Reporting from Tehran — The mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters wait.
They sip tea, amble around, look at their watches and stare at the posted lists of names, about 700 or 800 of them.
They arrived early outside Evin Prison, the notorious complex of buildings in northern Tehran where most of the Iranians arrested in the recent unrest have been locked up.
By 8 a.m., dozens have gathered, standing around the entrance or sitting on brown plastic chairs after wiping away the dew.
They hold pay vouchers or shop licenses to use as collateral to bail out family members and friends. Many were called late the previous night and told to come here.
But no one is there to tell them where to go or what to do.
One man approaches the gate of a shuttered general courthouse near the prison entrance.
A kindly soldier approaches. “My dear father,” he says. “You must go to the Revolutionary Court on Moallem Street. They will say where and when your child will be released.”
Some families split up. Sister and brother go to Moallem Street. Mother and father stand in front of Evin just in case, keeping in touch via cellphones, which have begun to work again after spotty service during the protests.
There is little to do while waiting. In front of the courthouse, a blue-roofed trailer serves as a little shop, selling tea bags and hot water in disposable cups and offering photocopying services for documents such as birth certificates.
Sheets of paper bearing the handwritten names of those held inside are taped on the outside of the trailer. They flutter in the breeze. Visitors strain their eyes to read the names of those arrested Saturday, when the capital burned.
The names of those arrested earlier are typed up, along with the name of the courthouse where they will be tried, and stuck on the glass panes of the courthouse next to Evin.
Massoud, the elderly father of a prisoner named Saman Sahrai, and his wife look for traces of their son on the lists.
“I found the name,” she is overheard announcing dryly.
Massoud chuckles. “Who can dare to say that a mother’s instinct is not strong enough,” he says. “My eyes cannot see well enough.”
Most of the approximately 40 people gathered outside the prison decline to give their full name or, in some cases, even their first name for fear of reprisal.
Massoud says he was called late the night before to come to the prison with his salary voucher as bail to get his son released.
A soldier at the prison tells him to go to the Revolutionary Court.
“Getting arrested was a good lesson for my son,” Massoud says.
“If he is released, he will appreciate his father and mother better than before, and will realize what it is to earn a living in this country and he hopefully will stick to his education and finding a job.”
UPDATE: 6:41PM EST
h/t Atlas Shrugs
UPDATE: 6:03PM EST
Protestors Set Up Barricade
UPATE: 5:56PM EST
I am still searching for the La Stampa article..but it has been cited in three other sources.
Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Political crisis in Iran has led to mass outflow of capital from the country.
La Stampa, citing Italian intelligence service, reports that Iranian large banks started active money transfer from the country. Money are leaving both banks which are under control of Islamic Leadership of Iran and those relating to Rafsanjani that stands behind opposition presidential nominee Mir Hossein Musavi who has refused so far to admit his defeat in elections.
Reconciliation between supporters and opponents of Makhmud Ahmadinejad is already impossible. Both sides are preparing for decisive fight following which anybody of them will have to flee from Iran.
According to La Stampa’s data, over the last 48 hours banks Saderat, Bank-e Melli, Bank-e Sepah and Melat have started transferring finances to Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia and UAE. Money are transferred by not large tranches up to $10 million. According to Italian intelligence service, finances transferred abroad belong to different non-governmental funds submitted to Islamic Leadership of Iran.
Activity of the Iranian Fund of Repressed and Invalids of War, the Fund of Martyrs, the Homeyni Fund and other similar organizations are under close control of western intelligence services, considering that precisely through these funds Tehran finances such terrorist groups abroad as Hezbollah and HAMAS.
UPDATE: 5:39PM EST
Heard RUMOR that clerics are transferring money out of Iran – searching for confirmation from european newspapers.
Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi’s appeals to the EU to respond to the violence in her country are bearing fruit: the president of the EU parliament is considering sending an unprecedented delegation to Tehran.
EU Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering said Wednesday that he is prepared to lead a delegation of European deputies to Iran to study allegations of fraud in the recent election that returned hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to another four years in power.
