The Green Brief - NiteOwl (Brand New Source Iran Election)

[WillyT]

<snip>

Hi,

I'm Josh Shahryar AKA NiteOwl and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources and have tried maximally to avoid listening to media banter. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my tweets to have happened in the past day and in the past week in Iran. Remember, this is all from tweets. There is NOTHING included here that is not from a reliable tweet. No news media outlets have been used in the compilation of this short brief as I would like to call it.

These are some of the happenings that I can positively confirm:

1. During the last protest in Tehran, several policemen have been spotted by protesters who were wearing green bands which is the color of the revolution. The policemen have told them candidly that they support them.

2. During the protests, on several occasions, Baseejis who have attacked peaceful protesters have been arrested on the spot by the police. This seems to have occured in several spots, yet it hasn't been a crackdown of sorts. A few cases only!

3. Several Baseeji militiamen have been spotted laying down their arms and going home after being asked to interfere with the protesters.

4. By far the biggest threat people are facing right now are plainclothesmen. They seem to be everywhere and are targetting people who are not in groups. These men have been mostly linked with Ansar e Hezbollah. They are responsible for beating people up, arresting people, threatening protesters, arresting reformists from their homes and such.

5. So far, it has been confirmed that 15 people in Tehran and 32 people around the country have been killed. Hundreds more have been injured and in excess of 800 people have been detained. Among these there are dozens of reformists. Most of these arrests have been made by the notorious plainclothesmen mentioned above.

6. During yesterday's protests, mullahs have been spotted joining rallies within Tehran and in several other cities. No one could confirm what the status of these Mullahs was or is within the clerical society, but their numbers have been very visible this time.

7. Protests have occured not just in Tehran yesterday, but in Ahvaz, Mashhad, Kermanshah, Qazvin, Shiraz, Tabriz and EVER Qom.

8. Pro-Ahmadinejad protesters' numbers have been greatly exaggerated by the state media in comparison to Mousavi's supporters' numbers. In reality, Pro-Ahmadinejad protesters were only a pocket full of people. Most of these people have been identified by other protesters as either people who work at government offices or people who were brought from the countryside.

9. After downplaying the protests for days, the state-run media has finally started to announce news of the events a little more accurately.

10. Text Messaging is still down in Iran and internet is extremely slow. People are unable to get sattelite channels on their televisions. At the same time, police and plainclothesmen are going door to door and taking away people's sattelite dish antenas.

11. Mohsen Rezayee, one of the candidates, is going to declare his support for a reelection tomorrow. The fourth candidate, Mahdi Karoubi openly joined yesterday's rally.

12. A group of prominent officials within the Ministry of Interior have written a letter to the Guardian Council declaring that they have witnessed widespread irregularities within the voting and counting processes during the election. They have asked this matter to be investigated fully.

13. As of today, not a single report of the military's intervention into the peaceful protests has been established. Not a single one.

14. Khatami and Mousavi have both asked the Ministry of Justice to investigate the involvement of the plainclothesmen in the violence that has been sparked during the protests.

15. Several eye-witnesses have seen non-Iranian Arabs waving Hamas/Hezbollah flags around the protests. These reports have been fully confirmed and are NOT a rumor spread by Israel.

16. Finally, the big news. It seems that the Green Revolution has garnered the support of Hashemi Rafsanjani, Nateq Noori, Tabatabayee and other prominent clerics and politicians. The Rohaniyone Mubarez organization that which has in its ranks pretty much most of the clerics except for the ones in power and includes Mr. Rafsanjani and Mr. Noori has declared their support for the annullment of the election and holding of new elections. Ayatollah Montazeri has yet to declare clear support.

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More: http://iran.whyweprotest.net/showthread.php?t=486

Hell of a first post, methinks! Think I'll be bookmarking this one.

:applause:

:kick:

[slay]

1. I just found that site - the vids are just... wow

Thanks for posting this! :hi:

[MADem]

2. Protests in QOM????? In QOM????? WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is the biggest news in that piece--it is HUGELY important.

Qom, you see, is a holy city (quite the impressive mosque there along with a theological seminary) and it was the HOME of Imam Khomeini. More to the point for the present day, there is a rumor that Rafsanjani went to Qom the other day to "jawbone" some of the senior leadership to get their backing on behalf of Mousavi-I heard this yesterday, I think.

The fact that there is protesting in Qom tells me that there's not a shortage of empathy in influence-carrying religious circles.

I think Khameini has overplayed, and maybe he has overstayed. Mullahs joining the rallies? That's a HUGE deal, too. I heard a few stories about the police, but this sounds like the word is going forth, and the police do not want to be on the side of the thugs.

The ministry of interior letter, IIRC, called the actions by the vote counters "unhealthy" or something like that--it was the politest way to say "Those basstids cheated!" Also, something like eight million blank ballots "disappeared" somehow--so there's no way to do a recount with that many missing ballots floating around.

I had also heard stories about imported thugs flown in from Hizb'ollah coming to beat people up--how disgusting. Ahmadi is a total asshole. How he can "sic" Arabs on Persians is beyond me. If this rumor is found to be true, I would stay away from crowds if I were him, because that is a "mob justice" offense, to set people from other nations on your own citizenry. How in hell the Hizb'ollah jerks can be willing to do that kind of nasty work is beyond me--but then, Ahmadinejad has been skimming the treasury to fund a lot of their adventures over the last few years, too. It wouldn't surprise me if he ponied up the seed money for their TV station along with weaponry and other stuff.

I can't believe the pigs are taking away the satellite dishes--they should hide them in the little stairwell doors at the top of the rooftop stairs even if it means having to fiddle with it to get the signal.

I am starting to feel hopeful. What wonderful nuggets of news. I hope that some video can get out.

[Kaleko]

3. Riveting. We're hungry for every little bit of info from credible sources.

Please keep posting. Thanks!

[aquart]

4. I haven't heard them blaming Ahmadinejad for the Hezbullah.

But I have read their tweets about Khameini being responsible. It isn't just Ahmadi they want out. They want Khameini out and a separation of mosque and state cleric Ayatollah Montazeri in.

It looks like the other clerics smell the blood in the water and they're making a play to unseat Khameini. Which, if they agree to Montazeri may be the best outcome. But if they don't agree among themselves and start fighting, well, it will definitely be worse than the New York Senate.

[MADem]

5. I agree with everything you have said.

I realize Ahmadi doesn't control the military in the current power structure, but he started out in the Pasaradan, and they've given lots of help to the Hizb'ollah over the years. That's why my thought turned to him--he may not have given the order, but I'm betting it was his idea, or he served as a conduit for the idea. A little quid pro quo, as George Big Bush might say. But yes, Khameini gave the order, and Khameini needs to go. Most definitely.

All that said, it's smart for the Mousavi factions to not overly demonize Ahmadi (though he deserves it, the little shit). Why? His followers may have shrunk over the years, but the ones he has are still vicious, dangerous thugs. Get him gone first--THEN make fun of him.

Rafsanjani is sais to be trying to get the concurrence from the Assembly of Experts to give Special K the boot. I don't know if he needs a super majority or a simple one, but he's got to convince some percentage of 86 guys that it is time for Khameini to go home!

Protests in Qom are a good, good thing. I can't believe it!