Free Republic

Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is a day of destiny. Tonight, the cries of Allah-o Akbar are heard louder and louder than the nights before. Where is this place? Where is this place where every door is closed? Where is this place where people are simply calling God? Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akbar gets louder and louder? I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether the number increases. It shakes me. I wonder if God is shaken. Where is this place that where so many innocent people are entrapped? Where...

CNN on Saturday night reported that at least 19 people had died as a result of gunfire from government forces during the demonstrations in Teheran, Shiraz and Isfehan. The news network based the report on eyewitness accounts of medical officials in Teheran's hospitals. CNN also quoted unconfirmed reports that put the actual death toll at 150. A week of massive street protests over the results of Iran's presidential elections escalated into open defiance of the entire regime on Saturday, when thousands took to the streets of Teheran chanting "Death to the Dictatorship." Ignoring the Friday warning by Iran's Supreme Leader...

WE look over this wall of marching people to see what our friends in the United States are saying about us. We cannot help it — 30 years of struggle against the Enemy has had the curious effect of making us intrigued. To our great dismay, what we find is that in important sectors of the American press a disturbing counter narrative is emerging: That perhaps this election wasn’t a fraud after all. That the United States shouldn’t rush in with complaints of democracy denied, and that perhaps Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the president the Iranian people truly want (and, by...

by Michael Rubin Street protests in Iran are important but are themselves not enough to force change. The supreme leader will not be swayed because he considers himself accountable to God, not to the people. Indeed, even the Islamic Republic's clerical establishment is irrelevant in this calculus. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invocation of folk religion -- his appeals to the messianic Hidden Imam, for example -- is a way to bypass senior religious figures who, according to Shiite theology, will be among the greatest obstacles to the Hidden Imam's return. Nor does the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pay too much...

Thirty years ago, the Ayatollah Khomeini used audio cassettes and videotapes to spread his message of dissent and Islamic revolution across Iran. The old theocrat and his followers knew how to exploit the audio-visual media available to them to stoke rebellion. A generation later, young Iranians have again taken to the streets, this time to protest the "landslide" re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a vote that his reformist opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, insists was rigged. But this is a very different media environment. The Iranian government can ban and restrict the professional journalists who are trying to cover the demonstrations....

'Fire' At HQ Of Iran President's Supporters Breaking News 4:01pm UK, Saturday June 20, 2009 Supporters of defeated election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi have reportedly lit a fire at the headquarters of the Iranian president's backers in Tehran. Police have fired shots in the air to prevent clashes between those who favour pro-reformer Mr Mousavi and those who support hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses say. Mr Ahmadinejad was the named the winner in the June 12 vote, but opposition candidates claimed there had been vote rigging and this led to major protests. In the latest rally, officers have apparently been using...

I may die... I'll participate in the rally tomorrow in Tehran. It might be violent. I may be one of those who will die tomorrow. I want to listen to all beautiful tunes that I have heard in my life, again. I want to listen to some cheap Los Angeles music. I always wanted to have much narrower eyebrows too. Yeah, I'll check in with my hair-dresser tomorrow before I go to the rally. Oh, there are some excellent scenes in the famous Iranian movie Hamoon I want to see before I leave. And I gotta re-visit my own bookshelf....

“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed,...

I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read poems again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's supreme leader sought Friday to end the deepening crisis over disputed elections with one decisive speech—declaring the vote will almost certainly stand and sternly warning opposition leaders to end street protests or be held responsible for any "bloodshed and chaos" to come. But a first sign of possible resistance came shortly after nightfall in Tehran. Cries of "Death to the dictator!" and "Allahu akbar"—"God is great"—rang from rooftops in what's become a nightly ritual of opposition unity. The sharp line drawn by Iran's most powerful figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a gambit that pushes Iran's...

In Chicago in 1968, anti-war protesters chanted "The Whole World Is Watching." They were talking about television cameras that showed police beatings on the evening news. More than 40 years later, with a massive movement aimed at reversing election results and possibly even toppling a regime in Iran, online networking is instantly sharing protesters' actions. And the whole world is watching. "That wasn't true in Chicago," Clay Shirky, a consultant and New York University instructor who focuses on the social impact of the Internet, said of the slogan. "Now, it's true." From the moment Iranians took to the streets of...

