The Latest from Iran (4 April): Renewal

2225 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Javad Sharafkhani, the spokesperson for Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s election campaign in Ilam province in western Iran, has been arrested.

2220 GMT: We'll Get You (Even If You're Outside Iran). Minister of Justice Morteza Bakhtiari has announced that a special prosecutorial branch will be established shortly to deal with Iranians residing abroad.

NEW Iran Exclusive: Detained Emad Baghi in Poor Health, House Raided, Relative Beaten
NEW Video: Obama on Iran, Health Care (2 April)
Iran: 4 Ways the US Can Help the Green Movement (Shahryar)
The Latest from Iran (3 April): Celebration

2215 GMT: Economy Watch. Mehdi Aqdaie, the deputy director of Iran's Privatisation Organization, has said that Iran hopes to raise about $12.5 billion by privatising more than 500 state firms during the 2010-11 year, including two refineries and two car makers.


1835 GMT: Propaganda Watch. Press TV --- bless 'em --- get it right this time. A day after headlining the Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki's statement with the prospect of nuclear annihilation, they correctly frame today's Mottaki declaration, which says nothing new: "Mottaki Calls For Global Nuclear Disarmament".

1445 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Radio Farda reports that Hossein Marashi,  a close political ally of Hashemi Rafsanjani and a cousin of Rafsanjani's wife, has been sent to jail again. Marashi, who has been given a one-year sentence, was detained last month but freed after a few days.

1420 GMT: Bayat-Zanjani and the Political Prisoners. Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani, meeting the families of political prisoners, has said:

I am shocked that [our leaders] don’t learn from the fate of the rulers that came to power and fell throughout history? Why should one ignore the lessons learned from the past and commit the same wrong actions against the best of the people? Know this that the struggle to stay in power by any means possible requires confrontations such as what is being done against you. You are oppressed and the prayers of the oppressed will be answered.

1405 GMT: More Subsidy Fun. The Iranian Parliament has reconvened after the New Year break, and already battle has been joined over the President's insistence that he get more revenues from subsidy cuts.

Speaker Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Parliament announced that discussions have been "finalised", although the Parliament will “collaborate closely with the Government giving close attention to its views and reasoning.”

Defying Larijani, however, a group of MPs announced that they have prepared a new proposal for allocation of $35 billion from cuts instead of the already approved $20 billion. Ruhollah Hossenian, a fervent Ahmadinejad supporter, said that the proposal  has already been signed by 100 legislators.

1320 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist and human rights activist Abolfazl Abedini has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

There are concerns over the poor health of Farid Taheri, a member of the Freedom Movement of Iran detained on 27 January and held in Section 350 of Evin Prison.

The status of Ehsan Mohrabi of Farhikhtegan newspaper is unknown.

Jahangir Abdollahi, a Masters student in political science at Tehran University, is under pressure in Evin Prison to confess.

1045 GMT: We have posted absolutely reliable, disturbing information on the poor health of detained journalist Emaduddin Baghi and the harassment of his family.

1040 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. A new Rah-e-Sabz documentary highlights the role of Hashemi Rafsanjani in post-election events and attempts by the regime to limit his public intervention.

0830 GMT. And More Subsidy Clashes. Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moghaddam of Parliament's  Economic Committee has said that the Ahmadinejad Government is seeking to delay the implementation of the subsidy reform plan. Parliament only gave the President $20 billion of the extra $40 billion in revenues he was seeking from subsidy cuts.

0825 GMT: Oil Crunch. Could disinvestment in Iran's oil production (see 0615 GMT) become a crisis? Consider the half-empty, half-full spin of the Government.

Iran's Oil Minister Masoud Mirzakemi says the country needs $200 billion in investment in the oil sector. However, the head of Iran's Committee for Transportation and Fuel Management insists the country is capable of becoming self-sufficient in gasoline production this year.

0815 GMT: Press TV Funnies. Yesterday, the Iranian media outlet featured a headline which indicated Iran's Foreign Minister was supported nuclear annihilation (see our 0730 GMT update on Saturday). We are encouraged that Press TV staff are reading Enduring America since, soon after we noted this, the headline was changed to "FM: Iran Strongly Supports Elimination of Nukes".

Today, bless 'em, Press TV is chronologically confused over Iran's promotion of a nuclear-free world:

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says Tehran's international conference on nuclear disarmament has been widely welcomed.

According to Mehmanparast, the conference dubbed "Nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none,” will be held in Tehran on March 17th and 18th.

