Ad astra per aspera
The delivery was mild, but the words were incandescent: now Iran's protesters know exactly where they stand. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei finally spoke on the crisis gripping his nation yesterday, and while he had emollient words for presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, his threats were explicit. He demanded an end to the protests that have brought millions on to the nation's streets this week, insisted that their cause was wrong, that his ally Ahmadinejad was the election's rightful winner, denied there was any possibility that the election had been rigged, and warned of fearful consequences if the people come out in force again today. "The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," he said. "If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible."
The delivery was mild, but the words were incandescent: now Iran's protesters know exactly where they stand. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei finally spoke on the crisis gripping his nation yesterday, and while he had emollient words for presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, his threats were explicit.
He demanded an end to the protests that have brought millions on to the nation's streets this week, insisted that their cause was wrong, that his ally Ahmadinejad was the election's rightful winner, denied there was any possibility that the election had been rigged, and warned of fearful consequences if the people come out in force again today. "The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," he said. "If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible."
Witnesses said police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in Tehran today in open defiance of Iran's clerical government, sharply escalating the most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Related articles The Ayatollah speaks - and the protesters are warned Leading article: A show of force as the Islamic revolution fights back Robert Fisk's World: In Tehran, fantasy and reality make uneasy bedfellows Robert Fisk: Khamenei is fighting for his own position as well as Ahmadinejad's The eyewitnesses described fierce clashes near Revolution Square in central Tehran after some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" Police responded with tear gas and water cannons. The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and pro-government militia and taken to Imam Khomeini hospital in central Tehran. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes. Helicopters hovered over central Tehran. Ambulance sirens echoed through the streets and black smoke rose over the city. Tehran University was cordoned off by police and militia while students inside the university chanted "death to the dictator," witnesses said.
Witnesses said police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in Tehran today in open defiance of Iran's clerical government, sharply escalating the most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Related articles
The eyewitnesses described fierce clashes near Revolution Square in central Tehran after some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" Police responded with tear gas and water cannons.
The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and pro-government militia and taken to Imam Khomeini hospital in central Tehran. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes.
Helicopters hovered over central Tehran. Ambulance sirens echoed through the streets and black smoke rose over the city.
Tehran University was cordoned off by police and militia while students inside the university chanted "death to the dictator," witnesses said.
Reality Continued | Jamail | 27 May 2009
... At one level we have the Human Terrain System (HTS) I have written about previously wherein social scientists are embedded with combat units, ostensibly to help the occupiers better understand the cultures they are occupying. The veiled intent is to exploit existing schisms and fault-lines in these societies to the occupier's own advantage through the policy of divide and conquer. As Edward Said stated in "Orientalism": "... there is a difference between knowledge of other peoples and other times that is the result of understanding, compassion, careful study and analysis for their own sakes, and on the other hand knowledge - if that is what it is - that is part of an overall campaign of self-affirmation, belligerency, and outright war. There is, after all, a profound difference between the will to understand for purposes of coexistence and humanistic enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external dominion." It is extremely obvious that the HTS belongs to this second category. At another unquestioned level, the "democratization" and "modernization" of a "barbaric" society goes on. The embedded scholars of HTS evidently find no evidence of these cultures having withstood decades of international isolation and assault, yet sustained their sovereignty by the sheer dint of their education, culture and a well-integrated diverse social fabric. So the US sets up a range of state-funded programs, ostensibly to empower the women and youth of the target society, in the ways of democracy and modern civilization. Whether or not that suspect goal is accomplished, the badgered collective consciousness of the invaded people, traumatized by loss and conflict, does begin to submit to the "norms" of behavior prescribed by the victor, even when they are in violation of actual norms of society that may have prevailed prior to invasion. ...
As Edward Said stated in "Orientalism":
"... there is a difference between knowledge of other peoples and other times that is the result of understanding, compassion, careful study and analysis for their own sakes, and on the other hand knowledge - if that is what it is - that is part of an overall campaign of self-affirmation, belligerency, and outright war. There is, after all, a profound difference between the will to understand for purposes of coexistence and humanistic enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external enlargement of horizons, and the will to dominate for the purposes of control and external dominion."
It is extremely obvious that the HTS belongs to this second category.
