Rafsanjani's friday sermon on video

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Alireza Beheshti released

September 14, 2009
niacINsight

Top Mousavi advisor Alireza Beheshti was released from prison on Saturday.
Beheshti is the son of martyred Ayatollah Beheshti and Mousavi’s representative in the special committee investigating the abuse of prisoners. Morteza Alviri, Karoubi’s representative in the special committee who was also arrested earlier is still in prison. Here is more from PressTV:

A top adviser to Iran’s defeated presidential candidate-turned opposition leader, Alireza Beheshti, has been released after five days in detention. Beheshti, Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s top adviser, was freed on bail on Sunday, Tabnak reported. He is the son of the late Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, who was the head of Iran’s judiciary when he was assassinated together with more than seventy members of the Islamic Republic party in June 1981. Alireza Beheshti and Morteza Alviri, an aide to Mehdi Karroubi, another defeated presidential hopeful in the June 12 election, were arrested on Tuesday.

Meanwhile PressTV also reported:

The latest trial proceedings was held at Tehran’s Revolutionary courts on Monday morning, with the presiding judge asking the media not to report the names of the suspects from this round onwards. The fifth trial was scheduled for Monday, September 14, and held in Tehran’s public’s prosecutor’s office. The fourth trial session was held on August 25.

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Dr. Soroush

13 September 2009

Religious Tyranny is Crumbling: Rejoice!

"Abdulkarim Soroush"

The bloody wedding has ended and the fraudulent groom has left the bridal chamber.
The ballot boxes tremble and ogres dance in the dark.
The dead, in their white shrouds, stand and watch, and the prisoners clap with severed hands.
And, with a mixture of rage and hatred, the people of the world see off the groom.
The times weep openly and the republic sinks deep into blood.
Satan laughs, the stars dim and virtue slumbers.

__________________________________________________ ____________________________________

please use the link above to read official translation from this site

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Karroubi: “What have we become?”

September 14, 2009
niacINsight

An Iranian activist has translated Karroubi’s latest letter, on Twitter no less. (h/t Enduring America)
The end is particularly evocative when Karroubi asks, “Do they not know that at the end people will [make] their own judgement and will decide who is telling the truth?”

As you know, I as your servant have written several letters to the authorities about the post-election events. I could have never predicted that in the Islamic Republic, they would answer people’s peaceful demonstrations with batons and bullets. I witnessed the unthinkable on the streets and alleyways. I saw scenes that reminded me of my younger years.
As time passed, I heard the news of torture in the prisons and unthinkable acts in unnamed and unknown detention centres and unknown buildings and by unknown people. Detainees were treated with shameful and indecent acts, from making prisoners sit naked across each other, urinating on their faces, to releasing young girls and boys handcufffed in outskirts of the city. As though these were not enough, I started hearing reports of rapes. Three decades after the Revolution and two decades after Imam [Khomeini]’s passing, what have we become?
Read the rest of this entry »

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“Green Days” by Hana Makhmalbaf

September 14, 2009
niacINsight

Hana Makhmalbaf, a 21 year old Iranian director, brings the bloody street protests after June’s presidential vote to the big screen in the Venice film festival.
Her film, “Green Days,” focuses on the run-up to the election on the streets of Tehran and features interviews with ordinary young people, mostly supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. The film blends a fictional storyline with a reaction to the swirling events surrounding Iran’s disputed presidential election.
The film features raw footage of the swelling protests by Mousavi’s green-clad sympathizers after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner and their brutal repression by security forces. Some of the images were shot with mobile phones by the demonstrators, as the government imposed restrictions on independent and foreign media. Hana Makhmalbaf said she had to leave Iran after the vote because the government wanted to arrest her. She finished editing the film at a secret location in Italy to avoid Iranian censorship.
You can watch the full version of “Green Days” here

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More calls for Karroubi to be arrested

September 14, 2009

niacINsight

The following is a summary and analysis of an article in the infamous hardline newspaper Kayhan, which is close to the Supreme Leader and has a history of threatening Mousavi and Karroubi since the June 12 election. The following article was printed in Kayhan before Karroubi made his defiant statement today.

According to the hardline state newspaper Kayhan, the three-person special committee investigating claims of rape and sexual abuse by the security forces in the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian presidential election has delivered its report to the judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani, declaring Karroubi’s claims of widespread abuse completely baseless.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Rafsanjani’s clever call for Qods Day rallies

September 15, 2009
niacINsight

According to the pro-Mousavi website Jonbesh-e Rah-e Sabz, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani has artfully called for mass demonstrations of people on the occasion of International Qods Day. In his declaration, Rafsanjani asks Iranians to show solidarity with Palestinians by coming to the streets and rallying to their cause.
While the declaration makes no mention of the fragile domestic situation in Iran, it can be seen to have greater significance in light of the worsening relations between him and the Supreme Leader, as well as Rafsanjani’s earlier statement that he would resign from his posts if Karroubi were “harmed.” By showing his power to mobilize the people, he may be attempting to forestall possible future attacks against him and his family by the new government and its supporters.

