By Editors of The Free Iran Herald
Now bringing you daily updates on the events unfolding in Iran
Following the international outcry against the Islamic regime’s authorities blocking the internet to Iranians nationwide and the sanctioning of Mohammad-Javad Azari-Jahromi, Tehran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Internet in Iran has been restored.
In addition to having cut off Internet access, the regime is also exerting a censorship on journalists so severe now that even those who previously had worked within the regime’s press are going on strike against it. As a result, the regime is forced to rely on foreign sources for news of the protests. Lucky for the Khomeiniist officials, the international press, which is mostly left-leaning, slant toward the Islamic regime’s propaganda.
Syndicate of Iranian Journalists in Tehran issues statement protesting shutdown of Internet for public use while part remains open for elements linked with regime. Statement denounces restrictions on reporters wishing to cover events. Regrets “doctored” reports by Western media.
— Amir Taheri (@AmirTaheri4) November 22, 2019
INTERESTING- Since many journalists inside Iran are reluctant to produce lies for regime on the current upriring, Islamic Security uses translations from some Western agencies, notably #AFP, and comments by pro-regime lobbies in #US & #Europe to promote a false picture of events.
— Amir Taheri (@AmirTaheri4) November 22, 2019
Islamic Security launches official complaint to Offcom against Persian-language media in London for biased reporting of #IranProtests.
What about allowing foreign reporters to go to Iran & see what’s going on?
After trying to export revolution, mullahs try to export censorship.— Amir Taheri (@AmirTaheri4) November 22, 2019
At the same time, the Supreme Leader’s proxy media outlet suggests targeting US/Saudi ‘strategic facilities’. Hossein Shariatmadari, firebrand honcho of the Supreme Leader’s mouthpiece newspaper, Kayhan suggested on Wednesday that targeting “strategic military and economy centers” of the US, Israel, France, and Saudi Arabia should be targeted and retaliated against for their alleged support of the Iranian protesters. He describes it as Iran’s legit right to do so. Meanwhile, Iranian protesters are demanding that they stop referring to themselves as ‘Iran’ as they neither represent the Iranian people, nor the Iranian nation’s interest, but that of a Shi’a cabal that is using Iran’s assets in order to wreak international havoc.
Shariatmadari made the claim: “It’s possible to bring them to their knees through imposing heavy financial and military damage. Their sensitive and strategic military and economy centers are easily accessible.” Shariatmadari did not offer details on how they would carry out such retaliation.
On Monday as well, Shariatmadari called for the execution of protesters. In a panic over the spread of anti-government protests in Iran, Kayhan, referring to Iranian civil rights protesters wrote: “Hoodlums should prepare for the noose…as their religious punishment is execution.”
In the interim, the regime is already planning on massacring the thousands they’ve arrested over the past week. The judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, who oversaw the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, said today, before a gathering of Basij member, that “Under no circumstances will we allow the least amount of disruption.” Ahmad Khatami, another leading cleric, referred to the protestors as “corrupt on earth” (the highest level of crime under the Islamic regime’s laws) and called for their execution.
Meanwhile, news broke on Friday, that Massoud Molavi, an anti-regime Iranian journalist who had been living in exile in Istanbul, Turkey, was assassinated by regime agents on November 14th. Turkey, which is very friendly with the Tehran regime, has been the scene of multiple assassinations of Iranian dissidents for decades. Molavi was probably targeted because he had set up a computer hacking organization that pierced the Ministry of Information’s network and exposed some of the regime officials’ corrupt business dealings. Mohammad Jahromi, the above-mentioned Minister of Communications and I.T. is specifically being accused of having murdered Molavi.
#BREAKING: Today, Ministry of Intelligence of Islamic Regime assassinated Masoud Molavi in #Istanbul, #Turkey. #MasoudMolavi was an ex-contractor of #Iran‘s Ministry of Defense who defected to #Tukey & started “Black Box” News Channel. This is the moment he was assassinated 👇 https://t.co/efgYPM5CJs pic.twitter.com/Ik4bnpasJS
— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) November 21, 2019
#MasoudMolavi was also running the #Aahack opposition hacker group which hacked several governmental websites of #Iran‘s Islamic Regime and revealed their classified documents in 2018. This is why the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence was after him:https://t.co/8jJ2J7O0hL
— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) November 21, 2019
The level of hatred and defiance the people feel towards the regime was shown today at the supreme leader’s weekly prayer service in Tehran, where only a few people turned up at what is usually a well-attended, via the rounding up of disinterested average citizens to form a crowd, event. While the Tehran prayer service went on, under heavy IRGC protection, prayer services in tens of other cities were cancelled due to fear of the protestors. In the prayer services that did occur, the clerics demanded that the Internet remain shut down, continued to blame the revolt on the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia, and excoriated the protestors for burning banks, which Iranians believe was done by regime agents themselves, to divide the people against each other.
Islamic Security manages to organize Friday Prayer congregation in Tehran under heavy guard. Eye-witneses say only a few hundred turned up. According to reports we receive, traditional Friday Paryers cancelled in at least 20 cities for fear they may turn into anti-regime rallies.
— Amir Taheri (@AmirTaheri4) November 22, 2019
Violence is still occurring, though video documentation. Eyewitnesses in Tehran say that the IRGC and demonstrators are still clashing on the streets. According to one doctor at a Tehran hospital, 100 people are being shot and injured every day.
