Iranians begin voting in presidential election

TIME FOR ANOTHER REVOLUTION

.........Although the opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mohammad Khatami, did not openly call for street protests, their remarks were widely seen as a call to arms on a day of considerable symbolic importance.

The occasion is the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the United States Embassy in Tehran by hard-line students on Nov. 4, 1979. The day is marked every year with anti-American rallies.

For weeks, opposition groups have been calling for their supporters to turn the event into a protest against the disputed June presidential election and its violent aftermath. The authorities have repeatedly vowed to put down any protests fiercely.

On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said questioning the results of the elections was “the greatest crime.” He did not refer directly to the Nov. 4 rally, but his comments were widely interpreted as a stark warning that the government would brook no challenges. Mr. Khamenei is said to have been surprised and angered after an annual pro-government rally in September, known as Jerusalem Day, was largely hijacked by antigovernment protesters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/middleeast/02iran.html?_r=1

Iran shuts down leading newspaper

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's leading business newspaper was shut down Monday for repeatedly breaking the country's press laws, state-run Press TV reported.

The paper called Sarmayeh has been critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's economic and monetary policies in the past, according to Press TV.

Opposition supporters clash with police in Iran

President Obama reacted standoffishly to this summer's contested election in Iran

As a result, he was flayed by democracy advocates who said his support was too tepid to inspire the Iranian protesters. Today, we learned that they may have a point.

While I understand why Obama took a standoffish position, I also figured it would come to this.  The audacity of hope, to coin a phrase.

"So why would the opposition chant the slogan "Either with them or with us!" now? Because they are exasperated by months of opacity by the Obama administration, and with a nuclear deal on the table, they're frightened. As the sticky negotiations with Western powers over Iran's nuclear program stumble forward, these protesters fear that human-rights issues within Iran may become a bargaining chip. In other words, they're worried they'll be sold out as part of a deal to contain the regime's nuclear aspirations. If the West—particularly the United States—stops bringing up human-rights abuses in exchange for concessions on the nuclear program, they will give Tehran a free hand to deal with dissenters and effectively close the book on the protests. (The U.S. wasn't the only foreign country targeted in today's slogans. Antigovernment protesters also chanted, "The Russian embassy is the den of spies," a jab at Russia's close ties with the regime.)

"For its part, the White House issued a carefully worded statement about the negotiations, insisting that "Iran must choose. We have heard for 30 years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for." The protesters today turned that question back toward the White House and asked Obama to choose as well."

Protest turn violent

Iran cracks down on online opposition

New police unit will focus on ‘insults and the spreading of lies’

Asgari had defected and was providing considerable information to the West on Iran's nuclear program.

The clerical establishment has become so sick of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that they will not replace him when he dies.

Iranian reformists and liberals worldwide can be forgiven for thinking that the election and crackdown last summer strengthened the hardliners. In the short term, they're right