Kerry and Iranian Elections

Feb. 24 - Michael Ledeen on the The Great Iranian Election Fiasco:

The regime clearly intends to clamp down even harder in the immediate future. Hints of this were seen in the run-up to the election, when Internet sites and foreign broadcasts were jammed, the few remaining opposition newspapers shut down, and thousands of security forces poured into the major cities. One wonders whether any Western government is prepared to speak the truth about Iran, or whether they are so determined to arrive at make-believe deals - for terrorists that are never delivered, for promises to stop the nuclear program, that are broken within minutes of their announcement, or for help fighting terrorism while the regime does everything in its power to support the terrorists - that they will play along and pretend, as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has put it, that "Iran is a democracy."

For those interested in exposing hypocrisy, it is hard to find a better example than all those noble souls who denounced Operation Iraqi Freedom as a callous operation to gain control over Iraqi oil, but who remain silent as country after country, from Europe to Japan, appeases the Iranian tyrants precisely in order to win oil concessions.

Meanwhile, the only Western leader who consistently speaks the truth about Iran is President George W. Bush, and the phony intellectuals of the West continue to call him a fool and a fascist. Meanwhile, his most likely Democrat opponent, Senator John Kerry, sends an e-mail to Tehran Times, Iran's official English-language newspaper, promising that relations between the United States and Iran would improve enormously if Kerry were to be elected next November.

That last bit, the overtures by Sen. Kerry to the mullahs, is hardly in the spirit of the real JFK, John F. Kennedy. more...

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Iran's Election Aftermath

Feb. 22 - From the IHT, Eight Iranians are dead in two incidents between protesters and police in the aftermath of Friday's elections.

Four people, including one police officer, died in Firouzabad in the Fars province in southern Iran. After a crowd marching to the governor's office to demand a recount was fired upon and one person wounded, the crowd grew and three civilians and a policeman were killed.

An additional four were killed in Izeh in the Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran when police and demonstrators clashed in a protest over election results.

(Via Instapundit.)

UPDATE: From reports from the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran and Iran va Jahan: there were additional protests at election fraud in Dehdasht where between two and nine people are reportedly killed, and this link says that the outgoing MP in Izeh was beaten by the bodyguards of a judicial official after pointing out the cheatings, went into a coma and died (that adds considerably more context to the clashes there than the first link.)

A conscript soldier was reportedly killed in clashes in Firoozabad, Fars (it's not certain which side he was on and if his death was the one said to be of a police officer in the IHT article) but the article doesn't mention further deaths. The people have set fire to the banks in Estefan in response to financial fraud.

The reports state that the security forces are composed of those who support the hardliners as well as Afghanis and Iraqi refugees here and here.

(Links via Kthy at On the Third Hand.)

Pedram has written a wonderful movie version of the situation in Iran "Hollywood style" to respond to those who wonder why the Iranians don't just Get up & get rid of their tyrants. It's incredibly funny and sad and truthful.

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Iran Elections

Feb. 21 - Some reports from Iran:

A number of election day observations at iranFilter that indicate the pressure to have evidence that you voted stamped on your ID card was intense, there were a lot of police guarding the polls and some other things noticed that were out of the ordinary.

The eyeranian added updates during the day as well as a report on some jerrymandering that was caught out. Keep scrolling, he's got some interesting things to say on a lot of subjects.

IRVAJ English

One student preparing to take her university entrance exams was told that if she had a stamp, then the academic authorities would look upon her more favourably – she would be seen as having done her civic duty.

Some of those turning up for stamps, and others just making a stand, have submitted blank ballots. Even reformist candidates who had not been disqualified boycotted the election. It's a big movement.

Read the whole thing.

(Last link via Kathy)

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Elections in Iran

Feb. 20 - Some quick hits about today's elections: Telegraph (UK) reporter David Blair compares attitudes toward the USA in Iran including something I didn't know:

Some of those who scaled the embassy walls in 1979 are now among the reformist politicians who have been disqualified from contesting today's parliamentary election.

