The fickle and tunnel-visioned western media apparently has had it’s fill. For days the nation watched mesmerized as Iranian demonstrators, under physical and police assault, smuggled out news via the New Age Internet media even professional journalists couldn’t match.
Yesterday and today… sans any shocking bloody videos to show… US news has turned it’s eye away from Iran and the citizens fight for fair elections and the right of free speech.
Just because the media’s eye isn’t focused, doesn’t mean Iran is quiet and banking on the Ayatollah’s five day election review extension. In fact, since they certified Ahmadinejad as the winner and vowed no retreat only the day before, and are set to swear him into office early August, the five day complaint review of the election is merely for show.
Yet despite the media’s distracted eye elsewhere, Iran was not without it’s clashes in the yesterday, or today.
Hundreds of protesters clashed with waves of riot police and paramilitary militia in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that the authorities would not yield to pressure from opponents demanding a new election following allegations of electoral fraud.
It was impossible to confirm the extent of the new violence in the capital because of draconian new press restrictions on coverage of the post-election mayhem. But the witnesses reached by telephone said the confrontation, in the streets near the national Parliament building, was bloody, with police using live ammunition.
Defying government warnings, hundreds, if not thousands of protesters, had attempted to gather in front of the parliament on Baharestan Square, witnesses said. They were met with riot police and paramilitary militia, who struck at them with truncheons, tear gas and guns. One witness said he saw a 19-year-old woman shot in the neck. Others said the police had shot in the air, not directly at demonstrators.
WaPo also has more in street clashes today, along with more on a defiant Ayatollah.
Iran’s supreme leader told a group of lawmakers Wednesday that “neither the system nor the people will submit to bullying” over the results of the disputed presidential election, and riot police backed by militiamen later forcibly broke up a demonstration at the parliament building in support of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
“Everyone should respect the law. Once lawlessness becomes a norm, things will be complicated and the interests of people will be undermined,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority over political and religious life in Iran. “We will not step an inch beyond the law: our law, our country’s law, the Islamic Republic’s law.”
Hours later, witnesses said, large numbers of security forces, some riding motorcycles, used baton charges, beatings, tear gas and arrests to disperse several thousand demonstrators protesting the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The demonstrators were trying to gather in front of the parliament building to show support for Mousavi, who says that massive fraud in the June 12 election cheated him of victory.
Security forces — including regular police from all over Tehran, helmeted riot police officers and members of a force known as “Robocops” for their full body armor and special equipment — converged on Baharestan Square to prevent a demonstration from taking shape. They were supported by members of the pro-government Basij militia and plainclothes agents who infiltrated the protesters, witnesses said.
“Robocops” riding motorcycles fired large handguns into the air as they charged up and down Republic Street and other nearby avenues, one witness said. A helicopter circled overhead. Some of the police carried paintball guns, which have been used in recent demonstrations to mark protesters for arrest.
“When people started to gather, the [security forces] chased them into alleys and arrested anybody they could,” he said. In one alley, police caught up with three men and started beating them, then attacked bystanders who tried to intervene, he said.
In one confrontation between protesters and Basij members, a middle-aged woman wearing a light-blue headscarf and a black coat angrily refused orders to leave. “I’m going to stay here and see how many people you kill today,” she told the Basij. A plainclothes agent emerged from the crowd, swore at the woman and took out a pair of handcuffs to arrest her. Other people tried to stop the agent, but Basij members rushed them and beat them with clubs, the witness said.
~~~In Twitter feeds, people who said they witnessed the crackdown described protesters with broken limbs and cracked heads, saying there was “blood everywhere” from the beatings. One said many people had been arrested. Another said people were being beaten “like animals.”
As the numbers in the streets, up for facing another day or mortality with the regimes policy bullies, declined, the oppressive crackdown, randoms searches and raids, arrests increased. NY’s International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has names of at least 240 detainees, but say that number may be as high as 2000 via some human rights activists in Iran. The Iraninian state media reports 645 arrests.
