Iran military plane crashes

Another odd military plane crash in Iran. Wonder what the real story is/was...

Oh, you didn't hear about the Iranian student activists on the MSM?

Well, City Boy has some updates this week - check them out here:

1. Latest on the student activists
2. Police brutality against activists

Renewed clampdown on women in Iran is guaranteed

That's what their own police say...

IRAN warned that its police will enforce a drive against clothing deemed unIslamic with renewed vigour this month by doubling the number of forces assigned to check up on lax dressing, local media reported.

Thousands of women have already been warned and hundreds arrested across Iran for failing to adhere to the country's Islamic dress code since the drive began in April, its toughest such crackdown in years.

Ahmad Reza Radan, the head of Tehran's police force, dismissed any notion that the crackdown was now fizzling out, saying it was "unstoppable''.

Iran bans negative petrol stories

What do you expect? I don't know what to make of all of this activity in Iran right now. Usually when there is 'real', significant and unified protests taking place across the country by people who truly want to remove the mullahs from power, there is absolutely no international (Western) media coverage of such events. This is the true 'black box' of (Western) journalism. So when the likes of al-BBC, al-Reuters and al-CNN begin covering 'riots' and mass 'protests' in Iran, I am automatically dubious as to who is organizing the activities and what their actual motives are. Saying that, this could be a legitimate expression of the Iranian peoples' continuing and intensifying hatred of the ruling regime, but as of now the jury would seem to be out. In any case, al-Beeb's article on the media clampdown can be found here, with excerpts below.

Iran's top security body has ordered local journalists not to report on problems caused by petrol rationing, a day after its surprise introduction.

Angry motorists have reacted violently to the curbs, attacking up to 19 petrol stations in the capital, Tehran.

There are still long queues outside filling stations.

The authorities switched off the mobile text messaging system in Tehran overnight to prevent motorists from organising more protests.

Iran fuel rations spark violence

al-Beeb is on the scene.

UPDATE: so are many others:

• Iran's economy could undo Ahmadinejad (The Times of London)
• Protests rage over petrol rationing in Iran (The Telegraph)
• Gas Rationing Sparks Anger in Iran (NYT)
• Nationwide Protests Triggered (AFP)
• Photos (Iran Focus): 1, 2 & 3

At least 12 petrol stations have been torched in the Iranian capital, Tehran, after the government announced fuel rationing for private vehicles.

Windows were smashed and stones thrown at the stations, and there was traffic chaos as motorists queued to buy fuel.

Iranians were given only two hours' notice of the move that limits private drivers to 100 litres of fuel a month.

Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and it imports about 40% of its petrol.

The country has a large budget deficit largely caused by fuel subsidies and the inflation rate is estimated at 20-30%.

Dissenters jailed in Iran's 'total freedom'

Ahmadinejad's Web site doesn't mention numerous reformists arrested in last six months. What else would you expect from the two-faced peasant who does the bidding of the mullahs? The full story from AP is here.

Theories on the mullahs' crackdown

Not like this hasn't been going on since before Ahmadin-jihad's time, but the Seattle & Los Angeles Times try to analyze why it's sped up (or the media has given it more attention) in recent months.

Why the regime has cracked down now remains unclear, although analysts offered several overlapping theories.

The widespread purges and arrests are expected to have an impact on parliamentary elections next year and the presidential contest in 2009, either discouraging or preventing reformers from running against the hard-liners who dominate all branches of government, Iranian and U.S. analysts say. The elections are one of several motives behind the crackdowns, they add.

Public signs of discontent — such as students booing Ahmadinejad on a campus in December, teacher protests in March over low wages and workers demonstrating on May Day — are also behind the detentions, according to Iranian sources....

The current crackdown is a way to instill fear in the population in order to discourage them from future political agitation as the economic situation begins to deteriorate," said Karim Sadjadpour, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"You're going to think twice about taking to the streets to protest the hike in gasoline prices if you know the regime's paramilitary forces have been on a head-cracking spree the last few weeks."

Despite promises to use Iran's oil revenue to aid the poor, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have backfired, triggering 20 percent inflation over the past year, increased poverty and a 25 percent rise in the price of gas last month. More than 50 of the country's leading economists wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad warning he is endangering the country's future.

Others see the repression as an attempt to establish firm control over the domestic situation as the country girds for possible war, international isolation or economic sanctions.

Why is the BBC reporting about Iran's crackdown on students?

