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Or at least rumors of an opposition rally, it’s very hard to tell because of a government ban on any reporting of demonstrations in the streets. Â Hopefully the two groups will not meet, if there had been fighting we probably would have heard about it by now. There is also a very disturbing and fact-based story that journalists with temporary visas are being deported. The BBC reports that the ruling Council has authorized a “partial recount” of the results. Perhaps the best that the opposition can hope for at this point is a chance for a declaration that the election was close enough to have a runoff, but obviously the people running the government are reluctant to grant even that. I think it’s fairly important to their future that the opposition stay non-violent in appearance.
Just heard a top-of-the-hour report from the BBC, Iranian state radio is saying 7 were killed Monday in a clash between political supporters of different candidates at the big rally. BBC is also reporting that the opposition candidates have been invited to meet with the ruling council. Â Here’s another BBC account which will probably be dated in the AM in the US. Both on the website and in broadcast the BBC is reporting an impression that the rulers are nervous about the previously-announced election result and backing away from supporting the official claims. In the radio version, they also implied that the 7 deaths may have been part of the motivation for backing down. This seemed like editorializing to me and was not supported with evidence. Ahmadinejad is in Russia on a state visit. Â By the way, these kinds of blog reports are unhelpful and stupid in my opinion.
Mousavi held a huge street rally today, appearing in person, one person was reportedly shot dead by bullets coming from a Revolutionary Guard compound near the crowd. Khamanei has ordered an investigation into election fraud. The situation seems to be teetering, and the clerics are looking particularly out of touch and not in control of the population. Here are a number of photos.
From the Guardian, here. Seems to me that the hard-liner is going to lose.UPDATE: Mousavi was arrested on his way to Khamanei’s house. He’s under house arrest, and there is serious unrest in the streets. Many photos here.
More from the New York Times:
Update | 6:50 p.m. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that the Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf said on Saturday that officials from Iran’s Interior Ministry had contacted Mir Hussein Moussavi’s campaign after the polls closed on Friday night, saying that he had won the election, but asking that he not make any announcement. Mr. Makhmalbaf, who is currently in Paris, said, “After security forces attacked and shut down the press offices of Moussavi’s campaign in Gheitarieh yesterday, I was asked to act as their spokesperson abroad.â€
He added that he was asked to spread the word that “last night Interior Ministry officials told Moussavi and his staff that he has won the elections but they should not make it public yet. Moussavi’s campaign, accordingly, began preparations for a public celebration on Sunday.â€
Of course Mr. Moussavi ignored the Interior Ministry request and did announce that he had won. Soon after that, the Interior Ministry made what even Iranian state media reported was a “surprise†early declaration that Mr. Ahmadinejad had won, after less than 20% of the ballots had been counted.
In what looks suspiciously like a related incident, Mr. Makhmalbaf’s personal Web site seems to have been attacked. A Google search for “Makhmalbaf Film House,†leads to a warning saying that within the past 24 hours Google had spotted “malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent†from the filmmaker’s Web site. As Google’s warning explains: “In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.â€
Your Lede blogger has visited the Web site Makhmalbaf.com many times in the past and never come across any such warning.
In the video posted yesterday, you can see Shepard Smith, who I call “the conscience” of Fox News, relating the obvious, that the DHS report predicting an upturn in right-wing extremist recruiting and violence, which was thoroughly attacked by Republicans in Congress, was correct. Now he’s being attacked by his “friends” such as Rush Limbaugh for saying it.
During his June 11 radio program, Rush Limbaugh said of Smith’s remarks: “For liberals to now claim that the atmosphere is somehow more violently anti-Obama is simply preposterous.”
This just in, from the investigators in DC, the killer left a note in his car, which reads:
“You want my weapons — this is how you’ll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do. Jews captured America’s money. Jews control the mass media.”
Wednesday, Limbaugh endorses the insane conspiracy theory that Obama is not a US citizen, somewhere in the same 3-hour time window as the killer’s car drive to the museum and the shooting itself. Thursday, Limbaugh says it’s “preposterous” to link the shooting in the Holocaust Museum to anti-Obama sentiment, just as the police releases an extremist anti-Obama note from the killer.
This is a regular occurrence and is not working. Due to over 8 years of war in Iraq, the US has no chance of mustering the troops necessary to achieve their goal in Afghanistan. The result is that they resort to aerial bombing and missile attacks, which kill so many civilians they are simply counter-productive. The only US air attack that could ever have a larger positive effect for our image than a negative one would be the missile that kills Osama Bin Laden. That will happen, if at all, exactly once.
…don’t jump to conclusions about gunman, maybe Rushbo didnt send him over the edge.
The Nazi killer in DC drove to the museum while Rush Limbaugh’s show was in its third hour on the East coast; it appears that yesterday I may have cleared Limbaugh too soon. Did the gunman hear this last little bit of encouragement from drug addict/sex tourist Rush Limbaugh on his radio as he drove with a rifle to the museum?
Can’t embed the video here, so you will have to use this direct linkto it. Murdoch is losing millions and millions on this channel. Since “Fox News” was invented with the express purpose of creating an “alternate reality,” why would anyone in their right mind trust this corporation to tell them the cold truth about financial markets? The very idea of the channel is a non-starter.
