July 11, 2009 Iran Update
Been sick, not much links but I dug up what I could.
Night.
July 12, 2009 post | July 11, 2009 post | July 10, 2009 post | July 9, 2009 posts | July 8, 2009 post | July 7, 2009 post | July 6, 2009 post | July 5, 2009 post | July 4, 2009 post
Blogs
Demotix <- The mighty photojournalism site Iran election page pictures of demostrations outside Iranian embassy in London
Mightier Than
ABC reporter jim sciutto's twitblog
LA Times - Babylon & Beyond First images to emerge of July 9, 2009 protests large crowd gets dispersed by teargass on July 9, 2009 protests
iran.whyweprotest.net 18 Tir / 9 July forum thread <- lots of vids and first hand account by a protester in Iran
goftaniha.org Ex-Basij Founder's Blog being used to ID Basij - in Farsi
Ayatollah Watch <- Information on Ayatollahs
Ahmedi's takeover has been planned since 2004
Out the Basij
ID the Basiji
twit blog about how another Ayatollah has gone against the regime
Lara Setrakian - ABC News reporter's blog TEHRAN UNREST: "IT WAS NOTHING LESS THAN WAR. PRAY FOR US."
National Iranian American Council's Blog July 9, 2009 protest coverage <- vids and pics
NY Times - The Lede Blog July 9, 2009 protest coverage
Retweeters to watch
@LaraABCNews <- Reporter out of Dubai who's been in contact with Iranians
@Pray4FreeIran <- retweeter who spreads messages about Iran
@AustinHeap <- The genius behind ProxyHeap and Haystack (says that Node 1 is a go?)
@StopAdmedi <- twitter account for Mousavi supporters
@nicopitney <- I didn't know he had a twitter account
@Iran_Translator <- NiteOwl
@iranriggedelect
@tehranbereau
@bistoon <- IRGC already actively hunt him b/c of student revolt in 1999 so I can rec him
Useful Resources
News: NIAC Insight | Kodoom
Translations: Google Translate | TehranBroadcast.com | Translate4Iran
Helping Iranians use the web: Haystack | Tor Project (English & Farsi) | IranHelp.org (Farsi) Demonstrations: Facebook | sharearchy | WhyWeProtest
Activism: Avaaz.org | National Iranian American Council
Mousavi's FB
Haystack's how you can help digg page
Haystack <- The all powerful proxy (still in testing) Want to help? Don't know anything techwise? Then donate some cash and keep this revolution going, you may just save someone(s) life! Haystack is needing donations! Donate Here.
Protest Advice
Brainstorm Ideas
Torrent/dl list of videos showing police brutality in Iran
Blog that has links to LA Protest that 35-50,000 people turn out
the pictures
Want to know how the power check system in Iran works? The Wall Street Journal has an excellent graph.
Bearing Witness In Iran Weighs Heavily On Cohen: Roger Cohen on NPR
Voice of the Voiceless
YekIran <- Worldwide Protest Map
Wiki on 18th Tir Protests 1999
Wiki of Iranian Election Protests
Reporters Without Borders <- List of how many reporters are in prison in Iran
radionomy anonymous Sea of Green radio
Eng Trans of Mousavi FB that has protest instructions and routes
Mightier Than Iran: The Rooftop Project <- Site trying to find vids of the roof top shoutings for every single night since the protests began.
Iran News <- One Stop Source
for News/YouTube/Blog/Political Cartoon links about Iran's Election and the aftermath (massive library of information)
The Guardian's list of dead and detained
Voice of America News
Iran 360 <- Photojournalism site
Live Blogs on Iran
Revolutionary Road... <- Live from Tehran UPDATES
Andrew Sullivan's blog <- Political blog but he has a lot of coverage on iran. Andrew Sullivan's blog "Iran Erupts Again" Counter Targeting the Protesters
Enduring America blog
Nico's Pitney's live blog on HuffPo The most excellent live blog out there. Has an absolute ton of information dating back the very first day. Filled with pictures and vids.