His comments came after meeting Iranian Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi, who has been campaigning for EU countries and other members of the international community to “express their protest” over Tehran’s violent crackdown on opposition demonstrators.
“I will recommend to the European parliament political groups to send a delegation of the European parliament as quickly as possible to Tehran,” Poettering said after talks with Ebadi in Brussels.
“I have never done this before but this…is so severe and important that I’m ready to go myself as president of the European parliament to show our solidarity with the people in Iran,” he said.
Poettering said he had no way of knowing whether Iranian authorities would permit such a delegation to enter the country, adding that he would “follow the diplomatic procedure.”
A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been arrested for refusing to obey Iran’s Supreme Leader, according to reports from the Balatarin website.
Earlier today the Revolutionary Guards issued a warning on its website threatening to come down hard on Iranians who continue protesting against what many in the country see as rigged elections.
The Revolutionary Guards is a separate body to the mainstream armed forces in Iran and is seen as one of the main and most powerful bodies responsible for protecting the Islamic theocratic regime.
General Ali Fazli, who was recently appointed as a commander of the Revolutionary Guards in the province of Tehran, is reported to have been arrested after he refused to carry out orders from the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to use force on people protesting the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
(Editor’s note: Please be aware that due to intense media restrictions imposed by the Iranian government, it was not possible for IBTimes to independently verify many of the reports.)
Fazli, a veteran of the devastating Iran-Iraq war is also believed to have been sacked and taken to an unknown location.
we must go – dont know when we can get internet – they take 1 of us, they will torture and get names – now we must move fast – #Iranelection
Everybody is under arrest & cant move – Mousavi – Karroubi even rumour Khatami is in house guard – #Iranelection –
they pull away the dead into trucks – like factory – no human can do this – we beg Allah for save us – #Iranelection
Lalezar Sq is same as Baharestan – unbelevable – ppls murdered everywhere – #Iranelection
they catch ppl with mobile – so many killed today – so many injured – Allah Akbar – they take one of us – #Iranelection
WHAT IS OUR GOVERNMENT DOING?
BREAKING VIDEO: 6.24.09,
Iranian Revolution March on Parliament Building
Barack Hussein Obama? Are You Listening? Oh! That’s Right! You have a townhall meeting about single payer health care rationing tonight with your bestest buddies, ABC. Maybe the mullahs are right when they say that America is responsible for this massacre. I am thinking that you being such a pantywaist has sent the message that it is okay to commit genocide in Iran.
This is heartbreaking! The world can’t allow this to go on any longer. We must help these people!! The ocupant of OUR HOUSE must do something now or we need to oust him!
Leaping Spark on June 24, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Obama is in complete complicity with Ahky and could care less about the Iranian people. While we our being distracted by Iran and his bogus one sided Communist propaganda regarding his Socialist healthcare plan, POS Obama is sneaking his Communist Cap and Trade Plan through Congress and Meanshelle is creating his 250,000 person personal army of mindless sycophants. Talk about using evry crisis he creates to his advantage. Marx, Lenin, and Stalin would be proud of Obama our modern version of Hitler. Only 20,000,000 million people were murdered to create their Communist utopias. Obama gave Rail Odinga advice during his slaughter of Christians, I wonder what he telling Ahkysmellyjock over in Iran.
The Coward in Chief is not only cheapening the White House but continuing the destruction of our image a round the world. He is no leader. It is absolutely amazing the leaders that are emerging from this fraud. Who could imagine that the EU president wants to go to Iran to investigate the fraudulent election? The EU president is willing to put a life on the line when all we get is I am appalled…I think I heard that in a movie once.
Donna on June 25, 2009 at 7:06 am
You present your argument well, but even though I feel for their pain, I still can’t see how it would benefit Americans to get involved in another Islamic war. Musavi wouldn’t be much different than Ahmadinejad. Iran is a Theocracy. One way our enemies can defeat America is to get us involved in conflicts all over the world until we are stretched so thin we can no longer protect ourselves or our allies. Learn from history or repeat it. And…I believe we are broke.