A doctor in Tehran: “the emergency room’s doctor in Robat Karim says they are bringing in 100 people injured by gun shots every day. At least 30 or 40 have died. The number 138 killed is way below reality.”#IranProtests https://t.co/WdFHfikdV7
— Roya Boroumand (@RoyaBoroumand) November 22, 2019
On the sidewalk, a protester lays bleeding, likely shot to death by the regime’s security forces
Esfahan is also said to be experiencing clashes. People in Malard, near Tehran, reported seeing what appeared to be a harsh battle during the night.
Fighting is also occurring between Iranian demonstrators and imported foreign militia members the IRGC has brought to Iran to help them control the people. In one clash, 9 Kurdish mercenaries are said to have been captured by protestors in Sanandaj.
I get reports that #IranProtests activists have captured 9 #Peshmerga from the late Jalal Talabani’s Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (#PUK) brought in by Islamic Revolutionary Guard to crush protests in several cities in Iranian #Kurdistan including #Marivan and #Sanandaj.
— Amir Taheri (@AmirTaheri4) November 22, 2019
More than 352 deaths have been reported though the numbers are still developing. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and wounded and thousands have been detained following protests across the country. So far, the total number of casualties that is known of has occurred in 43 cities, 15provinces.
Now some international news is reporting facts about the methods employed by the Khomeinist authority in not only slaughtering Iranians but also controlling the way information gets out. On Saturday, November 23rd, The Telegraph, correctly reported that Iranian officials are ‘stealing bodies’ from morgues to hide true scale of government crackdown.
In the below tweet, armed plainclothes agents of the regime roam the streets in big groups to suppress protesters but targeting and shooting people on the spot.
View this post on Instagram
And yet they still show up, at all hours of the day or night, in cities throughout Iran, to chant “Death to Khamenei!”
Below, women in Esfahan, accompanied by male protesters sit down in the middle of the road to stop them from them killing any other protesters. They ask the special forces: “Why do you want to shoot?” But the agents attacked the crowd with tear gas and pepper spray and beat them with batons.
Below, one protester writes a compatriot:
“What happened back in 2009 cannot hold a candle to the fury of the people, now. People have had enough, and they’ve run out of patience. In parts of the cities where mostly religious people reside, one could clearly hear people chanting “Death to Khamenei,” which was a surprise to me. Women wearing full hijabs were chanting slogans which floored us all.
In the Malard and Shahriar (suburbs of Tehran) people were being shot at (by security forces) from helicopters and yet people continued chanting.
In most of the areas where there were protests and people were arrested, they were taken to area schools and then transferred to detention centers.
Such a movement without leadership is a sign of widespread public rage. The atmosphere in Tehran and cities like Shiraz, etc. is like martial law.
People should take their security into consideration and not be ignorant of the fact that the security forces are using taser or shooting people easily.
It is of utmost importance that foreign media, international organizations, etc. be prepared and respond rapidly.
People (in Iran) know that if they don’t protest, they will die a slow death of poverty and high prices.
Apace with the events in Iran, State Department officials starting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook and spokesperson for the United States Department of State, Morgan Ortegus continue to tweet, issue statements and effectively get the word out.
Special Representative for Iran Hook urges @Facebook, @instagram, and @Twitter to suspend the accounts of the Iranian regime’s leadership, who’ve shamelessly used social media to spew propaganda while shutting down the internet for ordinary Iranians. #Internet4Iran #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/8rMOdOtadC
— Department of State (@StateDept) November 23, 2019
.@SecPompeo’s message to the Iranian people. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/vUCk27ShKO
— Department of State (@StateDept) November 23, 2019
.@SecPompeo: This is the Iranian people struggling for freedom, demanding their rights, desiring the capacity to take care of their own people. We’re working to make sure that every Iranian has their #humanrights respected. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/e9DHIHDt1b
— Department of State (@StateDept) November 23, 2019
.@SecPompeo: The Iranian leadership has failed the Iranian people. They’ve behaved like kleptocrats, stealing the wealth of the Iranian people for their own personal enrichment. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/3o2XpmOTwB
— Department of State (@StateDept) November 23, 2019
Ironically, the Islamic regime’s foreign ministry summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran (the Swiss represent US interests in Iran since 1979) on Wednesday over US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s support for protesters. Tehran’s authorities bemoaned that the official US statements were an interference in Iran’s internal affairs.
Meanwhile, in places like Beirut and Lebanon in general, where the Islamic regime backed Hezbollah has practically taken hold of the entire country, protests against the Islamic regime and its proxy go on. Week four in those protests saw the symbol of the Lebanon Protests was burned by pro Hezbollah elements early morning. By late night, with thousands of Lebanese citizens cheering a similar symbol, twice the size was erected in its place in downtown Beirut. Symbolic gesture to send a message of resilience. The LebaneseRevolution seem to be determined to move forward, with non-violent means. They chant: The revolution Will Not Die (althawruh len tamuta) #TrueIndependence
And, in Iraq, Iraqi citizens feel solidarity with Iranian demonstrators. According to Radio France, protesters in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad say they are following protests in various Iranian cities with great interest and express solidarity with Iranians who have taken to the streets to gain their rights.
Citizens of Iraq say they are following the ongoing protests in Iran carefully. According to them, the causes and motives of the protests in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon are the same, and the people of three countries have come to the streets in the face of costly living conditions, rampant corruption, inefficiency of the government and severe human and civil rights violations.
Despite continued crackdown on their demands, demonstrators in Iraq have been calling for the removal of government and party officials and political forces and militias in the country for weeks now.
Finally, the Iranian street is becoming a bi-partisan focal point. Unlike members of the Obama administration who chose to dodge support for Iranian protesters in 2009, a number of Democratic candidates did chime in to support protesters with nuanced tweets.
