Disrupting Iran's Peace Symphony

Last night, Iranians who are FED UP with the IRI's blood shed; with execution of the innocent men to serve the function of scare crow; with unlawful detentions, intimidations, kidnapping; with international blunder of an idiot dwarf who has stolen the vote from those who stand taller than him before History, erupted a Peace Symphony, orchestrated by Majid Entezami (an Iranian composers best known for creating over 40 film scores in the course of 33 years), and promoted and funded by Ahmadinejad's propaganda department. (Even his IRGC/army commanders act as connoisseurs when it comes to this piece! Watch this piece of PressTV, if you can stomach watching Ahmadinejad attend the concert!)

Naturally, I am opposed to anything that disrupts art. Especially if the art comes under the title of "peace". I acknowledge the hypocrisy that dominates the IRI; but I think even the tyrant must receive a little nod for CHANGING the title of his propaganda from "revolution" to "peace". To have done that, attests to his recognition that the time of war and violence is over; to have done that is an acknowledgement that the tyrant will at least "try" to LOOK peaceful; and when the tyrant is held accountable to his "peace" propaganda, then he can be forced to kneel before the will of the people of his own country--else lose face with a world whose attention he has caught with a message of peace, and who will watch his violation of peace, human rights and etc.

Naturally, I am also opposed to acting like this:

I am opposed to this kind of action because it is not raising awareness about the criminal and warmongering nature of the patrons of this composition. Awareness would be elevated by running "boycott campaigns"--of which the Iranian community in Holland is very well capable of. Awareness would be elevated by holding protests outside, and making sure people who pass by the famous music hall would not be impressed by the odd column in an odd paper commenting and praising the 'Peace piece" in the morning after. Awareness would lead to an empty concert hall (which it had). Awareness would win sympathy; not dismissal! And with all my sympathy for the fellow Iranians--many the victims of IRI's 30 years long violation of human right abuses--who interrupted this concert, I think their action was counter productive!

Watching this clip made me cringe. I believe in acting with style; I believe in rising above the pettiness of the one you oppose. This was not an elegant protest. It would have been, if they had remained silent, holding their arms in the air in V. Or wearing T-shirts of the victims. Wearing pins; acting with respect for their country's artists--many of whom were not born yesterday; and whose dedication to their art supersedes loyalties to any revolution of the past or the future. But not this! This looked like a Tom and Jerry episode. It didn't make me hate the IRI's propaganda, it made me laugh! I couldn't help laughing; and my laughing disturbed me--it was a visceral reaction that overwhelmed the political connotation of the moving pictures!

The action of protesters was counter productive because those who KNOW the IRI is a criminal regime stayed away from this concert; but those who didn't walked out annoyed and irritated. Possibly four groups attended: those invited by the IRI embassy; those holding season tickets; those curious about world music with least political concerns or those proxy-supporters of the IRI among the Muslims who are under the impression (and cherish) that Iran's the "only" Islamic country who "dares to stand up to the West". In either case, these four groups are unlikely to come out of the music hall turning green--unless perhaps green with anger! These people would in fact develop sympathy for the IRI's crackdown on the protesters, assuming that the Iranian protesters are hooligans who disrespect "art and culture", and violate the rights of the fellow citizen who has chosen and in fact paid good money to go experience a music about "peace". This action is shooting one in the green foot.

Below, is a taste of the symphony! Irrespective of politics, several musicians inside Iran questioned the quality of this music and raised objection that this was not the best and most refined representative of the Iranian classical music, which is currently composed and distributed. (of course, this idea to hold a peace concert for cultural dialogue in Europe was conceived last year and it was supported by many an artist in Iran--long before Ahmadinejad ruined out sand castle of hope by stealing the election. In any case, this was and remains Ahmadinejad's pet project; thus as all things he does it is tapping into the "familiar" sentimentality of the Iranian music. I recommend you fast forward to minutes 5, if you get too bored with the beginning.

The dictator's rampant and jumpy; on the eve of the revolution anniversary.

Read this ...

Oil for Orange!

Sticking my head out the swamp to take a breath; I thought I give you a taste of Ahmadinejad's "we want to make Iran the Japan of the Islamic World"

These links (all Persian) are about fruit! Iran's oil revenues are producing orange income for some, while driving to bankruptcy and unemployment the agricultural workers in Iran (~3% of population)).

Fruit imports in the last 5 years have come under scrutiny by high level officials in the ministries of Trade and Agriculture (independent ministries)--but not Ahmadinejad's cabinet. 70% of fruit importation in Iran is exclusive to three importers that also control the import of sugar and rice. Lack of control on pricing leads to first, driving local producers bankrupt and once they are out, the profit margin on imported fruit are hiked to 200-300%. This practice has helped the so called "fruit mafia" to cash 1 billion dollars, only in the last year.

The head of the Labor Fraction of the Parliament laments the fact that oil revenues are spent on fruit and rice importation from China, Philippine, Brazil, Egypt, India, Thailand and Uruguay. In a country that is the 4th produced of citrous fruit, it is a major problem that the farmers' produce rots on trees, because no proper distribution infrastructure is provided. (30-40% of Iran's produce are wasted due to this fact.) Labor specialists and activists repeatedly warn that the oil revenues during Ahamadinejad's government have not entered the economic cycle; have not turned into infrastructural investment that would guarantee economic sustainability--agriculture is only one of the fields suffering this neglect. Instead, Ahmadinejad's ad-hoc economic policies have turned the economy into a profit-based; quick-cash; importation-dependent and clandestine practice behind closed doors and outside of the professional and specialist spheres.

