Regime Blames Attack on US

Following an attack that killed several people in Baluchistan, the regime quickly blamed the US. While the attackers might be Sunni extremists, the regime is obviously going to blame anything on outside forces. Moreover given this regime's lies, it is difficult to know if the attack was carried out by the regime itself:

A man carrying explosives blew himself up as participants headed to a conference between Shiite and Sunni groups in southeastern Iran on Sunday, killing at least 29 people.

The blast in Sarbaz in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan wounded 28 others, the semiofficial Fars news agency said.

While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Iran pointed the finger at the United States without disclosing its reasons.

"We consider this recent terrorist act to be the result of the U.S. actions and this is a sign of their enmity," said parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said the accusation was "completely false."

"We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives. Reports of alleged U.S. involvement are completely false," Ian Kelly told CNN.

Khatami and Mousavi Meet

Here is what happened,

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Seyyed Mohammad Khatami met with each other. In this meeting while emphasising on firm adherence to the constitution, the pure values of the Revolution and defending the Islamic Republic; they expressed deep concerns over the continuation of the current horrible situation especially the recent arrests, restriction of the fundamental freedoms which is contrary to the constitution and Islamic and moral values, increase of unethical behaviours and insults and false accusations, and the denial of the rights of those who have been attacked to respond and defend themselves.They stated that the current situation is first and most damaging the Revolution, the people and the country.

They also emphasised that our mature and vigilant people who especially because of the Islamic Revolution have found their path to justice, freedom, independence and prosperity, will not deviate from their path by force and pressure; and the devotees of the Revolution, Imam and the greatness of Iran and Iranians, despite all problems and threats will not abandon their holy and national duty. What today is needed more than anything else is the returning to the constitution and avoiding contradicting or distorting it or unduly justifying against this great national covenant; and if the means of evaluating and commenting on the policies and the actions [of the authorities] are shut for those that there is no doubt regarding their devotion and loyalty to the Islamic Republic and the greatness and independence of the homeland, if the civil protests and presence of people is confronted and if the official platforms and media that should serve the values of the revolution and interests of the society taint the environment more by fraud, forgery, spreading lies and insulting and degrading others.

Surely this will be the best opportunity for those movements that are against the principal values of the Revolution and establishment to become active. It is in the future interest of the country to open up the current militarised environment and that the national media and press can practice their duties immediately.

Montazeri Speaks About Nuclear Weapons

Responding to a question by his pupil Mohsen Kadivar about nuclear weapons, Montazeri denounces them. This according to Mousavi's Facebook,

"Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s answer to the question by Mohsen Kadivar regarding the use of nuclear weapons: Weapons if are not only used against the invading forces but rather victimise innocent people, even the future generations, logically and relig...iously are not allowed and given the vast extent of killing and destruction by nuclear weapons they cannot be considered acceptable by the reasoning of the importance or criticality of another issue and in all cases the humanity and especially Muslims who are the followers of the teachings of the great Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) should be pioneers on the path to legally and practically ban such weapons for all countries with the assurance from the credible and trustworthy international organisations."

Montazeri Remarks

According to Mousavi's Facebook, here are Montazeri's latest remarks:

Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in his latest remarks while stating the fact that one of the nastiest characteristics of human is “cruelty” pointed out the cruelty of some who are ignorant to the violation of people’s rights. Regarding the armed forces (Army, Basij and Revolutionary Guards) he said that: some think that because they have guns they should exercise the power of their guns and use it everywhere. In any society that wants to be obedient, its armed forces should not be cruel but rather be compassionate and merciful. He added that in armed forces there are only a handful of those who have no mercy and kindness but even this little number have jeopardised the integrity and dignity of others by committing the horrific crime in Kahrizah prison (where detainees were tortured and some even killed) in the events after the election.

Grand Ayatollah Montazeri while referring to those who claim to be acting according to the ideas of Imam Khomeini continued: “There is a remark made by Grand Ayatollah Khomeini that is rightfully very famous and it is that the armed forces should not get engaged in the politics and the reason behind it is also that since they are armed they may exploit their military forces and intimidate people for political reasons. The fact that these armed forces just like anyone else are entitled to the citizenship rights is correct and when there is an election held they too have the right to vote but it is wrong if they want to control the political scene like in an election. The gentlemen who constantly talk of Imam Khomeini and following his guidelines should be told: “Didn’t Imam Khomeini forbid the armed forces from engaging in politics?”

He added that a country should have skilled armed forces to deal with the enemies and those who lay hand on the country and the establishment but the military, police and security forces should not act in a way that people get negative impression about them and people should feel safe when they see them and don’t say that the armed forces and the police confront them instead of dealing with the enemies, instead of protecting the country and guarding the establishment they are after repressing the people and that the public should be afraid of them.

He reinstated that, the remark that is being made a lot lately is that preserving the system is a holy duty. Preserving the system is not a natural must in itself. It means that if the Islamic laws are abandoned in order to preserve the Islamic system, the system will not be preserved. Preserving the system is the precondition of preserving and executing the Islamic laws. If, un-Islamic actions take place with the excuse of preserving the system then neither the system will remain nor Islam.

