From Denny: So, what's going on with and in Iran today? Today the hard line regime government marks their revolution's anniversary called the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Worse, these hard line fundamentalist rulers are cracking down more on opposition leaders and followers who today attempt to protest against the government. A million people are expected to converge today either in support or protest for this anniversary. Iran's government has already cut off communication so no Western news agencies can get news footage or eye witness accounts to report.
Previous demonstrations were reported to the world through social sites like Twitter, videos through YouTube and photos gotten out through the internet via camera cell phones. Throughout Europe were fellow Iranians and other sympathetic European IT hackers helping route the news from the protesters. They cleverly acted like cockroaches, finding cracks in security to get lines of communication out to the West to tell the truth. It will be interesting to see how the hackers perform under more stringent circumstances this time when the Iranian government is not caught off guard and ready for them.
Iran's current conservative leaders continue to punish opposition followers by beating, raping, imprisoning and executing them. For months now, since the summer, regularly the government jackboots have been coming for individuals in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. Iran's leaders pointedly told their country, "Anyone who dares to challenge this government runs the risk of being permanently silenced!" Read that as dead, very dead. Sweet bunch, aren't they?!
Iran's leaders have also angered the world in their hell-bent stance of deciding to continue the course to enrich uranium to weapons grade, claiming it will be ready in a few short days. How long before the Israelis say, "Enough!" and either destroy the Iranian capability by bombing the factories or start a wave of assassinations against the leadership government? My money is on the assassination wave. They won't be hard-pressed to find male family members willing to help them because of wanting revenge for their wronged or killed relatives.
What has America done? The best idea. Hit them where it hurts the most: in their wallets - or bank accounts, that is. Our Treasury Department tightened up sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Engineering wing. After all, it's the Revolutionary Guard that keeps this despicable government in power. Hamper their ability to operate, hurt the government.
Today, February 11th, is a special day to the protestors in Iran. It is Victory of the Revolution Day which is their American Fourth of July equivalent to promote liberty, independence and freedom. The whole world has watched and witnessed the Iranian government has severely violated those basic human rights of their people. The people have been tortured and arbitrarily arrested for complaining they think the current President stole the election.
They have been censored, prevented from posting on the internet their political views. And the most egregious abuse has been the recent ruthless executions of two activists held in detention before the June 12th Presidential election. Yet, supposedly, though in prison without access or proper representation, they were accused of being the mastermind organizers of the post-election protests against a stolen election. Somehow, that weak and weasely scapegoat tactic just doesn't have any truth to it.
Please, join bloggers like me, Denny Lyon at Comfort Food From Louisiana: Bloggers Unite Human Rights For Iran, and show your solidarity today with the protestors. If you are a blogger, please write a post today and send in your link so your voice can be heard. If you are not a blogger, then please show your solidarity and talk about today's Iran news on your favorite social networks and email your family and friends.
For more information, contact Amnesty International Iran.
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