Ahmadinejad 'wins' again

[dunk]

Interesting post from gurgle tweet

European / US liberal market freedom mobile surveillance technology kills the "tweeter revolution".

* First off the workers of the Iranian state are moving to a general strike with or without mobile phones or youtube - the BBC or Canada.


* It is really curious how what ought have been obvious from the very onset - that the Iranian state counted on surveillance technology developed and supplied after much competition by listed public companies in the west - never merited a "article" or "info page" in our newspapers or on the BBC until yesterday.

Very curious that.

In other words since twitter accepted to play along with the soft power demonstration of the western alliance and extend its refresh pages, and despite there only being 2000 pre crises tweeter, facebook or other social network users in Iran, the whole word swallowing the notion of a "tweeter revolution" nobody amongst the press corp thought to ask -

If every single email, phone call, sms & fax goes through the US of America's NSA and for many years every phone call made in Ireland went through the British GCHQ Cheltenham - and even the poor (& I mean poor) Moldovans could archive all the tweets made during their "election protest crises" (C/F the case of Natalia Morar who was house arrested for supposedly starting a flash mob after the Moldovan elections in April Natalia Morar, the Moldovan Twitter Revolutionary, house arrest lifted. - Indymedia Ireland )

- 0then why didn't anyone bother telling the Iranians (via a tweet for example) that they really were heading into a cul-de-sac of Tech inspired Martyrdom but not immediately - nope - with time - later on - when we're not interested in the suffering of photogenic women whose veils slip off as they die on stage. How long with that be? In the case of Susan Boyle it was less than 28 days. & that is why I have used throughout my monitoring of twitter the comment author name "gurgle tweet". Guess what readers!? There are hardly any more tweets to read.

_________________________

at link the Chatham House, British Thinktank (riddled with MI6) report which honestly very convincingly provides data based on the 2005 election results, the Iranian census and the official 2009 election results are utter bollox. But the real danger as I have continuously highlighted in my comments this week is not to be found with Tehran young people who now wonder (As many of us do on occassion) what did they write in their text messages when all excited. Nope. The real manipulation of results came on the ethnic fringes of Iran. Read the pdf file from Chatham and pay attention to the irregularites in the areas of the Kurds, Lurs, Azerbaijani and the frontiers with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Related Link: http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files...ection0609.pdf

[dunk]

From democracy now

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was among the first world leaders to recognize the election and congratulate Ahmadinejad on winning a second term.

PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: [translated] We ask the world to respect Iran, because they are trying to influence the strength of the Iranian Revolution. We ask the world to respect the triumph of President Ahmadinejad. It was a triumph in every respect. They are trying to stain Ahmadinejad’s triumph and weakening the government and the Islamic Revolution. I know they are not going to achieve it. From here, we are sending our solidarity to the brotherly nation of Iran.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, that’s Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Your response, Professor Dabashi?

HAMID DABASHI: Now, listen. There are a number of issues. Number one, on the election, that the election was rigged is a social fact. People, millions of people, believe it was rigged. The three oppositional figures that are of three different colors believe it was rigged. People are putting their lives on the line that it was rigged. Already, people have been killed. There is no independent way of knowing. There are some statisticians that are looking at these numbers that are coming out suspiciously. But I think it is a moot question, is just an academic question, doesn’t mean anything.

Now, then, if you flash back to pre-election, there is an alliance, a regional alliance, for example, between Chavez and Ahmadinejad, or between—equally, Hassan Nasrallah has also—have come—Hezbollah has come to the support of Ahmadinejad, because if you look at the regional politics, the alliance between Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Mahdi’s army was something that we were sort of thinking that this is the situation before this election.

What has happened after the election, this young Iranian demanding the civil rights have thrown a monkey wrench at that regional arrangement. So, while I understand why is it that, because of his own regional concerns and geopolitics, Chavez and Nasrallah are coming to the aid of Ahmadinejad very, very swiftly, but the fact of the matter is that there is a significant proportion of Iranian society that is not only rich and upper-Tehrani and such that think this is rigged, number one. Number two, the question of this election is really the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. This is a pent-up anger that has been building over a very long time.