To give an example: in July of last year (2009) one of these "private fruit importers" registered importation of 150 Tons of American Red Delicious apples (initially reported with Israeli labels, but later clarified that they had USA labels with trademark 4015 !) Interestingly, this type of apple is locally produced in the south of Iran; but most "organic" apple producers in Iran are not able to compete with the quality of genetically enhanced American apple on steroids!! It is worth mentioning that Israeli Jaffa Oranges have also appeared in Iran's fruit market! Yes, with approval of the Trade department!

According to Khabar Online, (apparently close to the Larijani mafia--conservatives but secretely anti-Ahmadinejadists) in the last year of Ahmadinejad's previous term, the volume of American imports to Iran has reached the highest level in the past 10 years. In this year, Iran broke the record of fruit importation, spending close to 2 billion dollars on importing fruits that have been traditionally grown in Iran.

I have not been able to dig many names. I came across Hashem Arjmandi and Brothers, who opened the first fruit warehouses in Bushehsr Harbor in November 2009. He imports Banana and Apple and interestingly, he too complains about the instability of Ahmadinejad's economic policies, making his banana republic a volatile enterprise.

Post Script: Iran has "fruit and produce markets" that offer fruit at regulated prices that are significantly (sometimes 60%) lower than "free market" pieces--albeit the fruit is less glittering and less glamorous. Fruit is a very important part of Iranian diet. When a guest arrives in your house, you offer them tea, cookies and fruit. To not be able to offer a visitor fruit, will be very embarrassing to the host. Iranians often have fruit after siesta tea; and after dinner.

Etiquette: unless you are sure your host is wealthy, do not finish every piece of fruit that is offered to you. If you go visiting a financially challenged person, do not refuse to take their fruit offering. If you don't eat the little dry and spotty orange offered to you, the host will be embarrassed that his offering has been inadequate and unacceptable. Living Persian is a choreographed act--it is a delicate dance of generosity, sacrifice and yet stoicism and common sense.

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Kiosk is performing in Sunnyvale, CA tomorrow night. Call (408) 489-0891 to RSVP. Address: 1108 N. Mathilda, Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Persian Cats' Tehran

These are clips from Bahman Ghobadi's film No One Knows About Persian Cats (Also see Variety's review). In an interview, he has released his film for free internet distribution. But these kind of films need a dark salon, a collective beat and crowds breathing on each other's neck.

Here, an e-taste:

Ekhtelaf, Hip hop By Hichkas

Lyrics:
Inja tehrane [This is Tehran]
Yani shahrike [i.e. a City]
Harchi ke toosh mibini baese tahrike [where everything stimulates]
Tahrike roohe to to ashghaldooni [Stimulates the soul into trash bin]
Mifahmi to ham adam nisti ye ashghal boodi [you understand you are not a human, but a trash]
Inja hame gorgan [here, everyone's a wolf]
Mikhau bashi mesle barreh [you wanna be a lamb]
Beza cheshat koor shan ta man vakonam ye zarreh [let your eyes go blind till i open them a little]
Inja jangale la'anti shookhi nistesh [this is a damned jungle, it's not a joke]
Khabari az gol o bastani choobi nistesh [no flower and no icecream stick]
Inja jangale bokhor ta khordeh nashi [this is the jungle where you should eat or be eaten]
Inja nesf oghdeyan nesf vahshi [Here, half are deprived and the other half are savage]
Ekhtelaafe tabaghati inja bidad mikone [class divisions wreak havoc]
Roohe mardomo zakhmi o bimar mikone [bruise and sicken people's soul]
Faghire o mayedare neshastan toye taxi [poor and rich are sitting in a taxi]
Hame mikhan keraye nadan [everyones to not pay the fare]
Haghighat roshane khodeto be oon raah nazan [Truth is obvious, don't pretend you don't see]
Roshan taresh mikonam pas bemoon jaa nazan [I make it more clear, don't run away]

[CHORUS] [x2]
Khda pasho man ye chansaali bahat harf daram [Get up God, I've got a few years worth of things to say]
Khoda pasho o nasho narahat az karam [Get up God, and don't get mad at me]
Kojahasho didi tazeh avval karam [What have you seen? I have just started]
Khoda pasho man ye ashghaalam bahat ha(r)f daram [Get up God, I'm a trash, I have things to say to you]
Namaki ba charkhesh [Peddler with his cart]
Kenare ye benze [Near a Mercedes]
Ke hamoon charkhesh [whose wheel]
Kerayeye benze [is the rent price]
Man o to o oon boodim az ye ghatre [you and I and him were from a drop]
Hala bebin faseleye maha che ghadre [Now see what is the distance]
Dalile charkheshe zamin nist jazebe [Gravity is not why earth turns]
Poole ke zamino micharkoone (jalebe) [Money turns the earth (interesting)]
In rooza avval poole baad khoda [These days, it's first money then God]
Hame ra'ayatan ma kadkhoda [Everyone's a peasant, we are the lords]
Bachehe mikhad ba faghire bazi kone [The kid wants to play with the bum]
Baba nemizare [Dad doesn't let]
Faghre kasife chonke faghat yeki dare (baazi) [poverty's dirty 'cause has one (game)]
Hame agahim az in balaya [We're all lords from up here]
Hata fereshteham nemiad in vara [Even angels don't come this way]
Ta nashim fanaa ma [Till we don't vanish]
Adame marizam [ I am sick]
Harfamo dark kard [He understood me]
Tamoom nakardam harfamo ha [But i am not done talking yet]

