.Saturday: Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election
To supplement reporting by New York Times journalists inside Iran on Saturday, The Lede will continue to track the aftermath of Iran’s disputed presidential election online, as we have for the last several days. Please refresh this page throughout the day to get the latest updates at the top of your screen (updates are stamped with the time in New York). For an overview of the current situation, read the main news article on our Web site, which will be updated throughout the day.
Readers inside Iran or in touch with people there are encouraged to send us photographs — our address is: pix@nyt.com — or use the comments box below to tell us what you are seeing or hearing.
Update | 5:36 p.m. The Lede will be back with more updates tomorrow morning. Check the home page of NYTimes.com for any developments overnight in Iran. Thanks for all your comments and links.
Update | 5:32 p.m. Here are two articles from this weekend’s Week in Review on what’s happening in Iran: “A Struggle for the Legacy of the Iranian Revolution,” by Robert F. Worth and “Twitter on the Barricades in Iran: Six Lessons Learned,” by Noam Cohen.
Update | 5:30 p.m. ABC’s Lara Setrakian writes on Twitter that a source tells here “unrest today confirmed in Tehran, Esfahan, Rasht, & Shiraz.”
Update | 5:25 p.m. A contributor to the citizen journalism Web site Demotix writes from Iran: “I was beaten for taking photographs, which you can see.”
Update | 4:54 p.m. New York Times Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen was out on Tehran’s streets on Saturday and has filed this account of what he witnessed. Here is some of what he reports:
I don’t know where this uprising is leading. I do know some police units are wavering. That commander talking about his family was not alone. There were other policemen complaining about the unruly Basij. Some security forces just stood and watched. “All together, all together, don’t be scared,” the crowd shouted.
I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!”
Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “We want liberty!” accompanied her.
There were people of all ages. I saw an old man on crutches, middle-aged office workers and bands of teenagers. Unlike the student revolts of 2003 and 1999, this movement is broad. [...]
Later, we moved north, tentatively, watching police lash out from time to time, reaching Victory Square where a pitched battle was in progress. Young men were breaking bricks and stones to the right size for hurling. Crowds gathered on overpasses, filming and cheering the protesters. A car burst into flames. Back and forth the crowd surged, confronted by less-than-convincing police units.
I looked up through the smoke and saw a poster of the stern visage of Khomeini above the words, “Islam is the religion of freedom.”
Later, as night fell over the tumultuous capital, from rooftops across the city, the defiant sound of “Allah-u-Akbar” — “God is Great” — went up yet again, as it has every night since the fraudulent election, but on Saturday it seemed stronger.
Update | 4:49 p.m. The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau reports via Twitter that this message has been posted on a private Iranian listserv:
I received communication from Shiraz that there have been clashes in different parts of the city. What is notable about Shiraz is that the security forces have sometimes lashed out randomly at people who might only look like protesters.
Update | 4:33 p.m. As it passes 1 a.m. in Iran, several more video clips have been uploaded to YouTube that citizen journalists and opposition supporters say were shot on Saturday. This dramatic video is said to show riot police beating protesters at the university in the city of Shiraz:
Also reportedly shot on Saturday: this video shows what the person who uploaded it to YouTube says is the “street war” in Tehran today; this clip shows what one Iranian blogger says is demonstrators facing off against Basij militia members in Tehran; this clip was reportedly filmed by worried family members of someone out on the streets as members of the Basij militia attacked opposition supporters in Tehran this evening.
Update | 4:06 p.m. Gooya.com has more photographs of the clashes in Tehran today. Others from the same source have been uploaded to TwitPic, including this one:
Update | 3:52 p.m. Here is another video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, apparently showing the chaos on one of Tehran’s streets after the authorities blocked an opposition rally:
The constant refrains in the chants are “Allah-o-akbar!” (”God is great!”) and “”Marg bar dictator!” (”Death to the dictator!”).
As Borzou Daragahi explained in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, the first, religious chant that has become a rallying cry for the opposition in Iran this week, “harks back 30 years to the months before the Islamic Revolution. It was a way to reassure others that they weren’t alone in feeling wronged and enraged. Today it motivates people to attend the peaceful marches that have become the largest acts of civil disobedience in three decades.”
Update | 3:38 p.m. Here are two more photographs of Tehran on Saturday acquired by The New York Times:
Update | 3:28 p.m. Iran’s Press TV has revised its earlier report on the toll of a bombing in Tehran Iranian state media reported earlier on Saturday. Press TV now reports:
A terrorist bombing attack has targeted the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran, wounding three pilgrims at the site. The suicide bomber himself was killed in the blast that rocked the northern entrance of the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, on Saturday, IRNA reported.
The report added that two of the wounded are Arab nationals who suffered minor injuries. The third casualty was an Iranian citizen.
Press TV also says that the country’s IRNA news agency reports that “security forces arrested [the] main agents who orchestrated the riots on Saturday.”
Update | 3:15 p.m. This Flickr photostream has several images that appear to have been taken today of protesters in Tehran. Here are two of them:
Update | 3:09 p.m. The BBC has posted accounts from several eyewitnesses of today’s events in Tehran, including this one, from someone identified as Siavash:
I was part of the protest in Valiasr Square. When we got there, there were riot police and plain clothes guards shooting at people, I could see that people had been shot and were on the ground. There were also water cannons. We decided to head towards Azadi Square, and there were guards on motorbikes and attacking people with batons.
There were thousands of people out on the streets the police were using tear gas - the whole experience was terrifying. Towhid (Unity) Square looked like a battle ground.
There were lots of female protestors - I saw a guard attack one women and then she went back up to him and grabbed him by the collar and said ‘why are you doing this? Are you not an Iranian?’ - he was totally disarmed and didn’t know what to do but her actions stopped him.
There were no ambulances around - people were helping each other - helping the wounded - taking them to safety away from further attacks.
Another opposition supporter who contacted the BBC said:
We will continue to protest and we have several reasons to do so. First because we demand our rights. Second because were not afraid. Third - we will not be fooled. And fourth - in this way, the true face of this regime will be revealed to the whole world.
Update | 3:03 p.m. In Washington, President Barack Obama has responded to the violence in Iran, as The Times reports:
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Obama called the government’s reaction “violent and unjust,” and, quoting Martin Luther King Jr., warned again that the world was watching what happened in Tehran.
“We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost,” he said, adding: “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.”
Update | 2:55 p.m. Lara Setrakian, a reporter for ABC News based in Dubai, writes on her Twitter feed that sources in Tehran tell her that the nightly ritual of people shouting “Allah-o-akbar” into the night sky from rooftops and balconies in under way, but that it has a more furious edge tonight:
“People are very angry…they are screaming like a banshee…this ain’t aloha akbar anymore”
This afternoon, the BBC posted this remarkable video, apparently shot earlier in the week, of what those shouts sound like in Tehran.
Update | 2:52 p.m. More remarkable and very disturbing video has been uploaded to YouTube, apparently showing in real time what five minutes looked like on the streets of Tehran on this afternoon (WARNING: near the end of this video, protesters carry the body of a man who has been shot and killed):
Based on a street sign visible at one stage, this video appears to have been shot on Shadmehr Street, not far from Azadi Square in Tehran.
Update | 2:33 p.m. Confirming what we’d heard from Iranian bloggers earlier today, Reuters reports that an ally of Mir Hussein Moussavi says that the opposition leader addressed a rally in Tehran today and said that he is “ready for martyrdom.” Reuters adds:
Mousavi also called on Saturday for a national strike if he is arrested, a witness said. As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded out across northern Tehran for nearly an hour, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution against the Shah. [...]
“In a public address in southwestern Tehran, Mousavi said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path,” a Mousavi ally, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone from the Jeyhun street in Tehran.
A witness to the address said Mousavi, center of protests unprecedented in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic, appeared to anticipate action against him.
“Mousavi called on people to go on national strike if he gets arrested,” the witness told Reuters.