The other result—the question is that, up until this election, I even thought that domestic politics, national politics, has become irrelevant, that is, not out of how smart Ahmadinejad was, but how stupid Bush was. The arrangement—around Iran, the situation that President Obama has inherited, he can’t do anything in Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan without Iranian help. This is why he’s walking this tightrope. However, domestic Iranian issues have now emerged. That is, there is this generation that is very dissatisfied. They don’t want to topple the regime. This is where the left is going wrong—the right is going wrong. They simply want to secure their civil liberties. And they refuse to have their internal concerns, that ranges from unemployment to civil liberties, to be sacrificed to the regional politics.

[cactusflower]

Fine report on Democracy Now:

Hamid Dabashi on Iran Protests: “This is Not Another Revolution. This is a Civil Rights Movement”

This all seems to be speculation without any foundation in fact. The vast majority of Iranian youths don't have mobile phones. The demonstrations haven't been exclusively middle class, but the Green movement is almost entirely middle class.

[rhonda15]

Iranian Mullahs agreed to a request from President Ahmadinejad last year to fund a major escalation of Revolutionary Guards covert operations against the United States aimed at destabilizing the entire government of the United States with the idea of ending their democratic form of government and installing a religious government more friendly to Tehran, and enable Tehran to establish a power base in the Americas in order to more effectively project Iranian influence across the region and the globe, define and execute operations in that area, build Iranian military bases on US soil, and effectively secure most of the US resources for Iranian consumption and or profit.

Sy Hersh: Congress Is Funding Major Escalation in Secret Operations Against Iran | World | AlterNet

[Thac0man]

Of the 20 killed, 8 were basij. How many were shot by snipers? You have a great certainty that you know exactly what is going on in Iran. I don't have any such certainty. Chavez has had first hand experience of black flag shootings in demonstrations. There is plenty of room for doubt here.

Do you think the US doesn't know how to kill, abduct and torture people? Obama has just authorised doubling the size of Bagram to take over from Guantanamo Bay.

There is not a small difference between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. The critical thing is that Mousavi is in favour of privatising oil.

Chavez is proving himself to be a pigs a$$ in this instance. What experiance has Chavez of "black flag" operations in one of the most oppressive theocratic police states in the world? Or is his endorsement of that system of government just another re-evaluation of what "real democracy" is?


Chavezs whole hearted endorsement of the result that has yet to be officially announced is not something to be celebrated. Sorry, but this is one you can't pawn off on the US.

[Toland]

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[cactusflower]

Chavez is proving himself to be a pigs a$$ in this instance. What experiance has Chavez of "black flag" operations in one of the most oppressive theocratic police states in the world? Or is his endorsement of that system of government just another re-evaluation of what "real democracy" is?

Chavezs whole hearted endorsement of the result that has yet to be officially announced is not something to be celebrated. Sorry, but this is one you can't pawn off on the US.

Are you suggesting that the US has not been and is not involved in operations inside Iran?

[Thac0man]

Are you suggesting that the US has not been and is not involved in operations inside Iran?

Wait a second. Are you suggesting that for a second Mosavi is a US agent or working in tandum with the US? What other Iranian groups that have participated in the post election protests in Iran are US funded? Before you fly off to fairyland with the usual aplomb, perhaps you would care to furnish some facts. If you can't do that, and I strongly suspect you cannot, then address the issue in Iran, which seems to be a crises within the politcal establishment - the leaders of which are all authorised by the Ayotollah.

The Ayotollahs claims that the Western media are stirring things up in Iran are nonsense. There is a widespread media clampdown ontop of the already oppresive measures that curtail media access by the Iranian public. Other nonsense spouted by the Ayotollah simply does not measure up as its thread bare on actual facts or proof. Are you taking his claims at face value? You seem to be.

[cactusflower]

Post full of straw men Thacoman and I haven't at the moment got time to deal with them.

You didn't answer my question in my last post, so perhaps when you have...

The US of course love these people and the fact that they've kept natural resources to some extent in local hands.