Among them are people arrested in a Monday night raid of a campaign office for Mr. Moussavi in Tehran, Press TV, state television’s English-language satellite broadcaster, reported Wednesday. The government said the office was being used as “a headquarters for psychological war against the country’s security,” and claimed that evidence had been found of “the role of foreign elements in planning post-election unrest.”
Also detained are 102 political figures, 23 journalists, 79 university students and 7 university faculty, the human rights organization said. By official reckonings, at least 17 demonstrators have been killed.
Wapo’s article yesterday outlines how the Ayatollah plans to make an example of the demonstrators, including setting up a separate court just “make an example” of the protestors, while making more arrests and launching a campaign to publicly vilify those calling for a new election.
On a day of relative calm after security forces broke up protests Monday, the government vowed to make an example of detained “rioters” and teach them a lesson. Hundreds of Iranians have been arrested in the past 10 days since the Interior Ministry declared that Ahmadinejad outpolled his nearest rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, by nearly 2 to 1. Mousavi has vowed to continue protesting despite a government ban on demonstrations and a public warning from Khamenei.
~~~A senior official of Iran’s judiciary, which is controlled by the ruling Shiite Muslim clerics, said Tuesday that a special court would try detained protesters, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
“Those arrested in recent events will be dealt with in a way that will teach them a lesson,” the official, Ibrahim Raisi, was quoted as saying. “The rioters should be dealt with in an exemplary way, and the judiciary will do that.” Raisi did not elaborate.
Iran Updates at the Tehran Bureau does continue to publish comments of the opposition, documenting ways to continue their dissent via strikes, and noting the government’s assault on communication, and arrests of those carrying laptops, cell phones and cameras.
From Tehran, 24 June 2009
Just to let you all know, R. was arrested last night in Tehran; I’m not sure where and why. I got a call from his phone by the police who wanted me to confirm details. I had to tell them how long we’d lived in [here], how we met, what he and I do for work, where I work, my nationality, about his family and also where I live. He was carrying his laptop, external HD and camera so I’m guessing he’s having that looked though. They told me he’d be released any minute now last night. I doubt that.
Tehran resident, 23 June 2009
[Translated] I access Facebook through Yahoo! Mexico. But everyone says that’s a trap set by authorities to identify us!!!!!
[X] quarrels with me all the time. He keeps imploring me not to go on the internet. They even say the phones are monitored!!!
I’m so frightened I changed my [online] name today.
I don’t know why. Other than vote for Mousavi I’ve never engaged in a political activity in my entire life. But this is no comfort because [X]’s poor colleague was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet while driving through Vanak Square. After two operations, he’s blind in one eye!!!!!!!!
They picked up someone else too. Two days after his disappearance they released him near Shahreh Rey with his eyes blindfolded and his mouth gagged.
Neither guy attended demonstrations! Plus, they say those who come to these protests are MKO members [terrorists]!!!!! Not to mention 100 other insults!
What had this poor woman Neda done that they wouldn’t allow any mosque to hold ceremonies for her — come on, wasn’t she Muslim?
Anyway, things here are REALLY bad here. We’re all scared to death.
Something has to change. We can’t go living like this.
The most recent comment update on the site addresses their confusion of Obama’s press conference. This relates specifically to Huffpo’s proxy question by Nico Pitney that I posted on yesterday. That question was:
Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn’t that a betrayal of what the demonstrators there are working towards.
I caught Pitney on Charlie Rose last night. While he, like other liberals, believe Obama is handling this “just right”, he also stated that Obama “dodged” the question.
The commenter’s post, as translated from Farsi, reiterated the same confusion at his tepid support for the demonstrators, and their adamance that any recognition of Ahmadinejad was indeed, a betrayal.
From Tehran, 24 June 2009 [10 am Eastern US]
[Translated from Farsi] What kind of speech was that from Obama? Why did he talk like that?