Anger after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected led to the biggest street demonstrations in the Islamic Republic's history. "Today the Iranian nation needs calm," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his first address to the nation since the upheaval began. But the Ayatollah offered no concession to opposition supporters who are demanding the elections be cancelled and held again, sternly warning against further protests. He blamed Great Britain and Iran's external enemies for the unrest, vigorously defending the ruling system. "The enemies (of Iran) are targeting the Islamic establishment's legitimacy by questioning the election and its authenticity before and after (the...

TEHRAN - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday demanded an end to street protests that have shaken the country since a disputed presidential election a week ago and said any bloodshed would be their leaders fault. He defended Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the rightful winner of the presidential vote and denied any possibility that it had been rigged, as Ahmadinejad's opponents have asserted. "If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," Khamenei declared in his first address to the nation since the upheaval began. "The result of the election comes from the ballot...

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, giving his Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University. Photograph: Reuters TV/ReutersIran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remained defiant today in the face of vote-rigging allegations as he condemned the protests that have rocked the country since last week's disputed elections.Speaking at Friday prayers, Khamenei claimed that the high turnout at the elections showed how much the Iranian people supported the regime, and warned protesters to keep off the streets.The reformist presidential challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was conspicuous by his absence from Friday prayers at Tehran University, where Khamenei was making his first public appearance...

MOUSAVI APPEALS TO THE WORLD TO PARTICIPATE IN SEA OF GREEN IN IN ALL CAPITAL CITIES THIS SUNDAY Tehran is alive with the sound of people on their balcony shouting Hearing MUCH much stronger than any other day... Waiting for tomorrow! Strange.. this night the power of Down With Dictator and Mousavi is at least tripled! It is Down with Dictator time. U dont need a clock to tell it,a window to a street and an ear will do. confirmed: Mousavi asked his supporters don't go to Friday prayer, next scheduling is Saturday in Enqlab sq @ 4 pm BBC...

Fisk witnesses the courage of one million protesters who ignored threats, guns and bloodshed to demand freedom in Iran see link below

The moderate Iranian leader who says that he was robbed of victory in last week’s presidential election faces a fateful choice today: support the regime or be cast out. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has told Mir Hossein Mousavi to stand beside him as he uses Friday prayers at Tehran University to call for national unity. An army of Basiji — Islamic volunteer militiamen — is also expected to be bussed in to support the Supreme Leader. The demand was made at a meeting this week with representatives of all three candidates who claim that the poll was rigged,...

What's happening on the streets of Tehran is a lesson in what makes history: It isn't guns or secret police, in the end, but the willingness of hundreds of thousands of people to risk their lives to protest injustice. That is what overthrew the shah of Iran in 1979, and it is now shaking the mullahs. This is politics in the raw -- unarmed people defying soldiers with guns -- and it is the stuff of which revolutions are made. Whether it will succeed in Iran is impossible to predict, but already this movement has put an overconfident regime on...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in quiet defiance on the fifth day of post-election chaos yesterday, setting the stage for a showdown today with the increasingly worried hard-liners. Trying to stem the uprising, Iran's "supreme leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called in representatives of all four candidates in the dubious election, in an effort to quell the angry protests that threaten the 30-year-old Islamic regime. Khamenei, who backed extremist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, has not been seen in a week but is expected to plead for calm tomorrow. Officials said he will make a rare appearance leading...

Mousavi says: #Iranelection - I have come due to concerns of current political and social conditions - to defend the rights of the nation MOUSAVI launches direct attack on ANejad for insulting his wife Mousavi is in midst of 1000s of people in Imam Khomeini Sq and is wearing black like his supporters,stood on car and spoke MOUSAVI asks GOOGLE to change logo to GREEN for 1 day - #Iranelection - to give hope to all Iran Everybody is peaceful and quiet - everybody is wearing black - the number of people is unbelievable Today's rally better be bigger than...