Mousavi demanded the elections be annulled.
“These disgusting measures (election rigging) were planned months ahead of the vote … considering all the violations … the election should be annulled,” Mousavi said in a letter to the country’s top legislative body.
Update | 2:22 p.m. The BBC reports that, “A BBC correspondent at Enghelab Square said he saw one man shot and others injured amid a huge security operation involving thousands of police.”
The BBC adds: “A column of black smoke is hanging over the city center, our correspondent says.”
Update | 2:19 p.m. The video of a young woman who was apparently shot in Tehran today has been uploaded to many Web sites and Facebook pages this afternoon. One of our readers comments:
Make special note of that unarmed innocent Girl shot and bleeding from her mouth, nose, eyes, ears…..hundreds of copies just went up on Youtube.
The tide of the ‘79 revolution was turned overnight by a similar front-page photo of a Soldier at point blank range shooting an un-armed protester.
Update | 1:45 p.m. CNN has aired a very graphic and disturbing video clip which was uploaded to YouTube and Facebook on Saturday, showing a young woman who has been shot, bleeding profusely. (WARNING: Please be advised before you click on the link below that these are truly horrifying images.)
On both Facebook and YouTube, the video comes with this explanation, written by someone who says that he was present when this video was shot and describes what it shows: (Note: Since this post was originally written the video clip in question has been removed from YouTube; another clip of the same incident can be found here as of 11:46 a.m. Eastern.)
Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran’s Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.
Again, we have no way of knowing when or where the video was shot, or if this reader’s account is accurate, due to the intense restrictions on first-hand reporting imposed on the press inside Iran.
Update | 1:35 p.m. We are monitoring Press TV’s Web site, not its broadcast, so if any readers have seen what YouTube footage the Iranian satellite broadcaster is airing, please let us know.
Press TV’s Web site does have this report on what it called Saturday’s “illegal rally” in Tehran:
Despite warnings by Iranian police, protesters have staged an illegal rally in Tehran to cry foul over what they call ‘vote-rigging’ in Iran’s presidential election.
Police used batons and water canons to disperse the protesters who gathered near Tehran’s Enqelab Square on Saturday. Sporadic clashes were reported between security forces and the protesters.
Update | 1:11 p.m. The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau reports that Iran’s Press TV is “reportedly showing YouTube footage of what it called “today’s rally.” Several news organizations, including CNN, the BBC and The Guardian have pointed to this YouTube video which was uploaded on Saturday, with a caption saying that it shows a rally in Tehran today:
It is not clear if this video was shot today or earlier in the week. If it was shot today, given what we have seen of the severe security crackdown, it shows that the opposition movement has not yet been completely contained.
Update | 12:54 p.m. An update posted on the Twitter feed Mousavi1388, which has been a reliable source of information this week, says that the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi has said:
I am prepared For martyrdom, go on strike if I am arrested
Here is a very rough, English translation of the letter Mr. Moussavi sent to Iran’s Guardian Council on Saturday, demanding that the election be annulled, via Google Translate. The Farsi original of the letter is posted on Mr. Moussavi’s Web site, which is illustrated with a photograph of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Update | 12:48 p.m. Iran’s Press TV, which is a state-controlled English-language broadcaster, now reports a bombing in Tehran has killed two and wounded eight:
Two people have been killed and eight others have been injured in a bombing attack on the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran. The suicide bomber was also killed in the blast that rocked the northern wing of the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, on Saturday, Tabnak reported.
The injured pilgrims have been taken to hospitals.
Update | 12:42 p.m. Reuters reports that Mir Hussein Moussavi has again demanded that the election results be invalidated:
Iran’s defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi in a letter to the country’s top legislative body Saturday insisted the June presidential election should be annulled, his website said.
“These irritating measures (election rigging) was planned months ahead of the vote … considering all the violations … the election should be annulled,” Mousavi said in the letter.
Update | 12:19 p.m. Demotix, a photo agency for citizen journalists, has more photographs of today’s events in Tehran, including this image, which we found earlier on TwitPic after it has already been posted online by Demotix:
Demotix has posted several more images of today’s clashes in Tehran shot by the same citizen journalist, including this one:
Update | 12:01 p.m. CNN’s citizen-journalism Web site iReport has posted these two video clips with a note saying that the person who submitted them says that they were shot on Saturday in Tehran near where the opposition rally was to have taken place:
the video was shot at 4:13 local time in Tehran, Iran. Demonstrators on Enghelab Avenue were trying to march to Azadi Square. … they were stopped by the police and army guards.
Update | 11:40 a.m. These photographs, which an Iranian blogger says were shot today in Tehran, were uploaded to TwitPic 30 minutes ago:
Update | 11:32 a.m. A source in Iran tells the Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau:
As of an hour or 2 ago, I feel like I’m in a police state for the first time.
Update | 11:23 a.m. More From Shiraz, by way of our reader gb’s mother:
My mom is again stressing that the protesters were totally peaceful not even chanting when they were attacked. My mom’s friend said she saw right in front of her that a plain clothes person hit this young man with a baton so hard that the baton broke.
Another friend that lives in Daneshjoo Square (the place the protests took place) said that plain clothes police came to their homes this morning and told them they are not allowed to let any of the protesters seek refuge in their houses or they will be held responsible.
Update | 11:10 a.m. CNN reports:
Uniformed and plainclothes police were deployed around Revolution Square, the site of a major planned demonstration, and traffic was being turned away on a major thoroughfare leading to the square, a witness said. The forces confronted demonstrators who tried to avoid the thoroughfare and take side streets toward the square. Clashes erupted as forces used clubs to beat back protesters.
Periodically, groups of armed police would fire rifles into the air to disperse protesters along the side streets near Revolution Square. Cell phone service was brought down after 5:30 p.m. in the area, witnesses said.
Responding to reports of a suicide bombing in Tehran on Saturday, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who is outside Iran, said that it is possible that an anti-regime militant group, like the Mujahedeen Khalq, might try to take advantage of the protests in Iran to stage an attack. Given the restrictions on the foreign press in Iran, at the moment we should stress that there is no way of telling if a bombing really did take place in Tehran today — or, if it did, who might have been responsible.
Update | 10:58 a.m. An Iranian reader, using the alias gb, writes that he has heard from his mother in the city of Shiraz, where similar scenes are apparently playing out on the streets:
From Shiraz, My mom said the protesters were just walking in silence from Daneshjoo Square to Eram Square then the plain clothes men on motorcylces started going in the crowd and in the side walks and told the crowd to disperse.
When the people didn’t disperse they started shooting in the air. My mom said that then people dispersed and she doesn’t know if anyone was hit or not.
Update | 10:52 a.m. Here is the live stream for BBC Persian TV’s Farsi-language broadcast. At the moment their reporters seem to be studying the Internet for clues, like other foreign media organizations barred from reporting first-hand on events in Iran.
Update | 10:44 a.m. The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau reports on Twitter that a contact in Tehran says:
some forces are refusing to attack the people, but basij and special forces are attacking people
Update | 10:40 a.m. A blogger we’ve been following, who appears to be one of the opposition activists and was silent all day Saturday, has resurfaced to write on Twitter:
today the world can see why we want our freedom from fascists
tonight to the streets - for freedom
Update | 10:35 a.m. This video, of what Iranian bloggers say are clashes on Saturday between opposition protesters and security forces in Tehran, has been uploaded to YouTube:
Update | 10:29 a.m. BBC’s Jon Leyne notes from Tehran that there is no evidence yet to support the reports from Iranian government-controlled news organizations of a suicide bombing in Tehran.
Update | 10:15 a.m. BBC Persian uploaded this video to YouTube on Saturday, apparently showing violent clashes and shooting on the streets of Tehran. NOTE: An Iranian blogger writes that the date of this video is unconfirmed and the BBC itself has not yet posted this video on its main, English-language Web site. It is possible that it shows clashes earlier in the week — and in fact looks quite like the clashes that took place at the Basij base on Azadi Square on Monday. When we have more information on this video we will share it.