0715 GMT: Photo of Day (see inset). Behzad Nabavi, the prominent reformist sentenced to five years in prison, and his wife enjoy the last days of his temporary release.

0713 GMT: Movies and Rights. Activist Shadi Sadr has received Amnesty International's  "Golden Butterfly" award for appearance in film Women in Shroud. Sadr writes, "I believe [this] is for all activists of the “Stop Stoning Forever Campaign” –-- both those who appeared in the documentary film...and those who didn’t."

Bahman Ghobadi, the director of the drama-"documentary" No One Knows About Persian Cats, received two awards from the international film festival in the Netherlands.

0710 GMT: Renewal. The cultural newspaper Farhang-e-Ashti has reappeared after its suspension and the arrest of a number of its journalists.

0705 GMT:  InsideIRAN offers an overview of the emergence of the women's movement:

It is certainly too soon to draw conclusions or write endings for a fragile movement that has been under increasing pressure, but just like other aspects of the green movement, it is the outreach of the women’s movement within society that gives it strength and prominence. Despite the heavy crackdown on some of its most notable leaders, as long as fourteen-year-old girls across Iran are engaging in conversation, it will be an ongoing struggle and a voice that cannot be silenced.

0650 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Green Voice of Freedom publishes the names and sentences of 26 "lesser-known" detainees in Section 350 of Evin Prison.



Kalemeh warns of the declining health of journalist Mohammad Nourizad. Arrested on 20 December, Nourizad suffers from a heart problem and diabetes.

Nourizad wrote for the pro-government Kayhan but became a vocal critic of the regime after the 12 June election.

Baha’i photographer and musician Artin Ghazanfari has been released on $50,000 bail.

0640 GMT: Interviewed by Rah-e-Sabz, Farrokh Negahdar of the socialist Organization of Iranian People's Fedayyin supports non-violent protests, with constant pressure for change of laws and expansion of the popular base, especially amongst workers.

0615 GMT: A Happy Easter Day to all those celebrating the occasion.

More on yesterday's visits by hundreds of reformists to former President Mohammad Khatami. Khabar Online --- far from a reformist publication --- offers two articles, providing a list of visitors and observing that visits continued even after the noon prayer. Indeed, not all those stopping by were reformists; several visitors came in Government cars, indicating they are currently serving in the Ahmadinejad administration.

Mohammad Javad Haghshenas, the publisher of Mehdi Karroubi's now-banned newspaper Etemade Melli, has said that reformists should seek an understanding with "hardliners", while expanding their popular base of support.

The prominent academic Sadegh Zibakalam has evaluated that further sanctions against Iran are inevitable; China can lessen but not prevent them.

On the economic front, in a sign that company disinvestment from Iran is having an effect, Hamid Hosseini of the Chamber of Commerce complains about insufficient participation of the private sector in the oil industry.

Comments

[Megan]

M. Ali,

EA readers responded to comments you posted at 11:36 that was addressed to me. I thank them for the excellent job they did. Let that be a testimony to the fact that we are countless. We realize that you and the criminal regime you support take no comfort in that.

My fellow readers and supporters of Democracy Green Movement responded to your pointless points. I just would like to add the following.

I would have respected your staunch support for the current regime in Iran if it was not for your bogus story of having voted for Mousavi and then had a rude awakening. Let me see, you voted for Mousavi and wrapped yourself in Green and protested against the regime last summer and now you are mocking yourself by calling Green Movement “greenies”??? Really?? Who is not so smart now?

You could have at least tried to concoct a different story about the trauma of exercising your political freedom –one that had not been told by another one of your comrades on this site. An inept regime that cannot even deliver a believable rigged election has inept supporters who keep recycling the same talking points? That is the story worth telling for generations to come.

Go ahead call us “Greenies.”. Your fear tells me we are on the right path. I do not blame you and the Islamic Republic in fearing us. I would be afraid too if I was a free loader and realized my days in the sun would soon be over. So please go on dismiss us, murder us, beat us, torture us, rape and burn our lifeless bodies, detain us, and execute us but at the end YOU WILL LOSE. No fascist has lived or will ever live to tell his/her story. Free people do.

[Catherine]

RE Megan post 26 "An inept regime that cannot even deliver a believable rigged election"

You know - that's something none of the ballot box number crunching is ever going to erase: the rank odour of suspicion created by the the unbelievable margin of AN's victory and the equally unbelievable speed in "counting" the votes (not to mention many other irregularities). I was in Iran (inside and around Tehran and in lots of small cities towns in Gilan province and up near Turkmenistan) from 1 to 13 June and I am not exaggerating when I said NOBODY could believe the results.

