news20090621BRT

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]
June 21
Benazir Bhutto
Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto, born this day in 1953, was the daughter of former president and prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and became in 1988 the first woman leader of a Muslim country in modern history.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
June 21
1945: Japanese defenses destroyed on Okinawa
Japanese resistance on Okinawa was finally crushed this day in 1945, less than three months after U.S. troops had landed there—their last stepping-stone before the assault on Japan's main islands in World War II.

1982: John Hinckley, Jr., was ruled to be innocent by reason of insanity in the shooting of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

1963: Paul VI was elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

1919: Italian American architect Paolo Soleri was born in Turin, Italy.

1905: Jean-Paul Sartre, a French novelist, playwright, and exponent of existentialism who was awarded but declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964, was born.

1870: The Tianjin Massacre—a violent outbreak of Chinese xenophobic sentiment toward Westerners—erupted.

1834: Cyrus McCormick received a patent for his 1831 invention of a reaper.

1813: The Battle of Vitoria was fought during the Peninsular War, breaking Napoleon's power in Spain.


[Today's Word] from [Dr. Kazuo Iwata]
June 21
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy neccessary.
Reinhold Niebuhr (born this day in 1892)
（人間の正義に対する能力がデモクラシーを可能にする。
しかし人間の不正に対する傾向がデモクラシーを必要にする。）
(Ningen-no seigi-ni-taisuru nouryoku-ga demokurashi-wo kanou-ni-suru.
Shikashi ningen-no fusei-ni-taisuru keikou-ga demokurashi-wo hituyou-ni-suru)

news20090621JT

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, June 21, 2009
200 protest outside Iranian Embassy
（２００人が抗議 イラン大使館近辺で）
By ANTONI SLODKOWSKI
Staff writer

About 200 people attended a rally Saturday near the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo to protest the alleged rigging of the Iranian presidential election.

The gathering consisted mostly of Iranian residents of Japan, including an informal group of Iranian university students, researchers, business owners and company workers.

Many sported green hair bands and T-shirts — the official color of the main opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

We demand "the quick investigation of the suspected election fraud," a protester representing the rally declared as he read a statement in front of the embassy.

The statement also demanded that the military authorities responsible for the recent shootings and vandalism be prosecuted and that those who were illegally arrested be released.

Initially, the protesters wanted to stage a rally in front of the embassy but were told by police that they could only march from a nearby bridge to the embassy in groups of five.

After the protest, Mir, 40, an Iranian faculty member of a university in Tokyo, said that he suspects the outcome of the presidential election may have been fraudulent.

"We think that massive protests in Iran point at the fact that most people voted for Mousavi," he said, holding his 1-year-old daughter's hand with a green ribbon wrapped around her wrist.

Many of the protesters were wearing masks and sunglasses to prevent authorities from identifying them.

"Ahmadinejad, you are a bunch of dust, you're nothing, you're not Iranian," the protesters shouted out during the peaceful rally.

"We want freedom, we want democracy in my country," said a 40-year-old Iranian living in Tokyo who goes by the nickname Morteeza.

He was holding a picture of a man shot during recent protests staged in Tehran.

"They kill people, kill too many people. Too many people go to jail in Iran," he said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, June 21, 2009

U.S. destroyer may intercept N. Korean ship
（米イージス艦 北朝鮮船舶を追跡中）

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The U.S. Navy has ordered an Aegis destroyer to go to China to intercept and possibly inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying parts and components that could be used in missiles or nuclear devices, U.S. media reported Friday.

Fox television said the USS John S. McCain, a destroyer forward-deployed to Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, is on its way to engage a North Korean ship named the Kang Nam.

Although the navy has not yet issued an order to intercept the Kang Nam, it might try to inspect it after it leaves China, the U.S. media reports said.

The U.S. has not yet "demanded a request for an inspection (to the North Korean side) and is not sure if we would make one," a U.S. military source was quoted as saying.

The navy has been monitoring the Kang Nam under new U.N. sanctions that bar Pyongyang from exporting items related to missiles or nuclear technology.

Since the United States cannot conduct an inspection on the high seas without North Korea's consent, the navy might considering monitoring the ship until it stops to refuel and ask a local government to conduct the inspection.

The Kang Nam left North Korea on Wednesday and is heading toward Singapore.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Dividends seen taking first plunge since '02
（配当 ２００９年以来初の大幅減少の恐れ）

(Kyodo News) Dividend payments are expected to drop for the first time in seven years, reflecting the fallout from the global economic and financial crisis, an economic think tank said Saturday.

Dividend payments for about 2,700 listed firms are projected to reach a total of 6.09 trillion for fiscal 2008 ended March 31, down 9.0 percent from fiscal 2007, according to the Financial & Economic Research Center of Nomura Securities Co.

Total dividends for the year through next March are also likely to shrink, the think tank said.

