Night Raids Terrorize Civilians!!! Security Forces Wreck Homes, Destroy Property to Stop Protest Chants; News Access!!!

Iran: Night Raids Terrorize Civilians
Security Forces Wreck Homes, Destroy Property to Stop Protest Chants; News Access

June 26, 2009

(New York) - Iran's paramilitary Basij arecarrying out brutal nighttime raids, destroying property in private homes andbeating civilians in an attempt to stop nightly protest chants, Human RightsWatch said today. Human Rights Watch also said the Iranian authorities areconfiscating satellite dishes from private homes to prevent citizens fromseeing foreign news.

"While most of the world's attention is focused on thebeatings in the streets of Iran during the day, the Basijis are carrying outbrutal raids on people's apartments during the night," said Sarah Leah Whitson,Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Witnesses are telling us that theBasijis are trashing entire streets and even neighborhoods as well asindividual homes trying to stop the nightly rooftop protest chants."

Since the onset of protests against the disputed presidentialelection results on June 12, 2009, residents throughout Tehran and in othercities in Iran have carried out nightly rooftop protest chants of "God isGreat" (Allahu Akbar) and other similarslogans.

The nighttime shouting of such slogans at designatedhours is a powerful form of protest in Iran, as it was one of the emblematicforms of protests during the Iranian revolution 30 years ago, which toppled theruling Pahlavi monarchy and led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic.Opposition leaders had asked their supporters to chant these slogans as a formof peaceful protest. With the increasingly severe crackdown on the currentstreet protests in Iran appearing to make large-scale daytime protestsimpossible, the nightly chanting has become one of the few remaining forms ofmass public protests against the disputed results of the June 12 presidentialelection.

A middle-aged resident from Vanak neighborhood gave HumanRights Watch an overview of his participation each day in the protests. He explainedthat by June 22, virtually the only form of protest still available to him wasto shout slogans from his rooftop at night. But then the Basiji came to attackhis neighborhood.

"On June 22, while we wereshouting ‘Allahu Akbar' from the rooftops, the only form of protests we couldstill undertake, the Basiji entered our neighborhood and started firing liverounds into the air, in the direction of the buildings from which they believethe shouting of ‘Allahu Akbar' is coming from. I didn't see any rounds hittingour buildings. Shortly thereafter, my cousin arrived at our apartment. He wasvery shaken. The Basijis had entered their house in Yousef Abad neighborhood,and they had destroyed their doors and destroyed cars in the street.

"There are many thingshappening that aren't being reported [in the media]. In every neighborhood ofTehran, people are talking about how the Basijis and other security servicesare coming into their houses and are terrorizing people for shouting ‘AllahuAkbar' from the rooftops, and for congregating."

A second witness, a woman from the affluent Velenjakneighborhood in northern Tehran, gave a similar account of Basiji attacks inher neighborhood on the night of June 23:

"Last night [June 23], theBasijis entered our neighborhood to intimidate those who were shouting ‘AllahuAkbar' from their rooftops. They started kicking down doors, and when theycouldn't succeed, they would climb over the garden walls and open the interiordoors. When they entered the homes, they beat the residents. The neighbors tookto cursing the Basijis and throwing stones at them to divert them from beatingthe residents, but then the Basijis attacked those neighbors' houses and triedto enter them."

A third witness told Human Rights Watch how he hadwitnessed Basijis attacking private homes where they believed protesters hadfled to escape attack:

"In my neighborhood, downtownTehran, there were protesters who escaped into people's homes when the Basijischased them. The Basijis who were chasing them then knocked harshly on thedoors. The residents were too afraid to open the doors. Then the Basijissprayed a mark on the door with spray paint. A few minutes later, they cameback and attacked the marked houses, breaking down the doors and entering them.They beat the owners, and broke the windows in the house and of their cars."

Human Rights Watch has collected similar accounts ofviolent nighttime raids by the Basij and other security forces in neighborhoodsthroughout Tehran, including Niavaran, Farmaneih, Saadat Abad, Shahrak Gharb,and Vanak Square. The Basiji (Nirooye Moghavemate Basij, the ResistanceMobilization Force) is a volunteer paramilitary force of men and women, "alarge people's militia," created by Ayatollah Khomeini in November 1979 toadvance the aims of the Islamic Revolution. The Basijis are under the controlof the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and have branches throughoutIran, including in many social institutions such as schools, universities,mosques, and government offices. They engage in a wide range of activities, butone of their core duties is to help maintain law and order, repress dissent,and enforce their conservative interpretation of Islamic codes of dress andbehavior. During times of protests, they frequently beat and intimidateprotesters.

Security agents are also forcing residents in Tehran totake down their satellite dishes, which allow them to view foreign media, oneof the few sources of uncensored information in the face of the severegovernment restrictions on domestic media in Iran. According to a reliablesource in Tehran, on June 24, uniformed police officers forced residents in theNiavaran and Dorous neighborhoods of Tehran to take down their satellitereceiving dishes, and returned later to confiscate many of the satellitedishes. In addition to placing severe restrictions on access to internet-basednews providers, Iran is also trying to jam the signals of foreign news mediathat broadcast into Iran.

