Honduras: No Second Chile

Attempts to recreate another "Chilean Sorelian myth" in Honduras and making a martyr out of populist Leftist totalitarian "Mel Zeliar" is shipwrecking on the Internet, blogs and the 24/7 news cycle.

One man's efforts, a gringo with feet on the ground in Tegucigalpa, is proving particularly effective (Hunter Smith and his blog "Honduras Abandoned").

The latest, since yesterday's post:

- An "officer claims that protesters [on Sunday besieging the airport] had wire cutters (I did see protesters with wire cutters) and began cutting the chain link fence and ripping it down. The crowd convened onto the fence, ready to rush onto the tarmac at the airport. Shots were fired from the military, however as of right now it is uncertain whether the casualties were the result of a military issued weapon."

- The national commissioner for Human Rights, Ramón Custodio, said it wasn't the soldiers that shot the young man who died yesterday.

- As the rally came to a close, the police arrested 20 Nicaraguans from the crowd, who were armed with .357 pistols. 

- A total of 96 Nicaraguan citizens have been detained.

- Commissioner Hector Ivan Mejia said they have identified in the demonstrations supporting Manuel Zelaya foreign nationals from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

- The Nicaraguan Army rejected claims by  President Roberto Micheletti that they have not mobilized their troops to the Honduran border.

- Yesterday throughout the cities of Honduras, there were protests for peace and democracy. Organizers were preparing for the demonstration in Tegucigalpa, hanging banners and setting up audio equipment for today's protest. 

- And finally, today Smith poses an almost rhetorical question: 

Did Chavez have an influence on Sunday's violence? Ferdsblog has a new post up on El Heraldo's story "Chavez planned a slaughter in Honduras".
While events were unfolding at the airport, Telesur was broadcasting live from Chavez's office. There are military messages on the white board that seem to indicate Chavez had an influence on Sunday's violence.
I do not have time to provide my own translation of this article because I am heading to a meeting, but Google or Yahoo's translator program can provide a rough translation.

- Filed on Articles in "Socialist Utopia Redux" - 

Eyewitness to History in Honduras

Now's the opportunity to follow history in the making, or - to put it in another way - the narrative as it is being manufactured. 

As the people of Iran fight for liberty and to rid themselves finally of the murderous regime of vile, old potentates, on the other side of the world a fight for freedom of a different nature is taking place, as an ally of the Iranian regime is being ousted in conformity with the Honduran Constitution.

The Left isn't having any of this: the mullah regime is supported by the majority of the people in Iran, and Mel Zelaya is the elected "champion of the poor" immorally deposed through "a military coup" against the wishes of the majority of the Honduran people - capiche? The blood in the streets of Tehran is markedly less red than the spills on the streets of Tegucigalpa.

And they still want to think of themselves  as enlightened democrats, as in both cases they act against it: in Iran they seem to know instinctively that the people prefer Islamofascism, and in the case of Honduras the popular wish is a "President of the poor" (Neo Communist) for life along the lines of the Cuban regime and the madhouse currently playing out in Chavez' Venezuela.

The narrative is clear and is followed by most of the mainstream media, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, a number of European countries, and the Obama administration - a pattern worn thin with the decades old knee-jerk reminiscent of the days of the Cold War.

Conveniently the physical impossibilities in the electoral process in Iran are avaded, while in the Honduran case the entire legal procedure that preceded Mel's ouster, is shoved aside as negligible under the pressure of the 'common will'. That's not to mention the selective meddling and foisting, which is unforgiveable in the case of Iran, but entirely legit in Israel and Latin America.

Don't look for balance, what's good for the goose, is good for the gander kind of consistency. Instead seek out Pragmatism and the logic of "we are right, because it's us".

The press from hell is leading the Leftist narrative. Lucky for us, today we have web 2.0 conveniences at our disposal - the winning means of communication in Iran - Twitter, as well as blogs and the odd intrepid citizen reporter like Hunter Smith, who smelling a rat, acted on it.

Suspecting the initial minimal news coverage, and intrigued that Honduras stood by its actions despite condemnation from the UN and the United States, he picked up a camera, notepad, and plane ticket to Tegucigalpa and there he is keeping an eye on the narrative of manufactered history.

