The Garab Chronicles

Hope IV

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Hope III

You can't arrest everyone.

You can try, but even if you wanted to, you'd have to work alot harder to in the dark. In the quest for absolute, obedient silence, it doesn't matter what kind of oil revenues you're sitting on. Attempting to go house-to-house, rooftop-to-rooftop, to round up the hundreds of thousands of men and women it would take to secure a false peace would bankrupt the hard-line clerics and the Revolutionary Guard faster than even the most nihilistic among them could stomach, even at the bargain price of $200 per thug, per day. The best you can do is direct enough brutality against a select few and hope that you've set a sufficiant example.

It doesn't work.

The poeple of Iran know this.

#neda #iranelection

Hope II

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Hope

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Bad To Worse

Anderson Cooper interviewed a man who'd managed to escape Iran after being jailed and tortured for 9 (yep, NINE!) years. His crime against Islam, according to the judge who sentenced him to death, was appearing on the cover of a magazine holding the blood-stained shirt of his friend after police shot him for protesting in the street.

This interview aired months ago, long before the current crisis that has engulfed the country. This time around, the government has arrested hundreds of protesters, and at yesterday's Friday prayers, hard-line clerics gave sermons calling for the merciless punishment and execution of many of those in custody for offending and attacking Islam. No word yet on exactly how one attacks a religion by protesting a fraudulent election, but I'm sure it's being scribbled into the fine print by some morally bankrupt Ayatollah as I write this.

Information out of Iran has slowed to a trickle, and all indications are that the Khamenei government's violent crackdown on all forms of dissent has had its immediate desired effect. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had maintained a low profile while last week's events played out on the streets he presumably governs, has even begun taking to the airwaves, calling once again for the destruction of Americans, Israelis, Leftists, and even Michael Bay, for destroying the Transformers franchise he so loved as a sexually repressed child (Michael Bay was not available for comment, though a representative has been quoted saying that Mr. Bay swung his abnormally large penis in the direction of an Ahmadinejad campaign poster and told the offending image to "suck it").*

On the other hand, while it's easy to watch the current situation with despair, there is hope in - and I reveal extreme geekdom by saying this - in knowing that the Empire had to strike back, before the Jedi could return.


*"Transformers 2" sucked donkey balls.

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One of the Best Tributes To Michael Jackson I've Seen Yet:

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Breakdown of a Police State

The Revolutionary Guard has recently threatened to enter the fray in Iran, and crush any and all threats to the current government. Al Jazeera put together this profile of the state's armed forces:

The events of recent days suggest that under Ahmadinejad's watch, power in Iran is slowly being transferred away from the once all-powerful clerics to the armed forces, which include the volunteer Basij militia responsible for most of the violence directed at the population in recent days.

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"A Bad Day In Iran"

From today's edition of The Rachel Maddow Show:

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Video and information coming out of Iran has slowed in recent days, as the government crackdown there becomes more violent, and Basij militiamen intensify their campaign of beatings, intimidation, and home invasions, while authorities continue to confiscate cameras and mobile phones from citizens on the street, lest they use them to document the horrors that now infect their daily lives.

However, in a country of roughly 70 million people, Iranians continue to find ways to outmaneuver government censors, and at great personal risk, manage to get images like these out of the country:

Mourning ceremonies for those killed since Iran's disputed June 12th election are set to begin tomorrow.



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This Is What a Guy Who Tortures People For a Living Looks Like:

Saeed Mortazavi, former judge, prosecuter-general, and all-around human rights nightmare, has reportedly been charged with handling the interrogations of demonstrators and opposition members recently arrested by the Khamenei government in Iran.

Best known for overseeing the successful interrogation of photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi in 2003 (she died in custody from skull fractures she sustained while in Mr. Mortazavi's care), this pillar of morality is also well known for overseeing previous government crackdowns on bloggers and journalists, as well as special prosecutions of women for the high crime of choosing attire that he deemed "immodest".  

Over 600 people have been arrested - aside from those who've been murdered - since Iran's supreme and spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, implemented a crackdown in an attempt to reign in hundreds of thousands of Iranians who've been protesting the suspect re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 12 days ago.

This comes in the midst of government attempts, through its state-run media monopoly, to pin the death of Neda Agha-Sultan on nebulous terror organizations, aspiring documentary filmmakers, and the British government.

The Guardian has since reported that Neda's family members have been forced from their Tehran home by authorities, who previously refused to hand over the young woman's body for burial, and denied her parents permission to hold a memorial service for the daughter they publicly butchered.

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