The LAT has an in-depth article today on Neda Agha-Soltan, the young Iranian woman who was shot and killed in Tehran over the weekend during the election protests. It has great background information on the woman who is being called a martyr, and a symbol of the crisis in Iran, as well as the eerie foreboding warning Neda received from an aunt in the US the day of her death:
The second of three children, she studied Islamic philosophy at a branch of Tehran's Azad University until deciding to pursue a career in tourism. She took private classes to become a tour guide, including Turkish-language courses, friends said, hoping to someday lead groups of Iranians on trips abroad.
Travel was her passion, and with her friends she saved up enough money for package tours to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand. Two months ago, on a trip to Turkey, she relaxed along the beaches of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.
She also loved music, especially Persian pop, and was taking piano lessons, according to Panahi and other friends. She was also an accomplished singer, they said.
But she was never an activist, they added, and she began attending the mass protests only because she was outraged by the election results.
Rob Mackey of the NYT 'The Lede' blog also has a great video report put together with details on Neda coming from the NYT reporter in Tehran.
Via Al Jazeera's YouTube videos, Neda's fiance, Caspian Makan, tells of her last moments. "Neda", which is the Farsi word for voice, was allegedly shot dead by a Basij soldier in Tehran last week. The touching account contains many before unseen photographs of the young woman whose death has become a symbol of Iran's crisis:
The WSJ confirms my report from Sunday, June 21, that the Iranian military is charging a 'bullet fee' to the families of slain protesters.
The Associated Press is reporting today that Iran's top electoral body rules out vote annulment:
Iran's top electoral body said Tuesday it found "no major fraud" and will not annul the results of the presidential election, closing the door to a do-over sought by angry opposition supporters alleging systematic vote-rigging.
Iranian government officials have repeatedly suggested that a revote is extremely unlikely. However, Tuesday's announcement by Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, was the clearest yet in ruling out a new election.
ABC News reporter in the Middle East, Lara Setrakian tweets that "faculty from Sanati Sharif University Chemistry College resigned in protest of recently committed crimes," and, "several faculty members at TehranU also resigned in protest to crimes committed on the University campus."
Time reported yesterday on 'Why Europe is talking tougher than Obama on Iran.' Germany's Angela Merkel's particularly tough talk stands out:
Over the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel went further, calling on Iran's leaders to "allow peaceful demonstrations, allow free reporting of events, stop the use of violence against demonstrators and free imprisoned people."
While Merkel's talk may be tough, Germany is in fact one of Iran's main trade partners, second only to the UAE.
Another YouTube video surfaced Monday evening that shows Iranian protesters who have apparently been shot, and possibly killed, although there is no way to verify exactly when the footage was taken:
'Injured young students die in Iran by BASIJIS'
A new article by Jeff Stein of CQ Politics takes a look at Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who has also been called the butcher of Beirut:
He may yet turn out to be the avatar of Iranian democracy, but three decades ago Mir-Hossein Mousavi was waging a terrorist war on the United States that included bloody attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
Mousavi, prime minister for most of the 1980s, personally selected his point man for the Beirut terror campaign, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-pur, and dispatched him to Damascus as Iran's ambassador, according to former CIA and military officials.
The ambassador in turn hosted several meetings of the cell that would carry out the Beirut attacks, which were overheard by the National Security Agency.
Read the full article at Stein's Spy Talk blog at CQ.
Finally, via Twitter, it seems Mousavi supporters are trying to organize a general strike today. No further details as yet.
If you've wondered why the protesters keep starting those fires in the streets...Iranian Tweeters also tell us that this is to prevent the Iranian police helicopters from getting close enough to the ground to shoot, and to report the locations of protesters to the Basijis.
More throughout the day as updates become available.
--Diane Sweet
"More throughout the day as updates become available."
Yes, no doubt we will receive hourly 'updates' from rawstory as the Obama sheep must be pounded into submission by relentless fear mongering and stories designed to make us hate Iran's government.
Why is Neda more important than the 1,000,000+ civilians that U.S. Stormtroopers have murdered – and continue to murder – in Iraq & Afghanistan?
You are playing into U.S. propaganda by focusing on this one victim of Iranian forces and ignoring the millions of victims of U.S. Stormtroopers.
Let's focus on the war crimes of U.S. warlords, shall we?
Odd how the LAT suddenly has all this "information" on this woman, despite having not a single reporter in the country. The entire thing, and especially how it's being reported, has the odor of a CIA operation to further undermine the election and destabilize the government. Recall that the bush gang conscripted at least 200M of taxpayer dollars a couple years ago for that exact purpose. cheney even got his daughter involved in the ops. Now we are seeing the fruits of those labors.