We cannot embed the video, but here is a screen shot of its opening image:
Update | 10:11 a.m. Reuters reports that an Iranian news agency says that the bombing in Tehran on Saturday at a highly symbolic site was carried out by a suicide bomber:
A suicide bomber blew himself up near the shrine of Iran’s revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Tehran on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
“A few minutes ago a suicide bomber blew himself up at the shrine,” Mehr quoted a police official, Hossein Sajedinia, as saying. Two other people were wounded in the incident in the northern wing of the shrine, another news agency, Fars, said.
Update | 10:06 a.m. This video, said to be of today’s events on Tehran’s streets has been uploaded to YouTube:
Several of the bloggers who have had accurate information this week on the protests say that this video was shot today.
The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau, filtering reports from inside Iran, says that this video was shot near Azadi Square, where there is a base of the Basij militia.
Update | 10:00 a.m. The report on Press TV’s Web site about the bombing has expanded from a headline to this one sentence:
Two people have been hurt as a blast hits near the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in south Tehran.
One of the biggest problems for Iran’s current leadership is that many of the figures leading the protests played a central role in the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. As we mentioned earlier, any kind of bombing would be out of keeping with their promises to reform rather than overthrow Iran’s system of government. But a bombing at this symbolic site might make it easier for the regime to justify a crackdown on the protests or discredit them as the thin edge of a violent revolution.
Update | 9:56 a.m. Agence France-Presse reports:
TEHRAN (AFP) — One to two thousand protestors have gathered in front of Tehran University, which is close to the site of a mass rally planned on Saturday, a witness told AFP.
And police fired tear gas and used water cannons to break up the crowds gathering near Enghelab Square, the site of the rally, the witness said. The witness said number of Basij militia were also deployed around the rally site.
Update | 9:54 a.m. The BBC has this report from an anonymous correspondent on Tehran’s streets:
I’m in the centre of Tehran close to Enghelab Square where the demonstration was supposed to have been held. But there’s a huge security presence here, thousands of men from every possible service: police, revolutionary guard, military police, the riot police in full riot gear, and the much-feared Basij - religious paramilitaries who see themselves as the shock troops of the Islamic revolution.
It’s impossible for any groups of people to get through these to Enghelab Square and hold their demonstration.
If this continues and the opposition can’t find some way around fierce security then the protests against the results of the presidential election will have been defeated.
Update | 9:40 a.m. A blogger who has been reliable this week writes on Twitter that there have been many arrests in Tehran on Saturday and points to unconfirmed reports of shooting in Azadi Square.
After Monday’s rally in Tehran, opposition supporters were shot outside the Basij militia base near Azadi Square.
Update | 9:35 a.m. The Associated Press reports from Tehran:
Eyewitnesses contacted by The Associated Press say the protesters gathered in central Tehran in open defiance of the cleric-led government.
They say a crowd of 3,000 chanted “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to dictatorship!” near Revolution Square in central Tehran before police used the tear gas and cannon.
Update | 9:20 a.m. Iran’s Press TV has a breaking news headline: “Two People Hurt in Tehran Blast.”
The Associated Press reports that the Iranian government-controlled English-language broadcaster is reporting that an explosion at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has wounded two people.
A bombing at such a site would be out of keeping with the peaceful protests, led by politicians who were close to Ayatollah Khomeini, that have been held all week by opposition supporters, but it would be entirely in keeping with the warning from Iran’s authorities that protesters are providing cover for violent plots against the regime organized by foreign governments.
As The Lede reported last week, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute last year Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence produced and broadcast this public service announcement warning Iranians that Western pro-democracy movements were really covers for violent anti-government plots hatched in the White House.
Update | 9:16 a.m. The BBC has a good map of central Tehran, showing the location of the two squares were the opposition had planned to rally today, in Enghelab (Revolution) Square and Azadi (Freedom) Square.
Update | 9:13 a.m. A blogger who appears to be inside Iran or in close touch with people at the opposition rally writes that clashes are taking place and protesters are chanting against the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
HARD conflict between the people and the Special Guard. people: down with khamenee
Heavy clashes on azadi street, chants of death to khameni! The street is full of rocks and fire.
Update | 9:08 a.m. An Iranian reader of The Lede, who has been speaking talking to family and friends in Tehran and Shiraz, writes that they say the Basij milita force is on the streets of both cities:
My mom in Shiraz says that the Basij are every where like ants. But they’re still going.
In Tehran friends have said it’s like there is a Basij on a motorcycle every 4 meters from Enghelab square to Azadi square.
Update | 9:05 a.m. Both The Associated Press and Reuters report that tear gas has been used to disperse thousands of protesters in Tehran:
TEHRAN, June 20 (Reuters) - Iranian riot police used tear gas on Saturday to disperse demonstrators protesting in Tehran against a disputed presidential election, a witness said.
Smoke was rising over Enghelab (Revolution) Square, where supporters of defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi had gathered in defiance of a ban on protests, the witness added.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Witnesses: police using tear gas, water cannons to disperse thousands of protesters in Tehran.
Update | 8:57 a.m. According to eyewitness reports to CNN, Iranian security forces may be blocking the opposition supporters attempting to rally:
A few thousand people attempting to enter one of the protest sites in Tehran have been blocked by heavily armed police, an eyewitness said. [...]
Police were in two of the Tehran squares where the major demonstrations were to be held on Saturday. About 200 heavily-armed police officers massed Saturday afternoon at Freedom Square in Tehran, the site of one of the two demonstrations, a freelance journalist said. Hundreds of armed, uniformed police were also at Revolution Square, and no demonstrators were there. The journalist said that it was “very dangerous to try to take pictures.”
Update | 8:51 a.m. NBC News reported earlier that large groups of people were gathering in central Tehran. According to a report from Reuters police are in the streets and at least one of the opposition candidates has said the rally is off:
Police blocked off an area near Tehran University where supporters of opposition candidates had aimed to assemble at around 4 p.m (7:30 a.m. EDT), a witness said. A police commander said earlier that his forces would deal firmly with any further street protests over the June 12 vote. [...]
The Etemad-e Melli party of losing candidate Mehdi Karoubi said plans for the rally had been scrapped for lack of a permit. “Because of not obtaining permission, the rally today has been canceled,” a party spokesman told Reuters.
Update | 8:45 a.m. A report from Iran’s Press TV, a satellite channel controlled by the government, says that one of the conservative challengers to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has also contested the election results, did attend a meeting on Saturday with the clerical body investigating the results. Press TV confirms reports that the two reformist candidates did not take part in the meeting:
The defeated presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaie has attended a Guardian Council extraordinary meeting, while Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi failed to take part. Three defeated presidential candidates were invited to the meeting to discuss their complaints about the poll results.
The opposition has rejected the Guardian Council’s partial recount plans, since they contend that they are not quibbling over a few wrongly counted ballots but claiming that the entire election was flawed. Despite their objections, Press TV reports that the authorities are apparently pressing ahead with the Guardian Council recount of some ballots:
The Council has said it is ready to recount a random 10 percent of the ballot boxes in the last Friday’s presidential election. “Although the Guardian Council is not legally obliged … we are ready to recount 10 percent of the (ballot) boxes randomly in the presence of representatives of the candidates,” the electoral watchdog’s spokesman, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodayi said on Saturday.
Update | 8:33 a.m. A blogger who appears to be writing from Iran has uploaded to TwitPic the same images of riot police on Tehran’s streets we saw earlier. Here is one of the photographs:
That blogger’s latest update in English on Twitter reports:
special guards confronted with people, attacked them with batton dispersed them into small ally ways
Update | 8:31 a.m. The BBC’s Jon Leyne reports from Tehran that there were very confusing signals about what the opposition leaders plans were for today: “reports said first that Mr. Mousavi would be making a statement - which still has not been delivered - and then an aide to Mr. Karoubi said his party had canceled the protest.”
