Anonymous Iran

NiteOwl

I'm NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar - twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter - and I've been immersed in tweets from Iran for the past several hours. I have tried to be extremely careful in choosing my tweet sources. What I have compiled below is what I can confirm through my reliable twitter sources. Remember, this is all from tweets. No news media outlets have been used. (There was precious little today to offer so I waited very long)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Thursday, June 25 in Iran.

1. Protesters continued to swarm the streets of Tehran today, however, the number of security forces deployed to stop them from gathering in large numbers proved effective. We had previously reported that large numbers of motorcycles have been brought into Tehran by the government and given over to Basij and other security forces. They are being used very efficiently to mobilize the security forces and protesters are being hunted down wherever they are suspected to be. In the mess, several people who aren't protesters have also been beaten as the beatings have turned to indiscriminate persecution of citizens of Iran.

2. News of protesters came from different parts of Tehran, but confirmation as always have been a bit tricky as twitter sources continue to give out information that is sometimes uniform and at times widely divergent. What we were able to confirm was that a large mass of people that tried to gather at martyred protester Neda's grave site was beaten and dispersed. No one was allowed to stand near her grave for more than a few seconds as police actively sought to beat the protesters out of the area. There were reports of Basijis firing at people from atop a mosque in Tehran. It can be partially confirmed, however, the number of casualties cannot be.

3. The Minister of Interior in the mean time has declined to issue a request for the holding of requests by Mousavi's supporters. He has stated that any permits need to be sought in person at least 7 days before the planned date. (There are reports, however, that Mousavi has been granted a permit for a small rally tomorrow.) Chants of Allah o Akbar and Ya Hossein echoed across Tehran yet again and there were reports of protests in Shiraz by university students and a strike in Tabriz. (I can only partially confirm this as only a few of my reliable sources could confirm it.)

4. As reported yesterday, no massacre can be confirmed to have occurred in Baharestan square. Readers have sent me several photographs of bodies with gaping wounds that might suggest the use of axes - I have confirmed ISOLATED use of axes in the previous report -, however, all of the photos have been from past protests. As of yet, the claim by Mainstream Media that there was a massacre at Baharestan cannot be confirmed. (At the time of the writing of this brief, many have retracted their previous statements and some have actually began to kill the story that was used to increase viewership of US TV networks...)

5. In new statements today, Mousavi, Khatami and Rezaei have pledged their support for the cause of the protesters yet again. Mousavi released a statement today declaring that he won't back down from their legitimate demands. He also accused the people who have rigged the election of the violence that has wracked Tehran and continues to destabilize the country. Rezaei who has taken back his complaints to the Guardian Council regarding the election has yet against said that he has not abandoned the protesters. According to him, he has only taken back the complaints and the cause of the protesters and just and must be followed until successful. Khatami declared today that everyone should stand up because opportunities like these are rare and will not be granted again.

6. There were reports today indicating that several journalists that have been arrested in the past few days have been transferred to Evin prison. A Washington Time correspondent who was arrested yesterday was about to leave the country through Tehran's main airport when he was arrested. The government's media outlets have claimed that John Layne - the BBC correspondent in Tehran who was forced to leave Tehran days ago - was behind the murder of Neda. They claim that he hired people to gun her down so he could then report on it and use it in a documentary he is making.

7. Seyed Alireza Beheshti Shirazi, the editor in chief of Kalameh Sabz newspaper which is pro-Mousavi, who was arrested yesterday, has still not been released. Of the 70 professors that were arrested after meeting Mousavi yesterday, 66 have been released by the Iranian government. The fate of the rest remains unknown. More and more people were arrested today for even wearing green signs or any clothing that had the color green. The Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights has announced that they are ready to provide legal aid to recent detainees and their families. For a list of people so far killed and arrested as well as released, please check this link: List of Killed and Arrested - English

8. Government sources now confirm that eight Basijis have so far been killed in the protests. The number cannot be confirmed using our sources. So far, even the most impartial twitter sources have not confirmed that any protester has succeeded in taking the life of a Basiji. (Apparently, many have wished for their death and would show great joy if it can be confirmed as their brutality has been quite pronounced in the past few days.) Sources also claim that Basijis are receiving extravagant amounts of money as per diem in order to secure their loyalty.

9. A group of Iranian lawyers - most of them female - have released a statement, asking the government to cancel Nobel-laureate Shirin Ebadi's law license. They claim that she has acted unconstitutionally by contacting governments outside Iran and asked them to interfere in Iran's internal affairs. They also accuse her of breaching Islamic verdicts.

10. Meanwhile, Ali Abbaspour, a prominent parliamentarian and the head of the education committee in the parliament, has told the media that they are insistent on impartial investigations being carried out on the attacks in various universities inside Tehran and other parts of the country. Reports also indicate of Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani's continued marginalization by the government. He is being reported as one of the top men inside the regime who is slowly moving towards the cause of the protesters.

11. Finally, we can now confirm that Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri has broken his silence and denounced the current spate of violence that's been carried out against peaceful protesters. He asked the people of Iran to seek their rightful demands through peaceful means. He also criticized the government's actions and said that the violence carried out against protesters is clearly different from what Islam teaches.

