Wednesday
Aug122009
The Latest from Iran (12 August): Two Months Later
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 21:59
NEW Translation: Mousavi on Detentions, "Foreign Interference", and Islamic Republic (12 August)
NEW Spinning Israel's War of Words: The Times of London, Iran's Bombs, and Hezbollah
NEW Translated Text: The Indictment in the Tehran Trials
Iran Special Announcement: Supreme Leader Looking for (Facebook) Friends
The Latest from Iran (11 August): A Change in Prayers and a Pause
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2050 GMT: We've posted the English translation of Mir Hossein Mousavi's statement today. The text goes beyond our initial analysis (1700 GMT): this is a concerted and, in my opinion, clever attempt to turn the "foreign interference" charge back on the regime. It is the Government's actions such as detentions, propaganda, and lies, Mousavi says, that makes the Islamic Republic vulnerable to the manipulations of powers such as the United States.
1910 GMT: Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastghaib has asked for an emergency meeting of the Assembly of Experts, saying it is the duty of the Experts to the Iranian people "to maintain the Constitution".
1855 GMT: Mehdi Karroubi has responded to Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani's statement that he "wanted evidence" of allegations of detainee abuse, contained in a letter from Karroubi to Hashemi Rafsanjani. A Karroubi spokesman said that information would be provided on the charges, which included rapes of women and young boys.
(A side note: it is now being claimed that state media exaggerated Larijani's statement when it said he called Karroubi's allegations of rape "a lie" --- see 0720 GMT.)
1840 GMT: Mahmoud is God. So says Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, who told a gathering of "Basij Artists", "Once the President has received the investment from the Supreme eader, the holiness of the Supreme Leader is transferred to him as well, therefore people should obey the President as if they obey God."
1815 GMT: Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, following up his criticism of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday, has said that if allegations of abuse of detainees are proven, "all the related officials should be dismissed and tried" on criminal charges.
1750 GMT: Saeed Mortazavi, the prosecutor in charge of the trials of those arrested during the post-election conflict, says the hearings for French national Clotilde Reiss have been completed, but her conviction and/or sentence has yet to be determined: "Reiss is still in jail but her trial is over and any decision on her release on bail or remaining in prison will be taken by the judge."
1735 GMT: An Iranian website has published the list of about 100 individuals who are banned from appearing on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. (No one from Enduring America is on the list...yet.)
1730 GMT: Mowj-e-Sabz, the website for the Green movement, carries the dramatic allegation that a member of the Guardian Council, in the presence of the Supreme Leader, testified to widespread "cheating" in the Presidential election.
1700 GMT: Back from break with partial question, asked in our initial update, about the next move of opposition leaders. Mir Hossein Mousavi's website, Ghalam News, has declared, "What happens in Iran's prisons these days clearly shows the necessity of a deep change in the country." The new twist is an attempt by Mousavi to turn the charges of "foreign interference" against the regime: "Could America harm Iran ... as much as these events in prisons have damaged the (1979 Islamic) revolution and the country?" (Reuters has a summary in English.)
1300 GMT: The Iranian Labor News Agency has given a guarded acknowledgement that all was not normal in the bazaar in Tehran today, referring to "the presence of security forces in the market". The article emphasised, "The market should be calm....A market with any gathering "is the opposite".
1100 GMT: Twitter reports on today's demonstration at the Central Bazaar in Tehran are offering a pattern of events common from earlier gatherings: mobile phone service cut off to hinder communication, police trying to prevent any mass grouping, and demonstrators shifting to other places.
0930 GMT: Fars News Agency reports that Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami will lead Friday prayers in Tehran. In his prayer addresses since 12 June, Khatami has taken a hard line regarding protestors, on one occasion threatening the death penalty, but has also criticised President Ahmadinejad.
0855 GMT: Shajarian Update. Good news for fans of the Iranian classical singer, who has refused to allow the broadcast of his songs on Iranian state media as a protest against President Ahmadinejad's depiction of the opposition as "dust". It seems that some of Shajarian's music will soon be available via the Internet.
0845 GMT: No confirmed information on size of protest at Central Bazaar in Tehran today, but Twitter chatter claims a significant turnout and a large presence of security forces. One live Farsi-language blog is claiming that Mir Hossein Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, joined the demonstrators and that 80 percent of the Bazaar's shops are closed.
0800 GMT: Discussion is heating up on the latest statement of Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani, which is being seen by some as an open challenge to the ultimate authority of the Supreme Leader. Zahra Rahnavard's Facebook page offers this summary: "The Supreme Leader other than being fair should also obey the constitution and comply with the Assembly of Experts and as soon as he loses these conditions will automatically loses [sic] his position."