Developments started moving almost at once:

SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2009 ... he blogs

Manipulation by the Media

I was texting and calling my father while at the protest today, and I gave him an update to post on the blog [entire post]:

He did see an older man in a white shirt reach down into the blood pool and cover his hands. He then wiped them on his shirt to make it look like his blood or that he had been involved. Hunter saw what he thought was an AP photographer take the man's picture. Hunter said if you see it on the web, don't believe it. It was faked.

Here's the narrative as spelled out by Reuters - the headline alone consists almost of an entire paragraph:

"Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya, one of them with a shirt covered with blood, talks to people next to a bullet-riddled motorbike outside the Toncontin international airport in Tegucigalpa"

Compare also:

a comment on Hunter Smith's blog from Charlie in Honduras, on the ground:

"There was a 42 year old woman who died today. It is the first death due to the political turmoil. Shots were fired, along with tear gas, supposedly over the heads of the mob, after protesters broke through fencing at the edge of the airport in an attempt to take over the airport. It is very sad and all Hondurans, both sides, regret that it happened. Honduran Roman Catholic Cardenal Rodriguez had asked Zeliar to stay away, he didn't ... here's the result."

And CNN's reporting: "Ousted president shut out of Honduras"

Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya landed in El Salvador late Sunday after a failed attempt to return to his homeland. Zelaya told the Venezuela-based news network Telesur that his jet was denied permission to land Sunday evening in the Honduran capital, where military vehicles were arrayed on the runway. At least one person was killed and eight wounded after security forces opened fire and used tear gas on several thousand protesters who ringed the airport, said Hugo Orellana, a Red Cross director in Honduras. Protest leaders put the death toll at three. "I call on the Honduran armed forces to lower their weapons against the people," Zelaya said at a news conference in San Salvador. (...) >>>

Kirk Florida Blog is coordinating support for Honduras.

Lousy story, Great pictures!

Updates:

Read also about the complaints and frustrations of the Hondurans about the attitude of the "international community" towards their attempt to preserve the rule of law in their country:

"How is it possible that other governments support a liar, a corrupt man, a 'Chavez wannabe,' as he is called in some articles, who also has strong links to the drug dealing business? "It's amazing. They have made him a martyr."

I'm afraid it's no mistake or a failure of moral judgement, but simply a reflexion of the state of our relativist world. We've been signalling for some time the resurrection of Neo Communism: it's been brought back by the backdoor under the guise of Postmodern thought.

Volunteering to accompany "Mel Zeliar" on the plane back to Honduras is UN General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann. D'Escoto is the former foreign minister of Communist Sandinista Nicaragua and Catholic Priest of the Maryknoll Order who advocates Marxist-oriented liberation theology and won the Lenin Peace Prize from the old Soviet Union. He spent five days in Tehran only a few months ago at the expense of Ahmadinejad.

Claudia Rosett in Forbes: "D'Escoto, upon his return to U.N. headquarters in New York, held a press conference Tuesday at which he praised Ahmadinejad and denounced "the Western, arrogant, traditional attitude"--particularly the policies of Israel and the U.S. More specifically, d'Escoto, who served in Cold War days as the foreign minister of Nicaragua's Sandinista junta, lauded Iran--which is in breach of U.N. sanctions--as a country enjoying "great respect." He denounced the U.S. as having "demonized" Ahmadinejad. Describing himself as "speaking on behalf of the immense majority," d'Escoto described Americans as laboring under "a political handicap," accused Israel of apartheid, compared former President Bush to mobster Al Capone, and called for "dialogue" with all, including such terrorist groups as Hamas. (...) >>>
 
These are the people calling the shots in the global, brave, new Postmodern world.

Rosett once more: "Wielding the credentials of president of the UN General Assembly, D’Escoto enjoys the pernicious position of being a prominent official who is responsible in theory to everyone, but in practice is accountable to almost no one — while serving at the pleasure of a General Assembly which is dominated by unfree states. The GA’s most powerful voting bloc is the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, which overlaps with the so-called Group of 77 — a UN caucus organization which actually includes 130 members, who chose as their chairman for 2009 … wait for it… Sudan. That’s the kind of crowd behind d’Escoto. >>>

Update:

ABC News: "In Russia, President Obama Explains His Support for Ousted President of Honduras"

Facing criticism for having backed the “wrong” side in the recent coup in Honduras, President Obama Tuesday tried to explain his advocacy on behalf of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. “America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies,” the president told graduate students at the commencement ceremony of Moscow’s New Economic School (...) >>> ...

