The Latest from Iran (5 January): The Longer Game
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 21:54 
2225 GMT: Arguing Over the Mousavi Statement. Habib-allah Askaroladi, a leading principlist politician, has declared, "Today it is important not to allow the extremists to change the national scene into a battlefield.”That's not a surprising statement. This, however, raises an eyebrow: Askaroladi breaks from Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei in recommending Mir Hossein Mousavi's recent statement as a possible route to conciliation: “Nowhere in Mousavi’s statement is an about-face seen.”
2155 GMT: Diplomatic Protest. The Iranian consul in Norway has resigned in protest at his Government's treatment of the Ashura demonstrators. He is also reported to have sought asylum.
A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy would not comment on what he called lies and rumours.
2100 GMT: We've posted video of Monday's CNN interview with the former member of Parliament Fatemeh Haghighatjoo and Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi. There's also the transcript of the thoughts of former Obama Administration official Ray Takeyh.
1705 GMT: A Victory for the Government. After months of wrangling, Iran's Parliament has ratified President Ahmadinejad's economic bill aimed at gradually cutting energy and food subsidies. Of 243 members, 134 votes for a reform subsidy organization to enforce the plan.
NEW Latest Iran Video and Transcript: Haghighatjoo and Marandi on CNN (4 January)
NEW Iran: How Outside “Help” Can Hurt the Green Movement
Latest Iran Video: Maziar Bahari on Britain’s Channel 4
Iran: Five Expatriate Intellectuals Issue “The Demands of the Green Movement”
Latest Iran Video: Interview with Committee of Human Rights Reporters (3 January)
Iran: In Defence of Mousavi’s “5 Proposals”
Iran: The Genius of Washington’s “Strategic Leaking” on Nukes & Sanctions
The Latest from Iran (4 January): Watching and Debating
The breakthrough came with a compromise on oversight, insisted upon by Parliament, The Supreme Iranian Audit Court, charged with supervising "financial operations and activities" of organizations which benefit from the state budget, will monitor the organization and submit reports on its performance twice a year.
1635 GMT: Patrolling the Cyber-Revolution. Iranian authorities have reiterated that access to filtered websites is a crime, complementing the declaration by the Ministry of Intelligence yesterday of criminal activity for any association with more than 60 "foreign groups", such as Yale University, accused of fomenting insurrection.
1630 GMT: Apologies for no update service for most of today, as Internet access has been impossible out of my location in Beirut.
0555 GMT: Jackson Swayze, Neda...Ahmadinejad/Khamenei? Austin Heap reports the message that went up when the President's website was hacked:
Dear God, In 2009 you took my favorite singer –-- Michael Jackson, my
favorite actress –-- Farrah Fawcett, my favorite actor –-- Patrick Swayze, my
favorite voice –-- Neda.
Please, please, don’t forget my favorite politician – Ahmadinejad and my
favorite dictator – Khamenei in the year 2010. Thank you.
0530 GMT: Another Jail Sentence. Journalist Bahman Ahmadi Amoui, arrested in June, has been sentenced to seven years and four months in prison and 34 lashes.
0525 GMT: The Letter of the Professors. A story we saw on Sunday but let slip because we were not sure of the significance --- by last night, it was the lead Iran story in Western media such as The New York Times.
Almost 90 academics on the Technical Faculty of Tehran University signed an open letter to the Supreme Leader calling for the end of violence against protesters: “Nighttime attacks on defenseless student dormitories and daytime assaults on students at university campuses, venues of education and learning, is not a sign of strength. Nor is beating up students and their mass imprisonment.”
0520 GMT: Still No Cyber-Mahmoud. The President hasn't been able to blog from his travels in Tajikistan/Turkmenistan, as his website is still down.
0510 GMT: It is becoming clear that the Green movement is in a phase of regrouping and maintaining a lower public profile. There are no immediate markers for protest before the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on 22 Bahman (11 February), although there was some chatter yesterday about a "40th day" memorial on 7 February for those killed on Ashura last week.
After an intense phase of discussion of the Mousavi statement on Sunday, there was less to note politically yesterday. Much of the Internet attention was on the "10 demands" of the five expatriate Iranian intellectuals, although it is still unclear how much impact their statement will have inside Iran.