Update | 8:26 a.m. Matt Weaver writes on The Guardian’s live blog from London:
The BBC’s Jon Leyne, in Tehran, admitted on the World Service that he cannot tell if the rally is actually happening, because of the restrictions on reporting. The Guardian’s reporters in Iran are in no position to comment either.
Despite all the statements about the revolutionary impact of citizen journalism, it appears that the Iranian government’s crackdown on foreign media organizations is ensuring that much of what happens on Tehran’s streets today may go unreported. During Monday’s rally, television reporters were able to film the rallies and report from the crowd. Today we are entirely without that kind of information.
Update | 8:24 a.m. As we try to piece together reports of what is happening in Iran’s capital, a reader writes to say he has heard that the authorities are more firmly in control in other parts of the country:
People keep asking about the smaller cities in Iran. Why are they quiet? Because they can control them a whole lot better. From Zanjan (population about 1 million) people are saying that there’s just too much control.
Update | 8:15 a.m. A fresh update in English from the blogger we cited minutes ago says:
The police asked people before the basijis conflict with them Became dispersed
This is in fact very similar to the automatic translation we managed to get of the blogger’s previous update in Farsi. It may be a sign that the blogger is using machine translation to produce these English updates.
The blogger’s latest update says that people are moving in groups towards Azadi Square.
Update | 8:11 a.m. One the bloggers we have been following this week, who appears to be writing from inside Iran and has been a reliable source of information on the protests, has started posting updates after a long silence today. Here is the most recent update in English:
Police guard are all the streets of Tehran. Streets full of the population
The same blogger is also writing in Farsi. According to a rough automatic translation from Google Translate, the blogger wrote minutes ago that the police have asked people to disperse, warning that if they do not the Basij paramilitary force may attack them.
Update | 8:08 a.m. The Guardian’s Matt Weaver, blogging from London, reports:
An unconfirmed Tweet from a usually reliable source says Mousavi is walking from his Ettelaat office to the Ministry of Interior and that 10,000 people are with him.
He also points to these photographs posted online, dated today by the blogger who posted them, showing riot police in Tehran.
Update | 8:04 a.m. Last night one blogger apparently writing from Iran noted President Obama’s remarks to CBS News on Friday that “the whole world is watching” by taking note of the middle name he shares with Mir Hussein Moussavi:
Hossein Obama - The world is watching
Update | 7:59 a.m. According to the BBC, Mr. Moussavi and Mr. Karroubi, the opposition leaders who have disputed their vote totals in the presidential election, did not attend a meeting they were invited to by Iran’s Guardian council, the clerical body that agreed to a partial recount of ballots:
Mr Mousavi had been expected, along with fellow challengers Mr Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai, to discuss more than 600 objections they had filed complaining about the poll at a meeting of the Guardian Council, which certifies elections, on Saturday.
But neither Mr Mousavi nor Mr Karroubi attended the meeting - which suggests, our correspondent says, they have abandoned their legal challenge to the election results.
State TV quoted the Guardian Council as saying it was “ready” to recount a randomly selected 10% of ballot boxes.
It had previously offered a partial recount of disputed ballots from the election, rather than the full re-run of the election demanded by protesters.
Update | 7:58 a.m. An Iranian reader of The Lede writes:
There will be blood shed no matter what. If at this point people keep quiet, there are films and photos and everything. They will go around, arrest people by large and small groups and then on by one, they will torture and kill people.
We in Iran remember and the world should know:
Shortly after the revolution even with a such a popular mandate they still felt threatened. They executed and tortured anyone they felt was the least threat. There are going to be elections in 4 years. So what do you think is going to happen? That they are just going to let something like this happen again.
No! They will crack down so hard, and they will do it when the world isn’t looking anymore, they will crack down so hard as to mark a lasting memory on this generation too.
Update | 7:50 a.m. Just over 30 minutes ago, a Facebook page in the name of Mr. Moussavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, also said the rally would go ahead.
Update | 7:43 a.m. A blogger who appears to be relaying information from inside Iran reports that sources in Tehran say the rally is going ahead:
People going to Enghelab in larg numbers and growing rapidly. police there but not doing anything.
enghelab sq and the streets are filled with police and plain clothes with batons in hands
the cell phones in Enghelab district are disconnected
CNN reports that sources say that armed police are in two of Tehran’s squares.
Each day so far the reports we’ve seen first in text from bloggers connected to events in Iran have been followed by photographs and video documenting the rallies. If anyone sees images of today’s events, please let us know.
Update | 7:40 a.m. Iran’s Press TV reports that the authorities are saying that Mr. Moussavi will be responsible if there is bloodshed on the streets today:
Iran’s Security Council has warned defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi against ‘the consequences’ of backing street rallies.
“It is your duty not to incite and invite the public to illegal gatherings; otherwise, you will be responsible for its consequences,” Iran’s Security Council, a body affiliated with the Interior Ministry replied Mousavi’s letter in which he had criticized the law enforcement forces for failing to prevent attacks on protestors during the street rallies.
“It is your responsibility to prevent the public from attending such rallies instead of making accusations against the law enforcement,” it added.
“We believe this is an organized network which is most probably affiliated to foreign-related groups and deliberately disturbs the peace and security of the public. Of course we have already ordered the law enforcement forces to deal with the issue,” read the letter.
Mousavi had said the assailants, who appeared ‘along with the law enforcement forces’ during street rallies, have disturbed peace and security by attacking demonstrators and vandalizing public property.
Update | 7:37 a.m. Last night a blogger apparently writing from inside Iran reported that SMS service in the country had suddenly sprung back to life. He then warned in two Twitter updates that the signal could be used to track opposition supporters:
Advice - your location can be identified from mobile signal - + delete all sms after sending in case u are arrested.
Advice - remove sim and use mobile to film ANY violence or attak against Sea of Green
Update | 7:34 a.m. An update to a Facebook page, apparently set up by supporters of Mir Hussein Moussavi, says the rally is on:
The CRUCIAL Demonstration on Saturday 16:00 in Tehran and all around the world, please spread this message around
Update | 7:26 a.m. For the first time since the protests over the election results began in Iran, several of the bloggers who seem to be writing from inside the country are silent on Saturday on their English-language Twitter feeds. What that means is unclear. A source inside Iran told The Lede on Friday that none of the opposition supporters interviewed at the last large rally in Tehran, on Thursday, said that they had found out about it through Twitter. Word of mouth and SMS text messages seem to be more important inside Iran, while updates posted on Twitter may be primarily about keeping the world outside the country informed.
Since the authorities have warned of a harsh response to any rallies today, bloggers in the opposition may just be keeping quiet in advance of today’s scheduled rally.
Update | 7:17 a.m. It is unclear whether an opposition rally, scheduled to begin in a few minutes, will take place in Tehran. State television in Iran reports that permission for a rally by a reformist clerical body was denied and that group announced it would not defy the ban, but several news organizations and bloggers supporting the opposition say that the rally will go ahead.
The BBC reports:
A key rally against Iran’s presidential elections will go ahead - in defiance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - opposition sources say. The wife of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, and an aide to another rival candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, said the rally would go ahead. Mr Mousavi later announced he would be making a statement imminently.
Police warned they would arrest the leaders of any protest rallies, which they said would be illegal.The warning follows a demand from Ayatollah Khamenei on Friday that street protests should cease.
Reuters cites a statement from an aide to one of the defeated election candidates suggesting that the rally will go ahead, even if Mr. Moussavi has not officially called for it:
“The demonstration plan has not been canceled and accordingly it must be held this afternoon,” said the aide to liberal cleric Mehdi Karoubi, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded an end to street protests. [...]
At their last rally in Tehran on Thursday, Mousavi supporters held banners saying they would gather again two days later at around 4 p.m. But an ally of Mousavi said the moderate politician had not called for people to take to the streets on Saturday or Sunday.
