Intensified Crackdown Mutes Iran Protests

Demonstrators Overwhelmed By Police As Government Expels 2 British Diplomats, Refuses New Vote

(CBS/AP)  Last Updated 6:52 p.m. EDT.

Overwhelmed by police and left with limited alternatives, Iranian demonstrators resorted Tuesday to more subtle ways of challenging the outcome of the presidential election: holding up posters, shouting from rooftops and turning on car headlights.

But the restrained expressions of discontent appeared to be scattered as Iran's ruling clerics dealt the opposition new setbacks, making clear they have no intention of holding a new vote and setting up a special court to deal with hundreds of protesters arrested in more than a week of unrest.

Iran also expelled two diplomats from Britain - a nation it bitterly accuses of meddling and spying - and Britain in turn sent two Iranian envoys home.

The latest moves, and a fresh deployment of riot police and militia to break up any street gatherings, signaled the regime's determination to squelch dissent and mute the voices of those whose protests have been the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

IranWatch: Track the latest on the Iran election upheaval.

"People are calmly protesting, more symbolically than with their voices," a Tehran resident said in a telephone interview, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government retribution.

No rallies were reported Tuesday. Many in Tehran seemed hesitant to confront the feared Revolutionary Guard and members of the Basij militia, suggesting the harsh response wrought by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to large and boisterous demonstrations may have weakened the opposition's resolve.

In Tehran's sprawling Grand Bazaar market, shopkeepers said customers frightened away by the violent crackdown were venturing back outdoors.

"These past few days the situation was not good," said a vendor who gave his name only as Ali because he feared retaliation. "People were scared because there was not any security and people didn't come out. But thank God, in the past two or three days the situation has gotten much better and business is good."

Twenty-seven-year-old Neda Agha Soltan - shot to death in a Tehran protest - has become an icon of resistance. Now the regime says she was killed by a fellow protester, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

It's all about controlling the message. State TV showed protesters under arrest admitting to damaging property and saying they were provoked by foreign media. Also punished, reports Palmer, were four of the six soccer players who wore opposition green wrist bands - they were banned from playing for life.

Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered journalists for international news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from reporting on the streets.

President Barack Obama said the world was "appalled and outraged" at Tehran's use of violence, and other nations expressed grave concerns as the standoff fueled an increasingly acrimonious international dispute on how to engage Iran - a country the U.S. and its allies have accused of covertly trying to build a nuclear weapon.

"I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran's affairs," Obama said. "But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."

Iran's Foreign Ministry said it expelled the two Britons for "unconventional behavior," state television reported without elaborating. Tensions between Iran and Britain, which has urged the Islamic regime to respect human rights, have soared in recent days.

During Friday prayers at Tehran University, Khamenei lashed out against Western countries he said were displaying their "enmity" against the Islamic state, "and the most evil of them is the British government." Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has accused Britain of sending spies to manipulate the June 12 election.

Iran's expulsions came a day after Britain sent home a dozen dependents of diplomatic staff because of the unrest.

"I am disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position but we will continue to seek good relations with Iran and to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

About 100 hard-line students protested outside the British Embassy in Tehran, where they burned U.S., British and Israeli flags, pelted the building with tomatoes, and chanted: "Down with Britain!" and "Down with USA!" state TV reported.

Iran also accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of interfering in its domestic affairs after he demanded an immediate end to "arrests, threats and use of force."

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says he was the true winner of the election. Iran's electoral commission declared Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide, ignoring Mousavi's claims of widespread and systematic vote fraud. Mousavi has been out of sight in recent days, but a short message posted on his Web site asserted that "all the reports of violations in the elections will be published soon."

State TV reported that Ahmadinejad would be sworn in sometime between July 26 and Aug. 19.

Another opposition figure, reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, called for a day of mourning for at least 17 people killed in protests since the election. Some social networking sites suggested that the mourning would take place Thursday.

Amid the crackdown, there was one small concession Tuesday from Khamenei, whose word is law in the Islamic Republic. State TV said he agreed to extend by five days a deadline for registering complaints about the election.

Yet the regime made it clear that it stood by the results and there would be no rerun of the disputed vote.

State-run Press TV quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, as saying it found "no major fraud or breach in the election."

"Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place," he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's solitary hold on power may be in peril, according to some sources, including the Web site EurasiaNet. The story on the Web site says political insider Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is "working to assemble a religious and political coalition to topple the supreme leader and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."

On Monday, the council had acknowledged in a rare step that it found voting irregularities in 50 of 170 districts, including ballot counts that exceeded the number of eligible voters. Still, it said the discrepancies, involving some 3 million votes, were not widespread enough to affect the outcome.

