Crackdown Drains Iranian Dissidents

Reform Movement Losing Voices As Gov't Detains Hundreds Of Activists, Journalists, Professors, Students In Nighttime Raids

(AP)  The Iranian government has seized and detained several hundred activists, journalists and students across the nation, in one of the most extensive crackdowns on key dissidents since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Even as unprecedented protests broke out on the streets after the June 12 disputed presidential election, the most stinging backlash from authorities has come away from the crowds through roundups and targeted arrests, according to witnesses and human rights organizations. They say plainclothes security agents have also put dozens of the country's most experienced pro-reform leaders behind bars.

The Iranian government says only that unspecified figures responsible for fomenting unrest have been taken into custody.

The arrests have drained the pool of potential leaders of a protest movement that claims President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the election by fraud. They also point to the potential for high-profile trials - and serious sentences - before a special judicial forum created to handle cases from the unrest.

With the main reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi under constant police surveillance, protests demanding a new vote have withered. Many of those rounded up during demonstrations have been released within days.

But most of those detained in raids against potential opposition remain in custody. That has spread fear among Mousavi supporters and left the opposition movement reeling.

"We heard some news about people who are arrested at night and we are worried if it could happen to us," a Tehran resident active in the protests wrote in an e-mail Friday, asking for anonymity for fear of government retaliation.

The targeted arrests appear to have begun the day after the election. Several of Iran's best-known reformist politicians were taken into custody, including the brother and several close allies of former President Mohammad Khatami.

Since then, at least 230 more students, professors, journalists and reformists have been arrested, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. At least 29 are known to have been released, the New York-based organization said in a list released Wednesday, although it acknowledged that the numbers were constantly changing.

The crackdown appears to have grown bolder as the government escalated its use of force on the streets.

Security agents arrested nearly the entire staff of Mousavi's newspaper, The Green Word, Monday night, seizing 25 people in a raid on its offices, according to a statement on Mousavi's Web site. Four or five who were out of the office during the raid remain free, according to the paper.

On Thursday, authorities arrested 70 reformist university professors after they met with Mousavi, his Web site said. At least 66 were later freed, said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Among the most prominent reformists detained was Ebrahim Yazdi, 78, who was a key aide of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and served as foreign minister after the 1979 revolution. Yazdi was hospitalized with a bladder problem when agents walked into his room on June 17, had his intravenous tubes disconnected and took him to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.

"They did not show any judicial or legal papers, nothing," Yazdi told The Associated Press by telephone from Tehran. "Even in prison they didn't interrogate me. Nobody came to tell me why they were arresting me."

Yazdi said he was treated respectfully and released the next day. But many other members of his Freedom Movement of Iran remain in prison along with leaders of other reformist parties, some of whom served in Khatami's government.

They include Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, a former government spokesman under Khatami; Saeed Hajjarian, an adviser to Khatami who was paralyzed in an assassination attempt in 2000; and human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who was arrested in his office by security forces posing as clients, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Officials even briefly arrested the daughter and four other relatives of one of Iran's most powerful men, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani. The detentions were seen as an official warning to Rafsanjani, a former conservative president who many believe now favors the opposition.

Observers say the crackdown is the largest since Khatami's 1997 election and the birth of the modern Iranian reform movement.

"The people that they have arrested represent a wide spectrum of the political orientation," Yazdi said. "It is much broader than in the past."

State television has begun broadcasting purported confessions of street protesters who say they acted on behalf of Britain and other Western nations in a bid to destabilize the government.

"These kinds of arrests usually are undertaken in order to produce some kind of a show trial," said Ahmad Sadri, a sociology professor at Lake Forest College in Illinois who writes a column for the reformist Iranian daily Etemad-e-Melli, or National Confidence.

The editor-in-chief of Etemad-e-Melli, which is owned by reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, was taken into custody last week, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which says roughly 40 journalists have been arrested. Among them was Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari, a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen, and Iason Athanasiadis, a Greek national reporting for The Washington Times.

Arrests of foreign reporters without family ties to Iran have been rare in recent years. The Greek government said Athanasiadis, who lived in Iran from 2004-2007, was taken into custody last week on an alleged visa violation. Iran has said little about the case.

