tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16462250713947838252024-03-14T10:01:25.926+00:00Fintan Dunne NewsIndependent NewsFintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-45793199430661452522010-07-03T00:47:00.000+01:002010-07-03T00:47:50.833+01:00Should BP nuke its leaking well?<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;"></span></span> By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Ben Judah, Alina Selyukh <br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">MOSCOW/WASHINGTON - <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6611RF20100702">Reuters - Fri Jul 2, 2010</a> 4:15pm EDT </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">His face wracked by age and his voice rasping after decades of chain-smoking coarse tobacco, the former long-time Russian Minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov knows just how to fix BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.</span> <br />
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"A nuclear explosion over the leak," he says nonchalantly puffing a cigarette as he sits in a conference room at the Institute of Strategic Stability, where he is a director. "I don't know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time. Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity and the problem is solved." <br />
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A nuclear fix to the leaking well has been touted online and in the occasional newspaper op-ed for weeks now. Washington has repeatedly dismissed the idea and BP execs say they are not considering an explosion -- nuclear or otherwise. But as a series of efforts to plug the 60,000 barrels of oil a day gushing from the sea floor have failed, talk of an extreme solution refuses to die. <br />
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For some, blasting the problem seems the most logical answer in the world. Mikhailov has had a distinguished career in the nuclear field, helping to close a Soviet Union program that used nuclear explosions to seal gas leaks. Ordinarily he's an opponent of nuclear blasts, but he says an underwater explosion in the Gulf of Mexico would not be harmful and could cost no more than $10 million. That compares with the $2.35 billion BP has paid out in cleanup and compensation costs so far. "This option is worth the money," he says. <br />
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And it's not just Soviet boffins. Milo Nordyke, one of the masterminds behind U.S. research into peaceful nuclear energy in the 1960s and '70s says a nuclear explosion is a logical last-resort solution for BP and the government. Matthew Simmons, a former energy adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush and the founder of energy investment-banking firm Simmons & Company International, is another calling for the nuclear option. <br />
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Even former U.S. President Bill Clinton has voiced support for the idea of an explosion to stem the flow of oil, albeit one using conventional materials rather than nukes. "Unless we send the Navy down deep to blow up the well and cover the leak with piles and piles and piles of rock and debris, which may become necessary ... unless we are going to do that, we are dependent on the technical expertise of these people from BP," Clinton told the Fortune/Time/CNN Global Forum in South Africa on June 29. <br />
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Clinton was picking up on an idea mooted by Christopher Brownfield in June. Brownfield is a one-time nuclear submarine officer, a veteran of the Iraq war (he volunteered in 2006) and now a nuclear policy researcher at Columbia University. He is also one of a number of scientists whose theories rely not on nuclear bombs -- he did toy with that thought for a while -- but on conventional explosives that would implode the well and, if not completely plug it with crushed rock, at least bring the flow of oil under control. "It's kind of like stepping on a garden hose to kink it," Brownfield says. "You may not cut off the flow entirely but it would greatly reduce the flow." <br />
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<b>BLASTS FROM THE PAST </b><br />
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Using nuclear blasts for peaceful ends was a key plank of Cold War policy in both the United States and the Soviet Union. In the middle of last century, both countries were motivated by a desire to soften the image of the era's weapon of choice. <br />
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Washington had big plans to use peaceful nuclear explosions to build an additional Panama Canal, carve a path for an inter-state highway through mountains in the Mojave Desert and connect underwater aquifers in Arizona. But the experimental plans were dropped as authorities learned more about the ecological dangers of surface explosions. <br />
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The Soviet program, known as Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy, was launched in 1958. The project saw 124 nuclear explosions for such tasks as digging canals and reservoirs, creating underground storage caverns for natural gas and toxic waste, exploiting oil and gas deposits and sealing gas leaks. It was finally mothballed by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989. <br />
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The Soviets first used a nuclear blast to seal a gas leak in 1966. Urtabulak, one of its prized gas-fields in Uzbekistan, had caught fire and raged for three years. Desperate to save the cherished reserves, Yefim Slavsky, then Minister of Light Industry, ordered nuclear engineers to use the most powerful weapon in their arsenal. <br />
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"The Minister said, 'Do it. Put it out. Explode it,'" recalls Albert Vasilyev, a young engineer and a rising star in the project who now teaches at the Lenin Technical Institute in Moscow. <br />
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Vasilyev remembers the technology behind the program with obvious pride. "The explosion takes place deep underground," he says. "We pinch the pipe, break it and the pipe collapses." According to Vasilyev, the blast at Urtabulak sealed the well shut leaving only an empty crater. <br />
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<b>JUST DOING A JOB </b><br />
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In all, the Soviets detonated five nuclear devices to seal off runaway gas wells -- succeeding three or four times, depending on who you talk to. "It worked quite well for them," says Nordyke, who authored a detailed account of Soviet explosions in a 2000 paper. "There is no reason to think it wouldn't be fine (for the United States)." <br />
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But not everything went smoothly. Vasilyev admits the program "had two misfires". The final blast in 1979 was conducted near the Ukrainian city of Kharkov. "The closest houses were just about 400 meters away," Vasilyev recalls. "So this was ordered to be the weakest of the explosions. Even the buildings and the street lamps survived." Unfortunately, the low capacity of the device failed to seal the well and the gas resurfaced. <br />
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Alexander Koldobsky, a fellow nuclear physicist from the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute, insists the peaceful nuclear explosions were safe. The people who worked on the program "were brilliant professionals", he says. "They had a culture of safety, which did not accept the word 'maybe', but only accepted the words 'obligation' and 'instruction.' Any derivation from these in nuclear technologies is a crime." <br />
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Still, he concedes, "there were different scenarios of what happened after an explosion." At his first blast in a Turkmen gas field in 1972, "the stench was unbearable," he says. "And the wind was blowing toward a nearby town." He closes his narrow lips into a smile as if refusing to say more. <br />
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Koldobsky shrugs off any suggestion of fear or emotion when the bomb exploded. "I felt nothing. I was just doing my job." <br />
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<b>Not everybody is so sanguine about the Soviet experience. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an expert from Russia's largest oil exporter Rosneft (ROSN.MM), urges the United States to ignore calls for the atomic option. "That would bring Chernobyl to America," he says. </b><br />
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Vladimir Chuprov from Greenpeace's Moscow office is even more insistent that BP not heed the advice of the veteran Soviet physicists. Chuprov disputes the veterans' accounts of the peaceful explosions and says several of the gas leaks reappeared later. "What was praised as a success and a breakthrough by the Soviet Union is in essence a lie," he says. "I would recommend that the international community not listen to the Russians. Especially those of them that offer crazy ideas. Russians are keen on offering things, especially insane things." <br />
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Former Minister Mikhailov agrees that the USSR had to give up its programme because of problems it presented. "I ended the program because I knew how worthless this all was," he says with a sigh. "Radioactive material was still seeping through cracks in the ground and spreading into the air. It wasn't worth it." <br />
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"Still," he says, momentarily hard to see through a cloud of smoke from his cigarettes, "I see no other solution for sealing leaks like the one in the Gulf of Mexico." <br />
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The problem, he goes on, is that "Americans just don't know enough about nuclear explosions to solve this problem ... But they should ask us -- we have institutes, we have professionals who can help them solve this. Otherwise BP are just torturing the people and themselves." <br />
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<b>RADIATION RISKS</b> <br />
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Nordyke too believes the nuclear option should be on the table. After seeing nine U.S. nuclear explosions and standing behind the control board of one, he estimates that a nuclear bomb would have roughly an 80 to 90 percent chance of successfully blocking the oil. According to his estimates, it would have to be an explosion of around 30 kilotons, equivalent to roughly two Hiroshima bombs or three times as big as Mikhailov's estimate. The explosion would also need to remain at least 3 to 4 miles away from other offshore wells in the area. <br />
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The bomb, says Nordyke, would be dropped in a secondary well approximately 60-70 feet away from the leaking shaft. There it would create a large cavity filled with gas. The gas would melt the surrounding rock, crush it and press it into the leaking well to close it shut. <br />
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Although the BP well is thousands of feet deeper than those closed in the Soviet Union, Nordyke says the extra depth shouldn't make a difference. He also says that so far below the ground, not much difference exists in onshore or underwater explosions -- even though the latter have never been tried. <br />
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Nordyke says fears that radiation could escape after the explosion are unfounded. The hole would be about 8 inches in diameter and, despite the shockwave, the radiation should remain captured. Even in the case of radiation escape, he says, its dispersed effect would be less than that of floating oil patches. <br />
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<b>A LAST RESORT </b><br />
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But don't expect an explosion under the Gulf of Mexico any time soon. Even a conventional blast could backfire and cause more problems. There is a chance any blast could fracture the seabed and cause an underground blowout, according to Andy Radford, petroleum engineer and American Petroleum Institute senior policy adviser on offshore issues. The U.S. Department of Energy has no plans to use explosives "due to the obvious risks involved," according to a DOE spokeswoman. <br />
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There's also the question of time. Preparations for a nuclear explosion could take up to half-a-year; BP has said it will have a relief well in place to stop the leak by August. "I think it has to be considered as only the last resort," Nordyke says. But "they ought to be thinking about it." <br />
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Would he be willing to work on such an operation? "I'd be happy to help," he says.FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-5938247417738502192010-06-29T22:04:00.002+01:002010-06-29T22:15:19.908+01:00BP Relief Wells Technician Not As Confident As BPIn what can only be described as an <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/us/29wells.html?src=mv">expectation-lowering article</a>, the New York Times has poured a measure of cold water on the prospects of stooping BP's Gulf of Mexico leak with relief wells.<br />
