Why the US Wants to Delegitimize the Iranian Elections
"How much attention do elections in Japan, India, Argentina, or any other country, get from the U.S. media? How many Americans and American journalists even know who is in political office in other countries besides England, France, and Germany? Who can name the political leaders of Switzerland, Holland, Brazil, Japan, or even China?
Yet, many know of Iran’s President Ahmadinejad. The reason is obvious. He is daily demonized in the U.S. media.
The U.S. media’s demonization of Ahmadinejad itself demonstrates American ignorance. The President of Iran is not the ruler. He is not the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He cannot set policies outside the boundaries set by Iran’s rulers, the ayatollahs who are not willing for the Iranian Revolution to be overturned by American money in some color-coded “revolution.”
Counterpunch
<span style="">Oh yes, NOW its Barack Obama who is getting ready to attack Iran? Is this guy channeling Hersh? Everything I have read has basically remained neutral about whether the election was stolen and there has been quite a bit of skepticism about whether the other guy is a true reformer. I do not see any drumbeat to war. Also, Ahamdinejad does a pretty good job of making himself look like a nut without any help from us. I would not be surprised at all if Ahamadinejad really did win but I suspect the powers that be ( hat tip to ,V!) in Iran overplayed their hand, as crazies are apt to do) and called it a landslide. The one thing everybody should be able to agree on, however, is that Iranians should be able to protest peacefully without getting beat up, shot at, and made to disappear.</span>
ReplyDeleteObama has been playing it just right. His comments have been low key.
"There were also unconfirmed reports that Mohammad Asgari, who was responsible for the security of the IT network in Iran's interior ministry, was killed yesterday in a suspicious car accident in Tehran. Asgari had reportedly leaked evidence that the elections were rigged to alter the votes from the provinces. Asgari was said to have leaked information that showed Mousavi had won almost 19m votes, and should therefore be president."
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<h1>Iran elections: Regime cracks down on opposition as further unrest looms</h1>
<p>Mousavi calls on people to gather in mosques to mourn those killed in protests
</div>
"There were also unconfirmed reports that Mohammad Asgari, who was responsible for the security of the IT network in Iran's interior ministry, was killed yesterday in a suspicious car accident in Tehran. Asgari had reportedly leaked evidence that the elections were rigged to alter the votes from the provinces. Asgari was said to have leaked information that showed Mousavi had won almost 19m votes, and should therefore be president."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/fresh-iran-protests-planned1
Actually, I have noticed that the mainstream media doesn't have much coverage of the turmoil in Iran-zt least compared to when there was similar unrest in the last few "worst evils of all time" who challenged the United States. There was wall to wall coverage of the Berlin Wall falling and the insurrection in Tiananmen Square. After decades of a constant drumbeat of how evil the regime in Iran is, I would think there would be jubilation in the media about this popular uprising. But it's being treated like just another news story...It could be just low funding of news divisions or laziness of reporters that is the cause of this, but the paranoid conspiracy nut in me says it is an indication that all this rhetoric about war has all been a show and there has been some sort of understanding with the Iranian government all along.
ReplyDelete...And by the way, you can get real time first hand updates of what's going on in Iran on Twitter if you do a search for Iranelection. I think it's their number one trending topic. You literally get hundreds of updates a minute from dozens of sources about tactics, events, warnings, etc. Besides being a fascinating first hand account of an important news story, it gives us an idea of what future revolts will look like.
U.S. State Department speaks to Twitter over Iran
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSWBT01137420090616
V, you are right that Iran has gotten remarkably little global press coverage compared to Tienemman and other major global events.
ReplyDeleteI hope the Iranian people win.
"No one in their right mind can believe" the official results from Friday's contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi's charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers "in the worst way possible."
ReplyDeleteThe above was me with http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iran/story/70155.html
ReplyDeleteGood for Montazeri. The courage of the people demonstrating is awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe Israelis might wish to think twice about stirring the pot in Iran.
ReplyDeleteAs...
Their OWN pot is pretty much boiling over.
I can truthfully say vza, that there is not ONE, not one statement that Ahamadinejad has made that has not been twisted by US corporate media, and their Zionist counterparts. Is that what you mean by "no help from us?"