0735 GMT: It has been officially announced that, as expected, Mohammad Sadeq Larijani (the brother of Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani) will replace Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi as head of Iran's judiciary on 15 August. Mohammad Sadeq Larijani is a member of the Assembly of Experts and of the Guardian Council; another Larijani brother, Mohammad Javad, is head of the judiciary's human rights division.
0730 GMT: Fintan Dunne in Sea of Green Radio offers an interesting analysis of Iran's release, on bail, of the French-Iranian national and French Embassy employee Nazak Afshar: "Repression of the type which the Iranian regime is attempting requires both brute force and political...savvy. The brutality has been on vivid display, but the savvy tellingly absent."
0720 GMT: Larijani Walks the Tightrope. The Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, is quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency, in response to the claims in Mehdi Karroubi's letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani, ""The issue of detainees being sexually abused is a lie. Following an investigation of detainees in Kahrizak and Evin prisons, no cases of rape and sexual abuse were found."
The denial comes only a day after Larijani called for a Parliamentary investigation of the treatment of detainees, and the Speaker has also been in the lead in requesting other enquiries into the behaviour of security forces.
Analysis? On the one hand, Larijani wants to maintain some authority for the Iranian Parliament, the Majlis, and thus some pressure on the Government. On the other, he does not want to lose control of those investigations, especially not to the Green opposition.
0705 GMT: We have just posted an English translation and a brief analysis of the indictment in the Tehran trials of almost 100 detainees.
0645 GMT: Another Warning for Ahmadinejad. Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, following the firing of the Minister of Intelligence and more than 20 other officials in the Ministry, has criticised, “The personnel of the ministries of foreign affairs, intelligence and defense … are not suddenly fired or retired in any country as such a move would create many doubts.”
Significantly, given the Parliamentary pressure on the President, the warning from Rezaei, who is Secretary of the Expediency Council, was sent in a letter to Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani.
0600 GMT: Two months ago, a Presidential election was held in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Three hours after the polls closed, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the victor with almost two-thirds of the vote.
Today that President, who was finally inaugurated a week ago, still struggles to establish his authority. On Tuesday, the "principlist" bloc, the largest in Iran's Parliament with 202 of 490 representatives, wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad insisting that his choices for Ministerial posts must have "experience and expertise". The letter comes after a day after the President had to hold an emergency meeting over the principlists amidst criticism of several of his selections for high-profile offices.
And the opposition two months later? It is still very much present, though in what numbers and what forces is unclear. After the setback of Hashemi Rafsanjani's withdrawal from Friday prayers in Tehran, activists in the Green movement is trying to rally today with marches to central bazaars in major cities. The first protests are scheduled for 10 a.m. local time (0630 GMT). The leaders of that movement have been relatively low-key in recent days, apart from Mehdi Karroubi's attempts to press for movement on the detainees issue. I
And the Supreme Leader? Well, he apparently now has his own Facebook page.
NEW Spinning Israel's War of Words: The Times of London, Iran's Bombs, and Hezbollah
NEW Translated Text: The Indictment in the Tehran Trials
Iran Special Announcement: Supreme Leader Looking for (Facebook) Friends
The Latest from Iran (11 August): A Change in Prayers and a Pause
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
2050 GMT: We've posted the English translation of Mir Hossein Mousavi's statement today. The text goes beyond our initial analysis (1700 GMT): this is a concerted and, in my opinion, clever attempt to turn the "foreign interference" charge back on the regime. It is the Government's actions such as detentions, propaganda, and lies, Mousavi says, that makes the Islamic Republic vulnerable to the manipulations of powers such as the United States.
1910 GMT: Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastghaib has asked for an emergency meeting of the Assembly of Experts, saying it is the duty of the Experts to the Iranian people "to maintain the Constitution".
1855 GMT: Mehdi Karroubi has responded to Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani's statement that he "wanted evidence" of allegations of detainee abuse, contained in a letter from Karroubi to Hashemi Rafsanjani. A Karroubi spokesman said that information would be provided on the charges, which included rapes of women and young boys.
(A side note: it is now being claimed that state media exaggerated Larijani's statement when it said he called Karroubi's allegations of rape "a lie" --- see 0720 GMT.)
1840 GMT: Mahmoud is God. So says Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, who told a gathering of "Basij Artists", "Once the President has received the investment from the Supreme eader, the holiness of the Supreme Leader is transferred to him as well, therefore people should obey the President as if they obey God."
1815 GMT: Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, following up his criticism of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday, has said that if allegations of abuse of detainees are proven, "all the related officials should be dismissed and tried" on criminal charges.
1750 GMT: Saeed Mortazavi, the prosecutor in charge of the trials of those arrested during the post-election conflict, says the hearings for French national Clotilde Reiss have been completed, but her conviction and/or sentence has yet to be determined: "Reiss is still in jail but her trial is over and any decision on her release on bail or remaining in prison will be taken by the judge."