Sybil on June 25, 2009 at 7:48 am
Did Mousavi deliberately put those protestors unarmed in harms way.
Agree with Donna that we should not forget Mousavi’s aka “Butcher of Beruit” bloody past, a patron of Hizballah’s terrorist wing,
Indeed, Mousavi, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1989, almost certainly had a hand in the planning of the Iranian-backed truck-bombing attacks on the U.S. embassy in April 1983 and the Marine barracks in October of that same year. Mousavi, as my Lebanese contact reminded me, dealt directly with Imad Mughniyah, the man largely held responsible for both attacks. (Mughniyah was assassinated in Damascus last year.) The Lebanese said Mughniyah had told him over and over that he, Mughniyah, got along well with Mousavi and trusted him completely.
When Mousavi was Prime Minister, he oversaw an office that ran operatives abroad, from Lebanon to Kuwait to Iraq. This was the heyday of Khomeini’s theocratic vision, when Iran thought it really could export its revolution across the Middle East, providing money and arms to anyone who claimed he could upend the old order. Mousavi was not only swept up into this delusion but also actively pursued it.
It was Mousavi who appointed Iran’s ambassador to Damascus, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-pur, the Iranian caught red-handed planning the Marine-barracks bombing. Mohtashemi-pur also coordinated the hostage-taking in Lebanon. As a reward, Mousavi gave him the Interior Ministry, where Mohtashemi-pur went on to crack down on what was left of democracy in Iran.
And it is not as if Mousavi kept his support for Iran’s secret war on the U.S. a secret. In a 1981 interview, he had this to say about the taking of American diplomats in Tehran in 1979: “It was the beginning of the second stage of our revolution. It was after that we discovered our true Islamic identity.”
Donna? Are you kidding me? This whole protest is no longer about Mousavi – it’s about getting rid of the theocracy. I know that Mousavi is no better than I’madinnerjacket, but at what point do humans step up and stop genocide. When it’s easy or not expensive?
I agree Diamond, Mousavi could not be any better than Imademonjob, but the bottom line is that the NWO wants to bomb Iran and this is playing conveniently into their hands. The Mullas that are the puppet masters of this country are a major pain to the NWO and they must be brought into compliance. It makes no difference who is in front of the cameras as “president” of this crazy country, the Mullas are in charge and pulling the strings, just like the Federal Reserve here. Kissenger wants to bomb Iran and he is BO’s main puppet master and link to TPTB. Mark my words, we WILL bomb Iran and right after that, turn our attention to Venezuela. I feel sorry for the innocent people in both of these countries, as much as I feel sorry for the Late Great American Dream and the innocents here.
It’s really scarry to think what might happen to us soon. I dont think our march on Washington can wait until September. We need to get Obama out of there now!
Donna on June 26, 2009 at 6:40 am
Sybil–thanks–didn’t expect anyone here to agree with me and if others would read your post they may begin to get the picture. Diamond Tiger–not kidding you. How will America being broke and defeated help anyone. This is not a war we want to get into to. Do you really want Mousavi in power. It would only make matters worse and not bring down the Theocracy. We can’t be the world’s policmen.
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Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Shirin Ebadi (right) also met with EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner
This is heartbreaking! The world can’t allow this to go on any longer. We must help these people!! The ocupant of OUR HOUSE must do something now or we need to oust him!
Obama is in complete complicity with Ahky and could care less about the Iranian people. While we our being distracted by Iran and his bogus one sided Communist propaganda regarding his Socialist healthcare plan, POS Obama is sneaking his Communist Cap and Trade Plan through Congress and Meanshelle is creating his 250,000 person personal army of mindless sycophants. Talk about using evry crisis he creates to his advantage. Marx, Lenin, and Stalin would be proud of Obama our modern version of Hitler. Only 20,000,000 million people were murdered to create their Communist utopias. Obama gave Rail Odinga advice during his slaughter of Christians, I wonder what he telling Ahkysmellyjock over in Iran.
