There will be blood.

the State Dept asking Twitter to delay its scheduled maintanance so that "aggrieved Iranians" can continue to prolong the protests is nothing but interference.

There are these mysterious 'spontaneous' student protests that come and go with barely a notice. The only difference here is the scope of it. It's just more of the same pointless protesting. It's summer, school's out, the weather is warm. There's nothing else to do. Let's torch a Dirka Burger and flip over some cop cars. In the meantime the government cracks some heads, accuses the obligatory Zionists, CIA and whatnot, hangs a few innocent people and everything gets back to normal in time for the next major Pesian holiday.

I am watching the us house debating a resolution that would publicly express support for the protesters in Iran. The only word of caution i've heard so far was from a democrat. It's a Friday, so attendance in the chambers is quite low, and I don't like the idea that such a small group of loudmouths supposedly represents us.

Is it so hard to be quiet? Why throw stones at a hornets nest?

When the inevitable crackdown occurs, will the opposition allow themselves tobe silenced, or will they fight back...either way innocent blood will be spilled.

LOL, priceless.

If there is to come a revolution in Iran, it has to come from the people of Iran. And they will revolt unless they are given some freedom. Iranian youth see on tv and internet the freedom that western kids and some of their fellow Muslim brothers and sister have, and while they might not want to go on a drunk spring break next year, the at least need to be brought into the fifties (culturally).

But the Iranians need to see that we feel for them, and even if the US will not bomb their country, we are all watching and will not let this be another Tiananmen square.

Ayatollah you once Ayatollah you twice, I dunno Khameni times! You kids get off my lawn!!

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/earticle/7025/

"Dirty Zionists and bad British Radio"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jun/19/iran-unrest

Awesome in its retardation.

No, pulling a Radio Free Europe or Radio Marti would be interference. The State Department asking Twitter to delay maintenance is, at best, a courtesy to keep open lines of communication (let's remember, both sides in the conflict could use Twitter.)

It is typically true that the oppressors expend their energy in severing these lines, not maintaining them. Doing things like, say, disrupting telephone communication, shutting down cellphone and messaging services, blocking satellite reception — stuff like that. By restricting the crowd's ability to exchange information, it helps ensure that there are plenty of unaware people lined up when the tanks arrive.

The breathtaking hypocrisy of the US media, political class, liberals and conservatives alike, embracing a "reformist" like Mousavi has been amusing to witness these last two weeks.

As president in 1981-89, Mousavi imprisoned, tortured and murdered literally THOUSANDS of dissidents, far far more than AHMADINEJAD has. Mousavi also helped to found Hizbullah and, in his campaign, urged for the need "to go back to the ideals of Khomeinii."

Oh, but I forgot. Mousavi doesn't deny the Holocaust.

So you can murder as many people as you want, just don't deny the Holocaust.

That makes you acceptable to the West.

Under Obama a new law that considers public protest to be low-level terrorism has been formed. Is the DoD full of shitheaded klutzes that lack the intelligence to realize how law can be abused?

"We are a nation of laws". A good and necessary thing. It is far better for a nation to be law-based than not.

But, in Iran we are witnessing Irrefutable Law utilized as an axe in the hands of a few to crush and repress.

Similar laws designed to oppress resistance and protest are on the books here (America) as I've referenced above. And, in some cases, these laws may be worse than those found in less-civilized countries.

Something tells me that Iranian police tactics that will be utilized to fully suppress this massive protest will be drawn from law enforcement techniques created by the British (no wonder the Brits are a bunch of goddamn ewes) and Americans.

Force protection will now be implemented on a massive scale which results in all blame for violence, however extreme, to be placed on protesting citizens (as Khamanei made clear).

Watch brutal techniques employed by the cops at WTO protests around the world (including Seattle) be duplicated by Iranian police.

This regime is totally authoritarian in nature which equates to total and unrestrained enforcement.

I've often considered how the laws of this land could be used similarly if a true despot were elected OR if something went wrong with a law and citizens just decided to reject the specific law.

Actually, are we that much different than Iran? Would a protest of that scale here in America be pulled off without civilians being killed and seriously injured by cops?

Is America capable of a Tiananmen or what we will see in Iran over the next few days? Why not? We have the 'laws' to allow for it.

I cannot speak for the pro-opposition American public at large, but I am not particularly interested in what Iran under Moussavi would be like compared to Ahmadinejad, or even the difference in how we could deal with Iran under each of them. That's not the point at all. The point is this: if a country wishes to be judged as a republic from within and without, it must hold FREE and FAIR elections, and count all of the votes that are cast.

In this case it is all but proven that there was chicanery involved to the detriment of the opposition candidates. The funny thing is that I would not be at all surprised if, in fact, Ahmadinejad had ACTUALLY won the election in the absence of manipulation (hell, Bush won the popular vote in 2004). But whether the manipulation resulted in an overturning of the public's choice or merely augmented it, the point is that either Iran must submit to the will of its people or give up any semblance of being accepted as a republic by its people.

As an outsider neither able nor willing to exert any outside pressure on what is ultimately and internal affair, I can only hope that the issue can be settled with a minimum of violence and a maximum of justice.