[CHORUS] [x2]

Ta halaa shode asheghe ye dokhtar beshi [have you ever fallen in love with a girl?]
Mikham harf bezanam roktar, beshin [I wanna talk more frankly, sit down]
Piishe khodet migi inne eshghe tarikhi [you tell yourself this is a historical love]
Vali duffet baye bache mayedare [but your ??? is with a rich boy]
Khab didi kheire [sweet hallucination]
Yadeb bashe gheire [???]
Khodet bezan gheyde [cut your strings]
Harchi adam dorovaret mibini chon eibe [from all people around you, because it's a shame]
Yeki savare mashine khoda ba poozkhand rad mishe [One passes by you riding god's car, smirking at you]
Ba kineh mikoni doaa [with grudge, you pray]
Ke manam mikham mayedar sham [that "i want to be rich too"]
Oghdaro konam darkesh [to understand inferiority]
Doaa nakon bi asareh [Don't pray it's no use]
Nemikonan darkesh [They won't understand]
Mikhai bekhabi [You wanna sleep]
To bidari kaboos bebin [see nightmares when awake]
Bia baham be in donya fohshe namoos bedim [Let's swear at this world]
Bayad koor bashi ta nabini faghro harja [you ought to be blind to not see poverty everywhere]
Kenare khiaboon nabini faghr o fahsha [to not see poverty and prostitution on the street sides]
Khoda pasho ye ashghal bahat harf dare [God, get up a junky's got things to say to you]
Nakone to ham be fekre inni ke ki sarf dare [Maybe you too are wondering who is worth it?]

And another one, Jazzi, By Rana Farhan

The Meaning of Life

Iran's slain physicist WAS NOT a nuclear scientist. He was just a Green professor who supported Mousavi

The IRI's rush to blame the assassination on America and Israel--hence claiming that Masood Alimohammadi--was a nuclear scientist has outraged the Iranians. The regime has been quick to claim an open supporter of Mousavi, a man who joined his students to protested the rigged election in June, a martyr of its "nuclear cause" (Persian).

According to Ahmad Shirzad, his close friend (they trained together in Sharif University's Physics department--where the assassinated professor became the first to obtain a PhD in physics in Iran) and a reformist member of parliament during Khatami's presidency, Alimohammadi was a Particle Phycisist, specializing in elementary particles and his research did not relate to nuclear energy production.

It is ironic how a regime that claims TOTAL control of intelligence and security, that tracks and monitors and wires anyone with a university professorship--especially if they are 'green', has not been able to detect a targeted, remotely-controlled bombing attack! It is ironic that the IRI's Foreign Ministry--and not the Intelligence Ministry--was the first to RUSH to pointing the finger to Israel and the US!

It is ironic that again, the name of that invented "anjomane padeshahi"--an obscure entity that even monarchists don't know about and we have learned about from recently handed in death penalty sentences to a few individuals who have been forced to making false confessions--is announced to be responsible, but later denies having had any responsibility. (This "anjoman" seems to be an intelligence trap, used to identify gullible opponents of the IRI and carry terrorist attacks to claim responsibility for and create an illusion of the violence conducted by the opposition)

It is ironic that the chain-murderers of the IRI, blame this killing on American Zionists; and it is ironic that creatures who consider themselves "reliable" alternative media, seem to wish to buy that crap!

General Petraeus returns Ahmadinejad a favor

Last year, General Petraeus had praised Ahmadinejad for being the best recruiter for the Iraq/Afghanistan-drained American army!

General Petraeus is now returning Ahmadinejad's favor to help him recruit more fanatics to divert Iranian's demands for social justice and human rights. Ahmadinejad seems to be getting in increasing trouble; probably being readied to be sacrificed on the altar of "velayat-e Faghih" (of course, unless an acute military situation is created that will make it NECESSARY to delegate the power fully back to Ahmadinejad and his IRGC militarists).

The timing of Petraeus' statement is VERY interesting; it seems to come JUST as Iranians on both sides are slowly flirting with the idea of "slowing down to the middle". Just as Khamenei made a gesture to pull back his rabid dogs' leash a bit, followed by Khatami (persian in parlemannews) and Hashemi (persian ILNA) who just came out in the designated role of the moderators for this crisis management; with the icing of Larijani, the head of judiciary calling for moderation in confronting the press (persian ILNA).

Of course, we know what Ahmadinejad's IRGC backers are after: economic power! Now the question is; what is in this for Petraeus or any of those Ahmadinejad-boosters who are in bed with Ahmadinejad's "bomb"?!?

Has anyone ever imagined the unemployment rate, if the war industry went belly up?!

Khamenei asks Basijis to restraint but delegates the job of killing to the judiciary system!

Delusional!

I just don't understand WHY this Soupreme Leader does what he does and says what he says!

So he thinks the post-Ashura state-staged, -sponsored protest was real!! Bus-loads of hired people where moved between different cities to hold the protest in different days to show the solidarity with Vali-e Faghih!!! They manage to get a few hundred thousand people out (insignificant to the million-large outpour of crowds at Montazeri's funeral--who were not given juice and refershments, not were transported by state-busses, rather had to risk their lives and arrested on the road and prevented from attendance, and YET they did! And Khamenei is taking that meager attendance as a "proof" that the "people" have spoken and therefore, the "people" (read fanatic basijis) have to step back and let the judiciary system CONFRONT the opposition with utmost harshness, according to "law"!