Nico's Iran Page (it seems he deleted off the info from July 7th but it can be found here)
Nico moved offices on Friday...I don't think there's a Saturday update
July 10, 2009
July 9, 2009 |
July 8th | July 7th | July 6th | July 5th | July 3rd | July 2nd | July 1st | June 30th | June 29th | June 28th | June 27th | June 26th | June 25th | June 24th | June 22nd | June 21st | June 20th pt 2 | June 20th pt 1 | June 19th | June 18th | June 17th | June 16th | June 15th
NiteOwl's Green Briefs <- Anonymous teamed up The Pirate Bay (before they sold out) to provide logistical help to the Iranians in a safe anonymous forum - the vids of Anonymous declaring 'war' on Iranian govt are interesting to watch. NiteOwl's Green Briefs are compilations of news reports straight from Iranians.
#24 (July 10)
#23 (July 9) | #22 (July 8) | #21 (July 7) | #20 (July 6) | #18-#19 (July 4-5) (NiteOwl's net didn't let him access the archives of twitter (?) so it's late) | #17 (July 3) | #16 (July 2) | #15 (July 1) | #14 (June 30) | #13 (June29) | #12 (June 28) | #11 (June 27) | #10 (June 26th) | #9 (June 25) | #8 (June 24) | #7 (June 23) | #6 (June 22) | #5 (June 21) | #4 (June 20 | #3 (June 19) | #2 (June 18) | #1 (June 17)
Newspaper Articles
Huffington Post
The Ayatollah's Tipping Point (July 10, 2009 - Naomi Wolf)
The counter-script for establishing or restoring pro-democratic conditions consists of more mass protest; the appearance and display of resistance symbols; the emergence of enough spokespeople throughout society that all of them cannot be arrested at once; overt civil and covert disobedience, at every level of society, that brings the economy to a halt; withdrawal of support by lawyers and judges for the regime's decisions; international sanctions tied to human rights and clean elections; the refusal -- tricky but not unattainable -- of many soldiers and police to fire at unarmed citizens; and, finally, when the rule of law is reestablished, serious prosecutions of the defeated regime's ringleaders.
When we see footage of nonviolent protesters being brutally beaten by police and militia members, it is painful to deliver the message that, if history is a guide, continued street protest will make the difference between Iran being like Myanmar or, possibly, like Czechoslovakia. Time and again, when mass street protest has been sustained for more than a week or two, a regime -- even one that has begun beating and arresting protesters -- eventually finds it practically and psychologically difficult to sustain its hold.
Street protest, if it can sustain itself for more than that crucial first week, has an effect that is both tactical and emotional; mass protest during the French Revolution made it clear to the courtiers that this rebellion would be too profound to quell in the usual manner; street protests in the American colonies, in the face of arrest or worse, made the colonies ungovernable even before George III waged a costly, unpopular war. In Estonia in the 1980s, the small, illegal protests that surrounded the public singing of the banned national anthem grew, and Estonians were emboldened as their numbers swelled by the thousands daily.
In the United States, street protests helped bring the Vietnam war to an end, and the mass protests of the civil rights movement showed that, as Martin Luther King, Jr. put it, "business as usual" could no longer continue. According to King, disruptive mass protest exposes the tension that has been hidden or ignored, so that it can be addressed. (Ironically, such protest is now largely illegal in the US because of a systematic effort to deter it through a thirty year process of over-permiticization).
Iran's citizens -- and all people longing to resist a tyrannical government or to protest in an established democracy -- should bear the lessons of history in mind. Protest that works must disrupt business as usual and, ideally, stop traffic. Iranian citizens have shown great courage, and they would do well to continue pouring into the street and sitting down, lying down, or standing still. Unless a regime is willing to start machine-gunning its citizens, peaceful, steady, long-term disruption of "business as usual" always works.
What the West can do is apply pressure on Iran -- and on other governments in the future -- to assure and account for the safety of protesters. Natan Sharansky said that this tactic -- the West tracking and demanding accountability for the treatment of individual internal dissenters -- helped break up the Soviet Union. In this crisis, the US president should form a united front with human rights groups, which can advise him exactly how to follow, sustain, and support those Iranians who have been or may yet be arrested, or worse.