... thereby reframing the rebate as if it's a matter of political opinion, bypassing the ousted President's infringements on Honduran Constutional and penal law. Very dexterous, and exceedingly dishonest! 

- Filed on Articles in "Socialist Utopia Redux" - 

A Cry for Help from a Sea of Flowers and a Desert of Death

The following text is a free translation of a post writen by Dutch-Iranian refugee and Leiden University lecturer, Afshin Ellian, published earlier today in Elsevier Magazine.

The world commemorates Neda.

Last Friday thousands of Persians went in mourning to Tehran Cemetery where Neda and other victims of the Islamofascist regime lay buried. A sea of flowers in a desert of death.  Remembrance and mourning are the only weapons at the disposal of powerless people. This is our weapon against those in power, who wish to expunge history. 

You, dear reader, needs to jump into action. Act against torture! Already thousands of citizens, prominent politicians and mainly young people have been arrested. The messages human rights organizations and I have received are very worrying indeed. The mullah regime tortures without restraint. They want to force confessions.

The detained are forced to confess that their instructions to destabilize Iran came from rich Jews, Israel, the U.K., the E.U. or America. A NewsWeek journalist has already confessed. Think of something! Write petitions and send them to the Secretary General of the U.N. and the E.U. Presidency to force Tehran to release its political prisoners.

Torture and detentions cannot restrain the longing for freedom. Even Real politicians, like Farid Zakaria, believe Islamism has no future in Iran. Apparently even opportunists - who demanded President Bush faced up to reality - have seen the light.

What was that? The Islamic Government is supported by the people, and therefore Western countries must talk to them on an even keel? That sort of nonsense is in short supply these days. Those types thought the West should not heed people like me. It's very ironic that they should want to talk to me now.  Until a year ago I was a traumitized refugee, but all of a sudden I'm an expert!

I don't want to talk to these charlatans anymore. I'm not even an expert. I'm just a little Neda, a little voice. We've been trying to press home for thirty years now that the regime is immoral, and that it doesn't have popular support. But some Western politicians begged to differ. In fact, they share a world view with Ahmadinejad.

The glory of freedom.

Ahmadinejad still believes the people love him and his regime. He called the protesters "hay and straw": Khas wa Kashak. He also called them hooligans. The people have reversed that and call themselves Khas wa Khashak. They wrote on a placard: the "epic story of straw and hay".

Artists have made this beautiful rendition:



Iranian liberty loving men and women now also have international artists on their side. Famous performers like John Bon Jovi have already sang songs for the people of straw and hay. 



They sing about the glory of liberty. Why are European performers so silent?

Many wear green wrist bands in solidarity with the rebellious Iranians. Green: the nature of liberty. Why did Mousavi choose the colour green? Red is the color of Communists and Socialists. Isn't green the color of Islam? But this isn't about Islam. It's also one of the colors of the Iranian flag - which has also nothing to do with Islam. Green is the symbol of nature's rebirth. In this way the color green is being de-Islamized.

Mousavi is a gifted painter, who has had expositions in Tehran. A friend in Tehran told me: "Mir Hussein (Mousavi) has accidentally used too much green paint and the situation has gone out of control. Now we're swimming in green, the green of Persia, the green of nature. And that's freedom. That's the nature we want. The green of the Prophet needs to get tender again."

The Green Revolution is the revolt of the nature of man, shouting for liberty. The epic story of hay and straw. 

Mousavi's future is unknown. But we do know that the world needs to support the green wave of freedom. Liberty is more attractive than Koranic rant. Thirty years of Koran, Jihad, Sharia and the Prophet Mohammed have brought forth children who yearn for freedom and not Jihad. Isn't that wonderful?

Here's how you can keep up to date with the rising Iran Body Count. The sound of imploding collectives is always grim.

US Independence Day: the gist

The most central piece of philosophy separating the United States from the rest of the world and leading to its true exceptionalism, is the axiom that rights derive from God or Nature, NOT from the state. This makes these rights inherent and universal to mankind, and unalienable. 

This profound premise also divorces the nation's founding principles from the current occupier of the White House, who is a quintessential statist. One cannot help wondering how this structural incompatibility will work out in the future.

Wishing our American readers a very happy 4th of July, May God continue to bless the United States for the wellbeing of all men!

