oh you naughty naughty bloggers. . .
MSNBC
U.S. denies Iranian charges of meddling
Mousavi supporters back on streets, wearing black to mourn civilians killed
The Iranian government’s battle against protesters grew into a war of words with the United States, which denied Tehran’s charges Wednesday that it was fueling post-election demonstrations that have filled the capital’s public squares since the weekend.
Iran’s state-run Press TV quoted the government as calling Western interference “intolerable.” The U.S. State Department confirmed the English-language channel’s report that the Iranian government had summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to complain.
The two countries broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the State Department, told reporters in Washington that the United States was withholding judgment about whether last week’s presidential election was conducted fairly. He reiterated President Barack Obama’s insistence that Washington was not interfering in Iranian internal affairs.
Obama has been criticized by some Republicans for his muted reaction to developments in Iran. The president said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday that he shared the world’s concerns about the election but that he had to move cautiously because “the easiest way for reactionary forces inside Iran to crush reformers is to say it’s the U.S. that is encouraging those reformers.”
“What I’ve said is, look, it’s up to the Iranian people to make a decision,” he said. “We are not meddling.”
Deaths of protesters publicly mourned
Protesters took to the streets for a fifth straight day, this time wearing black to mourn the deaths of at least seven compatriots earlier in the week, after opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi issued a direct challenge to the country’s supreme leader and cleric-led system.
Mousavi, who maintains that he won Friday’s election, called for another mass rally Thursday to protest the election, which the government declared had been won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“A number of our countrymen were wounded or martyred,” Mousavi said via a Web site. “I ask the people to express their solidarity with the families ... by coming together in mosques or taking part in peaceful demonstrations.”
Mousavi’s supporters did not wait for Thursday, pouring into Tehran’s Haft-e Tir Square in defiance of a warning from the Interior Ministry, witnesses said. They were mostly dressed in black, with wristbands and headbands in Mousavi’s green campaign colors.
Most of the protesters, some holding pictures of Mousavi along with green balloons, were silent and making victory signs. One young woman held a picture of one of those who were killed during post-election violence.
Ahmadinejad returns home
Ahmadinejad, who has dismissed the unrest as little more than “passions after a soccer match,” returned to Tehran on Wednesday after attending a summit meeting in Russia that was delayed a day by the unrest. He held a cabinet meeting and went on state television to insist that the people had voted for his “policies of justice.”
A crackdown on dissent continued, with more arrests of opposition figures reported, and the country’s most powerful military force — the Revolutionary Guard — saying Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove any materials that “create tension” or face legal action.
The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has told Mousavi to pursue his demands through the electoral system and has called for Iranians to unite behind their Islamic government, an extraordinary appeal in response to tensions over the presidential vote.
But Mousavi appears unwilling to back down. “We want a peaceful rally to protest the unhealthy trend of the election and realize our goal of annulling the results,” Mousavi said Wednesday.
Mousavi and his supporters accuse the government of rigging the election to declare Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner. Their street protests, paired with dissent from powerful clerical and political figures, have presented one of the gravest threats to Iran’s complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged from the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Election tensions appeared to be spreading further into the Iranian political and religious classes — and even into the realm of sports.
Five Iranian soccer players, including captain Ali Karimi, wore green wristbands in an apparent sign of support for Mousavi at a World Cup Asian qualifying match in South Korea. State television showed the players wearing them for the entire first half, but the bands were gone by the time the second half started.
Blogs and Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been vital conduits for Iranians to inform the world about protests and violence. The Web became more essential after the government barred foreign media Tuesday from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations on the streets of Tehran.
A senior Iranian prosecutor told NBC News that anyone found guilty of “incitement” could face the death penalty.
But the unrest appeared to be reaching the government and the country’s religious elite.
Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, said widespread vote fraud had undermined the legitimacy of the ruling Islamic system and that "no sound mind" would accept the results.
“A government that is based on intervening in [people’s] vote has no political or religious legitimacy,” said Montazeri, who had once been set to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader until he was ousted because of criticisms of the revolution.
Meanwhile, the semiofficial ISNA news agency and the private ILNA news agency reported that scuffles broke out between two legislators in an open session of Parliament after they argued about the election. The clash followed a parliamentary committee’s meeting with Mousavi and a report from the speaker of Parliament.
To try to placate the opposition, the main electoral authority has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. The recount would be overseen by the Guardian Council.
Mousavi says the Guardian Council is not neutral and has already indicated that it supports Ahmadinejad. He and the two other candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad are calling for an independent investigation.
With the turmoil continuing, state media said Khamenei planned to deliver a sermon at Friday prayers, the most important religious address of the week — something he generally does only two or three times a year.
Opposition leaders arrested
Unlike the leaders of previous student-led demonstrations against the Islamic establishment, Mousavi has the ability to press his case with Iran’s highest authorities and could gain powerful allies. Influential clerics who have expressed concern about election irregularities include former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad.
Iranian TV showed pictures of Rafsanjani’s daughter Faezeh Hashemi speaking to hundreds of Mousavi supporters, carrying pictures of Khomeini and others.
The U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said several dozen noted figures associated with the so-called reform movement had been arrested, among them politicians, intellectuals, activists and journalists.
Saeed Leilaz, an analyst based in Tehran who is often quoted by Western media, was arrested Wednesday by plainclothes security officers who came to his home, said his wife, Sepehrnaz Panahi.
At least 10 Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election, Reporters Without Borders said, and a Web site run by former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said he, too, had been arrested.
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