Iran, Venezuela launch joint development bank | Iran News

Also, this useful article on Jundallah et al.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KF17Ak02.html

[cactusflower]

ABC News: Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran
This evening, ABC’s World News Tonight reported that the “United States has opened a new front in its showdown with Iran.” According to the report, President Bush has directed the CIA to carry out covert operations both inside and outside Iran “aimed directly at weakening the Iranian regime.”

ABC’s investigative correspondent Brian Ross said the CIA’s “non-lethal” program had received “secret presidential approval.” Officials told ABC the CIA plan “takes the place of proposed U.S. military action against Iran, reportedly advocated by Vice President Cheney.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/...n.320.240.flv]
The Blotter has more coverage:

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions.

[...]

“Vice President Cheney helped to lead the side favoring a military strike,” said former CIA official Riedel, “but I think they have come to the conclusion that a military strike has more downsides than upsides.”

The covert action plan comes as U.S. officials have confirmed Iran had dramatically increased its ability to produce nuclear weapons material, at a pace that experts said would give them the ability to build a nuclear bomb in two years.

Vali Nasr, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said “I think everybody in the region knows that there is a proxy war already afoot with the United States supporting anti-Iranian elements in the region as well as opposition groups within Iran. And this covert action is now being escalated by the new U.S. directive, and that can very quickly lead to Iranian retaliation and a cycle of escalation can follow.”

Think Progress ABC News: Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran



"The Central Intelligence Agency has received approval at least twice in the last several years to conduct an “information war” against several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Lebanon and Syria, according to current and former intelligence officials.In addition, the Bush Administration has been running operations out of the Defense Department that are not subject to Congressional oversight, intelligence sources say. These programs appear murkier, and have included support for an alleged terrorist group in Iran.

A recent ABC News report revealed that President George W. Bush had signed a presidential finding giving the CIA the authority to conduct “non-lethal” covert operations against Iran. Former and current intelligence sources tell RAW STORY, however, that there have been “at least two” presidential findings over the past few years which have empowered the agency to run an “open-secret” information war against Iranian interests, mainly leveraging resources and assets “within the United States and France.”

Although the resources – people, groups, organizations – were not identified, sources say that they are not terrorist organizations or groups using violent tactics to achieve their goals. “It's a propaganda operation,” said a former intelligence case officer who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the information. “It is not new or aggressive,” the source added, explaining that the operation has been going on for some time and has Congressional funding and oversight.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano would not comment about the allegations made in the ABC report or discuss the existence of the presidential findings identified to RAW STORY.

“The CIA does not, as a matter of course, publicly discuss allegations of covert action, whether the assertions are wrong, right, or somewhere in-between,” Gimigliano said. “That's one reason why the term ‘covert action’ still exists.”

“But it's important to remember that, through the Congress, there is vigorous oversight of secret intelligence activities,” he added.

According to current and former intelligence officials, the various presidential findings are not limited to Iran. Several countries within the Middle East – including Syria and Lebanon – as well as groups such as Hezbollah, are being targeted through what sources call “black propaganda” efforts.

Iran is being targeted by the CIA's activities with a “pro-democracy” message, sources say, and the agency is supporting overt “pro-democracy” groups.

The program’s particulars are highly classified. Intelligence sources stress, however, that the groups being used are rather mainstream and the operations are almost entirely restricted to information warfare.

Sources would not identify what mechanism was being employed to distribute the propaganda, if it included news media, individuals or organizations, or whether that information was seeping back into domestic news reports.

One former intelligence case officer did explain that the CIA's program is operating largely outside of the Middle East and is aimed at identifying potential allies, as well as using already existing well known groups through whom information can be delivered. The type of “information” and the “groups” and “organizations” involved were not identified.

ABC News may have reported the presidential finding as “new” because of the recently passed massive intelligence budget. Under the bill, roughly $50 million was appropriated for the “Democracy Fund” and the “Broadcasting Board of Governors,” both earmarked for Iran operations.

Sources close to the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence would not discuss any aspect of the CIA program or comment on anything relating to the presidential findings.

“This is an area I simply cannot get into,” said one source."


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...xt=va&aid=5903