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Describing the plan as once having been seen as a "forgone conclusion," the Times notes that BP and government officials are now talking about a longer-term "contingency" plan to pump the leaking oil to an existing platform should the relief well effort fail.<br />
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And even though BP remains confident of success, the Times says that some experts are more cautious:<br />
<blockquote style="color: #666666;">Experts said it was conceivable that the “kill” procedure would not be effective, particularly if only a single relief well was used and the bottom of the well bore was damaged in the initial blowout. Pumping large quantities of erosive mud into the well could even end up damaging the well further, hindering later efforts to seal it.</blockquote>The NYT also spoke to an unidentified technician involved in the relief well effort, who sounds a lot less certain about the potential outcome:<br />
<blockquote style="color: #666666;">“I won’t say there haven’t been relief wells that haven’t worked....“No human being alive can know the answers,” said the technician.....<br />
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But he said BP would improve its chances for success if it waited for the second relief well to be completed, so that it could pump twice as much mud into “a well that’s this powerful, this productive and this problematic.” <br />
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He said that too little was known about the condition of the well bore near the bottom — whether, for instance, it had been enlarged by the high-pressure flow of oil over the past two months.<br />
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“The engineering suggests that one relief well is enough,” he said. “But there are just all these unknowns.” </blockquote>The suggestion by the technician that BP would do better to breach the well bore with two relief wells and simultaneously pump mud from both, is one which has been echoed across the Internet in comments by other oil experts.<br />
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But for now, it seems we are proceeding based on BP management's cheerier view of their single relief well chances.FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-5187925850157409512010-06-03T20:21:00.003+01:002010-06-03T20:58:19.826+01:00Lesson Learned from BP's Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lesson Learned from BP's </span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill</span><br />
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By: Dr Stephen A Rinehart - Date: June 03 2010<br />
</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;"><b>Background:</b> The following comments are based in part on my 45+ year experience in structural dynamics/mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and extensive design/project management experience including offshore oil platforms, oil pipelines, conventional/nuclear DOD weapons effects and combat weapons designs, and environmental fate and transport of chemical/oil plumes.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;"><b>History:</b> In 1983, I served as a Senior Program Mgr for Shell Oil Company for </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">the design of Shell's Eureka Offshore oil platform. This offshore oil </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">platform is in 760 ft of water (13 miles out from San Pedro, Ca) and at the </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">time it was the deepest offshore oil platform in the world. Twenty-seven </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">years later we are drilling wells in 5000 feet to 9000 feet of water in the </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">Gulf Mexico using semi-submersible drilling rigs where the wells are often </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">greater than 15000 feet below the seabed. Over the past three years, about </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">26% of the entire oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico are in water depths in </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">excess of 5000 ft. In part, Government regulations and environmental groups </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">have forced the oil companies to go explore in deepwater versus drilling </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">"pristine lands". The potential damage issues to the environment/economic </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">well-being of the population have probably increased by a factor of a 1000+ </span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">in the event of a major deepwater oil well blow-out.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Until the Deepwater Horizon accident, it was probably believed by the majority of Congress and the American public that deepwater oil drilling/production could be safely regulated by the Federal Government and performed satisfactorily by the Big Oil Majors.</b> </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How little did the public know the real extent to which the entire safety of the Gulf coast has been compromised/destroyed by a major oil well blow-out in deepwater (>4500 ft).</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">Remarks: A sudden, high pressure "discharge" of 12000 psi fluid is not a spill, it is an explosion. A continuous discharge of high pressure oil and gas could be classified as a "volcano" if it continues for months without stopping it. If you hear someone calling it a "very, very modest spill" - most likely a Big Oil CEO or a lawyer with the EPA/OSHA.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>I. Oil/Gas Wellhead Characteristics for Mississippi Canyon in GOM</b><br />
</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A. Hydrocarbon source rocks are rich and widespread in the Gulf of Mexico. Hydrocarbons are trapped in a variety of structural settings including salt flanks (Bullwinkle), salt/fault (Auger), fault (Vancouver), salt thrust (Joilet) and stratigraphic (Ram-Powell). The hydrocarbon mix is </span><span style="font-size: small;">fairly even between oil and gas and much of the free gas is bacterial methane. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">This has significant implications for the current BP wellhead blowout.</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">B. Most deepwater oils are only moderately sour (< 2.0 wt % sulfur) and excellent for Gulf Coast refineries. Relatively large pockets of oil are found trapped between a salt canopy on top and sandstone or Miocene rock formations (17,000 ft?). The deepwater GOM oil deposits are now believed to be a world class find and much of it follows the US continental shelf 5000 </span><span style="font-size: small;">ft (and deeper).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">C. Deepwater oil production is important economically to the region and a major energy source of oil and gas for the US. Oil companies would very much like to follow this "oil" shelf around the Florida coastline.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">D. New wells can show high (record) flow rates now exceeding 17,000 barrels per day. BP mentioned that its "Thunder Horse" platform had wells delivering over 50,000 bpd. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">This is a whole new realm of technical challenges which may be well beyond what can be economically achieved in a safe environment.</span></b></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>II. Mitigation/Clean-Up of GOM Well Blowouts</b><br />
</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A. For deepwater wells which blowout (wellhead gas explosion on the surface), there needs to be an immediate response by large tankers (think super tanker) equipped with deepwater skimmers and oil/water separators. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The idea of a barge loaded with some oil booms is totally inadequate response and carryover from the 1970s</span></b> with regard to ever addressing a high pressure oil/gas well blowout with flow rates exceeding 15,000 barrels per day (and more likely 50,000 bpd for ultra deep wells). <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The Government should have mobilized Super Tankers 40 days ago</span></b> with major oil skimming equipments (not a fleet of shrimp boats - that's only a pointwise or local defense for bays or near shoreline)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">B. You will be dealing with a 5000 ft "water column" filling with oil and gas in a deepwater wellhead blowout. We are dealing with a totally new animal with these high pressure wells in deep water where the seabed pressures may exceed 2000 psi. The water column separates the light ends of the oil out and this oil floats to the top. However, <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">70%+ of the oil can remain underwater</span></b> (trapped in/on the surface of giant gas bubbles) and could float hundreds of miles at depths of 3000 ft before eventually surfacing in much shallow waters. We need super tankers to suck up these large plumes while they are still in deepwater instead of allowing BP to deny they exist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">C. The benzene gas is water soluble and is a carcinogen at levels of 1 ppm. If an oil glob is approaching or hits your coastline you need to know the water is safe to swim from dissolved benzene.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">D. Large amounts of methane gas may result in depleted oxygen layers in deeper waters. We know very little as to the chemical make-up (and fate and transport) of large underwater oil/gas plumes (see ongoing measurements at http://gulfblog.uga.edu and Dr Samantha Joye et al). We need to acquire the data - heard that yet from anybody in Government?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">E. You know what happens to the drill/casing pipe when a huge drilling rig explodes and sinks. It pulls up so hard (maybe with over a million pounds of force) on the pipe string that the pipe breaks (shear failures) like you see in the BP video. It could dislocate the BOP by pulling it up and damage/break the internal mechanical mechanisms inside the BOP that is supposed to shear/close the pipe. It could pull a BOP off the wellhead connector if the rig fails to maintain dynamic positioning (on board explosion). <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">We have no way of currently addressing these types of catastrophic failures in deepwater wells.</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">F. NASA in traveling to the moon, tried to achieve 0.999999 reliability in its systems (everything has to have a back-up). In the deepwater oil industry, there is <b>no</b> back-up BOP, there are <b>no</b> secondary wells already drilled, there was <b>no</b> acoustic sensor (to sense an wellhead explosion and automatically shut-in the well because a human could never respond fast enough), there was <b>no</b> barge in-place for a wellhead blow-out, etc, etc. It was busy as usual for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>III. Stop the Wellhead Blowout</b><br />
</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A. Any way you can - let's see a Government prioritized list (not BP) of what coming down the pipe for the next top five technical approaches from the consultants to stop the wellhead flow. Why wasn't the pipe cutoff at the BOP at the outset and an LMRP tried? Why wasn't the original containment boom rigged to pump warm water/methanol to try and prevent hydrate formations - <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">why didn't you pull it back up and rig it for methanol/warm water injection if it was forming hydrates?</span></b> Why wasn't a number of smaller skimmers with tried above the wellhead off of ships with oily water separators (still have not done this) - could have been 500 ft to 1000 ft above the wellhead. This is the reason that the Government should take immediate charge of an environmental disaster - it's called Federal Waters. Who was in charge from the Government on Day Ten who could override BP - nobody?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">B. Can you imagine someone saying we are going to let this oil continue to flow out this well until August (or Christmas?) until relief wells are drilled (statement by Carolyn Browner - Energy Consultant to President Obama)? We are suppose to wait until it hits our beaches and make some kind of response with a large manpower response (mobilize the National Guard) and/or deploy an orange oil boom and hope for the best!? Not acceptable!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">C. BP's senior management is up to their ears in alligators trying to address a response so the Government is now sending Eric Holder (Justice Dept) to investigate/file "criminal charges" against BP - what a PR disaster for everyone and just impeccable timing. If Eric Holder (Justice Dept) is not going to put on a HazMat suit what good is this going to accomplish right now? <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Try investigating how much lobby money from Big Oil went into everybody's campaign in the past thirty years</span></b> (at all levels of Government) if you want to open a "can of worms".</span></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">D. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">We need to stop this wellhead blowout soon</span></b> - if this flow goes around the Southern tip of Florida into the Atlantic Loop Current we have just bought a potential global climate change problem - it can become that ugly fast with oil being carried all over all the oceans. If BP/consultants cannot stop this well in next 45 days, we need to seriously consider placing </span><span style="font-size: small;">conventional charges (C4 or thermite) under the seabed/down the well bore of the relief well and closing this pipe by explosive charges. Alternatively, a possible option is to design a small <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">"residual cavity" nuclear device</span></b> (only 1 kilotons to 3 kilotons) detonated at a depth of say 7000 feet (or whatever the computer codes give for optimum placement and standoff distances to </span><span style="font-size: small;">crush rock against the down hole drill string (will produce a cavity of 11,000 cubic meters for residual oil to flow into to remove the pressure). There will be no escaping radiation and no fracturing of the oil reservoir at the surface if detonated in the Miocene rock or way down into sandstone. This is a very small explosion designed to produce more of a uniform spherical wave front to crush the pipe closed. The Soviets have extensive data (on land) with this approach. It gives the Government a "final resort option" if we want to stand around for months and hand-wring about it while the oceans become polluted while everything else has failed. This is why the guys in Government get paid the big bucks to make these kinds of decisions.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>Suggested Action Items:</b><br />