And yes, these creeps have put in place enough draconian laws to be sure the slightest opposition, i.e. verbal abuse towards the supreme leader gets death penalty!

Speaking of DEATH PENALTY; today, it is foaming out of the stinky mouths of the legislators and the judiciary figures with such an ease, as if it is their god-given right to KILL people to save their turbans! Of course, their idea of "moderation" is to not kill indiscriminately--yet! Khamenei is explicitly pointing his fingers (first) at Monarchists, Communists; and implicitly at people who are presumably linked to America (that makes some 2 million of us!) and Israel (they have traditionally killed members of the Bahai cult for that charge!)

The new Tehran prosecutor has stated that those Bahais and Monafeghs (i.e MKO) arrested in the Ashura-protest (when the regime opened fire on innocent people; threw them off the bridge and ran over them with police trucks) are "mohareb" and their penalty is "technically" death! I suspect he is going to come out as a moderate and "reduce" the death penalty to long prison terms together with lashing in public!

The Bahai religion strictly FORBIDS the followers from violence, EVEN IF THEY ARE ATTACKED, even in self defense are they not permitted to act violently ... this is why so many of them have been executed without much public knowledge and sympathy. Today, many more stand on the death row of the Islamic Republic of Iran ...

Sickening!

Get the popcorn: Iran's "back-off" show is on!

I consider it a tactical "media" back off that reflects regime's fear and recognition of its instability, but I welcome it--albeit VERY cautiously--because at least it is moving us beyond the rhetoric of civil-war that was starting by the Ahmadinejadist/Mesbahists on one side and the radicalist green-pompom shakers on the other.

More of regime's ultra-conservatives are coming out to either pose as defeated and disillusioned--such as Hosseininan (to perhaps give the illusion that the hardliners are going to take the back seat); or to suddenly start talking moderate and acknowledge the "need" for acknowledgement of the opposition--such as the conservative Motahari (who is trying to trivialize the situation as "jealousy" and "stubbornness" resulting from "personal ego"--and not fundamental constitutional flaws that people are protesting to--and is calling for Ahmadinejad to apologize); or Raja News that is trying to "propose" President Khatami as the moderating figure and a front-face to the Greens (attempting to kick Mousavi and KAroubi off the ring); or even donkey-poets and Fars-News favorites such as Alireza Qhazveh, who is protesting to fundamentalists intolerance of Mohsen Rezayee's "solution letter". Even conservative newspapers have suddenly dared to become critical of the Intelligence ministry's intolerance to publication of Mousavi's "solution" statement (#17)!

That the IRIB airs an interview with a leading conservative who is ALSO critical of Ahmadinejad and acknowledges the need for reconciliation with "the people" is significant. One of the first "solution" points suggested by Hashemi in the first Friday prayer after the earliest protest to coup d'etat was that IRIB abandon its biased and single-sided narrative to regain its credibility.

Another softening in the behavior of the IRIB appeared last week when they invited Mohammad Dadkan. Dadkan, the previous head of the Iranian soccer federation who was fired from his position by Ahmadinejad's hand-picked incompetent Sports "minister", Ali-Abadi openly criticized politicization of Iran's sports and made a statement that his highest points in his career were being appointed to his position during the presidency of the reformist President Khatami, and being fired by the incompetent Ali-abadi during Ahmadinejad's regime!

Interestingly, shortly after, Aliabadi made a public statement, acknowledging the politicization of Irans sports and direct meddling of Ahmadinejad in the Sports organization. Almost at the same time, Afshin Ghotbi, the once adored and now hated head soccer coach acknowledged that Iran's once powerful soccer was struggling in political mud!

One other conciliatory gesture is the fact-finding committee's report, indicting 12 individuals as the main perpetrators of the Kahrizak-Prison crimes, and throwing Ahmadinejad's butcher hyena Ghazi Mortazavi in the ring of blame (interestingly reported by government-channel Press TV). Although indictment of Mortazavi is not public yet, but many suspect he will, similar to Saeed Emami, be victimized to save Vali-Faghi's turban. (Good riddance, I would say!)

Nevertheless, the hardliners have not given up! Yesterday, Karoubi was violently attacked in Qazvin, where he attended a private mourning ceremony hosted by a cleric. Today, as he tried to leave Qazvin to not jeopardize the safety of his friends, his car came under gun fire. Despite the "conciliatory" posturing, the harliners are adamantly after Mousavi's and Karoubi's head: implying Ahmadinejad's head for Mousavi+Karoubi's combined--unless they swear allegiance to Imam Khamenei!!

It is not unlikely that Hashemi has entered a pact with his hand-picked pal, Khamenei, to get rid of the "extremists" of their camps, in exchange for a few years longer grip on economic power. However, Mousavi survived both Khamenei and Hashemi to remain in the circle of the fanatic in chief, Khomeini (old pictures of them all). By comparison, Ahmadinejad's a dispensable rookie, especially if he loses IRGC (or Mashayee/Mossad's?!) artillery support! Cognition of his low esteem within the establishment may very well explain his erratic attention-seeking behaviors--posing as the champion of social justice!!!