What's in it for them? They almost never report on this kind of thing, especially when reporting 'unconfirmed' accounts from the students themselves - it's 'not in their interest' you know...It kind of makes you wonder.

And of course the 'statistics' given about the previous government's (Khatami's) crack-downs are grossly underestimated and likely the mullahs' own 'official' figures...but hey, what do you expect from the Beeb's current embedded spy in Tehran?

Iranian students and professors say an unprecedented number of disciplinary cases have been brought against students in the last month.

They say 29 have been arrested in the last two months for political activism and 207 were taken before disciplinary committees in the last 40 days alone.

By comparison, just four students were disciplined a month on average under the last government.

University professors who criticise the government are also losing their jobs.

One of the best-known reformist professors to be affected by the latest purge is the outspoken cleric Mohsen Kadivar.

You know things are bad in Iran when Robin Wright finally admits it

You can read the related aritlce here - some excerpts are below.

Iran is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranians and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution.

The recent detentions of Iranian American dual nationals are only a small part of a campaign that includes arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands of Iranians as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for the media. Hundreds of Iranians have been detained and interrogated, including a top Iranian official, according to Iranian and international human rights groups.

The move has quashed or forced underground many independent civil society groups, silenced protests over issues including women's rights and pay rates, quelled academic debate, and sparked society-wide fear about several aspects of daily life, the sources said.

Few feel safe, especially after the April arrest of Hossein Mousavian, a former top nuclear negotiator and ambassador to Germany, on charges of espionage and endangering national security.

Iran's hard line cracks down for summer

From the National Post (Canada). At a few people are reporting it in the MSM - wonder why...?

As the world frets about Iran's nuclear intentions, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched the most extensive crackdown on domestic dissent in 20 years.

Men and women have been arrested for wearing clothes that flout Islamic strictures, students and union leaders have been jailed as national security threats, and women's rights groups have been branded a national threat.

Fearing a U.S.-backed "velvet revolution" in which western governments will manipulate opposition groups within Iran, officials are monitoring civil-society activists, intellectuals and academics, and doing all they can to prevent them from having contacts with the outside world. Few moderates have escaped the new war on dissent.

Iran takes further action to suppress dissent

From the LA Times. I would say that the fact that this has not been reported in the Western MSM is not because "the government has harshly clamped on the media" or because "Western news organizations also feel intimidated" but simply because they don't want to (or are being told not to) report it. But hey, what do I know?...

The government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the midst of one of the most intensive crackdowns on domestic dissent in the past two decades, targeting groups as diverse as banks and labor unions, students and civic organizations....

...Although the internal crackdown has been widespread, it has attracted relatively little attention outside Iran, in part because the government has harshly clamped down on the media....

...Western news organizations also felt intimidated. The bureau chief of one western news organization in Tehran likened present-day Iran to the former Soviet Union, where foreign journalists writing about human rights abuses would have their visas revoked. "There are many things that I would like to write about, but can't," the journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They would shut down our office and kick us out."

Unreported protests & civil disobedience in Iran

A few recent unreported events...

• Tehran’s Youths Attacked the Governmental Centers and Buses (NCRI)
• Iranian Workers Go on Strike (NCRI)
• Iranian Students warn Ahmadinejad (Aryamehr)

Hunger strike by Amir Kabir University students

Aryamehr is on it, as usual (via City Boy). You can see more images on his site.

City Boy reports that Amir Kabir University students have gone on a hunger strike in protest against the illegal and savage Islamic occupational regime's detention of seven Iranian students and against the increased repressive atmosphere that is prevalent on Iranian campuses across the country. For the full story click HERE.

Iran Focus reports, with state media photos. You can view them all here - again, this is the only place you'll probably see them. Just another day for X and Y in (Islamic Republic) paradise...

Iran’s State Security Forces are cracking down on youths across the country. Residents in Tehran say that bogus charges are being used as justification for the arrest of political activists and those perceived to be potential threats to the security of the clerical establishment.

One Tehran resident reached by telephone told Iran Focus that thousands of youths had been arrested on “phoney charges” such as non-conformance to the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code or even drug trafficking. “Maybe less than one percent of those arrested have actually done something illegal. The rest are being picked up at random for socialising in public or looking at the security forces in a certain manner”, the resident said on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Man sets self on fire outside Ahmadinejad's office in Iran capital

This is how bad things have gotten.