Helping Iran Target Iranians (July 10, 2009 - Timothy Karr)
Had Nokia Siemens chosen not to sell spying technology to Iran, another global competitor likely would have taken its place. This list of DPI providers includes Zeugma Systems (Canada), Camiant (USA), Openet (Ireland), Procera Networks (USA), Allot (Israel), Ixia (USA), AdvancedIO (Canada), Arbor Networks (USA) and Sandvine (Canada), among others.
These companies typically partner with Internet Service Providers to insert DPI along the main arteries of the Web. (Sandvine, for example, just announced a "global distribution agreement" with -- you guessed it -- Nokia Siemens Network.) All Net traffic in and out of Iran travels through one portal -- the Telecommunications Company of Iran -- easing the use of DPI.
Yankee Group analysts assert that U.S. ISPs are currently deploying advanced DPIequipment, although many do not disclose it publicly. Through these secret arrangements both in the United States and abroad, the DPI industry is experiencing remarkable growth.
Kian Tajbakhsh: Iran Arrests First American Citizen (July 10, 2009 - Desmond Butler)
The Washington Post
Behind Iranian Lines, Cartoonists Come Under Fire (July 12, 2009 - Michael Cavna)
From within Iran, Sepideh Anjomrooz -- one of her nation's very few female editorial cartoonists -- speaks to the challenges of getting her opinions seen by the larger world. At times during the current unrest, nearly "all communication channels such as text messaging, mobile phone, Internet sites, satellites, etc., were closed," Anjomrooz, who is Muslim, says by e-mail. "But protesters, each time, find a way to obtain the news and reflect the unrest situations."
"I had drawn a cartoon with a crocodile that referred to a powerful ayatollah," he recounts. "I named the crocodile Professor Temsah." In Farsi, "temsah" (meaning crocodile) rhymes with "Mesbah" -- a reference to Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi. In the cartoon, the academic reptile strangles a journalist with its tail.
"Clergy students and ayatollahs asked for my death," Kowsar says. "They shut down their theological school and I was summoned to the press court and imprisoned for six days." His detention, in early 2000, was right before parliamentary elections, and because of the international media spotlight, Kowsar believes "the judiciary kicked me out of prison -- though the judge told me I was looking at a 20-year sentence . . . for attacking Islam and defaming prophets."
"If I were to set foot in the country again, I'd immediately go back to prison," says Kowsar, who received the international Award for Courage for Editorial Cartooning from Cartoonists Rights Network in 2001.
Is it courage, though, that propels a political cartoonist to crosshatch so blatantly over a government's red lines? Is it fearlessness, or a passionate political conviction?
None of the above, Kowsar replies quickly. "As a cartoonist in Iran, you should be nuts. I was nuts."
Iran preparing package for talks with West (July 11, 2009 - AP)
Iranian-Americans rally in front of White House (July 11, 2009 - Christine Simmons)
Muslim Holidays Make Sense for NYC Schools (July 8, 2009 - Feisal Abdul Rauf)
The Guardian
Western leaders skeptical as Iran offers olive branch on nuclear programme (July 12, 2009 - Peter Beaumont)
A murder that Germany ignored (July 10, 2009 - Anja Seeliger)
Teargas fired on protesters in Iran Video and Photos
Slate
Did the Toppling of Saddam Hussein Lead to Recent Events in Iran? (July 6, 2009 - Christopher Hitchens)
The Wink that Changed the World (July 6, 2009 - Michael Meyer) <- It's about the cold war…but I think it holds relevance to Iran
Los Angeles Times
Advisor to Iran supreme leader calls for tolerance of dissent (July 12, 2009 - Borzou Daragahi)
Iranian expatriate artists' projects give voice to countrymen (July 11, 2009 - Reed Johnson)
Iran: U2's green-tinted tributes to Iranian protesters <- The Farsi lyrics are not the song but a Rumi Poem
Senior Iranian cleric calls for revision of election laws (July 11, 2009 - Borzou Daragahi)
Hundreds of Germans hold memorial for Egyptian woman slain in courtroom (July 11, 2009 - Joerg Aberger) <- This is quickly becoming a flashpoint in Muslim politics
Babylon & Beyond: IRAN: Mehdi Karroubi warns of 'unimaginable consequences' (July 11, 2009)
New York Times
Another Insurgency Gains in Pakistan (July 11, 2009 - Carlotta Gall)
Night.
