Saturday, June 20, 2009

Iran's Day of Blackness In Perspective

I distinctly feel like I've been through this day before. June 20, 2009 has become a day to be likened with June 4, 1989.

I can't tell you where Barack Obama was on June 5, 1989, but I was with a college roommate in Arizona, where "Oh my god" was among the words as a wave of shock and revulsion swept around the world -- the Tiananmen Square massacre had just played out on TV. Other thoughts included, "that's all wrong," and "we've got to do something." I could tell more stories from that day, but it was the inception of the China Support Network.

Perhaps today, some U.S. college students somewhere are starting the Iran Support Network.

So, let's review: Who started the China Support Network? John Kusumi.
Whose whereabouts are unknown for June 5, 1989? Barack Obama.
Who's starting the Iran Support Network? It could be you.
Who's unlikely to join? Barack Obama.

Around 3pm today, I tweeted:  "As the Iranian government turns to violence, it loses moral legitimacy and authority. It is time for Obama to condemn the dictator(ship)."

I followed with another tweet: "I believe the U.S. President should be better than a spineless squid." Moments later, TeheranBureau tweeted: "Conf'd Iran Fatemiyeh Hospital Tehran: 30-40 dead as of 11pm; 200 injured. Police taking names of incoming injured."

I then learned that Barack Obama put out a three-paragraph written statement, an hour before my tweet. Let's look at that:

For Immediate Release                                        June 20, 2009

Statement from the President on Iran

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

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Well, two cheers for lip service that sounds high-minded. But, that's not enough for me to take back my "better than a spineless squid" tweet.

It is worth noting that the three-paragraph written statement was just that -- it was a tract of writing released by the White House.  The President still hasn't stepped up to a microphone, nor said those things on camera.  In other words, this matter was delegated for handling by staff.

Let's face it. Just as George H.W. Bush was an old crony and bridge partner with Deng Xiaoping....well, Barack Obama has been wagging his tail because he is very eager to meet and negotiate and engage in diplomacy with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent Iranian president.  That's a matter that would be conducted at the leader level -- it's a meeting that Barack Obama would not hand off to staff.

The U.S. White House has been the home of evil for 20 years, ever since the occasion of Tiananmen Square.  (On that day, it wasn't just China that lost its way -- that is also when America lost its way. Bush would not appear on camera until the next day, when he stepped into the press briefing room and uttered some mealy-mouthed insincerities.)

Barack Obama is the latest keeper of White House evil.  In that sick, twisted, reprehensible world view, civilians can take the hindmost: whatever the rulers dish out. John McCain hopped onto criticizing Obama on this issue before I did, but now that there's bloodshed beyond that of Monday, it's clear that the Iranian government is implementing a premeditated crackdown.

Civilians will get killed and hurt, and Barack Obama will get date night with Michelle. I swear, we ought to make a group, "United Civilians" to stand against evil, whether it comes from Beijing, Tehran, or Washington. Why shouldn't civilians look upon those three cities as THE REAL Axis of Evil?

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24 comments:

  1. Obama and his crew are probably quite delighted to see the destabilization and meltdown in Iran.

    But I think you have some of this backwards: we have much to re-learn from Iran and they have nothing much to learn from us- unless you think apathy and bowing to authority are useful.

    The US represents predatory and colonial power- no statement from our president encouraging the forces of freedom would be remotely credible.

    As individual people we may well want to cheer them on. But I'd hardly advise common cause with our war machine.

    Claudia

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  2. What is going on in Iran is staged. It's fake. It's a lie.

    The vast majority of people voted to keep Mousavi and his crony government of free-market sycophants out.... and this is what they are doing.

    They knew they wouldn't win the election, so they have been staging this crap for the past 8 days now, with fake "Twitters" being sent out "as if" they were coming from inside Iran.

    Many of them have been proven to be lies. Much of this crap is coming from Andrew Sullivan (former neo-con who helped lie us into the Iraq war) and Stratfor ("international intel service" that has been called the "shadow CIA")...

    Just like that fake video out there right now of that woman dying, this is all a scam to gin up support for a new OBAMA WAR...

    And I for one can see right through it.

    And so can many others.

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  3. Some were shot Monday... as it turns out the "dissidents" were in the process of attacking a barracks with rocks and Molotov cocktails...

    and the guards tried to shot them in the legs just to keep from killing them...

    and if you don't believe me, just go watch the video. It's out there....

    If they were actually shooting dissidents, would the proto-fascists need to stage a "victim" death scene like the one running around the tubes now?