His supporters may decide to show up anyway, as they did in their tens of thousands last Tuesday despite a call by Mousavi for them to stay home.
NYT - The Lede Blog
Readers inside Iran or in touch with people there are encouraged to send us photographs — our address is: pix@nyt.com — or use the comments box below to tell us what you are seeing or hearing.
Update | 5:36 p.m. The Lede will be back with more updates tomorrow morning. Check the home page of NYTimes.com for any developments overnight in Iran. Thanks for all your comments and links.
Update | 5:32 p.m. Here are two articles from this weekend’s Week in Review on what’s happening in Iran: “A Struggle for the Legacy of the Iranian Revolution,” by Robert F. Worth and “Twitter on the Barricades in Iran: Six Lessons Learned,” by Noam Cohen.
Update | 5:30 p.m. ABC’s Lara Setrakian writes on Twitter that a source tells here “unrest today confirmed in Tehran, Esfahan, Rasht, & Shiraz.”
Update | 5:25 p.m. A contributor to the citizen journalism Web site Demotix writes from Iran: “I was beaten for taking photographs, which you can see.”
Update | 4:54 p.m. New York Times Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen was out on Tehran’s streets on Saturday and has filed this account of what he witnessed. Here is some of what he reports:
I don’t know where this uprising is leading. I do know some police units are wavering. That commander talking about his family was not alone. There were other policemen complaining about the unruly Basij. Some security forces just stood and watched. “All together, all together, don’t be scared,” the crowd shouted.
I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!”
Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “We want liberty!” accompanied her.
There were people of all ages. I saw an old man on crutches, middle-aged office workers and bands of teenagers. Unlike the student revolts of 2003 and 1999, this movement is broad. [...]
Later, we moved north, tentatively, watching police lash out from time to time, reaching Victory Square where a pitched battle was in progress. Young men were breaking bricks and stones to the right size for hurling. Crowds gathered on overpasses, filming and cheering the protesters. A car burst into flames. Back and forth the crowd surged, confronted by less-than-convincing police units.
I looked up through the smoke and saw a poster of the stern visage of Khomeini above the words, “Islam is the religion of freedom.”
Later, as night fell over the tumultuous capital, from rooftops across the city, the defiant sound of “Allah-u-Akbar” — “God is Great” — went up yet again, as it has every night since the fraudulent election, but on Saturday it seemed stronger.
Update | 4:49 p.m. The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau reports via Twitter that this message has been posted on a private Iranian listserv:
I received communication from Shiraz that there have been clashes in different parts of the city. What is notable about Shiraz is that the security forces have sometimes lashed out randomly at people who might only look like protesters.
Update | 4:33 p.m. As it passes 1 a.m. in Iran, several more video clips have been uploaded to YouTube that citizen journalists and opposition supporters say were shot on Saturday. This dramatic video is said to show riot police beating protesters at the university in the city of Shiraz:
Also reportedly shot on Saturday: this video shows what the person who uploaded it to YouTube says is the “street war” in Tehran today; this clip shows what one Iranian blogger says is demonstrators facing off against Basij militia members in Tehran; this clip was reportedly filmed by worried family members of someone out on the streets as members of the Basij militia attacked opposition supporters in Tehran this evening.
Update | 4:06 p.m. Gooya.com has more photographs of the clashes in Tehran today. Others from the same source have been uploaded to TwitPic, including this one:
Update | 3:52 p.m. Here is another video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, apparently showing the chaos on one of Tehran’s streets after the authorities blocked an opposition rally:
The constant refrains in the chants are “Allah-o-akbar!” (”God is great!”) and “”Marg bar dictator!” (”Death to the dictator!”).
As Borzou Daragahi explained in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, the first, religious chant that has become a rallying cry for the opposition in Iran this week, “harks back 30 years to the months before the Islamic Revolution. It was a way to reassure others that they weren’t alone in feeling wronged and enraged. Today it motivates people to attend the peaceful marches that have become the largest acts of civil disobedience in three decades.”
Update | 3:38 p.m. Here are two more photographs of Tehran on Saturday acquired by The New York Times:
Update | 3:28 p.m. Iran’s Press TV has revised its earlier report on the toll of a bombing in Tehran Iranian state media reported earlier on Saturday. Press TV now reports:
A terrorist bombing attack has targeted the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran, wounding three pilgrims at the site. The suicide bomber himself was killed in the blast that rocked the northern entrance of the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, on Saturday, IRNA reported.
The report added that two of the wounded are Arab nationals who suffered minor injuries. The third casualty was an Iranian citizen.
Press TV also says that the country’s IRNA news agency reports that “security forces arrested [the] main agents who orchestrated the riots on Saturday.”
Update | 3:15 p.m. This Flickr photostream has several images that appear to have been taken today of protesters in Tehran. Here are two of them:
Update | 3:09 p.m. The BBC has posted accounts from several eyewitnesses of today’s events in Tehran, including this one, from someone identified as Siavash:
I was part of the protest in Valiasr Square. When we got there, there were riot police and plain clothes guards shooting at people, I could see that people had been shot and were on the ground. There were also water cannons. We decided to head towards Azadi Square, and there were guards on motorbikes and attacking people with batons.
There were thousands of people out on the streets the police were using tear gas - the whole experience was terrifying. Towhid (Unity) Square looked like a battle ground.
There were lots of female protestors - I saw a guard attack one women and then she went back up to him and grabbed him by the collar and said ‘why are you doing this? Are you not an Iranian?’ - he was totally disarmed and didn’t know what to do but her actions stopped him.
There were no ambulances around - people were helping each other - helping the wounded - taking them to safety away from further attacks.
Another opposition supporter who contacted the BBC said:
We will continue to protest and we have several reasons to do so. First because we demand our rights. Second because were not afraid. Third - we will not be fooled. And fourth - in this way, the true face of this regime will be revealed to the whole world.
Update | 3:03 p.m. In Washington, President Barack Obama has responded to the violence in Iran, as The Times reports:
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Obama called the government’s reaction “violent and unjust,” and, quoting Martin Luther King Jr., warned again that the world was watching what happened in Tehran.
“We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost,” he said, adding: “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.”
Update | 2:55 p.m. Lara Setrakian, a reporter for ABC News based in Dubai, writes on her Twitter feed that sources in Tehran tell her that the nightly ritual of people shouting “Allah-o-akbar” into the night sky from rooftops and balconies in under way, but that it has a more furious edge tonight:
“People are very angry…they are screaming like a banshee…this ain’t aloha akbar anymore”
This afternoon, the BBC posted this remarkable video, apparently shot earlier in the week, of what those shouts sound like in Tehran.
Update | 2:52 p.m. More remarkable and very disturbing video has been uploaded to YouTube, apparently showing in real time what five minutes looked like on the streets of Tehran on this afternoon (WARNING: near the end of this video, protesters carry the body of a man who has been shot and killed):
Based on a street sign visible at one stage, this video appears to have been shot on Shadmehr Street, not far from Azadi Square in Tehran.
Update | 2:33 p.m. Confirming what we’d heard from Iranian bloggers earlier today, Reuters reports that an ally of Mir Hussein Moussavi says that the opposition leader addressed a rally in Tehran today and said that he is “ready for martyrdom.” Reuters adds:
Mousavi also called on Saturday for a national strike if he is arrested, a witness said. As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded out across northern Tehran for nearly an hour, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution against the Shah. [...]
“In a public address in southwestern Tehran, Mousavi said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path,” a Mousavi ally, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone from the Jeyhun street in Tehran.
A witness to the address said Mousavi, center of protests unprecedented in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic, appeared to anticipate action against him.
“Mousavi called on people to go on national strike if he gets arrested,” the witness told Reuters.
Mousavi demanded the elections be annulled.
“These disgusting measures (election rigging) were planned months ahead of the vote … considering all the violations … the election should be annulled,” Mousavi said in a letter to the country’s top legislative body.