July 12, 2009 post | July 11, 2009 post | July 10, 2009 post | July 9, 2009 posts | July 8, 2009 post | July 7, 2009 post | July 6, 2009 post | July 5, 2009 post | July 4, 2009 post
Blogs
Demotix <- The mighty photojournalism site Iran election page pictures of demostrations outside Iranian embassy in London
Mightier Than
ABC reporter jim sciutto's twitblog
LA Times - Babylon & Beyond First images to emerge of July 9, 2009 protests large crowd gets dispersed by teargass on July 9, 2009 protests
iran.whyweprotest.net 18 Tir / 9 July forum thread <- lots of vids and first hand account by a protester in Iran
goftaniha.org Ex-Basij Founder's Blog being used to ID Basij - in Farsi
Ayatollah Watch <- Information on Ayatollahs
Ahmedi's takeover has been planned since 2004
Out the Basij
ID the Basiji
twit blog about how another Ayatollah has gone against the regime
Lara Setrakian - ABC News reporter's blog TEHRAN UNREST: "IT WAS NOTHING LESS THAN WAR. PRAY FOR US."
National Iranian American Council's Blog July 9, 2009 protest coverage <- vids and pics
NY Times - The Lede Blog July 9, 2009 protest coverage
Retweeters to watch
@LaraABCNews <- Reporter out of Dubai who's been in contact with Iranians
@Pray4FreeIran <- retweeter who spreads messages about Iran
@AustinHeap <- The genius behind ProxyHeap and Haystack (says that Node 1 is a go?)
@StopAdmedi <- twitter account for Mousavi supporters
@nicopitney <- I didn't know he had a twitter account
@Iran_Translator <- NiteOwl
@iranriggedelect
@tehranbereau
@bistoon <- IRGC already actively hunt him b/c of student revolt in 1999 so I can rec him
Useful Resources
News: NIAC Insight | Kodoom
Translations: Google Translate | TehranBroadcast.com | Translate4Iran
Helping Iranians use the web: Haystack | Tor Project (English & Farsi) | IranHelp.org (Farsi) Demonstrations: Facebook | sharearchy | WhyWeProtest
Activism: Avaaz.org | National Iranian American Council
Mousavi's FB
Haystack's how you can help digg page
Haystack <- The all powerful proxy (still in testing) Want to help? Don't know anything techwise? Then donate some cash and keep this revolution going, you may just save someone(s) life! Haystack is needing donations! Donate Here.
Protest Advice
Brainstorm Ideas
Torrent/dl list of videos showing police brutality in Iran
Blog that has links to LA Protest that 35-50,000 people turn out
the pictures
Want to know how the power check system in Iran works? The Wall Street Journal has an excellent graph.
Bearing Witness In Iran Weighs Heavily On Cohen: Roger Cohen on NPR
Voice of the Voiceless
YekIran <- Worldwide Protest Map
Wiki on 18th Tir Protests 1999
Wiki of Iranian Election Protests
Reporters Without Borders <- List of how many reporters are in prison in Iran
radionomy anonymous Sea of Green radio
Eng Trans of Mousavi FB that has protest instructions and routes
Mightier Than Iran: The Rooftop Project <- Site trying to find vids of the roof top shoutings for every single night since the protests began.
Iran News <- One Stop Source
for News/YouTube/Blog/Political Cartoon links about Iran's Election and the aftermath (massive library of information)
The Guardian's list of dead and detained
Voice of America News
Iran 360 <- Photojournalism site
Live Blogs on Iran
Revolutionary Road... <- Live from Tehran UPDATES
Andrew Sullivan's blog <- Political blog but he has a lot of coverage on iran. Andrew Sullivan's blog "Iran Erupts Again" Counter Targeting the Protesters
Enduring America blog
Nico's Pitney's live blog on HuffPo The most excellent live blog out there. Has an absolute ton of information dating back the very first day. Filled with pictures and vids.
