The Latest from Iran (18 February): Another Regime Show

2210 GMT: Khabar Online reports on the slogans against Hashemi Rafsanjani in today's pro-government rally in Tehran. They included: 

Master of cunning, Akbar Rafsanjani

Akbar R., Iranian Mubarak

Aghazadeh [Mehdi Hashemi?], your father has gone to the dogs

Be ashamed, quit bargaining

Hashemi, Where is you honour, Faezeh [Raffers daughter], where is your chastity?

2200 GMT: Here are pictures from the government-sponsored 'anti-sedition' rally held in Tehran today. The first image shows protesters getting handed signs. 

2030 GMT: The New Yorker has posted a chilling account of an Iranian protester who went out to protest on February 14. It's a must read. Here's an excerpt: 

Reza, a fellow marcher, a man in his forties, told me that until recently he had thought the Supreme Leader would be politically astute, and call for a new election so as to get rid of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “But now I think we have crossed the red line; the whole regime should go,” he said. “The Supreme Leader committed a historic blunder by putting all his weight behind Ahmadinejad. Seyyed Ali Khamenei must go after Ben Ali and Mubarak.” Reza added that the night before, people in the apartment buildings around his, in an affluent part of north Tehran, had begun shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) at 10 P.M. The chants had gone on for twenty minutes. They had done it as a prologue to the demonstration and to show their support for the Tunisians and Egyptians. “This shows that the Green Movement is still viable and that the claims of its death by the hardliners are wrong,” Reza said.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/02/marching-in-tehran.html#ixzz1ELQCqb3D

2015 GMT: Rahana reports that at least 17 protesters were arrested in Kerman on February 14. 

1800 GMT: CyberWars. The President's website is still down.

The Ahmadinejad site was knocked off-line yesterday. Last week the Anonymous collective had declared "Operation Iran", part of which was the disabling of the regime's websites.

1625 GMT: Another 25 Bahman Video? This extended footage of almost 19 minutes claims to be of running street clashes between protesters and security forces in Tehran on Monday.

1600 GMT: Two Contrasting Videos. Claimed footage of a march on Thursday in Ardakan, the birthplace of Mohammad Khatami, in support of the former President:

And in Ahwaz, clergyman Ahmad Reza Hajati, calls for the removal of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani as head of the Expediency Council, a demand endorsed by the crowd.

1350 GMT: Execution Watch. Iranian authorities have confirmed the death sentence for Kurdish detainee Zanyar Moradi, accused of murdering the son of a Friday Prayer leader.

1340 GMT: Another 25 Bahman Testimony. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty features a first-hand account, "First They Kill People, Then They Pray", from a participant in Monday's march. She concludes, "How long will this game continue? Until when are we going to fight those who are armed to the teeth and have no feelings?"

And this video from a Rah-e-Sabz videojournalist:

1335 GMT: Tribute of the Day. On Thursday, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi declared that the Supreme Leader is worth billions of dollars for Iran and is the best possible successor to Ayatollah Khomeini.

1330 GMT: Cutting Off Mousavi. Advar News reports that Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard are under house arrest and their bodyguards have been dismissed.

1320 GMT: Hate Rally (cont.). AFP puts the Tehran crowd in "tens of thousands". IRNA offers several articles and a set of photographs:

1255 GMT: The Hate Rally's Friday Prayer. Unsurprisingly, Ayatollah Jannati, a fierce opponent of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, led Friday Prayers in Tehran, claiming that the opposition figures are practically "dead and executed" because they have lost their reputations. The crowd call for actual executions.

Jannati appeared to back away from a call for a trial for Mousavi and Karroubi, preferring to endorse their effective house arrest:"Their communications with people should be completely cut. They should not be able to receive and send message. Their phone lines and internet should be cut. They should be prisoners in their home,"

Iran's judiciary has held out against a formal prosecution of Mousavi and Karroubi, as this might turn them into martyrs.

Associated Press only gives the general figure of "thousands" for the crowd size.

1230 GMT: So What About These Rallies? A really curious thing happened as I returned from academic break and LiveBlogging on Libya, Bahrain, and Beyond....

I expected to find lots of exciting news about the regime's showpiece this morning, denouncing the "sedition" of the opposition, but there is precious little. Press TV --- which has been preoccupied with Egypt and Bahrain does not even bother to mention the event, and Fars News simply posts an eight-point resolution declaring that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi "are corrupt" and should be held accountable by Iran's judiciary for their actions. There is also a summary of the message from Hojatoleslam, Mojtaba Zolnour, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, denouncing the opposition figures.

0730 GMT: Responding to Tehran. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has again smacked down the efforts of the Iranian regime, including the high-profile Friday Prayer of the Supreme Leader, to link the Islamic Revolution and the Egyptian uprising.

The Brotherhood, on its English-language website, reprints an article from Ahram Online --- until recently, controlled by the Egyptian State that banned the group --- to declare, "Egypt is Not Iran".

0645 GMT: CyberAccess. Operation Iran, the initiative of the Anonymous collective, has already succeeded in disrupting regime websites, including those of the President, Fars News, and the Basij militia.

There is more, however, to the effort: the operation is now trying, by fax and e-mail, to ensure safe access by Iranians to the Internet.

0630 GMT: Today the Iranian regime, seeking to blunt any revival of an opposition movement, will call out a crowd of supporters in a demonstration against "sedition". This is an attempt to put the face of positive legitimacy on the repression, propaganda, and intimidation pursued --- even beyond the efforts of the past 20 months --- this week. But the regime's show has not gone unchallenged, even before Friday Prayers bring out the faithful: the Green Movement has responded with the announcement of a march on Sunday, 1 Esfand, commemorating the two demonstrators, Mohammad Mokhtari and Sanee Jahleh, killed in last Monday's marches

We have a special analysis, "The Opposition Responds to the Regime's Hatred Rally".

Meanwhile, moves and counter-moves continue. The regime is still trying to claim Zhaleh as its "martyr". Its initial effort crumbled in part because Zhaleh's brother told media that the dead man was not a member of the Basij militia. So Iranian officials detained the brother. Soon, he was appearing on Iranian TV to deny that he had spoken to any foreign correspondents.