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Letters
Monday, June 22, 2009 12:00 AM

Tehran dispatch: The crackdown

Gridlock, fire and lead pipes. Young men face off against the basijis and the battle moves into the back alleys

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Monday, June 22, 2009 02:51 PM

Where was this endless prose during the most recent Gaza slaughter?

I mean, dust off the shelf for that next Pulitzer, we're painting the town purple. Somebody must have waved the Zionist Media green flag, because the avalanche of heavily-spun propaganda is clogging those Republican Intertron pipes.

Why didn't the Palestinians get this kind of Phil Spector journalist production? "Brave Palestinians freedom fighters Twitter in hopes the world will hear them!" and that kind of thing.

My old Journalism professor is spinning in his grave, these stories are so far over the top. And day after day of it, too.

The Iranian President with the unspellable name won the LAST election by about two-thirds, so why is it so fucking incredible that he won THIS election by about two-thirds, too?

Oh, of course, the Iran-is-evil meme! Israel's next project for the US after Iraq. Go fuck over Iran. Good golem!

Monday, June 22, 2009 03:34 PM

Hit the dirt

Those Basiji batons

Are gonna hurt

Monday, June 22, 2009 03:59 PM

Hey Gordon, why did Hitler kill himself?

He read his gas bill.

Monday, June 22, 2009 04:48 PM

great article!

this Anonymous guy should get a real fake name.

If you're wondering which stories to believe, you've got a limited set of choices: stories like this, or the Iranian government. Believe what you want to.

Why wasn't there coverage like this when Gaza was getting pounded? Gazans are probably much poorer than iranians. Huge unemployment. They felt silly installing internet cable cuz they didn't even have sewers yet.

Monday, June 22, 2009 05:02 PM

What about consistency, Electro?

As your American Fascist persona, you claimed that the holocaust never occurred. Now, as your GLR persona, you make jokes about the fact that it did occur.

My question is this: how do you not get confused with which persona you're posting as and what that person is supposed to believe?

Monday, June 22, 2009 05:18 PM

there was quite a bit of this coverage during the Gaza war

At least on my planet there was. Perhaps yours is too far away for good reception.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 09:03 PM

Merci

I'm an American, but I lived in Iran for 2 years when I was in my teen years. I enjoyed reading your article. It made me feel almost as if I was there. When I left Iran, the situation was much as it is today, except the Shah was far less brutal.

What you said about the closeness of the Kuche is soo true! Even though some on our Kuche were fervent Khomeini supporters, we received many offers of protection from neighbors during the unrest. The poorest (and most religious) family on the street were also, the kindest.

We always refereed to it as an alley, but it's official name was Kuche Hariri. It was quite narrow, and short, about 4 blocks long. Our house was brand new, and built of gleaming white marble, but the street was still unpaved and we had to carry our gas (for cooking) in bottles for the first year.

Whe lived in the Mahmoodiye section of northern Tehran, which at that time, still had fruit orchards, here and there, one of which was to our west. Our view of the city was over the top of those trees. At the north end of the Orchard there was a "Kuche store". They always had ice cold Coca Cola and I often went there after school and bought "Coca" for my whole familly.

The old man who owned our house and several others on the Kuche seemed to be the honoray mayor. He was a large man, almost as big, and shaped like Luciano Pavarotti. He had a loud booming voice, and just like you said, he watched out for the whole street and often chased away "bad people". I rarely knew why they needed chasing away.

Durring the last few months I was there, I often went up on our rooftop with s short wave radio so I could listen in on the chatter coming from the American Army base. We were under martial law, there were nightly power outages and a 9 PM curfew. The Shah's forces often tried to disperse demonstrators with bullets fired in the air. Many of them landed on our roof. The events of the last week remind me of that time, although the Shah was much less brutal.

That orchard, has long since given way to several high-rise apartment buildings. Thanks to Google Earth, I can see how the neighborhood has changed.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 03:14 PM

Thank you, Anonymous

Please keep writing, and stay safe.

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