Anonymous Iran

NiteOwl

This why I am disputing Mousavi's attendance of Quds Day rallies:

1. IRNA first reported that Mousavi attempted to join the protests, yet his car was attacked by protesters out to denounce Israel and America. IRNA also reports that he got off the car at Valiasr but in the face of denunciation by protesters who called him names was forced to sit back in his car and leave.

Question: But wasn't Valiasr filled with Greens? We have video of Greens at Valiasr. How could this be true? Now bear in mind that both IRNA and Mehr News are pro-Government, however, IRNA is FAR MORE reliable than Mehr News as far as information flow within Iran goes. So how could this be? Oh and furthermore, IRNA also claims that Karroubi and Khatami were also insulted by protesters who called them 'liars'. We all saw videos of how protesters treated Karroubi.

Link to IRNA story in Persian: http://www.irna.ir/View/Fullstory/To...?NewsId=687073

Picture of Mousavi by Mehr News: http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...0_857308_n.jpg

2. Mehr News' picture has been circulating everywhere. It's on pastebins, it's on imageboards and it is on Mousavi's Facebook. However, the image is not timestamped so you cannot really say for certain when it was taken.

As for pastebins and imageboards, their reliability is suspect because they've only copy pasted Mehr News' picture. They weren't really there themselves to see.

And Mousavi's Facebook? It's not run by his staff members or his campaign. There are several Mousavi Facebook accounts out there. They're all run by his supporters from abroad. Facebook is highly filtered inside Iran and is mostly blocked. They simply took the picture and posted it.

3. There is no news about Mousavi's attendance on MowjCamp or RaheSabz - both the most reliable news sources linked to reformists. And I mean it. Most of the things we see online when it comes to news comes through them first and then gets everywhere else. They are my primary sources of information and what you read in the Green Briefs usually is about 1/3 from there.

If Mousavi was indeed amid the protesters, why wasn't there ANYTHING whatsoever about that on those websites? There was tonnes of news on Karroubi and on Khatami so why not something on Mousavi? It's not like he's a mid-level leader. He's the main guy.

4. If Mousavi was at the protests, why didn't he join the Greens? Why is he walking with government supporters? Doesn't this strike us all as something very odd?

Keeping in mind all of the above, I cannot in good faith say that I can confirm the picture or his attendance. I don't trust IRNA and I don't trust Mehr News - especially for such an important matter. Let's wait for more details to emerge on sites that are nothing but mouthpieces for the government.

Thank you,

Josh Shahryar / NiteOwl / @Iran_translator

Bendix

It is possible that the regime, in what may be their only clever move of the day, forced Mousavi to attend the Quds day rallies and dragged him to one of the pro-government demonstrations? That would explain why Mousavi looks down in the photo, a little like a bored animal at the zoo.

ps: It seems to have been taken at a Quds Day. That’s a Palestinian flag over his shoulder and some of the other protest posters look familiar from other photos of the day, and it would be fast Photoshop work to splice them in. However, there’s also a rumor that Mousavi is under house arrest and it seems odd that nobody near Mousavi is wearing his campaign color. My other theory is that the photo is from last year...

Visionary

Does anyone else think some of those guys around him look like uh "body guards".

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Marg Bar Dictator

Unregistered

How more obvious can it be? He has been on house arrest for months, but they won't allow anyone to call it house arrest. Today, they let him out and made sure he went to where they wanted him to go, so they could snap a few propaganda pics and then take him back and put him in his house - I should call it "cell" because that is what they have turned it into.

I see everyone saying that if opposition leaders are arrested they will revolt. Well, Mousavi has been under arrest for a long time now. I guess he doesn't matter anymore, right? Because they don't call it "arrest"? So if they make everyone stop saying they killed Neda and instead force them to all just say they "sent her on a trip," does that change the reality that she is dead at their hands?

The time to rise up and revolt is here. Not at some "next time you do this, next time you do that". No more next times.