Memories of the Embassy takeover doubtless plague Americans as well as our leaders, but from what I've read around the blogosphere, Americans are increasingly impressed by those waging the struggle for freedom over there and that's the best cure for past grudges.

Americans never met a freedom fighter they didn't take to heart. We're weird that way, if not always accurate in our assessment. But in Iran, actions - or in this case, inaction - are speaking louder than words as they could face prosecution for failing to vote.

But Eye on Iran notes that streets are empty and that there have been reports of police finding truckloads of fake Iranian ID booklets which may indicate an attempt to artificially inflate the number of votes.

Keep checking Iran Filter today for news about the elections, and keep some good thoughts for those in Iran who are facing one of their biggest challenges in recent years.

Just another quick point: we often forget that Iranian bloggers are working underground, and that if caught, they are jailed. How much we take our freedoms for granted here . . .

UPDATE: The BBC is reporting that polling hours have been extended because, according to the Persian government, too many people want to vote (or is that too few?)

UPDATE: David Frum issues a call to Pres. Bush to formulate policy and strategy for Iran.

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Elections in Iran

Feb. 19 - Tomorrow are the Iranian national elections. The banning of thousands of candidates, including some sitting parliamentarians, has led to calls for a boycott of the elections, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shirin Ebadi has announced she will not vote, the Council of Guardians has made threats against boycotters, and the Ayatollah Khameini has told Iranians to vote.

The office of the main reform party, the Islamic Iran Partipation Front, was closed and sealed and two newspapers which supports the reformers were also shut down today by authorities in Iran. hoder writes from Iran:

If we really needed one thing to stop the more traditional supporters of the reform from voting, that'd be it, the closure of two major papers.

He also expresses fear that shutting down the one paper, Yaas-e No, which was the only publication permitted to be published by the main reformist party, is a prelude to shutting down the party.

The outcome of the vote is pre-determined, but the question is how many will defy the Ayatollah and boycott the elections?

Michael Ledeen at the National Review has an interesting piece up, and some of the rumours parallel those we heard last summer during the student demonstrations - that the police wouldn't break up the demonstations - with stories that soldiers from the regular army joined demonstrators in Marivan in west Iran 5 days ago.

Not all legislators have been as weak-willed as President Khatami:

The other great lesson is that many Iranians, when pushed to the wall by the tyrants, do indeed have the courage to fight back. In an unprecedented step, more than 100 reformers issued a letter to Supreme Leader Khamenei, in which they used language more traditionally reserved for greater and lesser satans in Washington and Jerusalem. They surely know that punishment will be severe, but they did it anyway. One fine day such shows of courage will inspire the Iranian people to defend them en masse, fill the public spaces of the major cities with demonstrators, and demand an end to the regime.

Some of the letter's contents are here, and Bob expresses his admiration for those who signed the letter and hopes they will be remembered for generations to come.

After a rundown of some of the candidates, Ledeen includes a chilling piece of information:

The chief of staff of the armed forces has cancelled all leaves for all military personnel starting Tuesday for one week. All soldiers have been commanded to cast their ballots in the elections on Friday, as have all members of the revolutionary guards and all air force personnel.

The fact that they have been ordered to vote is one thing, but the real threat is that all leaves are cancelled so the military is effectively in a state of alert.

There is an inherent problem with sending in the army to quell civil demonstration: the soldiers have families and communities, and they are unwilling to fire on a crowd of civilians who may include people they know. Furthermore, many soldiers are sympathetic to the aims of the demonstrators and know that many reforms passed by Parliament were rejected by the Council of Guardians.

The earthquake in Bam angered a great many Iranians who understood fully that the death toll was so high because the government was not using the wealth of the nation to upgrade the homes much less the lives of its citizens, and there is deep suspicion that the explosion that killed so many yesterday was due to the aging brake system on trains that were poorly maintained.

The elections will be covered by bloggers according to Hosseim Derakhshan (you can read his call to blog here) and they will have a site in English here for what he is calling the 9/11 for the Persian blogosphere.

I find it wryly amusing that CNN has discovered that there are Iranian bloggers and their numbers include women. Too bad CNN doesn't read Instapundit or they'd know that was hardly news.

