Monday, June 22, 2009

3rd BUMP - Freedom for Iran thread

This is to keep a current thread open for reports and commentary on the Freedom Uprising in Iran in the wake of the "Presidential Election" of June 12th.

3rd BUMP: Here is the 2nd BUMP -- Freedom for Iran thread on the Insurrection covering (linking to) matters since last Monday's The Weekly Item here at CompHyp. I linked to several more recent items of interest *in the Comments* of The Weekly Item (June 15th).

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Major media sources have picked up the tragic story of "Neda".

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General Strike calls are being heard. Here's one calling for a Strike on 23.June.

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More Calls for a General Strike; Bus Driver's Union on 26.June; repeats Activist calls for 23.June.

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Unconfirmed reports are that protesters in Tehran will be massing at the bazaar to see that the Strike there happens. Confrontation is supposed to be avoided...

While waiting for confirmation / other reports to come in, here's an article from RFL/RE: Women at the forefront of Iranian Protests.

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Iran's international "blame-game" is in full swing. Iran expelled two British diplomats late yesterday. The U.K. responded in-kind today, with some very harsh words to go with the "get out" announcement.

as reported by Reuters.
as reported by the BBC.

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UPDATE 24.June

Protests are back on in Tehran, but... The Times of London and other sources report that the Baharestan Ave. protest is being met with overwhelming force.

The protests simply have to spread back to other cities, and soon. Here's AEI Iran Tracker's running count (up to yesterday). If the numbers stay small, and concentrated in Tehran, the protesters are easy pickings for the regime.

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UPDATE 25.June

Reports are of a bazaari (shopkeepers) strike in Iranian Kurdistan that has held up since Tuesday.

It is *much* harder to get information right now, so many major media outlets are marking time with what they have in-hand from previous days.

With the G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting kicking off today in Trieste, Italy, this may be the time for the Europeans to take center stage challenging Iran (they've already begun to do so).

Of course, S. Lavrov isn't helping... unless helping Ahmadinejad counts as helping.

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Alright, this is creative. A little fun with electric systems.

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This space reserved for further updates.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michael Ledeen posts the following two day round up and speculation. He brings up a number of points, but the outcome is still hazy.

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2009/06/22/monday-night-and-tuesday-morning-in-iran/2/

Scott

L.Douglas Garrett said...

@ruggels

That's a good round-up up to today (but not of today).

He leaves the real question about the Oppos at this point unspoken, however: Who leads when it comes time to have *a* leader, and can that person be protected long enough to have a meaningful effect?

Anonymous said...

Well he was talking on the radio on one of th eSalem Radio hosts (Either Medved or Hugh Hewitt), and said that the central reason for the first Iranian Revolusion was never resolved, i that they went from and autocratic and unaccountbale shah, to an autocratic and unaccountable Ayatollah. As such the revolution is looking perhaps for soem acoutability? or at least no autocracy.

There was also some mention that a lot of the impetous of this uprising came from the Iranian women's organizations that sprouted up from the 2005 Student Uprising. What sort of flavor wil this give to the aftermath, perhaps?
In anycase i noted the Israelis seem to be of the opinion that "Mullahs or Oposition, all parties stillw ant a nukem and wil probably be still islamist falvored at the end of the day".

My hope would be for a parlimentary Democracy, with a strong tech industry.

Anonymous said...

And this about Obama's gesture of friendliness to the regime's diplomats is just sickening.

http://faustasblog.com/?p=13460

Scott

Mr. Bill said...

@ruggels,

I don't see what's sickening about it. We don't have diplomatic relations with the country, so on that score, they're as likely as not to refuse. Their country is in turmoil right now, so on that score they're likely as not to refuse.

But consider, all things "revolutionary" in Iran are actively trying to stamp down dissent and revolution. The invitation alone seems insulting to the government of the revolution as led by Khameini and his lapdog Ahmadinejad, as their blatant disregard for the will of the people may foment a revolution like the one they once fought. An invitation, that is, to celebrate the revolution of people over tyranny.

I think it's rather subtle and biting in a clever and underhanded way.