</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A. Let BP senior management alone to try and stop the wellhead blow-out "one more time" with LMRP cut and stab. If this fails, BP should be out of here and replaced by Government/Military Tiger Response Team asap. I think you can hire the same ROV operators and contract the same ships - just a management change. We need the equivalent of a General Honore (from Katrina days) to lead the troops and reinvent American ingenuity - anybody who has a candidate in mind send your suggestions to your Congressman/White House. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Possibly General Powell could head up a military response as special White House appointee.</span></b> Do something even if it's wrong because so far it's grading out at a D minus. Hopefully we can get this off the front page soon but decades of coming damage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">B. Activate at least three super tankers with oily water separators to track down large underwater plumes identified by US Navy and/or University marine Research Teams. Start measuring the oil wellhead flows and what's in the water in terms of concentrations (easily done by a Harbor Branch Team out of Florida). Why hasn't the US Navy been activated in this response? Many of our Navy people trained on the Gulf Coast and have family or relatives living along the Gulf Coast and would be glad to do something for their country. I bet I could get one hundred proposals from the US Navy/Air Force Contractors to address this oil clean-up within ten days or less (everything from air-sparged oily separators to concentrated microbes to specialized high speed skimmer craft to start sucking up oil - where is the Government's request for proposals with rapid evaluation and awards)? Submarines can track underwater plumes and ships can be modified to skim oil and there is a ton of manpower already available. There is no innovative thinking from our Government.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">C. Initiate major National Labs efforts (Sandia , INEL (DOE), Air Force Research (Wright Patterson Labs), Army Labs (Harry Diamond), ONR (Naval Research), etc) to concentrate on innovative solutions to stopping the wellhead flow (do I hear injecting wellhead mud with liquid nitrogen?) as well as start running super computer models for simulations of any/all solutions as well as fate and transport of underwater plumes and trajectories and ways to quickly locate plumes as well as concentrating microbes to attack the spills at sea on accelerated basis (go talk to a company called In-Pipe about how they concentrate microbes by a factor of 10,000 for treating grease/oily wastes). Where are the finite element (stress runs) computer runs from Cameron (maker of the BOP) which show what can happen if a transient 1,000,000 axial load is placed on the drill string at the BOP and jerks it upward off its base. What is the damage internally and what happens at the wellhead connector - did we break or crack the collar and can we crack cement seals down the wellhead bore?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">D. Start emergency Purchase Orders and funding by Congress for ordering hundreds of additional boom/microbes/organic oil cleanup compounds for deploying along the Florida (and possibly) Atlantic coastline. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">We need to be ready to mobilize the National Guard on one weeks notice</span></b> for oil cleanup and we need Hazmat suits at the ready (and there are tens of thousands of high school students looking for work this summer - can you think of a job for them?).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">E.According to data from the University of South Florida, oil plumes (slight?) maybe going around South Florida and into the Atlantic Loop Current (starting to make its turn around the Southern tip of Florida and towards Miami). It could head-up the East Coast. We need to be actively tracking this and sending marine research vessels to acquire the data. This is a major reason why oil drilling should be permanently banned off the coast of Florida - you can screw up the global ocean thermocline with a massive deepwater wellhead blow-out by changing the salinity if the water is transported by the Atlantic Loop Current.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">F. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Declare a National Emergency now</span></b> - we are still facing decades of impact already and 70% of the problem is still underwater. We are going to be dealing with this fiasco for decades in some states/shorelines.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">G. The President has too many issues on his platter to address with major bank debt sovereign crisis, Turkey's conflicts with Israel, and coming debt defaults with Greece and possibly Spain and Portugal, China selling US Treasuries and coming US Dollar devaluation, and two wars to deal with the day to day BP fiasco. He needs to get this delegated to a high level "muckey muck" (with a Big Checkbook from Congress or this is not worth addressing at all) and get on with his own world wide agenda. Mr President please delegate asap and provide the funding - Tiger Team is not yet in place!</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Copyright(c) Dr Stephen Rinehart, 2010</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://fintandunne.blogspot.com/2010/06/us-national-emergency-and-gulf-nuke.html">Listen to Dr. Rinehart discuss these issues with Fintan Dunne</a></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-21474935863917273502009-07-17T04:32:00.007+01:002009-07-17T05:51:38.426+01:00Israel Readies to Rescue Ahmadinejahd<div>You would think that the leaders of 'The West' would be doing their best to rein in crazy talk coming out of Israel about <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100627.html?FORM=ZZNR5">it's preparedness to attack Iran</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Such a move would simply hand a perfect justification to the regime to sideline opposition protests by issuing a rallying call for national unity against a foreign enemy. Exactly the line it is using in propaganda already. But with the smoking ruins of it's nuclear program as justification, it could even declare a state of war.</div><div><br /></div><div>Curiously, such Israeli action has already been given the cover it needs: through supposedly loose talk about Israel's right to pursue it's national interest by U.S Vice President Joe <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Biden</span>; and by both Obama and Hillary Clinton deadlining negotiations with Iran at September.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's all the more puzzling considering that even talk of such intemperate actions works against the chances of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Mousavi</span> --who has already <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlYK2bRv9bg">indicated a willingness</a> to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">negotiate</span> on ensuring Iran's nuclear program remains solely for civilian use.</div><div><br /></div><div>Not much of this makes sense if you are working on the assumption that the leaders of "The West" are keen to see the emergence of democracy in Iran.</div><div><br /></div><div>They're not.</div><div><br /></div><div>It makes a lot more sense if you realize the value of the dancing sock-puppet <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Ahmadinejhad</span> as a propaganda justification for the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">neo</span>-colonial adventures of the Anglo-American-Israeli power axis against "crazy Muslims". </div><div><br /></div><div>When you factor in that alliance's long-term, strategic relationship with Iran's regional rival: Saudi Arabia, then the combined value of the sanctions and the pathetic government of Iran in slowing Iran's economic and political advancement also makes a lot of sense.</div><div><br /></div><div>Doubtless we can rely on the Israeli end of the alliance to launch a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, if the regime can't suppress the uprising by September.</div><div><br /></div><div>As one astute tweet on Twitter put it:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">G8/Obama to Iran: You have until September to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">destroy</span> the protests. Don't screw up.</span></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></div><div>Iran issues have in recent weeks become clouded with a dense fog of disinformation. The most pernicious of all, is the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">disinfo</span> that the West loves freedom and wants the people of Iran to have a share.</div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-77771301711638907722009-07-17T02:18:00.000+01:002009-07-17T02:19:25.564+01:00Wikileaks Touts Iran Nuclear Accident Scare<div>Wikileaks.org today <a href="http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Iran_blocks_WikiLeaks">reports</a> that the website has been blocked by Iran.</div><div><br /></div>Today also, Wikileaks <a href="http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Serious_nuclear_accident_may_lay_behind_Iranian_nuke_chief's_mystery_resignation">says</a> that two weeks ago it got a tipoff about a nuclear accident of some sort in Iran, in advance of yesterday's <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8153775.stm">news</a> that the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, had resigned. <div><br /></div><div>The Wikileaks report omits to mention that Aghazadeh is a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/16/gholam-reza-aghazadeh-ira_n_235180.html">close ally</a> of Mousavi -which might more readily explain his departure. <div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></b></div><blockquote><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Serious nuclear accident may lay behind Iranian nuke chief's mystery resignation</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">July 16, 2009, wikileaks.org</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Two weeks ago, a source associated with Iran's nuclear program confidentially told WikiLeaks of a serious, recent, nuclear accident at Natanz. Natanz is the primary location of Iran's nuclear enrichment program.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">WikiLeaks had reason to believe the source was credible however contact with this source was lost. WikiLeaks would not normally mention such an incident without additional confirmation, however according to Iranian media and the BBC, today the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, has resigned under mysterious circumstances. According to these reports, the resignation was tendered around 20 days ago.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Julian Assange, WikiLeaks)</span></span></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></div></div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-31860928791251831042009-07-17T01:24:00.004+01:002009-07-17T05:52:24.870+01:00Taraneh: Iranian 'Rape Victim' Reported Dead<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeTUnxFxNNg4XaVX9XIu1cOa0MvnwOYrp2AMwo7RV5TrBx_09HOSPx6KJ-YcNUhM3rP_TDoRFRri74gzRRKfcAqCykowzykY64oRS3YZhXcx7lqLZYecI01fl4324nP5m0Os7OqT5_vTg/s1600-h/Tareneh.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeTUnxFxNNg4XaVX9XIu1cOa0MvnwOYrp2AMwo7RV5TrBx_09HOSPx6KJ-YcNUhM3rP_TDoRFRri74gzRRKfcAqCykowzykY64oRS3YZhXcx7lqLZYecI01fl4324nP5m0Os7OqT5_vTg/s400/Tareneh.