Iran has 46.2 million eligible voters, one-third of them under 30. The final tally gave 62.6 percent of the vote to Ahmadinejad and 33.75 percent to Mousavi, a landslide victory in a race that was perceived to be much closer. The huge margin went against the expectation that the record 85 percent turnout would help Mousavi.

In a boost for the regime, Russia said Tuesday it respects the outcome. Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has longtime political and economic ties with Iran, where it is helping build a nuclear power plan at Bushehr. In his only trip abroad since the vote, Ahmadinejad went to Russia last week for a conference, where he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Meanwhile, Ebrahim Raisi, a top judicial official, said a special court has been set up to deal with detained protesters.

"Elements of riots must be dealt with to set an example. The judiciary will do that," he was quoted as saying by state-run radio. The judiciary is controlled by Iran's ruling clerics.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting Rome, praised the courage of Iranian protesters "in facing bullets in the streets."

Two prominent Iranian opposition figures took their case to Europe on Tuesday.

Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi asked European Union officials in Brussels not to negotiate or hold meetings with Iranian leaders until the crackdown stops.

In Rome, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf said he had been asked by Mousavi aides to spread the word on what is happening in Iran. Makhmalbaf said that even if Ahmadinejad manages to govern for the next four years, "he will not have one day of quietness," with protesters resorting to general strikes and civil resistance.

A number of journalists have been detained since the protests began, although there have been conflicting accounts. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders put the figure of reporters detained at 34.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 13 were in custody, including Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari. State-run TV confirmed the arrest of Iason Athanasiadis, a Greek national reporting for the Washington Times.

[davide1982]

Most of Iranians are really fed up with local authorities and laws which are unbearable anymore. Below is the list of main restrictions enforced in Iran that may turn the life of average American into real nightmare:

http://www.myhowtoos.com/en/red-hot/89-10-reasons-you-would-never-live-in-iran

[jwesel1]

In one of the polical rallies, McCain sang "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran" to please the neocons. Now he is becoming a sympathizer of the minority in Iran to advance his political agenda. His hypocrisy knows no bounds. flip flops anyone?

[YrSoWrong]

Yeah. Thought so. Listen, you could move to the Ummah and go-down fighting, but "go-down" and "fighting" aren't phrases a guy like you puts together. Besides, some people there have standards.

[YrSoWrong]

Name one Democrat that wants gun control? Easy. Name one woman who wants you around. I'll wait even longer.

[YrSoWrong]

I think the ideas you put here have a stench that would knock a buzzard off of Ahmadinejad's corpse. Just wondering who'd get to him first, you or the buzzard, freakish loner-boy.

[hungry1968-15]

by YrSoWrong June 23, 2009 7:50 PM PDT
Wait in Ahmadinejad's bedroom until he calls you. Meanwhile NeoComms want gun control, and you have nothing in your holster, as we can tell by your previous posts. How do you live in such schizoid isolation? Do a Carradine, at least you'll give us even more of a laugh.







Name ONE, with the legislation that they created / co-sponsored calling for the banning of ANY WEAPON.

Just one.

STILL waiting.......

[YrSoWrong]

It's a common trick of the NeoComms to make claims, change the subject, reverse course, insist they didn't etc. Utter BS solved only by mortality, and without their parasitical nature, it would be quick.

[YrSoWrong]

I left that blank in the form a check for your mom. $50 and she gives change. Learn to read not just rant, Stooge #4.

[YrSoWrong]

Wait in Ahmadinejad's bedroom until he calls you. Meanwhile NeoComms want gun control, and you have nothing in your holster, as we can tell by your previous posts. How do you live in such schizoid isolation? Do a Carradine, at least you'll give us even more of a laugh.

[klm120]

Since when you monitor who goes to Ahmadi's bedroom. You may be a freshman under training yet, but he's calling for you now, overeasy.

[YrSoWrong]

Bend over and cheer, li'l loser.

[klm120]

It's far from over. There ain't no way mullahs going to rule Iran effectively. This government should not be afforded the same priviliges as a sovereign nation, since they are not truly the represebtative of their people. We're close to checkmate. It sucks to be one them thugs.

[hungry1968-15]

by YrSoWrong June 23, 2009 6:58 PM PDT
Any member of the CBS Coward Squad who says that the Democrats aren't in favor of gun control is an imbecile. As NeoCommunists, it is part of their program to give the same government they don't trust even more power over the public. These lemmings leap to the same tune, meanwhile bullying others with half-truths so those fools can come along with them.

Tell me, NeoComm, who much nonsense did you publish today?






You should have NO PROBLEM listing a STRING of democrats with pending legislation, or co-sponsors to bills, that are willingly going to ban weapons then.

Go ahead.

List away.

[hungry1968-15]

STILL waiting.......

[hungry1968-15]

Still drawing a blank, huh?

