Summary of Political & Civil Unrest in Iran
As you may already be aware, last Friday was the heavily anticipated presidential elections in Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (president in last term and currently "re-elected president) was campaigning for a re-election against a handful of opposition candidates including Mousavi who was had the largest advantage and support against Ahmadinejad.
Saturday morning it was announced concurrently that Ahmadinejad had one from some news organizations, while others reported that Mousavi won. Sound familiar?
When it was finalized by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei (the one who really runs the government) that Ahmadinejad won, many in Iran were outraged. Saturday began the political protests in Iran.
I have been following it as best as I can using TV, news websites like BBC, Guardian & CNN, and websites like Facebook and Twitter where people are reporting from Iran. Twitter has gone crazy with updates from protesters in Iran.
This is the longest political and civil unrest Iran has seen since the 1979 revolution.
It is becoming staggeringly obvious that these protests will only escalate, the only way this can stop is if something huge will happen.
Here are some key points as to whats been going down. I will also post some live footage from the protests and riots, as well as images. WARNING: some footage is very disturbing.
Saturday:
- up to 2000 protesters stage a peaceful sit-in in one of the busiest intersections in Iran. At that time it was very powerful to see that many protesting. It wasn't certain how many more would join.
- Reports of violence erupting on the streets, with buses and cop motorcycles being set afire.
- Reports of Iranian government taking down access to BBC and websites like facebook and twitter.
Sunday:
- Riot cops raid University of Tehran dorms to arrest up to 200 students to keep them from protesting more. Many injured. DISTURBING: http://25khordad.wordpress.com/
- Iran government begins to limit bandwidth access to its citizens to reduce ability to upload videos, images and beliefs around the protests.
- Iranian Gov't begins DDOS attacks on major and minor opposition blogs from Iran that are broadcasting live news about protests and riots.
- In return, Iranian opposition protesters with access to solid internet connection begin staging DDOS attacks on Iranian Gov't websites, taking them down one by one.
- Mousavi, head of the opposition calls for major protest on Monday.
- Ayatollah Khamenei announces that if protests continue LIVE AMMUNITION will be used.
- Ayatollah Khamenei also calls for investigation on Ballot Fraud.
- Momentarily Mousavi calls off protests only to bring it back from amazing support.
- Protests are now in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Not just in Capitol of Tehran but spreading to all other major cities.
- Images and videos of how riot police are handling crowds hit the internet. DISTURBING.
- As you can see the riot cops are charging through thousands of protests hitting randomly as many as they can. At the end you see footage of opposition protesters helping injured riot cops who had been attempting to hurt them in the first place
- Large rumors of Iranian Gov't bringing in members of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to beat protesters, they did the same in 1999 and 2004.
- Reports of riot cops being run off left and right by the tens and thousands of protesters.
- Tehran University announces it will be closed down for ONE MONTH due to protests
- 100 professors at Tehran University announce resignation.
Monday:
- Protests not only continue but escalate dramatically. Where on friday only a few thousand protesters came to the streets, today reportedly up to 4 million opposition supporters have taken to the streets.
- Shots fired by riot cops on peaceful protest. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/15/iran.elections.protests/index.html
- Confirmed by multiple sources that up to 7 are dead from this protest, however it is still too chaotic to have an accurate number of injured and killed.
- Reports of riot police using rubber bullets and aiming at heads of protesters.
- Images of the killed are being released on the internet. WARNING: incredibly sad and disturbing, but this news should be made public: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arasmus/3629891460/in/photostream/
- Mousavi, opposition leader, calls for national strike on Tuesday.
Now here are links and videos:
- Huffington post article on how the internet has assisted in getting real news out to the world from the protests. Includes stunning images and videos and text from those in Iran:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html
- Slideshow on youtube of protest images, some disturbing. Ignore annoying techno:
- List of twitter accounts from Iran and that update in English:
http://www.simoncolumbus.com/2009/06/15/english-language-twitterers-in-iran/
- List of videos on YouTube from the protests and riots in Iran:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ahriman46&view=videos
I will continue posting an update in the next day or so as the news progresses.
