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John Kerry Wisely Warns Against Sabre Rattling
according to hospital doctors in Iran the attacks on civilians are from the chest up. they are taking and burrying the bodies b4 family sees
female med student says that they would not let the injured tell the docs their name. she had 13 yr old boy die and disappear unknown name
I want more than just a new president, I want an end to this brutal regime.
(just received from his office) I am very interested in this, having gone to University with some of those who desperately hated the Shah, who was supported by our regime here. I am republishing it here because JFK makes clear the history involving Mosadeq, Shah Reza Pahlavi and the change from more moderates to hardliners because of our sabre-rattling and meddling, which have arguably worsened the situation. (read about that below - article published as sent from his office and as also seen today at New York Times and at )
No less a figure than Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, has denounced President Obama’s response as “tepid.” He has also claimed that “if we are steadfast eventually the Iranian people will prevail.”
Mr. McCain’s rhetoric, of course, would be cathartic for any American policy maker weary of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hostile message of division. We are all inspired by Iran’s peaceful demonstrations, the likes of which have not been seen there in three decades. Our sympathies are with those Iranians who seek a more respectful, cooperative relationship with the world. Watching heartbreaking video images of Basij paramilitaries terrorizing protesters, we feel the temptation to respond emotionally.
We can’t escape the reality that for reformers in Tehran to have any hope for success, Iran’s election must be about Iran — not America.
To understand this, we need only listen to the demonstrators. Their signs, slogans and Twitter postings say nothing about getting help from Washington — instead they are adapting the language of their own revolution. When Iranians shout “Allahu Akbar” from rooftops, they are repackaging the signature gesture of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Mir Hussein Moussavi, the leading reformist presidential candidate, has advocated a more conciliatory approach to America. But his political legitimacy comes from his revolutionary credentials for helping overthrow an American-backed shah — a history that today helps protect protesters against accusations of being an American “fifth column.”
What comes next in Iran is unclear. What is clear is that the tough talk that Senator McCain advocates got us nowhere for the last eight years. Our saber-rattling only empowered hard-liners and put reformers on the defensive. An Iranian president who advocated a “dialogue among civilizations” and societal reforms was replaced by one who denied the Holocaust and routinely called for the destruction of Israel.
The last thing we should do is give Mr. Ahmadinejad an opportunity to evoke the 1953 American-sponsored coup, which ousted Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and returned Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to power. Doing so would only allow him to cast himself as a modern-day Mossadegh, standing up for principle against a Western puppet.
Words are important. President Obama has made that clear in devising a new approach to Iran and the wider Muslim world. In offering negotiation and conciliation, he has put the region’s extremists on the defensive.
We have seen the results of this new vision already. His outreach may have helped to make a difference in the election last week in Lebanon, where a pro-Western coalition surprised many by winning a resounding victory.
We’re seeing signs that it’s having an impact in Iran as well. Returning to harsh criticism now would only erase this progress, empower hard-liners in Iran who want to see negotiations fail and undercut those who have risen up in support of a better relationship.
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June 20, 2009
Supreme Leader Calls Iran Election Fair
By NAZILA FATHI and ALAN COWELL
TEHRAN — In his first public response to days of protests, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sternly warned opponents Friday to stay off the streets and denied opposition claims that last week’s disputed election was rigged, praising the ballot as an “epic moment that became a historic moment.”
In a somber and lengthy sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran, he called directly for an end to the protests by hundreds of thousands of Iranians demanding for a new election.
“Street challenge is not acceptable,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “This is challenging democracy after the elections.” He said opposition leaders would be “held responsible for chaos” if they did not end the protests.
His remarks seemed to deepen the confrontation between Iran’s rulers and supporters of the main opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who have accused the authorities of rigging the vote.
Ayatollah Khamenei urged dissenters to pursue their complaints about the June 12 only through legal channels, insisting that the turnout — officially put at 85 percent — showed the ballot to be a reflection of the national will.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/world/middleeast/20iran.html
*****
Ayatollah Khamenei = Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson in 2000, except this Iranian election was even less honest.