The plunge in dividends, however, is much smaller than the drop in profits, indicating firms are keen to mollify shareholders despite the downturn.

A number of listed firms have not revealed their fiscal 2009 forecasts for stock dividends as the outlook for the economy remains murky.

Of listed firms holding or planning to hold shareholders' meetings in June, 1,007, or 37.7 percent, will reduce or skip dividends for fiscal 2008, nearly triple the 13.8 percent who did so in fiscal 2007.

For the first half, many companies decided to pay interim dividends roughly equal to what they paid out the previous year, but that trend has apparently changed.

Toshiba Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., both mired in huge net losses, will skip yearend dividends, while Toyota Motor Corp. plans to slash them in the first cutback since the automaker went public, except in fiscal 1994 when a special factor forced it to make a dividend cut.

In contrast, only 15.0 percent of listed companies that intend to hold general shareholders' meetings plan to increase or resume dividends in fiscal 2008, down from 36.3 percent the previous year.

Executive compensation is expected to be on the agenda of many meetings as well.

With dividends down and jobs scarce, managers may be asked to "share the burden," said Kengo Nishiyama, a strategist at Nomura.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Computer makers ramp up attempts to plug data leaks
（コンピュータ企業 データ漏洩防止技術の取組を強化）

(Kyodo News) Japanese electronics makers are stepping up efforts to plug information leaks in computers on rising demand from financial institutions and other clients concerned about losing customer data.

A number of models for corporate use are scheduled for release this fall that will allow data to be erased in computer terminals by remote control. Electronics makers are also expanding services to let firms centrally control information stored in computers.

Fujitsu Ltd. is preparing for the autumn release of a notebook computer featuring data elimination by remote control. The computer will be equipped with a PHS-based phone function that can receive commands to erase data, the company said.

Data may be erased even when the notebook is turned off and data, once erased, cannot be reinstated.

Much of the data loss at corporations and financial institutions has occurred due to theft and the loss of computers.

In April, Sony Life Insurance Co. said a computer containing data on around 140,000 customers had gone missing.

In 2005, after urging from the Financial Services Agency for data checks, financial institutions throughout Japan spotted a combined 8.63 million sets of customers data lost. Some of the data is known to have been released on the Internet as a result uses of file-sharing software.

Many manufacturers and financial companies now restrict the use of notebook computers outside their offices.

If concerns about data loss are fully addressed, an rising number of workers may find themselves allowed to work at home instead of commute.

"We would like to respond to requests from clients who want to carry with them the PCs (used in the office) when they are on a business trip," a Fujitsu official said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Tyrannosaurus ancestor's teeth found in Hyogo
（ティラノサウルスの祖先の歯 兵庫県で発見）

KOBE (Kyodo) The fossilized teeth of a carnivorous dinosaur believed be an ancestor of the greatest of its kind, the tyrannosaurus, have been found in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, museum officials said Saturday.

The dinosaur, whose teeth were exhumed from strata dating back to between 140 million-136 million years ago, may have been about 5 meters long, according to the Museum of Nature and Human Activities in the prefecture.

The teeth are much larger than those of other 1- to 3-meter-long dinosaurs found in similarly old strata in Japan and worldwide, the museum said.

Since the era of the strata is tens of millions of years earlier than the age of the over 10-meter-long tyrannosaurus, the creature was in the course of evolving, it added.

"If the dinosaur belongs to the same era as the strata, the tyrannosaurus could have started to grow larger much earlier than thought," said curator Haruo Saegusa.

news20090621LAT

[Today's Newspaper] from [Los Angeles Times]
　
[World News]
Tehran clashes grow more violent
Crowds of protesters are smaller but more intense, throwing rocks and shouting anti-government slogans. Security forces bring calm after using batons and tear gas. Witnesses report seeing bodies.
By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim
June 21, 2009

Reporting from Tehran -- Using batons, tear gas and water cannons, security forces and pro-government militias imposed a tense, tentative calm on Tehran late Saturday after a chaotic day of clashes with stone-throwing protesters who defied warnings to stay off the streets.

Rocks and debris filled roadways, and black smoke rose above neighborhoods filled with the haze of tear gas, according to witness accounts. Neither on the streets, where protesters called for another march today, nor in the country's political establishment were there many signs that the turbulence over Iran's disputed presidential election would end soon.

Former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a moderate who lost to hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election, would not relent. He delivered a lengthy letter detailing his complaints of irregularities to the Guardian Council, the constitutional watchdog assigned to examine the vote.

No firm casualty figures emerged from Saturday's violence. Reports and videos on the Internet suggested that some security forces had opened fire on demonstrators, and witness accounts said bodies were seen in several places. However, none could be verified. There were also unverified reports by witnesses and international monitors of clashes in the cities of Shiraz, Esfahan and Tabriz.

