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June 14, 2009 at 6:51 am
Check this… http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/14/742270/-Iran-TV-screen-capturevoting-irregularities-exposed-(picture-inside)
June 15, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Please let me know if there is a planned rally in NYC. I would very much like to go and show my support.
Thank you.
June 17, 2009 at 5:23 pm
You should remove the identities of the twitters on your rolling website STRAIGHT AWAY otherwise they’ll be picked up by the secuity police – haven’t you seen the advice on twitter/etc? !!!
June 18, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Thank you very much for the extra ordinary work you’ve been doing in covering the recent events in Iran and digesting all these scattered information.
Is it possible to have this coverage in Farsi?
Thank.
June 18, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Funny video of Ahmadinejad and Medvedev in their recent visit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYdRBOJFUwY
Ahmadinejad: how are you sir?
MEDVEDEV: fine,how are you?
Ahmadinejad: yes
ahmadinejad: happy new yearS
MEDVEDEV: happy new year too…(which year he means?2009?LMAFO
June 18, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I’m a filipino who grew up with iranian students during the 70’s and 80 in manila. They are like my brothers and sisters to me. Even though that time they
have differences in their ideology (pro-sha or pro-khomeini) Now it is turning back that true democracy will prevail all over the world and I salute to the Iranian youths with their idealistic mind. GOD Bless You All and Peace and Happiness for all the courageous
people of IRAN. GREEN is my color.
ARNEL
June 19, 2009 at 4:44 pm
A night in “-4” of the Interior Ministry
“This is a hundred times worse than Guantanamo Bay”
This is a brief report of the despicable arrest made at the Tehran University of a student group at the dormitories and their subsequent transfer to the IRI Interior Ministry dungeons. We hope that the educators and students who are reading this text make a conscientious effort to visit and inspect this intimidating hell hole of a place.
The arrests were made in a violent, hostile and insulting manner. During these arrests, the plain cloth forces and the police treated the students with outmost brutality and humiliation. This treatment was not, however, limited to the dormitory confinements, but continued in much more escalated ways–in both physical and psychological torture forms– at the IRI Interior Ministry holding cells. These students were hand picked to go to prison for no reason other than the plain cloth security forces’ personal preferences. Some ended up in the IRI Interior Ministry dungeons, some were sent to random police stations and some were taken to the Evin prison and are still there.
The following –as quoted by some of the since-then released students themselves– is the tale of these students’ experience of the IRI Interior Ministry’s torture houses.
“We –46 of us– were blindfolded and forced into a minibus. There were metal buckets installed on the headrest part of the minibus seats. They placed our heads inside these buckets and during the entire journey, banged on these buckets which, needless to say, created an unbearable noise and the worst kind of psychological torture at the time. We finally sensed the minibus descending and from listening to our captors, realized that we were now inside the Interior Ministry dungeons.
Inside was an area of about 100 square meters covered with steaming black ash. There, they forced us to lie down and roll in such a way that our heads did not touch the feet of the next row’s people. With the slightest contact, they would beat us with kicks and batons all over our bodies all the while saying “so you want to make a revolution?” followed by the worst kind of insults and cursing. We (all 46 of us!) were being watched by more than 20 guards and plain cloth police.
Then they forced us to sit down and stare and the ceiling and the floor alternately. As our heads were down to look at the floor, they would begin –without any warning– hitting us in the neck and back with batons and kicks. Worst of them all was a non-career soldier who would kick some students in the head telling them “why don’t you look down?” The other torturous aspect during the stare-down was the terrible sound of crushing bricks by apparently the construction workers working outside. But obviously it was a deliberate act to create unbearable sound meant to bother us while our heads were down and hence disoriented. These sounds had grave adverse affect on our collective nerves.
The students who needed to use the lavatory were treated in a horrible inhumane way. First, the bathrooms did not have any doors or cover. This made a person totally exposed while trying to use them. Second, the allotted time to use the bathroom was 30 seconds and the user would be thrown out in the most inhuman way possible once the 30 second was over. In one instance, a student’s 30 second expired and he was kicked out by a guard while he was naked. This scene will never be forgotten by the students who observed it.
One student was injured in one eye told an official that his eye is aching and that he might lose his eye sight. He was not only denied treatment, but was punched and kicked in the face. Another student was suffering from a broken leg and he too was treated mercilessly and even more harshly.
The students were even denied water. Once when they decided to give them water they made the students hold their heads up and their mouths open. They then poured water in the students’ mouths as they were sitting in rows of five. In the next round of “watering”, one of the commanders came in and pointing to the student with a broken leg said: “Why is this one dying? Give them some water.” This time, they brought in a water hose and let the students to help themselves. But what came out was boiling hot water that burned the students. Some were so thirsty that they ignored the water temperature and drank it anyway.