“What should he do?” I ask.
The only thing Obama can do is refuse to recognize this man as the president of Iran. The big issue for the hard-liners here, the thing they keep telling everyone here is that they are the ones who can solve our issues with the United States. They want to be in complete power — at any cost — when negotiations take place. So Ahmadinejad likes to maintain that he is the man who can get the job done [he can deliver Washington].
Right from the beginning of this, Ahmadinejad said that he was going to the UN to speak. He said in his speech that he was going to go to the United Nations to defend the rights of the Iranian people — you know along the lines of all the inane things he says. The United States cannot aid him in this respect by recognizing this man, by putting a seal of approval on this charade by giving him a visa to come to New York.
There’s supposed to be another gathering today in Baharestaan in from of the Majlis (parliament building). I didn’t go because they murder people at these gatherings.
Obama is an intelligent politician. He keeps harping on the fact that this is a domestic issue. OK, that’s fine. I understand. I accept this from him as long as he then doesn’t turn around and recognize Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran. He’s calling himself president after an election drenched in blood. He wants to say he’s president by staging a coup d’etat. It’s like the United States recognizing the Pinochet government.
They [Iranian officials] played with people here. That’s why we’re so upset. It’s true: leading up to the election they opened things up. A positive environment was created. People were in the streets joyously chanting until 5 in the morning. All that is good and true. I even personally know people who had never voted in their lives who decided to participate for the first time. They of course voted for Mir Hossein Mousavi. Why, because there seemed to be some openness in the air for the first time in Iran. It’s true, whatever the figure is in terms of turnout — 39 million or 42 million people did turn out to vote. But what happened next? This is what got people angry. It’s not because Mousavi lost, but because they believe they were tricked. Sure they’re upset about the fact that Mousavi didn’t win, but that’s not the issue. That’s not why they’re protesting. They’re protesting because the government thought it could make fools of them. All this was a play, it was a movie. It wasn’t real. It was a charade. People are hopeless and depressed because they were played with, not because Mousavi lost.
I also read in one of the various and voluminous updates today that the Ayatollah had decided to bolt town for a personal retreat, but not before issuing orders that the crackdown be intensified, and focus on Americans, Britains. But since I can’t find that paragraph to cite the exact language… take it with some caveats.
Melanie Phillips has an interesting column in The Spectator today with various links as to what is going on behind the scenes in the regime.
The Iran expert Michael Ledeen says he has no idea what’s going to happen. But there are signs that the regime is preparing for an all-out assault; and that they are panicking and the ayatollahs are at odds amongst themselves; and that, most interestingly of all, this:
…that there are cracks in the regime’s edifice, ranging from declarations of small groups of Revolutionary Guards calling on their brothers to defect to “the people,” to a phenomenon that is just beginning to be discussed here and there, mostly on the Net but originally in an Arab newspaper. Steve Schippert posted on it and did a first-class analysis. Steve starts with a report from al Arabiya that says senior ayatollahs have been meeting secretly in Qom to discuss significant changes in the structure of the Iranian state. In addition to the Iranian clerics, there was a foreigner: Jawad al-Shahristani, the supreme representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the foremost Shiite leader in Iraq.
If this is true, it is, as Steve says, huge. Because it means that senior religious leaders in Iran are talking to the representative of an Iraqi Imam who believes, as most Shi’ites did before Khomeini’s heresy, that the proper role of religious leaders is to guide their people from the mosque, not from the political capital. In other words, they are talking about the most serious form of regime change.
What may be interesting to see is if this rift between the religious leaders develops into substantive reform, or if they too can be beaten down by the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad’s military might.
Phillips’ also follow my line of thinking that Obama’s so called leadership is “disgraceful”, and that the demonstrators are well aware he is leaving them on their own.