1735 GMT: An Iranian website has published the list of about 100 individuals who are banned from appearing on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. (No one from Enduring America is on the list...yet.)
1730 GMT: Mowj-e-Sabz, the website for the Green movement, carries the dramatic allegation that a member of the Guardian Council, in the presence of the Supreme Leader, testified to widespread "cheating" in the Presidential election.
1700 GMT: Back from break with partial question, asked in our initial update, about the next move of opposition leaders. Mir Hossein Mousavi's website, Ghalam News, has declared, "What happens in Iran's prisons these days clearly shows the necessity of a deep change in the country." The new twist is an attempt by Mousavi to turn the charges of "foreign interference" against the regime: "Could America harm Iran ... as much as these events in prisons have damaged the (1979 Islamic) revolution and the country?" (Reuters has a summary in English.)
1300 GMT: The Iranian Labor News Agency has given a guarded acknowledgement that all was not normal in the bazaar in Tehran today, referring to "the presence of security forces in the market". The article emphasised, "The market should be calm....A market with any gathering "is the opposite".
1100 GMT: Twitter reports on today's demonstration at the Central Bazaar in Tehran are offering a pattern of events common from earlier gatherings: mobile phone service cut off to hinder communication, police trying to prevent any mass grouping, and demonstrators shifting to other places.
0930 GMT: Fars News Agency reports that Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami will lead Friday prayers in Tehran. In his prayer addresses since 12 June, Khatami has taken a hard line regarding protestors, on one occasion threatening the death penalty, but has also criticised President Ahmadinejad.
0855 GMT: Shajarian Update. Good news for fans of the Iranian classical singer, who has refused to allow the broadcast of his songs on Iranian state media as a protest against President Ahmadinejad's depiction of the opposition as "dust". It seems that some of Shajarian's music will soon be available via the Internet.
0845 GMT: No confirmed information on size of protest at Central Bazaar in Tehran today, but Twitter chatter claims a significant turnout and a large presence of security forces. One live Farsi-language blog is claiming that Mir Hossein Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, joined the demonstrators and that 80 percent of the Bazaar's shops are closed.
0800 GMT: Discussion is heating up on the latest statement of Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani, which is being seen by some as an open challenge to the ultimate authority of the Supreme Leader. Zahra Rahnavard's Facebook page offers this summary: "The Supreme Leader other than being fair should also obey the constitution and comply with the Assembly of Experts and as soon as he loses these conditions will automatically loses [sic] his position."
0735 GMT: It has been officially announced that, as expected, Mohammad Sadeq Larijani (the brother of Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani) will replace Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi as head of Iran's judiciary on 15 August. Mohammad Sadeq Larijani is a member of the Assembly of Experts and of the Guardian Council; another Larijani brother, Mohammad Javad, is head of the judiciary's human rights division.
0730 GMT: Fintan Dunne in Sea of Green Radio offers an interesting analysis of Iran's release, on bail, of the French-Iranian national and French Embassy employee Nazak Afshar: "Repression of the type which the Iranian regime is attempting requires both brute force and political...savvy. The brutality has been on vivid display, but the savvy tellingly absent."
0720 GMT: Larijani Walks the Tightrope. The Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, is quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency, in response to the claims in Mehdi Karroubi's letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani, ""The issue of detainees being sexually abused is a lie. Following an investigation of detainees in Kahrizak and Evin prisons, no cases of rape and sexual abuse were found."
The denial comes only a day after Larijani called for a Parliamentary investigation of the treatment of detainees, and the Speaker has also been in the lead in requesting other enquiries into the behaviour of security forces.
Analysis? On the one hand, Larijani wants to maintain some authority for the Iranian Parliament, the Majlis, and thus some pressure on the Government. On the other, he does not want to lose control of those investigations, especially not to the Green opposition.
0705 GMT: We have just posted an English translation and a brief analysis of the indictment in the Tehran trials of almost 100 detainees.
0645 GMT: Another Warning for Ahmadinejad. Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, following the firing of the Minister of Intelligence and more than 20 other officials in the Ministry, has criticised, “The personnel of the ministries of foreign affairs, intelligence and defense … are not suddenly fired or retired in any country as such a move would create many doubts.”
Significantly, given the Parliamentary pressure on the President, the warning from Rezaei, who is Secretary of the Expediency Council, was sent in a letter to Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani.
0600 GMT: Two months ago, a Presidential election was held in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Three hours after the polls closed, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the victor with almost two-thirds of the vote.
