Iranian Alert: Sporadic clashes rock the Iranian capital for the 7th consecutive night

The Student Movement Coordination Commitee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) ^ | 6.16.2003 | SMCCDI (Information Service)

[DoctorZIn]

Sporadic clashes are rocking at this time, (20:45 local time), several areas of the Iranian capital.

These clashes are in the Amir-Abad, Fatemi, Keshavarz and N. Shariati and Gohardasht (in the Karaj suburb) areas as groups of young intending to form their nightly gatherings are attacked by the regime's militiamen.

Again and again, Long Knives, Clubs and Chains are used against these braves.

Traffic jams are again starting to form as more residents are trying to access these nightly areas of protest despite the heavy presence and control of the regime forces.

[DoctorZIn]

I agree...

[McGavin999]

It should be early morning over there now. Will we be hearing any more tonight?

[VeniVidiVici]

Bush needs to clean house at State. Those idiots have done more to hurt the cause of freedom than any other organization within the US government.

They must all be dims and libs. Appeasement and the hope that the world will like us if we bend over is their main goal.

My heart goes out to the Iranian people. You have my support in your struggle against tyranny and oppression.

[DoctorZIn]

...It should be early morning over there now. Will we be hearing any more tonight? ....

The protest have been breaking up around 4am (Tehran time.

This means that they begin communicating a few hours later. I typically start getting reports late into the night west coast time, 11pm to 1am. I will report all I can.

[DoctorZIn]

...Badr Brigade? They form SCIRI's military wing....

If you know about them, tell us more.

[McGavin999]

Thanks Doc, can you ping me? If not I'll just keep this thread open.

[DoctorZIn]

...Thanks Doc, can you ping me?...

I am working on a ping list but am so busy I haven't used it much.

[DoctorZIn]

Thanks for the brief on the Badr Brigade.....

It helps pull all the stories together.

[dixiechick2000]

I just saw the interview with Michael Ledeen on the replay of Special Report. He's on the show, usually at twenty minutes after the hour, every now and then. That's the segment they reserve for interviews.

As we get closer to July 9, and as this heats up more and more, I expect he will be on more often.

[dixiechick2000]

I forgot to thank you for all of the information you've posted on this thread. It's nice to have it in one place.

When you get your ping list together, please put me on it. Thanks in advance.

[DoctorZIn]

Thanks,

Tell more people about it....

[DoctorZIn]

Here is an interesting piece from the Jerusalem Post...

Jun. 16, 2003
Editorial: Iran's people power

For the last six nights, thousands of students and their supporters have taken to the streets of Teheran and other Iranian cities demanding that their government enact drastic reforms or step down. The protesters, the BBC reports, are being "harshly suppressed" by vigilantes who recall the thugs Saddam Hussein used to intimidate the Iraqi people even as his regime fell.

There are signs that the revolutionary process has, in the words of veteran Iran-watcher Michael Ledeen, reached "a point of no return." The protesters, usually labeled "students" though some estimate that a large majority are not, know that if a rebellion of this size, in so many cities, does not succeed, it will be followed by an even worse crackdown.

Though the Iranian people is struggling for its own freedom, the entire free world has a great stake in its success. Though al-Qaida may be the epicenter of evil among terrorist groups, Iran is the equivalent among terrorist states, and therefore its regime must be removed for the war against terrorism to have any meaning. No regime, whether by its support for Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, or by its harboring of the remnants of al-Qaida, has made terrorism such a central part of its foreign policy.

And now there is agreement that Iran is considerably closer to building nuclear weapons than previously estimated. The evidence seems even to have affected the European Union foreign ministers, who are now talking of linking tougher inspections of Iran's nuclear program to trade.

As Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja put it, "We want firm assurances that there is no nuclear weapons program," before approving a new trade pact. The EU ministers decided Monday to urge Iran to "urgently and unconditionally" agree to tougher IAEA inspections, but the Iranians have reportedly already refused.

US President George W. Bush has been openly siding with the Iranian protesters, called this unrest "positive," and the mood in Washington is that the mullah's regime must be prevented from going nuclear, period. But the question is, will regime change come fast enough to fulfill Bush's pledge to "not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons?"

In a June 9 cover story for the Weekly Standard, former CIA analyst Reuel Marc Gerecht argued that there is little choice now for the US but to prepare for an Osirak-style strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Threats notwithstanding, the Europeans, Chinese, and Russians are all trying to increase their trade with Iran, and the only way to turn them around, Gerecht argues, is the "certain knowledge that (1) the US will commercially retaliate in a massive way against them if they do not; and (2) Washington will preemptively bomb Iran's nuclear facilities if it doesn't get maximum compliance."

The Iranian situation is in many ways turning out to be a d j vu of the pre-Iraq war diplomatic landscape. Once again, the Europeans are acting as if they are not convinced that Iran's nuclear program is an attempt to produce a bomb, as if Iran needs another source of electric power. Once again, the refusal to confront a threat seriously with non-military means will lead precisely to leaving force as the only alternative.

Gerecht notes that there are no guarantees that a military strike would succeed in crippling the Iranian nuclear program, but it would accentuate the fact that the mullahs had placed Iran on "a lethal collision course with America," thereby hastening the demise of the regime.

The choice, then, is clear. Help the Iranian people now, by declaring support for them and by cutting off trade and contacts with the regime, or leave only an imperfect military option for keeping the mullahs from going nuclear. If the West drags its feet enough, Israel could even be forced to act unilaterally to eliminate an existential threat, as it did by bombing the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.

Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a more totalitarian dictatorship in which the option of overthrowing the regime with massive crowds in the streets did not exist. The use of external force in Iraq was probably unavoidable, even given much greater international cooperation in isolating the regime than America received.

In Iran the situation is different. Already, in some cases the Iranian police have taken the side of the people against the brutal pro-regime vigilantes, who have beaten protesters to death and thrown them out of windows.

The regime seems to be confused and scared and the people emboldened. Now is the time for the US to accelerate its support for the Iranian people, and its diplomatic campaign to impose sanctions on the regime. The more that is done now, the greater the chance that the Iranian people can liberate itself, while taking a giant step toward a world free of state-sponsored terrorism and nuclear blackmail.

[GWB00]

Hello DoctorZin, I have been following the activities of the Iranian Democracy movement as of late and the current events surrounding the situation. I really appreciate your updates.

However, I heard on NPR's All Things Considered this evening that the student movement is not about a desire for Democracy, but rather a protest to privatize the universities

I could not believe what I was hearing, but is there some connection or is NPR in denial about humans wanting freedom?

SPECIAL NOTE TO FELLOW FREEPERS, PLEASE DON'T BEAT ME UP FOR LISTENING TO NPR.IT WAS A RANDOM DIAL ON MY CAR RADIO