State television reported that three people were injured by an "armed terrorist" who tried to enter the shrine of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "The terrorist was killed," the news announcer said.

President Obama, who has been treading carefully lest opposition figures be painted as American dupes, issued a statement calling on Iran to respect the rights of its citizens.

"The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching," he said in the statement. "We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."

A series of peaceful rallies last week captured the imagination of the West but angered Iranian authorities, who have described them as part of a Western plot to foment a "velvet revolution."

On Friday, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded that the protesters stop or risk violent reprisal. They began assembling Saturday anyway, and clashes broke out when cordons of police officers and militiamen attempted to block them, beating demonstrators and pushing them into waiting vans.

At one point, riot police fired into the air. They had attracted the ire of a crowd that moved toward them after they roughed up a young woman. Protesters formed unruly rock-throwing mobs that fought running battles with militiamen in camouflage uniforms, witnesses said.

"They clubbed me three times," said one man, who described himself as a government employee. "I enjoy it."

The number of demonstrators was down considerably from previous rallies, which drew tens or hundreds of thousands. And the shift from quiet marches to raucous street battles punctuated by radical anti-government slogans may alienate many Iranians.

But even as their neighborhoods were hit by stone-throwing clashes, residents could be seen providing shelter to protesters, allowing strangers into their homes to escape militiamen. Residents brought out first-aid kits to help dress the wounds of those bloodied in the street fighting.

"Women break up the rocks and hand them to the men," a gray-haired man told a contingent of young people fighting the militiamen.

During one clash southwest of Enghelab (Revolution) Square, an elderly man ambled out of his two-story building, sat on a stool and offered glasses of orange juice to young people running away from the riot police.

"I am sorry . . . I cannot be with you," he told them. "At least I can quench your thirst. You are my children."

Baton strikes

One man in his 30s who gave his name as Mojtaba said he had been walking toward the march when a Basiji militiaman ordered him to turn back. Then the militiaman struck the unemployed translator with a baton.

"A couple of strokes from a baton aren't going to stop me," Mojtaba said. "We've been at it for only a week. It will take a year."

Many said they were enraged by Khamenei's decision to side openly with Ahmadinejad in the Friday prayer sermon, describing the president's views as closer to his own.

"This was a mistake," said an Iranian soldier away from the scene of the clashes. "Now all the anger directed against Ahmadinejad will go against the leader."

By nightfall, witnesses said, the unrest stretched from the side streets along Enghelab Street from Azadi (Freedom) Street to Vali Asr Street, a miles-long corridor that is among the city's most important east-west thoroughfares. There were reports that disturbances had also broken out in other parts of the city, especially in key squares in north Tehran, but they could not be confirmed.
Large contingents of police officers and militiamen, some clutching rubber hoses, lined the protest route. Pro-government Ansar-e Hezbollah militiamen roared through Enghelab Street on motorcycles with their batons in the air, chanting, "God praise Hezbollah!" Militiamen could be seen dragging young men away, clubbing them if they resisted.

Tehran's deputy police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, announced that "as of today, no form of illegal gathering to protest against the election results should take place," according to state television. He also warned that anyone who directed protesters to gather in the streets could be arrested.

At least 400 police officers have been injured, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

"I think that we should restore the law more vigorously," said Brig. Gen. Ahmad Moqqadam, a ranking police official, according to state television. "People are tired. They want to run their business. People want to come to the streets, to travel, to fly somewhere, to go to hospital, but they are stuck in traffic for hours and their rights are denied."

State television Saturday played a documentary showing alleged rioters confessing that they were taking orders from the Mujahedin Khalq organization, a Paris-based opposition group. Authorities have cracked down hard on anyone associated with the outlawed group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States.

Crack in support

At least one crack appeared in Mousavi's support. The Combatant Clergy Assn., a reformist clerical group, withdrew its endorsement of Saturday's planned march before it began.

Analysts noted that a major backer of Mousavi, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had quieted down, especially after Khamenei publicly chastised his rival Ahmadinejad for accusing him of corruption. But he may not have decided to abandon the budding opposition movement yet.

"Rafsanjani has shown in the past to be an extremely astute and clever politician," said Mohsen M. Milani, an Iran expert who chairs the department of government and international affairs at the University of South Florida. "He is waiting, I think, to see where is the center of gravity in these unfolding events, and then he will decide where to go."

Khamenei praised Mousavi in his Friday sermon, a subtle invitation to come quietly back into the fold.

However, news agencies reported that Mousavi showed up at a location near the protest Saturday and told supporters to stage a nationwide strike if he was arrested.

Among other things, his letter to the Guardian Council alleges that mobile voting centers had little oversight. Many polling centers closed earlier than expected, forcing people to go home without casting their ballots, and others lacked monitors from the Mousavi camp.

He alleges that the ballot boxes were handed over to military commanders, away from the eyes of any monitors.