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359218550578049410" /></a>The story of '<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Taraneh</span>' first emerged on a couple of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">farsi</span> blogs. <div><br /><div>Then it was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shirin-sadeghi/the-rape-of-taraneh-priso_b_233063.html">picked up</a> by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Huffington</span> Post, which admitted that the story lacked verification.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to the Post's account, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Taraheh</span> M. (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Mousavi</span>) , a 28-year-old Iranian woman was detained on Friday June 19 <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">(incorrect -it was June 28)</span> at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Ghoba</span> mosque in Tehran. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Taraneh</span>, whose first name is Persian for "song," was reportedly moved around Iran's <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">detention</span> system and her family could not locate her.<div><br /></div><div>Fast-forward to recent days, when her family reportedly got an anonymous phone call tipping them off that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Taraneh</span> had been admitted to hospital. The caller gave details of injuries to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Taraneh</span> consistent with rape. When the family went to the hospital they found that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Taraneh</span> was only briefly there, unconscious all the while. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yesterday, the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran <a href="http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/6763/1/">called</a> for her release. Today one of the blogs originally covering the story <a href="http://iranian009.blogfa.com/post-34.aspx">reported</a> that the family were informed yesterday that a burned corpse matching <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Taraneh</span>’s description had been found in the desert between <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Karaj</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Qazvin</span>. They were threatened to keep quiet about the affair.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to the blog report, the family went to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Ghazvin</span> and recovered her body, but are close-mouthed about funeral arrangements.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Taraneh</span> has already been celebrated online as a victim of brutal gang rape by sub-human <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Basiji</span> security forces. However, that outrage is based solely on some <a href="http://twitter.com/omidhabibinia">Twittered</a> blog reports. No professional journalist has reported on this from immediate sources. Even the claim of rape comes only via an alleged anonymous call.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Taraneh's</span> story is tragic. If true. </div><div><br /></div><div>The latter is the question.</div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Source reports: </span><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=http://zeerzamin.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_3749.html&sl=fa&tl=en&history_state0="><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">1</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><a href="http://iranian009.blogfa.com/post-31.aspx"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">2</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shirin-sadeghi/the-rape-of-taraneh-priso_b_233063.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">3</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"> </span><a href="http://iranian009.blogfa.com/post-34.aspx"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">4</span></a></blockquote><a href="http://iranian009.blogfa.com/post-34.aspx"></a></div></div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-6121315638836767542009-07-13T04:27:00.008+01:002009-07-13T05:58:06.456+01:00Anonymous Issues Fatwa to Iranian Regime<div>'Anonymous,' the group behind the highly successful free speech campaign against Scientology is taking an increasing part in the resistance to the Iranian government. The group has issed a free speech 'fatwa' against the Iranian regime. </div><div><br /></div><div>That development was echoed in a move by another group related to Anonymous. Two weeks ago a message appeared on <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/">Anonymous Iran</a> on behalf of a group called: Task Force /i/ran. </div><div><br /></div><div>The short identification code '/i/' is likely the signature of an offshoot of the 4.chan.org website. 4Chan is the origin of 'Anonymous.'</div><div><br /></div><div>The posted message indicated a cyberwar campaign was imminent against Iranian government websites, especially those publishing photos of protesters in an attempt to identify. The group stated it's intentions thus:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><blockquote>"/i/nvade. Destroy. Kill. Win. That's our fucking plan." -- Anonymous.</blockquote></span></div><div>The most recent move is the start of a <a href="http://www.radionomy.com/sea-of-green-radio.aspx#/sea-of-green-radio.aspx?Dum=1">'Sea of Green' interent radio channel</a> to broadcast the contents of the 'Green Brief' daily briefings on Iran developments by <a href="http://twitter.com/iran_translator">Josh Shahryar</a> -currently <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/">available</a> in text form at the <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/">Anonymous Iran</a> forum.</div><div><br /></div><div>Clearly, 'Anonymous' are on board with the Iranian resistance.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Expect them</b>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/_hUFv5c4lFg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/_hUFv5c4lFg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /></div><div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></span></b></div></div><blockquote><div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Hello, leaders of Iran. We are Anonymous.</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">As the eyes of the entire world hold you under close scrutiny, the eyes of the internet have taken a similar notice of your recent actions. While the governments of the world condemn you for your suppression of human rights, Anonymous has taken a particular interest in your recent attempts to censor the internet, not only for your own people, but for the citizens of the entire world.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Such suppression of dissent cannot go unpunished. By cutting off communication of the Iranian citizens to the rest of the world, you have made it clear to us that the most revered of human rights - the right to free speech - is no longer important to you. By seeking to silence the voice of the people in an election and subsequently seeking to silence criticism of such a gross cover-up, you have perpetuated the anger and rage of your people. Anonymous has therefore made it our mission to see to it that the voice of the Iranian people can be heard around the world.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Just like another authoritarian religious extremist group, Anonymous will tear down the walls of silence using only the truth - the truth that you are trying so hard to suppress by use of violence, intimidation, and fascist laws.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">As your people continue to riot and to speak out against you; as you continue to beat and shoot your own citizens in the street; as you continue to lie to the face of the entire world; know that the internet is watching - and we do not like what we see.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Knowledge is free.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">We are Anonymous.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">We are Legion.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">We do not forgive.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">We do not forget.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Expect us</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">.</span></span></div></div></blockquote>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-14394466410578511372009-07-12T18:48:00.003+01:002009-07-13T04:19:22.203+01:00People And Power: Inside the Iranian ProtestsA new documentary by Manon Loizeau on AlJazeera, filmed secretly inside Iran in the aftermath of the election, confirms the details of the crackdown which Iranian activists have been blogging about. It's unmissable watching.<div><br /></div><div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LSITy_taD3E&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LSITy_taD3E&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-39578765960619176842009-07-12T02:06:00.016+01:002009-07-13T07:59:44.562+01:00Iranian Opposition Under Cyberattack on Twitter<div><img src="http://fintandunne.com/images/iranelection-spam.jpg" /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><b>See</b> Latest Updates Below Article</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Persons unknown disrupted the <a href="http://twitter.com/iranelection">#iranelection</a> tag used by Iranian opposition activists on Twitter for almost all of Saturday 11th July. Legitimate messages coordinating political opposition to the Iranian government were drowned out by massive volume of tweet spam for a product called <a href="http://turbocashgenerator.com/">Turbo Cash Generator</a>, and also for <a href="http://tonig.ht/aboutus">www.tonig.ht</a> -a free domain registration service.</div><div><br /></div><div>Twitter did not seem to respond to requests block the spam content -which is rendered the #iranelection tag unusable, especially to less experienced users. That looks like an abrogation of their corporate responsibility to protect an online system vital for free speech and political organization.</div><div><br /></div><div>The sheer volume of tweet spam (up to 70% of tweets -see image) was counterproductive from an e-marketing point of view, so it's possible that Turbo Cash Generator was not the actual entity behind this cyberattack. Another entity may have used their product as cover for the attack.</div><div><br /></div><div>A new anonymity software program created by Austin Heap, called Haystack is <a href="http://fintandunnenews.blogspot.com/2009/07/geek-who-built-haystack-for-iran.html">just set to launch</a>. But that product will be undermined if the most popular Iranian opposition tag on Twitter is destroyed by cyberattack.</div><div><br /></div><div>A Twitter account at: <a href="http://twitter.com/iranelectnospam">http://twitter.com/iranelectnospam</a> has been set up to help educate users on how to filter out the spam. An online activist response is being coordinated in a <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/help-iran-online/11841-urgent-iran-opposition-under-cyberattack-twitter.html">topic thread</a> at the <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/">Anonymous Iran</a> forum.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">UPDATE:</span></b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">12:00pm EST Sunday</span></div><div><br /></div><div><div>After an overnight lull, the "Killer Software" spam is back Sunday. But the Twitter short links it is using, are no longer valid on bit.ly's link translation system. So there is no benefit in traffic to the originator. Just disruption of the #iranelection tag on Twitter.</div><div><br /></div><div>The originator of the spam is still unidentified. </div><div><br /></div><div>In response to a media enquiry by me, provideing details of the affiliate code being used in the spam, <a href="http://www.turbocashgenerator.com/">turbocashgenerator.com</a> said it would have the spam stopped, but did not admit if the affiliate code was genuine, or if the company itself was responsible for the spam. Nevertheless the spam continues today.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>UPDATE:</b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">2:00am EST Monday</span></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Thanks</b> to help from Tweeters and AnonymousIran members, though spam continues on Twitter, the spam level in the <a href="http://twitter.com/timeline/search?q=%23iranelection">#iranelection</a> tag is now reduced to a trickle. A number of spammers have been contacted directly by #iranelection's <a href="https://twitter.com/iranelectnospam">AntiSpam team</a> and have backed off. However, they or other spammers may show up again. We will continue an aggressive response to any spamming of #iranelection. Latest <a href="https://twitter.com/iranelectnospam">here</a>.