A New Year for the West, a Military State for Iran
Antonin Alexander | 01.01.2010 15:32 | Repression | Social Struggles | World
While news media coverage has thus far focused almost solely on arrests in Tehran, the rest of the country is being ignored. While foreign news media are extremely limited and observed closely observed by VEVAK patrols, the news is beginning to leak.
Already in Shiraz, Mashad, Kashan, and even in Qom hundreds of arrests have been made. Seminaries have been shut down as seminary students protesting the transition from a democratic theocracy into a secular military state under Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guards.
Photos being taken of executions and beatings outside of Tehran are incredibly difficult to come by as security forces have been beating reporters and confiscating video cameras and mobile phone service is erratic.
The only completely reliable Internet access is in the deep north of the country near the Caspian Sea.
Meanwhile there are indications that France, Germany, the UK, China, Russia, and the United States are preparing to lay aside their hostilities as long as the theocratic regime is willing to keep public order and bring charges against the abuses in Iranian prisons.
Hossein Shariatmadari, managing editor of Kayhan Daily and right hand man of the Supreme Leader, who I spoke with earlier in the day, told me without any qualms whatsoever that Iran will not make any concessions to the West and that the future lies towards a united Eurasian Union led by Russia, China, Iran, and India.
Day after day it is getting worse. The rich youth long for "democracy" and the freedom to live like Americansin the ru while the poor and downtrodden in the rural areas long for fair wages and compensation and the right not to be exploited by the new aristocracy.
In Kurdistan Province Revolutionary Guards helicopters have been firing shells against unarmed civilians and raiding Kurdish villages, setting homes on fire, while in Khuzestan Province, mainly in Ahvaz and Abadan there have been mass detentions of youth and oil workers.
Oil workers in Khuzestan who have threatened to go on strike have had their families beaten and tortured, while the regime has been hiring foreign oil workers from Persian Gulf States and Venezuela. British sources based near Khorramshahr report that Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been edging closer into Iraqi territory with the support of Shi'ite militias based out of Najaf.
The Western media may be ignoring this right at this moment, but the world cannot ignore what is happening. And it is happening right now.
Photos being taken of executions and beatings outside of Tehran are incredibly difficult to come by as security forces have been beating reporters and confiscating video cameras and mobile phone service is erratic.
The only completely reliable Internet access is in the deep north of the country near the Caspian Sea.
Meanwhile there are indications that France, Germany, the UK, China, Russia, and the United States are preparing to lay aside their hostilities as long as the theocratic regime is willing to keep public order and bring charges against the abuses in Iranian prisons.
Hossein Shariatmadari, managing editor of Kayhan Daily and right hand man of the Supreme Leader, who I spoke with earlier in the day, told me without any qualms whatsoever that Iran will not make any concessions to the West and that the future lies towards a united Eurasian Union led by Russia, China, Iran, and India.
Day after day it is getting worse. The rich youth long for "democracy" and the freedom to live like Americansin the ru while the poor and downtrodden in the rural areas long for fair wages and compensation and the right not to be exploited by the new aristocracy.
In Kurdistan Province Revolutionary Guards helicopters have been firing shells against unarmed civilians and raiding Kurdish villages, setting homes on fire, while in Khuzestan Province, mainly in Ahvaz and Abadan there have been mass detentions of youth and oil workers.
Oil workers in Khuzestan who have threatened to go on strike have had their families beaten and tortured, while the regime has been hiring foreign oil workers from Persian Gulf States and Venezuela. British sources based near Khorramshahr report that Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been edging closer into Iraqi territory with the support of Shi'ite militias based out of Najaf.
The Western media may be ignoring this right at this moment, but the world cannot ignore what is happening. And it is happening right now.
Antonin Alexander
Comments
Display the following comment