Update | 2:22 p.m. The BBC reports that, “A BBC correspondent at Enghelab Square said he saw one man shot and others injured amid a huge security operation involving thousands of police.”
The BBC adds: “A column of black smoke is hanging over the city center, our correspondent says.”
Update | 2:19 p.m. The video of a young woman who was apparently shot in Tehran today has been uploaded to many Web sites and Facebook pages this afternoon. One of our readers comments:
Make special note of that unarmed innocent Girl shot and bleeding from her mouth, nose, eyes, ears…..hundreds of copies just went up on Youtube.
The tide of the ‘79 revolution was turned overnight by a similar front-page photo of a Soldier at point blank range shooting an un-armed protester.
Update | 1:45 p.m. CNN has aired a very graphic and disturbing video clip which was uploaded to YouTube and Facebook on Saturday, showing a young woman who has been shot, bleeding profusely. (WARNING: Please be advised before you click on the link below that these are truly horrifying images.)
On both Facebook and YouTube, the video comes with this explanation, written by someone who says that he was present when this video was shot and describes what it shows: (Note: Since this post was originally written the video clip in question has been removed from YouTube; another clip of the same incident can be found here as of 11:46 a.m. Eastern.)
Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran’s Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.
Again, we have no way of knowing when or where the video was shot, or if this reader’s account is accurate, due to the intense restrictions on first-hand reporting imposed on the press inside Iran.
Update | 1:35 p.m. We are monitoring Press TV’s Web site, not its broadcast, so if any readers have seen what YouTube footage the Iranian satellite broadcaster is airing, please let us know.
Press TV’s Web site does have this report on what it called Saturday’s “illegal rally” in Tehran:
Despite warnings by Iranian police, protesters have staged an illegal rally in Tehran to cry foul over what they call ‘vote-rigging’ in Iran’s presidential election.
Police used batons and water canons to disperse the protesters who gathered near Tehran’s Enqelab Square on Saturday. Sporadic clashes were reported between security forces and the protesters.
Update | 1:11 p.m. The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau reports that Iran’s Press TV is “reportedly showing YouTube footage of what it called “today’s rally.” Several news organizations, including CNN, the BBC and The Guardian have pointed to this YouTube video which was uploaded on Saturday, with a caption saying that it shows a rally in Tehran today:
It is not clear if this video was shot today or earlier in the week. If it was shot today, given what we have seen of the severe security crackdown, it shows that the opposition movement has not yet been completely contained.
Update | 12:54 p.m. An update posted on the Twitter feed Mousavi1388, which has been a reliable source of information this week, says that the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi has said:
I am prepared For martyrdom, go on strike if I am arrested
Here is a very rough, English translation of the letter Mr. Moussavi sent to Iran’s Guardian Council on Saturday, demanding that the election be annulled, via Google Translate. The Farsi original of the letter is posted on Mr. Moussavi’s Web site, which is illustrated with a photograph of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Update | 12:48 p.m. Iran’s Press TV, which is a state-controlled English-language broadcaster, now reports a bombing in Tehran has killed two and wounded eight:
Two people have been killed and eight others have been injured in a bombing attack on the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran. The suicide bomber was also killed in the blast that rocked the northern wing of the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, on Saturday, Tabnak reported.
The injured pilgrims have been taken to hospitals.
Update | 12:42 p.m. Reuters reports that Mir Hussein Moussavi has again demanded that the election results be invalidated:
Iran’s defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi in a letter to the country’s top legislative body Saturday insisted the June presidential election should be annulled, his website said.
“These irritating measures (election rigging) was planned months ahead of the vote … considering all the violations … the election should be annulled,” Mousavi said in the letter.
Update | 12:19 p.m. Demotix, a photo agency for citizen journalists, has more photographs of today’s events in Tehran, including this image, which we found earlier on TwitPic after it has already been posted online by Demotix:
Demotix has posted several more images of today’s clashes in Tehran shot by the same citizen journalist, including this one:
Update | 12:01 p.m. CNN’s citizen-journalism Web site iReport has posted these two video clips with a note saying that the person who submitted them says that they were shot on Saturday in Tehran near where the opposition rally was to have taken place:
the video was shot at 4:13 local time in Tehran, Iran. Demonstrators on Enghelab Avenue were trying to march to Azadi Square. … they were stopped by the police and army guards.
Update | 11:40 a.m. These photographs, which an Iranian blogger says were shot today in Tehran, were uploaded to TwitPic 30 minutes ago:
Update | 11:32 a.m. A source in Iran tells the Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau:
As of an hour or 2 ago, I feel like I’m in a police state for the first time.
Update | 11:23 a.m. More From Shiraz, by way of our reader gb’s mother:
My mom is again stressing that the protesters were totally peaceful not even chanting when they were attacked. My mom’s friend said she saw right in front of her that a plain clothes person hit this young man with a baton so hard that the baton broke.
Another friend that lives in Daneshjoo Square (the place the protests took place) said that plain clothes police came to their homes this morning and told them they are not allowed to let any of the protesters seek refuge in their houses or they will be held responsible.
Update | 11:10 a.m. CNN reports:
Uniformed and plainclothes police were deployed around Revolution Square, the site of a major planned demonstration, and traffic was being turned away on a major thoroughfare leading to the square, a witness said. The forces confronted demonstrators who tried to avoid the thoroughfare and take side streets toward the square. Clashes erupted as forces used clubs to beat back protesters.
Periodically, groups of armed police would fire rifles into the air to disperse protesters along the side streets near Revolution Square. Cell phone service was brought down after 5:30 p.m. in the area, witnesses said.
Responding to reports of a suicide bombing in Tehran on Saturday, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who is outside Iran, said that it is possible that an anti-regime militant group, like the Mujahedeen Khalq, might try to take advantage of the protests in Iran to stage an attack. Given the restrictions on the foreign press in Iran, at the moment we should stress that there is no way of telling if a bombing really did take place in Tehran today — or, if it did, who might have been responsible.
Update | 10:58 a.m. An Iranian reader, using the alias gb, writes that he has heard from his mother in the city of Shiraz, where similar scenes are apparently playing out on the streets:
From Shiraz, My mom said the protesters were just walking in silence from Daneshjoo Square to Eram Square then the plain clothes men on motorcylces started going in the crowd and in the side walks and told the crowd to disperse.
When the people didn’t disperse they started shooting in the air. My mom said that then people dispersed and she doesn’t know if anyone was hit or not.
Update | 10:52 a.m. Here is the live stream for BBC Persian TV’s Farsi-language broadcast. At the moment their reporters seem to be studying the Internet for clues, like other foreign media organizations barred from reporting first-hand on events in Iran.
Update | 10:44 a.m. The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau reports on Twitter that a contact in Tehran says:
some forces are refusing to attack the people, but basij and special forces are attacking people
Update | 10:40 a.m. A blogger we’ve been following, who appears to be one of the opposition activists and was silent all day Saturday, has resurfaced to write on Twitter:
today the world can see why we want our freedom from fascists
tonight to the streets - for freedom
Update | 10:35 a.m. This video, of what Iranian bloggers say are clashes on Saturday between opposition protesters and security forces in Tehran, has been uploaded to YouTube:
Update | 10:29 a.m. BBC’s Jon Leyne notes from Tehran that there is no evidence yet to support the reports from Iranian government-controlled news organizations of a suicide bombing in Tehran.
Update | 10:15 a.m. BBC Persian uploaded this video to YouTube on Saturday, apparently showing violent clashes and shooting on the streets of Tehran. NOTE: An Iranian blogger writes that the date of this video is unconfirmed and the BBC itself has not yet posted this video on its main, English-language Web site. It is possible that it shows clashes earlier in the week — and in fact looks quite like the clashes that took place at the Basij base on Azadi Square on Monday. When we have more information on this video we will share it.
