I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that they've been backing the Ahmedinijad government.
They seem to like that whole 'death to....' business, don't they. Still, it's nice to have an hobby I suppose. But I can't help thinking their time would have been better spent over the past 30 odd years if they'd worried more about how they ran their society than how we run ours coz the truth is this crisis was a long, LONG time in the making.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMoM590ikEY"]YouTube - Iran cleric Rafsanjani calls for release of protestors[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbnw1pTY0H4"]YouTube - Green prayers(17 july 2009) ???????? ??? ????? 26 ??? 88[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k757G_X4RI"]YouTube - IRAN Tehran, Friday July 17. (26 Tir), Peoples Demonstration - 2[/ame]
They also chanted death to Chavez. It is more like a mockery of the government's death to X and Y, they are using the government's own slogans against the government's own allies. In short, they are taking a piss.
You miss the point. He doesn't make an equivalence between the police forces. He points out the hypocrisy as regards coverage.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj6sHBkLnps"]YouTube - 26 ??? ??? 1388 ??? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ??????‎[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=720jYz0rHVo"]YouTube - 2009-07-17_Tehran_Part 25[/ame]
Rafsanjani's translated speech from today... http://politicalannouncement.blogspot.com/2009/07/rafsanjani-speech-translated.html
Well, yeah but isn't the coverage different because what happened is different, in both scale and nature?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJyiy52mDq4"]YouTube - 17 July 2009 Rafsanjani's speech and people's support during friday prayer[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmFKULbfzyg"]YouTube - 2009 Iranian Revolution - Rafsanjani acknowledges the protesters July 17[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvTeqZNNI-Y"]YouTube - Rafsanjani in Tehran Friday prayer[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1P8LKQOcE8"]YouTube - Protesters return to Irans streets following Friday prayers[/ame]
First, this again goes out to pretty much every single international analyst and "non-Iranians" who bizzarely refuse to accept that they really don't know best and considered the whole thing to have died down! Andy, your post has a similar condescending tone but there are far more important issues than spending 10 minutes responding to your post. Hashemi's speech was as can be expected from a very shrewed politician, very cleverly delivered (people keep mentioning the fact that he is the sole survivor since pre-revolution; everyone else has either been killed/jailed by opposition/own people. On the face of it, he seemed not to have gone far enough. He made calls for unity and even mention of the missed opportunity by the Guardian Council in securing the people's trust (as opposed to blaming the Supreme Leader). However he did surprise most people and went further than expected. First, he called this a crisis whereas the official line is that it's just a few people! Secondly, he made mention of the political prisoners being freed, freedom of media and equal time given in the national TV. Thirdly, he in fact said that the important thing is the vote of the people which indirectly selects the Supreme Leader etc. and that voice needs to be respected. Fourthly, in contrast to the line taken by the Supreme Leader in saying it is now done and people should accept it, he in fact said people have been questioning this and their trust needs to be restored (in a slightly roundabout way he is standing directly against the Supreme Leader!). He basically said this is your last chance to do this right. Finally, a point that most don't seem to be picking on is him telling the demostration what to do. He mentioned that in Shah's time, what worked was the people on the streets making demands! It sounded to me like him saying stay on the streets people and that will work. Moreover, it is important as to what he did not say. At no point did he give his support to Khamenei or follow the "official lines". Let's not forget that Hashemi doesn't want the end of the regime and picked his words very carefully (this is also the official line of the opposition; not a revolution but a civil rights movement within the framework of the regime). He is trying to find a resolution and therefore decided to take a fatherly figure as well. But he is already taking a lot of abuse at the hands of the conservatives and their media. The chants against China and Russia are because they have been backing the regime and dealing with them. However, China is not so much the target yet. The reason for "death to China" was because of Hashemi making mention of the treatment of the Muslims there; again parallels could be drawn to the treatment of Iranian protesters. Death to Russia is a favoured slogan because Russia has been actively helping the regime, even with providing the security forces with expertise on how to deal with the demonstaters. However, the speech aside, this was a clever move by all those involved. Hashemi's presence as a backer of Mousavi and Mousavi and Karrubi's presence, was particularly important. It gave them a chance to joins the lines of the masses (effectively an invitation to rally when a permit is not being given). So the regime could not say no to people or break them up to prevent them from attending the Friday prayers and it gave the people the chance to gather up in massive numbers. Figures from reformist papers are putting the numbers at around 1.5-3.5 million people! Some Facebook rumours are putting the numbers even higher than 4 million! So simply, the fact that this rally was created out of this was beautifuly done! Mention should be made of some other distinguished individuals present including Yasser Khomeini - Khomeini's grandson I think and Abdollah Nouri - reformist cleric who hadn't attended Friday prayers in 11 years since getting beaten up by extremists; although he got a lot of abuse this time as well! Reports suggest that Karrubi got into a bit of kerfuffle too and his turban was knocked off. The best clip to have come out is the person with the loudspeaker shouting: "Death to England" and the crowd responding with "Death to Russia"; and he changes his chant to "The blood in our veins is a gift to the Supreme Leader" and the crowd respond with "The blood in our veings is a gift to the people".
Sorry dude. It's just bloody frustrating for those of us who witnessed the Iranian revolution, (on TV, at any rate), and thought at the time that there was no real logic or reason to how things were supposed to work. Anyway, carry on guys.
These were covered in some detail, (with a follow up discussion), on tonight's BBC2 'Newsnight' program. One of the fellas mentioned on there that things were continuing to flare up and that the crowds were using the Friday prayer's to get around the ban on gathering together in large numbers.
I am not one to blow my own horn but here is my previous post: Although, I pick up a lot of what I say from the ten thousand different analysis that I read/hear and end up discussing with various people! As for the Newsnight coverage, I think it was the one with two invited guests; one in London and one in DC. Well, the lady in London (Author of Lipstick Jihad) was talking a lot of crap. The guy from Carnegie Institute on the other hand was actually quite good. I disagreed somewhat with one of his final points but I can at least see why he would say that and it is an equally valid interpretation in the short time he had to explain it.