Egypt: El Baradei Joins Anti-Torture Rally (Al Jazeera)

UPDATE 1100 GMT: Mohammad El Baradei has given an interview to the Los Angeles Times: "I keep telling [Egyptians] that nothing will change in a country of 80 million people through one person. This is the myth. The challenge is to demystify it. They need to grow up and understand."

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Al Jazeera English reports this morning:

Mohammad El Baradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has led a protest against alleged abuses by the police in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

At least 4,000 people greeted El Baradei, who has become a prominent pro-democracy campaigner, as he arrived to offer condolences to the family of Khaled Mohammed Saeed, an Egyptian youth who human rights groups say was beaten to death by police.

The protest on Friday, which was ElBaradei's second public appearance this month and the first in which his family have joined him, was his biggest rally since he returned to Egypt after leaving the IAEA.

Crowds chanted pro-democracy slogans and waved images of Saeed while El Baradei, flanked by worshippers, emerged from a mosque after Muslim prayers.

Youths and activists from political and online groups including the Facebook group "El Baradei for presidency of 2011" joined the protest. Some chanted "Down Down [Egyptian president] Hosni Mubarak" and "Saeed you are a martyr" while rushing to meet El Baradei.

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Iran Interview: Ahmad Batebi "The Green Movement and Mousavi"

Earlier this month, we featured Part 1 of Persian2English's interview with human rights activist Ahmad Batebi, who is living in exile in the US. The website has now published the second part of the discussion:

Maryam NY: I think you agree that supporters outside Iran need to unite more for the Iranian people’s movement. How can we be more united?

Ahmad Batebi: We Iranians think we are good and everyone else is bad.

Iran Interview: Ahmad Batebi “People’s Movement Will Stay Alive with Knowledge and Information”

For example, when you tell someone to come and take part in a demonstration, he or she says, “No, I’m not coming because there will be monarchists there.” Then you ask, “What’s wrong with that?” They respond, “Monarchists stole and robbed the country’s money and left Iran.”

Then you say, “Let’s go to another protest.” They say, “No, because there will be MKO (Mujahedin Khalq Organization) people there.” You ask, “Why is that bad?” They answer, “They went to Iraq in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war and betrayed the Iranian people.” Then you ask the monarchists, members of the MKO, and the leftists to come to a [planned] demonstration. They say they are not coming because Mousavi supporters will be there. You ask, “What is the problem with that?” They respond, “Mousavi was the Prime Minister at the time of the 1988 massacres.”

This shows that our mind passes judgment rapidly: “this is good” and “that is bad”. We think that we are right and good and others are wrong and evil.

The judge who sits in our minds is not a fair judge, but rather like a Saeed Mortazavi [former Tehran Prosecutor General, now an advisor to the President] who does not allow defence for the other side. People make mistakes. Everyone errs. Do you want to ban a person from entering the movement forever? The first step is to say that we are bad and others are good. Then we need to kill Judge Mortazavi from our heads and admit that we also make mistakes like others.

Maryam: In your view, should Mousavi explain his role in the 1988 massacres?

Batebi: No, not now.

Look, I am not a “Mousavist”. I believe that people should vote [in the Presidential elections], because I believe in active participation. I say that if everybody casts a vote, then every single person can make demands. The reason that the movement has become so strong is that many people participated [in the election]. Then they asked, “Where is my vote?” If we had boycotted the election, we wouldn’t have this many “creditors” asking for their shares.

But, I didn’t vote for Mousavi and I disliked him because I believed he was a little conservative and he still wants to take Iran back to its origins [of the 1980s].  However, as time passed, I realized that I was very wrong about Mousavi. It is true, my mode of thought is different from Mousavi’s. I am a secular person and I do not have many common views with him in such domains, but now, I have a lot of respect for him, because he has stood up to defend the people’s rights.

If we want to kill Mortazavi from our minds and judge [Mousavi] realistically, then in the era that Mousavi was Prime Minister, let’s consider that there were three separate powers [estates] in Iran: legislative, executive, and judiciary. Those who committed the murders were in the Judiciary. If we put ourselves in Mousavi’s shoes, in 1988, in the midst of war and conflict and while Khomeini was still alive and had such charisma, what should we have done? Were we supposed to kill Khomeini? Were we supposed to stand up to the Judiciary? The mood and atmosphere was not such that Mousavi could do anything in particular.

However, Mousavi should explain one day what the issues were, who was responsible, and what his role was. If he had made a mistake, he should apologize to the people, and if not, he should offer an explanation. He has to do this, but doing it now means hitting and beating ourselves. Once the movement prevails, then there is a lot of time to ask Mousavi to address this issue.

Maryam: The reason I suggested Mousavi to acknowledge the massacres is to unite the people more.

