Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [6/19-6/25] major news events regarding Iran.

Iran's Presidential Elections:

Last Sunday

• The initial media reports on Iran's election, Friday (June 17th), were largely uncritical of the government "election results." They reported a large turnout and a run off election was needed between Rafsanjani and Ahmedinejad.
• Iranian blogger Windseed reported fraud and Ramin Parham chastised the media for its uncritical coverage. We also reported on these problems with the media and called on the blogosphere for help. But finally on Sunday, The NY Times and the Economist began reporting on allegations of vote rigging. Some in the blogosphere began to help, but most had assumed the elections were fraudulent anyway. My point was that we needed to hold the media accountable. The International media could ask questions that Iranian journalist's could not without great risk.
  
• The U.S. and. Canada came out against the election results.

Monday

• The Iranian expatriate community charged that most of the media was silent on the fraud in the elections. The Wall Street Journal said it was astonished at the media's coverage of the election.
• Michael Ledeen reported that sources inside Iran's Interior Ministry put the actual number of voters at roughly seven million people.
• Under pressure, Iran's powerful Guardian Council decided to recount a small number of ballot boxes.
• Iran’s former Parliament Speaker and presidential hopeful Mehdi Karroubi resigned his membership of the powerful State Expediency Council and stepped down as an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in protest against rigging of the polls.
• Shirin Ebadi said the election result was not a true reflection of the will of the people.
• There were reports that Bassij forces attacked campaigners for Rafsanjani.
• Iranian blogger, Hoder.com, discussed the possibility of a coming coup in the run 0ff election, scheduled for Friday.

Tuesday

• The media shifted and began aggressively questioning the Iranian election. The Wall Street Journal said no matter who wins, the news won't be good.
• The large Iranian Student Union, Tahkeem Vahdat, called the election a sham, called for a boycott of Friday's run off election and stated that the regime is not reformable.
• DEBKAfile reported on how Iran's Supreme Leader rigged the election for Ahmedinejad.
• Mehdi Karoubi's resignation letter to the Supreme Leader of Iran was published briefly online on the Shargh and Emrooz websites, but was immediately "cleansed" from those sites. The Supreme Leader rebuked him.
• Iranian officials dismissed rigging allegations in Iran's presidential election.
• A Dutch MP argued in Iran, for the majority of voters, participation in the election is merely a sign that they prefer to bring about change in the country through peaceful means.
• The media began reporting that anti-West forces were uniting in Iran's election and warned of the discontent of youthful electorate.
• The "reformist" movement in Iran said would now support Rafsanjani and opposes the candidacy of the mayor of Tehran. The week before they feared him.
• Iranian security officials confiscated more than half a million wallet-size cards and posters endorsing Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for president. They did so because the posters and cards contained the words "repression," "terrorizing," "freedom" and "democracy."
• Once again, blogs in Iran led other media in election reporting.

Wednesday

• In a potentially major shift, Britain adopted a more confrontational policy towards Iran. Many in the Foreign Office believe that the Iranian regime is "dying."
• Evidence of election fraud continued to come in, such as in Iran's South Khorrasan province where 298,000 ballots were counted in the first round of the presidential elections despite the fact that there were only 270,000 eligible voters, a defeated candidate claimed.
• "Reformist's" complained that votes are votes are being bought.
• Last week Iranian blogger, Hoder was desperately fighting to keep Rafsanjani from becoming President, today he came out in support of him. This discouraged other Iranians.
• Iran's Interior Ministry reported that they had exact information about the people and institutions who have been acting in directing and shaping votes the day before the election.
• Then the "polls" on the run off election began coming out, one showing the race tight another showing a lead for Ahmedinejad.
• Iranian blogger, Lilit, reported that a 27-year old Basiji declared that he voted 11 times, with 8 fake Identity cards, because the supreme Leader wanted him to do so.

