UPDATE AT TOP - More Info on Iran: BASIJ KILL A YOUNG GIRL ON THE STREETS OF TEHRAN

Top Post for awhile:

Apparently this young woman was shot in the chest, perhaps directly in the heart. According to this comment at YouTube: Pure brutality -- to let the world know! (Part II)

I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.

Warning: GRAPHIC



The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.

The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.

Please let the world know.

Pure brutality -- to let the world know! (Part I)
Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th

Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart.

This is the face of the Iranian Mullah regime. Watch her die. That is what they want, and that is what they do.

Obama had better not keep silent any longer.

This is enough ... ENOUGH!!!

Basij shot to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know."

CRACKDOWN IN TEHRAN--
The basij have their guns.

The protesters have their courage (and we see, in the video above, what their courage gets them at this poiint - ultimately, though, it may earn them their freedom).

Blog with interesting details about Iran protests:

Iran Rigged Election

Bits and pieces:
Tehran's Autoworkers and Bus Syndicate In Solidarity with People's Movement
According to several sources, since Thursday, 18 June, autoworkers at Iran Khodro - Iran's biggest auto company - have been on partial strike in solidarity with post-election protests.


I will participate in the demonstration...

Tomorrow is a big day. It may be my last day.I am writing these scattered sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and caught up in excitement. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. These words are dedicated to the children of tomorrow …”


Stay Strong This is video summary of Iran uprising in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential election. The video contains very violent scenes. Viewer discretion is advised.


site runs a steady twitter feed in the right hand side bar

Obama's 'soft diplomacy' brings dithering to spectacular heights:

World is watching, Iran told
Word on the street ... men pray after listening to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's sermon at Tehran University. Photo: AFP

Damien McElroy and agencies
June 21, 2009
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has warned Iran that "the world is watching" after its Supreme Leader ordered protesters to stop post-election demonstrations.

His warning came after Iran's Supreme Leader warned on Friday that further mass protests could end in "bloodshed" as demonstrators planned another rally for yesterday.

Ayatollah Khamenei issued the thinly-veiled threat in an uncompromising speech in which he said the result of the election would not be decided on the streets.

He used a speech during prayers at Tehran University to attack the West, especially Britain, and declare strong support for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardliner who was declared the winner of the poll.

"Street demonstrations should end," he said. "If they don't, leading politicians will be held accountable for the chaos.

"The result of the election comes out of the ballot box, not from the street.

"The candidates in the election should be very careful what they say and how they behave. If they want to break the law, they will be responsible for the bloodshed, for the riots taking place and for any form of unrest."

Ayatollah Khamenei blamed the street protests on foreign powers intent on destroying the Islamic regime. "Observe the hands of your enemies," he said. "There are hungry wolves ambushing us and removing the diplomatic cover from their faces. They are showing their real faces. And the most evil of them all is the British Government."

The attack prompted the Foreign Office to summon the Iranian ambassador in London for a dressing down.

President Obama told US broadcaster CBS: "I'm very concerned, based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made, that the Government of Iran recognise that the world is watching.

"And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and is not."

Previously President Obama has said he did not want to be seen to be meddling in Iran's affairs. But in a clear change White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the protests were "extraordinary" and "courageous".

The US House of Representatives and Senate voted overwhelmingly for a resolution condemning violence directed at supporters of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Protests began a week ago after officials announced that Mr Ahmadinejad had been re-elected as president with 63 per cent of vote. Mr Mousavi, who came second in the official tally, disputed the result.

The President's stance was backed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who has vowed to speak out against abuses in Iran.

"I believe it is right for us to speak out for human rights, to speak out against repression, to speak out in condemnation of violence, to speak out where a free media is prevented from doing its job and we will continue to do that," he said after an EU summit in Brussels.

On Tuesday Iran summoned British and Czech ambassadors to the foreign ministry in Tehran to protest against the reaction from London and the European Union to the post-election unrest.

"We are not the only country who is speaking out, the whole of the world is speaking out," Mr Brown said. "It is for Iran to show the world the elections have been fair."

Officials in Tehran took a cue from the Supreme Leader and made it clear that further dissent would be crushed. It remained uncertain if Mr Mousavi would climb down following a threat that the regime would unleash the Basij militia, a thuggish force set up to defend clerical rule.

Suicide bomber attacks Khomeini shrine in Iran

20 Jun 2009 14:37:13 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Suicide bomber kills self at Khomeini shrine- state media

* Police fire teargas at protesters

* Top legislative body says ready to recount 10 pct of vote

The updates at Twitter are coming at a rate of at least 600 every 5 minutes!

One of the updates I just saw but no way to verify:

Two reports coming from Tehran about helicopters pouring boiling water on protesters

A couple of earlier items at the above link:

9.45 am. A reader writes: "I'm keeping in touch with my relatives in Tehran. They have heard about the bomb blast at the Khomeini mausoleum. People say that this is most likely the government. The mullahs did something similar in August 1978 in Iran - They set a cinema in Abadan ablaze and blamed the Shah. That was the turning point of that revolution as the people began to see the Shah as ruthless."

9.37 am. Of course my first thoughts about the reports from the Khomeini shrine is that this is a classic fascist move. It's their burning of the Reichstag - a cover for the coming purge. Again: the Big Lie is the one they could be choosing. Who would believe that the Supreme Leader would bomb Khomeini's shrine? And it's timed to disorient the protesters. Of course, this is pure speculation on my part, and there could be any number of explanations. But it would fit the fascist nature of this coup perfectly.

Fellow IBA Contributor, Christine, comments:

Silence breeds contempt

In a society such as Iran (N Korea, China, cold war Russia, parts of Africa, egypt, jordan ect.) the balance between love and hate of america is precarious. In this, the technological age of knowledge, the people of the countries are becoming more and more aware of what the west has that they want. Freedom is on the top of the list.

Yet, they are still ruled by the iron fist of their oppressive rulers, still under the influence of generations of brainwashing and are torn between what there "societies" consider to be right and what they are reading, watching on television and hearing the west say is right.

Faced with this bombardment of messages, they continue to survive on a day to day basis in a need to make do with the life they are force to exist in. Yet, something will happen or someone will say something that will bring that yearning for better, for freedom to return. Itis during these moments, that the west's message needs to drown out the society's.

A good example is a drug user, who sells drugs to feed his habit and make a living. The drugs have his brain screaming for more, the customers are screaming for more and the money is damn good. But, the messages regarding the dangers to his body, the risk of death and the daily chance of going to prison, are there. They are difficult to ignore. But, not impossible.

As time goes on, a time or two of landing in the hospital and or prison, andd he has moments of reflection. But, the sreaming brain, customers and money win If, during those moments of reflection, the messages regarding the ill affects, a helping hand would have stepped forward, he quite well have been reformed. But they didn't. And now, he is either spending his life in prison or dead.

Obama looks at making a stand and encouraging the iranians as meddling. I see it as saving lives. And if the iranians are slaughtered, shut away under a military state, the tide will tip to the side of hating America. They will not forget.

But, Obama (America) is standing on the side of the regime in their time of reflection and need. The long history of the Iranian people's love of America could very well come to an end, due to obama's ill-fated plan to negotiate with Ahmadinejad, and his narcissistic belief in his power to coerce iran into giving up nuclear weapons.

His power of coersion would have been better used in the mission to finally free the Iranian people. And when the day comes, he fails to stop the nuclear fallout and millions are killed in iran, here and abroad, the blood will be on his hands. The Iranian people may never forgive and i never will.