Batebi: But such an acknowledgment is only important for unifying people outside Iran. It’s not important for people who live inside Iran. It is enough for the Iranian people that Mousavi has had the courage to stand up to the ruling establishment. We who live outside the country cannot decide for the Iranian people. [What you mentioned] is the demand of the Diaspora community. I also believe he has to explain [his role], but we have more important issues to deal with right now. The people in Iran want the movement to continue breathing. It is better if Mousavi shows courage and stands like Karroubi. Then, later, we have time for all these debates.

The Latest from Iran (25 June): The Important Issues

1650 GMT: Imprisonment and Abuse. RAHANA publishes the story, which we have been following for 24 hours, on an attack on Zoya Samadi, the daughter-in-law of imprisoned labour activist Mansour Osanloo.

Intelligence Ministry agents reportedly accosted Samadi in public view, pulling off her headscarf, beating her, and dragging her by the hair. Handcuffed and blindfolded, she was taken to an undisclosed location for four hours and questioned for four hours, allegedly being told, "You must guarantee that if Osanloo is released from prison, he will never remain in Iran and that he will cease all activities.”

According to Osanloo's wife, Samadi was then left under a Tehran bridge. Her assailants warned, "You are not to inform anyone about this incident, nor are you allowed to file any form of complaint.”

NEW The Real Race for Iran: Human Rights v. Tehran’s Defenders (Shahryar)
Iran Special: Mousavi, Karroubi, and the Strategy of “We Are Still Standing (for the Revolution)”
The Latest from Iran (24 June): Persistence

1535 GMT: The Divergent Tale of Two Political Prisoners, Two British Universities. Ian Black in The Guardian has an interesting profile of the cases of Mohammad Jalaeipour, an Oxford University Ph.D. candidate re-arrested on 14 June, and Ehsan Abdoh-Tabrizi, a Ph.D. student at Durham University who was imprisoned in January and has spent more than 50 days in solitary confinement. Black compares the very different approaches taken by Oxford and Durham officials to publicity over the treatment of the political prisoners.

1525 GMT: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Philosopher of Our Time. No, if you like your philosophy simple and to the point, then it might be best to leave behind today's Friday Prayer with global bodies that do not really exist and an Iranian unity that must be present even if it is not obvious. Instead, let's get our 21st-century Renaissance from the President via the Iranian Labor News Agency:

A long and black chapter in the history of humanity is coming to a close and an age of enlightenment is about to start. The arrogant powers have stood against the divine force throughout history and today the arrogant regime in the United States is the biggest obstacle against the cause of the prophets.

1500 GMT: Your Friday Prayer Summary. Hojatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi --- our favourite "women's breasts = earthquakes" cleric --- took the podium today.

No references to dangerous females this morning, however, as far as we know. Instead, Seddiqi was preoccupied with the recent UN sanctions against Iran, or rather, he was interested in the pronouncements of an invisible organisation: "This approach showed that the United Nations does not exist and that the Security Council is an 'anti-security' council."

If that's a bit too metaphysical to grasp --- ""It appears that you have yet to know the Iranian nation" --- Seddiqi was ready to use the international situation to whip up his own realities out of the Tehran air: "[The] Iranian nation will not only show resilience in the face of such sanctions but will also develop more resistance and solidarity."

0830 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Photojournalist Majid Saeedi, arrested last June, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Shiva Nazar Ahari, human rights activist and member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters detained since June 2009, has written a letter to her father: "You taught me not to break."

The families of detainees held in Gohardasht Prison, have written to Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabi: "Don't allow more injustices against our beloved."

The Iranian Teachers Trade Association has issued a statement protesting the continued detention of its leading members.

0825 GMT: The Attacks on the Clergy. The five daughter of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri have issued a statement challenging the recent assault on the Montazeri house by pro-regime activists.

0755 GMT: We begin today with an analysis from Josh Shahryar, "The Real Race for Iran: Human Rights v. Tehran's Defenders".

"Western" headlines are likely to be on last night's US Congress vote for stricter sanctions --- the Senate by 99-0, the House of Representatives by 408-8 --- aimed especially at Iran's financial and energy sectors. Meanwhile....

Khamenei Tries to Hold It Together

Writing for Rooz, Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah takes a look at this week's statements by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sees a Supreme Leader struggling to keep his flock together.

The website also sees a continuing challenge to the legitimacy of Khamenei's leadership in a year of statements by clerical and opposition figures.

The Battle Within

The Vice Speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, has given a speech warning of the danger to the establishment from "radicals" --- and he doesn't mean "radicals" of the Green Movement.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi, former Minister of the Interior, is worried about the threat to Iran from "lawlessness" --- but whose lawlessness does he mean?

