Green Brief #14
NUR
I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter
- 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. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my
reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news
media outlets have been used. (All my work is released under Creative
Commons (CC). You can freely use it and re-post it wherever you'd like
to. Just provide a link to the original source at the bottom.)
These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from
Tuesday, June 30 in Iran.
In Italian: http://giagro.wordpress.com/30062009...fine-giornata/
1. 1. Today, people gathered at Vali Asr Square -the entire place was
packed with Security Forces. Guards at Vanak Square were reportedly
breaking car windows (those that honked their horns) which is a sign
of the current protests. After security forces tried to arrest a young
girl, some clashes broke out. (There was no further news about this
event so confirmation is partial only.)
2. About 10 people were arrested at Tajrish Square after a group of
people gathered there and chanted against the regime. Clashes were
also reported at Satarkhan Street and Jomhori Street. The Independent
Youth was also planning to organize a protest today in Tehran,
however, reports were scarce and no confirmations could be obtained of
the protests.
3. Today, more than 2,000 people gathered in front of the Islamic
Republic Court in Urumieh asking about their detained relatives. So
far, thousands have been rounded-up during protests, as well as during
day and night-time raids all over the country. The number cannot be
verified but it is said to be in the thousands. Mousavi and Karoubi
have denied having sanctioned yesterday’s protests.
4. Mousavi has been reported by Iran Press TV to only be accepting of
a new election. Mousavi's campaign today called the widespread arrests
“immoral and illegal.” Furthermore, they said that the torture of
detained civilians could produce anti-revolutionary sentiments amongst
the people, thus damaging the Islamic Revolution severely. There were
reports of a National Strike being organized and propagated on
Mousavi’s website, but it cannot be confirmed through independent
sources.
5. The Iranian government has meanwhile banned Mousavi’s ally,
Abolfazl Fateh, from leaving the country. Abolfazl Fateh today said
that elections were “a deeply political concept and militarizing them
was uncommon, costly and worrisome.” He said that their campaign would
only release word on GhalamNet. Meanwhile, Mousavi's website –
GhalamNet – today denied sending new letters to the Guardian Council
and rejected GC spokesperson's claims yesterday about receiving fresh
Mousavi demands. On the cyber side, Ayatollah Montazeri's website has
been taken down by the Ministry of Interior after he denounced the
elections and called the government clamp-down on peaceful protesters
against Islam.
6. Today, Khatami called for a change in the security presence on the
streets of Iran, as well as for the formation of an independent
commission to investigate complaints against the election. He added
that, “force should not be used to make people do what one wants them
to.” He added that the general trust of the Iranian people have been
damaged by such tactics.
7. Karoubi announced in a letter to that Iranian people that he didn’t
recognize the government’s legitimacy. Karoubi said that he entered
the election for "change" and that hidden forces had blatantly changed
the outcome. Karoubi objected to widespread arrests and asked
officials for the immediate release of all detainees, as well as
reparation of their reputation. He expressed readiness to work with
individuals and groups because he perceived the republic, Iran and
Islam to be in danger.
8. Ayatollah Taheri stated that Mousavi's rights had been violated.
Taheri - the former Friday Imam of Isfahan - called Ahmadinejad's
appointment illegal. He added that the old enemies of Imam [Khomeini]
were sending the Islamic Republic to the museum with their actions
[meaning it will be removed and become part of history if these
actions don’t stop]. In response, a member of parliament today openly
criticized Taheri and said that he was longer a senior cleric. After
him, Pezeshkian – a reformist MP – told the parliament that God's
enemy was he who stood against the people.
9. Ahmadinejad declared that an attempt at a 'soft overthrow' of the
regime had failed. This comes after a partial recount of 10% of the
vote by the Guardian Council which resulted in slightly more votes of
Ahmadinejad!!! Mohammad Yazdi, a cleric and member of the Guardian
Council, announced today that he could personally testify as to the
impartiality of the election. He added that Mousavi will be barred
from taking part in any future elections.
10. Tehran's notorious Evin prison is reportedly packed to capacity
now and security forces are housing the detained in football stadiums.
So many people are put in Tehran’s prisons that prisoners only have
standing space. Reports say guards are preventing prisoners from
sleeping by keeping them standing all night. Amnesty International
today warned that the opposition leaders arrested in Iran were at risk
of being tortured.
11. Maziar Bahari was forced to confess at a press conference that the
protests were pre-planned and organized from abroad. Bahari is an
adroit Iranian-Canadian Journalist and filmmaker, who has written for
Newsweek and the New Statesman. Meanwhile,the torture of university
students continues in the Ministry of Interior. Some Iranians
traveling to Iran for the holidays have been taken in for questioning
directly at the airport as they tried to leave the country. They were
questioned because of updated information on their Facebook accounts.
12. There is still no news about Mojtaba Tehrani, an Etemad Melli
correspondent. Three days have passed after his arrest. Another
correspondent of Etemade Melli, Mahsa Amrabadi, who has been in
detention for two weeks, has only been allowed to briefly call her
family. Her whereabouts are unknown.
13. On the good side of things, Isfahan's judicial sources announced
the freedom from detention of 280 people who'd been arrested during
the protests. Hundreds more still remain in detention. But today, it
was announced that the legal prosecution of detained prisoners has
started. The man in charge, Saeed Mortazavi, has led many to believe
that dozens will probably be sentenced to death as he is notorious in
seeking and getting death sentences for dissidents in Iran.
14. Police today entered Tehran University's dorms at the request of
the president of the university, reportedly. However, the president,
Mr. Kohkan, later denied he had asked them to do so. Amir Hossein
Shemshadi, in charge of Mousavi's youth campaign, contacted his
parents from inside Evin today and told them he would not be freed
anytime soon
15. The Daily Khabar was stopped from printing its daily paper for the
fourth time this week. Tehran public prosecutor and Cultural Ministry
officials also stopped the publication of Etemade Melli newspaper
today following its plans to publish a letter by Karoubi. Pressured by
security forces, the session of the Journalists Union of Iran was also
canceled. The sessions were to be focused on detained journalists.
16. The chants of Allah o Akbar continued tonight even though Basijis
have threatened people with arrests and destruction of property if
they continue to do so. One chanter has already been killed in the
past days.
** Thank you all for translating! We still need more people with
translations if they’re willing to do so. Email me if you are willing
to help and if you are not asked to help, it still doesn’t mean you’re
not AWESOME! You can still publish the translations on your blogs.
@josh_612 and @gfanhoto please send me the link to your German and
Portuguese translations at dbo...@gmail.com and anyone else who's done
another language! Everyone else, who wants to be part of this, please
let me know. A hearty thanks to everyone and a special thanks to Sahar
joon for proof-reading!
Read this if you want to help or get help!
Helpers:
A. We currently are trying to get the Brief out in as many languages
as possible. If you can translate the brief for us in a language other
than English, Italian and Hebrew, please let us know. It comes out
every day so it'll be an every day thing - who knows for how long - so
it's for the long haul. But if you can even do a summary, it will be
great!
B. You could retweet this link and let more people know about what’s
going in Iran. The mainstream media has completely and utterly failed
to get the message across so please, be the voice for Iranians.
C. The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and
throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows
that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran
and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring
down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on
this:
English:
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's
Brain
Farsi:
Tor Browser Bundle
Tor: ?????? Tor
Help us set up more bridges on Tor here: Torrents list � Rivolta in
Iran