Saturday morning it was announced concurrently that Ahmadinejad had one from some news organizations, while others reported that Mousavi won. Sound familiar?
When it was finalized by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei (the one who really runs the government) that Ahmadinejad won, many in Iran were outraged. Saturday began the political protests in Iran.
I have been following it as best as I can using TV, news websites like BBC, Guardian & CNN, and websites like Facebook and Twitter where people are reporting from Iran. Twitter has gone crazy with updates from protesters in Iran.
This is the longest political and civil unrest Iran has seen since the 1979 revolution.
It is becoming staggeringly obvious that these protests will only escalate, the only way this can stop is if something huge will happen.
Here are some key points as to whats been going down. I will also post some live footage from the protests and riots, as well as images. WARNING: some footage is very disturbing.
Saturday:
- up to 2000 protesters stage a peaceful sit-in in one of the busiest intersections in Iran. At that time it was very powerful to see that many protesting. It wasn't certain how many more would join.
- Reports of violence erupting on the streets, with buses and cop motorcycles being set afire.
- Reports of Iranian government taking down access to BBC and websites like facebook and twitter.
Sunday:
- Riot cops raid University of Tehran dorms to arrest up to 200 students to keep them from protesting more. Many injured. DISTURBING: http://25khordad.wordpress.com/
- Iran government begins to limit bandwidth access to its citizens to reduce ability to upload videos, images and beliefs around the protests.
- Iranian Gov't begins DDOS attacks on major and minor opposition blogs from Iran that are broadcasting live news about protests and riots.
- In return, Iranian opposition protesters with access to solid internet connection begin staging DDOS attacks on Iranian Gov't websites, taking them down one by one.
- Mousavi, head of the opposition calls for major protest on Monday.
- Ayatollah Khamenei announces that if protests continue LIVE AMMUNITION will be used.
- Ayatollah Khamenei also calls for investigation on Ballot Fraud.
- Momentarily Mousavi calls off protests only to bring it back from amazing support.
- Protests are now in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Not just in Capitol of Tehran but spreading to all other major cities.
- Images and videos of how riot police are handling crowds hit the internet. DISTURBING.
- As you can see the riot cops are charging through thousands of protests hitting randomly as many as they can. At the end you see footage of opposition protesters helping injured riot cops who had been attempting to hurt them in the first place
- Large rumors of Iranian Gov't bringing in members of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to beat protesters, they did the same in 1999 and 2004.
- Reports of riot cops being run off left and right by the tens and thousands of protesters.
- Tehran University announces it will be closed down for ONE MONTH due to protests
- 100 professors at Tehran University announce resignation.
Monday:
- Protests not only continue but escalate dramatically. Where on friday only a few thousand protesters came to the streets, today reportedly up to 4 million opposition supporters have taken to the streets.
- Shots fired by riot cops on peaceful protest. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/15/iran.elections.protests/index.html
- Confirmed by multiple sources that up to 7 are dead from this protest, however it is still too chaotic to have an accurate number of injured and killed.
- Reports of riot police using rubber bullets and aiming at heads of protesters.
- Images of the killed are being released on the internet. WARNING: incredibly sad and disturbing, but this news should be made public: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arasmus/3629891460/in/photostream/
- Mousavi, opposition leader, calls for national strike on Tuesday.
Now here are links and videos:
- Huffington post article on how the internet has assisted in getting real news out to the world from the protests. Includes stunning images and videos and text from those in Iran:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html
- Slideshow on youtube of protest images, some disturbing. Ignore annoying techno:
Click to view- List of twitter accounts from Iran and that update in English:
http://www.simoncolumbus.com/2009/06/15/english-language-twitterers-in-iran/
- List of videos on YouTube from the protests and riots in Iran:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ahriman46&view=videos
I will continue posting an update in the next day or so as the news progresses.