A resident from the Saadat Abad neighborhood of Tehrandescribed a police raid to Human Rights Watch:

"Five policemen knocked onthe door of our apartment building. People went to open the door and asked themwhat they wanted. The police said they wanted to come and destroy the satellitedishes on the rooftop. The landlord asked them if they had any permissiondocuments to do this. The policemen replied that there was no need for anydocuments because the stairs and the rooftops aren't private property; they arecommon (shared) property. Then they threatened the landlord, ‘If you want us togo get permission documents, we'll come back later with them, but then we willalso search the apartments as well.' They were trying to intimidate thelandlord, so he let them in. Then they went to the rooftop and threw the dishesinto the street. The landlord told me they behaved so harshly with him therewas no room to complain."

"After clamping down on the local media and expellingforeign correspondents, Iran's security forces are now trying to shut down people'saccess to foreign news," said Whitson. "Clearly, they don't want their owncitizens to know what is actually happening inside Iran today."

Human Rights Watch called upon the authorities to ensurethat everyone whose property had been destroyed by security forces receivedcompensation in full.


source: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/26/iran-night-raids-terrorize-civilians

Doctor tells how Neda Soltan was shot dead by Ahmadinejad's basij

Friday, 26 June 2009
The Times
Martin Fletcher

ImageThey were a few brief minutes that Arash Hejazi will never forget, that have changed his life for ever, that have shocked the world and ripped every last shred of legitimacy from Iran’s tyrannical regime.

There was the pandemonium of the protests, the terror as the riot police charged, and the sudden crack. And there was this beautiful young woman looking down at her chest in surprise as the blood gushed out.

Dr Hejazi rushed to help as Neda Soltan’s life rapidly ebbed away. She could not speak, but he said: “I felt she was trying to ask a question. Why?”

Why? Why had a presidential election that generated so much excitement and exuberance ended with a government that claims to champion the highest moral values, the finest Islamic principles, butchering its own youth?

Dr Hejazi, 38, trained as a doctor, but later turned to his real passion — literature. He became a novelist and editorial director of a Tehran publishing house. He has spent the past seven months with his wife and infant son doing a postgraduate course in publishing at Oxford Brookes University. He was caught up in the excitement of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s campaign. He believed he could change Iran.

On June 12 he went to London to vote, and encouraged all his friends to do likewise. The next day he flew back to Tehran on business and found a capital convulsed by running battles between the security forces and hundreds of thousands of Mousavi supporters who believed that President Ahmadinejad had stolen the election.

The following Saturday, shortly before 7pm, he was sitting in his office with three friends when they heard a commotion in nearby Kargar Street. They went to see what was happening and found riot police — some of them on motorcycles — charging towards a huge crowd of protesters, firing teargas and lashing out with their batons. It was terrifying, he said. Everybody started running. But amid the pandemonium he noticed Neda Soltan. She had been caught up in the swirling emotion of the moment. He saw her shouting “Death to the Dictator” and an older man pushing her — rather against her will — into a side alley, Khosravi Street.

Dr Hejazi and many others joined her there. They believed that they had found a refuge. Miss Soltan was standing just a metre away from him when “all of a sudden we heard a blast. I asked my friend what it was, and he said he’d heard the police were using plastic bullets. A second later I looked at Neda. She was just standing there, blood gushing out of her chest. She had bent her head to look at the wound, then put her hand to her chest. I just saw surprise on her face, then she lost control.”

Dr Hejazi and another man rushed to support her. They laid her on the ground. “I put pressure on the wound. From what I saw the bullet had hit her aorta and lungs. When the aorta is hit the blood drains from the body in less than a minute. There’s nothing you can do. She didn’t say a single word.”

He remembers the older man — later identified as her music teacher — wailing, “My child, my child”.

Miss Soltan’s body was bundled into a car, a Peugeot 206, which rushed her to hospital but it was pointless, Dr Hejazi said. She was already dead. “She died in my hands.”

As Miss Soltan was being taken to hospital another commotion erupted about 20 metres away. A crowd of demonstrators had caught the basij — an Islamic volunteer militaman — who shot her from his motorbike. He was a big, strong man in his forties, clean-shaven except for a moustache.

“I heard him shouting, ‘I didn’t want to kill her. I didn’t want to kill her. I meant to shoot her in the leg’.” The crowd were furious. Some were trying to lynch him. Others were saying: “We’re not killers. Don’t harm him.”

All agreed that there was no point in handing the man to the police so they simply took his identify card and let him go.

Dr Hejazi’s clothes were soaked in Miss Soltan’s blood. He returned to his office to wash. His friends joined him there and they sat for two hours, waiting for the streets to clear, discussing the horror of what they had seen. “I was pale and furious and afraid and sad,” he said. “As a doctor I’d seen death before, but I never thought I’d have such a feeling. It was not just her death, but the injustice of the thing and the gaze in her eyes as life was leaving her.” He did not weep then, but he did later that night in bed.