Athanasiadis' parents have appealed for his release, calling him a reporter, photographer and filmmaker with "a particular love of Iran, and a deep respect for its cultural and religious traditions."

Arrests have taken place not only in Tehran but in smaller cities like Hamedan, Zanjan and Shiraz, rights groups said. The numbers of detentions outside Tehran could not be verified independently.

"It causes mass paranoia that nowhere's safe; you can't be in your home, you can't be in the hospital," said Afshon Ostovar, who is writing a doctoral dissertation on Iran's security forces at the University of Michigan.

The targeted roundups allow authorities to suppress dissent while avoiding the flood of amateur videos and photographs that have documented police or militia confrontations with demonstrators. The most famous showed music student Neda Agha Soltan bleeding to death from a gunshot wound on a Tehran street.

"It's much easier to arrest people at night than crack heads in the daylight," Ostvar said. "There's no camera, there's no proof, there's no pictures."

Iranian officials appear to have identified some protest leaders by monitoring cell phones, e-mail accounts and Internet activity. The fear of official surveillance has forced some opposition supporters into self-censorship.

"In any demonstrations we turn off our cell phones and remove its battery because we heard they can search people by the phones even when it's off," the Tehran protester who insisted on anonymity wrote in his e-mail.

Many fear the government can track down opponents by tracing their computers if they visit certain Web sites.

Sadri, the professor in Illinois who regularly visits Iran, said he has begun couching his criticism of the government in his newspapers, taking an indirect approach to avoid angering the government.

"It is much more writing in allegory and symbols," he said.

[daisyjingles]

The crackdown will not stop the ill will of the Iranian people.

[walt1944]

What has hapened in Iran is EXACTLY the kind of government that George W Bush/Darth Vader Cheney, the neocon Fascist Nazi Republicans and the wacko religious right wanted to see in this country: a THEOCRATIC/TOTALITARIAN government that told you WHAT to BELIEVE, HOW to BELIEVE, and WHO to BELIEVE!!!!

And if you refused to believe what THEY WANTED, you could be imprisoned FOREVER, refused any rights AT ALL, tortured REPEATEDLY, and seen your family humiliated or imprisoned with you!!!

It would have been the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust all over again!!! Only it would be happening HERE!!!!!!

AND IT STILL COULD BE!!!!!!!!!!!

HAIL OBAMA???????

[speakinup22]

"Reform Movement Losing Voices As Gov't Detains Hundreds Of Activists, Journalists, Professors, Students In Nighttime Raids -headline


No wonder Ahmadinejad claims the Holocaust never happened. He intends to perpetrate it upon the people of his own country which want basic freedoms. To able to speak out against the government.

If ever there was a 2nd Hitler, this excuse of a human being is it.

And the far left is in power and denial.

THIS is why you don't elect people like Obama into power.

He is an inexperienced idealist. Sure he has ideas, but just like Jimmy Carter, we'll find they were naive when history judges him.

Strip him of his power in the very next election. Show him that Pelosi and Reid are NOT doing what is necessary. Punish his party for ever putting this ill-equiped person up for such an important position.

It is a shame that the first man of color could not have had a magnificent presidency. It would have gone a long way towards diversity and intercultural respect.

[mrjustice1]

FILLED WITH PRIMITIVE HATE, PUNISHMENT, REVENGE, IRRATIONAL
RELIGIOUS DOGMA, DELUSIONS OF POWER, DOMINATION AND CONQUEST
=
THE CURRENT, RELIGIOUSLY FANATICAL, ISLAMOFASCIST IRANIAN REGIME

The entire world must take thorough, decisive action - militarily and all other ways - to ensure that the current, Iranian Islamofascist regime does NOT produce or possess any nuclear weaponry.

The hour is late to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program, therefore immediate military pre-emption with regard to Iran's nuclear program MUST BE initiated.

Iran is not working in the interests of the world's nations or people.
The sooner the world removes the Iranian nuclear threat, the better!

