Free Republic

Violence feared as security forces threaten to crush protests Internet connections attacked in Tehran as regime tries to foil opposition Iran is now a 'nuclear state', President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced this morning. He spoke as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. There are fears of violence as opposition and pro-government supporters are expected to meet at rallies in a show of popular strength unmatched since the revolution itself. Today Ahmadinejad told scores of cheering Iranians that the Islamic Republic is capable of producing weapons-grade uranium. Iranian...

I try not to overdose on the fear factor, but the shocking intelligence failure in the Christmas airline plot isn't the only national security night mare facing America. While we were all absorbed with the underwear bomber, the Iranian nuke mess took another big turn for the worse. President Obama's end-of-the-year deadline for the mad mullahs to make a deal on uranium enrichment came and went, but not without incident. There were three, none good. Most troubling, the White House proved it still doesn't have a Plan B, even though its unBush diplomacy has proven to be a total dud....

A former high-ranking intelligence official in Iran has called for his country to form better relations with the United States and Israel and says the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on the verge of collapse. In an exclusive interview with the Bangkok Post Sunday, Mohammad Reza Madhi, a former officer in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards' intelligence service, described Mr Ahmadinejad as ''crazy'' and unfit to lead his country. ''He has already destroyed international relationships with many countries and made them enemies of Iran,'' said Mr Madhi, who was forced to flee Iran in 2008 after being jailed for 73...

When millions of peaceful demonstrators took to the streets of big Iranian cities in June to protest what was widely assumed to be a stolen election, many in the West wondered whether the movement had the will and vision to sustain itself. Apologists for the regime here in America and in Iran dismissed the democratic protests as the angst of a small minority of Westernized yuppies or discontented academics. Clerics loyal to the regime used the incendiary language of class warfare. They dismissed the opposition as accomplices of the Great Satan and a small minority composed of wealthy urbanites fighting...

PARIS – The son of the deposed shah of Iran urged nations worldwide on Thursday to withdraw their ambassadors from Tehran to protest a relentless government crackdown on opposition demonstrators that resulted in at least eight deaths this week alone.

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- An Iranian national security official has called for demonstrators to be arrested following deadly weekend anti-government protests in Tehran. Soon afterward, an opposition Web site reported a wave of arrests. "The undignified and disruptive behavior of the rioters is no longer tolerable for our people, since they have brought undignified behaviors to new heights by offending sanctities and values held dear in Islam and Iran," Naghavi Hosseini, a member of the Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told state-run IRNA. "The Nation's Judiciary must swiftly arrest the rioters who committed those crimes." An opposition Web...

At least 15 people were killed during massive anti-government protests in Tehran when opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the streets, Iranian state television reported Monday. The report said 10 people killed during Sunday's fierce clashes in the Iranian capital were members of "anti-revolutionary terrorist" groups, apparently referring to opposition supporters. The other five who died were killed by "terrorist groups" in a "suspicious act," the report said, without elaborating. Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices on Monday, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the country's reformist movement, opposition...

Iranian Protesters Are Dying For Freedom – Where Is Barack Obama? By Nile Gardiner December 27th, 2009 I wrote back in June about the shameful silence of the Obama administration during the mass street protests that greeted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent re-election victory as President of Iran. As White House spokesman Robert Gibbs ludicrously put it, the administration was “impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm this election generated.” Or in Vice President Joe Biden’s words on NBC’s Meet the Press, describing Ahmadinejad’s victory – “we’re going to withhold comment… I mean we’re just waiting to see.” Embarrassingly for Washington, even...

Here is truly amazing (and graphic) video of a crowd in Sirjan, Iran storming police to prevent the public execution of two people. The video shows the crowd storming the gallows and cutting down the bodies of two men in the process of being hanged. It shows the protesters being shot at by Iranian forces as they tried to get away with the men. The condition of the men cut down from the gallows is not clear. Reports indicate several protesters were killed in the shooting. Gateway Pundit has much more on the dramatic incident. . . .