The Coward in Chief is not only cheapening the White House but continuing the destruction of our image a round the world. He is no leader. It is absolutely amazing the leaders that are emerging from this fraud. Who could imagine that the EU president wants to go to Iran to investigate the fraudulent election? The EU president is willing to put a life on the line when all we get is I am appalled…I think I heard that in a movie once.
You present your argument well, but even though I feel for their pain, I still can’t see how it would benefit Americans to get involved in another Islamic war. Musavi wouldn’t be much different than Ahmadinejad.
Iran is a Theocracy. One way our enemies can defeat America is to get us involved in conflicts all over the world until we are stretched so thin we can no longer protect ourselves or our allies. Learn from history or repeat it. And…I believe we are broke.
Did Mousavi deliberately put those protestors unarmed in harms way.
Agree with Donna that we should not forget Mousavi’s aka “Butcher of Beruit” bloody past, a patron of Hizballah’s terrorist wing,
Indeed, Mousavi, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1989, almost certainly had a hand in the planning of the Iranian-backed truck-bombing attacks on the U.S. embassy in April 1983 and the Marine barracks in October of that same year. Mousavi, as my Lebanese contact reminded me, dealt directly with Imad Mughniyah, the man largely held responsible for both attacks. (Mughniyah was assassinated in Damascus last year.) The Lebanese said Mughniyah had told him over and over that he, Mughniyah, got along well with Mousavi and trusted him completely.
When Mousavi was Prime Minister, he oversaw an office that ran operatives abroad, from Lebanon to Kuwait to Iraq. This was the heyday of Khomeini’s theocratic vision, when Iran thought it really could export its revolution across the Middle East, providing money and arms to anyone who claimed he could upend the old order. Mousavi was not only swept up into this delusion but also actively pursued it.
It was Mousavi who appointed Iran’s ambassador to Damascus, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-pur, the Iranian caught red-handed planning the Marine-barracks bombing. Mohtashemi-pur also coordinated the hostage-taking in Lebanon. As a reward, Mousavi gave him the Interior Ministry, where Mohtashemi-pur went on to crack down on what was left of democracy in Iran.
And it is not as if Mousavi kept his support for Iran’s secret war on the U.S. a secret. In a 1981 interview, he had this to say about the taking of American diplomats in Tehran in 1979: “It was the beginning of the second stage of our revolution. It was after that we discovered our true Islamic identity.”
Donna? Are you kidding me? This whole protest is no longer about Mousavi – it’s about getting rid of the theocracy. I know that Mousavi is no better than I’madinnerjacket, but at what point do humans step up and stop genocide. When it’s easy or not expensive?
I agree Diamond, Mousavi could not be any better than Imademonjob, but the bottom line is that the NWO wants to bomb Iran and this is playing conveniently into their hands. The Mullas that are the puppet masters of this country are a major pain to the NWO and they must be brought into compliance. It makes no difference who is in front of the cameras as “president” of this crazy country, the Mullas are in charge and pulling the strings, just like the Federal Reserve here.
Kissenger wants to bomb Iran and he is BO’s main puppet master and link to TPTB. Mark my words, we WILL bomb Iran and right after that, turn our attention to Venezuela. I feel sorry for the innocent people in both of these countries, as much as I feel sorry for the Late Great American Dream and the innocents here.
Meanwhile, this caught my eye…wonder if this will set the stage for the Obama army…thinking of Iran, etc. and crushing power…
Musings on the Recession and the Effect on Police Departments–With Chicago as a Prime Example
http://insightanalytical.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/musings-on-the-recession-and-the-effect-on-police-departments-with-chicago-as-a-prime-example/
It’s really scarry to think what might happen to us soon. I dont think our march on Washington can wait until September. We need to get Obama out of there now!
Sybil–thanks–didn’t expect anyone here to agree with me and if others would read your post they may begin to get the picture. Diamond Tiger–not kidding you. How will America being broke and defeated help anyone. This is not a war we want to get into to. Do you really want Mousavi in power. It would only make matters worse and not bring down the Theocracy. We can’t be the world’s policmen.