Defending Political Parties

It looks like there is a twist in the tale of the attempt to ban Iran's reformist political parties such as the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mohajedin of Islamic Revolution.

Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi warns against lawlessness as one of the country's biggest dangers.

The conservative Morteza Nabavi has noted that President Ahmadinejad himself came to power through a political party, and key judiciary official Mohammad Javad Larijani has argued that party activities should be developed beyond elections, as they guarantee the future of the Islamic Republic.

Parliament (and  a Cleric) v. President

Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani has denounced this week's demonstrations by Basij and students in front of Parliament, challenging the Majlis attempt to defy President Ahmadinejad and assert its control of Islamic Azad University.

Meanwhile, we have gotten information of how heated the debate was inside the Parliament, with heated exchanges and heckling, insults, and even reports of a "fist fight".

The Latest from Iran (24 June): Persistence

2015 GMT: International Front. By the narrow margin of 99-0, the US Senate has approved a bill with sweeping sanctions --- far wider than the UN resolution that passed earlier this month --- on Iran's banking and energy sectors.

1545 GMT: Parliament v. President. Video has been posted of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani's speech in the aftermath of the Basij/student demonstrations against the Majlis bill asserting control of Islamic Azad University.

NEW Iran Special: Mousavi, Karroubi, and the Strategy of “We Are Still Standing (for the Revolution)”
Iran Document: The Mousavi-Karroubi Meeting (23 June)
Iran Eyewitness: An “Army of Strollers” and Allah-o-Akbar on 12 June (Tehran Bureau)
The Latest from Iran (23 June): Baghi Freed

1510 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist and Mousavi campaign worker Arash Sadeghi has been sentenced to six years in prison and 74 lashes.

Labour activist Mohammad Ashrafi has been arrested.

Student Sina Tahani, detained earlier this month for distributing Mousavi and Karroubi leaflets, has turned 18 in prison.

Photographs of filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad, released yesterday from detention, have been released.



1240 GMT: This Week's Political News --- Shutting Down the Reformists? An EA correspondent follows up the news, which we noted earlier this week, that Parliament has deferred the local elections for Tehran and other city councils until spring 2012.

The correspondent asserts, "Should the Guardian Council approve this, this would give time to the conservatives to rout the reformists, removing them completely from the political radar. I believe it to be an ominous sign regarding the attitude of the ruling clique towards the concept of electoral politics."

1230 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Fatemeh Shams, the wife of student activist Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, has told Radio Farda, "In a short phone call [on 20 June, six days after his detention], he told his mother that he was being held in solitary [confinement], but when asked in which prison, he remained silent."

Shams added, "Two days before Mohammad Reza's arrest, I received threatening e-mails from a group called the Cyber Army of the Islamic Republic saying 'we'll arrest your husband.'" The same group sent her another threatening e-mail after her husband's arrest saying, "We'll make you return to Tehran."

Seyed Hossein Marashi, former member of Parliament, Vice President in the Khatami Administration, and brother–in-law of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has given leave of absence from prison for a week. Marashi is serving one year in prison for propaganda  against the regime.

1225 GMT: Parliament v. President. Footage has emerged of the Basij/student demonstration in front of Parliament on Tuesday, protesting the Majlis bill maintaining control (and thus refusing to cede it to the President) over Islamic Azad University.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ANAadXRwA&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

0754 GMT: The Situation Abroad. Writing in Rooz, Kaveh Ghoreishi highlights, "Iranian Refugees In Iraq Face Uncertain Fate".

0750 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA reports that 325 people were arrested during the month of Khordaad (May/June).

0730 GMT: We begin this morning with an analysis, "We Are Still Standing (for the Revolution) of Wednesday's statement by Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

Meanwhile....

Academic Corner

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, with an interview with a student activist, highlights, "Summonses, Notices, and Dismissals at Qazvin International University".
Political Prisoner Watch

Fars News reports that the trial in Tehran Revolutionary Court of blogger Hossein Derakhshan has finally begun.

Derakhshan was arrested 19 months ago. He is accused of “cooperation with enemy states, propaganda against the Islamic regime, promoting anti-Revolutionary groups, insulting sanctities, launching and managing vulgar and obscene sites”.

Derakhshan was one of the first Iranian bloggers when he created “Editor: Myself.” He had settled in Canada but was detained when he returned to Iran in November 2008.

Where's Mahmoud?

For President Ahmadinejad, it is still eyes front-and-centre on the international front. He told an audience Wednesday, "The recent [United Nations sanctions] resolution against the Iranian nation was in fact a loud announcement of the fall of liberalism and humanism. Those who ratified the resolution are perfectly aware that it will have no impact."