Dr Hejazi finally reached his parents’ home at about 10pm, which is when he realised that he was in grave danger himself. There on television — CNN or al-Jazeera — was the grainy footage, shot with a mobile telephone, of him trying to save Miss Soltan’s life. That 40-second clip was flashing around the world, making Miss Soltan an instant global symbol of the regime’s brutality. The authorities moved swiftly to silence her family, bury her body and prevent any wake. How long before they tracked him down?

Within a day or two friends were calling, asking if it was him in the video. He started growing a beard to disguise himself. He went to the office, but returned well before dark and avoided the demonstrations. He lived in increasing fear. “If I was identified I would have been arrested. I would have been one of the hundreds of people who have disappeared in the past ten days . . . Anything can happen in that country right now.”

He decided to return to Britain, not knowing if he would be stopped at the airport. He tried to conceal his fear from his parents, and on the telephone to his wife in Oxford, but on Tuesday he e-mailed his friend Paulo Coelho, the distinguished Brazilian novelist: “Trying to leave the country tomorrow morning. If I don’t arrive in London at 2pm something has happened to me . . . If something happens to me please take care of [my wife] and [son], they are there, alone, and have no one else in the world. Much love, it was an honor having you as a friend.”

Dr Hejazi made it. He flew out on the British Midlands flight on Wednesday morning and may never be able to return. He escaped, but he did not leave behind the horror he had seen.

Speaking from the safety of his Oxford home last night, he said of Miss Soltan’s death: “I can’t forget that scene. I live it every moment. I don’t know how I can cope with this. I don’t know if I can heal. I don’t sleep much now. I just fall asleep when I’m exhausted for a couple of hours.”

On his Facebook site he told his fellow students: “I’m not sure I can be your class clown any more. I have many scars now. Deeper than what I already had.”

He is outraged by the regime’s attempt to suggest that Miss Soltan was shot from behind by a fellow protesters — she was shot from the front, he insists. Or even more outrageously, as some Iranian government newspapers suggested yesterday, that the BBC’s newly expelled Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, arranged for her to be killed so he could get good propaganda pictures. “Oh my God. That’s outrageous . . . nonsense,” he said. Above all, he is consumed with fury at the rulers of his own country, who profess to rule in the name of Islam but slaughter their own people and violate its most sacred values. “It’s outrageous. It’s unbelievable. No government has the right to use such force against its own people.”

A coup détat has taken place, he said. “It may not sound like a coup because those who had power still have it, but it was a coup in the sense that the people chose someone else and they prevented him coming to power.”

His only consolation is that Miss Soltan has become a global symbol of innocence destroyed by evil. For that he is glad. “This way her blood is not wasted and she did not die in vain,” he said.

“She was everything that this movement is about. She was a civilian. She was against violence. She was not carrying a weapon. She was just shouting, just a person in the street who was against injustice going on in her country, and for that she was murdered.”

'She was with us,' says one man of the woman shot dead during protests. 'Maybe one of us would have been killed that day.' Many come to the grave, des

The Los Angeles Times

By Borzou Daragahi

ImageReporting from Tehran -- Security was tight around the bare grave of Neda Agha-Soltan on Thursday. Militiamen and police stood nearby, witnesses said, and it was difficult for visitors to hold a conversation within sight and hearing of the glaring officers.

But the visitors come nonetheless to pay their respects to Agha-Soltan, who was fatally shot by an unknown assailant during the protests Saturday over Iran's disputed presidential election. Her dying moments were captured in a video that made its way onto the Internet and the international airwaves.

"I read the news on the Web, and I saw the picture of the grave," said one man, hovering near the burial site. "I figured out the location of the grave and came.

"We are here for Neda and our deceased relatives too," he said. "We are here to utter our respect for them."

The man said that he too was in the street that day.

"She was with us," he said. "Maybe one of us would have been killed that day. We are here to respect her, and all the martyrs they killed in the last days."

Another man who came to pay tribute said he found it amazing that the government was fighting against ordinary people.

"Not even the politicians, or some students, but normal people in the streets," he said in disgust.

"All of us are in danger, like Neda," said a third man at the grave site.

"Now the military has taken the power and prevents us from paying our respects. It's not a big request! We want respect to Neda."

Chants of "Death to Khamenei" in central Tehran protest

Chants of "Death to Khamenei" in central Tehran protest

Friday, 26 June 2009


Despite a heavy police presence in various parts of Tehran including in Enghelab, Karegar, Jamalzadeh and Vali-Asr streets and in the vicinity of Baharestan Square, people and the suppressive forces clashed on Thursday.

Helicopters belonging to the Revolutionary Guards were circling these areas.

A group of Tehran youths protested in Vali-Asr Street, chanting “Death to Khamenei”. Groups of Revolutionary Guards and paramilitary Bassijis, including those stationed at Daneshjoo Park, brutally attacked the protestors.

People and suppressive forces clashed between Enghelab and Jamalzadeh streets. Hit and run clashes ensued in this region until 8:00pm local time.

