Iran: The Nineth Day

KEEP. GOING. IRAN!!!
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As always, watch The Spirit of Man and Azarmehr blogs, Andrew Sullivan and Huffington Post, especially Nico Pitney, for updates. niacINsight is also invaluable. I'm adding Gateway Pundit to this list.
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Is Mousavi the new Gorbachev? If so, let's hope that what follows are not the new Yeltsin and Putin, but something far better.

"Mousavi says his call for annulment of the election and a revote, supervised by an impartial national body, "is a given right." The objective is nothing less than "to achieve a new type of political life in the country.""

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"Mousavi has in fact issued a manifesto for a new vision of the Islamic republic. The repression and disdain of the government has brought the opposition to a place they probably never dreamed of going. And no one knows where any of the parties are likely to go next."

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Neda's family denied use of mosque for memorial ceremony. That'll help the regime. For sure.
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Defiant, Iran's Mousavi urges more protests

"Mousavi made a veiled appeal to the security forces to show restraint in handling demonstrations -- a move likely to be viewed with deep suspicion by a conservative leadership that has vowed to use force wherever necessary to quell opposition."

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""In your protests, continue to show restraint. I am expecting armed forces to avoid irreversible damage," he added."

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"Mousavi said the mass arrest of his supporters "will create a rift between society and the country's armed forces""

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"Pro-reform clerics meanwhile increased pressure on Iran's conservative leadership.

Mohammad Khatami, a Mousavi ally and a moderate former president, warned of "dangerous consequences" if the people were prevented from expressing their demands in peaceful ways.

His comments, carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency, were implicit criticism of Khamenei, who has backed a ban on protests and defended the outcome of the election."

Sounds to me like he's trying to pry the loyalty of the security forces away from Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.
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Now there's denial that the British Embassy is taking in the injured. Could very well have been more regime propaganda meant to accuse outsiders with interfering.
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Watch the crowd surround and beat on a policemen. The swarming and beating is started by a woman!! Another daughter of Iran!


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Infighting amongst clerical establishment becomes very public.
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Journalists arrested and disappearing, 23 so far, apparently.
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Reza Pahlavi interviewed on Australian TV.
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Victor Davis Hanson lays out five reasons why Obama should speak out forcefully and five reasons why he hasn't. I particularly like the part about why he hasn't, and of those I particularly like #2:

"Obama himself is not comfortable with those abroad who emulate American values and seek to have the freedoms and rights we take for granted. The post-colonial industry mandates that the Other is a perpetual victim of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, and racism with justified grievances. Only elite American intellectuals of singular insight and empathy understand the calculus of the oppressed, and so, through apologies, accommodations, and concessions, they alone on our behalf can deal with an Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Ortega, Castro, Morales, Nasrallah, etc. But when we see a purple-finger election, a statue of liberty at Tiananmen, or the current Levi-clad, cell-phoning, English-placard-carrying Iranian grassroots resistance, all the above is rendered null and void. Obama wants to rise above his country; but when his country is not held in disrepute (as is true among the Iranian people), he is an actor without a role."

Indeed, massive protests in Iran in which its participants plead with the West, and with the United States in particular, for support is just too discombobulating for many on the hard left to process. Many will be hiding under their imaginary beds, ears covered, eyes shut, mouths mute or desperately trying to cook up stories to explain why what we are seeing is not what we are really seeing. After all, didn't the US topple Mosadeq's government? Didn't they install and support the Shah Pahlavi? I suspect this event will be a watershed for many of their wide-eyed little groupies who feel the cognitive dissonance as never before.
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In interesting article on the machinations of the clerical class.
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This one has literally made me cry.

"A reader who couldn't quite make out what her father was saying in the video understood after learning that her name is Neda. He sent in the transcript: "Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. (There is yelling and screaming.) Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"" 10:27 am

Neda's cruel and bloody death has become a rallying cry for the revolution. Neda will be with them.
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The people strike back at the Basij.
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BBC told to leave Iran - 9:32 am

Interesting analysis of province by province election results - 10:35 am

"- At a provincial level, there is no correlation between the increased turnout, and the swing to Ahmadinejad. This challenges the notionthat his victory was due to the massive participation of a previously silent conservative majority.
- In a third of all provinces, the official results would require that Ahmadinejad took not only all former conservative voters, and all former centrist voters, and all new voters, but also up to 44% of former reformist voters, despite a decade of conflict between these two groups.
- In 2005, as in 2001 and 1997, conservative candidates, and Ahmadinejad in particular, were markedly unpopular in rural areas. That the countryside always votes conservative is a myth. The claim that this year Ahmadinejad swept the board in more rural provinces flies in the face of these trends."

'Nuff said.