Sunday, June 21, 2009

Solidarity forever: Iran Autoworkers join the opposition

Iranian Bus Workers Join the Resistance

Posted by Al Giordano - June 20, 2009 at 12:53 am

By Al Giordano

The Autobus Workers Union of Iran (Sendikaye Sherkat Vahed, in Farsi) has just made the following declaration (translated for The Field by Iraj Omidvar):

In recent days we have witnessed the passionate presence of millions of women and men, the old and the young, and ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, people who want their government to recognize their most basic right, the right to freely, independently, and transparently elect, a right that in most societies around the world is not only recognized officially but for whose protection no effort is neglected.

In the current situation, we witness threats, arrests, killings, and naked persecution, which threaten to grow in dimension and lead to the shedding of innocent people's blood thus bringing a rise in popular protests and not in their decline. 
Iranian society is facing a deep political and economic crisis. Million-strong protests, which have manifested themselves with a silence that is replete with meaning, have become a pattern that is growing in area and dimension, a growth that demands a response from any responsible person and organization. 
The Autobus Workers Union in an announcement issued before the elections declared, "in the absence of the freedom for political parties, our organization is naturally deprived of a social institution that can protect it."

"Workers of the Autobus Workers Union consider their social involvement and political activity to be the certain right of each member of society and furthermore believe that workers across Iran as long as they submit the platforms of presidential candidates and a practical guarantee about campaign slogans can choose to participate or not participate in elections."

The fact that the demands of the vast majority of Iranian society go far beyond those of unions is obvious to all, and in the previous years we have emphasized that until the principle of the freedom to organize and to elect is not materialized, any talk of social freedom and labor union rights will be a farce.

Given these facts, the Autobus Workers Union places itself alongside all those who are offering themselves in the struggle to build a free and independent civic society. The union condemns any kind of suppression and threats.

To recognize labor-union and social rights in Iran, the international labor organizations have declared the Fifth of Tir (June 26) the international day of support for imprisoned Iranian workers as well as for the institution of unions in Iran. We want that this day be viewed as more than a day for the demands of labor unions to make it a day for human rights in Iran and to ask all our fellow workers to struggle for the trampled rights of the majority of the people of Iran.

With hope for the spread of justice and freedom,

Autobus Workers Union

Israeli researcher studied would-be suicide bombers face to face

by dan pine, staff writer

Follow j. on

When Israeli criminologist Anat Berko would show up at work to conduct an interview, her subjects would warmly greet her with the honorific "Doctora," offer her a cup of coffee and ask about her family

Anat Berko

All that courtesy clashes with the setting. For years, Berko worked in an Israeli prison, her subjects convicted terrorists — failed Palestinian suicide bombers and their dispatchers — in maximum security lock-up.

Berko is an Israeli criminologist who makes her living probing the minds of terrorists. Over the years she grew close with notorious figures like Sheik Ahmed Yassin (the Hamas co-founder assassinated by Israel in 2004) as well as scores of male and female would-be suicide bombers.

How could a 25-year veteran officer of the Israel Defense Forces — and a proud Zionist — have gained the trust of those who wanted nothing more than to blow up as many Jews as possible?

Comparing herself and her subjects to Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter (from the film "Silence of the Lambs"), the Arabic-speaking daughter of Iraqi Jews said, "To do my research I had to use empathy to communicate with them."

That empathy, even when insincere, often elicited tears and hugs from imprisoned female terrorists, and bonhomie from the men. "They knew I could understand their mentality," Berko said while in San Francisco for a speaking engagement. "Both my parents were born in Baghdad. 'She's an Iraqi Jew,' they would say. 'She's a little Arab like us.' "

Berko wrote a 2007 book, "The Path to Paradise" (newly re-released in paperback) chronicling her experience in the heart of darkness. The book grew out of her Ph.D. dissertation, which compared the dispatchers of suicide bombers from the first intifada to petty criminals.

Tragically, she had no shortage of subjects to interview.

Berko did not delve into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the prisoners. Instead, she probed what she calls, "their inner world, their lives, their relationships with parents, siblings, and how they grew up."

Her most famous subject was Yassin, the Bin Laden of Israel thanks to his masterminding countless acts of terrorism. Oddly enough, he liked Berko.

"He cooperated with me and was ready to answer every question I asked him," Berko recalls. "He invited me to meet with him in Gaza. He was very nice to me but he was very bad to the Jewish people and Israel."

Much of her research focused on female would-be suicide bombers. Although the trend of female terrorists has grown in recent years, Berko says the women are not truly respected in Palestinian society.

To Palestinians, she says, "They are failures, and now they failed at this. They couldn't even blow themselves up. [Palestinians] will say they are heroes, but in a closed room they will say, 'Why did she do it? Is there something wrong with this woman?'"

This disdain led to despair among the female prisoners Berko got to know. Often they would cry on her shoulder. Some were victims of sexual abuse and feared returning home. Others wielded knives at checkpoints just to get themselves arrested.

That's because the prisoners receive good treatment in Israeli jails, Berko says. They get decent food, medical care and educational opportunities. Some complete their diplomas while behind bars.

For the women prisoners, the good treatment may play a role in one of Berko's findings: There are next to no female repeat offenders when it comes to terrorism.

Berko just completed a year as a guest lecturer at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is now home in Israel.