As Ledeen also says, however, the protesters know they are on their own facing the thugs of the basiji. Despite Obama’s belated condemnation today of the brutality being meted out, his remarks were far too little, far too late and still far too inadequate. As Mladen Andrijasevic notes, his strategy of engaging the regime remains, regardless of how many protesters have been killed, tortured or jailed — and will remain, it would appear, even if worse happens in the days to come. And as Joseph Ashby devastatingly notes :
Obama believes, on some significant level, the propaganda promoted by America’s enemies that the United States is the main instigator and perpetrator of international unrest. So shockingly, amazingly, unbelievably, Obama is saying that Iran may very well use America as a propaganda tool, but at least this time they won’t be right.
What a disgrace that this man is leader of the free world; and at such a point in history. If he had put America stoutly behind the protesters and championed them against the regime, by now they might have toppled it. There are signs today that even the fawning American media is appalled.
That additional “fawning media” to which Phillips refers is Joshua Muravchik at Commentary magazine, who states that Obama has totally abandoned the long-time American tradition of supporting democracy and human rights… the same thing I’ve been saying since I’ve managed to find time to reappear in the blog world since the Iranian revolt.
The most surprising thing about the first half-year of Barack Obama’s presidency, at least in the realm of foreign policy, has been its indifference to the issues of human rights and democracy. No administration has ever made these its primary, much less its exclusive, goals overseas. But ever since Jimmy Carter spoke about human rights in his 1977 inaugural address and created a new infrastructure to give bureaucratic meaning to his words, the advancement of human rights has been one of the consistent objectives of America’s diplomats and an occasional one of its soldiers.
This tradition has been ruptured by the Obama administration. The new president signaled his intent on the eve of his inauguration, when he told editors of the Washington Post that democracy was less important than “freedom from want and freedom from fear. If people aren’t secure, if people are starving, then elections may or may not address those issues, but they are not a perfect overlay.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed suit, in opening testimony at her Senate confirmation hearings. As summed up by the Post’s Fred Hiatt, Clinton “invoked just about every conceivable goal but democracy promotion. Building alliances, fighting terror, stopping disease, promoting women’s rights, nurturing prosperity—but hardly a peep about elections, human rights, freedom, liberty or self-rule.”
A few days after being sworn in, President Obama pointedly gave his first foreign press interview to the Saudi-owned Arabic-language satellite network, Al-Arabiya. The interview was devoted entirely to U.S. relations with the Middle East and the broader Muslim world, and through it all Obama never mentioned democracy or human rights.
A month later, announcing his plan and timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, the president said he sought the “achievable goal” of “an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant,” and he spoke of “a more peaceful and prosperous Iraq.” On democracy, one of the prime goals of America’s invasion of Iraq, and one toward which impressive progress had been demonstrated, he was again silent.
While drawing down in Iraq, Obama ordered more troops sent to Afghanistan, where America was fighting a war he had long characterized as more necessary and justifiable than the one in Iraq. But at the same time, he spoke of the need to “refocus on Al Qaeda” in Afghanistan, at least implying that this meant washing our hands of the project of democratization there. The Washington Post reported that “suggestions by senior administration officials . . . that the United States should set aside the goal of democracy in Afghanistan” had prompted that country’s foreign minister to make “an impassioned appeal for continued U.S. support for an elected government.”
Obama’s adamance to be the antithesis to Bush… a stalwart supporter of the quest for freedom… does not require his obvious disdain for democracy and insistance that human rights abuses are, in his notion, “meddling” or “interfering”. Muravchik has a fascinating set of speeches, quotes and circumstances that document Obama’s step away from standing up for American values, while he simultaneously delivers lip service that belie his actions.
Obama seems to believe that democracy is overrated, or at least overvalued. When asked about the subject in his pre-inaugural interview with the Washington Post, Obama said that he is more concerned with “actually delivering a better life for people on the ground and less obsessed with form, more concerned with substance.” He elaborated on this thought during his April visit to Strasbourg, France:
We spend so much time talking about democracy—and obviously we should be promoting democracy everywhere we can. But democracy, a well-functioning society that promotes liberty and equality and fraternity, does not just depend on going to the ballot box. It also means that you’re not going to be shaken down by police because the police aren’t getting properly paid. It also means that if you want to start a business, you don’t have to pay a bribe. I mean, there are a whole host of other factors that people need . . . to recognize in building a civil society that allows a country to be successful.
