The Green Brief: Confirmed Twittered news from Iran
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The Green Brief
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.
Finally a few words to those who are reading this:
People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have
not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but
human error will always manifests itself in even the most flawless of
non-mathematical things. However, this includes nothing from the
Western media, including the BBC which I have been generously using to
inform people and I laud them for their courageous journalism.
People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do
what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of
what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.
People Who Want to Send Me Tweet Links: You don't need to find me, I
will find you. Don't hassle yourself. Your voice will be heard through
millions of others like me.
People Who Want to Hunt Me Down: I'm an Afghan. If you ever tried to
attack me, you'll see my back only after your back has met the
ground.
P.S. Please post this around. I will be writing one brief of this kind
everyday until this ends.
NUR
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These are some of the happenings that I can positively confirm from
Friday, June 18:
1. The ‘black’ protest was held today in Tehran. Most people were
wearing black in order to commemorate those protesters killed earlier
this week, however, many people joined the protest coming out from
work and were not wearing black. Mousavi, Karoubi, Rafsanjani and his
family were all at the protests. At the same time, protesters were
joined by Mullahs and university professors – who were apparently very
vocal. The numbers of protesters was very high, however, among
conflicting report, it seemed safe to estimate the number at least 1.5
million people and possibly much more. Late at night, a candle light
vigil was also held. Protesters went to mosques to continue morning
late into the night.
2. No violence was reported during the protests from my sources,
however, isolated incidents may have occurred of which I did not get
information. Sources claimed that the Baseejis tried to provoke people
and some even burned things themselves to blame it later on
protesters. About a dozen students from the Institute of Theoretical
Physics and Mathematics Studies were arrested after the protest as
well as scores of others either when found in isolation or in small
groups. All universities in Tehran were closed for the day.
3. Unlike before, though, this time plainclothes gunmen were not
surrounding the protests. They were spotted from time to time and made
most of the arrests. The number of non-Iranian Arabs present around
the protests was much smaller than yesterday. Mohammad Tavassali,
Former Tehran mayor was also arrested by them today. He is a prominent
aide of Rafsanjani. Kaveh Servati, another prominent backer and
supporter of Mousavi’s campaign was also detained. Ebrahim Yazdi of
the Freedom Movement of Iran, however, has now been freed because of
failing health and is in a hospital, but still under strict
supervision
4. Other protests were held in Qom, Isfahan, Tabriz, Ahvaz, Shiraz and
Mashhad as well as smaller ones in other cities. Sources confirm that
people were beaten in Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz and in Qom. Many arrests
were also made in these cities, however, conflicting reports about
their identities prevents this brief from naming them. Many mullahs
joined protests in Ahvaz and Mashhad. In Shiraz, thousands of people
gathered around a coffin to mourn the protesters who had been killed
during previous rallies.
5. Currently, the protest in Tehran is continuing in small numbers in
the mosques, and a very reliable source has confirmed that thousands
upon thousands of people are protesting at 3 AM (the time of the
writing of this dispatch) in Isfahan. Saturday protest in Tehran is to
be held at four at Enqelab Field.
6. Abroad, 70 Iranian protesters in Dubai near the Iranian consulate
were dispersed by UAE police and were told they had protested enough
and needed to go home as their voices had already been heard. In
Brussels, a few hundred Ahmadinejad supporters protested in support of
him. This happens at a time when no major rallies were held supporting
Ahmadinejad in Iran – not even in the rural areas where his strength
lies. The Iranian national press continues to downplay the numbers and
importance as well as character of the peaceful protests in Tehran and
around Iran in support of Mousavi who spoke along with other leaders
in Tehran claiming they won’t stop till their demands are met. Most of
the Iranian press inside the country continues to call protesters
thugs and hooligans.
7. As the last Brief indicated, Rafsanjani has now openly started
supporting Mousavi. Sources indicate that he is currently in
negotiations with clerics from Qom and the Guardian Council. However,
they also claim that he no longer has the freedom to fly out of the
country.
8. The Guardian Council has ordered all the candidates to participate
in their next meeting. This meeting will be held in Tehran some time
in the middle of the next week. There is no news on whether this is
going to be a negotiation or simply an ultimatum to stop the protests
– as indicated by some sources. Iran’s top legislative body, however,
is meeting the candidates on Saturday. The Guardian Council had
ordered a partial recount before part of which has been carried out
and results match previous results that were issued by the government.
The Minister of Interior claims results are very accurate.
9. Grand Ayatollah Yousof Sanei – the most prominent Shia cleric of
our times – has shown dissatisfaction with the way the government is
treating the protests as well as the protesters. He has asked the
government to listen to what the protesters have to say and consider
their demands seriously.
10. The last dispatch claimed that 8 people had died in Azadi Square
in Tehran on Monday. New reports from hospitals through sources show
that 12 people had been killed and 29 injured. Today, a student also
died in Kermanshah of her wounds that she’d received after being
beaten a few days ago. Adding the numbers, now the Brief can confirm
that 37 people have at least been killed in the protests so far.
11. The number of people that have been arrested since the start of
the protests can be anywhere between 2,000 to 5,000; no reliable
estimate exists. But most sources indicate a number somewhere around
that. Sources also claim that Baseejis are abducting reformist
sympathizers from their hospital beds as well as taking away injured
protesters from the ER. No source has been able to pinpoint the
location of the abductees. This comes as the governor of Isfahan
threatened protesters with death, according to sources there.
12. Mohammad Asgari – the Ministry of Interior employee who leaked a
fraudulent election result sheet, showing Mousavi as the winner to the
press – has been killed in a car accident. The government has not
given further information about how and where he has been killed –
sources claim.
13. Letter from professors at Iran University to Mousavi asks him to
pursue the goal of getting people's rights and getting back their
votes till the end. Students of Iran University's faculty of Fine Arts
will be joining the protests officially starting Saturday. Iran Khodro
workers – the largest and national automaker in Iran – also spent half
an hour of each of their working shifts not working. They claimed they
were supporting the protesters. Iranian footballers are being touted
as heroes by protesters for wearing green bands during their World Cup
qualifier game against South Korea by the protesters even though they
lost the game and won’t be qualifying to the World Cup as a result.
14. Sources claim that hundreds of Baseej militiamen are being moved
from the northwest towards Tehran. It is claimed that the military and
now the police are not using harsher tactics to scare away the
protesters. It’s being claimed – yet unverified by all sources – that
many high-ranking members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard have been
detained because they were considering to put their lot behind Mousavi
and the protesters. One of the sources was escorted home today by
policemen after he was in danger of being attacked by Baseejis.
15. And Finally, Mousavi has asked the world to participate in
protests on Sunday in support of protests in Iran. He has also asked
them to wear green to show their support openly. The request asks
protesters to gather in capital cities around the world and show their
support.
Finally a few words to those who are reading this:
Iranians who are trying to connect to twitter or other sites and need
a way to connect please visit this website: http://torir.org/
For my announcements, see @iran_translator