Today that President, who was finally inaugurated a week ago, still struggles to establish his authority. On Tuesday, the "principlist" bloc, the largest in Iran's Parliament with 202 of 490 representatives, wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad insisting that his choices for Ministerial posts must have "experience and expertise". The letter comes after a day after the President had to hold an emergency meeting over the principlists amidst criticism of several of his selections for high-profile offices.
And the opposition two months later? It is still very much present, though in what numbers and what forces is unclear. After the setback of Hashemi Rafsanjani's withdrawal from Friday prayers in Tehran, activists in the Green movement is trying to rally today with marches to central bazaars in major cities. The first protests are scheduled for 10 a.m. local time (0630 GMT). The leaders of that movement have been relatively low-key in recent days, apart from Mehdi Karroubi's attempts to press for movement on the detainees issue. I
And the Supreme Leader? Well, he apparently now has his own Facebook page.
tagged Ali Larijani, Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastghaib, Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani, Fars News Agency, Guardian Council, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mehdi Karroubi, Mesbah, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohamad Reza Shajarian, Mohammad Javad Larijani, Mohammad Sadeq Larijani, Mohsen Rezaei, Mowj-e-sabz, Zahra Rahnavard in Middle East & Iran
Ali Larijani, Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastghaib, Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani, Fars News Agency, Guardian Council, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mehdi Karroubi, Mesbah, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohamad Reza Shajarian, Mohammad Javad Larijani, Mohammad Sadeq Larijani, Mohsen Rezaei, Mowj-e-sabz, Zahra Rahnavard in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (14)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=103278§ionid=351020101
Speaker's brother will replace Shahroudi
Turkey: Smuggled 18.5 billion dollars is money laundring for IRGC's drug trafficking, Saffarian Nassab from IRGC's Quds Army at Urumiyeh, cooperating with Mullah Abbassi in Beirut und Damascus: http://www.zagros.info/Gozaresh/Gozaresh-2009-5.htm
Protesters gather in Tehran bazaar; chant 'death to dictator'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3760921,00.html
We're getting reports from a few credible sources of a protest in Tehran's bazaar -- hundreds of protesters chanting "death to the dictator," many of the shops closed, police using tear gas in 15 Khordad Square. There are also reports that a small police station in the bazaar has been partially destroyed by protesters.
http://www.themajlis.org/2009/08/12/protests-in-tehrans-bazaar
Does anyone recall? Maybe my memory is wrong but didn't several members of the Parliamentary committee investigating allegations of prison abuse resign just days after the committee was formed? I can't find the story again... it was unexplained & seemed strange at the time. I could be confusing the resignations with a different situation.
LA Times has an article about a specific instance of a young man who died after being raped in prison and a second article about Larijani's statement.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-abuse12-2009aug12,0,7330964.story" rel="nofollow">Iran roiled by prison abuse claims
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-abuse13-2009aug13,0,117405.story" rel="nofollow">Iranian official denies reports that election protesters were raped in prison
In an AP story:
Amy,
Several did resign. This included the head of the committee, but it is claimed in Iranian press that he soon resumed his post.
S.
An apology to all readers for the posting of an erroneous video in a separate entry earlier today. The footage from the Tehran bazaar was from 25 July and not 12 August. Many thanks to those of you who noticed the error.
S.
Re the story on the Green site, fraud allegation, the Farsi text reads "in front of the Leader" not military leaders
Thank you --- have corrected.
S.
Scott,
Thanks for the verification. At the time it seemed like the only way the committee members could say that something wasn't right about the investigation... not that people expected a real investigation, but it says a great deal when the MPs publicly decline to participate. It reflects strongly on official statements such as denial of the prison rapes.
Mehdi Karroubi is a brave man. He says things other people can't say out loud. He, Mohsen Rezaei & Mir Hossein Mousavi are a very effective team. I had the impression that Rezaei didn't intend to be publicly involved at this point, but the outrage was too great and he could no longer work behind the scenes after the death of his friend's son.
[...] People are planning on flooding the bazaars of several major cities in Iran. Protesters are planning to go to the bazaars and urge shopkeepers to join them in the protest and [...]
[...] 3. It was reported that Zahra Rahnavard – the wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi – had indeed come to the bazaar, but as people chanted around her, she was promptly escorted out by security forces. This could not be fully confirmed and eye-witnesses have not been found to corroborate the story. [...]
[...] Karoubi has answered he will present reports of raped prisoners. Enduring America adds: (A side note: it is now being claimed that state media exaggerated Larijani’s statement when it [...]
Raping prisoners is not something new, it has been going on since the begining of revolution. Raping virgins before exceution was to keep the guards[latter to become Revolutionary] happy.
Those who take bribe have to share it too. Taking sexual satisfaction from the prisoners [men and women] is part of the bribery to the guards.
These are indeed the most demonic forces in the name of religion. Demons have hardly been this much in control