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* * Below: Video of members of the Revolutionary Guards in Spain (explanation below the video)
The intro to the above video reads: Western countries have begun to boycott companies belonging to the revolutionary guards and are refraining from doing any trade with them. Among such companies are Nokia-Siemens which had originally sold spying and surveillance equipment to Iran. Now however, in a desperate act, the Iranian regime, has had to go begging from the Chinese and the Chinese recognizing the value of such an opportunity, has invited members of the revolutionary guards to an all expenses paid trip to Barcelona, Spain in order to attend the Chinese company Huawei‘s annual telecom expo. In order to actually use the spying and surveillance equipment produced by this company, the Iranian Telecom must purchase the rest of the telecommunications equipment from this company as well. According to received reports, Iranian Telecom has begun purchasing equipment from this company during the recent months.
* * Firebrand junior Mullah recommends that the executions of the summer of 1988 should be repeated in order to deal with and confront those arrested during recent protests.
Hamid Rohani (ardent Ahmadinejad supporter), cited the case of the executions of the Monafegheen (meaning the Seditious, a term used to describe the Mujahedeen Khalq) during the summer of 1988 and said:
In 1988, the Monafegheen who were in prison tactically announced their repentance. After the ceasefire [in the Iran-Iraq war], when the Monafeqin attacked Iran (referring to Mojahedin-e Khalq’s attack on Iran’s western border in July 1988), the prisoners rioted as well. They set the prison on fire as a defense tactic so when they [Mojahedin] reached Tehran, they would be able to finish the work together. Imam [Khomeini] declared that those who are involved in the issue are Mahdoor Al-dam (meaning their blood can be spilled with impunity) and must be tried and punished. I think that if the recent insurrections are not dealt with in the same decisive, serious, and revolutionary manner, this problem will persist.
The summer of 1988 was one of the darkest and bloodiest eras in Iran’s history. Thousands of political prisoners were executed across Iran. Although the exact number of political prisoners executed remains unclear, Amnesty International has recorded the names of over 2,000 prisoners killed during this time and survivors and opposition groups have placed the number of executions at as high as 30,000. The atrociousness of the situation led Ayatollah Montazeri to write a series of open letters, most notably to then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, denouncing the executions. As a result, Montazeri (who had until then been the heir to Khomeini), was asked to resign and eventually pushed out of the government completely. He remained a powerful political force and influential voice for reformists. He passed away on December 19, 2009.
* * Below: Video of the thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters who the regime claimed turned out to see him during his trip to Birjand (Province of Khorassan) on February 24th.
* * On Thursday, February 25th, in a meeting with the Assembly of Experts, Khamenei said that anyone refusing to accept the results of the June elections “is automatically ineligible to remain within the framework of the regime.” Khamenei was referring to MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Also among other harsh critics challenging the election results is former President Mohammad Khatami.
Khamenei continued: “In the Islamic regime, unlike most pretenders of democracy, people’s votes are not determined by gangs of power and money. People vote according to their own decision.” But he followed this statement by condemning the protests against the election results and anyone who said that the elections were rigged in Ahmadinejad’s favor by referring to them as “seditionists.” He added that those who refuse to surrender to “the will of our people” have committed a sin.
* * Quote of the day: Mousavi’s response to the university professor who asked him about concerns that the youth are losing hope for change:
Our system of governance in its totality is not limited to the presidential government, and our whole history is not 4 or 8 years. We are a nation with a long ancient history…with artifacts dating back to 12000 years. We have had many ups and downs, and this is one of those bumps. It would require sacrifice and some may not survive. Some would rise up and others would fall down. But in the end, in the grand scheme of our history all this would have a small influence. We must get this across to our young ones. We must tell them that this is some hard work, nobody would just hand you a well developed future. All well-developed countries have gone through some challenging routes, and we are no exception.