Nico's Iran Page (it seems he deleted off the info from July 7th but it can be found here)
Nico moved offices on Friday...I don't think there's a Saturday update
July 10, 2009
July 9, 2009 |
July 8th | July 7th | July 6th | July 5th | July 3rd | July 2nd | July 1st | June 30th | June 29th | June 28th | June 27th | June 26th | June 25th | June 24th | June 22nd | June 21st | June 20th pt 2 | June 20th pt 1 | June 19th | June 18th | June 17th | June 16th | June 15th
NiteOwl's Green Briefs <- Anonymous teamed up The Pirate Bay (before they sold out) to provide logistical help to the Iranians in a safe anonymous forum - the vids of Anonymous declaring 'war' on Iranian govt are interesting to watch. NiteOwl's Green Briefs are compilations of news reports straight from Iranians.
#24 (July 10)
#23 (July 9) | #22 (July 8) | #21 (July 7) | #20 (July 6) | #18-#19 (July 4-5) (NiteOwl's net didn't let him access the archives of twitter (?) so it's late) | #17 (July 3) | #16 (July 2) | #15 (July 1) | #14 (June 30) | #13 (June29) | #12 (June 28) | #11 (June 27) | #10 (June 26th) | #9 (June 25) | #8 (June 24) | #7 (June 23) | #6 (June 22) | #5 (June 21) | #4 (June 20 | #3 (June 19) | #2 (June 18) | #1 (June 17)
Newspaper Articles
Huffington Post
The Ayatollah's Tipping Point (July 10, 2009 - Naomi Wolf)
The counter-script for establishing or restoring pro-democratic conditions consists of more mass protest; the appearance and display of resistance symbols; the emergence of enough spokespeople throughout society that all of them cannot be arrested at once; overt civil and covert disobedience, at every level of society, that brings the economy to a halt; withdrawal of support by lawyers and judges for the regime's decisions; international sanctions tied to human rights and clean elections; the refusal -- tricky but not unattainable -- of many soldiers and police to fire at unarmed citizens; and, finally, when the rule of law is reestablished, serious prosecutions of the defeated regime's ringleaders.
When we see footage of nonviolent protesters being brutally beaten by police and militia members, it is painful to deliver the message that, if history is a guide, continued street protest will make the difference between Iran being like Myanmar or, possibly, like Czechoslovakia. Time and again, when mass street protest has been sustained for more than a week or two, a regime -- even one that has begun beating and arresting protesters -- eventually finds it practically and psychologically difficult to sustain its hold.
Street protest, if it can sustain itself for more than that crucial first week, has an effect that is both tactical and emotional; mass protest during the French Revolution made it clear to the courtiers that this rebellion would be too profound to quell in the usual manner; street protests in the American colonies, in the face of arrest or worse, made the colonies ungovernable even before George III waged a costly, unpopular war. In Estonia in the 1980s, the small, illegal protests that surrounded the public singing of the banned national anthem grew, and Estonians were emboldened as their numbers swelled by the thousands daily.
In the United States, street protests helped bring the Vietnam war to an end, and the mass protests of the civil rights movement showed that, as Martin Luther King, Jr. put it, "business as usual" could no longer continue. According to King, disruptive mass protest exposes the tension that has been hidden or ignored, so that it can be addressed. (Ironically, such protest is now largely illegal in the US because of a systematic effort to deter it through a thirty year process of over-permiticization).
Iran's citizens -- and all people longing to resist a tyrannical government or to protest in an established democracy -- should bear the lessons of history in mind. Protest that works must disrupt business as usual and, ideally, stop traffic. Iranian citizens have shown great courage, and they would do well to continue pouring into the street and sitting down, lying down, or standing still. Unless a regime is willing to start machine-gunning its citizens, peaceful, steady, long-term disruption of "business as usual" always works.
What the West can do is apply pressure on Iran -- and on other governments in the future -- to assure and account for the safety of protesters. Natan Sharansky said that this tactic -- the West tracking and demanding accountability for the treatment of individual internal dissenters -- helped break up the Soviet Union. In this crisis, the US president should form a united front with human rights groups, which can advise him exactly how to follow, sustain, and support those Iranians who have been or may yet be arrested, or worse.
