Leaked election results -- whose authenticity remains unclear -- showed Iranian opposition leader Mousavi the "clear victor" in last week's Iranian elections, despite the fact that government-released results showed incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a 2-1 margin, the British Telegraph reported Sunday.
The statistics, circulated on Iranian blogs and websites, claimed Mr Mousavi had won 19.1 million votes while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won only 5.7 million.
The two other candidates, reformist Mehdi Karoubi and hardliner Mohsen Rezai, won 13.4 million and 3.7 million respectively. The authenticity of the leaked figures could not be confirmed.
Mr Mousavi has accused Iran's government of "fraud" after Mr Ahmadinejad was declared on Saturday to have 62.6 per cent of the vote, making him the landslide winner. The capital has been rocked by disturbances for the last three days.
Amnesty International criticized Iran Sunday for blocking media and Internet sites. It said on Saturday, access to social networking sites was blocked, as was access to a range of online news services. Many of these outlets carried reports which raised concerns that the conduct of the election was flawed and results had been rigged, Amnesty said.
"Instead of instituting an information clampdown, including by blocking video sharing social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook; along with a handful of online news sites, the authorities should openly address the concerns and criticisms clearly expressed by so many," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Program.
-John Byrne (with AP)
the US doesn`t want to lose their iranian boogeyman now that bin laden is dead...we have to keep the wars going at all costs...
This is the kind of government that should be trusted with nukes?
It sounds as if the Republican party was in charge of the Iranian election.
doctim11
"This is the kind of government that should be trusted with nukes?"
Various intelligence agencies, including ours, state that Iran is "many years" from developing a nuclear weapon. Tell us, just what "kind of government" should be trusted with nukes? Our allie Pakistan? Israel, with (reportedly) over 150 of them? How about the U.S., the only country to actually have used them?
The world needs to have these weapons eliminated.
Neocon AIPAC using Iran election to push for WAR.
Our propaganda media is dumbstruck.
Federal Reserve and 911;
Liars and Truthers.
The same thing happenend in the U.S. in 2004, but the sheeple were to programmed to sit at home watching American Idol rather than take to the streets as these brave Iranians are doing.
Dionysis: I wish there were no nukes, but there are. Whether Iran has one now or in five years they are still untrustworthy. So is Pakistan and N. Korea. I trust the US, UK, Israel and France, maybe India, more than Iran anyday. As for our use of the bomb, it saved hundreds of thousand American kids from having to invade Japan and die. Just my opinion....
Some ask whether Iran can be trusted with nuclear weapons. The next question should be: Can any human nation be trusted with the nuclear bomb? And the answer is stark and clear: NO NATION can be trusted with nuclear weapons!
The Bush regime is a stark reminder of how little any human agency with
absolute power can be trusted. I wouldn't trust Obama with absolute power.
The human race is certainly not "intelligent" enough to be trusted with such a
weapon. Let's face the absolute fact: NO ONE in our present world is
really "intelligent life" and therefore to be trusted with nuclear weapons. Until we face the fact that humanity itself is not intelligent enough to be allowed the ultimate
power to destroy everything on our planet we will not be capable of wisely using ultimate power by any means whatsoever. Let's be honest for a full moment
and remember our own limitations!
scuby —
bingo!
Same old story, same happened back in 1953 with the Mohammad Mosaddeq, Obama didn’t mention that to Iranian people (right before election) accidentally. It was a sign of warning.
I wonder if the Iranian election will last as long as the Minnesota election which also fooled naive progressives?
Doctim: you seem to be far more trusting of Israel and their nukes than their actions would seem to warrant.
Amazing that people still believe what they are told. Japan would have surrendered they were being fire bombed into the stone age. Whole viliages (made out of wood) were being destroyed. The rush was on to drop the bombs before they surrendered. Read McNamara's book. Japan was toast before the bombs.
Watch footage of the rallies. 1 MM people estimated!
BBC Persia live news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/tv/2009/01/000000_ptv_live_s.shtml
Follow the twitterers listed here for translations of the news
http://www.simoncolumbus.com/2009/06/15/english-language-twitterers-in-iran/
(especially Raymond Jahan, Bahram81)
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23iranelection
Fishy election results
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/iran-does-have-some-fishy-numbers.html
Follow these people
I very much hope Ahmadinejad, has to give up this position, that he's stolen, I feel sure, as I feel sure George Bush had never truly WON a presidential election.