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Iran Train Explosion

Feb. 19 - The death toll has risen to 320 and injuries to 460 from the explosion that killed 182 firefighters and flattened homes in five villages after an unattended freight train rolled out of a station before dawn and, after traveling 31 miles and reaching speeds of more than 90 mph, all but 3 of 51 cars derailed when it came to a turn near Khayyam and jumped the track.

The train had caught on fire after derailing and burned for nearly 5 hours. It was nearly extinguished when fertilizer, gasoline and industrial chemicals which were aboard exploded. The explosion measured 3.6 on the Richter scale and left a 50-foot deep crater. The firefighters, rescue workers, Governor Mojtaba Farahmand-Nekou, and officials from the city of Neyshabur including the fire chief and mayor who were on the scene were killed instantly.

The AP article makes for difficult reading, and it's even harder when we remember the devastating Bam earthquake last December that killed more than 41,000 people.

More than 20,000 mourners lined the streets as the flag-draped body of their governor, Mojtaba Farahmand-Nekou, was driven through the nearby city of Neyshabur.

The cause of the derailment has not been established, but investigators are looking at negligence or brake failure.

The Toronto Sun has coverage here.

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Iran Train Explosion

Feb. 18 - Grim news from Iran: 200 dead in a massive explosion and train derailment in northeastern Iran.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Runaway train cars carrying fuel, fertilizer and industrial chemicals derailed and exploded in northeastern Iran on Wednesday, killing more than 200 people, injuring hundreds more and devastating five nearby villages, the government news agency said.

Most of the known dead were fire and rescue workers, who died in the blast hours after the train cars derailed and caught fire. Officials in the city of Neyshabur - including the local governor, mayor and fire chief - were among those killed. (Emphasis added)

I emphasized that part because it serves as a reminder that fire and rescue workers around the world put themselves in danger so that others can be saved. Our losses on Sept. 11 are still of bitter memory, and it even flashes me back to Chernobyl, come to think of it.

Further down in the story, they are estimating that approximately 182 of the dead were firefighters.

Is it just me, or have those fire and rescue workers have truly earned their places in Paradise? The theory of jihad as a personal struggle which might involve actions like defusing land mines in Afghanistan, for example, says they did. May they rest in peace.

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Zahra Kazemi

Feb. 16 - A witness has come forward to provide more information about the events that led to Zahra Kazemi's death last July while under detention in an Iranian jail. Revealed: how photographer died after Iran prison beating reports on a segment of BBC programme This World and contends that she was still alive and conscious when taken to the hospital, but was not given timely medical attention that could have saved her life.

The guards remained with Ms Kazemi while she was seen by doctors, who ordered brain scans several times. However, no scan was done for 12 hours, by which time Ms Kazemi was in a coma.

According to the BBC's This World programme, the witness said the scan showed that Ms Kazemi's head "had been hit very hard, causing severe brain damage and bleeding".

In a situation like that, the witness said, "every second is vital". Iran's health minister, Masoud Pezeshkian, has admitted that had she been treated promptly, Ms Kazemi might be alive today.

Ms. Kazemi was arrested after taking a picture of families holding a vigil outside the prison for people insaide who had been detained during the demonstrations and subsequent crackdown that month.

There's also a recount of the actual arrest:

When Ms Kazemi was first challenged, she was told to leave her camera and collect it the following day. She refused, ripping out the film to expose the frames. Her defiance ensured she was kept in prison.

"She was confronted by the authorities and asked to give the camera and the film," said Hamid Mojtahedi, a Canadian human rights lawyer with access to officials involved in Ms Kazemi's case. "She resisted."

Read the whole thing.

(Link via Neale News.)

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Iran elections and sales of enriched uranium

Feb. 15 - Iran has announced that it will be selling enriched uranium on the international market for peaceful purposes, of course. The announcement was made by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi.

Also, over 500 candidates have withdrawn from the elections in Iran to protest the disqualification of thousands of candidates by the Council of Guardians.

