Posted on 06/22/2009 8:35:38 PM PDT by kristinn
The government of Iran is turning up the heat on the British government, with a 'protest' led by Basij militia being planned for Tuesday afternoon at the British embassy in Tehran.
A 'student leader' has been quoted by name threatening a repeat of the 1979 takeover and hostage-taking at the American embassy that lasted 444 days.
The British government has started to evacuate family members of its diplomatic staff and the Iranian foreign minister has hinted at expelling the British ambassador.
From WashingtonTV (translated from Persian):
the news network of the Islamic Republic’s Voice and Vision Organization [state-owned radio and television] reports that some student groups, including university students’ basij [voluntary militia], the Union of Independent Islamic Students Societies, the Islamic Students Society and members of the Office for Consolidation of Unity [Shiraz chapter], will gather in front of the British Embassy in Iran at 1400 hours [local time, 11:30 GMT] tomorrow.
It looks like Code Pink, which is allied with Ahmadinejad, will be unable to join in the protest, as they are busy protesting Israel in their bikinis.
The UK Times reported on the direct threat to take over the embassy and described the embassy's situation:
Today’s government-orchestrated demonstration outside the embassy will target the “perverted Government of Britain for its intervention in Iran’s internal affairs, its role in the unrest in Tehran and its support of the riots”.
Esmail Tahmouressi, a student leader, warned that the demonstration could be another “November 4” — a reference to the storming of the US embassy in the heady days after the revolution. He said the embassy should be closed because “there cannot be a compromise with the old fox, Britain”. The diplomats are expected to turn up to work but the Foreign Office refused to comment, beyond saying it was monitoring the situation closely.
The embassy, the ambassador’s residence and its extensive grounds are ringed by 10ft-high walls. It employs about 100 Iranian citizens and has Iranian guards. It is the target of regular protests. Demonstrators have managed to get inside before — most recently in late December when they took to the streets over the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The diplomats mostly live in another compound in northern Tehran, and their families are expected to fly out soon. Speculation that they could soon be joined by Simon Gass, the ambassador, was fuelled by Hassan Ghashghavi, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, when he said: “I cannot confirm this. Neither can I deny this.”
The UK Telegraph described the Basij this way:
Armed with sticks, motorbike chains, knives and axes, the more extreme members have long been used as shock troops by the regime to cow demonstrators with brutal displays of violence.
Mounted on motorbikes, the militia's standard strategy is to charge the crowd, one man driving and another riding pillion using a truncheon to lash out at stragglers.
It will be mid-afternoon in Tehran by the time folks get started on their day here in the States. We should know by our lunch time whether the Iranian government has unleashed the Basij on the British.
Now this should be fun. It looks like B.O.’s “present” vote isn’t working out.
My guess is the Brits do better than we did 30 years ago.
Wait unil he has to explain why he didn’t do sh*t when the NKs shoot a missile at Hawaii.
Cheerio!
Don't give them a chance to take hostages.
This goes for neophyte, addle-pated female reporterettes, in particular.
Leni
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
“Wait unil he has to explain why he didn’t do sh*t when the NKs shoot a missile at Hawaii.”
Wait until Obama abandons our longest ally, Great Britain. In less than 6 months, Obama has strained our relationships with our best allies,wrecked our economy,and ruined our standing in the world.
How’s that for hope and change?
*sigh*
“...present vote” isn’t working out”
I’m pretty sure he’ll be voting “present” from the WH bathroom soon so he doesn’t poop his shorts ‘cause he sure isn’t going to take any action to protect any US citizens—anywhere.
Bears repeating. Loudly enough so that the chants of the Iranians get through to our politicians.
/johnny
“My guess is the Brits do better than we did 30 years ago.”
***************
No way they’ll do anything that might offend their beloved (and idiotic) Muzzie minority.
They won’t do anything. They should have kidnapped the Iranian Ambassador instead of expelling.
Here’s an even better one.
“When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.
When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.
When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.
When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness. “
Westerners shouldn’t have been in Iran to begin with.
I can tuck my belt a few notches, and eat tree rats and wild pig, but Washington? They can't tax that.
Bet I know who lasts longer.
/johnny
I hope the Canadians are ready again.
Sadly...I must agree. If there is a regime change..it will be minimal. To give a semblance of freedom.
You are on the right track!
If we could only get millions to stand together as one force, willing to set aside their tools and strike together to starve the beast...well, then we would really have a bargaining chip.
Imagine millions of small businesses shutting down in protest...the massive and sudden unemployment alone would be a terrifying thing...much of ordinary daily life would grind to an immediate standstill.
The beast would suddenly have run out of other peoples money and labor....as if in the old (democrat) south all the slaves sat down at once and refused to move.
Let them try to sustain civil society for a few months depending solely upon the welfare slaves they have created and maintained as a reliable voting block for their party with monies stolen from working families .
It looks like B.O.’s “present” vote isn’t working out.
He’s past present. He’s now into the “let them eat ice cream stage”!
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