Month: July 2009

IranHumanRights.org captures this photo and captions: "Neda's mother holds a solitary candle at a park near her house." She told the BBC in an interview:

Neda was passionate about freedom, dreamed of being a mother. She wasn't given a chance to make her dreams come true.

Tehran Bureau profiles several of the other martyrs honored today. One of them was Sohrab Araabi, a 19-year-old boy who was found shot in the heart. In the following clip, his brother reads off the names of those killed during the uprising:

This makes a huge amount of sense to me, and I fear Obama's caution and deference to the military top brass has led him to forget why he is president – to get the US the hell out of Mesopotamia as soon as possible:

1. The ineffectiveness and corruption of GOI Ministries is the stuff of legend.

2. The anti-corruption drive is little more than a campaign tool for Maliki

3. The GOI is failing to take rational steps to improve its electrical infrastructure and to improve their oil exploration, production and exports.

4. There is no progress towards resolving the Kirkuk situation.

5. Sunni Reconciliation is at best at a standstill and probably going backwards.

6. Sons of Iraq (SOI) or Sahwa transition to ISF and GOI civil service is not happening, and SOI monthly paydays continue to fall further behind.

7. The Kurdish situation continues to fester.

8. Political violence and intimidation is rampant in the civilian community as well as military and legal institutions.

9. The Vice President received a rather cool reception this past weekend and was publicly told that the internal affairs of Iraq are none of the US’s business.

Of course, Fallows was there first, as he often is. Background here.

Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of reform candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, attends today's demonstrations at Tehran's Behesht Zahra cemetery, the resting place of reformist martyr Neda Agha-Soltan. (More photos here and here.)

Mine demolished a shopping bag of groceries this morning left on a table for a few seconds. But they sure have their charms.

Andy McCarthy won't give up on Obama's birth certificate. Weigel pounces.

Yes, she was speeding and yes, she should have signed the ticket. But still: it’s hard to watch a cop shove and tase an elderly woman. But she wasn’t totally subservient; and so she got the treatment. More details at Pam’s House Blend:

Remember: you’re in America. As the Boston cop put it, the woman made a fatal error:

assuming she has rights when considered a suspect.

If they’ll tase an old white woman to the ground, and arrest and tase a mentally disabled deaf man, or cuff someone for simply speaking his mind, be aware. We’re all criminals now.

Tehran Bureau compiled several eyewitness accounts from today. Here’s one:

I went to the Beheshteh Zahra cemetery today. The police did not permit Mousavi or Karoubi near the graves. When the car transporting Mousavi and his wife approached, police did not even allow them out of the car. But more than 3000 people were out on the streets near Mosalla. Basij was there too. People flashed V signs with their fingers. Traffic was crazy; people kept honking their horns. People put trash bins, and one motorcycle, on fire. Police and Basij started to use tear gas. They even used it at the cemetery.

The gathering at the Beheshte Zahra cemetery was supposed to be at 4 pm, but before that could happen, baton-wielding Basij and the special guard were there to break it up. Police told mourners that if they didn’t leave, they would attack. They arrested many people at the cemetery and in the streets around Mosalla. Some people started attacking police with stones; police then started to attack them. Two film directors, Jafar Panahi and Mahnaz Mohammadi, were arrested.

I think more than 7000 people were at Beheshte Zahra. They were not all gathered in one spot. They came and went. Beheshte Zahra is huge. Some traveled there by metro. The main slogans were in favor of Mousavi and also “Allah o Akbar.” It was such a hot day, and Beheshte Zahra is so far from Tehran. Yet so many came.

Eric Martin pivots off an old post of mine on the NYT's refusal to call torture by its proper name:

One of the problems that arises when our major media outlets (and political leaders) partake in this Orwellian exercise in lexical obfuscation is that there is an erosion of meaning across the board.  The new linguistic conventions adopted to provide political cover for American policymakers that implemented a regime of torture become a form of political cover for all manner of torturers – foreign and domestic. 

Consider, for example, the way the New York Times describes the despicable acts of torture inflicted on Iranian protesters by the Iranian regime in recent weeks: "prison abuse."  Not even the new-found "brutal" qualifier.  "Prison abuse" is the term used in the title of the article, and six times in the body – almost the only descriptor employed.  The only exception is when the Times did go as far as to say that one detainee's family "said he was being subjected to torture."

Some gruesome details via Sciutto:

Clashes spread to sev neighborhoods of Tehran. Fires, tear gas, arrests.

Shots heard & RT @madyar: "unconfirmed reports one killed in Valiasr street.

Friend describes protester killed in detention: "We couldn’t recognize him, his nails were removed, an eye missing, no teeth"