« Taking airline security seriously | DOJ Voting rights chief fired. Prosecuted New Black Panthers »
PrintDecember 28, 2009
Iranian Military Moves to Support the 'People's Revolution'
In 24 hours, what has been labeled “street protesting” for new presidential elections has morphed into an earnest and violent revolution to overthrow the Muslim mullahs who rule Iran.
It is difficult to verify, but factions in the Iranian military may be breaking rank to join the people’s cause. A group calling itself the National Iranian Armed Resistance Forces (NIRU) posted a news release on an Iranian protest website at the end of the day’s violence.
We, a number of Officers, Soldiers and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, hereby declare our readiness for rise to the armed defense of our nation against the forces of the criminal, illegitimate, transgressing and occupying current Government of Iran, and hereby inform our brothers and sisters serving with the armed security forces of Iran, invite them to join us, request their support and ask them to provide cover for us in this moral & national act. A special request for support & cooperation goes to our brothers of the Military Police.
The NIRU says it intends to secure Iranian radio and television stations, the Parliament,and the courts, will hold local elections and referendums within 3 months and new presidential elections within 9 months, will dissolve the murderous “Basij” plainclothes police and establish a new national police force.
Protection and firepower from even a few factions of the military could signal a critical momentum change for the Iranian people, who by law cannot own weapons.
Complete coverage will be sparse in mainstream media outlets, as western media are not allowed any kind of meaningful access to the country, and their coverage was anemic at best.
PBS “Frontline” has a Tehran Bureau posting videos, picture and frequent updates, many of which are cell phone images sent via Twitter and immediately posted to Facebook pages and on YouTube. Videos showing protestors burning police cars, attacking police vans and releasing prisoners, breaking up sidewalks and throwing concrete at police are here. They are graphic.
A young man died from a head wound during a huge crowd rally in Tehran Sunday.
The bureau reports confrontations all Sunday in the cities of Tehran, Qom, Tabriz in northwest Iran, Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran and Shiraz in the south:
Iranian security forces opened fire on protesters during anti-government demonstrations on Sunday, killing at least nine people and arresting more than 300 demonstrators in what marked the largest and most violent anti-government protests in the Islamic Republic since the summer, according to witnesses, opposition websites and state media.
Thousands of Basij militia forces, police and anti-riot forces armed with guns, batons, pepper gas and tear gas clashed with protesters in squares throughout the Iranian capital. Protestors fought back fiercely, at times tearing out slabs of concrete from city sidewalks and smashing it to hurl stones at security forces, witnesses said.
Thousands of Basij militia forces, police and anti-riot forces armed with guns, batons, pepper gas and tear gas clashed with protesters in squares throughout the Iranian capital. Protestors fought back fiercely, at times tearing out slabs of concrete from city sidewalks and smashing it to hurl stones at security forces, witnesses said.
One of the dead is reportedly a nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the presidential candidate who is believed by the populace to be the true winner of the June presidential election.
Amnesty International reported 3 weeks ago that “human rights violations in Iran are now as bad as at any time in the past 20 years.” The agency found Iran has been allowing rape, torture and murder of at least 4,000 jailed demonstrators since last spring. Some citizens were tracked through their computer IP addresses and cell phone numbers and rounded up long after the demonstrations had been brutally quashed by the government.
The Sunday violence in Iran drew its inspiration from the heavy symbolism of the religious observance of Ashoura, coupled with the one-week anniversary of the death of a Muslim imam who was a harsh critic of the Iranian regime. If the Iranian military will get behind the brave people in the streets, this revolution may have a much better chance for success than it did last spring.
In the meantime, the President of the United States is golfing and goofing in Hawaii, much too busy to give news conferences to address terrorism on American jets or Iranians murdered by their own police as they fight for democracy.
The London Telegraph wrote Sunday evening: “Iranians are dying for Freedom—Where is Barack Obama?”
