Call to execute 'rioters' in Iran

A leading Iranian religious leader has called for the execution of "rioters" who have led a series of anti-government protests following the country's disputed June 12 presidential election.

Ahmad Khatami, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, told worshippers during a sermon at Friday prayers that Iran's judiciary should charge such rioters as "mohareb", or one who wages war against God.

"Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction," Khatami said in the nationally broadcast sermon at Tehran University.

"We ask that the judiciary confront the leaders of the protests, leaders of the violations, and those who are supported by the United States and Israel strongly, and without mercy to provide a lesson for all."

Khatami's comments came as the Guardian Council, Iran's electoral watchdog, dismissed opposition allegations of fraud during the election.

The council said on Friday that the vote was the country's "healthiest" since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"After 10 days of examination, we did not see any major irregularities," Abbas Ali Kadkhodai, a Guardian Council spokesman, said.

"We have had no fraud in any presidential election and this one was the cleanest election we have had. I can say with certainty that there was no fraud in this election."

The statement leaves the opposition little room for further legal challenges over the election result, with the council previously rejecting a call for the vote to be annulled.

Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, have led a series of mass demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, to protest against the results of the election.

At least 19 people are believed to have been killed in violent clashes between demonstrators and Iranian security forces.

Ghanbar Naderi, the economic and political editor of the state-owned Iran Daily newspaper, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the situation is now under control.

"Those who voted for Mr Mousavi in the capital have come to their senses now," he said.

"They are slowly getting along with the reality that yes, most of them voted for Mr Mousavi in the capital, but the rest of the country voted for Mr Ahmadinejad.

"After two weeks ... there are no violent demonstrations on the streets anymore and the last few people who used to take advantage of the situation have now been detained by the police forces and they will be put on special tribunal."

The protests have also led to a war of words between Iran and the US, which has criticised the conduct of the June 12 election.

Social media is playing a crucial role in Iran's crisis. Follow the conversation online here:

Latest Twitter updates on Iran Global Voices blogs on the unrest Watch the latest videos on CitizenTube Browse photos from Iran on Flickr

Barack Obama, the US president, has warned that Tehran wanted to blame the US for opposition protests.

But Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, called on Obama to "avoid interfering in Iran's affairs" during a speech broadcast on Iranian state television on Thursday.

"This is our friendly advice; we don't want to see the big disgraces of the Bush era to be repeated in the new US era," he said.

Ahmadinejad's speech came days after Obama said that he was "appalled and outraged" over threats, beatings and imprisonments of opposition protesters following the polls.

The latest comments by both presidents could complicate any attempt at a dialogue, which Washington hopes will include talks on the scope of Iran's nuclear programme.

>>It will happen here before long. You don’t question a “messiah”<<

“The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.” —George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776

“[T]he flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.” —Thomas Jefferson

Then there is this little tidbit that I perused today that is eerily familiar in so may ways it is frightening, you can guess the source ..

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

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