    It's fake.

    The government there is showing a lot more restraint than our footsoldiers and the DNC and Republican conventions did last year.

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  4. Please adjust your tin foil hat. It has fallen forward and blocks your eyes.

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  5. Hi John- no I'm not your nemesis, and actually we agree for the most part. I do know we-the-people are not the government, sadly so. That's what I tried to make clear in my last paragraph.

    Obama IS a spokesman for the government, so there isn't much he can do but make things worse, and I'm sure he has every intention of doing just that.

    There is certainly nothing wrong with feeling solidarity for people who risk their lives for freedom. I'm with you there BUT:

    The US is a predatory power, and we as its population directly benefit. We are not as guiltless as you might imagine, guzzling up the resources plundered from the 3rd world. You and I may speak out and thus try to redeem ourselves, but most sit on their fat rumps or tire their thumbs tweeting platitudinous advice to people who have the cojones to stand up for themselves. We need to clean-up at home first, before we give advice to the world.

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  6. The truth about the dissident civilains is either TRUE in which case I grieve for their futile efforts as we know all too well the T-Square and K-State
    WTO scenarios.

    Or it is as advertised, the One World and Obama version of non-interference ala "Great MSM Performances"

    The youthful population should review some history carefully before deciding to cross that Rubicon, for once they accept the baubles and beads of the ORDER they'll have to pay the price of shopping at WalMart forever.

    John, I will be glad to join "United Civilians" but would be shouting the warning to avoid the same paradigm and devisiveness from which we have fallen prey to.

    I can't figure it out but I am leaning towards Iranian sovereignty and Ahmadinejad's version of "NOT FOR SALE" and replacing Tehran with the the City of London in that axis of evil.

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  7. In fact John... I would like you to try out a little test for me, would ya?

    I would like you to make a Molotov cocktail and get a friend with a video camera.

    Take 'em both down to your local police station (kinda like what happened in that video of that "oppression" you were talking about)....

    turn on the video camera... and I want you John to throw that Molotov cocktail at the police station (DISCLAIMER!! THIS IS A FACETIOUS JOKE>> DO NOT THROW ANYTHING AT POLICE STATIONS JOHN, YOU WILL GET HURT AND POSSIBLY HURT PEOPLE)...

    ... and then SEE WHAT HAPPENS.... see what happens John... or maybe you could just be honest enough to admit right now what you KNOW would happen.

    Give you a hint: we wouldn't need Twitters to know what happened to you, now would we?

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  8. I don't think Mousavi's foreign policy would differ all that much from Ahmadinejad's.....we really have no reason to think that it would. He does however represent the people's desire for a lessening of internal restraints on women and personal freedoms for all.

    That said, why would anyone in "our" government want him to win? They just want conflict and destabilization, confusion and repression.

    But don't give up on grass roots struggles against oppressive government. Just because they don't always succeed, sometimes they do. And when they do it is a testament to the character and fortitude of the people. And Iran's done it before, only 30 years ago.

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  9. i agree --and we should stay out of it alltogather---we have our own problems now --and all energy is needed here--information in this world is so twisted how can we make a rational decision from our vantage point---look how wrong we were after 911--and even our government will shoot dissidents--so we expected to see this and i for one new it would happen----but i say again at least the young and older peole have more guts than any groups in this country--i actually give the country credit for letting it go as far as it did-now what did the high cleric say yesterday about HILLERY--YA LETS SEND THE WIFE OF THE PRES. WHO KILLED A BUNCH OF CHILDREN IN THE WAKO COMPOUND---OBAMA BETTER FIND SOMEBODY ELSE TO TALK TO THE IRANIANS-WHEN THE TIME COMES

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  10. A few days ago I had a chat with my neighbors brother-n-law who is Iranian and now a US citizen and who has family that reside outside of Tehran.

    I asked how his parents were doing and how thing were going over in Iran. He said that it was crazy, and that voting for either Ahmadinejad or Mousavi was like voting for McCain or Obama. There's no difference. He did tell me that he knows that his conversations with his parents are being monitored. he said what use to take all of about two minutes to get through now takes close to ten.

    Regarding the demonstrations, this Raw Story piece was posted at Infowars.com. I respect Alex but despise bullshit!

    Tell me there are thousands of people in this video as they would like you believe.