[ange paris]

"I am not exaggerating when I said NOBODY could believe the results."
Catherine
My cousin said that the day after, 13 of June everybody was like a phantom in the street, as if they were in mourning ; as you have said , nobody could believe the results !

[Catherine]

Ange,
Truly, 13 June was like a bomb had fallen. The streets around Ferdowsi Square in Tehran, normally jammed with traffic starting at 07:30 on any first day back to work after the weekend, were still eerily quiet at mid-morning. All the staff at our hotel in Tehran, from the manager down to the cleaning ladies, had voted for Mousavi and were doing their work that morning in absolute silence. No one smiled. It was like all their closest relatives had died. Amazing.

[Bill]

Folks,

Lets not throw M Ali under the bus. I fully understand his position and I think a lot of it has to do with the frustration of the Green Movement not realizing any tangiable results to date. Any sane person is going to get frustrated when results fail to materialize. I think the only mistake M Ali is making is directing his frustration at the Green Movement forgetting it is the regime who is the one blocking progress. We should debate him but at the end of the day point out the simple fact it has and always will be about human rights. From what I have read of M Ali's posts he wants what we all do for Iran he is just frustrated at this point. He also has some valid points and the green movement would be wise to pay attention to it. The only way they are going to out flank the regime is to become more organized, formulate clear goals, and most importantly learn to adapt to regime pressure. While the critique by M Ali rubbed many of us wrong it would be folly to not pay attention to it--but most importantly we should pay attention to it because I would hedge a bet many pro reform people like him/her exist that frustrated and losing hope. Lets agree to disagree but not throw away people that essentially want the same result--a free Iran. By the way my response while accurate was purely an emotional one and in hindsite probably at bit caustic--sorry M Ali no harm meant just me airing my view in an effort to show you we are all in the same boat!!!

Thx
Bill

[Arshama]

Bill,

Well said! Nevertheless it is obvious that "we" (Iranians) get furious at reading such lies!
Here is a short report on "The Green Movement: A Work in Progress" by Jennifer Rubin on the Foreign Policy Initiative, which hosted a timely program in Washington, D.C., this morning entitled Iran: Prospects for Regime Change. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/271896

Regards
Arshama

[Bill]

Arshama,

Thank you and I really liked the article you provided a link for. I especially liked the comment "they eat their own." Ironic is it not that most theocratic forms of government tend to do this? How can you sustain yourself if your eating your own to maintain power--its bound to collapse at some point. Sadly systems like this innstead of serving the people it is the people who have to serve the system. Incidentally this is crux of the issue I have with the majority of the world's Islamist movements. They simply see the people as tools to use instead of actually trying to serve the people. The whole debate of communism comes to mind as well. Both promote a mono culture who's sole focus is perpetuating the meme of its existence/spread above all else. The individual is lost in a system like this and it is why the freedom in the West is the always the target for groups like this. They realize if the people had true freedom they would throw of the shackles!!! Lets hope freedom is a reality soon in Iran!!!

Thx
Bill

[M. Ali]

One thing I realize a lot of you do is that you view the whole thing as only Two Sides, that a person can not have a complex view of the situation.

Megan, my story was true. I have not received any handouts from the government.

But let me address Bill first.

"B: 1) Thousands will remain in prison in direct violation of the constitution"

M: Unfortunately, the situation in Iran, for the last 30 years has been that the constitution says one thing but on the ground it is another thing, when it comes to certain aspects of Iranian political reality. This was not borne out of Ahmedinijad's government, but something that has existed through Mousavi, Rafsanjani, and Khatami's tenure. It is something that should be worked on to move Iran towards a better future. However, based on the reality of the situation, I doubt the progress could happen with the current clash. However, if reformists change their tactic, and instead of asking for a re-election (like they did initially but seemed to have stopped), they decided to work with prominent members of the government to work on certain aspects of the consitutions then it would be more helpful. But I'm sure the reformists are only concerned about the parts of the consitution that helps their cause.

"2) 72 and most likely hundereds more will remain dead an buried lost to their families forever"

And that is a shame. Some of them were due to extreme & unprofessional brutality, which needs to be addressed. However, I do not think all deaths were attributed to a general, narrow-minded malice from a dictator. Internal instability and power struggles, combined with usual Iranian high emotions with complete and utter inability to plan and handle problems.

