Reza Aslan explains why yesterday's events in Tehran were "extremely significant"

[Turborama]

Run time: 06:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuS9XozNGsI   Posted on YouTube: July 18, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: July 18, 2009 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 678

 
Short but good footage of how big yesterday's protests were and an interesting analysis from Reza that starts at 3:12.

[Turborama]

1. Reza Aslan's article about this in The Daily Beast

Former Iranian President Blasts Government

Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani spoke at Friday Prayer and delivered pointed criticism of the handling of the Iranian election and the arrest of protesters. Demonstrators took to the streets. Reza Aslan says the revolution may not be over.

In the end, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani did not disappoint. For a man who has made a career out of mediating from the middle and playing both sides, Rafsanjani delivered an unusually pointed criticism of the Iranian regime’s handling of the election crisis. He explicitly condemned the Guardian Council’s haphazard investigation into claims of election fraud and demanded the immediate release of all the protesters who had been arrested and detained by the Revolutionary Guard. “We do not need people in prison for (demonstrating),” Rafsanjani said. “Let’s allow them to return to their families.”

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the sermon came when Rafsanjani hinted that progress has been made in his attempts to come up with some kind of compromise with the regime over the election crisis, though he remained elusive about what that could possibly entail. “I have some suggestions,” he said, in an oblique reference to his work behind the scenes with Iran’s power brokers. “I have spoken to some members of the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts about them, too.”

It was this comment that sparked the most interesting of the chants and slogans that repeatedly interrupted Rafsanjani’s sermon: “People didn’t get killed to make concessions!” the overwhelmingly pro-Mousavi crowd shouted, an indication that the opposition may no longer be in the mood for a political compromise.

Indeed, the slogans and chants of the crowd inside Tehran University were so disruptive that at one point Rafsanjani shouted “Stop chanting! I can’t make out what you are saying. I am saying what you want to hear but I am saying it better than you (man az shoma behtar migam).”

Continues: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-17/former-iranian-president-blasts-government/






http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-17/former-iranian-president-blasts-government/

[Wednesdays]

2. K&R

:kick:

[TatonkaJames]

3. Looks like we are back channeling with Rafsanjani

Been a tactic of ours to have dialogue with leaders who can mount a coup in other lands. If he has the money to pay the right military generals, then we should see the outcome in due time.