flexflint:

Still trying to get a proxy up, while trying to get the story out to relatives and friends, waiting for the 30th as well I guess.


I think most who are actually following Iran are, in a sick sort-of way, eager to see what happens on the 30th.

I do want to see those in green stand up to subjugation. I think what cemented it for me was the picture of firehoses being
trained on marchers. Those that lived through or studied the civil rights movement here in the states had that hit a little to close to home.


The last thing I want to see, and I hope this is true of most sensible on-lookers, is another Neda video, or more reports of hanging protesters. But each time an event like that occurs, it does solidify the movement, and make the leadership all the more despised by he people.


As an aside:
It should be common knowledge that the Iranian population are not backwards people, they have one of the longest cultural histories of education. It appears that their leadership has forgotten this. constantly pointing to the foreign bogeyman, even if it is right on occasion, is an affront to the intellect.

I have read some posts on how people don't understand how this movement could galvanize so quickly. It's because the leadership lied to the educated masses, and continued to lie to cover it up. unlike in the states, where we are either too stupid or too placated to care when an official lies, The people in Iran got fed up with the bull. And I do say people, not students or intellectual elites, as the average IQ in that country makes the US seem like the back of the special bus.

flexflint: Where are all the people from the Green Threads? Where's Persepolis and Tatsuma? Has this died down on Fark too?

Farkers aren't really known for following through on anything.

Apik0r0s: SockMonkeyHolocaust: We overestimated this people for even today the greatest bogeyman in the Iranian hive-mind isn't the government with Persian blood on its hands, it's the British Queen and anybody that speaks English.

It's like you internet revolutionaries need this hyperbolic romantic bullshiat to survive.

People who knew anything about Iran didn't overestimate anything because the result was a foregone conclusion. It wasn't going to be a second Marcos overthrow no matter how much you blogged about it.

People who got their news from Wikipedia or Twitter and who watch too much TV are the ones who overestimated the internet hype for a revolution that no one showed up to participate in.



To be fair, they were led along in this. Just think about the vast number of websites, posts, tweets and blogs that sprang up hours after the election. It was everywhere. Its suddeness almost as suspicious as the seeming coordination of random internet users.

The most suspicious were the "lists" - lists of links to Iran Election items that came out of the woodwork. I spent some time looking into a few of the most curious of those lists. All I looked in to were on secondary pages of existing websites. Websites that seemed to have been dormant until the Iran Election. All were sites being sat on by Enom Inc - ie registration lapses and Enom (ICAAN registrar) takes over the domain. At different times they were mirror images of each other. Two were making identical updates at nearly the same time, though both were ostensibly being put together by unrelated people.

I went so far as to track down the former owner of one site and call him up. He is an older gentleman who retired to Florida last year and let his website registration lapse because he didn't want to keep up with it anymore and was doing most of what he did through his site in another forum. I emailed him a link to the list he was supposedly publishing and he called me back, pissed off as hell.

Why would some domain registrar be so interested in this? Who knows, except that Enom has a history of censoring and downing websites that don't agree with their politics - ie they censored and seized websites owned by a European travel agent who arranged travel to Cuba. That one made the NYT. A Wave of the Watch List, and Speech Disappears NYT Mar 4 2008

In addition Wikileaks has discovered a previously unreported eNom proposal from last year to bulk-release customer records to government agencies. The plan is to convert the entire internet domain system to into "Secure Blobs for Law Enforcement", a big-brother scheme redolent of the NSA CLIPPER chip fiasco. Not content to roll over eNom customer records when asked, eNom has apparently realized it can decrease subpoena processing costs by giving away domain holders confidential information to government agencies en-mass. eNom's idea is to encrypt registrant's confidential information and attach it to every public "whois" record. This would allow law enforcement, or anyone else with a decryption key, to obtain all confidential records automatically. Not content to undermine the 1st amendment, eNom apparently has plans to do away with the 4th as well.Link (new window)

Enom, and their CEO Rosenblatt are as dirty as they come.

And there they were right in the middle of what can only be seen as a massive Internet-based propaganda campaign against Iran.

Don't blame the sheep, blame the shepherds. And wonder what their motivation is.

This resonates with a little search I did myself. I randomly looked for sites that are organizing against the government in Iran (that's what this is, after all, right?) and landed on one for the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran. This site is all about organizing student opposition to the present Iranian government.

After WHOISing the site, I find that the site is actually registered to a company...IN TEXAS. In fact, I could probably drive over there since it's in Addison and I live in Carrollton.

So what is a Texas company doing sponsoring an anti-Iranian-government website?

Could it be that here in Texas is where a huge percentage of this country's OIL INDUSTRY is based? Surely not.

Either way, any "Iranian" website based in this country is about as trustworthy as a website examining "The Honest Analysis of US Culture" based in North Korea. You just have to expect a helluva slant.

Greenseadrop: Huh? I don't get the bugs bunny pic and what it's supposed to represent.

Apik0r0s: *i'm using my as a friend voice here* you have WAY too much time on your hands to have done the kind of research you did. I can only imagine the intricate web of conspiracy theories in your head; which, I am almost certain are tied together in some way. I mean who would have cared enough about what is being published apparently out dated websites; and then, to some how hatch the idea they were releasing info simultaneously; to then, call some one about a list that was on thier site.

