Iran protests: capital under lockdown

Telegraph, UK ^ | Feb. 20, 2011

[nuconvert]

Police and basij militia locked down the centre of Tehran on Sunday night after crowds of anti-regime demonstrators tried to converge on central squares from across the city.

The daughter of the powerful former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh Hashemi, was arrested briefly, accused of "provocative behaviour", though she was later released.

[library user]

And I thought it was going to be a boring week.

[tet68]

We live in interesting times.
I certainly hope we get a chance to make it interesting
for some other people.

[Razzz42]

Things are pretty bad when having to rely on phone text messages for news. What the mainstream media use to try and ignore just gets bigger.

[nuconvert]

CNN’s Reza Sayah reports on demonstrations in Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan. Security forces were out in large numbers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBpSznDTEL4&feature=player_embedded

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nuconvert. I hope the Iranian people come to the correct conclusion — that all their problems come from Islam, and that it, and all its advocates within Iranian borders, has to be exterminated.

[nuconvert]

Ping to let you know that there were protests in Iran today. Reports of protests in Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz, Mashad, Tabriz. Reports of very heavy security forces. It sounds as though in general the number of demonstrators was down from last week.

[DGHoodini]

I read that yet another Iranian diplomat has defected:

“Ahmad Maleki, the vice-consulate at the consulate general of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Milan, had defected. He is the fourth diplomat to defect since Iran’s post-election unrest in 2009.”

[nuconvert]

Thanks. I think he would be at least the 4th in the past year.

[Thunder90]

Now is the time for a decapitating strike on the Iranian leadership.

[reagan_fanatic]

Out of all the regimes in the ME that have fallen or are teetering, Iran’s mullahs are the ones who need to fall, and fall the hardest.

[MasterGunner01]

Imagine this for a very ironic scenario. Iran's clerics fall to a popular revolt. Ahmadinejad and the mullahs are hanged in the Tehran soccer stadium. Meanwhile, the Egyptian government falls into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood.

[2111USMC]

I agree. Unfortunately, they won’t fall. It’ll probably be like the last two times the people tried to revolt. They’ll kill a few dozen publicly. Then when things die down and the press isn’t paying any attention, they’ll execute 400 to 600 of them.

[Sam's Army]

That would be ironic. I also wonder about the possibility that before any additional Mid-East gov't falls that the leaders of Libya, Iran, and possibly Syria collude to stage an Israeli commando raid with fake Israeli uniforms on native soldiers to fire upon the populace, or even other members of the military. That of course, being a desparate attempt to unite the protests into calling for military action against the "Zionists".

Perhaps correctly banking on the fact that Obama would NOT commit US forces to Israel's aid (it would be too unfair and judgemental, see), the mideast gets in a bad way real quick. I think only China would do something to make sure oil keeps flowing, but mainly to their neck of the woods, of course...

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[nuconvert]

IranPressNewsw is reporting that some protesters in today’s demonstrations complained of being attacked with a different type of teargas than previously. They are saying the effects disable them for hrs after exposure and are calling it chemical attacks or warfare on the people.

[hondact200]

Iran is not a well liked country by the Arabs. The leadership is Shitites and the majority of Arab countries are led by Sunnis.

I strongly believe there will be no help coming from other Arab Countries.

the Muslim Brotherhood was financed by Iran. If iran falters the Muslim Brotherhood has no money, and it dies.

[tet68]

Faezeh.

[odds]

She is multi-talented. Along with her sisters & their associates, Miss Faheshe err Faezeh is constantly on the lookout to invest daddy’s billions in new markets/sectors/business across the globe. In the past the UK & Canada have been particularly accommodating to their needs. Several yrs ago, the sisters first began to look at finding investment opportunities in Australia too.

Btw, Rafsanjani’s birth name is Bahremani. He was a business man, who around the Khomeinist revolution in Iran decided to put on a turban & a robe, change his last name to Hashemi-Rafsanjani, and declare himself a mullah. At best he is corrupt & an opportunist to the max. His kids are no different.