Iran Special: Putting A Monkey Into Space (We Predicted It!)

On Thursday, Iranian state media put out the message from Hamid Fazeli, head of Iran's Space Organisation:  "The Kavoshgar-5 rocket will be launched during the month of Mordad (July 23 to August 23) with a 285-kilogram capsule carrying a monkey to an altitude of 120 kilometres."

And our minds flashed back. In February, President Ahmadinejad had unveiled a space capsule designed to take a live monkey into space. But a year before that, after Iran had put some smaller non-monkey creatures beyond the stratosphere, EA had predicted the development, albeit with our tongues in our cheeks....

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Explaining Iran (in Less than 5 Minutes): Scott Lucas on the BBC

Can the current political conflict in Iran be set out in less than five minutes? I attempted it this evening on the BBC's The World Tonight. 

The discussion starts at the 33:23 mark.

Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Maintaining the Pressure

Tanks surround Jisr al-Shughour in northwest Syria

2015 GMT: A protest in Idlib Province in northwest Syria condemns military occupations:

1925 GMT: Back from a break to find that Spain has expelled the Libyan Ambassador, Ajeli Abdussalam Ali Breni, "because the Qaddafi regime has lost all legitimacy due to its continual repression of the Libyan population."

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The Latest from Iran (16 June): Halting the Slide

2010 GMT: Public Service Announcement. I will be on the BBC's The World Tonight just after 2130 GMT, discussing the current political battle within Iran.

2005 GMT: Parliament v. President. MP Mohammad Dehghan has confirmed that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani will lead a Parliamentary committee meeting with President Ahmadinejad next week over the merger of ministries.

1955 GMT: Two Years Later. More on the open letter from Tehran University's Islamic Association to the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, demanding punishment for those who attacked university dormitories two nights after the 2009 Presidential election (see 1110 GMT)....

The Association notes that students who were detained in the raid are serving prison sentences while those who "ordered and carried out the attack" have not been brought to justice.

Plainclothes agents, riot police, and special units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps raided the dormitories. Iran's largest reformist student group claims five students were killed, but Iranian authorities have only said that "100 to 120 students were injured".

The exact number of students arrested and of casualties has never been officially released.

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Yemen Analysis: Why the US Death-by-Drone Strategy Will Not Work (Johnsen)

There are many more Islamists in Yemen --- people who went abroad to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq --- than there are members of Al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula. 

Why?

Because many of those who went abroad to fight did so to defend Muslim lands from western military aggression and when they returned they disagreed with AQAP's claim that Yemen is a legitimate theater of jihad. 

With the US launching bombs into Yemen many more individuals will join up with AQAP for the same reason they went abroad to fight: to defend their land from what they see as Western military aggression. 

As if this wasn't bad enough the US is taking it one step further and, according to the Wall Street Journal, will be targeting people according to their "pattern of life."

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US Snapshot: History is Forgotten as Voting Rights are Challenged in Florida

I have been wondering whether, later this decade, the US will celebrate the sixtieth anniversaries of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Given the track record relating to the Civil War, I’m not optimistic, yet if you are a voter in the South, or to be blunt a Southern black voter, the anniversaries will mark two of the most significant American events of the 20th century.

I know the history leading to the passing of these statutes, I have read about the hardship suffered by prospective black voters in the South before and immediately following the passing of the civil rights laws. I thought I could say that, in America, voting rights are a given these days and not an exception, regardless of race or colour.

Not quite.

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Iran Letter: Nasrin Sotoudeh to Late Haleh Sahabi "Death is Not the End for a Dove"

Death is not the end of the road for a dove,

Though it has has been three days since your sudden departure, it is still so hard to believe that you are gone. Despite our grief when hearing this sad news, we continue to pray that it is untrue. In the past three days, your name has echoed across the female political prisoner ward at Evin alongside songs of love and freedom.

Your noble story spans from three generations that have endured suffering on the road to freedom and democracy to the night when we all escorted you with tears as you left prison so that your presence may give strength to your late father who had dedicated his life for the dignity and prosperity of our country.

...but alas, rather than consoling a late father, the nation of Iran also lost a daughter...

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Iran Analysis: "The Green Movement Has Achieved Its Goal" (Jahanbegloo)

No doubt, the price of speaking truth to power was higher than expected for the Iranian civic actors. It resulted in massive arrests, Stalinist-style show trials, torture, rape, and murder. Also, the nature of Iran’s system, with its power split between two centers --- the president and the supreme leader --- has complicated and slowed down the process of change.

Even so, the Green Movement has achieved its goal by gaining the moral high ground, revealing to the world the true face of the Islamic regime, and draining away much of its political legitimacy. Further, it has hastened the end of Khomeinism by exposing the existent political rifts within the Iranian political power.

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The Latest from Iran (15 June): Two Years Ago Today, There Were Millions

2040 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Prominent reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh, imprisoned for most of the period since June 2009, has been given a three-day leave.

2015 GMT: Al Jazeera English's coverage of the Iranian regime's announcement of an enhanced "moral police" (see Tuesday's LiveBlog) to enforce proper dress and behaviour:

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Syria, Libya, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: 1st-Hand Accounts

2030 GMT: Gathering in the coastal town of Latakia in Syria tonight:

1900 GMT: Claimed footage of a demonstration in Idlib Province in Syria today, calling for the downfall of the Assad regime:

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