2120 GMT: Author, translator and journalist Omid Mehregan has been released from detention.
2100 GMT: So all our watching on many fronts is overtaken by the “Iran Might Be Getting A Bomb” story. Little coming out of Iran tonight; in contrast, every “Western” news outlet is screaming about the draft International Atomic Energy report on Iran’s nuclear programme. (Funny how each, like CNN, is implying that it “obtained” an exclusive copy.)
1830 GMT: Political Prisoner News. “Green media” pull together reports that we carried last night: 50 detainees were released, including Shahabeddin Tabatabei, member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and head of youth in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mohammad Khatami, Parisa Kakaei of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, student activist Maziar Samiee, and Khosrow Ghashghai of the Freedom Movement of Iran.
EA readers notify us of news from Haiti, almost a month after the earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people.
On Saturday, the G7 nations (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and US) agreed on debt forgiveness for Haiti. Meanwhile, Britain’s Channel 4 has a special feature on a three-month baby who will die unless she can get an operation overseas for a skull injury. US military authorities, however, are refusing to let her travel because she has no papers.
2330 GMT: Mahmoud Down. Signing off tonight with this news — looks like the latest victim in the cyber-war is President Ahmadinejad’s blog.
2320 GMT: Another Rights-First Shot from the Obama Administration. Despite (possibly because of) the recent sanctions-related rush of spin in US newspapers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a moment to focus on Iran’s political conflict today, criticising the regime’s “ruthless repression” of protesters: “We have deep concerns about their behavior, we have concerns about their intentions and we are deeply disturbed by the mounting signs of ruthless repression that they are exercising against those who assemble and express viewpoints that are at variance with what the leadership of Iran wants to hear.”
2220 GMT: Have You Made “The List”? Fars News has published the names of the 60 organisations and media outlets “outed” by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence as unacceptable for contact by Iranians.
There are a lot of familiar faces, given that many of these dangerous groups were listed in indictments in the Tehran trials in August: Georges Soros’ Open Society Institute is here, as is the Carnegie Foundation, Ford Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Center, whose scholar Haleh Esfandiari was detained by the Iranians in 2007. Both the National Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute get a mention. So doe the Council on Foreign Relations, the Hoover Institute in California, Freedom House, and of course the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The National Endowment for Democracy, funded but not run by the US Government, also gets a citation, and Human Rights Watch is a definite no-go area.
Looks like we’ve missed out — in the United Kingdom, the conference centre at Wilton Park, where foreign agents must gather to plan regime change, is mentioned as is the “Centre for Democracy Studies”.
Just one question, if anyone at the Ministry of Intelligence is on Overnight Foreigner Watch: why does Yale get to be the one university to receive the Great Satan’s Helper prize? (And, yes, we’re already getting furious e-mails from our Harvard friends.)
2200 GMT: Have just arrived in Beirut, where I will be learning from the best specialists on the Middle East and Iran this week. Thanks to EA staff for finding journalist Maziar Bahari’s interview with Britain’s Channel 4. We’ve now posted the video of Bahari, who was detained for four months after the Presidential election.
2000 GMT: Britain’s Channel 4 News has just broadcast a moving interview with journalist Maziar Bahari who was held in Evin prison for 119 days. We’ll post a link when it becomes available. Chief political correspondent Jon Snow also referred back to his exclusive interview with President Ahmadinejad which took place in Shiraz just before Christmas. Ahmadinejad denied troops were intimidating opponents and warned the West not to assume his country was weak.
1540 GMT: I’m en route to a conference in the Middle East (more news tomorrow) so updates may be limited today. The EA team is minding the shop so keep sending in information and analysis. Read the rest of this entry »
2035 GMT: We’ve posted the video and full transcript of President Ahmadinejad’s interview with Britain’s Channel 4 (see 1925 GMT).
1925 GMT: Mahmoud Says All is Well. President Ahmadinejad has given another “exclusive” interview to a Western broadcaster, this time Britain’s Channel 4. Once again, the discussion started with nukes, nukes, nukes, allowing Ahmadinejad (who I suspect is pretty used to this line of questioning) to stake out his defence of the Iranian nation against Washington — “We are against the expansionist policies of the United States” — and ending in the cul-de-sac of the question, “Is the matter of extended hands finished?”