I am watching nervously. Clearly, I am not the only Iranian who is suspicious of the macabre of the cadaver (the regime) conspiracy! The Iranian's collective vigilance about the regime's tactical moves gives me some comfort; the IRI must handle a much tougher and smarter crowd this time around; they will soon realize that media posturing won't get them too far! They are wrong to think the greens are just virtual propaganda balloons who will deflate with a couple of pokes! There pretense to "reconciliation" doesn't divert our attention from their continued violation of human right abuse--which a few hours ago started aiming at Bahai targets. Notwithstanding their superficiality and lack of ingenuity, I still welcome these conservative's efforts because clearly, they are FORCED by the will of the people to at least try to adopt a "pseudo-democratic" lingo (or at least utter the word freedom!)

Pictures explain why Hosseinian, the self-acclaimed fundamentalist killer, admits to his political impotence

Three days ago, Rouhollah Hosseinian, an ultra-conservative with direct involvement in chain murders, with a track record of high rate of death penalty verdicts handed out when he worked as a judge, before becoming the parliament representative from Tehran, put forth a motion to expedite process of execution of the "moharebs". 36 MPs signed the motion.

Almost immediately, the motion was rejected and criticized by other conservatives; and ridiculed by a massive electronic campaign where various iranian bloggers and twitters announced themselves "mohareb" and stated their readiness to be executed after these expedited court sessions! (the significance of this electronic campaign was in that it started immediately after the ministry of intelligence announced they had a major crackdown of the "leaders of conspiracy", aka bloggers!!)

Today, Hosseinian has written a long resignation letter in which he admits to marginalization of his fundamentalist and hardliner approach. The letter reads like a victim's lamentation, and acknowledgement of defeat. Like good mullahs, he is claiming to recognize his inefficiency, his political death, and he announces his resignation from politics to a mosque corner. I post a couple of pictures together with translation of excerpts of his resignation letter that explain what causes his depression!!

امروز خود را ناتوان‌تر از همیشه می‌یابم. هر اقدامی آغاز كردیم با رقابت پیچیده پارلمان تاریست‌های حرفه‌ای نقش بر آب شد. جناح اصلاح‌طلب نزد رئیس عزیزتر و ارزشی‌تر شدند و هر روز ما مطرودتر و بی‌خاصیت‌تر.

Today, I find myself more incapacitated than ever. Any action we began, was foiled by complex rivalry of seasoned parliamentarians . The reformist wing became dearer and more valuable to the Speaker, and we became more rejected and more ineffective.

امروز مردمی كه دنبال صد هزار تومان وام می‌گردند ناگهان چشم باز می‌كنند ده‌ها میلیون تومان بیت‌المال به جیب هنرپیشه‌هایی می‌ریزد كه نه دل در گرو اسلام دارند و نه در گرو حتی این كشور و بدتر ناگهان تصویر آنها را در كنار هم باید شاهد باشیم و هیچ‌كس هم اخم نكند؟ چرا مأیوس و سرخورده نباشم.

Today, people who have to run after a 100$ [100,000 Toman = this amount of money bus you 15 kilos of red meat] loan, open their eyes to millions of tax-payer's money going to cinema actors who have no loyalty to Islam, nor even to this country. And worse, we suddenly have to see their pictures together. Shouldn't we frown? Shouldn't we get disappointed and disillusioned?

[In this picture, you see Hedieh Tehrani, the Femme Fatal of the Iranian cinema, with Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad's best-man/boyfriend/advisor, for whom he got into trouble with Khamenei since day one. This man has dubious background and is suspected to be a zionist operator. He also has strange views about proximity of apocalypse and return of the messiah!]

من خود را سرخورده و شكست خورده می‌بنیم كه كسانی در دفاتر مسئولان نظام جمهوری اسلامی حاكم شده‌اند كه 180 درجه با رهبری نظام زاویه دارند. چرا احساس یأس و شكست نكنم كه با همه فداكاری این مردم معتقد و ولایتی در این نظام كسانی نصب می‌شوند كه تا ثریا فاصله با رهبری نظام دارند كسانی كه در این فتنه تا جایی كه احساس ترس نكردند از حریف حمایت كردند.

I feel defeated and disappointed when I see people who are running the offices of the Islamic Republic differ 180 degrees with the leadership of the regime (nezaam). Why shouldn't I feel hopeless and defeated that despite all sacrifices of these velayat-devoted people, people are assigned to these [posts] who are separated from the Leader by astronomic distances, people who as far as they didn't feel threatened for themselves, supported the opponents in this conspiracy [means protests].

[in this picture, Hashemi Rafsanjani is sitting together with soem ultra conservatives such as Ahmad Khatami who up to last Friday have been calling for massacre and arrest of all political opponents and Mohammad Yazdi a major figure in vote rigging and the one who recently "fired" the opposition senior cleric Sane'i from being religious reference. (Of course he was soon reminded by Hashemi Rafsanjani that such orders were not in his authority!) . Despite DEEP fractions, they pose in a laughing amicable mise en scene for cameras, as part of the "concession and reconciliation" scenario, that has been playing out since release of Mousavi's 17th statement.]

P.S. why do I call him self-acclaimed killer? Because he was VERY defensive of Saed Emami, called him "shahid" (martyr). More on his killing aspirations in persian.

Iran's growing death row

After Mousavi's 17th statement, hopes began growing that both sides may try to reach a middle position to deflect risks of extremism on both sides. Despite this hope for national reconciliation, the hardliners have been pushing for further destabilization, at times calling for the massacre of the opposition on the Friday Prayer tribunes; or on TV shows.