For the story of British and American meddling in Iran, see Steven Kinzer's "All the Shah's Men"
http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/047018549X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/should-obama-speak-out-on-iran/?apage=6#comment-90695
Op-Ed Columnist
A Supreme Leader Loses His Aura as Iranians Flock to the Streets
By ROGER COHEN
TEHRAN — The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. "I swear to God," he shouted at the protesters facing him, "I have children, I have a wife, I don't want to beat people. Please go home."
A man at my side threw a rock at him. The commander, unflinching, continued to plead. There were chants of "Join us! Join us!" The unit retreated toward Revolution Street, where vast crowds eddied back and forth confronted by baton-wielding Basij militia and black-clad riot police officers on motorbikes.
Dark smoke billowed over this vast city in the late afternoon. Motorbikes were set on fire, sending bursts of bright flame skyward. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, had used his Friday sermon to declare high noon in Tehran, warning of "bloodshed and chaos" if protests over a disputed election persisted.
He got both on Saturday — and saw the hitherto sacrosanct authority of his office challenged as never before since the 1979 revolution birthed the Islamic Republic and conceived for it a leadership post standing at the very flank of the Prophet. A multitude of Iranians took their fight through a holy breach on Saturday from which there appears to be scant turning back.
Khamenei has taken a radical risk. He has factionalized himself, so losing the arbiter's lofty garb, by aligning himself with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against both Mir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition leader, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a founding father of the revolution.
He has taunted millions of Iranians by praising their unprecedented participation in an election many now view as a ballot-box putsch. He has ridiculed the notion that an official inquiry into the vote might yield a different result. He has tried pathos and he has tried pounding his lectern. In short, he has lost his aura.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/opinion/21tehran.html
June 24, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
The End of the Beginning
By ROGER COHEN
TEHRAN — Iran’s 1979 revolution took a full year to gestate. The uprising of 2009 has now ended its first phase. But the volatility ushered in by the June 12 ballot-box putsch of Iran’s New Right is certain to endure over the coming year. The Islamic Republic has been weakened.
During one of the violent clashes here in recent days, I saw a member of the riot police confront a protester holding a cell phone. “Don’t take a photograph of me!” he yelled at the young man.
“Why?” the man shouted back. “You’re not naked.”
But the Islamic Republic is. Everyone knows where everyone stands; it isn’t pretty. All the fudge that allowed a modern society to coexist with a theocracy inspired by an imam occulted in the 9th century has been swept away, leaving two Irans at war.
One of those Irans, embodied in the 12-member Guardian Council, the highest legal body, ruled in a preliminary statement on Tuesday that “no major fraud” had occurred in the vote and that its annulment was therefore impossible. Not much surprise there, in that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, made clear last week that the recount was a waste of time.
Of course, the definition of “major” is up for debate. Khamenei himself said rigging one million votes might be feasible, and the council found irregularities with three million votes.
But numbers have ceased to mean anything here. All the evidence is that percentages were simply allotted to each candidate and the votes cast backward-engineered from there. The Interior Ministry took 10 days to divulge results for all provinces. Such engineering takes time.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/opinion/24iht-edcohen.html
I give these thugs four more years before all hell break loose. They can probably hold back the tide until then. If they haven't voluntarily changed their ways by 2013-2014, however, (a period which coincides with the next scheduled Presidential election) or been able to successfully divert the revolutionary energies of our time towards an external enemy like the United States, then I expect a tidal wave of liberty to overwhelm them.
Successful revolutions take time to foment.
On all these happenings in Iran, people are very sad. In Iran, there is so much lack of good education. Our professionals are giving their best knowledge of gmat exam, mcitp certification and ccna exam for people who are willing to get knowledge. It is a great chance for Iranians to get advantage.