The Dish

This gives some perspective on the numbers of protestors pouring through side-streets toward Azadi Square. They were trying to meet up with others from other streets, something the Brownshirts were desperate to prevent. Leading to incidents like these hideous murders in the streets (do not click if you do not want to see human beings dying in front of your eyes:

This is the latest video of a Baseej being overwhelmed and taken away by the crowd. Notice the way in which one of the protestors brandishes the club he has just seized from the Revolutionary Guard brownshirt.

It’s been another bewildering, inspiring, chilling day in Iran. The Dish has been live-blogging the latest phase of the Green Revolution through the night, since 11 pm EST last night.

We recommend scrolling down to the bottom and reading up to get a flavor of how today unfolded in real time. The images and videos are among the most graphic to date, so be warned. Dish policy is to provide as much information on reality as we can. Readers should also know that these videos are by their very nature impossible to confirm beyond a very rough due diligence. So again: caution. But this is an historic moment, the culmination of the biggest story of the year, even though you wouldn’t know it from the Sunday talk shows.

But it will be Youtubed.

A reader adds a note of caution:

The blogger you quote in the post suggests, rightly, that the 78-79 revolution had as one of its turning points the raiding of weapons stashes (note that many were opened by defecting military, police and SAVAK agents — something I saw personally). But that the army will stand down again or that the Green Wave will simply sweep into power when that happens is unlikely. The conditions are not nearly the same. In trying to explain how it was that the religious right swept into power in Iran in 79-80, scholars often note the way in which, for decades, the opposition was led by clerics and religious thinkers (Khomeini and Ali Shariati). Today, there seems to be no galvanizing idea beyond resistance to dictatorship.

Those benefitting from the Shah's policies and rule were the middle, upper-middle and the rich classes. But they had no emotional or ideological commitment to the royal line or the Shah. More still, they all abandoned the country (sucking cash out as fast as they could) as soon as they saw the tide turning. Today, the poorer urban, lower-middle and rural classes have a deep emotional and economic commitment to the right of the regime. They will not abandon the Revolution and the legacy of Khomeini and they do not seem to have any sympathy for the urban youth and their desire for more individual freedoms.

I agree that the regime is pretty hobbled and delegitimated after June and that this round of protest and violence bodes awfully poorly for the regime. But even if Ahmadinejad is, somehow, forced to step down, even if Khamenei is removed by Rafsanjani's maneuvering in Qom, and even if, and this is a pipe dream, Tehran falls because the Rev Guard and police refuse to shoot at the protesters, the country will not follow as a whole. At best, I think, we get a political solution (in which Rafsanjani makes out very well), and a more liberal, but also rhetorically anti-US, leadership replaces the current one. They would have to be Anti-US and for Nuclear power to win over enough popular support and not look like imperial tools.

Andrew Sprung ponders the meaning of the protests in Iran:

[It seems] as if the line between participating and recording is disappearing.  How long before someone documents his own murder?

The video above shows a crowd commandeering a baseej vehicle and removing the cop. We’re seeing more and more seizure of the instruments of control – burned baseej buildings, rescued prisoners, stolen helmets, burnt motorbikes. This is no longer the peaceful demos of June. Saeed Valadbaygi III is live-blogging. He reports:

The number of participants in demonstrations has reached over hundreds of thousands. These protests have largely been concentrated in the central, southern and northern parts of Tehran. People are also preparing for extensive demonstrations at Sham-e Ghariban ceremonies tonight. They have resisted the violent attacks by government forces and a large number have become injured or lost their lives.

Some of the chants heard on the streets today have included: “Ya Mahdi! Eradicate the roots of oppression!”, “This is the month of blood! Seyed Ali [Khamenei] is going down!”, “Down with the Dictator!”, “We are not from ‘Koofeh’ to support Yazid!”, “Rape, Murder, Down with the Jurisprudence!”, “Dictator should know, he will be toppled very soon!”, and “Death to Khamenei”, among others.

He also passes on some chilling new developments:

Streets leading to Mohseni Sq, where Sham-e Ghariban ceremonies are expected to take place, have been blocked by security forces. At the moment, the number of security forces exceeds that of the people.

Some sources and eye witnesses have reported that the bodies of victims of the clashes today have been transferred to a government office in Taleqani Street. A Jeep has been seen entering the building, while desperately trying to cover up the bodies in the back of the car with jackets.

Moments later, a Peugeot carrying bodies in the back was also seen going into the building and taking off when the bodies were removed from the car.

From Enduring America, one of the most diligent and popular Green Revolution sites. Money quotes:

I must note that, in your column on Friday, “2009: The Year of Living Fecklessly”, you ostensibly recognised the post-election demonstrations in Iran as a “new birth of freedom”. I am not sure exactly what a “new birth” is — I have found that most Iranians with whom I communicate have a long-held desire for freedom — but any acknowledgement of the public calls for justice and rights is to be welcomed. So, thank you.

And now a request: Go Away.

Please go away now and do not return to Iran as the setting for your political assaults. For — and let this be acknowledged widely, if not by you than by others — the “Iranian people” whom you supposedly praise are merely pawn for your political games, which have little to do with their aspirations, their fears, and their contests…

Let us recognise that your own supposed defence of the Iranian people is propelled by your own nuclear conceptions, bolstered by your emphasis on Israel: “Iran will dominate 2010. Either there will be an Israeli attack or Iran will arrive at — or cross — the nuclear threshold.” For, if this piece was completely honest, you would have informed your readers, and the Iranian people, that you have supported Israeli airstrikes. In the columns offering that support, you made no reference to how “a new birth of freedom” would be affected by missiles fired upon Iran. Your frame of vision was limited, as if this was a journalistic smart bomb, to the target of the Iranian regime.

Let us recognise that, if there is a context for you beyond this nuclear arena, it is a supposed geopolitical struggle in which an “Iran” confronts the American presence in the Middle East and Central Asia and participates in the regional battle with Israel. Thus, your support of a “revolution” is not for what it brings Iran’s people — who, incidentally, may not be protesting for a “revolution” or, more specifically, a “counter-revolution” against all the ideals of 1979 — but for “ripple effects [which] would extend from Afghanistan to Iraq (in both conflicts, Iran actively supports insurgents who have long been killing Americans and their allies) to Lebanon and Gaza where Iran’s proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, are arming for war”.

From the streets of Iran, more and more radical chants and passion:

This simply astonishing video leaves me slack-jawed. In Sirjan, two men sentenced to hang are actually rescued by a mob who are then shot at by the regime police. This event allegedly occurred on December 22, and reveals the simmering unrest under the surface before the explosion of Ashura. NCR-Iran noted:

During the clashes yesterday morning, people took advantage of the chaos and removed the prisoners from the scene set up for their hangings. According to earlier reports on Tuesday, one of the prisoners was thought to have been killed. Having lost the control of the situation, the suppressive forces mobilized more of their agents across the city and re-captured the two prisoners and brought them back to the hanging ropes.

Local residents were angered by the regime’s henchmen and became more fierce in their protest against the hangings. In fear of the escalation of unrest, the suppressive forces opened fire on defenseless people killing at least five and dozens more were wounded. A number of the wounded were taken to hospitals in Kerman, the provincial capital. Some of the wounded are in critical state. A group of local residents and families of the two have been arrested. During the clashes, a number of vehicles belonging to the suppressive forces were set on fire.

(Hat tip: GatewayPundit.)