Ambulances arrived at the scene in Laleh Park at 8:45pm. They rounded up the injured and took them to centers under the control of the Revolutionary Guards. The Guards have prevented ordinary people from assisting the injured.

Saeed Mortazavi: butcher of the press - and torturer of Tehran?

Saeed Mortazavi: butcher of the press - and torturer of Tehran?

Thursday, 25 June 2009

The Times

Jenny Booth and James Hider

ImageThe Iranian regime has appointed one of its most feared prosecutors to interrogate reformists arrested during demonstrations, prompting fears of a brutal crackdown against dissent.

Relatives of several detained protesters have confirmed that the interrogation of prisoners is now being headed by Saaed Mortazavi, a figure known in Iran as “the butcher of the press”. He gained notoriety for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her detention in 2003.

“The leading role of Saeed Mortazavi in the crackdown in Tehran should set off alarm bells for anyone familiar with his record,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch.

As prosecutor-general of Tehran since 2003 and as a judge before that, he ordered the closure of more than 100 newspapers, journals and websites deemed hostile to the Establishment. In 2004 he was behind the detention of more than 20 bloggers and journalists, who were held for long periods of solitary confinement in secret prisons, where they were allegedly coerced into signing false confessions.

Mr Mortazavi has also led a crackdown in Tehran that has seen women arrested for wearing supposedly immodest clothing.

Earlier this year he oversaw the arrest and trial of Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist sentenced to eight years for spying, and his name has appeared on the arrest warrants of prominent reformists rounded up since the unrest started, such as Saeed Hajarian, a close aide of Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former President. With more than 600 people now having been arrested, including dozens of journalists, many fear the worst.

Mr Mortazavi became notorious for his role in the death of Zahra Kazemi while in Iranian custody on July 11, 2003. Kazemi, a freelance photojournalist with dual Iranian-Canadian nationality, was arrested while taking photographs outside Evin prison, Tehran, during an earlier period of reformist unrest in the city, also ruthlessly repressed.

The first news of what happened to Kazemi, 54, came in a statement from Mr Mortazavi, which said that she had died accidentally of a stroke while being interrogated.

Two days later a contradictory statement was issued, saying that she had fallen and hit her head.

On July 16 Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the Vice-President, admitted that Kazemi had died of a fractured skull after being beaten.

Mr Abtahi, who is no longer in office, was also arrested in the round-up of hundreds of dissidents and reformists overseen by Mr Mortazavi last week.

Amnesty International: Stop using Basij militia to police demonstrations

Stop using Basij militia to police demonstrations

22 June 2009
Amnesty International is calling on the government of Iran to stop using the Basij militia to police demonstrations with immediate effect. The call follows reports that the members of the militia have used excessive force against demonstrators and is made in the light of the history of abuses committted by this unaccountable branch of the security forces.

The Basij militia is a volunteer paramilitary force of men and women under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Its members are found in schools, universities, state and private institutions, factories, and even among tribes. Basij forces are widely used to help to maintain law and order and repress dissent, and have frequently been accused of using extreme brutality.

Many of those who took part in the recent demonstrations claim non - uniformed and armed personnel, whom they believed to be members of the Basij militia, used excessive force and carried out human rights violations – including beatings and use of firearms - against demonstrators on the streets. A video of a member of the Basij shooting from an building used by the Basij during the demonstrations on Monday 15 June in which at least 8 people were killed should have triggered an immediate investigation by the authorities and clear instructions should have been issued to prevent further loss of life. Another video of a young woman identified as Neda, dying apparently from a chest wound, has been widely circulated amid claims of involvement of Basij members.

The response of the Iranian authorities has not been to open a proper investigation to clarify the circumstances of any death but rather to issue further warnings that protests will be handled in a ‘revolutionary manner’ by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Basij militia and other police and security forces.

"Iranians wishing to peacefully express their opposition to recent events surrounding the election have no space to do so, as they are met with violence that has been legitimized by the highest authority in the land,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme. “It’s time for the Iranian authorities to allow peaceful protest and to remove the Basij from the streets. The policing of any demonstrations should be left to the police or other security forces which are properly trained and equipped."

Following the speech from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday demanding an end to the protests, there were further demonstrations on Saturday in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country. 13 people were killed according to the authorities and many more were injured. According to the government, over 400 people were arrested. Another demonstration of about 1,000 people in Tehran on Monday has been met with tear gas and arrests.

“Recent statements from the police, who denied opening fire on protestors, and from the Tehran Prosecutor-General, who blamed the killings on ‘armed terrorists’, look like an attempt to disassociate state organs from responsibility for violence,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. “This is all the more reason to stop using the Basij as there is no way for the public to even identify them, let alone bring them to account for violations. If the Iranian authorities are not able to control such a militia, they should disband it. It is irresponsible to provide weapons and then to relinquish responsibility when abuses occur”.

Amnesty International calls on the Iranian authorities to investigate fully all reports of death, including possible extrajudicial executions, and to bring anyone found responsible to justice.


source: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/iran-stop-using-basij-militia-to-police-demonstrations-20090622

Help Iranian in IRAN!!