Thursday

• I published an open letter to the International media in Iran there for the run off election, Friday. These journalists were in a unique position to ask the hard questions of the government about the legitimacy of these elections. In the letter I included a number of questions they could ask with source material. I asked the blogosphere for help with this.
• Iranian blogger Windseed published several interesting reports on the run off election.
• Iran arrested 26 people for suspected electoral violations.
• Sardar Haddad claimed the election was boycotted by the overwhelming majority of Iranians, despite media reports to the contrary.
  
• A journalist reported on the arrests of international journalists in Iran.
• In a last minute attempt for votes, Rafsanjani was offering every family in Iran $11,000 worth of shares of privatized companies.
• Amir Taheri published an analysis of the possible outcomes of the election.

Friday

• It was reported that many people in Iran were saying that if Ahmadinejad wins they will leave Iran.
• Iran Focus reported that hundreds of polling stations in Tehran and other towns and cities they monitored were virtually empty. We published photos of some of these polling stations. But the International Herald Tribune said the turnout was high.
• Iran's Elections Headquarters said, Reporting of violations of the Election Law at such a broad level is quite unprecedented and according to latest reports the violations are no longer limited to trivial illegal affairs. They later reported the arrest of their Interior Ministry's director-general for parliamentary affairs.
• Ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was swept to victory in Iran's presidential election. Rafsanjani aid conceded the loss.

Saturday

• Iran's new president Ahmedinejad, spoke of making Iran a "modern, advanced, powerful and Islamic" model for the world.
• Rafsanjani said, I do not intend to take my complaint about the elections to those arbitrators who have proved that they do not want, or can not, do anything.
• Another official with Iran's Interior Ministry accused Iran's Guardian Council of election fraud and that he was briefly placed under arrest.
• Western countries sharply criticized the vote in Iran saying they showed "serious deficiencies.
• Exiled Iranian opposition leaders hailed hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad's victory saying it would bring Tehran's Islamic regime a step closer to collapse.
• Iran's security forces were placed on a heightened state of alert throughout Saturday to prevent any street demonstrations.

Iranians vote again in the US:

• SMCCDI asked for help in transforming regime's sham "run off of June 24th" into protest action.
• SMCCDI reported "Foundation for Democracy in Iran" (FDI), a prominent US based Iran Watch Group, is sounding the alarm.
• The Washington Times reported that Congress and the administration seem unaware of the fact that the regime has conducted the election in the United States, possibly in violation of U.S. law.
• SMCCDI reported the Islamic regime has re-opened, again, its very same sham ballot boxes in Los Angeles(CA). Then, they changed the location.
• Robert Mayer of PublisPundit posted a few thoughts on the Iranian polling stations in the U.S. and the (s)election results.

Iran's trouble making outside of Iran:

• UPI reported that Iran`s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said U.S. policies will be defeated.
• MSNBC reports that Al-Qaida has found a safe haven in Iran. An under-reported story.
  

Iran's nuclear negotiations:

• Reuters reported that U.S. President George W. Bush and European Union leaders emphasized unity on pressuring Iran to give up nuclear ambitions.
• Interactive Investor reported that Iran's foreign minister said, Iran will eventually resume its controversial uranium enrichment activities regardless of the result of the Islamic republic's presidential election.
• Khaleej Times reported that Britain pressed Iran on Saturday to take quick steps to address mounting concerns over its suspect nuclear program.
• Iran Press News reported that China will never permit the Islamic Republic of Iran to gain access to nuclear weapons.

US Policy and Iran:

• U.S. Department of State released Secretary Condoleezza Rice's extraordinary remarks at the American University in Cairo.
• The White House released a declaration with the EU on enhancing cooperation in the field of non proliferation and the fight against terrorism.
• Middle East Newsline reported the United States has determined that despite numerous requests China has become a major supplier of weaponry to Iran.
• Yahoo! News reported that the US State Department said, With the conclusion of the election in Iran, we have seen nothing that dissuades us from our view that Iran is out of step with the rest of the region.