Whether or not the President was aware of it, he was echoing a theme first propounded long ago by Soviet propagandists and later sung in many variations by all manner of Third World dictators, Left to Right. It has long since been discredited by a welter of research showing that democracies perform better in fostering economic and social well being, keeping the peace, and averting catastrophes. Never mind that it is untoward for a President of the United States to speak of democracy as a mere “form,” less important than substance.
Needless to say, the Commentary piece is a “must read”.
So the battle for Iranian government reform continues by those brave enough to risk all by hitting the streets. And, in the glaring void of notable support by either the UN, or the US, they wonder… who in the free world will do commit more than lip service to help them? And will they doom them with the ultimate slap by accepting Ahmadinejad as the legitimate President, despite the blood on the regime’s hands?
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
Pretty hard to cover the news when none of your reporters are allowed anywhere near the news.
There is plenty of commentary to be found. In the absence of news, that’s all which is available. Commentary. Reading of tea leaves.
What’s important is that — to the extent that there is any sort of political movement going on — it’s being done by the Iranians, themselves.
You say:
Having the USA publicly cheerleading the “revolutionaries” won’t help them. It just gives the Supreme Ruler a pretext for killing them and locking them up. They are only agitators, doing the bidding of the great Satan.
Point me to a true Iran expert — someone in the former Bush diplomatic corps, perhaps — who thinks that Obama has mishandled this whole affair. In point of fact, Obama has greatly facilitated the ability of former Iranian, anti-American hard liners to have key roles in this ongoing “green revolution,” which never would have happened, had George W Bush been elected to a third term in office.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
Also, Larry:
If you’ll note, you’re last praise be to Obama comment was on Curt’s post just before this, that had video news and Twitter reports. I’ve also provided links to the news getting out via the Iran Updates Tehran Bureau.
Also news from WaPo and NYTs, which I linked. None of this is making the talking heads circuit because they’re busy with other stuff.
This is news other than commentary. It is simply not making the cable news anymore. No blood (or not enuf blood), no lead.
Suffering from a reading problem today, Larry?
First: Commentary article noting how Obama has abandoned America’s support for democracy and human rights by Joshua Muravchick, broadly excerpted above in the post, is one of the founders of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran.
Second: Michael Ledeen, who said on the NRO blog:
You can read about Ledeen here.
Then there’s the eldest son of the exiled Shah, Reza Pahlavi, at the National Press Corp:
Last but not least, there are the demonstrators themselves… one of who’s comments above says that Obama’s acceptance of Ahmadinejad is, as Nico Pitney’s proxy question to Obama at the press conference, a betrayal. A question that even Pitney at Huffpo (a staunch liberal, BTW) says Obama dodged.
Also reinterated below by the CNN reporter on the street
Tho I’m sure, since none of these share your devotion for your idol who you believe can do no wrong – Obama – you will label them not “true” experts. Yet any one of the above, and most certainly those on the streets of Iran, have more expertise in Iran than Obama possess in his pinkie.
And I have no idea why you specifically want someone from Bush’s “diplomatic corps”. Looking for partisan snipe material?
I wrote out a very long response, complete with extensive quotes/links, only to get a “cannot establish database connection” message at the moment I clicked “send.” So I lost it all and I don’t have the mental energy (or time, at this point) to do it all over again.
I know that you know, however, that there are two sides to this particular story, and that it is not only those “devoted” to the “idol” who agree with the way that he has handled the Iranian challenge, from the time of his inauguration right up to the present.
So we have one of these honest differences of opinion.
– Larry W/HB
“When the people fear the Government there is Tyranny; When the Government fears the people there is liberty”. Thomas Jefferson.