At another unquestioned level, the "democratization" and "modernization" of a "barbaric" society goes on. The embedded scholars of HTS evidently find no evidence of these cultures having withstood decades of international isolation and assault, yet sustained their sovereignty by the sheer dint of their education, culture and a well-integrated diverse social fabric. So the US sets up a range of state-funded programs, ostensibly to empower the women and youth of the target society, in the ways of democracy and modern civilization. Whether or not that suspect goal is accomplished, the badgered collective consciousness of the invaded people, traumatized by loss and conflict, does begin to submit to the "norms" of behavior prescribed by the victor, even when they are in violation of actual norms of society that may have prevailed prior to invasion. ...
And I think it no coincidence that the "target" demographic of McWorld freedom is --in Iraq, "Af-Pak," and Iran for example-- are adolescents. After all, 20th-century "conflict" was all about annihilating cultural foundations and stripping natural resources from ROW. Seasonal tilling the land, if you will, in order to sow seeds not of democracy but corporate fealty. In a country like Vietnam the "enterprise zones" rise around slums of the very young and very old in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
The very old await death. The very young, sensing "somthing is not quite right" with choosing between one colonial steward and another, riot. Periodically. So the Westworld NGOs and such harvest the birth of another "movement". Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Iranian riot police beat protesters and fired tear gas as violence erupted in Tehran today when thousands of members of the opposition movement took to the streets in open defiance of the country's supreme leader.Thousands of plain clothes and uniformed security officials blockaded Tehran's main throughfares but it seems many of the demonstrators who had previously turned out in their hundreds of thousands stayed away, for fear of official reprisals.The crackdown on supporters of the reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi confirmed fears that authorities would carry out their threat to suppress protests in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election.Eyewitnesses in Revolution Square reported around 20,000 riot police, made up of Basiji militiamen and soldiers, and armed with rifles, tear gas and water cannons, far outnumbering the hardcore of around 3,000 opposition members who turned out today.
Iranian riot police beat protesters and fired tear gas as violence erupted in Tehran today when thousands of members of the opposition movement took to the streets in open defiance of the country's supreme leader.
Thousands of plain clothes and uniformed security officials blockaded Tehran's main throughfares but it seems many of the demonstrators who had previously turned out in their hundreds of thousands stayed away, for fear of official reprisals.
The crackdown on supporters of the reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi confirmed fears that authorities would carry out their threat to suppress protests in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election.
Eyewitnesses in Revolution Square reported around 20,000 riot police, made up of Basiji militiamen and soldiers, and armed with rifles, tear gas and water cannons, far outnumbering the hardcore of around 3,000 opposition members who turned out today.
Iranian riot police beat protesters and fired tear gas
That's the American way. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
La Santé jail in Paris a month ago, for example.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi said on Saturday he was "ready for martyrdom" in leading protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic and brought warnings of bloodshed from Iran's Supreme Leader. EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. Mousavi also called for a national strike if he is arrested, a witness said. As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded out across northern Tehran, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution against the Shah. In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while unrest continued across Tehran in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi said on Saturday he was "ready for martyrdom" in leading protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic and brought warnings of bloodshed from Iran's Supreme Leader.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
Mousavi also called for a national strike if he is arrested, a witness said. As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded out across northern Tehran, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution against the Shah.
In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while unrest continued across Tehran in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.
Mousavi also called for a national strike if he is arrested, a witness said.
Not the American way.
In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
That's the al-Queda way! Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
The truck bomb body count: 163 casualties, 72 fatalities. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Iranian police have used water cannon, batons, tear gas and live rounds to break up protests over the presidential election, witnesses in Tehran say.A BBC correspondent at Enghelab Square said he saw one man shot and others injured amid a huge security operation involving thousands of police. Defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi repeated calls for the election to be annulled on the grounds it was rigged. There were also reports of a bombing at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Iranian police have used water cannon, batons, tear gas and live rounds to break up protests over the presidential election, witnesses in Tehran say.
A BBC correspondent at Enghelab Square said he saw one man shot and others injured amid a huge security operation involving thousands of police.
Defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi repeated calls for the election to be annulled on the grounds it was rigged.
There were also reports of a bombing at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, state media said on Saturday, in an attack coinciding with more unrest over a disputed presidential vote. "A few minutes ago a suicide bomber exploded himself in the shrine," police official Hossein Sajedinia was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying. Press TV said the attacker died and eight people were injured. It said the attack took place at the northern entrance to the Imam Khomeini shrine.