In the past couple of days, unexpected executions have been taking place. Political death sentences have been handed out to those allegedly associated with opposition movements outside Iran, and Kurd activists. As usual, they start with execution of the Kurdish minority--calling them armed separatists who are a threat to national security. A few weeks ago, Ehsan Fatahian was hanged. Today, Fasih Yasmani, a villager from West Azerbaijan who spent a few years in prison, was hanged unexpectedly. Other's on death row are the following:

1. Zeynab Jalaliyan (female),
2. Shirkoh Moarefi (male),
3. Habibollah Latifi (male),
4. Seid Sami Hesini (male),
5. Seid Jammal Mohammedi (male),
6. Rostam Arkiya (male),
7. Rashid Akhkandi (male),
8. Hossein Khaziri (male),
9. Farzad Kamangar (male),
10. Ali Heydariyan (male),
11. Farhad Wakeli (male),
12. Mostafa Sallimi (male),
13. Anwar Rostami (male),
14. Mohammed Amin Agushi (male)
15. Hasan Tale'i (male)
16. Ahmad Pouladkhani (male)
17. Iraj Mohammadi (male).

Considering that the IRI has intensified its rhetoric on the charges of "moharebeh" (combating against the regime) and "mofsed-fi-l-arz" (corruption on earth!), calling for blood and massacre, to an extent that 36 blood-thirsty members of parliament have submitted a motion that death sentence to "Mohareb"s should be expedited in 5-day trials, the Iranian greens are not taking the Kurdish executions lightly. (The logic of mullahs who call for such trials is that: if someone is condemned to death by error, then when he dies he goes to heaven; and if he deserved to die, then it is a good killing for the IRI and the killer goes to heaven!)

Other than the above mentioned kurds, several others have been given death penalty:

1. Ali Saremi, member of MKO, has spent a total of 23 years in the prisons of the Shah and the current regime. He was last arrested in the summer of 2007 for attending a ceremony marking the 19th anniversary of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners by the Iranian regime. On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 he was sentenced Mr. Saremi to death without adhering to due legal process.
2. Reza Khademi [persian], was charged with 'training' in the MKO camps and flying green balloons!!
3. Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani [persian], he was arrested BEFORE the election chaos and was charged with membership in some obscure monarchist party! Not even monarchists know of that party; as they are often the safe-dwelling rich LA-dwellers who bark more than they bite.
4. Arash Rahmani-pour[persian], 19; who was arrested in March before the election; and according to his Laywer Ms Nasrin Sotoodeh, he was coerced to confession in membership in the same obscure monarchist party!!
5. Naser Abdulhoseini [persian], 22, he too was coerced to confessing association with the MKO, but he has taken back all his confessions after his death sentence was communicated.
6. Hamed Rouhi-Nejad [persian], he too was arrested about 6 weeks before election, he was arrested on the charge of illegally exiting the country a few years back, and then intimidated to confess to masterminding the unrest in election aftermath!

The fact that most these individuals were arrested just shortly before the election further lends support to the idea that the coup d'etat scenario was written prior to the election.

I also read a little report [persian] that the post-Ashura scenario included planting evidence (American fire arms) in the homes and offices of the reformists; a plot that was foiled by unequivocal appeal of the reform leaders that this movement is not a vengeful violent one. Having found weapons in the Green homes will help expedite their executions ...

Despite regime's obvious failure to contain protests with increasing violence, and Mousavi's offer of reconciliation, serious divisions within the conservative camp are emerging. Kayhan newspaper, the terror channel, has been lashing out at Rezayee for trying to mediate the reconciliation [persian]. The fascists have also increased the waves of arrests and intimidation. The following list completes the list I provided before. Political affiliations of the arrested are listed:

Freedome Movement (national-religious party; in many ways the founders of the post-revolutionary government)

1. Ebrahim Yazdi (Secretary General of the party)
2. Mehdi Motamedi-Mehr (member)
3. Amir Khoram (member of political office)
4. Mohsen Mohagheghi (member)
5. Mehdi Gholizadeh (member)
6. Maziar Shokoohi (member)
7. Sara Tavasoli (daughter of Mohammad Tavasoli, head of the political office)
8. Leila Tavasoli (daughter of Mohammad Tavasoli, head of the political office)
9. Mohamad-Javad Mozafar (Publisher)
10. Masood Aghayee (activist)
11. Amir-Khosro dalir-Sani (national religious activist)

Mousavi's advisors or campaign managers

1. Ardeshir Amir-Arjmand
2. Alireza Hoseini Behesht
3. Alireza Beheshti shirazi
4. Hasan Abedi Jafari
5. Ghorban Behzadian Nejad
6. Mohamad Bagherian
7. Forouzandeh
8. Mohamad-Reza Tajik
9. Farshad Momeni (economics advisor)
10. Ali Arabmazar (economics advisor)

Khatami & Karoubi advisors

1. Morteza Haji (CEO of Baran foundation and minister of education in Khatami cabinet)
2. Hasan Rasouli
3. Mohamad-Sadegh Javadi-Hesar

Journalists

1. Badr-olsadat Mofidi
2. Emad Baghi (human rights activist)
3. Nasrin Vaziri
4. Keyvan Mehrgan
5. Mashallah Shams-ol-Vaezin
6. Morteza Kazemiyan
7. Mostafa Izadi
8. Mohamad Javad Saberi
9. Behrang Tonkaboni
10. Keyvan Farzin
11. Arvin Sedaghat-Kish
12. Rouzbeh Karimi
13. Mohamad-Reza Zahdi
14. Ali Hekmat
15. Negin Derakhshan
16. Sam Mahmoudi

