Tehran Students Protest Ahmadinejad Speech

Demonstrators Call Iranian President "Dictator," Clash With Hardliners

(CBS/AP)  An estimated 100 students staged a rare demonstration Monday against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a "dictator," which prompted scuffles with hardline students at Tehran University.

Ahmadinejad, who was giving a speech to a select group at the university to mark the beginning of the academic year, ignored the chants of "death to the dictator" and continued with his speech on the merits of science and the pitfalls of Western-style democracy, witnesses said.

The protesters scuffled with hardline students who were chanting "thank you president" while police looked on from outside the university gates. The protesters dispersed after the car carrying Ahmadinejad left the campus.

Students were once the main power base of Iran's reform movement but have faced intense pressure in recent years from Ahmadinejad's hardline government, making anti-government protests rare.

The president faced a similar outburst during a speech last December when students at Amir Kabir Technical University called Ahmadinejad a dictator and set fire to his picture.

Hoping to avoid a similar disturbance Monday, organizers imposed tight security measures, checking the identity papers of all students entering the university and allowing only selected students into the hall. But the protesters were somehow able to gain entrance.

Iran's reform movement peaked in the late 1990s after former reformist president Mohammad Khatami was elected and his supporters swept parliament. But hardliners who control the judiciary, security forces and powerful unelected bodies in the government stymied attempts to ease social and political restrictions.

Numerous pro-reform newspapers were shut down, and since Ahmadinejad's election in 2005, those that remain have been muted in their criticism fearing closure.

At universities, pro-reform students have been marginalized, holding low-level meetings. They hold occasional demonstrations, usually to demand better school facilities or the release of detained colleagues. But pro-government student groups have grown more powerful.

Monday's student protests in Tehran followed Ahmadinejad's controversial appearance last month at Columbia University in New York, where the school's president blasted the Iranian leader for behaving like "a petty and cruel dictator."

[ajmarine1]

"Have a good evening, AJ, I''''ll check back in a little later."

Posted by tuckerndfw at 08:40 PM : Oct 09, 2007

Same to you,........ another time.

[ajmarine1]

Posted by tuckerndfw at 07:53 PM : Oct 09, 2007,

Not much going on tonight, seems like no one wants to play wether it''s on topic or off.

[ajmarine1]

Sounds like a good idea.

Posted by tuckerndfw at 04:21 PM : Oct 09, 2007,

I would rather support Iranians that want a change in their government than attacking Iran out right.

[prinzowhales]

doc18d--Just because the Chimp wraps himself in the flag doesn''t mean I am spitting at it when I spit abuse at him. This is a man who is siding with a Mexican rapist and killer against Texas, who gave him the death penalty for his crimes...the problem?-- he didn''t get Mexican legal advice.

tribe--Read Ahmadinejad''s complete statement on the gay issue...what he said in essence was that Iran didn''t have the kind of open homosexual culture that the US has....If you want to complain about air pollution...go to Mexico City....

The idea behind the nuclear energy program is to generate cheap power and export oil for foreign exchange. It makes economic sense, especially with the steep rise in the price of oil...its basic free market economics.

[doc18d]

Tuckf*7k.
Your a pathetic Cut and paste Mouth breathing Oxygen thief. again **** you REMF wannabe.

Do you honestly believe that anyone but your stroke buddy Princy gives a rats a#s about your b.s.

Don''t waste any more of my time replying to this. I''m thru paying attention to your mental vomit.

[doc18d]

As usual you continue to cloud the conversation with useless drivel. I too knew a few less than ideal soldiers in my career. Imagine that. I would not judge all soldiers on their shortcommings.

I''ll type real slow now...
The disemination of classified information is still considered treason.

Some missguided recolection of signing a disclosure statement 30 years ago does in no way diminish the charge. Unless you are the declassifying authority, keep your mouth shut. It doesn''t matter whether you think the information is or is not classified. You have no say in that determination.

I doubt your acount of a 20 year career E-3. Your unit may have been full of stupid NCO''s I doubt it,
But in no way would D.A. not know. There are Time in Service Regulations that would have precluded this from happening.
Try again.
I like a good story...
This time try it without judging my professionalism.

[doc18d]

Hey Tuckster and Princy,
C''mon guys quite stroking each other off and get your stories strait.
Tuckster which one was it buddy

%u201CDue to my non-existent security clearances (I had about four different ones) I wasn''''t allowed to travel by land into communist countries, so I never got to ride that train.%u201D

%u201CI did not have a TS since it was not required at company level. Most of my stuff was confidential, crypto, or crypto confidential. It wasn''''t even rated secret. (as best I remember it, that''''s been about 35 years ago)%u201D

*** big guy, your confidential clearance(not even requiring a NSA background check, wouldn''t allow you to travel to Berlin....
And yet Princy, who carried a TS clearance with an SCI access could even drive there...

%u201Ctuckerndfw--I had a TS-SCI--I think that was it--and was a TSCO Asst. I spent my entire active tour in ASA. They issued us flag orders to travel...If we went by autobahn, we were timed. We had SFs cruise through now and again...Marines and Zoomies as well...%u201D

Gentlemen As I said befor keep spouting your anti-American hatred, It is your right. Don''t think your B.S. is going un-noticed. You have no right to judge my military career or my professionalisn. Or to disparage the careers of any professional soldier.

[prinzowhales]

Since you''ve removed all doubt...here''s a basic timeline regarding pipelines in the region...

http://www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/pipeline_timeline.htm

The war in Iraq for oil was not to bring cheap oil to Americans, but to CONTROL oil supplies. Why on earth would anyone be so stupid as to believe the Oil men in Washington would want to bring cheap oil to Americans? Nearly 30 years ago at an energy conference in Atlanta Jimmy Carter spoke of the importance of keeping oil prices HIGH...if memory serves that was in a Jack Anderson book on oil.

For years our buddies, the Gulf States and Saudi had complained about the Iraqis pumping too much oil.

This is as silly as imagining that Enron was interested in bringing Californians cheap power...

[closethippy1]

The Iranian President gives a speech, students protest.
Sounds like Iran has as many freedoms as we have here in the US. Good for them!
Someone mention that some Iranian students are in jail. You mean like that California student that was electrocuted and sent to jail because his question to US Senator John Kerry lasted too long? Oh, yeah.
After all, no one is perfect, eh?

And, hey, how about those students who had a sit-in at the office of their college dean for who knows what reason and the police shows up and, one by one, they tased each and every student as they sat on the floor in a circle in the dean''s office.
No remorse, no care whatsoever was shown by any of the officers firing up their electric razors on these students. What a joy it must be to be a police officer in the US of A and just go nuts with your little taser, eh?

[on_alert247]

Tuckerndfw said "The original decision to invade Afghanistan was motivated by an oil pipeline western oil companies wanted installed in western Afghanistan. Which the Taliban refused them on their terms."

Well, 6 years and counting and still no pipeline. Just like all that cheap oil we''re buying from Iraq, NOT! Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a an idiot, than to open it and remove all doubt.