Posted on 06/14/2003 7:51:20 AM PDT by Eurotwit
The Uprising is Spreading to the General population
Independant News Agency Zagros (INAZ) - Saterday June 13th, 2003,
The third night and the fourth day of the urpising of the people is still in progress. From the start of last night thursday, thousands who headed towards the university helped open the locked gates for the students and the people to join each other. Clashes between the people and the regime's forces, in particular the Ansar e Hezbollah (Islamist Vigilante's) has started. These clashes lasted 9 hours, and the plainclothes Hezbollah vigilantes attacked the people with chains and poniard daggers. There is talk of hundreds of injured and there are no official numbers. Many girls and women last night removed their veils, and they were attacked quite viciously by the Ansar e Hezbollah.
Last night, like three nights ago, there was active resistance to the regime's forces and during clashes many times the students forced the Ansar e Hezbollah and the anti-riot police to flee. Around the university makeshift barricades and throwing stones and gasoline bombs broke the regime's advances.
Throughout the town there was heavy traffic indicating a very large presence of the people out on all the streets. Tens of thousands in their cars honked their horns and chanted political slogans against the regime and its leaders. Around the university, these cars had fully taken over all the streets.
In the university, groups are being organised for resistance and assaults against the regime's forces, and there are fires lit on the streets. By chanting slogans such as "Death to Khamenei", "Death to Khatami", and "Death to Dictatorship" the students are showing their resolve. Farshad, with his face covered and his hands full of stones said, "It is time for the nation to take their revenge, what we will do to them will make them buy mouse holes."
Zhilah who was organising girls groups in the dorms said, "These are the university dorms, the first liberated zones in the country to be declared free of the Mullahs. The people have to rise up for other parts of the country to get liberated".
Foreign media have been forced to give coverage to these protests, helping to influence and inform world opinion about the developments in Iran.
A political analyst considers this as a preview of a much larger uprising that will spread to the general population, and consist of a large scale solidarity that cannot be repressed. He added, "the current situation is so volatile that the more the regime represses the more radical the movement will get, in other words represssion will only increase protests not decrease it. This will make it impossible for the student uprising to be stopped after this".
He concluded, "with this logic the complete collapse of the Islamic Republic is inevitable, because avoiding clashes will only increase the protests, and repressive measures will only radicalise it".
LOL. You did.
This is so unlike any of the Iranians I've known; they have all been friendly, courteous, thoughtful people. My wife, who lived in Iran for a time (and who speaks Farsi), tells me that the Iranians I've met are very representative of the populace in general.
It sounds like, perhaps, you encountered the spoiled rich.
Agreed -- given a polite invitation to lend a helping hand, we should. This keeps it as their revolution.
Well, it was during the time of the Shah. BTW, one of my best friends at work was Irani-born, went to High-School in Germany, college in California. He thinks the US is "about as good as it gets." I still fear the problem for Iran is a lack of tradition of rule of law and respect for the opinions and rights of others. I truly hope I am wrong.
I will confirm this. Over at a friend's house recently (I was working to fix a problem with his computer), I made the mistake of admiring the artwork of an inlaid pen and holder, made in Iran. He asked me if I liked it. I said, "It's beautiful." Suddenly it was mine...
I think we all hope this. But yes, there is definitely reason for concern here. Even after the Shah was gone things were in quite a state of choas until the mullahs got control.
One counter-balancing element could be the ex-pat community here. I know some who will move back once the mullahcracy is gone, and these would be bringing this tradition.
Actually the CIA had some of the Mullahs on the payroll. It was Jimmy Carter, who decided to stop supporting the Shah which allowed his overthrow. Carter was upset that the shah had some political prisoners, so he allowed him to be replaced by a gov't with ten times as many political prisoners.
Kinda poetic how Carter's betrayal of an ally led to his own defeat a few years later.
Was it a space pen used by the astronauts? Your friend isn't Jack Klompas is he? Whatever you do, don't let him drive the Cadillac after you buy it back from him.
Huh? No, my friend is Persian.
I was just joking. Check out the Seinfeld episode "The Pen". Jerry makes an admiring comment on Jack Klompas' pen, the one NASA gave the astronauts so they could write in space, upside down, under water, etc. Klompas insists on Jerry taking the pen, then tells everyone that Jerry made him give it to him. Later Klompas drives Jerry's just purchased Cadillac into a swamp. Guess you had to be there to appreciate it.
When I was in college I became friends with an Iranian student. He was a decent fellow. After the Shah fell, he managed to get back to the US where he started a computer company. I would be interested in finding out his take on the current situation.
My favorite thing to say when I meet a Persian is "thank you for giving the world roses". Never yet met one who didn't know exactly what I was saying and never fail to get a big smile.
The Shah Shapur I, who captured Valerian, used him as a footstool to mount his horse when Valerian was alive. The possibilities are enticing. BTW, Caligula appointed his favorite horse, Incitus ("sexually aroused") to the Senate. See how much wiser was Caligula than the people of New York, he appointed the entire horse.
I strongly disagree. Before Carter, the Shah attempted to bring his country into the 20th Century. The company for which I worked had large contracts to set up electronics industries in Iran (watch, radio and TV factories). Friends of mine spent years there, and still have fond memories of the Iranians.
It was working out beautifully. The Shah figured he had only a few decades of oil and he wanted to make sure that his country would have something beyond oil. A group (minority?) of fundamentalists caused the Shah to be repressive, via his secret police. It ended up with the revolution, and Carter abondoning the Shah.
For some reason, the young people of Iran (who are the majority) seem to remember how it was back then, and that's what they seem to want. And, if we give them a modicum of support, I think that they can get it.
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