The video was just posted by Andrew Sullivan under the above title. He has requested his readers to translate the background voice. Here it is:
The voice: "Hit him, hit him with the baton, hit him with the baton... Pull him, pull him... Thugs should go to prison, thugs should go to prison..."
There are voices toward the end that are not clear. Then the policeman pulls the young man from the ground, continue hitting him, ordering him "Don't move!" although he looked only half conscious.
what the hell are those watching on the sides doing? I was about to rip my computer apart in trying to attack the attackers and rip off their fucking masks and beat them blue.
ReplyDeleteThe deafening silence from Mr Obama is extremely telling on him. His true feelings about freedom and debate are plain to see. He discourages debate, he dismisses criticism and obfuscates everything he can. The people of Iran looked to him as a becaon of hope, but he will disappoint just as he has disappointed everyone but the most ardent leftists in America.
ReplyDeleteThose in the USA who truly love this country and its promise of freedom for all stand with the people of Iran as they fight for their voices to be heard. We will pressure our representatives in the government to issue statements of support for you.
Yours in solidarity, for freedom, from NYC.
Tracy M, you should read this then:
ReplyDelete"He asked what had Obama had said and I started reading the transcript. When I got to "the United States can be a handy political football, or discussions with the United States [can be]" my brother sighed and said thank God this guy gets it."
That's from a convo an Iranian in Canada had with his brother in Iran (h/t Andrew Sullivan here: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/obamas-words-from-iran.html). Loud and proud support from U.S. officials may make us feel better, but it'll only undermine the opposition in Iran. Obama knows this. That being said, there's nothing wrong with us everyday, average Americans loudly and proudly supporting the opposition, so on that we can agree.
Tracy,
ReplyDeleteYou're wrong, and have no clue what your talking about. Obama is doing the best thing possible. If he gets in the middle of this, he could take away the credibility of the movement. He's statements to date were perfect -- Iranian politics should be solved by Iranians. Obama making a statement of support would do nothing to help that. He already provided all the support they need by taking away the Ayatollah's greatest weapon: the US as the great Satan.
PS: I think Obama has been a huge disappointment in general, and in particular on banks/FOIA/FISA/Torture, but there seems to be a method to his "madness". At least he lends an air of respectability, rather Bush's seemingly intentional air of ignorance.
ReplyDeleteSome of you still charge that Ahmadinejad cheated. That is certainly a possibility, but it is difficult to see how he could have stolen the election by such a large margin. Doing so would have required the involvement of an incredible number of people, and would have risked creating numbers that quite plainly did not jibe with sentiment in each precinct. Widespread fraud would mean that Ahmadinejad manufactured numbers in Tehran without any regard for the vote. But he has many powerful enemies who would quickly have spotted this and would have called him on it. Mousavi still insists he was robbed, and we must remain open to the possibility that he was, although it is hard to see the mechanics of this.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, in the next days, people will stop mantrically repeating all sorts of nonsense and start looking at the facts on the ground and at what is credible and what is not.
The scary thing is that Rafsanjani has played all his card now and his only hope of salvation is to either get the Assembly of Experts to dismiss the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, or to trigger a blood bath. If he fails at that, he is toast and he surely understands that.
Iran, CIA and the 2009 elections a must see
ReplyDeleteCIA, Iran and election riots
Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter #IranElection
ReplyDeleteThat footage is unreal. Unbelievable.
ReplyDelete