Even though Khamenei declared the election over and Ahmadinejad the winner, the Guardian Council has said that it is ready to recount 10% of the ballots randomly in the presence of the three defeated candidates.

Still, the lines have been drawn. By siding with Ahmadinejad, Khamenei made it clear that any more agitation is a direct challenge to him and the security forces he commands.

Mousavi "and the entire opposition now have to ultimately decide whether they are willing to confront the security forces or not," Milani said. "Because Khamenei has made up his mind."

news20090621NYT1

[Today's Newspaper] from [The New York Times]

[Middle East]
Tehran Tense in the Wake of Violent Clashes
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: June 21, 2009

TEHRAN — Hours after police and militia forces used guns, truncheons, tear gas and water cannons to beat back thousands of demonstrators, a tense quiet set over this city Sunday as amateur video continued to emerge of the violent clashes that filled the streets the day before.

It was unclear how the confrontation would play out now that the government has abandoned its restraint and large numbers of protestors have demonstrated their willingness to risk injury and even death as they continue to dispute the results of Iran’s presidential election nine days ago.

There was uncertainty as well about how many deaths resulted from Saturday’s violence. Witnesses and human rights groups reported at least several deaths. Iranian state radio reported that there were 19 deaths, and Iran state television reported 13.

There was no sign on the streets Sunday morning of the heavy security forces from the night before, but there were reports that protestors planned to demonstrate again later in the day, beginning at about 5 p.m., giving both sides time to regroup, or reconsider.

In Washington on Saturday, President Obama called the government’s reaction “violent and unjust,” and, quoting Martin Luther King Jr., warned again that the world was watching what happened in Tehran.

The Iranian government continued its efforts to block all coverage of events here, but information began to trickle out from eyewitnesses and on social networking sites. The most vivid image to emerge was contained in a video posted on several Web sites that showed a young woman with her face covered in blood. Text posted with the video said she had been shot. It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the video.

A group called The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported on its Web site that injured protestors were being arrested as they sought medical treatment at hospitals. The group said that doctors had been ordered to report protest-related injuries to the authorities.

Since the crisis broke open with massive streets protests the last several days, the government has been arresting reformers, intellectuals and nearly anyone who promoted reform ideas or challenged the leadership’s version of events.

On Sunday, two Web sites reported that the government had arrested several members of the family of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who heads two influential councils in Iran. Mr. Rafsanjani, one of the fathers of the revolution, has been locked in a power struggle with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and worked closely with the reform movement during the presidential election. The posting on the Web sites, one associated with the reform movement and another with Mr. Rafsanjani’s family, could not be independently verified, but if true the arrests would represent an escalation of the government’s crackdown against the protest movement.

One of the Web sites said those arrested included Mr. Rafsanjani’s daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, and her daughter, and that they were accused of provoking people.

The relative calm Sunday morning followed a day of violent clashes unfolded on a day of extraordinary tension across Iran. The opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, appeared at a demonstration in southern Tehran and called for a general strike if he were to be arrested. “I am ready for martyrdom,” he told supporters.

Mr. Moussavi again called for nullifying the election’s results, and opposition protesters swore to continue pressing their claims of a stolen election against Iran’s embattled and increasingly impatient clerical leadership in Iran’s worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. On Friday, Ayatollah Khamenei, reaffirmed the election results as valid and said there would be “bloodshed” if street protests continued.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on Iranian television, Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki said that officials were examining the charge of voting fraud and expected to issue their findings by the end of the week. But like Ayatollah Khamenei, Mr. Mottaki appeared to have already judged the vote as clean and fair. He said the "possibility of organized and comprehensive disruption and irregularities in the election , is almost close to zero," in remarks translated by Iran’s English-language Press TV.

Iran’s divisions played out on the streets. Regular security forces stood back and urged protesters to go home to avoid bloodshed, while the feared pro-government militia, the Basij, beat protesters with clubs and, witnesses said, electric prods.

In some places, the protesters pushed back, rushing the militia in teams of hundreds: At least three Basijis were pitched from their motorcycles, which were then set on fire. The protesters included many women, some of whom berated as “cowards” men who fled the Basijis. There appeared to be tens of thousands of protesters in Tehran, far fewer than the mass demonstrations early last week, most likely because of intimidation.

The street violence appeared to grow more intense as night fell, and there were unconfirmed reports of multiple deaths. A BBC journalist at Enghelab (Revolution) Square reported seeing one person shot by the security forces. “If they open fire on people and if there is bloodshed, people will get angrier,” said a protester, Ali, 40. “They are out of their minds if they think with bloodshed they can crush the movement.”

Separately, state-run media reported that three people were wounded Saturday when a suicide bomber attacked at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the southern part of the city, several miles from the scheduled protests. The report of the blast could not be independently confirmed.

