You can study this until the scream. No one can study it afterward. This is a second and longer version of what I posted Saturday evening 20, this version recorded from an additional phone: both videos are now all over Europe and Asia. The Twelvers are doomed by the slaughter of Neda Salehi Agha-Soltan, 27. We know that doomed men take a long time to fall and that the next few weeks are likely to look like an abyss. The rallying message "Neda" is written quickly on the streets. I have seen it in Twitters. The Beeb says she was shot by a Basij sniper on a rooftop. Twitter has started posting photos, names abd addresses of Basij snipers. Right, find a Basij sniper from two days ago. This is not the Neda Agha-Soltan's killer: Identified:
"This thug's name is, Sattar Najafi, home address: Azadi Square, Moein Blvd., Saadati Street."
There are no confirmed reports from anywhere, but there are tens of thousand of reports from everywhere. My best source confirmed that the British are evacuating their diplomacy people because there have been specific threats against them. And if you ask, are the Western intelligence agencies interfering, the answer is, You betcha. The regime is pushing back with brute force and with guile. The IP proxies are closing down, the high profile Western journalists are being detained, slowly the regime is closing off digital observation from outside. The arrests are said to be at night. Below find the sort of Twitter messaging that warns that the credulity, ruthlessness, moral vacuum, despondency, is only just starting. All of it points toward outrages to come. Remind, none of this can be confirmed:
"My sources, some Generals Rev Guard and Army unwilling to take orders from Khamanei
"Al Jazeera rpts 24 journalists have been detained by authorities since the protests began week ago
"Mousavi - I will announce route for Thursday March closer to the time to avoid Gov readiness
"Rafsanjani controls much of the army - until now he is silent - after trigger event he will act
"Again we say thank you to our friends who are helping from outside - you know who you are - Sea of Green"
Neda Agha-Soltan's Memorial.
Her family was directed to bury her in a section of the South Tehran Behesht-e-Zahr graveyard that is already prepared for victims of the turmoil. The family was not permitted a memorial service. The Twelvers are geniuses at providing rallying points for the rebellion. The Beeb still photo shows a lot of empty holes. Shot down standing beside her music teacher. In a side street away from the violence. Targeted. Through the chest. Her organs exploded when you see the blood burst from her nose. The estimate is that she took two minutes to die.
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Powerful stuff indeed! Thank you, John, for posting it. I haven't seen too much of this over here in India. B. Raman's posts appear to indicate that at least some here are aware. I also don't know how the rest of the American media is treating this. I just saw a sanitized version of it on the NYT on-line edition. I doubt that the same media that refused to show people jumping out of the World Trade Towers would make an exception in this case. If I'm wrong, it must be because they feel that the cold-blooded murder of Neda does not in any way reflect badly on their own cartoon creation "cat-got-your-tongue" president.
Reported tonight, unconfirmed: The RGs are fracturing.
It's really ironic how confident the mullahs were in inviting the world press to come witness their selection of Ahmadenijad, and how confident they were that nobody would question the unseemly haste of their declaration of a winner.
This grisly report from WSJ concerning 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour shot dead in the streets:
Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.
Also, collective prayers for Neda ("The Voice/ Call" and "Angel of Freedom") have been prohibited in the mosques.
Of interest to watchers is the Shia cycles of mourning described from a piece by Robin Wright:
"The cycles of mourning in Shi'ite Islam actually provide a schedule for political combat — a way to generate or revive momentum. Shi'ite Muslims mourn their dead on the third, seventh and 40th days after a death, and these commemorations are a pivotal part of Iran's rich history. During the revolution, the pattern of confrontations between the Shah's security forces and the revolutionaries often played out in 40-day cycles. (See pictures of violence used as intimidation in Iran.)
The first clashes in January 1978 produced two deaths that were then commemorated on the 40th day in mass gatherings, which in turn produced new confrontations with security forces — and new deaths. Those deaths then generated another 40-day period of mourning, new clashes and further deaths. The cycle continued throughout most of the year until the Shah's ouster in January 1979.
The same cycle has already become an undercurrent in Iran's current crisis. The largest demonstration, on June 18, was called by opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi to commemorate the deaths of protesters three days after they were killed.
Shi'ite mourning is not simply a time to react with sadness. Particularly in times of conflict, it is also an opportunity for renewal. The commemorations for Neda and the others killed this weekend are still to come. And the 40th-day events are usually the largest and most important.
Neda is already being hailed as a martyr, a second important concept in Shi'ism. With the reported deaths of 19 people on June 20, martyrdom provides a potent force that could further deepen public anger at Iran's regime. (See the top 10 players in Iran's power struggle.)