There is several way to help iranian in Iran!! Here is Two method!! The first one for everyone outside Iran, the second one for people inside iran!! share it with ur friends!!!


1)

Twitter is at this moment the main communication medium used by the people of Iran to communicate with each other and with the world. They supply each other with information about time and location of demonstrations and other recent news and info.
The Iranian Fundamentalist Regime is trying to stop this distribution of information by locating the Iranian people who use Twitter. One of their methods is to locate them by checking for Time Zone and Location. A second method is by locating and monitoring the source (the persons who spread the information).

It is up to us to provide the people of Iran with a save environment in which they can provide each other and the world with the most recent and trustworthy news and information.

How can we do this?
1 - Create a Twitter account
2 - Change your Time Zone to "(GMT+03:30) Tehran" and your Location to "Iran". (see the example below)
3 - Spread the information that 'reliable' Twitters provide us with. (be careful of unreliable news spread by the regime thugs pretending to be reliable Twitters!)

This is a way to support the people of Iran who fight for freedom and democracy in Iran! So create the account NOW, time is of the essence!




2)

From sanaz!

Iranians using the internet in Iran are getting tracked down by the government because each time they access the net, they are being tracked by their IP address by the government and at nights they come and hunt down those people for accessing sites like Twitter.

My friend owns IPRental.com. He is providing this service for free for Iranians right now. When you download this IPRental software on your computer, you can choose to use an IP address from the United States. Therefore, when an Iranian in Iran access sites or use the net, they dont appear to be doing it from Iran, they appear to be doing it from the U.S. This may save lives. If you go to www.IPRental.com you will see a section for Iran. How do we get the word out about this to Iranians using the net?

Being able to mask their IP address and use the net from Iran and not be traced will save many many lives, we need to get this out somehow, but i dont know how. Please advise.

WWW.IPRENTAL.COM

Female student killed after beating by Iranian regime agents

Female student killed after beating by Iranian regime agents

June 23

A young female student was killed yesterday after being struck in the head by the baton of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) agent in the city of Babolsar at around 22:00 local time. She was leaving the university in a bus.

Also at the University of Babolsar, the university guards known as Herasat (affiliated with the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security – MOIS) have been given pictures of students under watch in order to arrest and hand them over to the MOIS. At least one female student was detained this way yesterday.

In Mashhad, one of the female students protesting the beating of other students by the regime’s suppressive forces has been severely injured in her back after she herself was struck by these forces.

Mullahs' bring tanks to suppress riots in central Tehran

Mullahs' bring tanks to suppress riots in central Tehran

June 22!!

There are large crowds gathered in Tehran’s Ferdowsi and Fatemi squares. Despite a heavy crackdown, people remain in the scene. Shop owners are prevented from exiting their stores and people are banned from entering the stores.

At the Vali-e Asr crossing, there is a heavy atmosphere of terror with tanks brought in. About 1,000 armed soldiers have been stationed on the path towards Haft-e Tir. Agents demand those heading towards Haft-e Tir to tell them their address first before being allowed to pass. As soon as they see a camera, the person is detained and taken away. The suppressive forces have received orders to shoot at people who have cameras.

Protests and clashes rock Tehran and Mashhad

Protests and clashes rock Tehran and Mashhad
June 22 Tehran, Mashhad!!
Despite the clerical regime’s extensive suppressive measures, a large number of youth carried out protests last night at 21:30 local time in Enghelab Square and Enghelab Street. The protest took place in memory of “Neda,” a female student who was killed last night after being shot by the regime’s forces.
In their chants, protestors mourned the innocent young student’s murder and declared that they all consider themselves a “Neda.”
People also changed the name of the street she died in (Amirabad Street) to Neda Street.
Thousands of residents of Aryashahr climbed to their rooftops last night at around 22:30 and chanted “God is Great” and “Death to dictator.”
In order to prevent the formation of protests in Enghelab Square, the regime’s anti-riot unit closed off roads leading to the square at 17:00 local time yesterday. The agents also fired tear gas at the crowd that had converged in Kargar Shomali Street (north of Enghelab Square) and was chanting slogans.
In one of the locations, once the size of the crowd increased, suppressive forces decided to escape the scene. They left their batons and shields in order to be able to run away faster.
The State Security Force (SSF), the Special Unit force, and plain-clothes agents came to the scene once more after being bolstered by back up forces. The clashes continued thereafter between protestors and suppressive forces.
At 22:00 local time last night, the people of Mashhad rushed to the streets yet again with the chants of “God is Great,” “Death to dictator,” and “Death to perpetrators of coup d’etat,” clashing with suppressive forces who attacked them.

Thousands of demonstrators take to Tehran’s streets

Thousands of demonstrators take to Tehran’s streets

June 22

Several thousand people in Tehran converged at Rezaiha Square (so-called Haft-e Tir) on Tuesday at 18:20 local time. Almost every single one of the regime’s suppressive organs, including the anti-riot unit, the State Security Force (SSF), the paramilitary Bassij Force and plain-clothes agents have confronted and beat the protestors to break up the crowds. The Iranian regime agents fire tear gas repeatedly into the population trying their utmost to disperse it. But, people continue to resist and more people from surrounding streets are joining the protestors.

