The Latest from Iran (20 August): Regime's Cyber-Warriors "We Don't Get No Respect"

US citizens Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, shown with fellow hiker Sarah Shourd, who were convicted today of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison (see 1350 GMT)

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1422 GMT: Some People are So Ungrateful Watch. The head of State broadcaster IRIB, Ezzatollah Zarghami, has declared that he said to the "losing" candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi after the 2009 Presidential elections, "You got these 13 million votes only with the help of IRIB."

The official returns, challenged by millions of Iranians in the days after the ballot, showed President Ahmadinejad with 24 million votes v. Mousavi's 13 million.

Zarghami said IRIB, with the permission of the Supreme Leader, had shown campaign ads for Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, even though Karroubi's ads "crossed red lines" by showing "prohibited persons".

1420 GMT: Corruption Watch. Speaking at the inauguration of the new Minister of Industry, Mining & Trade, President Ahmadinejad has announced that funds are squandered and the banking system must change.

Our correspondent suggests, "Perhaps Ahmadinejad would like to note today's arrest of the head of an Iranian bank on charges of acquiring hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraud." (see 1025 GMT)

1410 GMT: All the President's Men. Ayatollah Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer leader of Mashhad, has said in an interview that "only one deviant person with dissolute beliefs is close to Ahmadinejad and must be deposed as soon as possible".

The likely candidate for that deposition is the President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

1400 GMT: Economy Watch. Parliament's Research Centre has rejected the Government's claimed creation of 1.6 million new jobs in 2010/11. It noted that, although "no serious data is available" on employment, the claim was disproved by other information such as that on gross domestic production.

The committee also criticised the government's focus on loans to "freelancers" who lost employment months later.

1350 GMT: The US Hikers. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, detained by Iranian forces in July 2009 while hiking along the Iran-Iraq border, have been found guilty and given eight-year sentences for spying, according to Iranian state TV.

The IRINN website, quoting a source in the judiciary, posted, "In connection with illegal entry into Iranian territory each was given three years in jail and in connection with the charge of cooperating with American intelligence service, each was given five years in jail."

Bauer and Fattal were arrested with Sarah Shourd, who was released on $500,000 bail in September 2010 and did not return for the trial.

The two men have 20 days to appeal their sentence.

<1330 GMT: Economy Watch. The head of the dairy producers union has complained that Iran's administration for subsidy cuts has not delivered support payments or compensation to farmers. Fifty producers have rallied in front of the Ministry of Trade today.

1200 GMT: Fashion and Politics. Pro-Ahmadinejad journalist Fatemeh Rajabi has criticised State broadcaster IRIB for its reports on the "Khatoon" dispute over hijab (see 0910 GMT) and the recent Tehran water fight that led to arrests of youths. She also challenged former Minister of Culture Mohammad-Hossein Saffar Herandi, who attacked the "Khatoon" special edition as "liberal" hijab, saying this was simply a political manoeuvre.

1025 GMT: Corruption Watch. The head of Aria Bank has reportedly been arrested in a case involving the Bank Saderat.

0925 GMT: All the President's Men. MP Hassan Nowroozi has said that Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai and Vice President Hamid Baghaei have refused to come to Parliament to answer questions and have filed a complaint against him and another MP.

Nowroozi has been pursuing a case against the two men through Parliament's Article 90 Committee, which supervises government operations.

0920 GMT: The Battle Within. State news agency IRNA says that sites critical of government are a "mafia".

IRNA, as well as President Ahmadinejad, has been under pressure recently from other conservative/principlist outlets over political, economic, and social issues (see 0910 GMT).

An EA correspondent has this concise comment on IRNA's allegation, "Pot. Kettle. Black."

0915 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Leading reformists politicians and journalists Behzad Nabavi, Feizollah Arabsorkhi, Mohsen Mirdamadi, and Abdollah Ramezanzadeh have been granted furloughs from their lengthy prison sentences.

0910 GMT: Fashion and Politics. Rah-e Sabz parallels our Friday LiveBlog in its summary of Friday Prayers around the country, with condemnation of the "Khatoon" issue of the pro-Ahmadinejad newspaper Iran --- supposedly putting a "liberal" view on enforcement of hijab for women --- leading the way. However, there was also criticism of the Government for unfulfilled economic promises and unemployment.

Khabar Online adds this pointed remark from Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani: the publishers of "Khatoon" must be "punished physically", as chador and hijab bring pride for women.

0900 GMT: Sedition Watch. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the head of the Basij militia, has declared that followers of the Imam Khomeini Path political faction are "worse than terrorists of 1980s" such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq. Naqdi claimed that seditionists still plan riots in the future.

0700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mostafa Tajzadeh, the detained senior reformist, has written to his wife from Evin Prison: "Religious tyranny has reached a dead end earlier than its theorist, [Ayatollah] Mesbah Yazdi, could have anticipated."

0615 GMT: Energy Watch. Majid Boujarzadeh, a spokesman for the National Iranian Gas Company, said Iranian natural gas shipments through a pipeline to Turkey have resumed after deliveries were interrupted by an explosion caused by the Kurdish insurgent group PKK.

The attack on 11 August was the second on an Iranian pipeline this month.

0550 GMT: Answer of the Day. In the interest of keeping speculation and news at a fair distance from each other, I deliberately did not refer to a latest article on Tehran Bureau yesterday.

But given the effort to write and post the piece from a Tehran-based correspondent --- and given that it has a fair amount of information once you get past the headline --- a reply to "Is the Arrest of Ahmadinejad Imminent?"

No.

0545 GMT: Farm Watch. Hemayat claims that farmers are not ready to harvest fruit, given the low prices they will receive amidst cheap imports. The story is illustrated with a photograph of rotting apples.

0540 GMT: Picture of the Day. Not sure of the date of this photograph, but I have selected it for the sentiment on the poster: "Awaiting Green".

0530 GMT: We begin this morning with the sad story that the regime's cyber-warriors are feeling a bit neglected after all their efforts to put down the challenge to the Supreme Leader and the Government.

One of the bloggers, Hamid Bazm Shahi Esfahani, complains that cyber-activists have not been invited to meet Ayatollah Khamenei, preferring breaking the Ramadan fast at an iftar with the Supreme Leader. 

In 2009, [ cyber activists ] were busy with the cyber war , last year in total disbelief  we weren’t invited, and this year they haven’t allowed us to visit the Leader…If they don’t let us go…it would be two years!

I don’t think that it’s right that cyber activists can go to the leader’s house only in the framework of student visits and without being [properly introduced].  We are a front, we bloggers, those on [Google Reader], and so on.  

We have problems, ideas, criticism, and suggestions which we think are useful for the establishment and we want them to be heard by the leader. And what time is better than the holy months of Ramadan?