Human Rights activists

1. Shiva Nazar-Ahari
2. Parisa Kakayee
3. Said Jalalifar
4. Said Kalanaki
5. Mehrdad Rahimi
6. Kouhyar Goudarzi
7. Said Ha'eri

Participation Front and Organization of Mojahedin-e enghelab (religious reformist parties)

1. Abulfazl Ghadyani
2. Ahmad Ahmad-pour
3. Ehsan Alayeefar
4. Mohammad Raf'ati
5. Mohammad Keyghobadi
6. Mehdi Guilani
7. Farshad Azizi

The National Front party

1. Hossein Mousavian (CEO)
2. Hamir-Reza Khadem
3. Isa Khan-Hatami
4. Sasan Bahman-Abadi

Women & Human Rights

1. Nousih Ebadi (she is not an activist, but just teh sister of Shirin Ebadi!)
2. Mansoureh Shojayee
3. Mahin Fahimi (aunt of Sohrab A'rabi)
4. Omid Montazeri, cousin of Sohrab)
5. Ardavan Tarakameh (not sure about pronounciation)
6. Zohre Tontaboni (mothers of peace)
7. Atiyeh Yusefi (1 million signature campaign)
8. Forugh Mirzai (lawyer)
9. Maryam Zia (child rights)

Others

1. Mohammad Mo'in (son of the minister of education in Khatami cabinet)
2. Abolfazt Mousavian (CEO of association of teachers and researcher in Qom)
3. Heshmatollah Tabarzadi (Student activist and journalist)
4. Mohammad Taheri (Son of ayatollah)
5. Shapour Kazemi (industrialist and brother in law of Mousavi)
6. Reza Najafi (translator)
7. Khalil Darmnki (literary critic)
8. Bahareh Hedayat (student activist)
9. Mehdi Arabshahi (student activist)
10. Morteza Simyari (student activist)
11. Alireza Firouzi (student activist)
12. Sorna Hashemi (student activist)

Also 77 students from Mashahd universities; 7 from Khaje Nasir University in Tehran, 10 from Kermanshah University.

This said, the slightly less hardliners of the parliament seem to have made a couple of concessions:

a) Motahari, a leading conservative in the parliament, has dismissed and shrugged off Hoseinians' vendetta [persian] (execute the opponents within five days of arrest) and has called for searching for the root cause of the protest--i.e. Ahmadinejad!!

b) The Truth-Finding committee of the parliament seems to be pointing the blame finger for the Kahrizak Prison crimes to Judge Mortazavi [persian], although as soon as the news made it to media, they have come out to say: we do not have the judiciary authority to charge him with these crimes [persian]. It is ironic that when everyone seems to have judiciary authority to condemn the greens with all sorts of charges and crimes uncommitted, the proven rapist and murderer Mortazavi gets promotion (and it put in charge of Fighting Drug Traffic!!)

Although, this being a ping-pong game, I just read that the cyber-IRGC has arrested the directors of "deep chaos" [persian] (don't ask me what a deep chaos is, these dudes are potato heads, only they know!!) So these "chaos directors" seem to be bloggers who have been disseminating news out of Iran, or twitting messages about where to gather, what slogan to chant and things that almost any Iranian/non-Iranian blogger has been doing these days! The greens have started a witty campaign of their own: they are all identifying themselves as "mohareb" and ask to be executed!

P.S. I just realized that this post was cross-posted by street-journalists (without my permission!)

60 Institutes that frighten Iran's ministry of intelligence

(Here's the list in Persian!) Please help me with names I have never heard; I put them in brackets. If you also provide hyperlinks I'd be grateful (please be sure to see comments. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR INFORMATIVE COMMENTS & CORRECTIONS ... ). I guess this gives me an opportunity to learn about "who's afraid of Virginia Wolf" :)

