Iranian who leaked election results may have been assassinated

[Eugene V. Debs]

An Iranian man said to have released the genuine result of last Friday's presidential election is reported to have been killed in a suspicious car accident.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20...ts-iranian.htm

Anyone interested in keeping up on this stuff, there's an opposition website with regular updates and first or second-hand accounts:

http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/

There definitely seems to be a popular revolt happening. With luck it may signal the end of the theocratic regime there, or at least here's hoping so. Best wishes to the Iranian resistance.

[JIDinPhilly]

This is the important part to this story....

According to the leaked figures Mr Ahmadinejad actually came third in a four-horse race whilst Mr Mousavi received the most votes with 19 million ballots cast in his favour.

In other reports one Iranian website said that voter turnout in as many as 30 towns was higher than 100%.

[camper]

In other reports one Iranian website said that voter turnout in as many as 30 towns was higher than 100%.

Acorn has offices in Iran?

camper

[LittleRedToyota]

There definitely seems to be a popular revolt happening.

which seems to be limited to students and middle/upper class residents of tehran...and does not seem to be spreading beyond that. so, it seems it is only popular among one segment of the society...and while not exactly small, that segment is not large enough to sustain a revolution on their own.

Best wishes to the Iranian resistance.

i wish them well, too, but, unless they can get a broader cross section of iranian society on board, i think they are doomed.

i think there will likely be some changes, but no real fundamental restructuring.

[JIDinPhilly]

If you guys have HBO on Demand, go to their 'documentary' section. There is a documentary called 'Letters to the President' http://www.letterstothepresidentmovie.com/

The people of Iran write letters to the president every year or so asking him to fix their problems, give them loans, or get running water in their village. The people in the rural areas treat him like a god and write hundreds of thousands of letters to him, while the students in Tehran talk about how ridicioulous the regime is. The movie was made in 2008 and is a pretty good watch especially considering the timing.

[Eugene V. Debs]

which seems to be limited to students and middle/upper class residents of tehran...and does not seem to be spreading beyond that. so, it seems it is only popular among one segment of the society...and while not exactly small, that segment is not large enough to sustain a revolution on their own.

i wish them well, too, but, unless they can get a broader cross section of iranian society on board, i think they are doomed.

i think there will likely be some changes, but no real fundamental restructuring.

As usual, LRT, excellent points. The thing is that these kind of protests might start with a small segment, but if enough of the petit-bourgoisie gets on board it could be the beginning of a counterrevolutionary movement to oust the mullahs, bringing other classes and segments of society with them. That might not happen next month, it may take years, but this could be the spark that sets a larger movement in motion.

And don't forget, until very recently the sorts of violent student demonstrations in the Middle East you read about were in support of the Islamists. Now, in the heart of the first country to establish a revolutionary Islamist government, it's going the other way-- that's a very good sign. Persia has always been a leader in that region and I sincerely hope that this is a signal people in the Muslim world, or at least the Middle East, are slowly but surely starting to turn against the violent religious extremists.

[FormerUser123]

The thing is that these kind of protests might start with a small segment, but if enough of the petit-bourgoisie gets on board it could be the beginning of a counterrevolutionary movement to oust the mullahs, bringing other classes and segments of society with them. That might not happen next month, it may take years, but this could be the spark that sets a larger movement in motion.

Exactly. Let's not forget the Boston Tea Party happened 3 years prior to the start of the Revolutionary War, and the Boston Tea Party is considered the boiling point of our relationship with England. There was civil unrest for almost 10 years prior to that act.

I'm happy to see the young Iranians in protest, but I think it will be quite a few years until we see them in open revolt. Maybe not 10-15 years, as in our case, everything does seem to move much faster these days, but I don't think it will be an overnight coup. Just remember, every year there are more people coming of age, and those people are going to be the ones most likely to want to break out from under the current regime.

[nijwnfi]

Nothing will change until they get rid of the Clerics who are really running things. Until that happens, if worse comes to worse, the Clerics will just install another puppet to do their bidding.

[DCChris]

Good...........

[Eugene V. Debs]

Nothing will change until they get rid of the Clerics who are really running things. Until that happens, if worse comes to worse, the Clerics will just install another puppet to do their bidding.

That's right-- but rigging elections will only hasten the demise of the clerical-fascist regime. When you cut off avenues of democratic reform within the political superstructure, then those who are dissatisfied are left with only one option-- smash the political superstructure aka revolution, or, in this case, arguably, counterrevolution. You think those who are facing down death by state forces in the street are risking their lives simply for Mousavi? No, they're fuckin fed up with the mullahs running the country. This is not mere protest-- this is the beginning of insurrection.