Iran Special: Mousavi, Karroubi, and the Strategy of "We Are Still Standing (for the Revolution)"

And so another statement, accompanied by a picture of the two men warmly greeting each other, from Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

The announcement followed the now established pattern of declarations from opposition figures.

1. Use current events to highlight the declining legitimacy of the Government, highlighting the attacks on key groups in the Islamic Republic

Iran Document: The Mousavi-Karroubi Meeting (23 June)

"No government or authority can remove the love of these guardians of the religion from the hearts of the believers by relying on a group of thugs."

In this case, Mousavi and Karroubi highlight the Government's campaign against marja (senior clerics). This month's verbal and physical assaults on the reputations and homes of Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, Seyed Hassan Khomeini, Grand Ayatollah Sane'i, and the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri are a solid platform for an appeal to the public which is lastly to last throughout the summer.

Doing so, Mousavi and Karroubi are claiming that they are defending the Islamic Republic, which is being torn down by a Government which should be upholding its values and Constitution. Some would-be analysts of Iranian politics argue that the opposition is "counter-revolutionary"; Mousavi and Karroubi point to the strategy that the opposition is still "revolutionary" in its pursuit of the goals of 1979. Equally important, they are pointedly noting that the Government is attacking figures, including Khomeini, who were and are "the Revolution".

2. Make a political move to get support from those who are not in the opposition

"Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi expressed their sorrow and concern for the weakening of the legislative branch....some don’t even respect the stature of this Parliament."

At one level, this is a continuation of the argument that the Government is attacking the institutions of the Islamic Republic and the defenders of the Revolution.

At another, however, it is a tactical approach to "conservatives" and even "principlists" within the system. The headline story in Iran at the moment is the running battle between Ahmadinejad and the Parliament over economic and social policy and institutions; this week's furour over the supervision of Islamic Azad University is only the latest symbol in the contest.

There is no chance that Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, and Mousavi and Karroubi will ever be ideological brethren. But there is more than a chance that they could share the common goal of wanting to remove Ahmadinejad from power and change the approach of the Government to its relationship with the legislative and judicial branches.

3. Highlight basic civil rights

"Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi pointed out the government’s denying the people’s legal and legitimate request to hold a silent demonstration, while an organized group, in complete security, attacks whoever and wherever they want."

The reference to the anniversary of the election, 22 Khordad/12 June, is in part a defensive move by Mousavi and Karroubi, covering their decision not to proceed with a march in defiance of the Government's refusal to issue a permit.

At the same time, however, the approach is to highlight that the battle for civil rights is more than one occasion for demonstration. The references to "the current security trend and recent arrests... [and] the chaotic situation of the detention centres and prisons" brings Mousavi and Karroubi back to their fundamental challenge.

This is not a legitimate Government, for it does not guarantee and safeguard the rights must be part of the Revolution and its incarnation in the Islamic Republic: When Mousavi and Karroubi call on Iran's judiciary "to move toward restoring public rights and promoting justice and legitimate freedoms", they are both making another tactical approach to those in the "establishment" --- you do not have to bow down to this illegitimate President and his advisors --- and pointing to the heartbeat of civil rights within the opposition.

And this strategy is not separate from the 2009 election and "Where is My Vote?"; it is vitally linked to it. For how can Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sustain his cry of "24 million supported me" when that support is seen today in the refusal of dissent and the accumulation of political prisoners?

4. The Green Movement lives because the campaign for civil rights lives

"Mousavi and Karroubi once again emphasized othe rightful demands of the Green Movement and the role of promoting awareness and knowledge in the society about the assured rights and fundamental freedoms of all classes of the society."

This approach may not be enough for many in the opposition, inside and outside Iran. As the row over Nikahang Kowsar's cartoon on Mousavi and "Statement 3000" illustrated, Mousavi and Karroubi's approach may be seen as the unacceptable of the "gradual" or even a tacit resignation covered over by their words. The issue of whether they should have taken to the streets in June (and, in the case of Mousavi, for months before that) is still fresh.

Strategically, this latest statement remains vague on specific steps and demands. Indeed, the last clear declaration by Mousavi of those demands may be his statement at the start of January. And Mousavi and Karroubi's clear line of working within --- in fact, exalting --- the Islamic Republic will not be to the taste of those who want a greater revision or even sweeping away of the system.

At this point, however, Mousavi and Karroubi are working in an Iran where many activists have been imprisoned or have left the country, where the Government has tried to shut down communications beyond the most "reliable" of outlets, where the security forces are omni-present not only on possible dates for marches but in all aspects of Iranian life.

In that environment, the imperative may to be grabbing whatever space to declare: We are legitimate; the Government is not. We uphold the Republic; the Government does not. We believe in the rights and pursuit of discussion, dialogue, justice; the Government believes in the baton and the jail cell.

For better or worse, the immediate purpose of this statement could be: We are still standing.