The belief in martyrdom is central to modern politics as well as Shi'ite tradition dating back centuries in Iran. "
And one more thing -- President Obama can immediately send a crystal clear yet relatively "cheap" message of American resolve to North Korea and all its evil playmates simply by restoring the funding for US anti-missile defenses that he has foolishly cut. During the presidential campaign, The Messiah declared that he would support such defenses after sufficient and "successful" testing. Well, Mr. President, how about 18-for-18 for one system and 6-for-6 for the other? Why isn't 24-0 good enough for you, Mr. President, while you continue to pursue a socialized health care scheme that is 0-for-eternity everywhere it has been tried? I don't expect Obama to do the impossible as president, I just wish he'd stop promising the impossible and get real.
For the record -- I posted a message previous to the above "and one more thing," which is why I called the above post "and one more thing." So if this messsage seems out of the blue, it's not my fault.
BHO wants to move quickly on Health care, but will barely speak about a crisis in the Middle East. He needs his base to stay intact if he wants to push health care through congress quickly.
Yes , the Middle East is a tar pit, easy to jump into and impossible to get out of.
PDRK should be a no-brainer, their Dear Leader must know he is taking a Herculean risk by pointing missiles at BHOs birthplace. Will the Brinkmanship work? Foggy Bottom goes on extended Holiday July 3, the professional appeasers at Foggy Bottom want to get out town like the rest of us. Money usually works for the Dear Leader, but we have none to give right now. I wonder if NK was involved with those counterfeit treasury notes in Italy/Suisse.
Reagan was right about Missile defense, and Bush 43 was right about the axis of evil. Obama's base detests Reagan, and despises Bush 43. BHO is worried about the verbal confrontations at the Vineyard this Summer if he supports Reagan's SDI or speaks truth to power over Iran. The chatterati of the beltway-east will be hard pressed to defend him if he knifes their long held opinions in the back. Many of them have been against SDI for 25 years!
I wonder why "The Voice/ Call" was targeted? Was it because she was not in chador and the Baseej spotter singled her out for symbolic reasons? There is little chance that the sniper would have known that her name was Neda. Transversely, there is no chance she knew that stepping out of the car for just a few moments would propel her onto the world stage as they have. She was an innocent bystander, briefly breathing in the air of Justice and Equality as her last.
If one chooses to believe in such things, might God have positioned "The Voice/ Call" in that moment for His own symbolic Reason and Purpose?
We might hope so... we might hope her "Voice/ Call" goes on and on and carries the Song of Freedom to be heard across the Divide.
One thing we can be sure of, the regime realizes her death as being fateful and potentially fatal to it, too.
Such a beautiful young woman- Witnesses said security officials prevented her funeral from going ahead, blocking roads leading to a central Tehran mosque where the ceremony was to have taken place.
"Police were spraying paint on the cars of those who insisted on driving towards the mosque," said one witness.
State television said more than 450 people were detained during clashes with police in Tehran on Saturday in which at least 10 people were killed.
"Those arrested in recent events will be dealt with in a way that will teach them a lesson," the official Irna news agency quoted senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi as saying on state television late on Monday.
He said a special court was studying the cases.
"The rioters should be dealt with in an exemplary way and the judiciary will do that," Raisi said.
"Exemplary?"--> Methinks there might be something lost in translation here.
When will people learn that there is really evil in the world, real, murderous, heartless evil that cannot be fought with "hey let's just talk". After seeing this happen aren't we just a little bit more grateful that we live here in the good ol'e US. As much as the world's community hate's us who did they look to first to express moral outrage..the Saudis, Egypt...Europe ahhh no...the American people and its young POTUS..is he up to it....we'll see.
You know, sometimes, there are appropriate times for some little jabs and jokes trying to get some laughs and diversions from the ever pressing dilemmas that come with the US stature in the world. I'm really not so sure that there should be any attempts by these self important elitists to make light of today's situations.
To me, it seems an affront to have to ask myself "Why are they laughing?"
You won't find the word 'evil' in any of the books POTUS ever wrote or read. The closest you'll come is Michelle Obama referring to Jerome Corsi as 'evil'. 'Evil' implies judgment. One of the lures of Communism is that there can be no judgment. Everyone's the same; everyone is equal. God, I hope that Obama is not the same as Ahmedinejad!
Neda left us with open eyes, when does the Obama Administration is going to open up his eyes and ears and in order to see and hear the "voices" of Iranian people who are screaming for their aspitations which is freedom and democracy and getting rid of the tyrants in Iran?
Why the west and the United States is against the Iranian people and for the tyrant?
How many times are you going to appologize in 2060- or 2070? Come on the side of the Iranian people and stop your support for tyrants.