To remind us, here are a few excerpts from HBO's miniseries on the life of John Adams and the first 50 years of the United States.

- Filed on Articles on "Americana" - 

Americans Waking Up to Socialist Surge

Watch the video interview with Rasmussen here.

The President of Polls is not going to be amused ... 

NewsMax: "Rasmussen Poll: Obama's Popularity Plunging"

The latest Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows that President Barack Obama for the first time has a negative approval index — more Americans disapprove of his job performance than approve. (...) >>>

Then learn about the hidden welfare cost skyrocketing (link to PJTV video) ... Obama permanently "spreading the wealth around".

Iran: an Update and an Exposé of the Paramilitary

Defend Your Vote: "Mousavi Calls for General Strike" 

Mir Hossein Mousavi (...) get the Voice out to fight the Bullets.

اعتکاف سراسری، در این فضای آلوده

رسانه شمائید .. ایمیل و موبایل و مموری کارد و کپی و هر کمک دیگری هم حق شماست

and Mousavi further challenging the regime ...

Times Online: "Defiant Mousavi says Iran protests should not be abandoned"

Iran's opposition leader flagrantly courted arrest today by labelling President Ahmadinejad's government "illegitimate" one day after the regime said it would tolerate no further challenges to the election result. Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, issued a brave and defiant statement on his website declaring: "It is our historical responsibility to continue our protests and not to abandon our efforts to preserve the nation's rights". (...) >>>

In his blog today Afshin Ellian provides us with a rare insight into the intricacies and origins of the various violent militias operating in Iran and elsewhere. Here's a translation: 

Iran's security system is violent and totalitarian through and through (...) who are the men atttacking civilians (...) who leads them (...) who protects the regime?

1. Ansar Hezbollah. Shortly after the revolution groups of men came together and called themselves Hezbollah [the party of Allah]. These consisted of scum and ultra religious people. They attacked opponents with knives and other weapons. They made victims everywhere: left, right, liberal intellectuals, and even moderate believers. Hezbollah was above the law and was protected by the leader of the revolution, imam Khomeini. They were refered to as the SA [Sturmabteilung, Storm Troopers] of the regime.

2. The Revolutionaire Guard (RG) was also founded after the revolution for the defense of Islam and the new regime. They too resorted directly under the imam. RG probably consists of 120,000 men of which eighty percent are conscripts. The latter are a security risk for the regime. Advanced rockets, the nuclear program and other military secrets resort under the RG. They are also aimed at supporting militant Islamic movements all over the world. They are present in Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq, the Gulf states, and were also involved in the wars in the Balkans and Afghanistan.The Lebanese and the Afghan Hezbollahs and the Badr Army in Iraq have been founded by the RG. They wear uniforms, but also civilian clothing. They run their own intelligence services and secret prisons. We used to call the RG Khomeini's SS and their intelligence service the Gestapo.

3. Basij, means mobilization. The paramilitary unit was first founded during the early stages of the Iran-Iraq War. All mosques, universities, factories, schools and public service offices have an armed Basij unit. They have license to arrest and interrogate. As an organization they resort under the RG. With few exceptions, these groups consist of thugs. [See the comments on CIIDG, and the photos on The Vigilante Journalist.]

Apart of these three militias, the Islamic Republic also has a regular army, a Ministry of Intelligence and countless other security forces. It's not a pleasant country.

The following are excerpts of a rare interview with someone who was both a member of Hezbollah and the Basij. Amir Farshad Ibrahimi was Secretary of Ansar Hezbollah. He finally fled to Europe. Over the last few weeks he helped identify quite a few members of various organizations as they wreaked havoc on the people of Iran. Ibrahimi explained in detail how these groups operate with the RG and the Basij.

He was asked by Radio Farda if he has any information on the presence of foreign jihadis. His answer was quite detailed, as is the rest of his story.

“The Tharallah division of RG is responsible for security in Tehran. But they operate independently. They take orders directly from the imam. They are comprised of two foreign units.” (He provides an address in Tehran.)

“One of those foreign units is Iraqi, remnants of the Badr Army. The other is Lebanese Hezbollah. They are reserves, presently training in Iran”. (Address follows.)

“On the recent video footage I recognized two Lebanese. One is well known, because he's the brother of Ali Monir Ashmar, a suicide terrorist who was killed in Lebanon and is revered as a martyr. So Hezbollah of Lebanon has in fact troops in Tehran, participating in the oppression of Iranian citizens”.

