FUTURE PLANS --Efforts focused at increasing non-violent civil disobedience in the society.
--Allah o Akbar during the nights
--Writing slogans on the walls and bills
NEWS --JARAS: "Participation Front of Iran" by releasing a statement, praised the attendance of green people of Iran in "22th of Bahman" demonstration. It acknowledged that the significant increase of the participants in this year demonstration as another sign for the intense presence of green movement's followers in the demonstration. It also asked the government to work for solving the problems based on the suggestions made by Mirhossein Mosavi in his last statement.
Full text of the statement will be published by the newsletter. --Nedaye Sabz Azadi: one of the fellows of Mirhossein Mosavi rejected the Fars news agency report of reveal of Mosavi's imminent travel to Tabriz. He stated that there was no plan for such travel at all.
--Kalameh: Mehdi Karrobi, participated in "22th of Bahman" demonstration in Iran. He joined the demonstration near "Sadeghieh square" and his supporters welcomed him in advance. After a while he has been attacked by the militia group. They carried the batons, tear gas and color bullets and attacked Mr karobi and his fellows severely. They beat the demonstrators and Mr karobi in particular and when Mr karobi wanted to leave the scene by a passerby car, the militia attacked the car and damaged it so much.
There is Video of people welcoming Karobi, attached to the newsletter. --Kalameh: Zahra Rahnavard had been attacked when she was participating in "22th of Bahman" demonstration in Tehran. The militia group attacked her by batons and punched her in head and back. People gathered around her to protect her from more attack and fortunately they helped her to escape. She had been attacked several times during last several months by militia groups.
--Kalameh: Mohamd Khatami participated in demonstration on Thursday. "Parlemannews" reported that peopled welcomed him by chanting in his support. After a while militia group attacked him and his supporters. He continued his way for some time but finally he decided to leave the demonstration to prevent further problem and probable harm to the ordinary people.
--JARAS: Fatemeh Karobi, Mehdi Karbi's wife sent a letter to Ali Khamenei the supreme leader of Iran and frankly criticized the present situation in the society. She told Mr Khamenei : do something for helping young people who are detained recently before it become late. Before any more "Kamran"s and "Mohsen"s being killed under torture of those irresponsible persons who hurt the reputation of the regime and Islamic state as well.
--Kalameh : "Associated Press" reported that there were serious limitations for reporters to work in Tehran and they were only allowed to report Ahmadinejad speech and there was no permission to work in the streets of Tehran. It also report the presence of anti government demonstrations in the street near the Azadi square where the pro government rally took place.
--Kalameh: Mohamadreza Khatami and his wife Zahra Eshraghi, the granddaughter of ayatollah Khomeini, have been arrested for a while by police during the Thursday demonstration but they have been released soon. Parlemannews site said that this was just for sake of their own security and preventing probable insult to them.
--SIC: Google earth weblog published a photo of azadi street in Tehran on Thursay which has been captured by IKONOS satellite from 423 miles distance at 10:47 in local time. In this picture there are many buses around Azadi squares which used to bring the pro government protesters while the crowd only occupied the north western part of square. At the same time the other streets are full of dissidents. Also "Citizen Tube" weblog mentioned the release of so many videos in Youtube just after the rally in Iran.
The photo of Google earth will be published with the newsletter. --Rahana: At the same time of "22th of Bahman" demonstration in Iran and other countries, Iranians who live in Malaysia gathered in front of the twin tower in Malaysia. This silent rally has been held by the invitation of green student of Malaysia and the Malaysian police behaved cooperatively.
--BBC: Shirin Ebadi, Noble Peace Laureate and human rights lawyer has asked for the speedy help from the international community to prevent the oppression of the Iranian people against its people. She, however, has opposed against the imposition of any kind of sanctions against Iran.
--BBC: Amnesty International has reacted to the new report of the Iranian Government to the UN about the situation of Human Rights in Iran. This organization has claimed that the Government's vision about this issue is far from reality and has accused the Government of manipulating the truth.
--Rahana: On 22 of Bahman, the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, the Iranians residents of Malaysia gathered in front of the twin towers of Malaysia. This was a silent demonstration that had been called by the Green Iranian students and was conducted with the cooperation of the Malaysian police.
--Deutsche Welle: BBC, Deutsche welle and VOA have condemned the Iranian government's interference with their satellite signals. They have demanded this to be stopped.