Persian Hillbilly

Here is video from CNN. Apologies since it is direct from their site you have to wait through Kiss or Bank of America commercials. It looks as though the CNN video is pulling a feed from Press TV. Also the remainder of the video after the clips of Mousavi it is nothing more than CNN summarizing events readers of this site are already more than aware of thanks to Josh and his reporting.

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

I have to agree with the comments above, he appears to be on display as a propoganda tool. Without date verification this is hard to confirm as authentic but knowing CNN's caution to show video without some level of authenticity it seems logical to conclude this is from today. However, as Josh points out above, the fact pattern is odd at the least and begs more questions than gives answers.

Persian Hillbilly

This from Laura Setrakian (ABC News):

Confirmed: opposition leader Mousavi was assaulted at Quds Day rally, pushed over and pummeled with insults.

Again, I am not convinced either way yet but the fact multiple sources are pointing to a fact Mousavi was present today adds a level of credibility - of course subject to opinions of how "credible" these sources are.

iraniam

[URL="http://www.netnative.com/news"]

Unregistered

I think you do not understand the sensitive game that is going on right now. You cannot take everything happening right now at face value. I'm not sure what you mean by 'how much support Mousavi has' - do you mean the people that were yelling his name during the protests yesterday? Or the clerics and the elite he has been meeting with?(these people have been personally sticking up for him - take Sanei in Aug as example or the many letters from the elite) or within the opposition group itself?

It is very possible he is under house arrest or similar. I do not believe that was him at the protests yesterday unless he was pressured to go and support the government, but then why would it say he was at Valiasr when we have video of that area full of green chanting for Mousavi (instead of threatening him).

We will have to wait and see...

Unregistered

The minute Karroubi and Khatami showed up at the rally, people started calling epersianradio to say they saw them. As far as I know, that never happened with either Rafsanjani or Mousavi. Were they simply in areas where nobody knew the phone number to call? Were they with the pro-government crowd, who would likely be unfamiliar with the radio station? Were they not there at all, and a story is now being patched together from old footage to imply that they were?

Given all the evidence I would say the most likely answer was that Mousavi was never there, and Regime news organizations are putting together old footage from past years to try to make it look like he attended and was attacked by pro-government crowds. The only problem with this is that Mousavi's own FB used the same picture. Given that this is a protected FaceBook account for a political figure, Mousavi could have had that picture removed with a phone call from anywhere if he did not want it on his site. Either he can't reach a telephone, or he wants it up there, or he was told he had to put it up there.

Another possibility is that Mousavi's FB is staffed by people who don't have direct contact with Mousavi all the time. If they believed that Mousavi did attend the rally, and then they saw an official news photograph of the event they were expecting to see pictures of, they might assume that photograph depicted what they were expecting it to. Thus a false picture could wind up on a legit site with all the best intentions. There must be dozens of photos and videos from previous Qods Days that would not be immediately identifiable as being old.

My fear is that Mousavi was told he'd be arrested if he went, so he stayed home, as is his custom in such situations, but this time they just arrested him anyway and then faked photos to justify the arrest. "We told him if he attended he'd be arrested, and look, he attended so we arrested him." They would wait to release news of the arrest until the streets were quiet, and hope the people are too tired to react strongly.

This is only a speculation of a possible situation I haven't yet seen enough facts to rule out. US news media calling something they got from Iranian State media "confirmed" is not enough for me, since those sources frequently tell straight-up lies and I see no reason why they would hesitate to do so when talking to an American news producer.

Unregistered

I think it was him, but the pictures weren't taken where they said they were taken. He was taken to one of the staged pro-government rallies. It was a weak attempt to take the air out of the protests by people who are clueless to what the protests are about. They think this is about Mousavi. They do not understand how they could be doing anything wrong, because God is on their side, so it must be about Mousavi. So they think "fine, we'll show the country that people now hate Mousavi and they will abandon the protests". So they let him leave his house and take him to a pro-government rally, take some pictures, then take him back and make him stay in his house again. They have no idea what this really about, because their blind devotion to their religion (and not to God) has narrowed their view, and they cannot see most of the world around them.