on Father's Day.
May she not have died in vain.
- pupista
JB -
Can you give us the link to the "dumb and dumber" vid you and Arian discussed Sun. nite? So much gravity and powerful tragedy this week, we could use a little comic relief.
The Army is key, not the Religious guards, not the police, but the Army. If the Army turns, all is lost for the Mullahs, they will be dead before they can get to the airport and fly to Beijing or Luzerne. The Army has Radio communications guns and tanks, and know how to use all three.
Will the army shoot on their own? Perhaps, if they are cornered.
Have any Military/Psych Ops people gone to Tehran? Beijing is certainly watching with a worried eye. Everyone in China's Cities has a Cell phone.
I won't say why Tienanmen worked, but the protesters must appeal to the Army to join them.
Will there be a Chowchesku (SP) moment?
Iran is very similar to Romania, the people hate their leaders. Hate is a very powerful word. The mullahs have lost the "Mandate of Heaven" I pray for Iran and their Freedom.
Comparisons to the collapse of the Soviet Union are perhaps inevitable but might not be particularly helpful in the case of Iran. Still, if they manage to seize power from Khamenei & Co., isn't it possible that the Rafsanjani-Mousavi faction might wind up playing the Gorbachev role? Specifically, with his glasnost and perestroika Gorbo was actually trying to save the Soviet Empire and Soviet Communism but instead unwittingly sealed its doom when he lost control of events and wound up playing Sorcerer's Apprentice to the liberalizing forces he'd helped unloose. My point is that while substituting one pack of Twelvers for another is not in itself much of an improvement, the Rafsanjani-Mousavi faction might discover that they are not able to put the toothpaste back in the tube, that just enough of the Iranian people have enjoyed just enough of a taste of liberty to like it and want more. In that case, the mullahcracy could implode despite the intentions of the Rafsanjani-Mousavi faction to perpetuate it.
Moreover, just as Gorbachev and his fellow "reformers" hailed from the security apparatus because they were thus in a position to know the hard truths about the Soviet situation, in Iran we need to watch which way the Revolutionary Guards (as opposed to the Basiji street thugs) jump. If enough of them abandon Khamenei-Ahmadinejad to side with Rafsanjani-Mousavi and, therefore, with the demonstrators, that can only improve the chances of some genie or other unexpectedly escaping from his bottle to create unlooked-for and perhaps serious threats to the Twelver regime itself.
As for US policy, under the circumstances I am not criticizing President Obama too harshly for being circumspect, if that is really what he's doing. When President Reagan denounced martial law in Poland and other Communist outrages in no uncertain terms, he could appeal not only to the great principles of liberty and human rights but also to a series of positive agreements, such as the Helsinki Accords, that the Soviet Union and its satellites had specifically undertaken to observe. In contrast, the Twelvers have undertaken nothing except their stated intention to take Iran nuclear and then continue to slaughter or enslave Jews, Christians, dissenting Muslims, etc., thus putting Obama in a weaker diplomatic/legal position than Reagan was. That said, however, I fear that with his circumspection Obama may be doing the defensible for the sake of the indefensible, i.e., clinging to his vision of sitting down with blood enemies like Ahmadinejad and negotiating "peace," as he will insist on calling it, rather than promoting regime change, thus to prove that he is not only the non-Reagan but also the anti-Bush.
We should have no doubt that all dictators and regimes ruling over fear societies are watching Iran. Freedom seekers in the diapsora who are running grassroots campaigns are also watching. And they are being inspired.
"Iran is very similar to Romania, the people hate their leaders." Look closer to home, Sapientia. It's not so much that we hate our leaders (it hasn't come to that point yet), it's more that we don't trust them. "More ballots counted than eligible voters in any given district." Where have heard that one before? IG's fired for no legitimate reason (only to protect Obama's friends). Taxpayer's TARP money unaccounted for. Billions in treasury bills (real or fake) in suitcases awash along international borders. The numbers re Obama's welfare programs not adding up. Obama's policies of trying to play nice, nice with corrupt and brutal foreign leaders while dumping on long-time trusted allies. Obama strangling the development of U.S. energy resources. Obama strangling industry. Obama unleashing the IRS (on perceived enemies). Obama rewarding car dealerships that supported his election and closing those who didn't. Obama building an army of brown shirts apart from the military and local law enforcement agencies.
I can hear some of you say, "Peter, you're being paranoid. Obama is a good, God-fearing man. He's doing his best, given the mess he inherited (from Bush). Give him a chance!"
Perhaps you're right. Perhaps I'm over-reacting. I just find it extremely troubling that not a single soul with clout, either in the government or in the press, is pursuing any of the issues I have just mentioned. Only discredited, scorned and vilified talk radio is asking questions. Who exactly and how many are we insuring for a trillion dollars? Do the math! Divide a trillion dollars by the legitimate number of the currently uninsured. This will give you what this new government insurance policy will be costing us. I doubt that any of us who are currently paying health insurance premiums is paying anywhere close to what Obama is willing to spend on our behalf.