Mr. Obama’s statement was his strongest to date on the post-election turmoil in Iran. Saying that “each and every innocent life” lost would be mourned, he added: “Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

“Martin Luther King once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people’s belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.”

Journalists were banned from leaving their offices to report on the protests. A reporter from an American news organization said she had been called by a member of the Basij militia warning her not to go to the venue for the Saturday rally because the situation would be dangerous and there could be fatalities.

Witnesses said that Mohammad Ghoochani, a prominent journalist and editor in chief of several reformist publications that had been shut down, was arrested Saturday by the authorities. There were no further details of his condition or location.

The authorities were also reported on Saturday to have renewed an offer of a partial recount of the ballots in the disputed election — an offer that the opposition has previously rejected. A letter from Mr. Moussavi published on one of his Web sites late Saturday repeated his demand for the election to be annulled.

“The Iranian nation will not believe this unjust and illegal” act, he said in the letter, which was addressed to the powerful Guardian Council, a panel of clerics which oversees and certifies election results. Making his case for electoral fraud, he charged that thousands of his representatives had been expelled from polling stations and some mobile polling stations had ballot boxes filled with fake ballots.

Regional analysts said that, by calling for an end to the rallies and promising the use of force, Ayatollah Khamenei had inserted himself directly into the confrontation, invoking his own prestige and that of Iran’s clerical leaders. But his speech also laid the groundwork to suppress the opposition movement with a harder hand, characterizing any further protests as being against the Islamic republic itself.

Iran’s National Security Council reinforced Ayatollah Khamenei’s warning on Saturday, state media reported, telling Mr. Moussavi to “refrain from provoking illegal rallies.”

The demand came in a letter from the head of the council after a formal complaint by Mr. Moussavi that law enforcement agencies had failed to protect protesters.

“It is your duty not to incite and invite the public to illegal gatherings; otherwise, you will be responsible for its consequences,” the letter said, according to state media.

Amateur video posted to the Web since Saturday afternoon showed scenes of chaos and gunfire, some of it as vividly violent as in the clashes on Monday that left at least seven people dead. One video posted on the BBC Farsi service showed streets on fire and a large crowd fleeing amid several rounds of semiautomatic gunfire. A photo showed the riot police repelling demonstrators with a hand-held water cannon.

The Basij militia completely blocked off Enghelab Square, one major gathering ground for the protesters. They are less accountable than regular security forces and, many witnesses said, were far more violent on Saturday.

“Please go home,” one regular officer told protesters. “We are scared of the Basijis, too.”

CONTINUED ON news20090621NYT2

news20090621NYT2

[Today's Newspaper] from [The New York Times]

[Middle East]
Tehran Tense in the Wake of Violent Clashes
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: June 21, 2009

CONTINUED FROM news20090621NYT1

One woman who lives off Vali Asr Square, near where the protests took place, said Basijis beat and kicked anyone outside, shouting at them to return to their houses.

“The streets near our house were full of Basijis wearing helmets and holding batons,” she said.

The government warned that it would step up the pressure on the opposition from its regular security forces if it continued to stage demonstrations.

“We acted with leniency, but I think from today on, we should resume law and confront more seriously,” Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam said on state television. “The events have become exhausting, bothersome and intolerable. I want them to take the police cautions seriously because we will definitely show a serious confrontation against those who violate rules.”

In a measure of the scale of the opposition’s complaints, one losing candidate in the June 12 election, Mohsen Rezai, a conservative former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, claimed to have won between 3.5 million and 7 million votes compared with the 680,000 accorded to him in the first announcement of results a week ago, state-run Press TV reported Saturday.

The authorities had also invited the three opposition candidates to attend a meeting on Saturday with the 12-member Guardian Council, the panel of clerics which oversees and certifies election results. But only one candidate — Mr. Rezai — attended, Press TV said.

news20090621WP1

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

[Middle East > Iran]
Police Unleash Force On Rally in Tehran
Obama, in Boldest Terms Yet, Presses Iran to Halt Violence Against Own People
By Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 21, 2009

TEHRAN, June 20 -- Fiery chaos broke out in downtown Tehran on Saturday as security forces blocked streets and used tear gas, water cannons and batons to break up a demonstration against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Security forces were seen firing warning shots into the air, but there were also unconfirmed reports that several people were hit by gunfire.

President Obama, in his strongest comments to date on a political standoff that has paralyzed Iran for a week, urged the Iranian government "to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people."

Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who asserts that he was cheated of victory in the June 12 election, said his supporters in the streets were "facing unrighteous liars."

Mousavi, in a statement posted on his campaign Web site, seemed to seek to avoid a direct confrontation with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who warned protesters Friday of potential "bloodshed" if they continued mass street demonstrations. Mousavi said the way to restore calm on the streets was for the government to "not only allow for peaceful protests, but to encourage them."