Did you notice how at the "memorial" site to this woman erected in Dubai (why there?), 4 of the 5 signs were written in English? We've seen that with the Iranian street demonstrations, too. Imagine a street demonstration in, say, Chicago, protesting some act of our government and now ask yourself how many of the protestors' signs would be written in Farsi?
This is nothing new. Anyone paying attention will recall a similar use of a pretty young female cast in an iconic role by the CIA. Remember that Kuwaiti teenager named "Naira," who testified before the Senate (covered widely by all networks) about how she witnessed babies being thrown from their incubators onto hospital floors by the Iraqi army? Turned out she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S. and was fed those lines by the PR firm, HIll and Knowlton, that was hired to package the run-up to the first Iraq war in 1990. Her emotional testimony tipped 5 senators into voting to invade Iraq. Of course, everything she said about the incubator story was pure fiction. Don't believe me? Look it up. Google the baby incubator fraud. They were caught red-handed on that one, but only after countless Iraqis had to die for those lies. I'll bet most of you don't even know about that one, and you're already aware enough to read raw story.
This latest one has all the earmarks of rinse-and-repeat. They've only got one play in the playbook. Stage a shocking event, blame the "enemy." Works every time. See, e.g., 9/11, which was the jewel in the crown.
Yes, the U.S. is evil. We believe that killing is the righteous and only way to get through to our enemies. We also do not believe in allowing the freedom of religion and choice. We believe that anyone who does not stand for what we stand for must die! Oh, wait... that's not us is it?... dumbass
She was killed out of anti-white racism. Its similar to the way Obama hates Palin.
sad as this woman's death was, it was 'staged' as a propaganda ploy so that the neocon fucks in the USSA can then install the SAVAK turd, pahlavi, and continue to meddle in the affairs of yet another fucked over by AL-CIA-DA, nation.
the Iranians are smarter people than this. they truly are. The USSA will fail, and it will collapse under it's own PAYBACK TIME for all the harm it has done globally.
"was allegedly shot dead by a Basij soldier in Tehran last week" - That's not much proof. I don't view this womans murder in the same context I would as, for instance, Carlos Guiliani, shot in the head by Italian poliza during the G8, at point blank and ran over twice with a land rover and largely forgotton about by the media.
It's pretty clear that the western propaganda machine seeks to use her death, for anyone trying to get protest or rioting under control, the last thing they want is a pretty young martyr. The fact that she was murdered in a somewhat random fashion seems a bit suspicious to me as well. I smelleth B.S.. I really find it hard to believe that she was shot, most likely with a rifle, one shot heard, and that she was the one targeted, the pretty young lady getting out of a hot car in traffic. It just doesn't ring true and the fact that her bio is being pushed on America with the obvious purpose of endearing us to her makes my raise my eyebrow all the higher at this fucking spectacle. We've seen that the west had little problem in exterminating hundreds of thousands of civilians between Iraq and Afghanistan to achieve their goals, are we really to believe that one more body is going to make a difference?
I'd really prefer to see protests in the west covered by western media in the west with the same voracity that you people cover protests in a country that is an enemy of the west. It seems, shallow and phony.
"If you've wondered why the protesters keep starting those fires in the streets...Iranian Tweeters also tell us that this is to prevent the Iranian police helicopters from getting close enough to the ground to shoot, and to report the locations of protesters to the Basijis." - I think any helicopter coming close to a street vandal fire would blow the burning material down the block no problem. Report the location of the protesters? By the fire, get a clue. Fucking retarded bullshit. Protesters over the years have built fires a zillion times in the street, never to keep helicopters at bay. A pen laser would work better.
Also, Fallacy, you're still a fucking douche, what do you care anyway, where's you million man army now bitch?
Legalpad, I've been thinking of the incubators ever since this woman was murdered.
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Can I comment even though I don't have a tinfoil hat? What a bunch of wackadoodles here. Wow. I think your comments just lowered everone's IQ.
Can't tell if you're wingnuts or Iranian government. Same thing, I guess.
Thanks, JasonSTL, you are truly a man with three letters after his name.
Anyway, those Basiji dude's came to the US one time. Yeah, it was back in 1970 at Kent State.
I agree with Jason. The commenters seemed to go from something could have possibly happened to the fact that they might have been able to think of it as a possibility is ironclad evidence that it happened. Just more "black helicopter nuts" or bloggers from the government if Iran.