    The story says that "Thousands" of Iranians took to the streets on Saturday, but yet only show us this video?

    http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/20/iranian-protesters-defy-ban-clash-with-police-in-streets/

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  11. i say again stay the fuck out of other countries politics and focus on our own ==if we would straighten out this evil government here-- the world will be far far far better off-

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  12. I also don't doubt that the Iranian government probably desperately did not want anybody to be killed. Because they know the PR game and they know the West strives for PR ammunition. Creates it in most cases. And for CIA cointelpro/ops to 'create' a few deaths is certainly right in the curriculum of the School of the America's playbook.

    In these days, no hypothesis is out of bounds..... especially when so much historical data clearly lays out the strategies involved.

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  13. Willy,

    check out this link we detailed analysis (reprinted) of just who twittered and where they twittered from.

    And yes, you are correct.

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  14. Can't believe I left out the link:
    http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1645

    on the deep politics forum.......

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  15. One of the really good articles on Iran is:

    Iranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax

    By Prof. James Petras

    Global Research, June 18, 2009

    “Change for the poor means food and jobs, not a relaxed dress code or mixed recreation... Politics in Iran is a lot more about class war than religion.”
    Financial Times Editorial, June 15 2009

    I very much recommend reading this to get an insightful view:

    www.globalresearch.ca

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  16. I am for a strong and vibrant Iran... steadfast in its resolute determination to resist the nwo. All people with any sanity want the nwo to lose. A decent federation of nations would suffice.. with autonomy and independence guaranteed for all. Including Iran. Especially Iran.

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  17. Wasn't the BBC caught portraying some pictures of 'dissidents' who were actually Amadinejad supporters?

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  18. “Change for the poor means food and jobs, not a relaxed dress code or mixed recreation… Politics in Iran is a lot more about class war than religion.”
    Financial Times Editorial, June 15 2009

    absolutely. Thanks for the link.

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  19. The What Really Happened website caught it first... The BBC has printed a retraction they called "What Really Happened".

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/06/what_really_happened.html

    I looked at the images closely the day WRH came out with the story (yesterday?) and though I didn't put the story up on my blog, I did think they were from the same Amadinejad rally....

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  20. Its funny, I've been covering this thing almost non-stop since late Saturday night - early Sunday morning and I have many of the WSWS and Charting Stocks articles that they mention in that forum up on my site...

    http://willyloman.wordpress.com/category/iranian-election-propaganda/

    I was expecting the CIA moles to start sniping demonstrators like they did in Venezuela, and I am very glad they didn't (yet?).

    In fact, as silly and phony as that fake death scene is, I'm damn glad to see it. I would really hate to see someone actually killed over this regime change propaganda. So though I point out the silliness of the video on my site, it's certainly better than the alternative.

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  21. Even poor oppressed wives want jobs their husbands (or themselves) and food for their kids. The vast majority of Iranians do appreciate Amadinejad for what he has done for them and their standard of living increase. Especially the working poor and lower middle class.

    and you may consider them in the same "status" as a domesticated animal... but I doubt they do, Claudia.

    The point is, who are we to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't "accept"? They voted, they chose. That's it.

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  22. "The point is, who are we to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t “accept”? They voted, they chose. That’s it."

    Right on Scott. Amen, end of story.

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  23. The economy deteriorated significantly under Amadinejad, perhaps for reasons other than him, but the economic strains and rise in cost of living are the fundamental basis for the unrest there right now. The very poor in rural areas may not be as much affected as those in cities however.

    And I was unfair to compare women's place in Iran to domesticated animals, tho that is true in many other parts of the Mid-East. In Iran they are just third or fourth-class citizens: firmly held behind everyone else.

    It is almost impossible for us in the US to have any view of events in Iran without projecting our own culture and values on them. And that is both presumptious and exactly what the CIA hopes we will do.

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  24. I hope all those people in Iran were not thinking about the US at all when they voted for the president of their own country.

    (And I don't think what Mousavi was or did years ago is quite applicable now: the stakes have changed and his wife is on the front line with him.)

    In the end, it is their country, and their choice. They have taken it into their own hands before and re-made it. I knew several students who left the US to go home and fight for their revolution and I've met several of the former-Savak ghouls who had to leave with the Shah, when it was over..........(actually there's quite a collection of former death squad leaders from Central America and SE Asia too all in No. CA.)

    But I can't so easily dismiss the servitude and oppression of half the human race. That's an issue that transends any election or country and won't be cured by a single revolution. And I have enough sense to know I wouldn't have lived to grow up in any other time or place. Most other women don't have that luck.

    (BTW Iran, not Israel, is the natural stronghold of the region it's been said. Which is why the forces of darkness are arrayed against them.)

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