Fars, which is linked to the Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force, called protesters "hypocrites, monarchists, ruffians and seditionists," and ridiculed them for not chanting any slogans about Egypt as they had originally promised. Foreign media are banned from covering street protests in Iran.
The feed was launched just one day before opposition leaders and activists in Iran have called for a protest in support of the Egyptian revolution, according to Saham News."Iran has shown that the activities it praised Egyptians for it sees as illegal, illegitimate for its own people," the State Department said in its second tweet
“We’re getting lots of reports of heavy clashes with police and people getting beaten,” a spokesperson for a popular 25 Bahman Facebook page tells Danger Room. The spokesperson asked to remain anonymous in order to protect herself from reprisals by the Iranian government. She says her colleagues affiliated with the support page have been communicating with contacts in Iran.Within days of the announcement for the solidarity rally, almost 50,000 users came onto the Facebook page and the hits and the views were upwards of 12 million, she claims. “When we ran the numbers, up to 90 percent of them were coming from Iran
The military let it happen in Egypt. Iran is a different story. The Iranian Mullahs and the military have no compunction about beating the crap out of or killing anyone who would dare challenge their authority. It will happen some day, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon.
Thousands of defiant protesters in Iran's capital have clashed with security officials as they marched in a banned rally. One person was reported killed, with dozens injured and many more arrested.
Supporters of the Green movement appeared in scattered groups in various locations in central Tehran and other big cities in what was seen as the Iranian opposition's first attempt in more than a year to hold street protests against the government.
The riot police and government-sponsored plainclothes basiji militia used teargas, wielded batons and opened fire to disperse protesters who chanted "death to the dictator", a reference to both Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Witnesses told the Guardian that despite a heavy security presence, small groups of people succeeded in gathering in main squares leading to Azadi ("freedom") Square – a chosen focal point.<Snip>
But notice how Obama handles things.
1) Ignores the Iranian protests last year.
2) What will he do this time after helping to push Mubarak, a loyal ally out?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Perhaps he will simply reprise his remarks that he made the last time the Iranian people rose up after the last round of Iranian elections:
The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside of Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do, it's what we're already seeing. We shouldn't be playing into that, there should be no distractions from the fact that the Iranian people are seeking to have their voices heard. What we can do is bear witness and say to the world that the incredible demonstrations that we've seen is a testimony to what Dr. King called the Arc of the Moral Universe. It's long, but it bends towards justice.
He'll recognize the sovereignty of Iran, tell the world that ultimately the Iranian people should decide, deplore the violence, and sit on his hands and wait and see what happens.
My take on it is that he should be just as outspoken regarding Iran as he was regarding Egypt. He should be prepared to tell the government of Iran that we are willing to help the Iranian citizens realize their right to alter or abolish their government in the same manner that the French once helped us do the same. That we owe it to our founding principles to pay forward the aid we once received from others to those who seek what we were seeking, the right to abolish a government that had reduced its people to living under its tyranny and despotism.
It is the right of the Iranian people to do that, and it is our obligation because of the help that we received in securing that right to be a nation that helps others secure it for themselves. If they choose an autocratic theocracy, that too is their right. It doesn't matter whether or not they choose what we chose, what matters is that we are prepared to stand with them to secure their right to choose for themselves rather than have it chosen for them by a tyrannical and despotic government.