To they person who finds it unbelievable that the LA Times could put together an article without an acredited reporter on the ground or that people could take pictures of a news event with their phones and broadcast them, you are lost in the past. In today's world there are things like phones that can take pictures and on which you can talk to other people. Amazing isn't it. There is also this amazing thing called the internet, there are tweets.
I figure the mullahs in Qom and Terhan are still stuck in the 600s but I am amazed to find that seemingly the government of Iran is stuck there also.
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[Answer was: bla bla bla]
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subject: H.R. 6635, H.R. 6636, H.R. 6637
- - -Under what is called the “Precautionary Principle”, many countries around the world have placed moratoriums on the sale of GMO products and some have banned these products. However, without any serious testing, the United States government has not only allowed GMO ingredients in our food supply, but the FDA has actually tried to forbid companies from truthfully advertising “GMO Free” products. As my Congressperson, I want you to take a lead in reversing this trend. The Precautionary Principle, in essence, hold agencies and countries to the standard that is something has not been shown to be safe, it cannot be used, grown, offered or sold.
Genetically Modified Organisms do not meet the Precautionary Principle because they are administratively, not scientifically, deemed to be equivalent to unmodified organisms while excellent science substantiates that they pose special high level dangers for consumers, farmers and the environment. Disturbingly, these dangers are not temporary since, once the novel DNA, the antibiotic resistant DNA and the promoter virus are introduced into the DNA of the consumer, or of other organisms in the environment, the consequences are totally unpredictable and have been shown to be highly dangerous. Once loosed, however, the novel DNA cannot be called back, like the genie in the bottle.
Congressman Dennis Kuchinch has introduced three important bills to comprehensively regulate GMO products since they are virtually unregulated now. These bills are:
• H.R. 6636, The Genetically Engineered Food Right To Know Act, which would require mandatory labeling of all foods that contain or are produced with GM material. No such labeling is permitted at this time in the US.
• H.R. 6635, The Genetically Engineered Safety Act, which would require that GE foods follow a food safety review process to prevent contamination of food supplies by pharmaceutical and industrial crops. This Act would also require that the FDA screen all GE foods to ensure they are safe for human consumption. No such safety review is permitted at this time in the US.
• H.R. 6637, The Genetically Engineered Technology Farmer Protection Act, places liability from the impacts of GM crops on the biotechnology companies that created the GMOs, and protects farmers from lawsuits by biotechnology companies. No such liability exists at this time for pharmaceutical plants and animals once approval is granted by the acting agencies for the organism and the same is true for non drug modifications as well.
These flaws in the regulatory structure are of great concern to me and I believe that they should be deep concerns of yours as well since more than 80% of all food consumed in the US today contains GMO food or ingredients. Lethal allergies, auto immune disease (including diabetes in children), birth defects and sterility rates are rising and can be, in large measure, laid squarely at the door of a dangerous food supply, including GMOs in most of what we eat.
I urge you to become a co-sponsor of these bills or to introduce sister legislation in the Senate in order to protect us from the currently unknown potential threats of GMO products. This is a very important matter to me and I am among the over 80% of the public that a recent NY Times / CBS poll indicated wants mandatory GMO labeling.
As a concerned citizen, I will be watching your active stance on these bills and look forward to sharing the news of your co-sponsorship and support for these measures with other constituents in your district.- - -
Thank you
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Can I comment even though I don't have a tinfoil hat? What a bunch of wackadoodles here. Wow. I think your comments just lowered everone's IQ.
Can't tell if you're wingnuts or Iranian government. Same thing, I guess." - They speak Farsi in Iran, why would the Iranian government be commenting on RawStory? Now thats some black helicopter talk right there. There's nothing Alex Jonesish about recognizing propaganda when you see it. When did you create your account, yesterday?
"I agree with Jason. The commenters seemed to go from something could have possibly happened to the fact that they might have been able to think of it as a possibility is ironclad evidence that it happened." - Great job Angela, but what the hell are you talking about. Can you fresh account types be more specific? I'll bet you never comment again.
"In today's world there are things like phones that can take pictures and on which you can talk to other people. " - Yeah, we can call the morgue in Tehran and simply ask about that $3000 bullet fee that the Wall Street Journal is saying they charge the families of dead protesters that were shot by unknown assailants. Sure.
"inside job 1000%" - Hey, nothing like typing 'inside job' 10,000 times to discredit other peoples comments, eh? That shit is old, try something new, this has nothing to do with 9/11 or HRthis or HRthat.
co0se namuset