2200 GMT: The Dilemma. Paused when I read this statement from Trita Parsi: “Here is the central dilemma of Iranian policy: Iran’s greens need time, but Washington does not seem to think it can afford to wait.”
2150 GMT: Political Prisoner News. Reports that journalist Payman Aref has been released for ten days on a $100,000 bail.
2140 GMT: Today’s Super Spy Case. Here is one to watch: Italian authorities have rounded up five Iranians and two Italians (according to Associated Press, the BBC says two Iranians and five Italians), with two more Iranians being sought, on charges of sending arms to Iran in violation of the international embargo. Amongst those detained is the Rome correspondent of Iranian state television, Hamid Masouminejad.
After covering his health care proposals and underlining the importance of financial reform, Obama turned to foreign policy. He talked of the “Administration taking out more al-Qaeda high-level operatives”. He admitted that the decision to increased the number of troops in Afghanistan was one of the toughest he had ever made, adding that his Administration is doing a good job in getting troops out of Iraq even though it is not an easy process. On Iran, Obama reiterated the dual-track approach of engagement and sanctions.
Perhaps the most striking Obama reflection, however, was on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: “The Middle East peace process has not moved forward. And I think it’s fair to say that for all our efforts at early engagement, it is not where I want it to be.”
UPDATE 0800 GMT: Iran News Now has a spirited investigation of Time’s poll and the dropping of “Iran’s Protesters” from the final list for Person of the Year.
It may not rank with the alleged theft of June’s Presidential election, but Time magazine just put itself in the role of vote-stealing villain for many supporters of Iran’s Green Wave.
The seven finalists [for Time's Person of the Year] include Apple [Computers] CEO Steve Jobs, US Federal Reserve Charman [sic] Ben Bernanke, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Jamaican Sprinter and Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt, Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal and US President Barack Obama.
Also making the lists is “the Chinese worker,” a group of people whom TIME says “are an increasingly influential group in one of the world’s most powerful economies”.
All credible candidates for the honour of the figure or group who has made a significant impact on the world in 2009 – except maybe the one whose claim is that he runs really, really fast. But the news is who didn’t make the final cut from 10 nominees. Apparently “the Iranian People” didn’t match up to an American Congresswoman, the man leading the US Long War in Central Asia, or the iPhone guy, let alone an assembly-line machinist in Beijing.
Still, even that rejection might have fluttered into cyber-space had it not been for Time’s perverse tribute to democracy. Read the rest of this entry »
In snubbing “the Iran protester”, and thus the entire Green movement, Time magazine has managed to succeed where the Iranian regime has failed.
A group of US Congressmen introduced two proposals yesterday aimed at helping people in Iran and targeting the business interests of the regime. Meanwhile, the US State Department is trying to take control of other Congressional bills pursuing strict sanctions, asking for no introduction of the measures until 2010.
All the latest news is available on our live weblog.
Israel and Britain: There’s still some confusion over Britain’s plans with regard to Israeli opposition chair Tzipi Livni and the UK arrest warrant issued last year.
Palestine: Will President Abbas cling to his office indefinitely?
Afghanistan: Tom Englehardt points out, through “The 9 Surges of Mr Obama’s War”, how the US is committed to a long-term stay in and around its military intervention.
This article from Nick Baumann at Mother Jones is filled with political-insider information, but I think it is a significant marker of how the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has moved from an Obama pledge in January 2009 to a site for internal Administration struggle in November.
I learned several weeks ago that the Administration’s top lawyer, Gregory Craig, was going to leave or be pushed out the door, in part because his political position was fixed to the promise to shut Gitmo. I was always sceptical, given the politics of the War on Terror, that the deadline of January 2010 was going to be met, so it was no surprise that Craig would have to walk the plank.
The broader issue is that we are now in a mish-mash of measures. There will be trials in the US for a few detainees (such as 9-11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad) whom the Administration is sure will be convicted without the use of lost or discredited (i.e., obtained “via duress”) evidence. There will be military commissions for about 75 detainees whose convictions cannot be assured. And the rest of the prisoners will remain in the limbo of a Guantanamo that is open well into 2010.