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Special Dispatch - No. 2533September 14, 2009No. 2533

MEMRI: Latest News

On the Eve of Iran's Qods Day, Leading Iranian Cleric and Dissident Ayatollah Montazeri Calls On Clerics Countrywide to Come Out Openly Against the Regime

On the eve of Iran's annual Qods (Jerusalem) Day, September 18, 2009, which traditionally features mass demonstrations held by the regime, senior Iranian cleric and dissident Grand Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri called on all senior clerics in Iran's major cities - Qom, Mashhad, Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, and others (and also in Iraq's holy Shi'ite cities Najaf and Karbala), to come out openly against the regime and to use their influence to restore the power to the people.
In a letter sent to all clerics in Iran, Montazeri underlined that in order to exist, the regime required the legitimacy granted to it by the country's senior clerics. He said that the clerics' silence in light of the events of recent months were being interpreted by the public as consent to the injustice of the regime - which he called a "military rule," not the "rule of the jurisprudent."
It is safe to assume that Montazeri's call will have a significant impact on the upcoming Qods Day events.
The following are the highlights of Montazeri's message, which was also posted on his offcial website and on the Khandaniha.eu website: [1]

In his message, Ayatollah Montazeri came out against the regime, which he said had shed the blood of innocent civilians while committing human rights violations. Throughout history, he wrote, Iran's senior clerics had come out against the injustices and oppression of tyrannical regimes in Iran, and took pride in always standing up against them and defending the law and the rights of the people.
Montazeri appealed to the clerics, warning them that they bore a heavy responsibility as jurisprudents (maraje'). This, he said, was because in addition to their overall functions, they were responsible for defending the religion and for purging it of the deeds that this regime has been perpetrating in the name of the religion - deeds that are diametrically opposed to shari'a and to the goals of the Islamic Revolution.
Referring to the events of recent months following the presidential election, which he said included murder, oppression, and various human rights violations in the name of the religion and with the support of part of the regime's religious establishment, Montazeri called on the clerics to declare out loud that they oppose the regime. He said that instead of representing the voice of the people, the regime had brought about a most terrible situation of violence against defenseless men and women and of oppression, to the point of causing their shehada (deaths), in some cases in prison.
Montazeri pointed specifically to the regime's pressure on former presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, whom he called men of honor, and again appealed to the clerics, saying that it is their role and their traditional and historic responsibility to act in light of the deeds of the regime, which are counter to Islam.
He concluded by saying that the Iranian people is asking why the clerics are not coming out against the oppression and the injustice. He reiterated his call to the clerics to use their power, their ability, and their influence against the regime - because, he said, they know all too well that the regime requires their legitimization. The regime, Montazeri told the clerics, is exploiting you, and your silence makes you its collaborators.


[1] Khandaniha.eu, September 14, 2009.

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State-run propaganda surrounds Quds Day prayer

September 15, 2009
niacINsight

Three days before the important Quds Day’s ceremony in Iran, Iran’s state-run are organizing a concerted propaganda effort to mislead the public about who will lead the Friday Prayer in Tehran.
According to mowjcamp, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani has been expected to lead the Friday Prayer in Tehran on Quds day for nearly a week. Opposition leaders Karroubi, Khatami, and Mousavi have all confirmed their participation in the rally and Friday Prayer, which will mark the last Friday of Ramadan. However, IRNA and Fars (both pro-government news agancies) reported on Tuesday that the schedule has changed, and that hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami will deliver the important sermon. Additionally, President Ahmadinejad is planning to deliver a speech prior to the Friday sermon, though it was originally reported that he would do so at an alternative location, given that Rafsanjani would be in Tehran.
The rumors appear to be intended to spread confusion about the events surrounding the Quds Day prayer ceremonies, possibly contributing to the opposition’s lack of organization in planning demonstrations. Rafsanjani has yet to officially deny the claims that he will not in fact be delivering the prayer in Tehran.

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Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s grandsons arrested

September 15, 2009
niacINsight

According Emruz (reformist), three grandsons of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri were arrested on Tuesday evening near their house in Qom. The three, Mohammad Mahdi, Mohammad Ali, and Mohammad Sadegh Montazeri, are the sons of Ayatollah Montazeri’s oldest son.
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri recently asked the other Grand Ayatollahs support the opposition and to speak against “the violations that are happening under the name of religion.”

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Mousavi to attend Quds Day

September 15, 2009
niacINsight

According to the website Kaleme (associated with Mir Hossein Mousavi), Mousavi has officially confirmed his participation in the Quds Day celebration on the last Friday of Ramadan, September 18th.
Mousavi said, “Quds Day is the valuable heritage of Imam Khomeini, and also is the day of Islam and suppressed people, hence I will attend along with other Iranian people in this important ceremony, as the previous years.”