Helping Iran Target Iranians (July 10, 2009 - Timothy Karr)
Had Nokia Siemens chosen not to sell spying technology to Iran, another global competitor likely would have taken its place. This list of DPI providers includes Zeugma Systems (Canada), Camiant (USA), Openet (Ireland), Procera Networks (USA), Allot (Israel), Ixia (USA), AdvancedIO (Canada), Arbor Networks (USA) and Sandvine (Canada), among others.
These companies typically partner with Internet Service Providers to insert DPI along the main arteries of the Web. (Sandvine, for example, just announced a "global distribution agreement" with -- you guessed it -- Nokia Siemens Network.) All Net traffic in and out of Iran travels through one portal -- the Telecommunications Company of Iran -- easing the use of DPI.
Yankee Group analysts assert that U.S. ISPs are currently deploying advanced DPIequipment, although many do not disclose it publicly. Through these secret arrangements both in the United States and abroad, the DPI industry is experiencing remarkable growth.
Kian Tajbakhsh: Iran Arrests First American Citizen (July 10, 2009 - Desmond Butler)
The Washington Post
Behind Iranian Lines, Cartoonists Come Under Fire (July 12, 2009 - Michael Cavna)
From within Iran, Sepideh Anjomrooz -- one of her nation's very few female editorial cartoonists -- speaks to the challenges of getting her opinions seen by the larger world. At times during the current unrest, nearly "all communication channels such as text messaging, mobile phone, Internet sites, satellites, etc., were closed," Anjomrooz, who is Muslim, says by e-mail. "But protesters, each time, find a way to obtain the news and reflect the unrest situations."
"I had drawn a cartoon with a crocodile that referred to a powerful ayatollah," he recounts. "I named the crocodile Professor Temsah." In Farsi, "temsah" (meaning crocodile) rhymes with "Mesbah" -- a reference to Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi. In the cartoon, the academic reptile strangles a journalist with its tail.
"Clergy students and ayatollahs asked for my death," Kowsar says. "They shut down their theological school and I was summoned to the press court and imprisoned for six days." His detention, in early 2000, was right before parliamentary elections, and because of the international media spotlight, Kowsar believes "the judiciary kicked me out of prison -- though the judge told me I was looking at a 20-year sentence . . . for attacking Islam and defaming prophets."
"If I were to set foot in the country again, I'd immediately go back to prison," says Kowsar, who received the international Award for Courage for Editorial Cartooning from Cartoonists Rights Network in 2001.
Is it courage, though, that propels a political cartoonist to crosshatch so blatantly over a government's red lines? Is it fearlessness, or a passionate political conviction?
None of the above, Kowsar replies quickly. "As a cartoonist in Iran, you should be nuts. I was nuts."
Iran preparing package for talks with West (July 11, 2009 - AP)
Iranian-Americans rally in front of White House (July 11, 2009 - Christine Simmons)
Muslim Holidays Make Sense for NYC Schools (July 8, 2009 - Feisal Abdul Rauf)
The Guardian
Western leaders skeptical as Iran offers olive branch on nuclear programme (July 12, 2009 - Peter Beaumont)
A murder that Germany ignored (July 10, 2009 - Anja Seeliger)
Teargas fired on protesters in Iran Video and Photos
Slate
Did the Toppling of Saddam Hussein Lead to Recent Events in Iran? (July 6, 2009 - Christopher Hitchens)
The Wink that Changed the World (July 6, 2009 - Michael Meyer) <- It's about the cold war…but I think it holds relevance to Iran
Los Angeles Times
Advisor to Iran supreme leader calls for tolerance of dissent (July 12, 2009 - Borzou Daragahi)
Iranian expatriate artists' projects give voice to countrymen (July 11, 2009 - Reed Johnson)
Iran: U2's green-tinted tributes to Iranian protesters <- The Farsi lyrics are not the song but a Rumi Poem
Senior Iranian cleric calls for revision of election laws (July 11, 2009 - Borzou Daragahi)
Hundreds of Germans hold memorial for Egyptian woman slain in courtroom (July 11, 2009 - Joerg Aberger) <- This is quickly becoming a flashpoint in Muslim politics
Babylon & Beyond: IRAN: Mehdi Karroubi warns of 'unimaginable consequences' (July 11, 2009)
New York Times
Another Insurgency Gains in Pakistan (July 11, 2009 - Carlotta Gall)