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, they always die damnit! :)
ReplyDeletePlease, please do not tell me you are now an apologist for a far right fundamentalist. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteNot that he isn't but joe should be given credit for what he writes, no?
ReplyDeleteMontazeri is the biggest cleric in Quom other than Khamenei. No doubt we can now expect snide attacks against Montazeri by V.
ReplyDeleteNo, I just have a habit of going to original sources
ReplyDeleteI do not have much respect for clerics - anywhere lol
ReplyDeleteI wonder if V will bash Khamenei, the unelected Iranian supreme leader.
ReplyDeleteWill V bash Osama Bin Laden? Zawahiri? Taliban? The extreme militant Takfiri religious leaders?
Made a typo above Joe. Sorry not to give you credit for your own comments. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't he?
ReplyDeleteVery good article Mara. Points should be taken when we go after Apartheid Israel with the use of twitter, among other uses.
ReplyDeleteEverybody...lol
ReplyDeleteV, do you condemn all of them?
ReplyDeleteRelgion is always a tool that is used to enslave peple
ReplyDeleteThis is all too sad Mara. The other part that some here are not too familiar with is the "democratic organizations" that are solely funded for subversion. Along with this is the omnipresent corporate media which stokes the fire. The ignorant people who support this process (which has been employed over and over and over again with ignorant approval), just squeal with delight thinking they are some form of democratic pinnacle, when they are just ignorant "not the sharpest" tools in the shed. The height of the irony is that they make it easy for those in power in Iran to crack down, rather than any advance of democratic life.
ReplyDeleteV, you condemn all religion? Do you condemn specific people (such as Khamenei, OBL, Zawahiri, Zarkawi, Taliban leaders, Takfiri clerics)?
ReplyDeleteNo need to condemn Bin Ladin, Zawahiri, etc.; the western media do that all the time. Nobody should have any illusions about them. Our duty as dissidents is to turn the spotlight on the mass murderers, looters, human rights abusers that the sell-out media praise, excuse or ignore.
ReplyDeleteJemmy, why don't you tell that the people of Gilgit, Pakistani Administered Kashmir. Osama Bin Laden massacred them in 1988.
ReplyDeleteWhat point are you making - that that's the only massacre that ever occurred in modern history? Only Bin Ladin and the late Saddam commit atrocities in your version of history.
ReplyDeleteDid Bin Ladin kill more than the US and its clients have killed in Afghanistan and the tribal territories? Did he massacre more than the Shiv Sena head-count of Muslims in Gujarat?
Jemmy, are you feeling right in the head.
ReplyDeleteWho has killed more Afghans, the GoA (Gov of Afghanistan) and its allies (ISAF, ANSF); or the Taliban and their allies? This isn't a hard question to answer.
BTW, there are many NGO/UN studies regarding this. They usually label the two catagories "pro Afghan Government forces" and "pro Taliban forces." The highest percentage for pro Afghan Government forces that I have seen is 35%.
I presume you are refering to 3 days of riots in 5 villages in Gujarat in 2002. That was a terrible tragedy that shook India to the core. The fact that it took 3 days for the Indian security forces to stop the violence was a cause of great sadness and shame. This said, India is governed by the rule of law. Any guilty of murder are subject to the rule of law.
Note that the elected state government officials in Gujarat were greatly discredited for their incompetent and bungled handling of the affair. Their are consequences for incompetence. (In India, the national government is extremely reluctant to intervene in local security issues unless the state requests intervention; which Gujarat didn't do; therefore the blame is on the State government.)
Jemmy, you remember what sparked the 2002 riots in those five villages. People from those villages were on a train. Some crazy wackos (Takfiris) killed a bunch of them on the train. When the news got back to those 5 villages; the locals went wild. In the confusion and chaos a large number of people died. Unfortunately the police ran away rather than stop the violence. For this crime, may the police officers rot.
So what's the verdict on Shiv Sena|? Are they murderous fundamentalists like Qa'ida and the Taliban, or are they nice pious Hindus who overreact occasionally? You know, like that nice Ariel Sharon; only responsible for two massacres in his whole life, and yet those bleeding hearts still try to demonise him.
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