Do you believe me if I speak of Islamofascism? During a recent 9/11 commemoration (former [Dutch, Postmodern] Green Left MP [of Iranian descent]) Farah Karimi typified the Lebanese Hezbollah as a resistance movement. She should be ashamed of herself. Imagine someone calling the Dutch SS a resistance movement!

Hezbollah's Dutch friends we can get rid of democratically, but those in the Middle East are another matter. They will have to be forced out of existence. And this is precisely what Iran's students are doing. But nobody knows as yet if they will succeed in chasing them out of Iran.

Riddle of the Day: the Obama Ideology

American Thinker: "Obama's Attraction to Human Rights Violators", by Lauri B. Regan

(...) Sadly, the Obama presidency keeps getting "curiouser and curiouser." According to Obama, Israel's settlement building is illegal, the Iranian elections are legitimate, and the Honduran military's respect for the rule of law is not legal. In other words, it is fine for the Obama administration to meddle in the internal affairs of a sovereign ally, it has no interest in defending a popular uprising in which people are dying in the name of freedom, and it will support the Chavez-cloned dictator in the face of a democratic struggle.

- Cartoon: William Warren - 

Many have suggested that due to the voter fraud pervasive during his campaign, Obama is not troubled by a similar occurrence in the Iranian and Honduran elections. Yet this is the same man that made human rights a benchmark of his campaign speeches. And how does one rationalize his completely irrational responses to the various events taking place across the globe as citizens of repressed nations attempt to achieve freedom and democracy. The leader of the free world persists on choosing the wrong side of the fight.

The only discernable pattern to Obama's foreign policy decisions since taking office seems to reflect an attraction by Obama to dictatorial governments and disdain for freedom loving democracies. How else can one rationalize the disparity between his silence and weak response to the protests and bloodshed in Iran and his powerful and demanding response to the coup in Honduras? America's President is consistently supportive of tyrants at the expense of oppressed citizens who bear a terrible price for his policies. (...) >>>

We claim, it's the Postmodern philosophy - of which BHO is the quintessential adept - making a bee-line from the Anti Modernist (or the Counter-Enlightenment) movement headed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Kant and Hegel, straight to Marx (Socialism, Communism), Nietzsche (proto Nazi), Heidegger (Nazi and full-blown pomo), to post WWII Existentialists (Stalin and Mao apologists) to the Deconstructionists (Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, Richard Rorty, et al).

This is what author Richard Wolin has to say about that branch of anti philosophy:

"Time and again [these] commentators express their surprise of postmodernism ending up on a par with Nazi, Fascist or extreme Nationalist ideas, expressing their shock, shock at postmodernist involvement in Nazi scandals, or anti-philosophes suddenly spouting crypto Fascist propaganda. Richard Wolin admits that the postmodern assault on reason familiarly rings of the standard European reactionary critique as traditionally expressed by the anti-modernists [Richard Wolin, "The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism from Nietzsche to Postmodernism", Princeton University Press, 2004, Introduction p. 12]. "

The discerning observer might notice what connects these thinkers and ideologies: collectivism and an abhorrence for "middle-class" democratic values, individualism and capitalism.

On the other hand, another contributor lately came up with this novel approach, which may be the same conclusion by another route. What do you think?

American Thinker: "Obama, the African Colonial", by L.E. Ikenga

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa. (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in "The Pomo Presidency" - 

Iran: The Fall Out

After the indignation and outrage, the rejections and the errors, there are emotions, opinions and peoples hedging their bets. A few wise men have written op-eds in support, among them former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton - a keen observer as ever - and former Spanish PM, Jose Maria Aznar. Rejectionists talk of the geopolitical need for a stable Iran, as if an oppressive regime isn't inherently always instable.

Present blog has - reluctantly at first - endorsed the popular participation in the revolt. The de facto leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is after all a man steeped in the history of the bloody Islamofascist Republic.

On the other hand, thanks to the theocratic system, he's all they've got! If Iranians have entrusted him with their destiny, then so be it!

The alternative is the status quo. Only the most deluded libtard can believe nuclear war is still avoidable by parley with the regime.

Yeah, like Chamberlain: peace in our time. It has now become quite clear what Obama's 'negotiation rounds' with despots will lead to: nuclear extortion and the legitimization of evil regimes, while democratic movements and innocents are left in the lurch.