[tautomer]

It would have been nice to see a couple of unidentified drones "mistakenly take out a few of those Basji and Qud folks at propitious times. Heck, AmOnAJihad has been out in public, but Obama was content to "watch". Hell he could have slipped a few CIA fellas i the back door or a couple of Italians in Black Leather Jackets....instead he "Watched".

These are the same Clerics and Fanatics that Jimmy Carter allowed to come to power through inaction. Carter condemned the Shah for trying to keep exactly these guys from taking over, lmao. Oh those poor Mullahs locked up in the evil Shah's prisons.....Jimmy bought it hook line and sinker....now its those Mullahs who are locking people up and executing them in far greater numbers than the Shah ever did. Meanwhile Obama "WATCHES".

[cbsantispin]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can walk around with that smug look on his face all he wants, but he now knows loud and clear that hundreds of thousands of Iranians hate his guts and he can't kill them all. Hopefully the U.N. will intervene and not allow Iran to execute those who protested against the recent fraudulent election.

[gravyboat3000]

How do you propose the UN intervene?

Or anyone for that matter...

Short of military intervention?

[RCC_Soldaten]

The UN will sit by and all they will do is pass another resolution condemning Israel. They are USELESS.

[tautomer]

Evidently, most Dems are thrilled with the outcome.

[1notrub11]

"The Iranian government says only that unspecified figures responsible for fomenting unrest have been taken into custody."

Oh, OK, this make it better - lol.

So sad, and so obvious that the government of Iran could not withstand even the slightest negative opinions or views and must completely supress them. This will not last forever, no matter what the current outcome. Achma-whats his face, should quit talking - he was doing better when he was quiet. It's only a matter of time before the clerics will be displaced by Iran's more openminded youth.

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

Did anyone really think that this oppressive government, bent on genocide of anyone who disapproves of the way they do things would have it any other way. They are backwards in the worst way. They treat their women like cattle and the only way they can "rule" is to force people to do what they say or kill them. Just like that idiot in North Korea. They don't get any respect so they have to frighten people like a bully.

[ajjaxtheleast]

Are we saying that Ahmadinejad is worse than
two leaders of a country who actually did and
are presently doing what we Say that
Ahmadinejed only MIGHT do?,,,

What country has Iran invaded lately?,,,Causing
tens if not hundreds of thousands of another
countries' citizens,,,,,,
,,,easy to forget isn't it?

If we're trying to denegrate Obama then try his
criminal stomping through Afghanistan.

But that's the repubs' catch 22,,,
,,got them in a bind,,,

Repubs NEVER judge Obama one way or another for
going into Afghanistan,,,,they cant,,,

They'd love to hit Obama for going into Ahfghanistan
but to do so would be smacking their hero for doing
the same thing in Iraq,,,,And to praise Obama
for doing the same thing in Afghanistan that
Bush did in Iraq,,,,would after all be,,,,
gulp!,,,"praising" Obama,,,,

So you'll never hear a word, good or bad from
repubs about Obama going into Afghanistan,,,
,,,wont happen,

Here's how repubs should handle it:,

Honest dems, certain that going into Iraq was
a war crime and seeing that their man Obama is doing
near the criminal same thing say that they're both
criminals,,,

So conversely, repubs, only believing that the
invasion was mandated by God or what ever
the reason for their belief, should nonetheless
say that both Obama and Bush did and are now
doing the right thing.

[gravyboat3000]

Baggy? So anti-social?

How about you address the points made, he makes some good points.

"you idiot"

lmao

[carolhill814]

This other man that wanted to be President was lying all the time all he wanted to do was get the people in the streets after he lost and get them either killed or put into prison so that the government would know who didn't like the existing government he was just another conman. But I were him I would stay out to the streets because his life could be endangered because the people know who he is and they will kill him.
At the very least those people did show that they are strong and willing to put their lives on the line for freedom and that scared the government I am sure they never ever expected that to happen but it did.
This other man set the trap and all these people that went into the street backing him walked straight into it and never had a chance to get out of it and that is so sad.
Now he is going to watch these people killed for something that was a lie all the while I hope he is very proud of himself.