Weren’t the primary slogans of the Revolution “Independence, Freedom, and Islamic Republic”? Independence means not being under the control of foreigners; and Freedom means that people should be free to express their opinion and have freedom of speech; not that be arrested and imprisoned the moment they express any opinion in opposition [to the government] and the situation gets so bad that people say we have freedom of speech but no freedom after the speech and we will be thrown into Evin prison! Republic also means that the government should be formed according to the people’s votes; and Islamic means since people are Muslims, the government should be based on the Islamic principles.

Are Arrests Coming?

Mousavi's Facebook has a ominous post about possible arrests of Green Movement leaders:

Reminder: In case of the arrest of any of the Green movement’s leaders, we will take to the streets from “Revolution” to “Freedom”. The Network media mobilization for raising widespread awareness until the emergence of the Green army (SMS, email, bill, Wall, poster, Internet).

Video of Protests

Here is a clip of some of the protests recently as Azad Univerisity in Tehran, more can be found here.

Student Protests Continue

According to Mousavi's Facebook:

For the third consecutive week, today (Oct 13, 2009) more than 2000 students of Tehran’s Azad University held a gathering in protest to the coup government and treatment of student activist. The students we chanting “Death to dictator”, “God is great...”, “Coup government, resign..resign” , “Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein” and similar Green slogans in protest. There are reports that around 100 Basiji forces that were brought to the University by two buses violently attacked the students with batons and tear gas and even locked up one of the students in the office of the representative of the Supreme Leader in this university. According to this report the students have been resisting these attacks and have been chanting slogans in university’s lobby and different floors.

Pressure Builds on Karroubi

Reports are coming out that there is pressure to prosecute Karroubi for his noble efforts to bring attention to prisoner abuse:

Iranian pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karroubi may be prosecuted over allegations he made following post-election unrest, state media says.

Mr Karroubi had said that some of his supporters, detained after protests over the presidential poll in which he was a candidate, suffered abuse.

The case will go to a clerical court, state news agency Irna reported.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner but his challengers said the election was rigged.

Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said that as Mr Karroubi was a cleric "his remarks should be studied at the special court for the clergy".

"But the report of the judiciary panel has been given to us and we are investigating it," he said.

"Some people have also been summoned in connection with the case."

Mohsen Makhmalbaf Dedicates Award to Karroubi

From Mousavi's Facebook:

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, prominent Iranian filmmaker, dedicated the major Nuremberg Human Rights Festival's award that was presented to him, to Mehdi Karoubi. While accepting his award in this ceremony, he said: “Giving and receiving awards in today’s world should be turned into a kind of democratic struggle. I dedicate my award to the great man who with bravery revealed the rapes in Iran’s prisons. Many Iranians have suggested nominating him for the next year Nobel Peace Prize. In a society that tyranny rules by creating fear, he is pushing back the boundaries of this fear with his courage. The name of this person is Karoubi. More than thirty years ago, he and I were being tortured in Shah’s prisons and he was just as brave those days too. Karoubi in the past thirty year has defended human rights in any positions he has had and any imprisoned and oppressed Iranian remembers his supports. He is thousands of times more deserving than me for receiving this award.”

More Death Sentences

The regime is stepping up the death sentences in a new phase of horror:

A court has sentenced three people to death over street unrest that erupted after Iran's disputed election in June and links to exiled opposition groups, an Iranian news agency reported Saturday.

ISNA news agency, citing the head of the publication relations office of Tehran provincial court, did not identify those condemned, giving only their initials.

It was the first official statement of death sentences in connection with the presidential poll, which the opposition says was rigged to secure hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, and the huge opposition protests that followed.

The authorities have rejected vote fraud charges and portrayed the protests as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic Republic.

"The execution sentences were handed down because of involvement in post-election developments and affiliation with the Iran monarchical association and the PMOI," the official, Zahid Bashiri-Rad, said.

"These sentences are not final and can be appealed in a higher court," he said.

The People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) is an exiled opposition organization, seen by both Iran and the United States as a terrorist group.

One of the initials given by ISNA matches that of Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani, whom the reformist Mowjcamp website on Thursday said had been sentenced to death.

A semi-official news agency, Mehr, said in August he was accused of fighting against the Islamic establishment and active membership of a "terrorist" royalist association, and other crimes.

Amnesty International has urged Iran to rescind the death sentence against the 37-year-old, saying in a statement on Friday it feared it would "pave the way for more death sentences against those being tried on similar offences."

Ali-Zamani was among more than 100 opposition supporters, including senior reformist figures, who were accused in a series of mass trials that got under way in August of fomenting post-election street unrest.

Mowjcamp said Ali-Zamani had made "extensive confessions" during his trial. Reformist politicians have condemned the court sessions as "show trials."

Reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, who backed opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in the election, has said confessions made at the trials were obtained under "extraordinary conditions" and were invalid.

Analysts see the mass trials as an attempt by the authorities to uproot the moderate opposition.