Tehran Burning
Michael Totten has the best video from the scene that I've run across yet. It looks like tens of thousands of Iranian youths have taken to the streets. They are so many, the government security officers are running away from them. And as Totten notes, they're not chanting "'Death to America' or 'Death to Israel,' but 'Death to the Government.'" As an aside here, I have to offer a belated apology to Totten. When he first quit his job to go report from the Middle East, I mocked him as just another right wing, warmongering hack looking to push the GOP propaganda and cash in on the gullible rubes. But although I think that he sometimes omits certain perspectives from his narratives to favor a more right wing view, in general he has evolved into a good and neutral reporter. I've been impressed with his work in the last year or so that I've started reading him again.
But back to the point, the government had blocked most avenues of electronic communication yesterday but they neglected to shut down Twitter and the Iranians used this "silly" social network to organize a huge rooftop protest. Reports say the shouts of "Allah O Akbar" were deafening at 4:00am and the action is being compared to the 1979 revolution.
Certainly the circumstantial evidence points to election fraud. Juan Cole has a list of weird anomalies and the huge margins for Ahmadinejad in Mousavi strongholds surely suggest a hasty hamfisted attempt to skew the count. Meanwhile, Steve Clemmons' source is predicting there will be blood at the highest levels." He's talking about the possible death of Mousavi or the assassination of Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.
Still too soon to predict the final outcome but as I watch this unfold I can't help but think how different the world would be today if Americans had shown this same level of outrage in 2000 and 2004 when our own election results were as seriously suspect. Otherwise, I don't have much more to say but of course, there's no lack of commentary at Memeorandum.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
But back to the point, the government had blocked most avenues of electronic communication yesterday but they neglected to shut down Twitter and the Iranians used this "silly" social network to organize a huge rooftop protest. Reports say the shouts of "Allah O Akbar" were deafening at 4:00am and the action is being compared to the 1979 revolution.
Certainly the circumstantial evidence points to election fraud. Juan Cole has a list of weird anomalies and the huge margins for Ahmadinejad in Mousavi strongholds surely suggest a hasty hamfisted attempt to skew the count. Meanwhile, Steve Clemmons' source is predicting there will be blood at the highest levels." He's talking about the possible death of Mousavi or the assassination of Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.
Still too soon to predict the final outcome but as I watch this unfold I can't help but think how different the world would be today if Americans had shown this same level of outrage in 2000 and 2004 when our own election results were as seriously suspect. Otherwise, I don't have much more to say but of course, there's no lack of commentary at Memeorandum.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
Labels: Iran, World politics
posted by Libby Spencer at 11:27 AM
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