"Claim" and "whose authenthicity remains unclear"???
Is Raw Story publishing anonymous hearsay now?
If you want to pass the test you have to read the subject. The US Media is clueless to how the Iran Govenment is run. Yes they have a President but he answers to the Supreme Leader. This Iran election is much like the two US Elections stolen by Bush/Cheney. We learned later after investigations that Gore and Kerry really did win the Office of President. Now we'll see a smart wise Iran Supreme Leader handle this conflict. Republicans will blame President Obama for anything and never give him correct for success. President Obama has said he will work with who ever wins the Iran Election. Even Israel is faking speeches of peace to stall for time. Change not only came to America it came to the World. Now North Korea has to catch up but their confussed on how to do it.
Is Raw Story publishing anonymous hearsay now?
Yes.
Ahmadinejad must have read the Bush Skool of Poleitikal Siense, "How to Steal Elekshuns the Chimpy McFlightsuit Way."
This fraud is worse than America in 2000!
yes; and "dubya" bush came in 1st - both times... honest! rawstory is turning into the double-speak mouthpiece for the supposed change-o-crats. go back to sleep, people; nothing important here but the future of your children.
You got to wonder how many republiKKKons "helped" Iran with setting up this vote. They are the true experts in stealing elections and they are the best money can buy. Where has KKKarl Rove been the last few weeks?
Who ever is behind the Iranian activists, probably clueless Obama is just going to get a lot of people killed. No you can't when it comes to democracy in the Middle East. Iran is not now and never will be a democracy. Saudi Arabia is not now and never will be a democracy. Iraq despite all the hoopla is not now and never will be a democracy, the same for Jordan, Qatar, etc.
These countries are ruled by RELIGION and only RELIGION. Once more a president of the United States will throw himself on the rocks of peace in the middle east and once more he will fail.
"Veronicaf
Ahmadinejad must have read the Bush Skool of Poleitikal Siense, "How to Steal Elekshuns the Chimpy McFlightsuit Way.""
Very funny but remember Bush never actually read it Rove sat by his bed and read it to him.
"20jimbo92107
This fraud is worse than America in 2000!"
20jimbo92107 not really Iran will not launch a bogus world wide war on terror.
Mick:
"Very funny but remember Bush never actually read it Rove sat by his bed and read it to him."
Ah, you would be absolutely correct ... my bad!
Nothing substantiated, nothing given. It amazes me that some would dignify this steaming crock of heresy with a reply.
If Ahmadinejad won, it's because America wants all war, all the time. If he lost, it's because America waved their magical America fingers to change the minds of the people of Iran.
Which one is it?
Half of the people on this website seem to be speaking jokes, recognizing the blather of conspiracy theorists as so much poppycock. The other half seem to actually believe the ridiculous assertions that America has been nothing more than a gigantic conspiracy to rule the world since the very beginning. There is very little credible evidence to support the supposition that America had directly influenced the Iranian election of just a few days ago, if any. I'm not sure, either, of any supporting evidence or credible sources to support the conspiracy that America simply wanted to just have some place to drop the atomic bomb, and that Japan was within weeks of surrendering. Saying America is an evil empire without somewhat-more-than-circumstancial evidence is a despicably horrible way to make an argument. More so than that, these unsupported arguments, based on little more than hearsay, seem to have a somewhat convincing point-of-view, and thus giving a horribly anti-patriotic slant to people's view of government in general at best, and directly anarchistic revolutionary ideas. If one does NOT take the few moments of time that it takes to verify a writer's source(s), you could very well adopt a point of view that assigns guilt to where there never was actually any guilt to begin with. What if you were being accused of a horrible crime (and you had evidence to the contrary), and you never were guilty? Yet the popular voice said you were guilty of the crime based on "he said/she said" evidence. How would you feel? Rather upset and frustrated, correct? Well, think how the accused p.o.v. feels, and then try looking at a few other p.o.v.'s and the supporting evidence to see if you still support the accusatory ideas.