Human Rights/Freedom of the press inside of Iran:

• ABC News reported Noble Prize winner Shirin Ebadi as saying stoning is still occurring in Iran.
• Iran Focus reported a court in Iran has sentenced a journalist to 91 days in prison for having insulted both the President and Rafsanjani.
• Iran Focus a young prisoner in Iran has sewn his mouth in protest.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran security forces detain two pro-democracy protesters at Evin Prison.
• Committee to Protect Bloggers is asking for help their goal of getting 1,000 signatures each on the petitions for Mojtaba and Omid.
• Iran Focus reports that students in Allameh Tabatabai University protested against the extended detention of a fellow student activist.
• Reza Pahlavi in an interview said, human rights and democracy ... [are the Iranian] system’s Achilles' heel.
• Yahoo News reports that Iran has among the strictest Internet censorship in the world, blocking access to sexual content, political websites, and "blogs," using U.S. technology. The OpenNetInitiative statement. The U.S. company denied it.
  

Popular struggle for freedom inside of Iran:

• Iran Focus reported that some 1,000 copper workers staged a hunger strike.
• Reuters reported that a little-known group said it had abducted an Iranian security agent and would behead him unless Iran freed jailed members of the group.
• SMCCDI reported that a Militia Colonel was killed, yesterday, in the Capital's rebellious suburb of Eslamshahr.
  

Iran and the world community:

• Reuters reported that the Iraqi Prime Minister said, A crisis with our neighbors will not change Iraq/US relations.
• Aawsat.com reported on the failings of Iran and its theocratic rule.
  

Sean Penn in Iran:

• Still silent.

Iranian bloggers:

• Iranian blogger Ramin Parham, Iran-Shahr Blog reminded us, History is the movement of the masses. What moves the masses and when, is History's best guarded mystery.
• Iranian blogger, Hoder back from Iran fears if he returned to Iran they would introduce me to Saeed Mortazavi, the beloved Tehran's chief prosecute and the person responsible for the death of Zahra Kazemi.
• Iranian blogger, Mr. Bedhi said, Bad days to come. I do not want to see myself as war blogger. But these guys will make it easier to happen if they insist in having this nasty nuclear technology the way they want.
• Iranian blogger, Farideh Nicknazar said the true winner is Khamenie himself.

Must Read reports:

• Kenneth R. Timmerman's publisher Crown Forum released an excerpt of his new book, Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran, Chapter 1: THE DEFECTOR. (Iran's involvement in 9/11).
  
• Jihad Watch reports on how Iran's EMP program could defeat the U.S.
• Iran Focus provided a profile of Iran's new President, Ahmadinejad.
• Iranian Alaleh Ashtari writes, the international media is not interested in what the people have to say. Instead they have concentrated on the candidates and the "overwhelming" number of people at the polls.

The Experts:

• Michael Ledeen gave an interview to Free Inquiry Magazine on Islam and terrorism.
• Richard Haas reported that the Bush administration would like to resolve its problems with Iran through regime change. But the strategy is unlikely to work, at least not quickly enough.
• Michael Ledeen sees a power struggle within the tyrannical elite and said this blog's work is indispensable

Photos and cartoons of the week:

• A cartoon from Cox and Forkum: Knock the Vote.
• A graphic: Lord of the Wrongs.
• Photo essay: Election fever 24 hours before final round presidential vote. Thirty-nine photos of the campaign.
• Iran election: Special Photo Report. Photos of polling stations around Iran on election day.
• Not too many people for a city of 14 million inhabitants. Web cam photos of the streets of Tehran on election day.
• Election a la Iranian Mullahs A cartoon.

And finally, The Quote of the Week:

In an interview, Iranian student dissident Ahmad Batebi said,

The candidates were never elected by the people, the selection of the candidates are from the supreme leader. The people of Iran had no power in choosing any of them.