Berko plans on writing a new book, this one focusing on the Palestinian women she has known in prison. She is the first to admit that any one of them would have been willing to kill Berko's three children.

At the same time, she can't help feeling a measure of sympathy.

"One failed suicide bomber, a 16-year-old, used to bite her nails," Berko recounts. "I took her hand and said, 'Don't do this!' She then squeezed my hand. It touched her heart that I told her 'Don't do it,' like a mother."

Iranian Blogger: How dare can they EVER cry Palestine again???

How dare can they EVER cry Palestine again??? How can they EVER claim moral leadership of the Muslim world ... why can't anyone stop this atrocity?!

It comes with this video:

http://www.youtube.com/v/pSj4i6pSgSA

Iran - Protests in Shiraz

Violence erupted (evidently on June 20) in other Iranian cities besides Tehran, but it is more difficult to get information. A report (from reliable source that must remain anonymous):

I received communication from Shiraz that there have been clashes in different parts of the city. What is notable about Shiraz is that the security forces have sometimes lashed out randomly at people who might only look like protesters. An eyewitness confirmed this report.

This video is posted with the text below (including incorrect date):

several people have been wounded and killed by POLICE during the Anti Iranian government protest against election fraud in Iran, Shiraz city, including a man which has been allegedly killed, on Saturday 21 June 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54XYp42LEdE

Ami Isseroff

Khameinei - Zionist Radio Trying to Change the Meaning of Iranian election

Peres should not hold his breath until the Iranian regime falls, but this statement Khameinei is surely entertaining:

"These divisions come from the Zionist radio and the bad British radio trying to change the meaning of the election," Khamenei said.

Peres: Struggle against regime more important than nuke issue

Jun. 21, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
President Shimon Peres on Sunday expressed hope that the Iranian leadership would "disappear" before the Islamic republic makes use of its enriched Uranium, saying it was more important to fight the Iranian regime than the country's nuclear program.

"The struggle against the leaders of the Iranian regime is more important than [the struggle against] the bombs," Peres said, speaking at the Jewish Agency assembly in Jerusalem.

The president also attacked Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has hinted that Israel and the US were behind the pro-Mousavi riots in Teheran.

"How dare he claim that we demanded that the Iranian people head to the streets and risk their lives?" Army Radio quoted Peres as saying.

Also Sunday, Iran's Parliament reiterated warnings sounded by Khamenei in which he said that leaders of the US, UK, France and Germany must not to interfere in the country's internal affairs, threatening that Iran would respond to such meddling "in other fields."

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani directed a message at US President Barack Obama, saying that he "showed the deceitful meaning of change too soon."

According to Iran's ISNA news agency, Larijani called for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament to revise relations with the US, UK, France and Germany.

In his speech Friday, Khamenei blamed the United States, Britain and "other enemies" for fomenting unrest. He said Iran would not see a second revolution like those which transformed the countries of the former Soviet Union.

"These divisions come from the Zionist radio and the bad British radio trying to change the meaning of the election," Khamenei said.

He said the election outcome was a vindication of the Islamic republic and an earthquake for its enemies. "If the people did not trust in the system they would not participate in it," he said. "Iran's enemies are targeting the beliefs and trust of the people."

Iran videos show Basij Brutality

Young woman murdered by Basij, Karekar Square, 19:20 June 20

Text with Video:

امروز، سی خرداد، ساعت 7 بعد از ظهر این دختر جوان توسط لباس شخصی ها کشته شد

"Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests
At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st..

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.
The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.
The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrdRwOlmIxI

June 15

June 15th, 2009
Azadi Square, Tehran

رداد ۲۵ ۱۳۸۸
میدان آزادی، ورودی جناح، تهران
نیروهای بسیجی‌ با تیر اندازی به تظاهرات صلح طلبانه ۸ نفر را کشته و صد‌ها را زخمی کردند

A man is just shot in this clip.
Pro-government militia troops reportedly opened fire on a previously peaceful election protest in Tehran, killing at least 8 (reports claim more).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIGldlJ2f4I&NR=1

19-150 dead in Iran Protests & videos

According to CNN, up to 150 persons were killed Saturday (June 20) in protests against the Iranian government. Demonstrators chanted slogans of the 1979 revolution. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said protesters who had been beaten and injured by security forces were arrested and detained when they sought medical treatment in hospitals. Fear of arrest had reportedly driven injured protesters, some in serious condition, to seek care at foreign embassies. Videos of the brutality have been posted around the Web.

In wealthy neighborhoods, there were raids by the Basiji militia.

Mir Hossein Moussavi declared he was ready for "martyrdom."

That was the message posted on Moussavi's page on Facebook, the social networking Web site that has proved to be a key source of information in the absence of international media coverage.

The message urged Moussavi's supporters to "protest" and "not go to work."

"Today you are the media," said one message. "It is your duty to report and keep the hope alive."

Iran's ruling system is "going to the slaughterhouse," a post on the site said.

Opposition Candidates Karoubi and Moussavi didn't attend an election council meeting where they were supposedly to be allowed to lay out their plans. Probably they would have been arrested and disappeared, a time honored custom in totalitarian regimes, and a custom in Iran as well.

Videos have been posted around the Web - Following are fairly fresh (June 20).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT375O1HGeQ