Posted on 06/17/2009 6:59:27 AM PDT by VictoryGal
The long-standing Middle East correspondent for The Independent, Robert Fisk, is defying the government crackdown on foreign media reporting in Iran.
As he explains, he has been travelling around the streets of Tehran all day and most of the night and things are far from quiet:
I've just been witnessing a confrontation, in dusk and into the night, between about 15,000 supporters of Ahmadinejad - supposedly the president of Iran - who are desperate to down the supporters of Mr Mousavi, who thinks he should be the president of Iran.
There were about 10,000 Mousavi men and women on the streets, with approximately 500 Iranian special forces, trying to keep them apart.
It was interesting that the special forces - who normally take the side of Ahmadinejad's Basij militia - were there with clubs and sticks in their camouflage trousers and their purity white shirts and on this occasion the Iranian military kept them away from Mousavi's men and women.
In fact at one point, Mousavi's supporters were shouting 'thank you, thank you' to the soldiers.
One woman went up to the special forces men, who normally are very brutal with Mr Mousavi's supporters, and said 'can you protect us from the Basij?' He said 'with God's help'.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
I'm not sure if Fisk is a lib, but here he looks to be writing a full and fair story, not to mention he gets some cred from me by defying the regime's ban on foreign reporters.
Any comment from our president?
Must be a horrible situation for him to be reporting as much as he is. Ordinarily he never met an anti-American government he didn't like.
*crickets* ... or “concern”. Otherwise, only what fits in a toy balloon.
Oil prices don’t seem to reflect any concern over the situation in Iran.
Fisk is about as far left a reporter that exists. Thee is even a term for him, “fisking”, for when you repute the lies he spews.
The only difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi is that Mousavi would let the youth wear Western style clothes and listen to Rock music.
Other than that,
* They are both flaming Mohamhead supremacists
* They both support the eradication of Israel
* They both support Iranian nuclear weapons development
It's clearly an Islamic protest against specifically the personality, the manner, the language of Ahmadinejad. They absolutely despise him but they do not hate or dislike the Islamic republic that they live in.
Probably sadly true but a very important takeaway - at least according to Fisk.
Don’t know Fisk, but here’s why I think he is a lib: Hugh Hewitt had Iranian-Americans call in yesterday. Caller after caller said, “It is worse in Iran than you can imagine. They do NOT like Abiminijad, his regime is brutal and repressive. They want the West to know it is worse than you can even imagine.”
But Fisk wraps up his story — “It’s not that they hate the Islamic Republic. They just hate Abiminijad.”
I do not believe this.
He’s waiting for TOTUS to tell him what to say.
Fisk is a wacko lib. An extreme wacko lib. He routinely calls Israeli troops “undisciplined”.
Anything her says, believe the opposite until you get reliable information.
The very fact the Iranian government is letting him out on the street while cracking down on other Western reporters is suspicious.
But even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then.
Actually, the more-or-less liberal newspapers in the UK such as The Independent and The Guardian are providing good updates from inside Iran, and I don’t even bother with the US media.
two words: Peter Arnett
Fisk is a gigantic liberal a** and I would not believe a word he says. He is the walking definition of irrational liberal guilt. When he was covering our invasion of Afghanistan, he was beaten to a pulp by a bunch Afghan refugees. In reporting his beating, he sided with his attackers and said they were not responsible, claiming their brutality was our fault.
“I’m not sure if Fisk is a lib, but here he looks to be writing a full and fair story, not to mention he gets some cred from me by defying the regime’s ban on foreign reporters.”
I would take anything Fisk says with a HUGE grain of salt.
I think what is strange is everyone pretending it makes any difference who gets elected in Iran. The gamut of candidates runs from Extremely extremely hateful islamists to extremely hateful islamists. Ultimately, the person elected jumps to the tune of the Mullah’s council. This is just a bunch of kids burning off a lot of steam in a what amounts to a meaningless cause.
The only thing that will make an actual difference there is if buildings start burning and mullahs start getting hung from lamp posts in mass numbers. Then, when the Mullahs the people don’t get start fleeing to the tribal areas of Pakistan, and to their little hidey holes in Switzerland, we’ll know Iran is changing.
Wake me up in ten years.
Our president just wants things to quiet down so that he can proceed with his plans for a "grand bargain" with the Iranian regime. These demonstrations are throwing a monkey wrench into his "foreign policy." If this keeps up, Iranian funding to bolster up Hamas and put pressure on Israel may even be disrupted! F**kin' students - damn trouble makers - Curses!
What... 0 can ‘community organize’ as a youth but the Iranians can’t?
They should call him on it.
Austinite Iranians fixin to protest downtown against a’jad.
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