As more info comes out as to who Mousavi (the fovorite of the rioters) comes out, it would behouve everyone to consider just what their priorities are, and get them straight if they aren’t yet.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2009/06/soylent_green_r.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/masquerade_in_iran.html
Regardless, Obama is still an idiot, and whatever he does WILL be wrong.
Yon, this only started with Mousavi vs Ahmadinejad. It’s long since left the “who won” category and moved into the “where is my vote” and right to free speech realm. Both were deplorable, with Mousavi only slightly less bent than Ahmadinejad.
The point is Iranians wanted “change”, voted for “change”, and the current regime cannot explain the irregularities that point to overt election fraud. It was then compounded with their police tactics on dissenters, arrests. From that moment on, for the protestors… and the world… it was no longer just about which candidate won.
From our perspective, it was always about whether it was a free and fair election… not who won or who lost. And then, when the oppressive violence, shutting down communications, and raids/arrests in the night happened, it was about human rights and a citizenry railing against tyranny.
The more you talk about Mousavi, the more you play into the hands of those who say America is “meddling”. To comment that any candidate is superior, or the winner, *is* meddling.
And oh, BTW… Mousavi is losing his charm since… like any other politician.. he’s nothing more than an opportunist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/24/neda-soltan-iran-family-forced-out
“Neda Soltan’s family ‘forced out of home’ by Iranian authorities
Parents of young woman shot dead near protests are banned from mourning and funeral is cancelled, neighbours say. The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.
Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.
“We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat,” a neighbour said. The Guardian was unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.
The government is also accusing protesters of killing Soltan, describing her as a martyr of the Basij militia. Javan, a pro-government newspaper, has gone so far as to blame the recently expelled BBC correspondent, Jon Leyne, of hiring “thugs” to shoot her so he could make a documentary film.
Soltan was shot dead on Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators, turning her into a symbol of the Iranian protest movement. Barack Obama spoke of the “searing image” of Soltan’s dying moments at his press conference yesterday.
Amid scenes of grief in the Soltan household with her father and mother screaming, neighbours not only from their building but from others in the area streamed out to protest at her death. But the police moved in quickly to quell any public displays of grief. They arrived as soon as they found out that a friend of Soltan had come to the family flat.
In accordance with Persian tradition, the family had put up a mourning announcement and attached a black banner to the building.
But the police took them down, refusing to allow the family to show any signs of mourning. The next day they were ordered to move out. Since then, neighbours have received suspicious calls warning them not to discuss her death with anyone and not to make any protest.
A tearful middle-aged woman who was an immediate neighbour said her family had not slept for days because of the oppressive presence of the Basij militia, out in force in the area harassing people since Soltan’s death.
The area in front of Soltan’s house was empty today. There was no sign of black cloths, banners or mourning. Secret police patrolled the street.
“We are trembling,” one neighbour said. “We are still afraid. We haven’t had a peaceful time in the last days, let alone her family. Nobody was allowed to console her family, they were alone, they were under arrest and their daughter was just killed. I can’t imagine how painful it was for them. Her friends came to console her family but the police didn’t let them in and forced them to disperse and arrested some of them. Neda’s family were not even given a quiet moment to grieve.”
Another man said many would have turned up to show their sympathy had it not been for the police.
“In Iran, when someone dies, neighbours visit the family and will not let them stay alone for weeks but Neda’s family was forced to be alone, otherwise the whole of Iran would gather here,” he said. “The government is terrible, they are even accusing pro-Mousavi people of killing Neda and have just written in their websites that Neda is a Basiji (government militia) martyr. That’s ridiculous – if that’s true why don’t they let her family hold any funeral or ceremonies? Since the election, you are not able to trust one word from the government.” A shopkeeper said he had often met Soltan, who used to come to his store.