Protests in Tehran Monday, 22 June 2009

On Monday, June 22, a large crow of protesters in Tehran gathered in a square formerly called Haft-e Tir, but are being violently suppressed and beaten by the Iranian regime’s State Security Force (SSF). At the time of reporting, there are still scattered crowds present at the square.

Helicopters are hovering at a low altitude over the protesters. A large number of anti-riot vehicles and agents have been stationed in the area to prevent the formation of a larger crowd. Still, vast crowds of people from surrounding streets continue to join protesters who have converged at the square.

Simulatenesouly, small gatherings have also formed at Enghelab Square, Fatemi Square, Sadeghieh Square, and the Abbasabad district.

At Ferdowsi Square, the anti-riot unit has been stationed to create an atmosphere of fear and terror.

Regime bans funeral ceremony for slain girl

Regime bans funeral ceremony for slain girl

Monday, 22 June 2009

Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 27, was killed on Saturday by the Iranian regime’s suppressive forces amid protests in Tehran against the clerical regime.The Iranian regime has prevented a funeral ceremony to be held for a young girl killed by its agents during the recent protests in Tehran.

The funeral for Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 27, was supposed to be held on Monday, June 22, at the Niloufar Mosque in Tehran’s Abbas Abad district. But, the Iranian regime’s agents contacted the mosque on Monday morning at 9:00 local time and ordered the mosque’s officials to cancel the service. Other mosques have also been issued directives warning them not to hold a funeral ceremony for Neda.
The young girl was killed on Saturday by the regime’s suppressive forces amid protests in Tehran against the clerical regime. The gruesome video of her painful death with her father watching over her, which was distributed on the internet and showed her father desperately asking her not to be afraid, has stunned Iranians around the world.

We are men and woman of war!! Fight us and we will FIGHT BACK!!!

Iran's web spying aided by Western technology

The Wall Street Journal

European Gear Used in Vast Effort to Monitor Communications

By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS in New York and LORETTA CHAO in Beijing

ImageThe Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

Instead, in confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

The "monitoring center," installed within the government's telecom monopoly, was part of a larger contract with Iran that included mobile-phone networking technology, Mr. Roome said.

"If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them," said Mr. Roome.

The sale of the equipment to Iran by the joint venture, called Nokia Siemens Networks, was previously reported last year by the editor of an Austrian information-technology Web site called Futurezone.

The Iranian government had experimented with the equipment for brief periods in recent months, but it had not been used extensively, and therefore its capabilities weren't fully displayed -- until during the recent unrest, the Internet experts interviewed said.

"We didn't know they could do this much," said a network engineer in Tehran. "Now we know they have powerful things that allow them to do very complex tracking on the network."

Deep packet inspection involves inserting equipment into a flow of online data, from emails and Internet phone calls to images and messages on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Every digitized packet of online data is deconstructed, examined for keywords and reconstructed within milliseconds. In Iran's case, this is done for the entire country at a single choke point, according to networking engineers familiar with the country's system. It couldn't be determined whether the equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks is used specifically for deep packet inspection.

All eyes have been on the Internet amid the crisis in Iran, and government attempts to crack down on information. The infiltration of Iranian online traffic could explain why the government has allowed the Internet to continue to function -- and also why it has been running at such slow speeds in the days since the results of the presidential vote spurred unrest.

Users in the country report the Internet having slowed to less than a tenth of normal speeds. Deep packet inspection delays the transmission of online data unless it is offset by a huge increase in processing power, according to Internet experts.

Iran is "now drilling into what the population is trying to say," said Bradley Anstis, director of technical strategy with Marshal8e6 Inc., an Internet security company in Orange, Calif. He and other experts interviewed have examined Internet traffic flows in and out of Iran that show characteristics of content inspection, among other measures. "This looks like a step beyond what any other country is doing, including China."

China's vaunted "Great Firewall," which is widely considered the most advanced and extensive Internet censoring in the world, is believed also to involve deep packet inspection. But China appears to be developing this capability in a more decentralized manner, at the level of its Internet service providers rather than through a single hub, according to experts. That suggests its implementation might not be as uniform as that in Iran, they said, as the arrangement depends on the cooperation of all the service providers.

The difference, at least in part, has to do with scale: China has about 300 million Internet users, the most of any country. Iran, which has an estimated 23 million users, can track all online communication through a single location called the Telecommunication Infrastructure Co., part of the government's telecom monopoly. All of the country's international links run through the company.

Separately, officials from the U.S. embassy in Beijing on Friday met with Chinese officials to express concerns about a new requirement that all PCs sold in the China starting July 1 be installed with Web-filtering software.

If a government wants to control the flow of information across its borders it's no longer enough to block access to Web sites hosted elsewhere. Now, as sharing online images and messages through social-networking sites has become easy and popular, repressive regimes are turning to technologies that allow them to scan such content from their own citizens, message by message.