Keeping you updated. As mass pro-Democracy protests swept Iran today the protesters chanted "Obama, Obama you are either with the Iranian government or with us". Videos here

Several Iranian websites, including the official site of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have published details of an unusual encounter between Khamenei and a student who publicly criticized the Iranian establishment. The encounter took place in an October 28 meeting between Khamenei and students in Tehran, during which the supreme leader said that questioning the disputed June 12 vote was the "biggest crime." According to the reports, a student from Sharif University, named by some websites as Mahmud Vahidnia, criticized the Iranian leader, state broadcast media, the postelection crackdown, and the closure of the reformist press -- for a...

Video of Iranian-Americans Rally in Dallas, Texas in support of pro-Democracy movement in Iran. Chants are "down with Khamenei" "don't be afraid we are all together". Video here: Here

BRITAIN’S fraught relations with Iran suffered a further setback yesterday when a local member of its embassy staff on trial in Tehran “confessed” to espionage. He said Britain had provided financial assistance to Iran’s reformists to undermine the hardline clerical regime during June’s disputed presidential elections. Hossein Rassam, a political analyst with the embassy, said a budget of £300,000 had been allocated by the embassy to establish contacts with political groups, individuals and activists. He said he had personally made contact before the election with the campaign headquarters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the pro-reform candidate who claims he was robbed...

An eyewitness account of the scenes outside the Iranian parliament as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was inaugurated The scene around the parliament resembled a war zone, not the seat of the people’s deputies. Thousands of anti-riot police, Basij — the “dogs of Khamenei” — had filled the entire area. A picture taken from the window of a car shows Iranian riot police breaking up demonstrators in Tehran Several times groups of about a hundred people broke through the lines and chanted slogans in Baharestan Square — “Death to the dictator” and “Coup d’état Government — resign! Resign!” Within minutes the security forces...

A young Iranian soldier, arrested late last week for allegedly stealing weapons for opposition groups, was killed in custody and his body returned to his family on Saturday, sources in Teheran said. The sources said the bodies of several dissidents, arrested in the course of anti-regime protests in Iran in recent weeks and evidently killed in detention, had also been returned to their families in the past few days. Several of the bodies bore signs of beatings, the sources said.

Tens of thousands of Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran yesterday to hear the country’s most influential powerbroker pronounce the Islamic Republic in crisis and as he called for the release of those arrested in recent pro-democracy demonstrations. Militiamen confront protestors outside Tehran University today In a devastating attack on the regime, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a leading cleric and former President, told a crowd at Tehran University that the Government had lost the people’s trust. Referring to the handling of last month’s disputed election, which President Ahmadinejad claims to have won, he said that the custodians of the Islamic...

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's harsh rebuke of Ahmadinejad supporters is followed by renewed violence, suggesting the discontent over recent election results is as strong as ever.Reporting from Tehran and Beirut -- Security forces fired tear gas and plainclothes militiamen armed with batons charged at crowds of protesters gathered near Tehran University after a Friday prayer sermon delivered by the cleric and opposition supporter Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, his first appearance at the nation's weekly keynote sermon since before the election. Rafsanjani, in a closely watched speech, lashed out at the hard-line camp supporting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, criticized the...

Iranian police have fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators who defied government warnings that any fresh attempt at protests would be "smashed". The marchers were heading towards Tehran University to commemorate the 10th anniversary of student unrest. All gatherings have been banned in a crackdown on mass protests that erupted after the disputed election of 12 June. The BBC's Jon Leyne says the opposition is trying to put momentum back into the campaign against the vote result. Website campaign Our correspondent says there were also a number of smaller demonstrations in other Iranian cities.

(AGI) - Jerusalem, 1 July - Six persons who had demonstrated against the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have reportedly been hanged in Iran, reported the Jerusalem Post, based on a telephone call with a source in Tehran. The hanging would have taken place in Mashhad. The news hasn't been confirmed, but the same source quote a sermon delivered by ayatollah Hadi Gafouri in which he urges protesters to be careful because they are risking their lives.