Amid severe restrictions on news media reporting of the protests and conflicting accounts coming out of Tehran on Saturday, some reports suggested Mousavi was taking a more confrontational stance. The Reuters news agency reported him as saying he was "ready for martyrdom" and vowing to continue his protest movement despite Khamenei's warning. But with foreign journalists prohibited from leaving their offices to witness the protests, those comments could not be independently verified.

The struggle on the streets of Iran continued to reverberate around the world Saturday as tens of thousands of Iranian exiles from across Europe and beyond gathered in a Paris suburb to cheer on the demonstrators in Tehran and demand an end to Iran's religion-based political system.

"Regarding the presidential elections, I want to recall that we fully agree with annulling the results of the election masquerade, which we had called on people to boycott from the very beginning," Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which organized the event, said in a 90-minute speech interrupted by banner-waving supporters shouting, "Down with the dictators."

In Tehran, the street demonstrations were smaller than the massive protests that have jammed the capital for nearly a week. Khamenei's warning and a huge array of police on foot and motorcycles, as well as the pro-government Basij militia, clearly deterred some protesters. Nonetheless, thousands took to the streets chanting slogans such as "Death to the dictator" and "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") before police fired tear gas and water cannons to break up the gathering. News services estimated the crowd at about 3,000.

The number of casualties from running street clashes between security forces and protesters was not immediately clear. But one witness said he saw three bodies being loaded into vans.

Residents of the area described firefights after protesters grabbed weapons from security forces. They also said a mosque was set on fire by people they described as hooligans. Other witnesses said they saw people being shot.

The Associated Press reported that 50 to 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and militiamen and taken to a hospital in central Tehran. Demonstrators could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes, the AP said.

Iran's official Press TV, an English-language version of state television, reported "sporadic clashes . . . between security forces and the protesters." The acting police chief, Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan, said that the protests were illegal and that police would deal with them "firmly and with determination."

In a separate development, state-run news media reported that a suicide bomber blew himself up near a shrine to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. They said the blast killed the bomber and injured three people.

Riot police on motorcycles aimed to head off marchers as Shiite Muslim clerics who had joined the protesters tried to lead them to Revolution Square, witnesses said.

Women clad in chadors pleaded with security forces to stop fighting the people, witnesses said. Some of the women chanted, "Help us, security force," as the police pushed protesters back.

Security forces used the Labor Ministry as a base from which they rode the motorcycles toward the crowds, and police blocked off several main roads leading to Azadi Street, where the protesters had planned to gather.

As water cannons blasted the Mousavi supporters on Azadi Street, fighting erupted in nearby alleys, witnesses said. Dumpsters were set on fire and used as barricades between youths and security forces, who pelted one another with stones.

In one alley, a middle-aged man held up a police baton that he said he had taken from security forces. Farther down the same road, a member of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, dressed in black overalls and a helmet, fired several rounds into the air with an assault rifle, witnesses said.

Large plumes of smoke filled the sky as the sun was setting. Youths said a gasoline station had been set ablaze.

In an interview on state television, a top police official, Brig. Gen. Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, said his men were preventing Mousavi supporters from gathering in central Tehran. "People are tired," he said. "They want to run their business. People want to come to the streets, to travel, to fly somewhere, to go to hospital, but they are stuck in traffic for hours and their rights are denied. This process is boring, disturbing and unbearable."

The confrontations came a day after Khamenei, Iran's ultimate political and religious authority, expressed his full support for the reelection of Ahmadinejad, rejecting allegations of vote fraud and declaring that foreign "enemies," including the United States, were behind the demonstrations.

By placing his seal of approval on the election's official results, Khamenei significantly raised the stakes for Iran's political opposition, which must now concede the election or be seen as challenging the supreme leader directly. So far, Mousavi and his supporters have questioned the election's validity but not the country's theocratic system of governance.

In a dramatic speech before thousands of worshipers at a Friday prayer service, Khamenei warned that the leaders of the protests will be held "directly responsible" for any bloodshed that results from continued demonstrations.

Ahmadinejad on Saturday publicly thanked Khamenei for effectively endorsing his reelection. In his first public statement since Khamenei's comments at Friday prayers, Ahmadinejad said: "As a small child and chosen server by the great Iranian nation, I feel I need to cordially thank you for the good decision . . . and making helpful comments and powerfully announcing the people's rightful stances on important issues of the day." In a message to Khamenei carried by several local news agencies, the president added: "You wave the flag of honor over the head of our nation. You stood against the oppressors."

Mousavi, meanwhile, renewed his call to cancel the results of the election in an open letter published on his campaign Web site. He said that "disgusting measures" to rig the election were planned months ahead of the balloting.

"All these counts of irregularities plus many others that were mentioned in previous letters . . . are reasons to cancel the election nationwide," Mousavi wrote in a letter to the Guardian Council, a group charged with certifying elections.