Human-rights groups have criticized the selling of such equipment to Iran and other regimes considered repressive, because it can be used to crack down on dissent, as evidenced in the Iran crisis. Asked about selling such equipment to a government like Iran's, Mr. Roome of Nokia Siemens Networks said the company "does have a choice about whether to do business in any country. We believe providing people, wherever they are, with the ability to communicate is preferable to leaving them without the choice to be heard."

Countries with repressive governments aren't the only ones interested in such technology. Britain has a list of blocked sites, and the German government is considering similar measures. In the U.S., the National Security Agency has such capability, which was employed as part of the Bush administration's "Terrorist Surveillance Program." A White House official wouldn't comment on if or how this is being used under the Obama administration.

The Australian government is experimenting with Web-site filtering to protect its youth from online pornography, an undertaking that has triggered criticism that it amounts to government-backed censorship.

Content inspection and filtering technology are already common among corporations, schools and other institutions, as part of efforts to block spam and viruses, as well as to ensure that employees and students comply with computer-use guidelines. Families use filtering on their home computers to protect their children from undesirable sites, such as pornography and gambling.

Internet censoring in Iran was developed with the initial justification of blocking online pornography, among other material considered offensive by the regime, according to those who have studied the country's censoring.

Iran has been grappling with controlling the Internet since its use moved beyond universities and government agencies in the late 1990s. At times, the government has tried to limit the country's vibrant blogosphere -- for instance, requiring bloggers to obtain licenses from the government, a directive that has proved difficult to enforce, according to the OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of universities that study Internet filtering and surveillance. (The partners are Harvard University, the University of Toronto, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.)

Beginning in 2001, the government required Internet service providers to install filtering systems, and also that all international connections link to a single gateway controlled by the country's telecom monopoly, according to an OpenNet study.

Iran has since blocked Internet users in the country from more than five million sites in recent years, according to estimates from the press-freedom group Reporters Without Borders.

In the 2005 presidential election, the government shut down the Internet for hours, blaming it on a cyberattack from abroad, a claim that proved false, according to several Tehran engineers.

Several years ago, research by OpenNet discovered the government using filtering equipment from a U.S. company, Secure Computing Corp. Due to the U.S. trade embargo on Iran, in place since the 1979 Islamic revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed shah, that was illegal. Secure Computing, now owned by McAfee Inc., at the time denied any knowledge of the use of its products in Iran. McAfee said due diligence before the acquisition revealed no contract or support being provided in Iran.

Building online-content inspection on a national scale and coordinated at a single location requires hefty resources, including manpower, processing power and technical expertise, Internet experts said.

Nokia Siemens Networks provided equipment to Iran last year under the internationally recognized concept of "lawful intercept," said Mr. Roome. That relates to intercepting data for the purposes of combating terrorism, child pornography, drug trafficking and other criminal activities carried out online, a capability that most if not all telecom companies have, he said.

The monitoring center that Nokia Siemens Networks sold to Iran was described in a company brochure as allowing "the monitoring and interception of all types of voice and data communication on all networks." The joint venture exited the business that included the monitoring equipment, what it called "intelligence solutions," at the end of March, by selling it to Perusa Partners Fund 1 LP, a Munich-based investment firm, Mr. Roome said. He said the company determined it was no longer part of its core business.

-- Ben Worthen in San Francisco, Mike Esterl in Atlanta and Siobhan Gorman in Washington contributed to this article.

June 20-21!!! IRAN

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Saturday 20!!

June 21!!Protests and clashes in Shiraz and Mashhad

More than 4,000 students and youths in Shiraz on Sunday afternoon protested in Daneshjoo (Elm) Junction and Namazi and Chamran streets. They resisted attacks that ensued by suppressive forces.

People and suppressive forces also clashed in other parts of Shiraz, including Afif-Abad and Motehari.

In Shahcheragh people protested and chanted “Death to the dictator” and “I will kill those who killed my brother”.

Chants by protestors and gun-fire can be heard and pepper spray smoke can be seen in many parts of the city

In Mashhad, on Sunday morning, protestors clashed with suppressive forces and special anti riot forces in Rahnamaii Junction, Taqi-Abad Square and Ahmad-Abad Street. They were protesting against the brutal crackdown that took place on Saturday. Suppressive forces attacked the protestors using water cannons, with high-pressured hot water, and truncheons, injuring a number of people.

June 21!!Tehran youths take protest to the streets Regime violently cracks down on defenseless people

Day 9 of nationwide uprising: Tehran youths take protest to the streets
Regime violently cracks down on defenseless people

Reports say residents in west Tehran gathered in various streets, including Salsebil, Jayhoun and Karoon streets, and small groups of 10 clashed with agents of the regime. They set items on fire to prevent the Revolutionary Guards from entering streets and alleys.

Large numbers of people protested in Mollah-Sadra and Sattar-Khan streets, chanting “Death to the dictator” and “Death to Khamenei”. They resisted attacks by suppressive forces.

At 17.30 local time, suppressive forces violently attacked people in Qasr-al-Dasht and Afsarieh districts of Tehran.