Less news also from the regime. There was the flutter that "foreign nationals" had been arrested on Ashura, but nothing further emerged during the day. Less news of arrests as well --- perhaps because the Government is running out of targets to detain --- so last night was led by the seriousness/black comedy of the "blacklist" of 80/62/60 foreign organisations that are off-limits to Iranians.
Reader Comments (20)
[...] from: The Latest from Iran (5 January): The Longer Game | Enduring America Share and [...]
When I try to get to this article from the right nav bar it redirects to some other site! What's up with that?
Rev Magdalen can you drop us a line and explain more?
http://enduringamerica.com/contact/
(We may still be having issues with the server migration that happened yesterday, but I'd like to check.)
Also, you're not clicking on the trackback from http://godisgreat.datgms.com/23219/the-latest-from-iran-5-january-the-longer-game-enduring-america/ under the 'Join The Debate' column are you?
Mike Dunn and EA team, khasteh nabashid!
Thanks for keeping us update despite all additional technical tasks.
Could not resist to post this: Peyke Iran reports on the Emirates selling women's underwear, produced in China, with the Iranian flag! http://www.peykeiran.com/Content.aspx?ID=11742
In reaction to that angry Iranian salesmen ordered women's underwear from China with Obama's name and the American flag. I wonder, which of them will be sold out first ;-)
Ah ok I guess I was clicking the trackback link instead! Whew! Thanks Mr. Dunn!
Rev, that's a relief :) Thanks for keeping an eye on things.
Wow! Michael Jackson, Ahmadi and Mullah Khamenei all in one box!!!
Arshama
It's too bad that your site is in german and I don't understand even one word ! otherwise I will be there everyday, I like your mind and your spirit !
And I am on EA because I love also those qualities cited above and all our team ! :-)
A must-read analysis from blogger Homylafayette of videos surrounding a female protester run over by a police car on Ashura, whose corpse was then refused by a government medical center.
http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2010/01/close-up-medical-center-rejects-body-of.html
The blogger notes that this killing occurred several kilometers to the west of Vali Asr square, where separate videos show two police vehicles plowing through protesters and killing at least one person in a separate incident.
Ange Paris, vous etes vraiment un ange :-)
The headings are in German, but in fact most links refer to English or Persian articles and more rarely even to French contributions. Do not hesitate to click on them, they are mostly not cryptical. I feel obliged to pass on a news summary to German readers, who are not familiar with Iran, especially in reaction to a German Iran-bashing site. The number of relevant English sites is overwhelming, and EA is certainly the most comprehensive.
According to Peyke Iran Norwegian TV reported that Mohammad Reza Heydari, consul of IRI embassy in Norway, resigned out of protest against brutal attacks on demonstrators on Ashura: http://www.peykeiran.com/Content.aspx?ID=11771
We need more like him.
Is it possible to get a list of the 60/ 66/ 88 sites and organizations put together. It helps all Iranians the more we publicize the list, for when we know, we can ensure safety when communicating. No one really pays these things said by the government attention any more in Iran, but knowing, it will ensure people to be running extra security and protection on their PC when visiting any of these sites for example
One small thought.
I wonder if there is any truth to this
http://mikverbrugge.tumblr.com/post/298523281/leaked-urgent-and-top-secret-letter-by-expediency
I wonder if there is any truth to this
http://mikverbrugge.tumblr.com/post/298523281/leaked-urgent-and-top-secret-letter-by-expediency
As reported to us by an insider we have concluded that this is delusional.
There are many bricks in a brick wall. The wall is strong and cannot be pushed over. But remove just a few individual, not-very-important bricks and it is severely weakened.
Can someone kindly translate this please
http://www.roozonline.com/persian/news/newsitem/article/2010/january/05//-9fc0253a36.html
Barry
AT LAST! - Regime and Regime opposition find something to agree on!
Kerry is not going to Iran.
http://www.personalliberty.com/news/john-kerry-refused-permission-to-visit-iran-19538745/
Barry
Another terrible op-ed in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/opinion/06leverett.html?pagewanted=1
And this guy's supposed to be an "expert" on Iran...
Sabbah,
We have been treating this claim, as well as similar declarations from the same source since the autumn, as rumour.
S.