Free Republic

Amateur footage shot in Tehran shows protesters cornering members of the Basij militia and taunting them. They can also be heard telling the militia to chant and denounce the Supreme Leader before they let them go. (snort) >B-)

The man accused of killing Neda Soltan has been identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, a pro-government militiaman, after photographs of the Basiji’s ID cards appeared on the internet. The identification challenges the Iranian regime’s claim that foreign agents shot the young woman, who became a global symbol of resistance to the Government of President Ahmadinejad. One picture appears on Mr Javid’s Basij identification card, which was taken off him by the crowd that stopped him briefly when he fled the murder scene during a massive demonstration against electoral fraud on June 20. Photographs of that card and another that was...

In a shocking and unprecedented interview, directly exposing the inhumanity of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's religious regime in Iran, a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks. He has also detailed aspects of his earlier service in the force, including his enforced participation in the rape of young Iranian girls prior to their execution. {snip} In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the...

Iranians prepared for another violent day of confrontations between demonstrators and security forces on Friday, after riot police used tear-gas against hundreds of demonstrators who defied government warnings and swarmed the streets to commemorate the anniversary of a student massacre in 1999.

The son of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has taken control of the militia being used to crush the protest movement, according to a senior Iranian source. The source, a politician with strong connections to the security apparatus, said that the leading role being played by Mojtaba Khamenei had dismayed many of the country's senior clerics, conservative politicians and Revolutionary Guard generals. But these conservatives are reluctant to challenge the Khameneis openly out of fear that any conflict would destabilise the Islamic Republic and weaken Iran in the region. Instead they will use their positions in the organs of...

"The demonstration was supposed to be peaceful," a contact in Teheran told this reporter. "But the Basiji [militiamen] beat people down like animals." He said the son of one of his employees, who participated in the rally, compared the scene to the frontlines of a war: "It was like they were beating up dolls. The security forces were out for blood. Hundreds of them charged out of nowhere. The next thing we saw was fire, blood, and clouds of tear gas," he reported. With Mousavi out of view, and all prominent reformist figures under arrest or also in hiding, the...

Just caught the nd of a phone interview on CNN.. A woman from Tehran was describing going to a protest today in front of Parlement, and the protesters were ambushed by Basiji streaming out of a masque, who bwgan massacring the protesters, beating them to death, shooting them..Still on now..the woman is crying as she begs us for help!

Government authorities stepped up their crackdown on protesters Monday, as officials for the first time acknowledged evidence of voting irregularities in this month's presidential election, the issue that has sparked the largest street demonstrations since the Islamic Republic was established three decades ago. An initial probe into the June 12 presidential election has shown that the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of registered voters in 50 locales, a discrepancy affecting 3 million votes or more, according to the spokesman for the Guardian Council, a body of jurists and clerics in charge of safeguarding the country's constitution The council...

Members of Iran's basij militia perform during a military parade commemorating the anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, in Tehran September 21, 2008. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN)

During the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah Khomeini imported 500,000 small plastic keys from Taiwan. The trinkets were meant to be inspirational. After Iraq invaded in September, 1980, it had quickly become clear that Iran’s forces were no match for Saddam Hussein’s professional, well armed military. To compensate for their disadvantage, Khomeini sent Iranian children, some as young as 12 years old, to the front lines. There, they marched in formation across minefields toward the enemy, clearing a path with their bodies. Before every mission, one of the Taiwanese keys would be hung around each child’s neck. It was supposed to...

Friday, Sept. 30th concluded the 3-day military manoeuvres conducted by the Basij and Revolutionary Guards in the town of Marivaan (Province of Kurdistan). These maneuvers took place around Zaribaar Lake where bunkers from the 8-year-old Iran/Iraq war still stand. For days leading up to the beginning of the maneuvers, squadron leaders and regime's authorities in Marivaan had bragged about the 20,000 strong Basiji presence in the "war games", however in spite of all the pressure to compel civil servants, high school students and the general public to participate, only 1400 people showed up. This was an indication of yet another...