UPDATE 8 September: HomyLafayette, one of the foremost Twitterers and bloggers on the Iran crisis, has posted further information on the 72 people, including photographs and links to videos and stories about their lives and deaths, beginning with Hossein Akhtarzand (pictured).
Josh Shahryar of Anonymous Iran writes: Norooz, the official news outlet of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, has published the names of 72 people who have died to date during protests on the streets, in detention, or from injuries sustained during the violence in the aftermath of the elections. This is only a list of those deaths that could be fully confirmed; the number of casualties could be much higher.
The list includes 12 women and 60 men, the majority of whom were under 35. About half died in two major protests, the first mass demonstration of 15 June and the “illegal” gathering on 20 June. The list does not include many names that have surfaced in the past few days, such as the slain detainee Saeedeh Pour-Aghaie.
The overwhelming majority of people on the list have died in Tehran. There are a few in Isfahan and no word on casualties in other cities. Bullet wounds seem to be the major cause of death, followed closely by beatings with batons and torture at prisons.
The first 25 names are those whose families have contacted the campaigns of Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi to confirm the death of their loved ones.
1. Mr. Hossein Akhtar-Zand, 32 years old. Died on June 15 in Isfahan after being thrown down a three-story building by Basiji militia. Read the rest of this entry »
2030 GMT: No Criticism Here. Press TV’s website writes out the admonition of the Supreme Leader to President Ahmadinejad and the Cabinet to take heed of “benevolent criticism” (see 1830 GMT). Instead the report emphasizes Ayatollah Khamenei’s declaration about the legitimacy established by the election, “The nation and the Islamic Revolution have proven their republican nature. If officials, elites and political experts understand this fact, many of the country’s problems will be resolved.”
1930 GMT: Is the Regime Targeting Leaders’ Children? That’s the question asked by one of our readers, who noticed the arrest of Atefeh Emam, the 18-year old daughter of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Chief of Staff, Javad Emam, who is still detained himself. She was reportedly released earlier today, after 24 hours of continuous interrogation, near a Tehran cemetery.
Earlier in the crisis, the regime arrested several members of the family of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, and pressure has been placed this week on the son of Mehdi Karroubi.
1830 GMT: Khamenei Manoeuvres. In a line which is not that far from the “conservative” Society of Militant Clergy criticism of the President, the Supreme Leader has advised Ahmadinejad and his Cabinet: “There is internal criticism backed by foreign media with the aim of sabotage but there is also benevolent criticism which may not come from supporters of the government but they contain good comments.”
1710 GMT: Clerics Warn Ahmadinejad. The reformist Association of Teachers and Researchers of Qom have issued a statement warning that the regime cannot be maintained with military force, arrests, and brutality.
We ask the president and the government to seriously try to solve people’s problems and the country’s economic and social issues, and avoid talking about unnecessary and provocative issues. The comments made and the disrespect committed in the debates, speeches and rallies before and after the election caused divergence.
The Society criticised the opposition for pursuing demands “outside law”, but it also called for “consoling” those harmed in the unrest.
Possibly Relevant Fact: One of the members of the Society is former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.
1645 GMT: A Norooz News article, featured on Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Facebook page, says that:
“Security Forces attacked the Staff office of Mir Hossein Mousavi which was resposible for following the issues of the detainees, without any legal premisson. All documentations were confiscated and taken out to… an unknown destination. As Staff members asked for receipt, security forces answered that no documents will be given back, thus there will be no receipt !!”
(Thanks to Mike Dunn for covering, as I was stuck in traffic when this came through. We have posted as a separate entry, cleaning up some of the text and adding a brief analysis.)
This afternoon, the headlines have blared out about a sudden crisis within the Iranian regime: CNN “Iran’s supreme leader tells Ahmadinejad to dump deputy”; Reuters “Iran supreme leader wants vice president sacked”; BBC English “Iranian leader ‘orders dismissal’”. All the reports accurately summarise the story, in line with our updates today, that the Supreme Leader has sent a letter to President Ahmadinejad demanding the removal of the First Vice President Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.
According to Parleman News, the Supreme Leader ordered President Ahmadinejad to remove his choice as Vice President, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, who is also the father of Ahmadinejad’s daughter-in-law: “Without any delay, the dismissal order or Mashaei’s resignation must be announced by the President.”
OK, but what’s the big deal? Better late than never to the story, right?
Well, from a political point of view, the problem with the sudden appearance of the stories is that they give a simple portrayal of a sudden dispute between Ayatollah Khamenei and the President. The true story is that the letter was sent to Ahmadinejad privately but that sources with an interest in the battle quickly leaked the news to Iranian newspapers. For the rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as we’ve been noting on EA, there has been manoeuvring and clashing between the Supreme Leader’s camp, the President’s supporters, and other “conservative” factions. The significance of today is that Khamenei has raised the stakes once more by allowing the letter to go public.
None of that context, and thus analysis, is possible with the “out of the blue” narrative of the mainstream media. For example, none of the stories note that Ahmadinejad threw Khamenei’s letter back at the Supreme Leader later on Tuesday, with the President declaring that he was standing by Rahim-Mashai. Whereas CNN, BBC, etc. are at the starting gate on this story, the actual dispute is already halfway around the track.
From a media point of view, the lesson seems to go beyond the stories EA has been running about the place of “new media” in this crisis and those to come. This is no longer a question of who is more reliable because the mainstream media aren’t necessarily even in the competition.