It’s the second half of the interview that is surreal, however, with Ahmadinejad’s defiance — in the face of all evidence to the contrary — “We have freedom in Iran – people are free to express their views”: Read the rest of this entry »
2145 GMT: Mowj-e-Sabz Suspends Publication. The editors and reporters of the Green Movement website Mowj-e-Sabz/Mowjcamp, a key source of information in the post-election crisis, have announced tonight that they are suspending the posting of articles.
The authors declare that this is the “end of a wave but the beginning of a path”, as they “leave the arena temporarily to other Green [activists]“. The announcement points to 22 Bahman (11 February), the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as a key date for mobilisation.
Overall impression? The Mowj-e-Sabz activists, having been under constant regime pressure and having had their domain “seized” by hackers (the announcement claims they were Russians hired by the regime) this week, are taking a step back and drawing breath. The impression is of an opposition movement preparing to move more slowly but consistently in a long-haul battle.
2130 GMT: Paying Respects. Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, have visited former Vice President and recently-released detainee Mohammad Ali Abtahi in his home.
2125 GMT: More than 900 Sharif University students have signed an open letter protesting the arrest of protesters on 16 Azar (7 December).
1920 GMT: Propaganda of the Day (2). Israeli officials are putting out the story that President Obama, on his trip to Beijing in November, “warned his Chinese counterpart that the United States would not be able to keep Israel from attacking Iranian nuclear installations for much longer”. This “part of the U.S. attempt to convince the Chinese to support strict sanctions on Tehran” matches up with leaks to the US media from a faction (probably including Dennis Ross of the National Security Council) in the Obama Administration — which we noted — that Israel would send the missiles into Iran if nothing was done about Tehran’s nuclear program.
The bigger story, however, lies beyond the spin. The Israeli officials added that the effect on Beijing was short-lived: “the Americans now understand that the Chinese agreed to join the condemnation announcement [at the International Atomic Energy Agency] only because Obama made a personal request to [Chinese leader Hu Jintao], not as part of a policy change”. They noted that China has “refused a Saudi-American initiative designed to end Chinese dependence on Iranian oil”.
If true, that means — for all the bluster of the pro-sanctions crowd in Washington in conjunction with the Israelis — any notion of economic punishment including the Chinese is a fantasy. Read the rest of this entry »
Here, in the half-hour “World News in Full” between 1300 and 1330 GMT, is Press TV English’s All You Need to Know on the current Iranian situation:
Item 1 (about nine minutes into the broadcast): Mir Hossein Mousavi “will follow up his electoral complaints through the judicial system”. No mention of the opposition campaign’s other initiatives, from “human chain” demonstration to general strike. And definitely no mention of the hundreds detained to prevent such initiatives. Followed by….
Item 2: Iran’s police chief “has called the death of Neda Agha Soltan a premediated act of murder”. Read the rest of this entry »
11:50 p.m. When Hamas Isn’t Extreme Enough….Make of this what you will. The Israeli Defense Forces say today’s bombing that killed an Israeli soldier was carried out by “an extremist pro-Iranian group, which espouses a militant ideology that surpasses even Hamas’ positions in its opposition to Israel. The group receives direct support from Tehran, but is connected in various ways to Hamas as well.”
The same article states that a group called the “Jihad and Tawhid Brigades” — “an Islamist group affiliated by Al Qa’eda” — called Ramattan TV to claim responsibility for the attack.
So we have an attack supposedly carried out on Israel by “extreme Islamsts”-Al Qa’eda-Hamas-Tehran. The perfect terrorist storm or the perfect information campaign?
A quick search turns up reports that “Jiwad and Tawhid Brigades” were formerly led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of the Iraq insurgency who was killed by US forces in June 2006.
11:40 p.m. Turkey continues to manoeuvre for a Middle Eastern re-alignment in which Hamas is a recognised political party. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan urged the Gazan leadership through Turkish newspapers, “”Hamas should make a decision. Do they want to be an armed organisation or a political movement?” At the same time, Babacan pointed noted Hamas’ support, “The party supported by Hamas got 44 per cent of the votes in the last elections. It is impossible to ignore this base.”
2120 GMT: Author, translator and journalist Omid Mehregan has been released from detention.
2330 GMT: Mahmoud Down. Signing off tonight with this news — looks like the latest victim in the cyber-war is 
2145 GMT: Mowj-e-Sabz Suspends Publication. The editors and reporters of the Green Movement website Mowj-e-Sabz/Mowjcamp, a key source of information in the post-election crisis, 
Here, in the half-hour “World News in Full” between 1300 and 1330 GMT, is Press TV English’s All You Need to Know on the current Iranian situation:
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