MAY GOD BLESS ALL OF THE PEOPLE THAT WERE OUT IN THE STREET FOR THE FREEDOM THAT WE HAVE IN THE UNITED STATES NOW AND FOR ALL TIME AS I AM SURE HE WILL!!!

[ABM_21]

Ahhhhhhh, and this is the thugracracy that Dumbama just legitimized as a 'SOVEREIGN' nation and declared that NOBODY has a right to interfere in thie 'SOVEREIGN' thugracracy's business...

Hate freedom and the right to fair and accountable elections, much, Dumbama? Yeah, you're just gonna HATE the next elections, STUPID!

You just LOST IT, dumbarse! If you don't have the ba**s to stand up for freedom....then the US certainly DOES NOT NEED YOU calling yourself president!

It'll certainly be nice to have an ADULT in our White House in 2013.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ahhh yes. An 'adult', you say. One that just goes in with guns a-blazin' and installs their hand-picked 'leader'---I'm sorry , I meant 'rightful winner'---of the election, right? If that's the 'adult' way, I'd hate to see what a child would do. We have an adult in the White House for the first time in eight years. We had an idiot who had new toys to play with, so he had to play with them. Too bad the Iraqis didn't want to play. After 4,000+ American deaths---not to mention scores of Iraqi civilian deaths---you would think the bloodlusts of some Americans would be quenched right about now. So sorry to see they want more. This election was probably rigged. This may well be true. But then again, what if the entire Arab community decided to come into this nation and install Gore as president back in 2000? He did win the election, you know. Conservatives do not have a leg to stand on in this debate. If you want to see blood and guts that badly, why not go to an MMA fight?

[tautomer]

Conservatives do not have a leg to stand on in this debate. If you want to see blood and guts that badly, why not go to an MMA fight?
_____________________________________________________________________

No need, we'll all watch the blood and guts of thousands of courageous Iranians being executed, victims of Obama's gutless inaction.

[azure13]

IThoughtItWasFunnyAsIs....

Why should we do ANYTHING? And what is it that we should do?

You blather on about how people were murdered and WE should do something about it. Like what??? And why is Iran any different than Somalia, or Darfur or wherever?

You're the one who is and idiot simpleton. You want to spend more lives and money on a revolution that has nothing to do with our nation.

[speakinup22]

"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Looks like Ike was wrong about Obama, but who from 50 years ago would have thought a Socialist would EVER get in power in the first place.

Elections have consequences folks.

This one is gonna be bad.

[ABM_21]

You know, looking at the events unfolding in Iran from afar makes one feel about as helpless as I did when I heard Michael Jackson had passed away. For one thing, if these election results are in fact the truth, then the government should have no problem with an investigation. If the results are the truth, then an investigation should bear them out. However, these results are eye-popping to say the least, and have the appearance of fraud to say the worst. In parts of the country where Ahmadinejad was wildly unpopular, he won by an almost 2-to-1 margin. That is nothing more than fraud at its finest.
From where I stand, Ahmadinejad is no better than Bush and the ruling class no better than the Republicans who stood by him when he stole the election of 2000. This was as un-American an election as we have ever had in this nation, yet the Republicans were so hungry for power, they stood by it. Look where that got us. These clerics are nothing more than power hungry politicians in traditional garb. Their attempts to silence the voices of dissent may well prove their undoing. The voice of the people will be heard. If the ruling class does not heed their voices, they may find themselves on the wrong end of a crackdown.
To blame Obama for this fiasco is absurd. One of the issues that some Americans--mostly conservatives--- have trouble with is knowing their places. Iran already is very leery of outside interference into their state affairs, especially American interference. Provocative language does nothing more than give credence to these fears of outside influence, and may serve to put the brave demonstrators in more danger than is necessary. Obama is doing the right thing by treading lightly in this discourse. But, some people---mostly conservatives---would criticize the man for saving a baby from a burning building. The fact of the matter is, there was a disputed election in the states, and the Republicans stood by those disputed results. You cannot sweep off someone else's front porch while yours is quite filthy.We need to allow things to run their course, then see how they turn out. Provocative condemnations are not the answer in this case...

[LCCLYDE]

So now how are you any different from the Shah and his police Savak? None.