12. Ayatollah Khamenei has a planned speech during the Friday prayers today in Tehran. That will commence at 2:30 AM Pacific Time. I will upload the transcript of the speech in English within an hour of it's delivery on iran.whyweprotest.net and posting a link on my twitter account. You can also tune into BBC if you want to see it live with an English translation. (If I wasn’t able to do the translation, please forgive me.)

(There is simply too much on the tweets about where Mousavi is at this point. According to last reports, he was being sternly watched by the government and his movement is restricted, but it's an ever evolving situation.)


Read this if you want to help or get help!

The government in Iran is still increasing internet filtering and throttling in an attempt to silence their people. Anonymous info shows that many in Iran are looking for proxy and Tor information in Tehran and all around the country. Please donate your bandwidth to help bring down the Iran Curtain. Here are links on how to help and get help on this:

English: Tor and the Iranian Election - Bring down the Iran Curtain | Ian's Brain

Fars: Tor: ?????? Tor

For the more savvy, try these if you want to connect from Iran:

67.174.201.136:9001 AE4DE948A8F37F18D886C5545F375AB246647837
(trad. tor port)

67.174.201.136:3074 AE4DE948A8F37F18D886C5545F375AB246647837
(xbox live port)

(Thanks to Alexander)

Images and vids and instructions on how to send them to us: Why We Protest - IRAN - Powered by vBulletin

Helpers with expertise in the field of medecine, translation and such:

“Medici Cu Internet is a collaboration between piratbyran.org, HackersWithoutBorders and werebuild.eu trying to organize contacts with medical expertise online since there are problems in Iran with hospitals being monitored by the government. Join the IRC-channel at #mci-ir - WebIRC - AnonNet or send an email to us at embassy [at] piratbyran.org for more info. Medical experts, Farsi-translators and people who know the medical situation in iran are welcome to join and collaboratively set up an index with common injuries and their best treatments.”

People Outside Iran: This is as clear and concise as I can be. I have not included ANYTHING that I have sensed to be remotely fishy, but humans always err.

People Inside Iran: Don't believe a WORD of what I am telling you. Do what you think is best, keeping everything in mind. I know LITTLE of what you know so make your decisions based on your OWN judgment.

P.S. Please post this around and tweet and retweet.

Unregistered

Even though we're getting less visual aides, even though the protests due to heavy securitu are winding down a bit, this news along with others posted today, seems to get more and more important.

I thank you for your coverage.

Unregistered

They said what?! I hope the BBC makes Iran's government eat shit for accusing Jon Leyne of something so awful and unbelievable. That and the indiscriminate beatings of innocent citizens are two very cruel blessings in disguise. A Pyrrhic victory is still a victory.

Keep up the good work.

sp4rrowh4wk

NiteOwl, i must sincerely thank you again for your unflagging dedication and service. i cannot tell you how important your insight is.

i would also like to say a special thank you to all the metaCowboys and cyberDivas keeping sites up and communication flowing. to You who are ghostwalkers and avatars of freedom, we owe a profound debt which can never fully be repaid. the Persian people thank you. and so does a speaker

Unregistered

Thanks for your hard work in helping us to know what is going on inside Iran. I've been following it so closely since it started, and am grateful for those who give the time to provide the translation that we need.
Your summary is brilliant - really appreciate it.
I know people in the country must wonder if the world cares - well all I can say is that even though the world media has gone quiet, people still care and long to see freedom for the people of Iran.
They have lived under an occupying force for too long.
I have wanted to know for days how to set up proxy for people to use - thank you so much for providing this information - I will get it done tomorrow. One question though, I use an Apple, I'm assuming the procedure will be very similar and straightforward to follow?

Oh I long for the day when we hear that the regime have collapsed. Let the green revolution continue stronger and stronger.

I've been thinking for a couple of days now, Iranians are Persians. Let them unite in their Persinness, I would love to hear their lullaby at night being the Persian national anthem - the one that the mullahs hate. Not to rebuild the Pahlavi dynasty - but to show the unity of the Persian people.

Keep up the good work - it is much appreciated.
We're all Persian now!

Nichol

First: thanks NiteOwl for your wonderful summary of twitternews, and we should also thank the sources that seem to be feeding you without being too visible in the open twitterscape.

I've just had a relatively simple plan to help non-tech-savvy Iranians post their stories to a blog. I mean real stories that take more than 140 characters

So I created an gmail account, and a blogger.com account, and set things up so all email sent to the gmail account is directly posted on this blog. No email headers at shown, and all posts come from this same gmail account. The emailer is responsible for not releasing sensitive information like names, adresses, etc.

I guess some spam/nonsense will be posted, but there might be enough good stories to make it an interesting place for westerners/journalists to mine.

What do you think? Should I advertise this on twitter and see what comes of it?

NiteOwl

Go ahead

All ideas are welcome and thank you for that

That's the beauty of the internet. We can all independently plan and execute things and hopefully help our brothers and sisters who are thousands of miles away from us.

Cheers,

NiteOwl

babak kh

Thank you very much Niteowl. You have been an amazing source of info throughout all this.

Unregistered

iran is now learning the purpose of separation between church and state---and at the same time viewing the nature and unfairness of their goverment ---change is the key---because living with those conditions for an indefinite time is the the first hint of spiritual and political abuses

Unregistered

I just wanted to thank you for what you are doing. God bless you.