The huge 67% turnout in 2000 in which the reformers took control of Parliament had led to smaller turnouts as voters have become more apathetic as promised reforms were passed by Parliament only to be vetoed by the Council. A large turnout would be seen as support for the Council of Guardians, but current predictions are for a 30% turnout (although if I'm reading this rightly, the predictions were made before today's withdrawals.)

The ayatollah has urged a strong voter turnout in the Feb. 20 elections.

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Iran Elections - Boycott Called

Feb. 3 - Although the reformers have held a majority in Parliament since 2000, laws passed to ease restrictions on speech and the press have been vetoed by the hardliners on the Council of Guardians, the judiciary and police remain under the control of the Council, critics have been beaten and jailed, and 3,600 of the 8,200 who filed to run in the Feb. 20 elections were banned by the Guardians. Although 1,160 of them were reinstated, the field of candidates remains constricted such that the conservatives have guaranteed they will hold a majority after the elections.

There are 290 seats in the Iranian Parliament, and 125 resigned on Sunday to protest the ban.

These events have prompted Iran's Leading Reform Party to Boycott Election. Islamic Iran Participation Front leader Mohammad Reza Khatami, brother of Iranian Pres. Mohammad Khatami, said ""We have no hope that free and legal elections will be held on Feb. 20. Therefore, it is impossible for the Participation Front to take part in the elections under current circumstances."

[It is unclear if the following quote was made at the same press conference as the previous quote]

"Unfortunately, at a time when the world is moving toward democracy and free elections, and we have good experience of democracy, at the 25th anniversary of our revolution, we do not see conditions appropriate for healthy competition," Mohammad Reza Khatami, the party leader, said on Monday. "The government cannot be called the reformist government anymore if it goes ahead with the vote."

The Interior Ministry has appealed for a seond time to postpone elections and review more candidates. 87 sitting members of Parliament are among those banned.

The office of Akbar Alami, an outspoken member of the reformist party and one of those who resigned on Sunday, was attacked Sunday by "hard-liners" who spray-painted slogans on the walls and severely injured an employee.

A student organization is applying for permission to hold a public demonstration on Wednesday to protest the ban.

Today's editorial in the NY Times looks at the Reformer's Endgame in Iran and notes that the anticipated conservative majority in Iran's Parliament will have more implications internally than externally:

On some international issues, that may not make much difference. The conservatives support more access for international inspectors of Iranian nuclear sites and have shown themselves open to some forms of pragmatic cooperation with the United States over Afghanistan and Iraq.

Inside Iran, however, crushing the reform movement would be felt acutely. The mullahs have failed to prepare their country for the modern world. A quarter-century after its Islamic revolution, Iran remains utterly stagnant. Its economy, supported by one of the world's largest oil reserves, is mired in corruption and mismanagement, and is failing to generate jobs and prosperity. The young are keenly frustrated. By shutting off the last safety valve within the political system, the conservatives are sowing the seeds of more radical forms of discontent.

An article from yesterday's Globe and Mail ends even more ominously:

Hardliners may have to resort to extraordinary measures - perhaps even relying on the elite revolutionary guards and other armed forces - simply to hold the elections in two weeks as scheduled.

UPDATE: Today's Telegraph (UK) closes with this:

The un-elected council, custodian of Islamic law in Iran, has already rejected the possibility of postponing the elections and threatens legal action against anyone deemed to be boycotting the polls.

UPDATE: The request to hold a demonstration to protest the banning of the candidates has been denied (Via InstaNews.)

UPDATE: Michael Ledeen thinks appeasers belong in the bottom circle of Hell with traitors. In this instance, I'd say he's being generous to call them appeasers. With the current restrictions that have been placed on the Feb. elections in Iran, a visit by US elected officials at this time is back-stabbing worthy of Brutus and Cassius. (Via Roger Simon.

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Council of Guardians bans candidates

Feb. 1 - Iran's Council of Guardians has refused to allow thousands of candidates to run in the national elections scheduled for late February. The reformists have accused them of trying to control the outcome and 117 lawmakers have resigned in protest from Parliament.

Each of those who resigned will address Parliament this week explaining why he resigned and Parliament will vote on whether to accept the resignations.

Some lawmakers have appealed to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to intervene.

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