"The result was reversed," Mousavi wrote. He gave six detailed complaints to the council, which had invited him to present his case Saturday morning. He cited in particular the use of mobile ballot boxes, which are voting booths moved around on the backs of pickup trucks.

"The number of mobile ballot boxes was increased significantly, and there were no monitors present at those stations," Mousavi said. "Our representatives were not allowed to be present at the mobile ballot boxes during transportation. Considering the fact that there were 14,000 of those, that gave them the ability to carry out any violation of any sort.

"The ballot boxes were sealed before we could verify that they were not filled up before election day," he wrote.

Mousavi, whose whereabouts Saturday were not immediately known, complained of a large number of extra voting slips even though they quickly ran out in Tehran on election day.

"There were 45.2 million eligible voters, and 59.6 million voting slips with serial numbers were printed," he said. "A day before the elections, there were millions more printed without serial numbers. The fact that there were so many extra voting slips itself is questionable. There is no way we could have run out of voting slips so early into the elections."

news20090621WP2

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

[Middle East > Iran]
Cautious Response Reflects Obama's Long-Term Approach
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 21, 2009

All last week, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators surged through Tehran, President Obama resisted pressure to side with them against the Iranian government.

Yesterday, as murky images of clashes and bloodshed flashed on cable news reports, the president called on the Iranian government "to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people."

U.S. officials say Obama is intent on calibrating his comments to the mood of the hour. They say he is seeking to avoid having the demonstrators accused of being American stooges and is trying to preserve the possibility of negotiating directly with the Iranian government over its nuclear program, links to terrorism, Afghanistan and other issues.

The rest of Obama's three-paragraph statement yesterday, written in meetings with his senior advisers, was essentially a greatest-hits version of his comments during a week of turmoil in Iran. He repeated that the "world is watching," he again cited the "universal rights to assembly and free speech," and he once again quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in saying that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

There were only hints of what may come if the government's crackdown becomes especially bloody. Obama said: "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."

Obama has not yet said whether he thinks the election was stolen, but he alluded to that by noting the "Iranian people's belief" in the "truth" of King's saying in the later part of his statement.

Despite increasingly intense Republican criticism, and the passage of resolutions in the House and Senate on Friday that were tougher than the president's words, U.S. officials say they will stick to their current course. They say there is not much the United States can do to influence the situation -- except make it worse for the opposition -- but they have begun planning for the administration's response if the crackdown turns very violent.

"We have to watch every day to see what is happening, even while we anticipate several different possibilities and what to do in those circumstances," one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Within the administration, officials say, Obama's cautious stance has the support of key senior officials, with disagreements centered mostly on quibbles over a word choice.

Obama signaled earlier this year that he recognized the current ruling structure of Iran and hoped to seek a dialogue with officials close to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On Friday, Khamenei warned against further demonstrations against the election results.

Still, in a sign of possible Democratic nervousness that the president may be missing a historic moment, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) issued a statement yesterday saying that "the international community should condemn the use of harsh tactics against Iranians who are attempting to peacefully express their political beliefs. The outcome of the elections in Iran must reflect the will of the Iranian people."

And the National Iranian American Council, which supports engagement with Iran, last night praised Obama for not taking sides but called on him "to speak vociferously against the bloodshed taking place before our eyes."

The president's approach has generally been praised by foreign-policy experts, with one exception. On Tuesday, he told CNBC that the difference between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi "in terms of their actual positions may not be as great as has been advertised."

Daniel W. Drezner, professor of international politics at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said that "off-key note" was "probably right about a week ago, but the situation has changed when you had tens of thousands of people in streets" in support of Mousavi.

Drezner said that otherwise, "Obama has played it about right." He said yesterday's statement was "rather artful" in citing the government's obligations to its people.

"He's playing to multiple audiences. He's talking not only to the Iranians but also the Russians and the Chinese," two key partners in the effort to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions, Drezner said. "The more ambitious and, for lack of a better word, Bush-like his language is, the more it will upset the Russians and Chinese."

Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, agreed that Obama has struck the right balance. "Our Iranian-dissident contacts want a certain degree of moral support, but from a significant distance," he said. They believe anything more forceful "will be used to discredit them."

"Some people are saying 'bearing witness' is a passive stance, but I'm not sure what an active stance would be," Malinowski said. "What else could he do? The more the demands of the opposition become associated with the United States, the harder it will be for a spontaneous opposition movement in Iran to make progress."

Mohsen Milani, chairman of the Government and International Affairs Department at the University of South Florida, said yesterday's statement represented a careful evolution that allows Obama to keep open as many options as possible.