Protest erupts in Tehran’s Polytechnic University

Iran Focus reports (not many others have). This is the same University where the student editor was detained.

Students in Tehran’s Polytechnic University staged a protest on campus on Sunday, eye-witnesses told Iran Focus in a telephone interview.

The protest erupted outside the main entrance of the university.

“Jailed students must be freed”, the students chanted. “Ansar, get lost”, they added, referring to Ansar-e Hezbollah, a paramilitary force that acts as the clerical regime’s storm troopers to put down anti-government demonstrations and instil terror in members of the public. Iranian officials have conceded in the past that the Ansar-e Hezbollah has been organised and led by close confidants of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, such as Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati.

The student protest took place as hard-line vigilantes loyal to the Supreme Leader arrived on campus and began a counter demonstration.

“Un-Islamic students must be executed”, the vigilantes yelled.Meanwhile, the student protestors called for the expulsion of the university’s chancellor and an end to the government-sponsored crackdown on student rights activists.

Iran: Beating and arrest of workers is no way to commemorate May Day

Amnesty reports. So does NCRI.

Amnesty International is concerned at the reported beating today of workers taking part in peaceful May Day demonstrations in Tehran and Sanandaj as well as the arrest in Sanandaj of Sedigh Karimi and Khaled Rasouli, members of the Union of Unemployed and Dismissed Workers (Ettehadiye Kargaran-e Bikar va Ekhraji). According to information available to Amnesty International, scores of others may have been detained in the course of the May Day demonstrations.

Amnesty International calls on the Iranian authorities to ensure that the right to peaceful assembly is upheld and to promptly charge those detained with an internationally recognisable criminal offence or to release them.

Reports indicate that a small number of peaceful demonstrators separated from the May Day demonstration permitted by the authorities in Shahid Shiroudi stadium in central Tehran and began to move towards the 7th of Tir Square. A group of around 600 workers reportedly chanted slogans against the government and parliament, as clashes between demonstrators and security forces broke out in places.

Iran: More suppressive measure in the run up to May Day celebrations

From NCRI.

Today, the Deputy Interior Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Baqer Zolqader warned workers, students, teachers, and youths against participating in May Day celebrations. His comments come at time when workers and teachers with the support from the rest of Iranian people are preparing for a major turnout tomorrow.

Subsequent to Zolqader’s warnings, a number of students’ activists were arrested by the State Security Forces (SSF). The universities are under constant surveillance by the regime. Even simple ceremonies on May Day are not tolerated by the SSF.

On May First, Workers, teachers, and students are determined to turn May Day celebrations into massive demonstrations against the Iranian regime. They have planed to have gatherings outside the regime’s Majlis (parliament), labor union, City Park, and other locations in Tehran.

Recent crackdowns by the mullahs

I'm just going to list the major one's here that happened while I was traveling. The most ridiculous article I've seen in a while is the BBC one listed at the top. I don't think I need to say much about it, if you know what I mean.

1. Crackdown in Iran over dress codes (BBC) - the b*stards...they report the Islamic Republic's official news as truth and gospel (you're telling me 86% of people support the 'crack down' on dress code and that this is the most important issue in a country with overwhelming unemployment, a mismanaged/ruined economy, and a capital city where people are selling their kidneys just to make ends meet...c'mon al-Beeb, how long are you going to keep this up...the oil's gonna run out soon, so I guess maybe then...?)
2. Women bear brunt of Tehran's crackdown (AP)
3. Iran again bans website critical of Ahmadinejad (AFP)
4. Iran to filter "immoral" mobile messages (Reuters)
5. Iranian regime penalises university activists (Guardian)
6. Iran: 'Unauthorized' musicians arrested (Adnkronos International)
7. Two women's rights activists sentenced to jail (Adnkronos International)

Arrest of Hamadan’s teachers to prevent spread of unrest

More civil unrest in Iran that's not being reported. You can read more about it on NCRI.

Yesterday [Sunday], the State Security Forces (SSF) raided the weekly meeting of teachers and arrested forty-five participants there in the western city of Hamadan, the state-run website Aftab reported.

Arrest of teachers comes at the time when the Iranian teachers have call for a sit-in at schools on 16 and 17 of April.

Teachers have declared that if their demands are not met by May 2 which coincides with international “Teachers Day,” they will first demonstrate out side of their local offices of Ministry of Education in various cities across the nation and eventually they will have a gathering out side the Majlis (the regime’s parliament).