Liberals have not done enough public wrestling with Massimo Calabresi and Michael Weisskopf’s Time article on the ouster of White House counsel Gregory Craig. Perhaps that’s because they don’t want to deal with the article’s troubling implications. As Kevinexplains, Craig was “the White House lawyer tasked with dismantling Bush-era interrogation and detention policies. At first, Obama was on board with Craig’s plans. Then, reality set in.” Read the rest of this entry »
2040 GMT: It’s Official: Bring It On. First we had Mir Hossein Mousavi’s statement, now we have Mehdi Karroubi’s signal that he will be joining the crowds on 13 Aban. The cleric has promised further details soon but indicated that he will be joining students at the “Polytechnic” in Tehran. This may refer to Amir Kabir University, although earlier chatter said Karroubi would be going to Sharif University.
2020 GMT: Handing Down “Justice”. The deputy head of Iran’s judiciary, Ebrahim Raeesi, has announced that sentences for 50 post-election detainees have been issued. Some detainees are appealing the verdicts, and Raeesi urged colleagues to speed up the processing of the cases.
For Raeesi, it is clear, has made his mind: “Those who have proposed the elections were fraudulent and created doubt in the public’s mind have undoubtedly committed a grave crime and naturally will have to answer for the crime they have committed.”
1930 GMT: We’ve now posted the English translation of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s statement welcoming the 13 Aban (4 November) demonstrations (see 1200 and 1215 GMT). The declaration is a spirited presentation of and for the Green movement in the context of the history of 13 Aban, Ayatollah Khomeini, and the Islamic Revolution.
And it is also a spirited criticism of Ahmadinejad’s negotiations over the nuclear programme with the United States and other countries, accusing the President of selling out Iran for the sake of his personal position: “Today, it appears that a large proportion of the product of Iran’s nuclear program, which has caused much chaos and brought a number of sanctions for the people, must be handed to another country, in hopes that they will be kind enough to offer us some fuel later on.
1740 GMT: Former President Mohammad Khatami has met with members of the Central Council of the Islamic Association of Tehran University and Tehran Medical Sciences. Khatami warned that surveillance into personal affairs of people is not allowed even in the cases of those who do not believe in the Establishment or in God, as long as they do not use weapons.
The former President emphasised that the Green movement is against violence but in the opposite side there are some who only think and act violently. Khatami said it must first be accepted that there is a crisis in the society, and then one can find the solution; if there are mistakes in analysing the current situation, there will be more problems in the future. Read the rest of this entry »
2105 GMT: Mehdi Karroubi’s website Tagheeris back on-line (see 1438 GMT).
1945 GMT: We cannot corroborate but it is being reported that flyers of Karroubi’s webcast statement (see separate entry) are being put up across Tehran.
1935 GMT: Families of political prisoners have announced that they will demonstrate on Wednesday, protesting the continued imprisonment of their relatives. If the authorities do not heed the protest, the families will continue demonstrations and begin a mass hunger strike.
1925 GMT: Kalemeh, the website associated with Mir Hossein Mousavi, has published its account of the appearance of Mousavi advisor Alireza Beheshti at the Tehran Media Fair yesterday. Beheshti was with his wife and daughter, as well as supporters, when they were surrounded by 50 to 60 people who began yelling loudly against Beheshti. Kalemeh invokes the memory of Beheshti’s father, the assassinated Ayatollah, claiming that many were reminded of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq’s chant of “Down with Beheshti”. (English summary on Mousavi Facebook page) Read the rest of this entry »
Doing his rounds of US media, including talks with NBC, The Washington Post, and Newsweek, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad spoke with Time staff just after The New York Times “revelation” of the “secret nuclear plant” but before President Obama’s statement.
2200 GMT: The Dilemma. Paused when I read this statement from Trita Parsi: “Here is the central dilemma of Iranian policy: Iran’s greens need time, but Washington does not seem to think it can afford to wait.”
UPDATE 0925 GMT: US National Public Radio is conducting 
Iran: Mr Azadi has written a 
2040 GMT: It’s Official: Bring It On. First we had Mir Hossein Mousavi’s statement, now we have Mehdi Karroubi’s signal that 
2105 GMT: Mehdi Karroubi’s website Tagheer 
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