</div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-69086651686411418802009-07-09T16:04:00.037+01:002009-07-10T04:16:23.815+01:00Live Coverage: Iran 9th July Protests<div><img src="http://fintandunne.com/images/18Tir-3.png" 20class=" style=" /><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></b></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 51, 102); font-weight: bold; "><img src="http://fintandunne.com/images/scottlucas.png" width="150" height="150" align="right" /></span><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Interview Guest:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Professor Scott Lucas</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">Scott Lucas is </span></span></span><a href="http://www.uscanada.bham.ac.uk/staff/lucas.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">Professor of American Studies</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"> at the University of Birmingham, UK, and Adjunct Professor of the Institute for North American and European Studies at the University of Tehran; also a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for American Studies and Research at American University Beirut. A specialist in US and British foreign policy, he has published extensively on Middle-East politics -especially on the Suez Crisis. Professor Lucas is a frequent contributor to American, British, and international media. He writes for, and is a founder of, the weblog </span></span></span><a href="http://enduringamerica.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">EnduringAmerica.com</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"> --where he currently blogs unmissable news analysis and reporting.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "><span style="font-weight: bold; "><span style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#660000;"><a href="http://fintandunne.com/audio/ScottLucas-FintanDunne-090709.mp3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">LISTEN:</span></span></a></span></span></span><a href="http://fintandunne.com/audio/ScottLucas-FintanDunne-090709.mp3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span></span></a><span style="font-weight: bold; "><a href="http://fintandunne.com/audio/ScottLucas-FintanDunne-090709.mp3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Mp3 Audio</span></span></a></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/ScottLucas-FintanDunne-090709.mp3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span></span></a><a href="http://fintandunne.com/audio/ScottLucas-FintanDunne-090709.mp3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><img src="http://breakfornews.com/imgd/mp3a.gif" border="0" style="border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); " /></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span></span></span></div></div><br /><div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;">Protester estimate subsequent to the above audio</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;">Based on analysis of considerable video evidence and news/tweet reports. From the reported totals at key locations - add those in these key location marches who did not make it to the center. Also from an analysis of videos depicting scenes at intersections; and reliable reports that the protests were widely scattered down to local level.</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;">Guesstimate Methodology:</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;">Key Locations at peak: 7,000</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;">Surrounding these areas: 5,000</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;">Local intersections also: 10,000 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">(50 by 200avg per intersection)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;">Local street gatherings : 3,000 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">(50 by 60avg per street)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;">Estimated Total: ~<b>25,000 in Tehran</b></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw24lXpaFR2Vcj1xXV5_eYshRT68hyNW1ZV4ChSw9bgDgbtXGklDcDmjGfS-CsiDWfp0P4u3Ig-pW5nIyeFVu0GHJTcHZnqqkx8-lMhsW9rVavx2rBEO3RUGDp0Ap2-_thvHRgzEDUvHtd/s1600-h/Tehran-July9-01.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw24lXpaFR2Vcj1xXV5_eYshRT68hyNW1ZV4ChSw9bgDgbtXGklDcDmjGfS-CsiDWfp0P4u3Ig-pW5nIyeFVu0GHJTcHZnqqkx8-lMhsW9rVavx2rBEO3RUGDp0Ap2-_thvHRgzEDUvHtd/s400/Tehran-July9-01.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356500961041418754" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 219px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Image Gallery: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://aftabparast.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/aks-photo-18-tir/"><b>Here</b></a> NYTimes Gallery <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/09/world/0709-IRAN_index.html">Here</a></b> </span></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy2GriWGfCOHk4FONGcAz-RFDNvCz-NQNaiDl6TScndH0JpJ1V5w_S1kFy8TxZjTD2Fw0k_HVFsMxWwVmPpJh04n55DsFM4Fx_-BQwZ3tOUReQvFYfFt7QgEfUOy5se_Y4EFL-_Eyme1fh/s1600-h/Tehran-July9-03.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy2GriWGfCOHk4FONGcAz-RFDNvCz-NQNaiDl6TScndH0JpJ1V5w_S1kFy8TxZjTD2Fw0k_HVFsMxWwVmPpJh04n55DsFM4Fx_-BQwZ3tOUReQvFYfFt7QgEfUOy5se_Y4EFL-_Eyme1fh/s400/Tehran-July9-03.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356562996340040370" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 144px; " /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">Latest Confirmed Videos:</span></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ow65WCjg3g&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ow65WCjg3g&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YyIFQE-Ee0Q&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed 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name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xnN4ZnVgflM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QC1n5lf_U04&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QC1n5lf_U04&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AGKFtVwX40E&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed 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type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">More Videos:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/peive17#play/uploads/0/4QzsVXjCrYg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">A 31 video set is here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Latest Media Accounts:</span></div><div></div><blockquote><div><a href="http://tehranbureau.com/psst-column/">TehranBureau</a></div><div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/09/iran-uprising-blogging-th_n_228454.html">Nico</a></div><div><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090709/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election;_ylt=ArwUCSx4q03MVYewFuBGwlqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJoNWVrYmxwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNzA5L21sX2lyYW5fZWxlY3Rpb24EY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3Rob3VzYW5kc3Bybw--">Yahoo/AP</a></div><div><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31828921/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/">MSNBC</a></div><div><a href="http://twitblogs.com/jimsciuttoABC/2009/07/09/iranian-protesters-defy-security-forces-once-again">ABC</a></div><div><a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1909630,00.html">Time</a></div><div><a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20090709-police-patrol-streets-tehran-stop-protests-iran-anniversary-1999-students">France24</a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">Video</span></div><div><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6675448.ece">Times, UK</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-protest10-2009jul10,0,622206.story">LA Times</a></div><div><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2009/07/090709_ba-ir88-protests-tehran-uni.shtml&sl=fa&tl=en&history_state0=">BBC</a></div><div><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/09/iran.protests.anniversary/index.html">CNN</a></div><div><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/09/iran-student-protest-crackdown">Guardian UK</a></div><div><a href="http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13988558&fsrc=nwl">Economist</a></div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><b>Raw Trusted Source Twitter Feeds</b> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Latest First, up to 5:00pmEST = 9:00pm GMT = 1:30am Tehran</span></span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div></div><blockquote><div><div><div><div><div>IranRiggedElectFrom Iran: Despite being beaten, general feeling is that we WON today!</div><div><br /></div><div>omidhabibiniaVideo: Tehran University Dorm 20.30 http://bit.ly/tMQBp</div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: RT: @IranAnon: <b>Do not underestimate the number of protesters today just bcuz they were scattered. They were at every crossing</b></div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: RT @omidhabibinia: Clashes at Narmak and Tehran Pars, 11PM...</div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElectFrom Isfahan: FAMILIES participated in the protest, women, seniors, everyone.</div><div><br /></div><div>lotfanVIDEO: People chanting,Mojtaba (khamanei's son) death to you, you shall never see the supreme leadership </div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: several srcs from #iran report: <b>Guards, plainclothes and police seemed tired and nervous today.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: Plainclothes claimed that they are going back to Amirkabir's dorm 2night.</div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: Plainclothes attacked Amirkarbir Univ Dorm: http://bit.ly/eZZ8p</div><div><br /></div><div>lotfan: RT @IranAnon: July 9th, tonight, in an area where allah o akbars had stopped, fortunately allah o akbars were heard again </div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: RT @.. Hearing VERY powerful shouts of "Allaho Akbar" here in Qeitarieh. I'm gonna go on the roof and join them. B back </div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: analysis:Less chants for Mousavi &against Ahmedinejad,more chants against Khamenei& Mojtaba = Escalation!</div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: RT @MikVerbrugge:<b> Today's reports showed the Basiji stretched thin. Certainly due 2 multiple simultaneous gatherings.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>LaraABCNews: Tehrani: police first struck people, then told them to leave. if store owners hadn't come to our rescue I don't know what would've happened</div><div><br /></div></div><div>jimsciuttoABC: One eyewitness heard gunshots at Engelab Sq and saw ppl fall. Anyone else hear/see the same?</div><div><br /></div><div><div>MikVerbrugge: Small groups seemed to be armed & used Molotov Cocktails. </div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: friend back says: bassij used a gas that burned our skins its still red and inflamed. Confirmed RT</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Snanadaj: ppl gathered too from 1930 oneards in main sq. but full of special forces to attck still there.</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: according to contact: pockets of violent resistance are forming, dispatch transcripts show many hotspots</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: thank you RT @Iranianrevolt i have same msg, armed police shooting plainclothes, from ppl claiming they r eyewitness <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Tehran 9:20pm</span></div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Tabriz: ABresan jnct and Univ.sq.hell of lot of gaurds would arrest any one suspicious.</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: a call from Mashad: ppl in Park jct. up to 7/8000 dispersed and united later</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: guards tried very much to disperse ppl in Saadat abad bazar in vain</div><div><br /></div></div><div><b>Nico:</b> Shootings reported. "Tweets passing around that there are heavy clashes near Azadi Square.. Word is out that 3 people have been shot by security forces."</div><div><br /></div><div><div>MikVerbrugge: The #nir team protecting "friend" personalities are out of harm's way, no casualties</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>MikVerbrugge: Tehran Basiji reporting heavy casulaties & many units either on the run or retreat. It's like entire <b>Tehran is an urban combat zone.</b> Security Forces uninterrupted requests for backup & distress coming fr all over Tehran. NIR taking out unidentified snipers, trying to keep situation calm until personalities they are protecting are out.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Combined tweets ~8:53pmTehran</span></div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: From emergency dispatch of Tehran: Fire in Mirdamad getting out of control <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">8:30pm Tehran</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: FR Tehran: clashes in Azadi, Enqelab, Vanq, Jomhouri, Valiasr </div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugg: Basij forces asking for re-enforcement in midtown</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: Chaos. Distress messages from security forces being shot at requesting airborne support.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: Unbelieveable msgs coming in: Uniformed POLICE force shooting at armed Basiji militia <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Unconfirmed early report 7:45 Tehran</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div>MikVerbrugge: NIR Officers engaged in armed conflicts against Plainclothed.