Our food was placid macaroni poured in our palms. They said if one noodle’s fallen on the floor you have to pick it up and eat it. If you did not, you would be kicked on your head until you did. Some students could not even raise their hands to reach their mouths. But they too had to pick up the fallen noodles, which were now mixed with black ash and dirt, and eat them.
The same act was repeated during the breakfast. For breakfast, they would give students a piece of dried bread with some cheese in the middle and would ask you to share it with the one next to you. Since the bread was all dried up, it inevitably broke down as you tried to half it to share. Once again, we had to dig up the fallen bread crumbs from the dirty floor and eat them. Otherwise, we would be beaten in the head with batons and kicks.
Another despicable treatment in the Interior Ministry’s “-4” was the sexual torture, which is better left unsaid. The sexual torture and inhuman treatments were not limited to the “-4” and were repeated even after we were transferred to the security police.
Our one-day stay at the Interior Ministry’s “-4” was the worst day of our lives which will never leave our memories. An official at the “-4” told us that “This is a hundred times worse than Guantanamo”. The insults and cursing that were thrown at us are unforgettable. At times we were thinking that we’ll never leave that place and there’ll be no one who can help us. The worst came when after about an hour of rolling in the back ash, they gathered us together and there one of the students began to cry and all of a sudden everyone was crying.
*****
After our transfer to the security police our university dean –Dr. Rahbar– along with a parliament member came to take us. There were the press present there to glorify this heroic act by our dean and in front of their cameras we were each given a T-shirt as a gift to cover our bloodied cloths. And we were asking ourselves, where was Dr. Rahbar at the night of attacks? Why didn’t he do anything to stop those attacks? We all came to the conclusion that his coming to the security police headquarters was also an advertising gimmick. Otherwise, if he was really concerned with his students, he’d stand up against the attacks in the first place……….
*****
Are such calamities and inhumane crimes fathomable in a country which claims to be Islamic? Who’s responsible for creating such a horrific prison inside this country’s “Interior Ministry”? Isn’t the Interior Ministry supposed to provide the people with security and safety rather than becoming the torture place of the innocent students?
We believe that it is the duty of all Iranian Academic –as the guardians of truth and keepers of the universities– to visit this horrendous place of torture. Instead of the university officials’ superficial empathy and their T-shirt presents, we demand that they visit the Interior Ministry’s “-4” to see –up close– and with their own eyes the most hellish day that a group of innocent students endured……..
June 19, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Here is a new tool to chat in real time with people and it translates 45 languages! Including Farsi!
You can discuss the Iran Election in 45 languages at http://babelwith.me/IranElection
June 19, 2009 at 8:00 pm
What happens if we set our Facebook account to Iran. Does that help ‘logjam’ as well?
Or could that create problems for our account?
June 22, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Intersting stuff, I encourage all Iranians read the comments in this blog. Far from marrow-minded chauvinistic articles found in Iran media and papers, and even oppositions’ articles, this blog is normally wirtten by Iranians who are expert and professional and experienced living in free society. Following these thoughts can help seeing the world from different angles. Thanks.
http://www.siamosh.wordpress.com
June 23, 2009 at 8:43 am
I hope that the Iranian-American rallies in DC broaden to include all Americans supporting the rights of Iranians and mourning the victims of the violence.
I understand and agree with the concerns about US government meddling, but organizers of American rallies could emphasize support and mourning rather than confrontational rhetoric.
Also, I noticed that the June 20 DC rally began at the Iranian Interests Section. I expect that more DC-area residents would feel welcome to participate if the demonstrations began on the Mall.
June 23, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I am very perplexed that most people seem to take the purported letter from Khatami (marching to the markets) at face value. A very emotional plea, full of repetitions, and most disturbingly, the proposal to bring children along. Come on, this is supposed to be a former statesman suggesting that people effectively use their children as human shields! I really don’t think a person like Khatami would express himself like that, still less suggest such a tremendously irresponsible act.
I am no expert, mind. But at Mousavi’s facebook there were a few other voices of doubt (rather few tough). Any comments on this?
June 24, 2009 at 5:44 pm
“A large number of rioters receive financial backup from the US, CIA and the MKO,” the official reiterated.
That is so stupid: why would protestors accept money to be beaten to death?
June 25, 2009 at 11:42 am
Hi folks,
I’ve been following your Iran updates.
There is a video posted June 25 @ 11.15am, graphic footage of an injured protester – the caption states it documents events that occured yesterday, however I think it is 1 or 2 days older than that. I remember seeing it several days ago but I can’t give you an accurate date, sorry.