[YrSoWrong]

Any member of the CBS Coward Squad who says that the Democrats aren't in favor of gun control is an imbecile. As NeoCommunists, it is part of their program to give the same government they don't trust even more power over the public. These lemmings leap to the same tune, meanwhile bullying others with half-truths so those fools can come along with them.

Tell me, NeoComm, who much nonsense did you publish today?

[pvperson3]

Let's see, the demonstrators numbered a couple of hundred thousand (the tiptop estimate, given by a "demonstrator" was 1.5 million) and this is in a country of 66 million. So, you neo-cons want the US to get involved and meddle in another country's business because you feel such empathy for the Iranian "minority". Aren't these the same Iranians that you jerks have wanted bombed for years? I see a whole lot more GOP disgruntlement from being out of power than I see real support for the Iranians.

[ajjaxtheleast]

This too shall parse...

It's amazing what we can come up with in reacting
to what we are choreographed to "know".

Americans aren't supposed to see anything but a group
of people saying,,,"Oh I think I'll go out
and protest today!",,,Yet,,,

[hungry1968-15]

by YrSoWrong June 23, 2009 5:48 PM PDT
According to the CBS Coward Squad, all guns should be banned. During times of government aggression, the victimized public could make its feelings known through interpretive dance.






The ONLY people that talk on these boards, (or in Washington), about a national gun ban, are the conservative republicans when they're fabricating lies about the democrats.

And of course the brainless lemmings - such as yourself - that parrot that nonsense.

[hungry1968-15]

by despido June 23, 2009 5:37 PM PDT
by hungry1968-15 June 23, 2009 5:06 PM PDT
Barack Obama: "We do not want to give the regime the impression that America has anything to do with this revolution. This is an internal Iranian issue."







Funny - you left out the last half of my post.

Truth stings a little bit, doesn't it?

Did you know that when bin Laden's driver was arrested, he had a SA-7 SAM missile in the trunk? Would you like to guess where he GOT THAT?






As for the rest of your silliness, the regime in Iran is the weakest it has been, since the Ayatollah Khomeini took over in 1979.

He isn't doing ANYTHING to harm the revolutionaries efforts, and it's paying dividends for the PEOPLE of Iran, while keeping us out of their internal problems.

This is a win, win, win!!!

We just cannot count how lucky we actually are, that "bomb, bomb, bomb" McCain mercifully lost the election. If he won, he would be planning air strikes as we speak - IF they weren't launched already.

[despido]

Your entire post is there if anyone cares to read it - I left the time stamp intact and captured only what was relevent. I seriously doubt the Reagan would offer arms to the Ayatolla - I recall there were considerable tension over some hostages at that time.

Iran is NOT in revolution. They had demonstrations that quickly died out through outright oppression. The opportunity to exploit was gone as quickly as it appeared. On election day I made a post here that urged Obama to do nothing beyond the protocol of congrats to the winner - to stay out of the conflict. He did just that - and admirably so. But, McCain and others began to criticize and Obama caved. Today I watched his press conference live as he was asked if he strengthened his position because of McCain's comments. Obama's reply: "What do you think?". What a STUPID thing to say. His opening statement was great - but then he blew it. Now he is in fact accused of meddling so he may as well done so. The movement has petered out and Obama appears - as I wrote - impotent. He's got to stop campaigning and start leading.

[YrSoWrong]

According to the CBS Coward Squad, all guns should be banned. During times of government aggression, the victimized public could make its feelings known through interpretive dance.

[joule18]

Of course Russia supports the manufactured results. The current leadership in Iran is buying nuclear materials from them and Russia wants the money.

If the citizenry of Iran were able to have guns, then they might have a chance. That is why the people of this country have the right to bear arms. If our Government were running amuck like Iran, the people would have a way of protecting themselves from the tyranny.

[despido]

by hungry1968-15 June 23, 2009 5:06 PM PDT
Barack Obama: "We do not want to give the regime the impression that America has anything to do with this revolution. This is an internal Iranian issue."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Reprint of an earlier post:
The demonstrations in Iran are a good thing.
Iran is a self-proclaimed enemy of the U.S. We will inevitably face Iran in a serious conflict if they continue on their present course - unless of course we surrender. Therefore we should take full advantage of any sign of a breakdown in their government, any weaknesses exposed. No need to foolishly set a single toe on their soil, as the idiot Bush did, but rather exploit the situation with the technology available. Civil unrest saps strength faster than a defensive war, which only strengthens resolve. Witness the anti-war movement during Viet Nam.
Obama missed an opportunity and now looks pathetic as he admits to adjusting his rhetoric to appease critics at home. The regime in Iran is now stronger, they have brutalized their opponents, Ahmadinejad now has the entrenched support of the Supreme Leader and Obama looks impotent.

[YrSoWrong]

Oh, c'mon, you know you hate capitalism. You have no capital.