Uhmm you too featheredsun ... Way too much time, Is Apik0r0s your alter ego you use to validate yourself on Fark? If not we need to keep you two away from each other.

I'm still watching the situation in regards to Iran, though have mainly turned elsewhere for my daily update needs. I'm almost totally a lurker though.

FeatheredSun: After WHOISing the site, I find that the site is actually registered to a company...IN TEXAS. In fact, I could probably drive over there since it's in Addison and I live in Carrollton.

So what is a Texas company doing sponsoring an anti-Iranian-government website?

Even more curious, ten seconds on Google yields this story from the Dallas Morning News:
Brokerage firm was actually FBI front (new window)

On the surface, Talon Holdings Inc. looked like any of the dozens of boutique investment firms in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Its address was a suite on Addison Circle in Addison, the financial center of Dallas' northern suburbs. The NASD's Web site showed the firm and its brokers as being registered to work in the securities business and having spotless regulatory records.

Ha ha.

jake_lex: My feeling is that Amadinejhad will survive this, for now, but the legitimacy of the Iranian power structure has been permanently -- and, eventually, fatally -- damaged in the long term.

I think you are absolutely correct. They always have enjoyed a little bit of legitimacy within and outside of Iran. They have zero legitimacy now.

greentea1985: Tats isn't here because it is the sabbath and if you check his blog Link (new window) he is currently without internet. I'm not sure why Persepolis isn't here.

The Iranians appear to be trying to repeat the hostage crisis IRE RTing another tweeter: Military official says Iran may take over the 50-acre British Embassy residence http://bit.ly/DqxAR #iranelection Gets popcorn to watch Iran lose all of its European markets.

Thanks for the reply. Let's wait and see, ok?

Tats isn't here because it's the Sabbath, Persepolis isn't here because he has a life to run and (my theory), he has better sources than all of us, i.e., he's working behind the screens.

QFT: Grand Ayatollah Yosuf Sanei today stated that, "confessions of detained protesters didn't hold any merit, neither legally or rationally." He added that, "detentions, killings, beatings, lies and tricks should not stop people from trying to retain their right to determine their future."

From here (new window).

jjorsett: A Tout Le Monde: Alacritous: 40yoVirgin: I guess if he said so, it must be true!

They're taking lessons from the Republicans.. Remember, Obama is a secrit muslin.

I came here to say that.

Your side is the only one I hear saying that lately. It's become clear that what Obama really is is a not-so-secrit spendthrift, power-mad, ally-shiatting-upon, Zionist-hating, dictator-humper.

No, I'm afraid your memory is short. During the election that sentiment was fairly widespread, though not necessarily popular.

I saw it expressed from:

- People at work
- Random emails forwarded to me
- Probably hundreds of blogs, or even thousands of blogs if you google searched it
- People on Fark.
- Articles on Fark.
- Talking heads on TV.
- Some lady standing next to John McCain at one of his rallies (though she used the word "Arab", poor soul probably didn't know the difference).
- Lots of people on youtube.

No, I'd say it pretty much wasn't invented by "my side" and was quite real. I'm sure it's embarrassing, I'm sure I would be embarrassed if a last ditch effort of fear mongering to turn the tide an election failed. I would want to quickly sweep it under the rug too. But it happened. It's embarrassing, and yet it still happened.

wolvernova: jake_lex: My feeling is that Amadinejhad will survive this, for now, but the legitimacy of the Iranian power structure has been permanently -- and, eventually, fatally -- damaged in the long term.

I think you are absolutely correct. They always have enjoyed a little bit of legitimacy within and outside of Iran. They have zero legitimacy now.

The other point, which I feel really needs to be stressed in this discussion- is that Iran has VERY strong arms control. So when they protesters went to the streets peacefully, they KNEW the government knew they didn't pose a martial threat. They hoped that the government would shy away from killing people in front of the international community.

They didn't, and so in the face of that, people retreated and stopped marching in the streets. Ghandi's style of protesting worked when people are embarrassed to be seen mowing down unarmed women.

This doesn't mean that people have given up however. This means only that they have withdrawn from this strategy of attempting to make their will known in a relatively bloodless fashion, by marching and chanting. What will happen now is that a very small minority of those who truly want revolution, will disappear, hide, wait, drain their bank accounts and collect the money of others. Smugglers, understanding the money that is to made there, will inevitably slip in and the arms stockpile will grow. IEDs may be set off from time to time, but the second wave won't truly begin until those piles are big enough and there are people willing to use them.

That won't happen overnight. In fact, it may take years. But, if there is a revolution now, I think Supreme Leader and Ahmadinnerjacket have given people the idea that's the only way it can be carried through.

Alacritous: 40yoVirgin: I guess if he said so, it must be true!

They're taking lessons from the Republicans.. Remember, Obama is a secrit muslin.

Not much of a secret, after his Cairo speech.

A top aide to Iran's supreme leader ...

I stopped reading right there.

TedNigma: Iran learned from the beat.

I guess Gloria Estefan was right; The rhythm is going to get you.

bunner: Yes, the people who died for that statue must be a thousand fold!

errrr... wha ?

We're still here, and we're still proud.

/Me, however, I'm on another front
//And I'm afraid that, unlike with Iran or Honduras, we're on our own here