We cannot embed the video, but here is a screen shot of its opening image:
Update | 10:11 a.m. Reuters reports that an Iranian news agency says that the bombing in Tehran on Saturday at a highly symbolic site was carried out by a suicide bomber:
A suicide bomber blew himself up near the shrine of Iran’s revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Tehran on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
“A few minutes ago a suicide bomber blew himself up at the shrine,” Mehr quoted a police official, Hossein Sajedinia, as saying. Two other people were wounded in the incident in the northern wing of the shrine, another news agency, Fars, said.
Update | 10:06 a.m. This video, said to be of today’s events on Tehran’s streets has been uploaded to YouTube:
Several of the bloggers who have had accurate information this week on the protests say that this video was shot today.
The Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau, filtering reports from inside Iran, says that this video was shot near Azadi Square, where there is a base of the Basij militia.
Update | 10:00 a.m. The report on Press TV’s Web site about the bombing has expanded from a headline to this one sentence:
Two people have been hurt as a blast hits near the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in south Tehran.
One of the biggest problems for Iran’s current leadership is that many of the figures leading the protests played a central role in the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. As we mentioned earlier, any kind of bombing would be out of keeping with their promises to reform rather than overthrow Iran’s system of government. But a bombing at this symbolic site might make it easier for the regime to justify a crackdown on the protests or discredit them as the thin edge of a violent revolution.
Update | 9:56 a.m. Agence France-Presse reports:
TEHRAN (AFP) — One to two thousand protestors have gathered in front of Tehran University, which is close to the site of a mass rally planned on Saturday, a witness told AFP.
And police fired tear gas and used water cannons to break up the crowds gathering near Enghelab Square, the site of the rally, the witness said. The witness said number of Basij militia were also deployed around the rally site.
Update | 9:54 a.m. The BBC has this report from an anonymous correspondent on Tehran’s streets:
I’m in the centre of Tehran close to Enghelab Square where the demonstration was supposed to have been held. But there’s a huge security presence here, thousands of men from every possible service: police, revolutionary guard, military police, the riot police in full riot gear, and the much-feared Basij - religious paramilitaries who see themselves as the shock troops of the Islamic revolution.
It’s impossible for any groups of people to get through these to Enghelab Square and hold their demonstration.
If this continues and the opposition can’t find some way around fierce security then the protests against the results of the presidential election will have been defeated.
Update | 9:40 a.m. A blogger who has been reliable this week writes on Twitter that there have been many arrests in Tehran on Saturday and points to unconfirmed reports of shooting in Azadi Square.
After Monday’s rally in Tehran, opposition supporters were shot outside the Basij militia base near Azadi Square.
Update | 9:35 a.m. The Associated Press reports from Tehran:
Eyewitnesses contacted by The Associated Press say the protesters gathered in central Tehran in open defiance of the cleric-led government.
They say a crowd of 3,000 chanted “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to dictatorship!” near Revolution Square in central Tehran before police used the tear gas and cannon.
Update | 9:20 a.m. Iran’s Press TV has a breaking news headline: “Two People Hurt in Tehran Blast.”
The Associated Press reports that the Iranian government-controlled English-language broadcaster is reporting that an explosion at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has wounded two people.
A bombing at such a site would be out of keeping with the peaceful protests, led by politicians who were close to Ayatollah Khomeini, that have been held all week by opposition supporters, but it would be entirely in keeping with the warning from Iran’s authorities that protesters are providing cover for violent plots against the regime organized by foreign governments.
As The Lede reported last week, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute last year Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence produced and broadcast this public service announcement warning Iranians that Western pro-democracy movements were really covers for violent anti-government plots hatched in the White House.
Update | 9:16 a.m. The BBC has a good map of central Tehran, showing the location of the two squares were the opposition had planned to rally today, in Enghelab (Revolution) Square and Azadi (Freedom) Square.
Update | 9:13 a.m. A blogger who appears to be inside Iran or in close touch with people at the opposition rally writes that clashes are taking place and protesters are chanting against the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
HARD conflict between the people and the Special Guard. people: down with khamenee
Heavy clashes on azadi street, chants of death to khameni! The street is full of rocks and fire.
Update | 9:08 a.m. An Iranian reader of The Lede, who has been speaking talking to family and friends in Tehran and Shiraz, writes that they say the Basij milita force is on the streets of both cities:
My mom in Shiraz says that the Basij are every where like ants. But they’re still going.
In Tehran friends have said it’s like there is a Basij on a motorcycle every 4 meters from Enghelab square to Azadi square.
Update | 9:05 a.m. Both The Associated Press and Reuters report that tear gas has been used to disperse thousands of protesters in Tehran:
TEHRAN, June 20 (Reuters) - Iranian riot police used tear gas on Saturday to disperse demonstrators protesting in Tehran against a disputed presidential election, a witness said.
Smoke was rising over Enghelab (Revolution) Square, where supporters of defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi had gathered in defiance of a ban on protests, the witness added.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Witnesses: police using tear gas, water cannons to disperse thousands of protesters in Tehran.
Update | 8:57 a.m. According to eyewitness reports to CNN, Iranian security forces may be blocking the opposition supporters attempting to rally:
A few thousand people attempting to enter one of the protest sites in Tehran have been blocked by heavily armed police, an eyewitness said. [...]
Police were in two of the Tehran squares where the major demonstrations were to be held on Saturday. About 200 heavily-armed police officers massed Saturday afternoon at Freedom Square in Tehran, the site of one of the two demonstrations, a freelance journalist said. Hundreds of armed, uniformed police were also at Revolution Square, and no demonstrators were there. The journalist said that it was “very dangerous to try to take pictures.”
Update | 8:51 a.m. NBC News reported earlier that large groups of people were gathering in central Tehran. According to a report from Reuters police are in the streets and at least one of the opposition candidates has said the rally is off:
Police blocked off an area near Tehran University where supporters of opposition candidates had aimed to assemble at around 4 p.m (7:30 a.m. EDT), a witness said. A police commander said earlier that his forces would deal firmly with any further street protests over the June 12 vote. [...]
The Etemad-e Melli party of losing candidate Mehdi Karoubi said plans for the rally had been scrapped for lack of a permit. “Because of not obtaining permission, the rally today has been canceled,” a party spokesman told Reuters.
Update | 8:45 a.m. A report from Iran’s Press TV, a satellite channel controlled by the government, says that one of the conservative challengers to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has also contested the election results, did attend a meeting on Saturday with the clerical body investigating the results. Press TV confirms reports that the two reformist candidates did not take part in the meeting:
The defeated presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaie has attended a Guardian Council extraordinary meeting, while Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi failed to take part. Three defeated presidential candidates were invited to the meeting to discuss their complaints about the poll results.
The opposition has rejected the Guardian Council’s partial recount plans, since they contend that they are not quibbling over a few wrongly counted ballots but claiming that the entire election was flawed. Despite their objections, Press TV reports that the authorities are apparently pressing ahead with the Guardian Council recount of some ballots:
The Council has said it is ready to recount a random 10 percent of the ballot boxes in the last Friday’s presidential election. “Although the Guardian Council is not legally obliged … we are ready to recount 10 percent of the (ballot) boxes randomly in the presence of representatives of the candidates,” the electoral watchdog’s spokesman, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodayi said on Saturday.
Update | 8:33 a.m. A blogger who appears to be writing from Iran has uploaded to TwitPic the same images of riot police on Tehran’s streets we saw earlier. Here is one of the photographs:
That blogger’s latest update in English on Twitter reports:
special guards confronted with people, attacked them with batton dispersed them into small ally ways
Update | 8:31 a.m. The BBC’s Jon Leyne reports from Tehran that there were very confusing signals about what the opposition leaders plans were for today: “reports said first that Mr. Mousavi would be making a statement - which still has not been delivered - and then an aide to Mr. Karoubi said his party had canceled the protest.”