It beggars belief, but the most cynical of Postmodern nihilists even side with them. They believe in the Great and the Small Satan as much as the regime does. But it is not too late to let wisdom prevail over foreign policy by false emotion.

So, what the world is presented with here is a unique opportunity to change the course of history, which in its current trajectory may prove very ugly indeed. Almost inevitably we will find Mousavi wanting, but that does not warrant the cold rejection of this brave effort.

Pamela Geller has these observations (Brava! she also chased down the Swiss bank accounts):

American Thinker: "The Case for Iran: Fighting for Freedom"

Many people (including Barack Obama) have pointed out that Mir Hussein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate and a key figure in the Iranian protests, is scarcely different from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After his numerous overtures to the mullahs, it is not hard to know why Obama is hoping the opposition will be crushed. But there are signs that many of the Iranian protesters are not fighting for Mir Hussein Mousavi. Mousavi is an Islamic Republic establishment hack. Are people in Iran dying for more of the same thing they have been getting from the Islamic Republic for thirty years? (...) 

The ultimate question is what a regime change, or even modification of the regime with a Mousavi as president, would mean to Iran's nuclear program. I am optimistic on this front for two reasons: one, because I do not hear Mousavi saying bad things about the U.S. and Israel to whip up the crowds; and two, if he wants rapprochement with the West, he will have to give up the bomb. And I think he does want the support of the West. If he becomes President, he will need the West as a bulwark in his defenses against a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism.

He is a Muslim -- nothing much has changed about that, but he may bow to pressure from the Iranian people for a relaxation of Shari'a rule and a return to something like the way Iranian society was under the Shah. This could lead him to moderate things in Iran a bit: no bomb, and perhaps no Syria, Hezb'allah and Abbas as proxies by which to wage terrorism. It is conceivable.  This result would be wonderful in light of the ongoing radicalization of Syria, Turkey, and Pakistan. A moderate Iran could be a very stabilizing thing in the region. This is why Obama's failure to seize the moment is so shortsighted and stupid. (...) >>>

Amen to that. In his blog today Afshin Ellian writes that Makhmalbaf, the Iranian film director and Mousavi's representative in Paris called upon Mousavi not to send the people home, oppressed by loneliness and disappointment. "Do not demand from an illegal Government its permission to demonstrate. The majority voted for you and awaits your orders. Ask us to go onto the streets, for picketing and combat".

"Makmalbaf is a incisive intellectual. Yes, the people want a leader. They are not afraid for Basieej and other scum. (...) The entire Middle East is watching Persia closely. If the Persians can obtain a modicum of freedom and the rule of law, it may well spread like an oil spill all over the Middle East."

"One thing is for sure: the tyranny in Persia is collapsing on many fronts. The hegemony of Islamofascism can no longer be taken for granted. Mousavi will not forsake Iran's Nedas."

Just in: a young man molested yesterday by state thugs at a "legal" rally:



Mousavi site in English, more link ups. And honor where due, The Guardian has been very good during this entire episode. They're now putting faces to the missing, killed and detained. Report them with The Guardian.

Shout (فریاد) Update

... and then there's this! 



The above comes courtisy of Afhin Ellian's blog on Elsevier. He writes:

"Mohammed Reza Shadjarian is presently the most famous, traditional singer in Iran. He is not a modernist. But his music was barely tolerated. Shadjarian demanded that Iranian state broadcasting would no longer play his patriotic songs. For the ralliers he sang this impressive song: "The Shout".

Artists have made it into a video clip. The images are wonderful: women with open arms, a petrified man standing over a corps, hope and a green heart. This is the translation:

I knock with my fist on a door;
I rub my hand over the windows.
I am suffocating, oppressed, suffocated.
It's closing in on me, unbearably.
I will shout;
Oh, I am with you;
Open the doors.

I am looking for space
on a roof

on a mountain top
in the heart of a dessert
to breath fresh air.
I want to shout long and hard,
so that my voice be heard.

I will shout;
my pain will heal through righteousness.
Who of you sleepers will emerge,
to shout along with me?
When I pound the door with my fist (...) 

Anatomy of a Power Struggle

Consider also this interview with former CIA operative Robert Baer.

Here's more footage of today's demos at Ghoba Mosque.  This is far from over.