Iran Reformists Demand Crackdown Halt

Top Opposition Leaders Call for Release of Detainees, Warn Suppression Will "Radicalize" Movement

(AP)  Iran's top three reformist leaders demanded an end to the heavy crackdown launched by the ruling clerics after the disputed June 12 presidential election, warning that the suppression of protests could "radicalize" the opposition movement, an opposition Web site reported Tuesday.

Defeated presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi as well as former president Mohammad Khatami met late Monday and called for the release of those arrested during the protests and in sweeps afterward, the report on Mousavi's official Web site said.

The meeting - the first of its kind by the biggest names in the reform movement - appeared to be part of an attempt to resuscitate the opposition after the crackdown unleashed by police, Revolutionary Guards and pro-government Basij militia shattered massive protests that sprung up after the election.

Police say 20 protesters were killed, hundreds injured and more than 1,000 arrested in the violence and in sweeps that followed. Since the clampdown, there have been no major street protests for more than a week.

The government has closed universities and dormitories, fearing a new round of protests on Thursday, which is the 10th anniversary of a 1999 attack by Basij and police on protesting students.

Mousavi on Monday vowed to continue his campaign against a government he said lacks legitimacy - but hinted he was dropping the strategy of protests and moving to political action, including forming a party.

The pro-reform camp says Mousavi was the real winner in the election and accuses Iran's ruling system of faking results that showed a victory for incumbent hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Karroubi came last in the official results.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, has publicly sided with Ahmadinejad.

Police say most of those arrested during the protests have been released. Still, dozens of protesters, pro-reform politicians and journalists are still being held, and arrests have continued.

"The useless wave of arrests must end immediately and all those detained without committing the least crimes must be released. Also, security and military forces must return to their bases," Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami said in a statement after their meeting.

They said there was a need to "end the existing security state of affairs (atmosphere)."

"Continuation of this situation will only lead to radicalization of political activities," the tree said.

The statement also deplored "savage and shocking attacks" by pro-government Basij militia against protesters.

The three also denounced what they called "inhuman, illegal" confessions that state media have said some of the detainees have made. Iran's hard-line leaders have been trying to erase any lingering doubts about the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's government by portraying the unrest as sparked by foreign meddling.

State media have reported that some detainees have confessed to what amounts to collaboration with foreign powers against the Iranian state. The opposition has said the confessions were obtained under duress.

Mousavi separately met family of a protester killed in post-election riots, saying innocent blood won't be wasted.

"Blood shed unjustly won't be wasted," the reformist Web site www.norooznews.net quoted Mousavi as telling the family Tuesday.

[Sloughfoot]

"Defeated presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi" are not reformists. Mousavi is as radical as they come. These are just poor losers who have victimized their youthful followers.
I sure wish the New Media would portray the lot of them for what they are and quit trying to project Western morals and Freedoms upon a culture that neither wants or will tolerate a "Freeman".

[YuSoWrong]

Most people don't want democracy because they are inferior or because there's no such thing as democracy? Blanket statements such as "most people don't want democracy" are a condemnation of the human race.

If this were true, republics would be an affront to the king or mystic who rightly-deserves your slavery.

[YuSoWrong]

Hitler himself wrote that the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the annexation of Austria, the dismembering of Czechoslovakia were facilitated by the stupid weakness of the West, because they could not believe he would do the things that he did. How many more dictators must be humored by cowards before they must be fought by heroes? Iran's government is irrational and that is all that should concern other governments at this time. Belgians were killed in WW2 just as easily as the French. Did the Belgians attack Germany? No. The dictator brings his war to you. To believe otherwise is pure ignorance.

[curiously1]

Bush's approach to the Iranian problem clearly didn't pay off, and it seems like neither will Obama's ! The thug mullahs are stubborn as hell. At the end of the day, it may be inevitable that Israel and Iran will just have to duke it out.
As for North Korea, we may have to put Kim in his place ourselves.

[pepperwood2]

Iran Reformists Demand Crackdown Halt - Top Opposition Leaders Call for Release of Detainees, Warn Suppression Will "Radicalize" Movement.

Good for you folks. Having the courage to stand up to to the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's government by portraying the unrest as sparked by foreign meddling.

Obama & his smart SOS will be making a Strong Statement to Ahmadinejad, The Conservative Clerics & The World shortly. In the meantime the rest of the World is Watching. As soon as BO & SOS finish off our Weak, Poor, Neighbor, Honduras they will be with be with you. I'm sure Ahmadinejab, realizes that wrath of The UN & Obama Camp is the last thing they want to provoke. In the meantime you're on your own. We don't want this to happen again or again or ........ Trust Us. So Sad!

[schotzy81]

It's a good thing Obama has refrained from meddling in Iran's corrupt election process and spark of freedom and instead focused on meddling in Honduras's ouster of a corrupt Chavez thug trying to illegally bypass their constitution.

[hungry1968-16]

by YuSoWrong July 7, 2009 8:16 AM PDT
It would take a united front, and thanks-be to the Allah of Jihad, Western cowards and imbeciles will never join in the struggle.







By "Western cowards and imbeciles", are you referring to the Americans like myself that believe that our government should take care of OUR PROBLEMS, and leave foreign sovereign governments ALONE, to take care of their own issues?



Perhaps you should look in a dictionary, and find out what the word "sovereign" means.

It sure as hell doesn't mean: "A country that needs another nation telling it what to do, and how to conduct it's internal affairs."

Especially when that country has more than enough problems of it's own.

[YuSoWrong]

You are describing Isolationism, the political philosophy of the anti-Roosevelt Republicans during the Great Depression. This laissez-faire approach to the internal affairs of foreign dictators allowed those dictators the time they needed to trigger WW2. Psychopaths have no boundaries except for the boundaries legitimate governments force-upon them. How many deaths resulted from the policy of Isolationism, and how much wasted production that would have enhanced human life but instead was procured for the war effort? Do you advocate a repeat of this when we already know that the foreign enemy seeks the irrational rewards of mysticism? They aren't even as negotiable as secular Fascists.

[txlakeside]

Commies, commies, the sky is falling and McCarthy is still alive and well with the dumb as dirt! Add to this our own American Taliban and it is easy to see why the world has made fun of us the last 8 years! Thankfully we now have an intelligent President. The dumb as dirt can lie all they want. Intelligence prevails.

[speakinup22]

"Top Opposition Leaders Call for Release of Detainees, Warn Suppression Will "Radicalize" Movement - article


I would say the fuse is sufficently lit, YuSoWrong. The Ayahtolla won't want to cave into the opposition, let alone the "unelected" opposition, so he will defy them enough to cause a civil war.

[lexern]

Obama and Biden should be IMPEACHED if they engage with the illegitimate govenment in Iran. It's time for the US and the EU to announce that they consider the Iranian regime illegitimate to bolster change in that country.

[hungry1968-16]

And you think that the regime is just going to roll over and die because the US, EU, and UN condemn them?

How naive are you?

[YuSoWrong]

It would take a united front, and thanks-be to the Allah of Jihad, Western cowards and imbeciles will never join in the struggle.