</div><div><br /></div><div>iranisccRT: @shab77: RT Reports ppl coming out of their homes, standing in their own streets, shouting Allah Akbar&death to dictators. </div><div><br /></div><div>iranisccRT: @IranTweet: Iranian from Tehran, Call IranTV - situation is so bad, that police are now also attacking each other" <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Unconfirmed early report</span></div><div><br /></div></div><div>lotfanRT: @BreakingNews: Reuters witness: Iranian police shoot in the air to disperse pro-reform demonstrators in Tehran; several detained.</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Sec forces have put cars in midd of ferdowsi bt ppl still force in and chant still to UNI</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Ferdowsi ppl take away camera of a bassij filming them.</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Uni slogans:"I will kill the one who killed my brother".."down with dictator" SHAH SOLTAN - VELAYAT ur times up</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: ppl R boo-ing the bassij and sec force as they try to disperse them & shout.. "shah Soltan Velayat ur time is up'</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: @TehranBureau <b>Sorry but it IS NOT quiet</b> ! ppl are every where. Unless our friends are fooling around with all the screams and slogans !</div><div><br /></div><div>omidhabibinia: Police Shooting Teargas at Poeple infront of Tehran University.</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: RT @shab77: RT @omidhabibinia Clashes At Vali Asr Sq. Spreading to all nearby Streets including Vila St...</div><div><br /></div><div>lotfan: Cell network is shut down around enghelab #iranelection</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: RT @IranTweet: Accts of 100s to 1000s protesters gathering near Tehran Univ. Basij responding w/ btgs, tear gas, arrests. </div><div><br /></div><div>jimsciuttoABC: Protesters are getting their #'s up. 100s, possib 1000s gathered at both Tehran Univ and Vali Asr Sq. Demo's growing </div><div><br /></div><div>lotfan: Clashes At Vali Asr Sq. Spreading to all nearby Streets including Vila St...</div><div><br /></div><div>omidhabibinia: Clashes At Vali Asr Sq. Spreading to all nearby Streets incl Vila St...</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Vali asr ppl gathered sec forces attacked violently with everything.. ppl scattered in groups</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: From Tehran Uni to begining of Enghelab st at least 4000 ppl clapping full Bassij presence some scattred</div><div><br /></div><div>omidhabibinia: Heavy Clashes at Vali Asr Sq. #iranelection</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Tehran most have masks. well prep. & organized ..all clapping in unity</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Tehran:Bassij try to prevent ppl from entering enghelab sq </div><div><br /></div><div>lotfanRT: @omidhabibinia: Reports of Clashes at Dravzeh Shiraz, Isfehan. </div><div><br /></div><div>lotfanRT: @IranRiggedElect: AFP: Seifzadeh and Dadkhah, HR lawyers and founders of Ebadi's rights group were arrested http://bit.ly/OmIuH</div><div><br /></div><div><b>jimsciuttoABC: With # of security forces & govt threats, fear possib at highest level so far. To see protesters defy that is remarkable</b>. </div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: live report: Shots being heard from different parts of Tehran.</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: live report: Unrest in Shiraz, Sari, Isfahan & many other cities being confirmed.</div><div><br /></div><div>lotfan: Mashhad is reported to be very quiet</div><div><br /></div><div>lotfan: People rallying from Imam Hossein suqare towards Enghelab</div><div><br /></div><div>lotfanProtests in Iran on key reform anniversary http://bit.ly/17yEGM #iranelection</div><div><br /></div><div>jimsciuttoABC: Accts of 100s to 1000s of protesters gathering near Tehran Univ. Basij responding w/ btgs, tear gas, arrests. </div><div><br /></div><div>iranisccRT: @shab77: Mashhad: protesters around the shrine. Isfahan:Ppl assembled b/w Si-o-Seh pol&Khajoo bridge.Lots of plain cloths. </div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: RT @shab77: RT @fahimn Heavy Clashes at Karegar Shomali St, (Near Enghlab Sq.) Tear gas, Fire and blockage...</div><div><br /></div><div>IranRiggedElect: AFP: Seifzadeh and Dadkhah, two HR lawyers and founders of Shirin Ebadi's rights group were arrested http://bit.ly/OmIuH</div><div><br /></div><div>iranisccRT: @Pray4FreeIran: RT @jimsciuttoABC: One witness: basij throwing protesters from pedestrian bridges in Shiraz <i>UNconfirmed</i></div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: girl arrested and dragged and beaten while being dragged. her hair&cloths in bad sit. taken away by bassij</div><div><br /></div><div>omidhabibinia: Hundreds of Protesters chanting against the regime infron of Ploytechnic University, Near Azadi Sq. (not conf) </div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Enghelab sq packed with people from side streets, Basiji attacking them with batons & tear gas dick clubs</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: RT @Pray4FreeIran: RT @iran88: Clashes reported in Saatad Abad. Hundreds of protesters sitting on the ground in 12-e-Farvardin.</div><div><br /></div><div>iranisccRT: @Pray4FreeIran: RT Choppers now in the air from Enghelab Sq thru Laleh Park.</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Confirmed: No Mobile Network at Centrlal Tehran </div><div><br /></div><div>jimsciuttoABC: Another witness: police throwing tear gas into buses, some protesters gathering near Tehran Univ</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: reg forces withdrawn from Enghelab and guards are put in...GOD plz help us. We have to do it</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>jimsciuttoABC: One witness: basij throwing protesters from pedestrian bridges in Shiraz</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: live reports : Seem to be circling Cult. Inst. of Darolzahra,where the prayer service is.</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: live reports : Basij & plainclothed at & around Dr. Beheshti Sq.</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: freind says; some bassij have local accent likeAstaara region: regime mobilised from all Iran for 2day</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: live reports : Guards units being ordered to Dr. Beheshti Street</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: live reports : Regular Security Forces ordered to leave Enghelab Sq. Guards units taking over</div><div><br /></div><div>MikVerbrugge: live reports : Riot Guards moving to Enghelab sq - Police force being ordered back to bases.</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: Cars in Jomhouri junct. form of protest with horns.Bassij seen equipped with ax and pick batons</div><div><br /></div><div>iraniscc: RT @Pray4FreeIran: URGENT INFO for Teargas : Im a Biochemist. Mix half vol antiacid half H2O for eyes mouth ears nose </div><div><br /></div><div><b>iraniscc: @huffingtonpost CONFIRMED PROTESTS IN tehran, shiraz, isfahan, ahwaz, babol, kerman, mashhad, sari</b></div><div><br /></div><div>omidhabibinia: Army Unit (IRG) Positioned infront of Interior Ministry. #iranelection</div></blockquote><div></div><div><br /></div></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;">UPDATES FOLLOW IN THIS POSTING -REFRESH PAGE</span></b></div><div><br /></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-18025349232611601612009-07-09T03:50:00.001+01:002009-07-09T05:08:54.383+01:00The Geek Who Built a Haystack For Iran<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9hoJvt31f05edqW1bYUcMg5zcLfV6ixbkOrn-2NVfdpjGVX2ISWVwdo1-VB2h9aV1mfd7dBl9oUsjWDsN_bue3B-nHKM4NOvYmOgILIK6Jzqc00WhDbgGFBvuYHt5Iz6T8lknwSejs6S/s1600-h/geekiran.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 283px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9hoJvt31f05edqW1bYUcMg5zcLfV6ixbkOrn-2NVfdpjGVX2ISWVwdo1-VB2h9aV1mfd7dBl9oUsjWDsN_bue3B-nHKM4NOvYmOgILIK6Jzqc00WhDbgGFBvuYHt5Iz6T8lknwSejs6S/s400/geekiran.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356283626874617170" /></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9hoJvt31f05edqW1bYUcMg5zcLfV6ixbkOrn-2NVfdpjGVX2ISWVwdo1-VB2h9aV1mfd7dBl9oUsjWDsN_bue3B-nHKM4NOvYmOgILIK6Jzqc00WhDbgGFBvuYHt5Iz6T8lknwSejs6S/s1600-h/geekiran.jpg"></a><br />You may know of <a href="http://www.austinheap.com/">Austin Heap</a> from his fight with Comedy Central, after he established a website to host free-view episodes of South Park. He's fighting a different battle these days: building a software system called Haystack to enable Iranians bypass state censorship of the internet - as TehranBureau.com reports:<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">In his converted loft apartment in the semi-sketchy-meets-startup SoMa neighborhood, Austin Heap, 25, spends most of his time in front of his computer — a PC tower that he built himself and hacked to run Mac OS X.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Heap didn’t have much knowledge or interest in Iran until very recently. As foreign media began to be kicked out of the country, information coming from online sources became that much more crucial.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">“Three weeks ago I was very happy playing Warcraft and I was following the Iran election,” he says. “But it wasn’t until everything escalated there that I got involved.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">On June 15, three days after the election, Heap sprung into action....</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><b>Read On at</b>: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><a href="http://tehranbureau.com/geeks-globe-rally-iranians-online/">http://tehranbureau.com/geeks-globe-rally-iranians-online/</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">See <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/business/407307_proxy17.html?source=rss">this</a> article also. </span></div></blockquote><div><a href="http://tehranbureau.com/geeks-globe-rally-iranians-online/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></a></div></div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-80782762701968388072009-07-09T03:30:00.000+01:002009-07-09T04:42:38.480+01:00The Man As Disabled as Iranian Democracy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfIPs53Rmt-Zg39LiYfMHSzvsaX4lP3n4R0yJHt0AkvrYN1r38j-qUURTxjbmrrkZXwhi-ope0Xn8ANrE5Qz5WT6zvGi_6z2mHYsaO0z0XxyD214rUQD9lFNiFMBJwq6MEpMRgne5GUJ_/s1600-h/saeed-hajjarian.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfIPs53Rmt-Zg39LiYfMHSzvsaX4lP3n4R0yJHt0AkvrYN1r38j-qUURTxjbmrrkZXwhi-ope0Xn8ANrE5Qz5WT6zvGi_6z2mHYsaO0z0XxyD214rUQD9lFNiFMBJwq6MEpMRgne5GUJ_/s400/saeed-hajjarian.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356296744587239538" /></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfIPs53Rmt-Zg39LiYfMHSzvsaX4lP3n4R0yJHt0AkvrYN1r38j-qUURTxjbmrrkZXwhi-ope0Xn8ANrE5Qz5WT6zvGi_6z2mHYsaO0z0XxyD214rUQD9lFNiFMBJwq6MEpMRgne5GUJ_/s1600-h/saeed-hajjarian.jpg"></a><br /><div>When Neda Agha-Soltan was gunned down by an armed motorcyclist in a Tehran street, the world recoiled in horror. The grisly scene was a repeat of a similar incident in 2000, when a prominent reformist journalist and politician, Saeed Hajjarian narrowly escaped assassination - also by a gunman on a motorcycle. Both murder bids <a href="http://www.iranfocus.com/en/human-rights/iran-security-agents-in-spotlight-for-plainclothed-brutality-18286.html">are thought</a> to be the work of the 'Lebas Shakhsiha' - plainclothes security agents who operate beyond the reach of the law. </div><div><br /></div><div>Shot in the face and neck, his injuries in that attack left Hajjarian severely disabled and needing constant medical care. Notwithstanding his severe disablement he was detained by Iranian authorities on June 15th.</div><div><br /></div><div>After visiting him in prison, Vajiheh Marsousi, the wife of the dissident intellectual said his life is in danger due to his poor health and lack of medical care; and that he was under intense pressure to sign a false confession about an imaginary foreign plot to overthrow the government. He is now thought to be in a coma. Human Rights Watch has <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/08/iran-detainees-describe-beatings-pressure-confess">called</a> for his release. </div><div><br /></div><div>Back in 1972, Professor Muhammad Sahimi, of TehranReport.com <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">(whom we interviewed </span><a href="http://fintandunne.blogspot.com/2009/06/advantage-rafsanjani-and-mousavi-as.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">)</span> was a classmate of Hajjarian's in Tehran University. His profile of the man he describes as "one of the most important intellectuals and political thinkers of Iran over the past few decades," is <a href="http://tehranbureau.com/saeed-hajjarian/">here</a>.</div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-84251195484899042522009-07-08T22:31:00.012+01:002009-07-13T04:24:18.284+01:00Cyberwar Still Rages to Halt Protester Identification<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaaZM3GCmwg4vChuKtBuQL1NGoeBobnU9ESxND4NhonxXqBP4O2VawhFKeLZH_X2h9GiVI32sQGAeEvSi_CueENRz_NaVbY5IDnc2WI_N_b0HbI5TAbZtPBeLz6plhPwTbTghMrSHkK6c/s1600-h/protest-id.