Update | 8:26 a.m. Matt Weaver writes on The Guardian’s live blog from London:
The BBC’s Jon Leyne, in Tehran, admitted on the World Service that he cannot tell if the rally is actually happening, because of the restrictions on reporting. The Guardian’s reporters in Iran are in no position to comment either.
Despite all the statements about the revolutionary impact of citizen journalism, it appears that the Iranian government’s crackdown on foreign media organizations is ensuring that much of what happens on Tehran’s streets today may go unreported. During Monday’s rally, television reporters were able to film the rallies and report from the crowd. Today we are entirely without that kind of information.
Update | 8:24 a.m. As we try to piece together reports of what is happening in Iran’s capital, a reader writes to say he has heard that the authorities are more firmly in control in other parts of the country:
People keep asking about the smaller cities in Iran. Why are they quiet? Because they can control them a whole lot better. From Zanjan (population about 1 million) people are saying that there’s just too much control.
Update | 8:15 a.m. A fresh update in English from the blogger we cited minutes ago says:
The police asked people before the basijis conflict with them Became dispersed
This is in fact very similar to the automatic translation we managed to get of the blogger’s previous update in Farsi. It may be a sign that the blogger is using machine translation to produce these English updates.
The blogger’s latest update says that people are moving in groups towards Azadi Square.
Update | 8:11 a.m. One the bloggers we have been following this week, who appears to be writing from inside Iran and has been a reliable source of information on the protests, has started posting updates after a long silence today. Here is the most recent update in English:
Police guard are all the streets of Tehran. Streets full of the population
The same blogger is also writing in Farsi. According to a rough automatic translation from Google Translate, the blogger wrote minutes ago that the police have asked people to disperse, warning that if they do not the Basij paramilitary force may attack them.
Update | 8:08 a.m. The Guardian’s Matt Weaver, blogging from London, reports:
An unconfirmed Tweet from a usually reliable source says Mousavi is walking from his Ettelaat office to the Ministry of Interior and that 10,000 people are with him.
He also points to these photographs posted online, dated today by the blogger who posted them, showing riot police in Tehran.
Update | 8:04 a.m. Last night one blogger apparently writing from Iran noted President Obama’s remarks to CBS News on Friday that “the whole world is watching” by taking note of the middle name he shares with Mir Hussein Moussavi:
Hossein Obama - The world is watching
Update | 7:59 a.m. According to the BBC, Mr. Moussavi and Mr. Karroubi, the opposition leaders who have disputed their vote totals in the presidential election, did not attend a meeting they were invited to by Iran’s Guardian council, the clerical body that agreed to a partial recount of ballots:
Mr Mousavi had been expected, along with fellow challengers Mr Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai, to discuss more than 600 objections they had filed complaining about the poll at a meeting of the Guardian Council, which certifies elections, on Saturday.
But neither Mr Mousavi nor Mr Karroubi attended the meeting - which suggests, our correspondent says, they have abandoned their legal challenge to the election results.
State TV quoted the Guardian Council as saying it was “ready” to recount a randomly selected 10% of ballot boxes.
It had previously offered a partial recount of disputed ballots from the election, rather than the full re-run of the election demanded by protesters.
Update | 7:58 a.m. An Iranian reader of The Lede writes:
There will be blood shed no matter what. If at this point people keep quiet, there are films and photos and everything. They will go around, arrest people by large and small groups and then on by one, they will torture and kill people.
We in Iran remember and the world should know:
Shortly after the revolution even with a such a popular mandate they still felt threatened. They executed and tortured anyone they felt was the least threat. There are going to be elections in 4 years. So what do you think is going to happen? That they are just going to let something like this happen again.
No! They will crack down so hard, and they will do it when the world isn’t looking anymore, they will crack down so hard as to mark a lasting memory on this generation too.
Update | 7:50 a.m. Just over 30 minutes ago, a Facebook page in the name of Mr. Moussavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, also said the rally would go ahead.
Update | 7:43 a.m. A blogger who appears to be relaying information from inside Iran reports that sources in Tehran say the rally is going ahead:
People going to Enghelab in larg numbers and growing rapidly. police there but not doing anything.
enghelab sq and the streets are filled with police and plain clothes with batons in hands
the cell phones in Enghelab district are disconnected
CNN reports that sources say that armed police are in two of Tehran’s squares.
Each day so far the reports we’ve seen first in text from bloggers connected to events in Iran have been followed by photographs and video documenting the rallies. If anyone sees images of today’s events, please let us know.
Update | 7:40 a.m. Iran’s Press TV reports that the authorities are saying that Mr. Moussavi will be responsible if there is bloodshed on the streets today:
Iran’s Security Council has warned defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi against ‘the consequences’ of backing street rallies.
“It is your duty not to incite and invite the public to illegal gatherings; otherwise, you will be responsible for its consequences,” Iran’s Security Council, a body affiliated with the Interior Ministry replied Mousavi’s letter in which he had criticized the law enforcement forces for failing to prevent attacks on protestors during the street rallies.
“It is your responsibility to prevent the public from attending such rallies instead of making accusations against the law enforcement,” it added.
“We believe this is an organized network which is most probably affiliated to foreign-related groups and deliberately disturbs the peace and security of the public. Of course we have already ordered the law enforcement forces to deal with the issue,” read the letter.
Mousavi had said the assailants, who appeared ‘along with the law enforcement forces’ during street rallies, have disturbed peace and security by attacking demonstrators and vandalizing public property.
Update | 7:37 a.m. Last night a blogger apparently writing from inside Iran reported that SMS service in the country had suddenly sprung back to life. He then warned in two Twitter updates that the signal could be used to track opposition supporters:
Advice - your location can be identified from mobile signal - + delete all sms after sending in case u are arrested.
Advice - remove sim and use mobile to film ANY violence or attak against Sea of Green
Update | 7:34 a.m. An update to a Facebook page, apparently set up by supporters of Mir Hussein Moussavi, says the rally is on:
The CRUCIAL Demonstration on Saturday 16:00 in Tehran and all around the world, please spread this message around
Update | 7:26 a.m. For the first time since the protests over the election results began in Iran, several of the bloggers who seem to be writing from inside the country are silent on Saturday on their English-language Twitter feeds. What that means is unclear. A source inside Iran told The Lede on Friday that none of the opposition supporters interviewed at the last large rally in Tehran, on Thursday, said that they had found out about it through Twitter. Word of mouth and SMS text messages seem to be more important inside Iran, while updates posted on Twitter may be primarily about keeping the world outside the country informed.
Since the authorities have warned of a harsh response to any rallies today, bloggers in the opposition may just be keeping quiet in advance of today’s scheduled rally.
Update | 7:17 a.m. It is unclear whether an opposition rally, scheduled to begin in a few minutes, will take place in Tehran. State television in Iran reports that permission for a rally by a reformist clerical body was denied and that group announced it would not defy the ban, but several news organizations and bloggers supporting the opposition say that the rally will go ahead.
The BBC reports:
A key rally against Iran’s presidential elections will go ahead - in defiance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - opposition sources say. The wife of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, and an aide to another rival candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, said the rally would go ahead. Mr Mousavi later announced he would be making a statement imminently.
Police warned they would arrest the leaders of any protest rallies, which they said would be illegal.The warning follows a demand from Ayatollah Khamenei on Friday that street protests should cease.
Reuters cites a statement from an aide to one of the defeated election candidates suggesting that the rally will go ahead, even if Mr. Moussavi has not officially called for it:
“The demonstration plan has not been canceled and accordingly it must be held this afternoon,” said the aide to liberal cleric Mehdi Karoubi, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded an end to street protests. [...]
At their last rally in Tehran on Thursday, Mousavi supporters held banners saying they would gather again two days later at around 4 p.m. But an ally of Mousavi said the moderate politician had not called for people to take to the streets on Saturday or Sunday.
His supporters may decide to show up anyway, as they did in their tens of thousands last Tuesday despite a call by Mousavi for them to stay home.
NYT - The Lede Blog
posted by madtom at 8:29 AM
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