In this case, the mainstream media only “found” the story when one of the news services (I suspect, though am not sure, that it was Reuters) lifted the news from Iranian state television and news agencies. Of course, none of the mainstream outlets have correspondents in Iran, given the Government’s restrictions, but — more importantly in this case — it appears that none of them have reporters reading the Iranian press, much of which is not run by State agencies but is linked to political factions. The story on Parleman News apparently never made it on the radar of CNN, BBC, etc. (What’s more, it appears that the mainstream outlets are not even keeping an eye on English-language websites covering Iran. The Parleman News report showed up quickly on the site of the National Iranian American Council.)
In contrast, “new media” like Enduring America or the “Green Brief” of Anonymous Iran, as well as bloggers like Nico Pitney at The Huffington Post, rely upon a web of sources who have sent in or analysed material from across not only the Iranian press but regional media and websites. The point about Twitter and other devices such as Google Reader, from my perspective, is that has made this web possible. Whereas the hardest-working journalist might be able to monitor only a handful of sources even a few years ago, now dozens quickly come into play. Thus the disadvantage for most of the new media — namely that we don’t have any money for full-time staff — becomes a marked advantage: we don’t have to rely on a Reuters to put out the story before we’ll write and publish.
This is no longer a matter of “to Twitter or not to Twitter”. The mainstream news services are no longer the gatekeepers of the stories because they are not at the gates. The sharpest, up-to-date coverage is coming from a new network of citizen journalists, activists, and even readers who are quick to pass on important breaking stories. It is that network that has presented the post-election Iran crisis as a continuing story, with ripples and fluctuations, rather than the mainstream media’s sudden ups and downs of “the Green Movement is here”; “the Green Movement is dead”; “the Green Movement is back”. And, now that the story is no longer of the Government v. the Movement but of tensions and shifts within the Government and regime, it is that network that will be the daily port of call to find out what is happening and what may happen.
Because when the gates are down, the view is less, not more, restricted.
It is a real honour to be involved with the launch of “Sea of Green Radio”, a co-operative venture between Anonymous Iran and Fintan Dunne. The initiative is to bring latest news and analysis via Internet-hosted audio; already broadcasts feature Josh Shahryar, the creator of the “Green Brief”.
In this chat with Fintan Dunne, I discussed he conjunction of the manoeuvres behind this Friday’s prayers, with Hashemi Rafsanjani presiding and a mass march which may include Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi, with stories of possible compromise within the Iranian system.
A confession. After several hours, we were still not certain of the significance of yesterday’s statement by the Association of Teachers and Researchers of Qom, who declared that the Government was “illegitimate”. Our initial thought was that the group was just one of a number of clerical factions, in this case a “reformist” faction such as the Assocation of Combatant Clerics linked to former President Khatami. We were not sure who the members were or what relationship they had to prominent critics of the Government such as Ayatollah Montazeri, Ayatollah Sane’i, or Ayatollah Taheri. Read the rest of this entry »
2110 GMT: According to his son, pro-reform journalist Isa Saharkhiz has been seized and taken to an undisclosed location.
2015 GMT:Reports that women’s rights activist Zeynab Peyghambarzadeh was arrested today in the “Mothers of Martyrs” rally in Laleh Park.
2000 GMT: Now This is Interesting. According to Iran Labor News Agency, Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a meeting with the families of detainees, has said post-election events had caused “bitterness” while denying there was a power struggle in the Islamic state: “I don’t think that (anybody with a) vigilant conscience is satisfied with the current situation.”
Rafsanjani’s manoeuvre should be seen as an attempt to get as much political leverage as possible while distancing himself from any call for massive change: “I hope with good management and wisdom the issues would be settled in the next days and the situation could improve … We should think about protecting the system’s long-term interests.”
So Iran’s ultimate politician is not going to make any challenge to the Supreme Leader. But here is the unknown from the interview: what does he propose as the fate of President Ahmadinejad? Read the rest of this entry »
I spent a frustrating hour yesterday on The Islam Channel discussing “The Western Media and Iran”. It was frustrating because one of the other panellists, referring to stories of demonstrations, violence, and detentions, kept repeating the mantra, “How do we know?” That question, on its own, is fair enough: indeed, it should be asked every time we post a piece of information. In this case, however, the speaker added the direct charge or implication that the demonstrations were the product of the US Government and that reports of violations of human rights were fabrications or exaggerations of the “Western” media.
So it was a useful test case this morning to read the work of Josh Shahryar, who has been blogging for “Anonymous Iran” during the crisis. Shahryar’s “Green Brief” is an excellent starting point to test what happened or may have happened in the last 24 hours. We tested some of his claims in the days after the election, and in light of continuing important (but often hard to determine or decipher) developments, I set the list today against our latest information: Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE 8 September: HomyLafayette, one of the foremost Twitterers and bloggers on the Iran crisis, has posted further information on the 72 people, including photographs and links to videos and stories about their lives and deaths, beginning with Hossein Akhtarzand (pictured).
This afternoon, the headlines have blared out about a sudden crisis within the Iranian regime: 
It is a real honour to be involved with the launch of 
A confession. After several hours, we were still not certain of 
I spent a frustrating hour yesterday on The Islam Channel discussing “The Western Media and Iran”. It was frustrating because one of the other panellists, referring to stories of demonstrations, violence, and detentions, kept repeating the mantra, “How do we know?” That question, on its own, is fair enough: indeed, it should be asked every time we post a piece of information. In this case, however, the speaker added the direct charge or implication that the demonstrations were the product of the US Government and that reports of violations of human rights were fabrications or exaggerations of the “Western” media.
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