I have found a link to a version, uploaded June 23rd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CwsOAG0sGQ
Regards, and here’s to the courage of the Iranian people!
June 25, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Date: Wednesday 24th June 2009
The following email in Farsi we received today (Wednesday 24th june). It is written by a doctor from “Rasul Akram” hospital in Tehran who says that some people were killed not only by one bullet as they found two or three bullets in some bodies, close to one another, showing that shooters used barrage shooting against people and not only a single shot. A 68 year old man had 3 bullets in his body, two on his left shoulder and one in the left side of his stomach. The doctors of the “Rasul Akram”hospital say they had been faced with 38 people killed during last week’s protests. Apparently, police took the corpse of the dead bodies out from the hospital and carried them away by truck. Most of their families still do not know if their children have been killed. Besides, among the corpse there were some 15, 16 years old kids.
According to the email, the crew of the hospital protested in the street next to the hospital giving out the information about the violence to the people. The photos attached are from this demonstration which appears to have taken place earlier this week.
Regards
-Where s my vote?
The original email in Farsi:
من پزشک هستم و در بیمارستان رسول اکرم در خیابان ستارخان مشغول به کارم. دیروز تعداد 38 نفر به دلیل اصابت گلوله در اورژانس بیمارستان ما پذیرفته شدند که 10 نفر آنها کشته و بقیه زخمی بودند. الگوی زخمها حاکی از این بود که مردم به رگبار بسته شده اند زیرا بسیاری از مجروحین دو یا چند گلوله خورده بودند و محل اصابت گلوله ها نیز بسیار نزدیک به هم بود، به عنوان مثال پیر مردی 68 ساله در دو ناحیه کتف چپ و سمت چپ شکم مورد اصابت قرار گرفته بود و یا پسری 18 ساله از ناحیه کف و مچ دست هدف قرار گرفته بود. شرح حال اخذ شده از مجروحین و نیز الگوی زخمها نشان می داد که تیر اندازی از پشت بام انجام شده است، مثلا جوانی 32 ساله از کمر مورد اصابت قرار گرفته بود ولی گلوله از جلو و از قسمت ران خارج شده بود.
بنا به گفته مجروحین تیر اندازی به طور ناگهانی و زمانی آغاز شد که سیل جمعیت در حال عبور از کنار یک پایگاه بسیج در شمال میدان آزادی (اول بزرگراه محمد علی جناح) بود. به گفته مجروحان یک اتومبیل در مقابل درب آن پایگاه به شکلی پارک شده بود که کسی نتواند با شکستن در وارد آن شود و این امر نشانه برنامه ریزی قبلی برای تیر اندازی می باشد. به گفته شاهدان حدود 4 نفر بسیجی از پشت بام این مرکز به طور ناگهانی اقدام به تیراندازی نمودند به نحوی که حتی کسانی که قصد نجات زخمی ها را داشتند خود نیز مورد اصابت قرار می گرفتند. یکی از مجروحین می گوید در حالی که پشت یک اتومبیل پناه گرفته بودم زخمی شدم.
در این مرحله مردم خشمگین به اتومبیل پارک شده در مقابل این پایگاه حمله کرده و آنرا به آتش می کشند ولی نمی توانند وارد پایگاه شوند. در ادامه پلیس ضد شورش به همراه گروه های دیگری از بسیجیان برای پراکنده کردن مردم خشمگین از راه می رسند که در این مرحله نیز در قسمت هایی از طول خیابان جناح (به عنوان مثال در نزدیکی مترو) عده دیگری نیز کشته و زخمی می شوند.
طبق اطلاعاتی که امروز صبح از پزشکان بیمارستان امام خمینی کسب شد، به این بیمارستان نیز در طی دیشب 38 کشته که با گلوله مستقیم کشته شده بودند منتقل شده است.
لازم به ذکر است که در بامداد امروز پلیس امنیتی تمامی جنازه ها را به زور از بیمارستان تحویل گرفته و آنها را با وانت به محل نا معلومی منتقل کرده است و خانواده بسیاری از آنان حتی از کشته شدن فرزند خود نیز بی خبرند. در بین کشته ها و مجروحین تعدادی کودک 15 و 16 ساله نیز دیده می شوند.
امروز ساعت 9 تا 11 صبح دانشجویان و پزشکان بیمارستان رسول اکرم در خیابان مجاور این بیمارستان تجمع کرده و به توزیع برگه هایی حاوی اطلاعاتی پیرامون تعداد کشته ها و زخمی ها اقدام نمودند. این تجمع در نهایت با حضور پلیس ضد شورش به پایان رسید.
–
با احترام
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