--Radio Farda: A number of human rights organizations have asked the human rights council of the UN to supervise the situation of human rights in Iran.
--Radio Farda: Three labor organizations in Iran, in a letter, have asked the council on human rights of the UN to pay attention to the situation of laborers in Iran. The labor union of the public transportation organization in Iran, the sugar-cane union of Haft-Tappeh and the Free Union of Iranian Workers, have asked for the abolition of capital punishment and the speedy release of the labor activists.
--Norooz: The former president of Iran visited Mohsen Aminzadeh yesterday. He was the vice president of the ministry of foreign affairs during the reformist era and was the head of the Reformist Alliance Campaign. He was freed from prison in the previous evening.
--Rahana: just before the anniversary of the Iranian revolution, 2 of the student activists from the Free University of Karaj have been prevented from attending their final exams and have been suspended of studying for a whole semester. These students are Ali Kazem-Zadeh, a civil engineering student, and Hamid Samimi, a student of Philosphy.
-- BBC: Pietro Masturzom, an Italian freelance photographer, has won the top prize in the year's "world press award". His photo shows Iranian women shouting on a rooftop in protest against election results in Iran.
-- BBC: While emphasizing on the necessity of international sanctions against Iran, Bernard Kouchner, the french foreign minister, emphasized on the fact that these new sanction should target the offcials in the government rather than the people of Iran.
-- VOA: NY Times in an article titled "cowardice and courage" states that Iranian officials wanted to use the Thursday's ceremony to show that they in fact have regained control and have garnered the support of people. However, a violent crackdown on the run-up to this ceremony against a non-violant and courageous opposition signals the exact opposite.
--Radiofarda: A group of international institutes of reporters, writers and publishers on Thursday, wrote a letter to the supreme leader of Islamic republic and asked for the release of at least 60 detained reporters and writers in Iran. Six well known institutes, " the committee of reporters' supports" , PEN, " the reporters without borders", " Canadian reports and supporters of free speech" and "the international association of publishers " start up a campaign for putting pressure on the government of Iran and releasing of detained reporters by the name of " our society will be a free society" . This campaign will continue until next spring in North America and Europe. The nomenclature of the campaign is based on of the Ayatollah Khomeini 's speech in 1978 in the middle of revolution in which he promised free speech and newspaper in next government.
NEWS OF THE ARRESTED --Radiofarda: News websites close to reformists have reported that several political and civil activists have been arrested by Iranian security forces in the cities of Tehran, Qazvin and Baneh. According to those reports, many individuals who had either been active in Mousavi's Presidential campaign in the Tehran area or were appointed as precinct monitors by Mousavi's campaign have been asked to report to a building in Baradaran-e-Mozaffar St. As reported by 'Neday-e-sabz-e-azadi' (a website close to the opposition), those who did show up were arrested and transferred to Evin prison.
--Radiofarda: Asghar Khandan, the retired member of the Revolutionary Guards and one of Mousavi's campaign activists in Tehran was arrested after being summoned to the Foreign Nationals Bureau of Iranian Police by the Ministry of Intelligence.
--Adwarnews: Seyyed Hasan Ahmadian, the Head of Mousavi's campaign's People's Committee, was sentenced to six years in prison and lifelong ban from founding [or heading] institutions, and conducting political and social activities.
--Norooz: Ebrahim Sharifpour, a member of the Participation Front [a major reformist party] and an activist in Mousavi's campaign in the Northwestern city of Baneh was arrested.
--Norooz: Tara Sepehrifar, who is a student activist in Sharif University of Technology and the Head of Sharif's Islamic Assembly, was arrested. [Islamic Assemblies are a group of reformist student political action groups having branches in all college campuses nationwide.]
--Norooz: Ali Shakourirad, Ahmad Shirzad and Elahe Koulayi, three prominent members of the Participation Front, and Ali-Mohammad Hazeri, the Head of the Coordination Committee for the Reformists Front were summoned to the Prosecutor General's office in Evin prison and were interrogated.
--Jaras: At least twenty-one femal journalists, artists and feminists have been arrested in the week leading to February 11. Some more women activists had been arrested immediately after the protests of Ashura as well.
--Rahana: Seven members of the Dar-ol-shafaei family are currently arrested in the Evin Prison. Yashar Dar-o-shafa (since Feb 4), Banafasheh and Jamileh Dar-ol-shafaei (since last week), their parents Safoura Tofangchihaa and Abolhasan Dar-ol-shafaei, and also Touran Kabiri and Kaveh Dar-ol-shafaei (since Feb 10) were all arrested after being called by the Ministry of Intelligence.