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 228px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaaZM3GCmwg4vChuKtBuQL1NGoeBobnU9ESxND4NhonxXqBP4O2VawhFKeLZH_X2h9GiVI32sQGAeEvSi_CueENRz_NaVbY5IDnc2WI_N_b0HbI5TAbZtPBeLz6plhPwTbTghMrSHkK6c/s400/protest-id.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356221700750159474" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">SAMPLE PHOTO OF PROTESTERS</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">We have blurred the image to prevent identification</span></span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>A high-stakes, cyberwar is still raging to prevent webpages full of photos from being used to identify, imprison and likely abuse or torture Iranian street protesters. One website, <a href="http://www.gerdab.ir/">Gerdab.ir</a> has in the last 24 hours posted 70 new photos of the protesters, with identifiable faces ringed by red circles. Currently it is the main target in the cyberwar.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>The battle has been ongoing since these photos first appeared on a number of websites, with 'hack-tivists' scoring major successes and bringing down key sites in the last two weeks. But it's an online war which has ebbed and flowed, as defensive measures were deployed by the <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/help-iran-online/6194-condensed-list-sites-w-pictures-part-1-a.html">target websites</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The website <a href="http://www.sahandnews.com/">sahandnews.com</a> redirected it's domain IP pointers from its servers in Canada to new ones in Germany, and at time of writing its protester ID page is still online. Another site, <a href="http://www.shahabnews.com/">shahabnews.com</a> has been forced offline. Website <a href="http://www.bultannews.com/">bultannews.com</a> removed it's <a href="http://www.bultannews.com/pages/?cid=14164">protester identification page</a> to escape the ire of the politically-motivated hackers.</div><div><br /></div><div>At least one website, <a href="http://www.khodkar.ir/">khodkar.ir</a> was suspended by its internet domain hosting service. After an approach by an activist, Jottie Tolatzis on behalf of LeaseWeb confirmed that the company would take the website offline.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of those participating in the cyberwar range are amateurs who simply repeatedly load the target pages to slow them down on the internet. Others are experienced hackers deploying sophisticated denial-of-service <a href="http://pastebay.com/24982">tactics</a> and <a href="http://ha.ckers.org/slowloris">software</a> to take entire websites offline.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the most prominent internet locations where activists coordinate their cyberwar campaign is <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/">Anonymous Iran</a>, where <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/help-iran-online/6194-condensed-list-sites-w-pictures-part-1-a.html">a list of the webpages</a> which contain protester photos has been posted. The '<a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/help-iran-online/">Help Iran Online</a>' section of the site has many discussion threads tracking the progress of attempts to block the target websites.</div><div><br /></div><div>The outcome of the cyberwar has serious implications for the protesters seen in the photos. If they are identified and incarcerated their fate is dire. Amnesty International has repeatedly <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/iran">expressed concern</a> that detainees face torture or other ill-treatment in Iran. Credible accounts say that rape of prisoners is taking place.</div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-25198403223593448752009-07-07T20:14:00.009+01:002009-07-09T04:43:12.273+01:00Blackout! The Repression will not be Televised<div><div><b>Ahmadinejad TV speech met by rooftop cries, power blackouts</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a 30 minute address on Iranian national television Tuesday night, claiming that the turnout and his officially declared victory gave the government new legitimacy. </div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJCPy1VLBBr0bkGfY-put_QcxF7fXYbvGP_s8-iaNTRSeN6noKamZqOYElfRRFycbG46cZBW6qKBaoUxjNob02rP3a8qdpf1RANX6iritL_F6XdseBHRlZYxE06Nk0NTUFAe-yBghj7Idh/s400/Ahmadinejad-Blackout.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 191px; height: 400px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355855694490735650" /><div>"This is a new beginning for Iran ... we have entered a new era," Ahmadinejad said. "This election has doubled the dignity of the Iranian nation."</div></div><div><br /></div><div>But according to an Associated Press <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGSJEAPs_r2T2wxsL5G3t4z-jajQD999OSNO2">report</a>, his television speech was delivered to the sound of cries of "Death to the Dictator" and "God is Great" heard shouted from rooftops in many parts of Tehran.</div><div><br /></div><div>The speech was also accompanied by widespread electricity blackouts said claims by online protesters using Twitter. The protesters had earlier pre-arranged a call for Iranians to plug in heavy power load household devices such as dryers, irons and toasters at 9:45pm local time, as Ahmadinejad's speech began. </div><div><br /></div><div>Online Twitter feeds claimed blackouts were achieved in East Tehran, Sari, Tabriz, Isfehan, Rodehen, Saghez, Lavasan, Ahvaz, Khoramshahr, Dezfol, Jahrom, Khomini Shahr, Shahin Shar, Folad Shahr, Kashan and some of Rasht.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Screenshots of a brief blackout of the televised speech were <a href="http://twitpic.com/9m7cx#">posted online</a> by Swiss-based, Iranian journalist <a href="http://twitter.com/omidhabibinia">Omid Habibinia</a> - a regular tweeter of protest news from Iran.</div></div><div><br /></div></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;">TWITTER FEEDS REFERING TO THE BLACKOUT PROTEST:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">omidhabibinia: Iron Tactic tonight: Call for Black Out During Ahmadinejad Live at TV , Tehran Time 21.30... #Iranelection</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 5 hours ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Ahmadinejad will appear on TV in a few mins (21.45 Tehran Time) we are waitting what will happen!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 2 hours ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">People Turning ON all Electric Devices while Ahmadinejad is speaking on TV...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 2 hours ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Yes It Worked! #iranelection</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 2 hours ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Ghazvin went in Black Out, People Chanting" Death to Dictator" on the roofs in many cities...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Live Broadcast intr. few seconds in dark till emergency electric generators charging the power</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">...North Part of Karj Black Out </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Black Out: Sari, Tabriz, Isfehan, Rodehen, Saghez, Lavasan...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Bassij forces attacked some people in Tehran Now on the roofs in the dark. (not conf)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Black Out: All Steet Lamps in East Part of Tehran Turned Off!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">It is More than 45 mins, People Still chanting on the roofs all over the city: Death To the Dictator!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Black Out: East of Tehran, Ahvaz, Khoramshahr, Dezfol, Jahrom...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Black Out: Khomini Shahr, Shahin Shar, Folad Shahr, Kashan...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">Black Out: Half Part of Rasht went in dark.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">about 1 hour ago from web</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">manfredmarz: "This is a new beginning for Iran ... we have entered a new era,.... and the answer was a BLACK OUT... a REAL TIME</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=black%20out%20%23iranelection">SEARCH TWITTER FOR BLACKOUT REPORTS</a></span></span></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;"></span></span></div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-2602666070946265222009-07-07T04:21:00.011+01:002009-07-07T09:19:32.398+01:00Mousavi: "This Movement Will Continue"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpep_WP-tB7QKMfwy88TxmL2G2w7snYJLTdLxvw0-szJL6Lg8oDH4LL2RFyLRPti5-mIbzyiqO_UkFbpZ3rtRzGqNdXlz44ssb4nKeXzBJd6lgMd1r_71Q6yCAMbcpLjIILee4f45NDR1l/s1600-h/mousavi1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpep_WP-tB7QKMfwy88TxmL2G2w7snYJLTdLxvw0-szJL6Lg8oDH4LL2RFyLRPti5-mIbzyiqO_UkFbpZ3rtRzGqNdXlz44ssb4nKeXzBJd6lgMd1r_71Q6yCAMbcpLjIILee4f45NDR1l/s400/mousavi1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355609774618402194" /></a><br /><br /><div>Popularly-mandated Iranian presidential election candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, referring to ongoing resistance to the official election result, declared Monday in Tehran that "this movement will continue," according to <a href="http://209.85.227.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=fa&tl=en&u=http://www.parsine.com/pages/%3Fcid%3D8910&prev=hp&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhiCgxB1_xtEVRu2bpZRXwsZwGrCYw">a report</a> on Parsine.com.</div><div><div><div><br /></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqXJ-htXVFCS5l8_CfnrS_b7GdDKC9OI2bzrXobHqlu6remSbJ2U48zoyYVVEwXJ1rare6cyPvao1CoJGEJWn6gKShzLC3QEZp_BsKcMUZY2waBO_NIU8F787KpvZyRGzn7_tdzSxTGeoh/s400/mousavi2.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 182px; height: 271px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355610323285576994" /><div>In statesman-like comments, Mousavi insisted that the government had no legitimacy because of the popular vote, but that nevertheless "we must proceed through the framework of the law." </div><div><br /></div><div>Mousavi was addressing guests in the informal setting of an art gallery, on a holiday in honor of Shiite saint, Imam Ali.</div><div><br /></div><div>The statements are a continuation of a recent policy of not giving grounds to the government for accusing him of formenting public disorder.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mr. Mousavi also spoke to relatives of those detained in a side meeting to his attendance. He also met with Mehdi Karoubi and former president Mohammad Khatami on Monday and the trio called for the immediate release of detained protesters, his website reported.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite his low-key address there was no indication that a protest rally scheduled for Thursday in the center of Tehran, adjacent to the university was cancelled. That day is also the ten-year anniversary of the Basij militia raid on Tehran University to suppress student protest. In addition to the scheduled Tehran march, rallies are also planned for other Iranian cities, including Shiraz, Mashhad, Esfahan and Tabriz, according to <a href="http://tehranbureau.com/eye-storm-18th-tir/">an editorial</a> on TehranReport.com.</div><div><br /></div><div>A sandstorm continues to blow through Tehran and much of Iran. In a sign of government nerves, SMS text messaging services, which had been functioning again for the last five days were again cut off in the capital. The state-controlled media outlet, PressTV.ir has been silent on political developments for the last 24 hours.</div><div><br /></div></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9uhQyhayt9nt3JZNA-wpQg11UayFWe-HtGuBoa2zCOy_Xpe0TERfz6YM8KAP3fgLJ2_6EQEMGndFr-PgaIPirh6h_OweWBXVvT0IgRe7HJVuN6jxkPli6Cb2Mfy2yCf114xWBLUpJlj1m/s1600-h/x-spot.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 316px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9uhQyhayt9nt3JZNA-wpQg11UayFWe-HtGuBoa2zCOy_Xpe0TERfz6YM8KAP3fgLJ2_6EQEMGndFr-PgaIPirh6h_OweWBXVvT0IgRe7HJVuN6jxkPli6Cb2Mfy2yCf114xWBLUpJlj1m/s400/x-spot.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355599488511172994" /></a><br /></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-38968066847070707752009-07-07T00:58:00.008+01:002009-07-07T01:45:33.431+01:00An Anti-Basij Urban Warfare Lesson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisVMpTcAGr9YsegG0OpOHx74ZHczvJ-8YpuhzLQUguH-oILsEpNHc3jq_MDahXB-GOaOrG0IL6QzU8AQTKUDkNlGru7ugAyaFGSDsyDF_gbqbsLHc8gO2IM5zSnH1mZUK_DpTVKDtqPzdQ/s1600-h/vasabaha-basij.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisVMpTcAGr9YsegG0OpOHx74ZHczvJ-8YpuhzLQUguH-oILsEpNHc3jq_MDahXB-GOaOrG0IL6QzU8AQTKUDkNlGru7ugAyaFGSDsyDF_gbqbsLHc8gO2IM5zSnH1mZUK_DpTVKDtqPzdQ/s400/vasabaha-basij.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355504682123039906" /></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisVMpTcAGr9YsegG0OpOHx74ZHczvJ-8YpuhzLQUguH-oILsEpNHc3jq_MDahXB-GOaOrG0IL6QzU8AQTKUDkNlGru7ugAyaFGSDsyDF_gbqbsLHc8gO2IM5zSnH1mZUK_DpTVKDtqPzdQ/s1600-h/vasabaha-basij.jpg"></a></div><br />Website Vasabaha.com <a href="http://vasabaha.com/1388/04/07/mikh/">features</a> a highly inventive urban warfare training video and photos --designed to equip protesters with effective tactics to disable Basij security forces on motorcycles.