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6 Responses to “ Riz Khan – Iran’s disputed election ”

1. Roy G says:

   18 June, 2009 at 4:46 PM

   When this election dispute first broke on Monday, I was highly skeptical of it’s accuracy through the filter of U.S. media outlets.

   I would not put it past them, to show a mass rally in Tehran from some other time, and claim there were massive protests over the re-election of U.S. adversary Ahmadinejad. So I wanted to post a different account –
   Al Jazeera English

   Sure enough, it corroborates internal troubles for Iran. What I’ve been and am still dubious of, is why it is so big of a dispute if the Iranian president
   is still in the year 2009, subservient to the nation’s “supreme leader”
   (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei)

   Since he remains Iran’s religious dictator apparently, how much change can any new president bring about?
2. Raven says:

   18 June, 2009 at 9:40 PM

   Those of us who can remember the late 70s know that the citizens of Iran are no strangers to overthrowing a government they don’t like. Remember the Shah. They unceremoniously ran him out of the country in spite of the fact that we supported him. The US needs to stay out of it altogether. If Ahmadinejad was legitimately elected, then he is what the majority of the citizens want and it is not our place to tell them they can’t have it. If he was not legitimately elected, it is for the citizens of Iran to right this wrong. The funny thing about freedom is that it cannot be given to someone and expect them to fully appreciate it. It must be earned by those who want it in order for it to have meaning. We have far too many problems in this country to worry about what’s going on in Iran.
3. Jeff, U.S. says:

   19 June, 2009 at 1:14 PM

   Mr Khamenei’s address was a mixture of the profane and the declamatory. Like an onion the speech got sharper as the layers of his message were peeled away. The mass demonstrations in Tehran and elsewhere this week were declared illegal. The explicit threat to unleash the thugs and hardmen of the Basij militia was made and reiterated.

   While careful not to attack Mr Musavi, the sermon was a direct assault on his credibility. The two men have history. As president and prime minister the men, both members of Persia’s Azeri ethnic minority, fought a long power-struggle that Mr Mousavi eventually lost in the late 1980s.

   But it was a lengthy discourse on former president Hashemi Rafsanjani that sealed the faultlines of a battle for supremacy that is likely to dictate Iran’s future.
4. Roy G says:

   20 June, 2009 at 1:08 AM

   When you look at the Iranian governmental structure, it is like a balance-
   of-powers endeavor gone mad. Khamenei is the man-behind-the-curtains, Ahmadinejad the hood ornament it would seem.

   Like we just overthrew, with Cheney/Bush… ;^)

   It has only been in place since the Shah was (rightly) deposed in 1979. But
   I don’t see how it is sustainable long-term. Transparency is essential to legitimate democracy, and Iran seems to have neither right now. They are reportedly shutting down WWW and cell access, stifling reporters and rounding up dissidents.
5. admin says:

   21 June, 2009 at 1:29 AM

   Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading reformist candidate in Iran’s presidential election, speaks to Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview – length 2:49
6. admin says:

   24 June, 2009 at 12:47 AM

   
   

   Iranian demonstrators resorted Tuesday to more subtle ways of challenging the outcome of the presidential election. (June 23)
   - length 1:22