1. Soros Foundation
2. Woodrow Wilson
3. Freedom House
4. NED (صندوق اعانه ملی برای دموکراسی)
5. NDI (موسسه دموکراتیک ملی)
6. NRI (موسسه جمهوری‌خواه ملی)
7. IDEE (موسسه برای دموکراسی در اروپا شرق) [Institution of democracy in Eastern Europe?!]
8. EEDC (مرکز دموکراتیک اروپای شرقی) [Eastern Europe democracy center?]
9. Ford Foundation
10. Rockefeller Brother's Foundation ( بنیاد برادران راکفر) [does such a thing exist?]
11. Hoover institute at Stanford University
12. Dutch institute هیووس [?]
13. English مناز [?]
14. United Nations of the US, انجمن سازمان ملل ایالات متحده آمریک [huh? how can united nations have an american association?]
15. Carnegie Foundation
16. English Wilton Park [?]
17. سازمان جستجو برای زمینه مشترک [ is this Search For Common Ground?]
18. شورای جمعیت [ Is this Committee on Population?]
19. Washington Institute for Near East
20. Aspen Institute
21. American Enterprise
22. The New American Foundation
23. Smith Richardson Foundation
24. صندوق ژرمن مارشال آمریکا (دارای دفاتر در آلمان، بلژیک و ...) [The German Marshall fund?]
25. مرکز بین المللی برای حل مسالمت آمیز [International center for peaceful conflict resolution??]
26. AbdolRahman Boroumand foundation
27. Yale University
28. Meredian [Iternational??] Center
29. بنیاد دموکراسی در ایران [Iran Democracy Foundation??]
30. انستیتو بین المللی جمهوری خواهان [Inyernational institute of Republicans?]
31. انستیتو ملی دموکراتیک [National Democratic Institute?]
32. American Innovation Institute
33. Institute of Democracy in Eastern Europe [Gee what's the fear of Eastern Europe? They seem to consider themselves stalinist or something?]
34. مرکز کمک رسانی آمریکا [American Aid Center???]
35. مرکز بین المللی تجارت خصوصی [International center for private trade?!?]
36. مرکز آمریکائی برای همبستگی بین المللی کارگران [American center for international worker's solidarity??]
37. مرکز بین المللی برای انتقال دموکراسی [International center for democracy transfer??]
38. انجمن تشکل دموکراسی [what could this be?]
39. Albert Einstein Institute
40. جنبش جهانی برای دموکراسی [World Movement for Democracy?]
41. شبکه فعالان جوان دموکراسی [Network of young activists for democracy?]
42. گروه اطلاعات دموکراسی و تکنولوژی ارتباطات, Group for Democracy information and and Communication Technology
43. جنبش بین المللی پارلمانی برای دموکراسی, [International parliamentry movement for democracy :)) this sounds oxymoronic; what's this?]
44. انستیتو شبکه جستجو دموکراسی [no clue what this could be: institute of democracy search network?]
45. موسسه ریگا [no clue?]
46. Bergman Foundation
47. America's foreign relations committee
48. Germany's foreign policy committee
49. موسسه اسرائیلی ممری [how do you pronounce ممری??]
50. England's center for democracy studies [what's that?]
51. Meridian Institute (this is repeated twice, see item 28]
52. Yale University and all related departments [this is repeated again too, see item 27!]
53. America's national defense university [what's that?]
54. Center for Documentation of Human Rights in Iran
55. مرکز آمریکایی فلتا فعال در آسیای مرکزی قفقاز [No clue]
56. کمیته خطر حاضر [Committee of Immediate Danger?!?!?!?!?!?!]
57. Brookings institute
58. Saban center related to Brookings Institute
59. Human Rights Watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Okey, let's say, for the sake of argument, that the IRI is right to be paranoid about all those neo-conservatives, neo-liberals, neo-colonialists, pacifists, communists and capitalists who are secular and wear a democracy cloak. But, I wonder if they used to condemn HRW when they object to Israeli's violation of HR!!)
60. New American Foundation (again repeat, see item 22)

In addition to these 60 (notwithstanding the repeated items), cooperation with VOA, BBC, Radio Zamaaneh, Radio Farda, Radio Israel; plus collaboration with satellite stations of anti-revolutionaries such as MKO, Monarchists, Paris (what's this?], Rangarang, Canal One [what's this?], and internet sites such as Jaras (Green Path) (the only remaining news outlet of Iranian protestors) is considered illegal!!

What do I care?!

Recently, one of Iranian IRGC guards had announced that expat Iranians who act in political opposition to the burgeoning fascism in Iran should beware that they will be identified and harassed!

This post is for them:

Don't look for conspiracy; don't look for foreign supporters; don't look for sponsors; this blogger is not paid to blog about Iran; and she doesn't intend to EVER live in Iran; and the ONLY thing she cares about is Iran's culture and heritage, and doing all she can to protect it from Bush-Bombs and Talibanist destruction.

This blogger doesn't give a damn if Iran has nuclear bombs or not; doesn't give a damn if Iran has an Islamic regime or an atheist one; doesn't give a damn if Mousavi's pictures burn or Khomeini's; doesn't give a damn if Mousavi's a saintt or Ahmadinejad's the king ... all she cares about is Iran's cultural heritage, art, folk, language, and that deeply humanist nature of it all; that takes hits from idiots on the left and the right of the political agenda but transcends them all!

This blogger reacts to what is happening at her home; a place where she lived almost half of her life. She cheers on when her sisters, brothers, people who look like her, speak her language, love khoresht-e sabzi and abgoosht are happy, are prosperous, are creative and successful. And she cries when her brothers and sister, people who stand in lineups for Ashura nazri; who go to darakeh for laboo and kabaab, who sit at 7-sin for spring equinox, who resort to Hafiz when they fall in love are beaten to death, are put in prison and are called goat and sheep!

This blogger doesn't want to save the world, or save Iran; this blogger doesn't want to die for freedom, nor does she want to kill for freedom. This blogger cares about NOTHING but life; and is governed by nothing but nature. What she does, is to satisfy her duty to humanity, is the tax she pays on the fortunes life has blessed her with, she pays "zokaat-e danesh", the knowledge she has gained by her OWN curiosity, her OWN care, her own love for truth--Neo-Resistance is her personal account of a slice of this grand universe which she understands better than the rest of this great pie of world!

So, don't trouble yourselves; you won't find anything on me! What is funny is that fanatics of both sides think the other camp supports me! Such is the sad tale of IDIOCY that governs this world ...

By the way, if you are not good enough to understand my English, send me your email and I translate this for you! I don't want you mis-interpret my writing and cause yourselves and I trouble!

Now a word with my non-Iranian readers: I don't need you to cheer Iran on it's unravelling "revolution"; I don't want you to wish our "rebellion" success; I don't like it when you wear green symbols and act with more zeal than is of your business! What I wish you did is to just be aware of what is happening in Iran such that in your DEMOCRATIC systems, you can influence YOUR politicians to do the right thing vis a vis Iran. And the right thing is NOT imposing sanctions on the people and holding secret talks; and the right thing is to NOT allow Israel make threats on Iran while expecting Iran to disarm; and the right things is to not decontextualize what is happening in Iran, because you think Iran's connected to your life through the oil umbilical cord!