“She was a kind, innocent girl. She treated me well and I appreciated her behaviour. I was surprised when I found out that she was killed by the riot police. I knew she was a student as she mentioned that she was going to university. She always had a nice peaceful smile and now she has been sacrificed for the government’s vote-rigging in the presidential election.”
**********************************************************************
This is from a correspondent in Tehran. Not named for rather obvious reasons.
It should be abundantly clear at this point that the Militias, Police both Secret and otherwise and
the Revolutionary Guard Goon Squads are “cleaning up” the Dissident population and the body count will never be known. Expat Iranians throughout the world are justifiably outraged as are others of conscience, including me. When a Regime sponsors murder and mayhem of their citizenry presents propaganda on this scale, oppresses dissent in this manner and certified an obviously fraudulent election there are no honest brokers for diplomacy.
Our naive and cowardly Pretender in Chief waited to speak on this business because he did not desire to offend the Regime. He straddled the fence, not even voting present, until he felt forced by public opinion to issue a statement reminiscent of the Neville Chamberlain School of Diplomacy. I absolutely despise the Regime in Iran and our alleged Leader of the Free World.
There should be no doubt whatsoever on where Obama’s sympathies lie now. That cat is out of the bag now. His statement made Me ashamed that he is holding the highest office in the land.
He cannot lecture me on moral values as he seems to be lacking in moral values if he was not outraged by this event. If this any indicator of the direction of his Foreign Policy this Nation is no longer the Leader of the Free World and under his lack of leadership he is unfit for office. Anyone singing praises for Obama is void of principles as well, as far as I am concerned. He does not represent My Values and represents America very poorly if not incompetently at best.
The mere thought that Team Obama wants to conduct diplomacy on any level with Iran after this series of despicable actions is clearly not in the interest of Freedom or Integrity of any sense. His disingenuous statement on the sovereignty of Iran or meddling in their internal affairs
just does not wash as long as we are using Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles in Pakistan. I am not fooled by anything that attempts to defend that notion.
Obama is just unfit for office. Period. Every day he spends in office should be viewed as an insult to the intelligence of the American voting populace. He does not Serve America. I question who he does serve besides himself. These are not rookie mistakes. They are deliberate acts that make him unfit for office.
The lead story on PBS “Lehrer News Hour” yesterday (day of Mata’s post – Wednesday) was the current status of the goings on in Iran — it was in depth, extensive coverage, from the little video snippets posted online to in depth commentary.
So I’d suggest: less CNN and Fox; more PBS
– Larry Weisenthal/HB
http://www.youtube.com/citizentube
And in spite of the diplomacy, Ahmadinejad still blasts Obama as “no better than Bush”.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090625/ts_nm/us_iran_election_208
Where’s the UN???
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/24/wheres-united-nations-iran-opinions-columnists-ban-ki-moon.html?feed=rss_popstories
Of course. ‘dinejad desperately needs the US as the Great Satan. Having the USA as the Great Satan helps keep the Supreme Leader in power. But Obama is making it very difficult to maintain the “Death to America Culture.” This is very much behind the decision of a number of influential Mullahs, veterans of the 1979 revolution, to publicly oppose some of the actions of the Supreme Leader.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
Sassy mouth today, eh Larry? LOL News bulletin… Oregon PBS does not air Lehrer’s first show until 7pm in the evening. I posted at 3:23pm, three and a half hours in advance.
And you will also note that I was not giving a pass to any of the major cable networks. I was unbiased in my disdain for their distraction.
But so you know, I happen to catch a little bit of everyone. I watch Lehrer’s prozac delivery of news almost daily, as well as Charlie Rose… who has some stellar guests and occasionally does a good job. I catch some of the ABC/NBC/CBS stuff, and have monitored all the big three cable networks plus BBC. Add my internet bookmarks of int’l papers I visit regularly, and I’d say I get a well rounded perspective of all sides.
Frankly, I’d rather stay parked on Fox Business News or int’l news, but those are in the wee hours. Catch them when I’ve got insomnia.