--Norooz: Former President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami paid a visit to Mohsen Aminzadeh, the Deputy Foreign Minister in his Administration and the Head of Reformists Coalition; Aminzadeh was released from prison at 1:30 AM yesterday.
NEWS OF THE ARRESTED --Rahana: Continuing illegal and strict measures against politically active students in universities across the country, Ali Kazem Zadeh (Civil Emgineering) and Hamid Samimi (Philosophy) were denied attendance for the finals this semester and also face another semester of suspension.
-- Jaras: A significant number of students in Shiraz are facing suspensions. Hamdellah Namjou, student in Shiraz University and the director of Mehdi Karoubi's campain in Fars province was arrested before Feb 11th by the security forces. He has been denied entrance to the university for a year now and had been arrested for two weeks last year and for one month during the summer.
-- Adwar News: On Thursday, the director of the International University of Imam Khomeni in Qazvin announced that about 30 students from this university are facing suspension or expulsion based on political grounds.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND WARNINGS On Friday, Mohsen Sazegara discussed the following issues in his daily broadcast:
1- Yesterday, which had one of the worst security environments of recent history in Iran, the people took it to the streets and described their demands by chanting slogans against the regime. These demonstrations that took place despite severe threats that the regime had made against the protesters, won prize for the people from the international community.
2- Comprehensive analysis of what happened yesterday will be provided later because the blockage of internet has delayed the delivery of most videos of actions that took place on February 11th. It is clear however, that in different cities extended protests and clashes between the people and the security has taken place.
3- The regime spent a lot of money and resources on staging a phony demonstration in Azadi square. They had to bus people in from other cities and even use the military personnel inside the barracks. This while the people were on the surface streets. The government-run nature of the staged protest and the courage of the people got a lot of world wide attention so did the fact that the government had prohibited all international news correspondents from covering anything but Ahmadinejad's speech. This was very embarrassing for the regime. Attacking and beating of Mr. Karroubi and Mrs. Rahnavard (Mousavi's wife) along with a short clip of security forces savagely beating a young man also received a lot of coverage in the international media and prompted the western government to show their concern with the situation and warn the Iranian government.
4-Google has announced that internet is being censured in Iran and some of their web features (including gmail) have been blocked by the government.
5-Some have asked me whether the events of February 11th have changed the balance of power of power in Iran or not. It is early to answer that question but it appears that we need more efforts to change the balance of power. The events of Ashura and Feb 11th (22nd of Bahman) show that the regime is not afraid of being delegitimized. Using the the days that this government officially recognizes as days of demonstrations and etc such as Ashura and 22nd of Bahman, to express our beliefs had been a good strategy for us. But now that the government is not concerned with its own legitimacy, doing such is not safe anymore and we have to shift to actions that make the country un-governable but are not as risky as massive demonstrations.
In his Saturday video broadcast, Mohsen Sazegara mentioned the following points:
1- International media's coverage of Feb. 11 protests in Iran continued yesterday; their main focus point was Regime's staged mobilization of its supporters by offering them free food and financial incentives. They also talked about state violence against protestors as well as the history of state violence in Iran. In short, Regime's attempt to stage a show [of unity and authority] was a big failure in the international arena. Google published satellite images of Azadi Sq. taken ten minutes prior to Ahmadinejad's speech. (The images are also enclosed.) Those images clearly show that the Azadi Sq is almost empty. There are also other satellite and camera images showing lines of buses parked beside the Azadi Sq and in neighboring streets. IRGC and Ahmadinejad Administration hoped that they could take a maximum 320,000 supporters from throughout the country to Azadi Sq. After the rallies ended, they have started a huge propaganda campaign competing with each other in exaggerating the number of Government supporters taking to the streets; however this has been a failed media campaign outside Iran and it seems that their only objective is to raise the spirits of their own supporters- especially Seyyed. Ali Khamenei the Supreme Leader.
2- Our fellow Iranians outside Iran are still holding protest in different parts of the world; their efforts have also gained extensive media coverage as well.
3- When we look back at Green Movement's performance on Feb 11, we can specifically point to two major points; the first point is the communication problem; the second point is the need for tactical flexibility amongst the active members of the Green Movement. We will discuss these points- along with some possible solutions- in our video broadcast tomorrow.