<br /><br />It describes an array of type-puncturing devices constructed from easily available raw materials, such as plastic bottle tops and nails. This street conflict is maturing fast.<br /><br /><embed src="http://images.video.msn.com/flash/soapbox1_1.swf" width="430" height="362" id="nnqbj2iq" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" pluginspage="http://macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="player.c=v&player.v=4fc0e0c5-dea5-4a49-b2be-e4e4137aaf0a&mkt=fr-FR&ifs=true&fr=shared"></embed>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-79174361661731471752009-07-06T23:53:00.006+01:002009-07-07T00:09:02.655+01:00Green is the Color of Dissent - Silenced<div>The photo shows one protest tactic being used on statues in Iran.</div><div><br /></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwv_ngk80WKX75jH88lAPB_skqY7-743GsHyN51TqFo_FdMmZEb0DdqpCOYZpxlDEhblk8l-B2mWIVokb-nAsAU4JhJfuWfAIy2PihsCF6Eea32IO9X0ahKZQmzbdPVnwBZjf1GzdRlu9o/s400/iran-statue.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355486692348288178" /><div><b>In other news circulating today on usually reliable Twitter feeds:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Photos of election protests around the world are being forwarded widely in Iran. </div><div><br /></div><div>SMS service has been shut down once again in Tehran. </div><div><br /></div><div>A sandstorm in Tehran is allowing protesters to go through the city writing anti-government slogans on city walls. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s son-in-law has been disowned by his father. Mahdi Khorsheedi’s father now says he no longer has a son named Mahdi because he had sided with Ahmadinejad. </div><div><br /></div><div>Hamid Maddah, a core member of Mousavi’s campaign in Mashhad, died in custody on Saturday. He had been arrested in Gowharshad Mosque along with many other Mousavi supporters. According to sources, he had been tortured badly and wasn’t able to recover. The official death certificate registers the cause of death as internal bleeding in the skull. </div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-44412676050526842772009-07-06T20:20:00.007+01:002009-07-06T23:53:51.330+01:0092 Killed in Tehran Say Doctors Who FledOne of a pair of Iranian doctors, who fled the capital to France says an unofficial tally by medical staff at Tehran area hospitals counted 92 violent deaths related to conflicts with security forces. The death toll is considerably at variance with an official figure of 17 deaths.<div><br /></div><div>The account of events in Tehran by the doctors, who declined to be identified for reasons of personal safety has been <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2009/07/06/01003-20090706ARTFIG00225-des-medecins-iraniens-temoignent-de-la-repression-.php">published today</a> in the online edition of the French newspaper <i>Le Figaro</i>. They say that intimidation prevented them revealing the scale of casualties but motivated them to flee to France to reveal the details.</div><div><br /></div><div>Among the dead were an eight months pregnant woman and six young males found dead in Shahriar, on the outskirts of the capital. "They all died from wounds in the neck," said the second unidentified doctor, quoting information from a trusted medical colleague. "Their skulls had been smashed and their brains had been opened, presumably to retrieve the bullet and destroy evidence of the crime."</div><div><br /></div><div>On June 15th, dubbed "Black Monday" by the second doctor, the Rasoul Akram Hospital, near Tehran University, received 38 casualties, including 28 wounded and 10 dead. </div><div><br /></div><div>"We found that the bullets had passed through the torsos diagonally, which means they were fired from above - ie a roof," says the second doctor.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>To conceal the nature of the assaults, doctors at Tehran hospitals were forced to certify that the deceased died of natural causes. A colleague of the second doctor who was on emergency duty at Erfan Hospital, paid a price for refusing to cooperate. "After being missing for thirty-six hours, he was found half-conscious and disfigured on the sidewalk near the hospital," he told <i>Le Figaro</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>"In several hospitals - including Rasoul Akram and Imam Khomeini - we organized sit-in protests. But state television, they said it was a strike for better wages." </div><div><br /></div><div>Due to resistance by medical staff, the bodies of some protesters were speedily removed. "We think they were transferred to the Baqiatollah military hospital or a place unknown to the general public," says the doctor. Then, under the pretext of "organ donation", the evidence of bullet wounds were excised. Families were forced to go along with the deception in order to recover the remains for burial.</div><div><br /></div><div>The <i>Le Figaro</i> article adds that a witness in Tehran, contacted by telephone told the newspaper that burials in the public cemetery at Behecht-e Zahra take place under surveillance, with the cause of death prohibited to be indicated on gravestones.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2009/07/06/01003-20090706ARTFIG00225-des-medecins-iraniens-temoignent-de-la-repression-.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><b>Original Le Figaro article ></b></span></a></div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-32771390879077130652009-07-06T00:56:00.002+01:002009-07-06T01:04:29.428+01:00Graveyard Photos From TehranPhoto-journalism website Demotix has a <a href="http://www.demotix.com/news/mourning-dead-tehran">heartbreaking collage</a> of photos taken of the graves and mourners of those killed in the street protests.<div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOvOmm5M7ZV-AjGYi3duXBGr0-pfoa2xCtklXP1qMQJxx_TO2AGs3oiEGtVgbmse-hui_AVg1z8l3nv_Srt5cKlQ6UNvcT7EH-H5cL-wrKBplsLj3pPr0wlteUkuj0WH84pSKj0DBFkfz/s1600-h/demotix-graves.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOvOmm5M7ZV-AjGYi3duXBGr0-pfoa2xCtklXP1qMQJxx_TO2AGs3oiEGtVgbmse-hui_AVg1z8l3nv_Srt5cKlQ6UNvcT7EH-H5cL-wrKBplsLj3pPr0wlteUkuj0WH84pSKj0DBFkfz/s400/demotix-graves.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355131111092404210" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 298px; " /></a></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-74546381254882369672009-07-05T22:53:00.007+01:002009-07-06T01:04:47.108+01:00100 Protesters Killed and 2,700 Detained<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2MRWI4q1z_H8RfiUugWOItV1ArIKsEkqfFteIkUlxqrtIOS95y38LPqp6rIw6_-oZCa5XxpvaKLvu5gN86J4xbrA_w9l0BreiIFXJ_wCXuFDa87vF1NvYiUaJ0MlATHCKFIRRkjuenYxP/s1600-h/omid.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2MRWI4q1z_H8RfiUugWOItV1ArIKsEkqfFteIkUlxqrtIOS95y38LPqp6rIw6_-oZCa5XxpvaKLvu5gN86J4xbrA_w9l0BreiIFXJ_wCXuFDa87vF1NvYiUaJ0MlATHCKFIRRkjuenYxP/s400/omid.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355108098409432642" /></a>According to Iranian journalist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omid_Habibinia">Omid Habibinia</a>, in excess of one hundred protesters have been killed in the course of the election crisis. Quoted in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, he also <a href="http://www.corriere.it/esteri/09_luglio_02/iran_servizio_sms_cento_morti_proteste_efdbee88-6702-11de-9708-00144f02aabc.shtml">reports</a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">[</span><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://www.corriere.it/esteri/09_luglio_02/iran_servizio_sms_cento_morti_proteste_efdbee88-6702-11de-9708-00144f02aabc.shtml&sl=it&tl=en&history_state0="><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">english</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">]</span> that 2,700 people have so far been incarcerated and 50 journalists arrested.<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"><blockquote>"According to our records more than 100 people were killed between Tehran and other Iranian cities. On June 20th alone, more than 30 people were killed by the police and the militias.... A few bodies have been returned families on assurance that there was no funeral or talk of what had happened.... Hospitals were required to provide certificates of death with a diagnosis of heart attacks or car accidents..."</blockquote></span></div><div><div>On <a href="http://twitter.com/omidhabibinia">his Twitter feed</a>, Omid reports that hundreds of detainees families gathered in front of Evin Prison in Tehran again today, Sunday 5th July, 2009.</div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-35705885840984161702009-07-05T17:03:00.000+01:002009-07-05T17:05:58.958+01:00Iranians Battle Anti Riot Police July 3rd<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dRWq5pDC2ec&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dRWq5pDC2ec&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-74020075002288414332009-07-05T15:50:00.006+01:002009-07-05T22:52:16.098+01:00Neda's Killer Shot Dead Same Day Says BlogIranian election Twitter feed '<a href="http://twitter.com/IranRiggedElect">IranRiggedElec</a>t' is reporting a weblog <a href="http://www.1canadian.org/2009/07/blog-post_05.html">claim</a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">[</span><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.1canadian.org%2F2009%2F07%2Fblog-post_05.html&sl=fa&tl=en&history_state0="><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">English</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">]</span> that Neda Soltan's killer was Abolfazl Kiani, a security guard at Ministry of Interior, and an intelligence agent. The Twitter reports say her killer was himself executed "with 3 bullets from Intel agents at 10:30pm."<div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDROqsTanRZNBIreZ5RgDCqXeaAK82HrJ2iaetz3NghWNXxbBGxLpIZOC7H5U3dHOmlj3CHty-cuVUWrm3_eiD_iA1D6R9uBjBdmmdQa6T2JI7TRAnUO3HxujSN6m9tSZt3pmxVEFpUbD/s400/neda15.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 158px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354991522522086114" /></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646225071394783825.post-71040178387644518682009-07-04T20:00:00.003+01:002009-07-06T00:22:59.150+01:00Iran: Elite Clerical Group Defys Regime<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">UPDATE 11:50GMT 5th July:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The authenticity of the NYT report below, and the Iranian association it mentioned has been investigated by members of the Anonymous Iran forum. <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/7327-ny-times-many-clerics-dispute-election-results.html">Their investigation</a> casts serious doubt on the validity of the NYT report. </span></span><br /><br />Clerical opposition to the Iranian coup regime is hardening. A <a href="http://www.majmaqom.com/bayaniyeh4.html">statement</a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">[</span><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://www.majmaqom.com/bayaniyeh4.html&sl=fa&tl=en&history_state0="><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">English</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">]</span> by the Association of Researchers and Teachers at the religious center in the city of Qum, on Saturday called the presidential election and the new government illegitimate.<div><br /></div><div>The New York Times reports:</div><div><div></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">“This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">The announcement came on a day when Mr. Moussavi released documents detailing a campaign of fraud by the current president’s supporters, and as a close associate of the supreme leader called Mr. Moussavi and former President Mohammad Khatami “foreign agents,” saying they should be treated as criminals.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">The documents, published on Mr. Moussavi’s Web site, accused supporters of the president of printing more than 20 million extra ballots before the vote and handing out cash bonuses to voters.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">Since the election, the bulk of the clerical establishment in the holy city of Qum, an important religious and political center of power, has remained largely silent, leaving many to wonder when, or if, the nation’s most senior religious leaders would jump into the controversy that has posed the most significant challenge to the country’s leadership since the Islamic Revolution.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">With its statement Saturday, the association of clerics — formed under the leadership of the revolution’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — came down squarely on the side of the reform movement.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"><br /></span></div><div><div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/world/middleeast/05iran.html?_r=1&hp"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/world/middleeast/05iran.html?_r=1&hp</span></span></a></div><div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div></div></div>FintanDunnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110494763820672827noreply@blogger.com0