"3) The regime will continue to intimidate, beat, and rape its way into staying in power"

While I don't advocate this actions, but I can also understand the paranoid mentality of the Iranian government that has enemies all around. The opposition are not groups that are unfamiliar to such tactics.

"4) Iran will remain the preminent jailer of journalists and bloggers across the whole world having more behind bars than most of the world combined"

This is a concern and I hope pressure applied correctly can change. However, I think as long as instability exists within the country, this will rise, rather than fall.

"5) Religious minorities such as the Bahais will continue to persecuted per state sponsored sanctions"

A huge shame, but little to do with the discussion of the election crisis.

"6) The regime will continue to “privatize” industry making sure select government entities will control the economy"

Very little to do with the election crisis.

"7) Big brother will further its surveillance and censorhsip of all"

Is your discussion now going to be finding any faults with IRA, because there are many I can also add.

"8) The regime will continue to ignore the bulk of the clerics including all the Grand Ayatollahs who came out in favor of the Green Movement"

I'm guessing the same people who were ferociously anti-clerics are suddenly pro-certain clerics, and a little more clerics ignored, the oppositions will again be all behind the clerics. Short memories.

"9) The universities and government will continue to be purged of those to “liberal” and not in line with the regime"

Again, a general problem with the IRA, not necessarily about the election crisis.

"10) The brain drain will continue in Iran as the best and brightest will find their way to freedom outside the country"

etc

"11) The dictators will stay in power"

dictators?

[ange paris]

I would like to know the meaning of "to sari khor" , and "dictator" ???

[Bill]

Rev,

I took the plunge and posted over at Race for Iran. God what bunch of internet trolls some of them are. Many seem incapable of debate without the attacks. I do have to admit I did vent a bit on the grandest troll of them all, Liz. I felt so much better after venting. Ironically were lucky our resident disdent, Samuel, seems to be nice guy even though he likes to zing us every know and then. Samuel is actually quite funny at times!

Thx
Bill

[Catherine]

Bill,
Sorry to butt in on your response to Rev, but since I'm subscribed to this thread.....
I totally agree with you on Samuel. I, too, compared our more lively disagreements at EA with the shenanigans a few of the Race for Iran readers pull, the "trolls", and Samuel is a gentleman in comparison. Not to mention intelligent, knowledgeable and funny - which the "trolls" are definitely not!

On the other hand, I've read other threads at Race for Iran in which the readers' comments took a different view from and were far more insightful and well-researched than the blog entry itself, and no one got into mud-slinging match. So I guess they have their ups and downs.

[Bill]

M. Ali,

Thank you for your reply. I can see why you view that some of us take this as a two sided event. My arguement was largely from that stance but not done out of ignorace. It was done in an the effort of brevity and my lack of knowledge of all the different factors. I fully understand the equation is not an A vs B but one with many players. Regardless I think we are both on the same page and I can sense you want reform just not with the apparent madness. I would only ecourage to not generalize the "madness" of Green Movement as something of their own doing. Their "madness" is largely the result of being tied down by the regime with very few if any tools to work with. All the best to you.

Thx
Bill

[Bill]

Catherine,

No apologies needed I value you opinion greatly. I do agree we are quite fortunate we have such a gentleman in Samuel. He gives us a few "good ones" every now and then but by and large his posts are well documented and very thought provoking. As for the blog at Race for Iran I think what we are seeing on this particular post was the emergence of counter view often not seen at their site. I have read quite a few of their posts and it is mostly "cheerleaders" rooting each other on. When a different voice has emerged the trolls have always attacked as I have observed. It is actually to be expected and if you remember Samuel did not get a very warm welcome as well. I for one acted like a troll once towards him. I think it has more to do with the emotional attatchment one has to a view and when confronted more often than not the response is emotional. However having said that we don't seem to have any Liz's that continually badger people like Samuel. For the most part Samuel has been accepted and people actually look forward to reading his comments.

By the way if your on facebook look me up under Bill Davit. I just got on a few months ago and even found scott.

Thx
Bill

[Catherine]

Bill,
No Facebook for me. I can't handle more than one playground at a time :-) But thanks very much for the invitation.

[Bill]

Catherine,

Probably a wise decision. After all it is widely known as crack book. I only got on a few months ago and have been hours at a time responding to old friends from college and high school.

Thx
Bill