[tautomer]

All SAVAK did was oppose the Cleric Nutjobs who rule Iran today. Did you know that it is estimated that somewhere around 35% of all Iranians were SAVAK operatives and that they largely comprised the educated segment of Iranian society. They knew they didn't want their country to fall under Clerical Rule.

Now Iranians want freddom fromt he very tyrants that SAVAK sought to oppose. It seems you prefer the Ayatollahs, Clyde!!! lol

[zonkzilla]

Do the Obama haters think anything has changed?
How is Iran any different now than in the past 20 years?
Did Iran start producing materials for nuclear weapons under Obama?
Was Iran an open democracy before Obama?
Did Iran threaten Israel before Obama?
Of course anyone can see that anything Obama has or has not done has not changed Iran and probably nothing will.
Blind hatred blinds people to the truth.

[tautomer]

What has changed is that the Iranian people took to the street, risked their lives for their freedom while Obama winked at their oppressors. Obama spent far more time jawboning about a couple of hundred Gitmos than he did about the thousands of upstanding Iranianns who will be executed.

He said "I'm watching!". LMAO, sitting on his hands and watching. Instead of helping the Iranians who desperately need and want the help, Obama is headed to Afghanistan where the people don;t want our involvment. Afghanistan is more profitable for Obama's cronies at Halliburton to whom he continues to funnel billions or dollars.

[ABM_21]

obama = weakness

obama = cowardice

obama = appeasement

obama = moral failure

obama = wrong side of history
------------------------------------------------------------------
Retardicans = hypocrisy
Retardicans= war for no reason
Retardicans= DEFINITELY the wrong side of history
Retardicans= greed
Retardicans = bloodshed
Retardicans = overall weakness through murder, corruption and scandal
Retardicans = unfit for leadership

[RCC_Soldaten]

I find it hard to believe that the world would just stand by and watch as this idiot executes thousands of pro-democracy, educated, idealistic men and women.

As soon as he starts the massacre I would launch air strikes - the 'world' be damned.

[nolalou]

Oh sure , start WWIII while we're at it. Maybe you think we should have done the same when China cracked down on it's own democracy movement in the 1980s! Sorry, pal, you are a typical right wing nut job!

[tautomer]

by RCC_Soldaten June 27, 2009 I find it hard to believe that the world would just stand by and watch as this idiot executes thousands of pro-democracy, educated, idealistic men and women.
________________________________________________________________________

Why is that hard to believe? John Kennedy did the same thing during the Bay of Pigs incident. He left over 100 men to die on a Cuban Beach and was silent during the ensuing executions that followed. Obama has often expressed admiration for JFK. Now Obama has done the same thing.

The Iranian Freedom Movement is trying to undo the legacy of Jimmy Carter, to return to an enlightened and educated society and a standard of living that they had under the Shah. Unfortunately, Carter, viewed the "repression" of the Ayatollahs as a bad thing! Now Iranians are living with that legacy and trying to overcome it. Obama has frequently cited Jimmy Carter as a hero, why would Obama do any different.

Democrats like to forget that both Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein came to power while Jimmy Carter swilled "Billy Beer".

In some ways Obama's hands are tied. He is, after all, a relative newcomer among his fellow Muslim World Leaders and as such he must traditionally defer to the wishes of more senior Muslims like Khamenei and Corwn Prince Abdullah and Ahmendinejad.

It's a shame that the cream of Iranian society reached out for help but managed only to "concern" Obama. Obama would rather attend a photo-op in Michell's vegetable garden!

[RCC_Soldaten]

by nolalou June 27, 2009 2:21 PM PDT
Oh sure , start WWIII while we're at it. Maybe you think we should have done the same when China cracked down on it's own democracy movement in the 1980s! Sorry, pal, you are a typical right wing nut job!

Thank you. At least I am not out celebrating June as National Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Month like the rest of the Obama loving liberals.

[ubrew12]

"Reform Movement Losing Voices As Gov't Detains Hundreds Of Activists, Journalists, Professors, Students In Nighttime Raids"

As George Orwell predicted: the Islamic revolutionaries who took over from the Shah learned a few of his lessons after all. Count them now as peas in a pod.