"Based on my knowledge of Iranian history, the United States should not interfere publicly," he said. "President Obama is on the right track. He has written a very powerful narrative without cornering himself."

news20090621SLT

[Today's Paper] from [Slate Magazine]

Obama to Iran: "The World Is Watching"
By Kara Hadge
Posted Sunday, June 21, 2009, at 6:17 AM ET
As anticipated, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tehran on Saturday in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who again called for the results of the recent Iranian election to be nullified. All the papers lead with word that the pro-government Basij militia used sticks, water cannons, and tear gas to keep people from leaving their homes. While all report rumors of casualties at the hands of Basijis, none can confirm the death toll, as foreign journalists are still forbidden from reporting in the streets of Iran's capital. The Guardian Council, which oversaw the election, has renewed their offer to recount 10 percent of the votes, but according to statements on his website, Mousavi will not accept those terms. At a demonstration, Mousavi instead told supporters, "I am ready for martyrdom," according to the New York Times (NYT) and Washington Post (WP), via Reuters.

In a separate incident, the WP and NYT report three people were wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a shrine to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, several miles from the site of the demonstration, according to state-run Iranian media. (The Los Angeles Times (LAT) instead notes two injuries and one fatality.) Outside Tehran, there were rumors of unrest in Shiraz, Esfahan, and Tabriz. Iranian exiles gathered in Paris called for an end to Iran's theocratic dictatorship, and about a thousand people turned out at a rally in Los Angeles, as well. President Obama has not yet directly addressed the election results themselves, but yesterday he issued a statement calling for the Iranian government to "stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people" and "to understand that the world is watching."

Despite journalists' orders not to leave their offices in Tehran, there are still a number of on-the-ground observations from the city, with several NYT articles expressing the most confidence in their facts. (The WP and LAT are quicker to note that many reports cannot be verified.) NYT op-ed columnist Roger Cohen emphasizes that the demonstrators, both men and women, were fighting back vigorously against the Basijis, as "[h]urled bricks sent phalanxes of police, some with automatic rifles, into retreat to the accompaniment of cheers." Cohen described seeking shelter from the tear gas himself with demonstrators gathered around makeshift fires, because the smoke was an antidote to the stinging effects of the gas. At the end of the day, clouds of smoke rose above the city, supposedly from a gas station that had been set on fire, the WP reports.

The perils of reporting in Tehran last week notwithstanding, "Ascertaining what the true Iran is has never been harder," writes the NYT's Robert F. Worth from Beirut in the Week in Review. Attending a pro-government demonstration in Tehran earlier this week, Worth was approached by a number of people who believed the election was fraudulent or did not support Ahmadinejad. He notes, though, that Iranians on both sides of the controversy believe themselves to be in the majority, making public opinion a matter of individual perception. Another Week in Review article warns against using Twitter as a trustworthy indicator of Iranian public opinion.

The WP and NYT front word that NYT reporter David Rohde escaped imprisonment after his kidnapping by the Taliban outside Kabul seven months ago. The NYT and other media outlets had kept quiet about the abduction out of fear for his safety. Rohde and a local Afghan reporter, kidnapped with him, escaped by climbing over the wall of the compound where they were being held.

The LAT's front-page centerpiece is a joint Times-ProPublica investigation revealing that a taxpayer-funded workers' compensation insurance program has failed to deliver to foreign workers (and their families) who have been injured or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of the tens of thousands of foreign civilian employees of the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan, mostly from poverty-stricken countries, were not made aware of the benefits to which they were entitled.

Closer to home, the WP fronts an in-depth profile of John Boyd, founder of the National Black Farmers Association. For the past eight and a half years, the Virginia farmer has been lobbying Congressional staffers on behalf of his fellow black farmers, whom he says are discriminated against in applications for government loans to operate their farms.

A NYT/CBS News poll shows that the majority of Americans favor a government-run health insurance plan. Eighty-five percent of respondents supported health care reform, but paradoxically, 77 percent were "somewhat satisfied" with their own health insurance plan. The WP's Dan Balz writes that the 10-year, $1 trillion price tag for universal health care leaves Obama with "a handful of big decisions" about cost and coverage that "probably will determine whether he succeeds where other presidents have failed."

Speaking of polling, for the first time, the 2010 census will count same-sex married couples, following the reversal of a 2008 decision by the Bush administration not to do so.

The NYT Style section may have found some of the cheapest concert tickets of the summer—if you're a well-bred teenager in Los Angeles, that is. The paper says that the latest L.A. trend has "kids in thrift-store threads churning out homespun indie music and flocking to shows often held in one another's backyards and living rooms" for $2 admission. Some are just having a little summer fun playing music before college; others have in-house recording studios built by their parents. One screenwriter said of supporting his 17-year-old's musical ambitions, "I don't want Hudson to wake up someday and say, 'What happened to that thing I dreamed about when I was a kid?'" Also in the Sunday Styles, one dad finds the reward for his long, "thankless" efforts at parenting: "a kid who'd figured out how to make herself happy." Happy Father's Day!