Special anti-riot forces opened fire on people in Azadi Street using Kalashnikov rifles, killing and injuring a number of them.

Sunday 21 june! Protests and clashes in Tehran despite clampdown by suppressive forces Shiraz: Anti-riot forces fire on crowds, scores wounded

Tehran: Protests and clashes in Tehran despite clampdown by suppressive forces
Shiraz: Anti-riot forces fire on crowds, scores wounded

A group of university students, wearing symbolic death gowns, gathered outside Tehran University on Sunday. Suppressive forces attacked them ruthlessly. The students dispersed into side roads in order to reach the main gathering point in Enghelab Square.

At 16.00 local time, people gathered in the vicinity of Vanak Square, 7-Tir-Fatemi-Enghelab. The regime sent helicopters over the city center to locate gatherings.

A number of young people have gathered in Sadeghiyeh Square of Ariyashar in Tehran, and the crowd is constantly getting bigger.

Since 16.00 mobile phone service has been cut off in a large section of Tehran, to a point where it has become difficult for people to contact each other inside the capital.

Anti-riot forces have surrounded the area between Azadi Square and Enghelab Square and have significantly tightened security. The security forces do not allow pedestrians in this region, in particular in Enghelab Square, to stop for even one minute.

In Shiraz, thousands of people have gathered since the morning in various parts of the city including in streets leading to Falakeh Daneshjoo, Alam Square, Saadi Avenue, and Chamran Blvd. They have gathered in groups of 200 and are engaged in hit and run clashes with anti-riot forces. The regime's agents opened fire on people, wounding many. The clashes continue to take place.

Be yade NEDA!!!

Student gathering in university mosque; suppressive forces stationed across Tehran

June 21. 2009


The Iranian regime’s suppressive State Security Force (SSF) has closed off the University of Tehran campus in order to preclude the staging of anti-regime protests, banning students from entering the university. However, a number of students have managed to gather in the university’s mosque. They plan to hold protests at Enghelab Square despite threats by the clerical regime and its suppressive forces. The SSF and paramilitary Bassij forces have been marshaled extensively across the capital, in particular in the city center, Enghelab Square and streets around the University of Tehran in order to prevent the formation of anti-regime demonstrations.

Tehran: Protests and clashes in Tehran despite clampdown by suppressive forces Shiraz: Anti-riot forces fire on crowds, scores wounded

Tehran: Protests and clashes in Tehran despite clampdown by suppressive forces
Shiraz: Anti-riot forces fire on crowds, scores wounded
June 21 2009
A group of university students, wearing symbolic death gowns, gathered outside Tehran University on Sunday. Suppressive forces attacked them ruthlessly. The students dispersed into side roads in order to reach the main gathering point in Enghelab Square.

At 16.00 local time, people gathered in the vicinity of Vanak Square, 7-Tir-Fatemi-Enghelab. The regime sent helicopters over the city center to locate gatherings.

A number of young people have gathered in Sadeghiyeh Square of Ariyashar in Tehran, and the crowd is constantly getting bigger.

Since 16.00 mobile phone service has been cut off in a large section of Tehran, to a point where it has become difficult for people to contact each other inside the capital.

Anti-riot forces have surrounded the area between Azadi Square and Enghelab Square and have significantly tightened security. The security forces do not allow pedestrians in this region, in particular in Enghelab Square, to stop for even one minute.

In Shiraz, thousands of people have gathered since the morning in various parts of the city including in streets leading to Falakeh Daneshjoo, Alam Square, Saadi Avenue, and Chamran Blvd. They have gathered in groups of 200 and are engaged in hit and run clashes with anti-riot forces. The regime's agents opened fire on people, wounding many. The clashes continue to take place.

Tazahorate 30 khordad!! Nirohaje sarkobgar!!

Iran June 20. Iran 30 khordad!!!

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TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's highest legislative body said on Saturday it was ready to recount a tenth of the votes in a disputed presidential election and one reformist party said it was calling off a protest rally planned for later in the day.

Police warned they would deal firmly with any further street demonstrations over the June 12 vote.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told protest leaders on Friday that they would be responsible for any bloodshed if rallies continued against the election, which he said was fairly won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Etemad-e Melli party of one losing candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, said plans for a protest rally at 4 p.m. (1130 GMT) in downtown Tehran had been scrapped for lack of a permit.

"Because of not obtaining permission, the rally today has been cancelled," a party spokesman told Reuters.

Defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, whose supporters have held huge unauthorised protests in Tehran and elsewhere in the past week, had demanded a complete annulment of the vote.

At their last rally in Tehran on Thursday, Mousavi supporters held banners saying they would gather again two days later. But an ally of Mousavi said the moderate politician had not urged people to demonstrate on Saturday or Sunday.

His supporters may show up anyway, as they did in their tens of thousands on Tuesday, even though Mousavi had told them to stay home. The protests have been the most widespread in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

To tomorrow's children

"'I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children…' - an Iranian blogger, with more courage than most of us will ever know."

Iran June 20. Iran 30 khordad!!!

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