Today the non-government information flowing out of Iran was even slower than yesterday with little information of substance. That plus the sad death of Michael Jackson has pushed the situation in Iran way down the ladder in the mainstream media. However there are some noteworthy bits. Here is a round-up of what I could glean from Twitter and other web sources.
Green Balloons
Given the extreme violence against protesters in the last couple of days, there was a call on protesters to release green balloons today. It is impossible to know how many people did so as the information flow has slowed from a trickle to a drip-drip. Between the called-for time of 1 PM until 1 AM (both Iran time) I could find only 250 tweets (a posting on Twitter is called a tweet) talking about green balloons and almost all of those were from people outside of Iran. Many contained links to pictures and videos that did make their way out today but after randomly clicking on dozens of the links I could only find four different videos (1, 2, 3, 4) and a handful of pictures.
Persiankiwi
The whereabouts of the now famous twitter known as Persiankiwi remained a hot topic for discussion and speculation. The great majority of visitors to my weblog in the last 24 hours came from Google searches about Persiankiwi. Sometime yesterday a new Twitter account was opened named Persiankiwi2. People on Twitter wanted to know if this was the real deal, a fame-seeking copy-cat or an Iranian government agent.
Persiankiwi2 made 17 tweets over a period of five hours and has again been silent for the last 12 hours. I re-read many of Persiankiwi's tweets, trying to compare them to Persiankiwi2 and it seems to me that there is a subtle but noticeable difference in the English grammar and syntax. A trusted source who is still Twittering had this to say (I can't imagine that the Iranian authorities haven't noticed this Twitter yet but there are many admonitions on Twitter to avoid mentioning trusted Twitters by account name so I won't. I have also changed the text from Twitter short hand to normal language to make it impossible to copy and then to google. Just being cautious, not paranoid, although I was surprised by one weblog visitor today who arrived via Farsi language Google from Iran.):
- "could be him but I should explain so people can decide to follow or not to follow. The day Persiankiwi stopped I was called by an unknown person asking me if I was *****? So I am worried." (note: she was apparently concerned that her phone number had been compromised if Persiankiwi had indeed been arrested).
- "I am still waiting for persainkiwi2 to relay to me a direct private message with content we previously exchanged to prove his/her identity."
- "I am worried that the tone of @persiankiwi2 is very different from the original. Please be careful for now."
Baharestan Square
On June 24 there was an attempted demonstration in Baharestan Square by the Parliament building that according to protest sources inside Iran turned into a bloodbath. I know this happened two days ago but if you missed this it is a must listen. As I listened to this Iranian woman describe in a live phone call with CNN what she saw, I had chills running down my spine and tears rolling down my cheeks. Her account jives with other Twitter messages and what she tells to CNN is corroborated by the last messages from Persiankiwi, who went to the demonstration:
"just in from Baharestan Sq - situation today is terrible - they beat the ppls like animals. I see many ppl with broken arms/legs/heads - blood everywhere - pepper gas like war. they were waiting for us - they all have guns and riot uniforms - it was like a mouse trap - ppl being shot like animals. saw 7/8 militia beating one woman with baton on ground - she had no defense nothing. so many ppl arrested - young & old - they take ppl away - we lose our group. ppl run into alleys and militia standing there waiting - from 2 sides they attack ppl in middle of alleys."
Arrested journalists
According to Amnesty International up to 30 Iranian journalists remain in detention in Iran. I read today that one of those is Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian independent filmmaker and Newsweek journalist. I had the pleasure and honor of meeting Maziar at a Passover dinner (he is not Jewish but is a friend of friends) two years ago. We had fascinating dinner conversation that night and have had the occasional email correspondence since then. My thoughts and prayers are with him, his detained colleagues and of course everyone in Iran. I now hope more than ever to take up his gracious offer to visit Iran with him one day, hopefully a free Iran. His last two articles from Iran were on June 17 and June 15.
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson? Yes Michael Jackson. His tragic death has not gone unnoticed, even among Iranians tweeting from Iran. One Iranian tweeted about Michael between his/her normal tweets opening up a poignant personal window:
"Jackson videos helped me back when I was facing trial and possible jail term in the Islamic Court. In the 1980s spent many daytime hours under threat in the Islamic Court and my nights watching videos of the singer who died today. Who else recalls the morality police in the 80s who had a MJ patrol going around arresting young men who were dressing like he was? Lots of people loved Michael and we struggle so our young people can be free to listen to whomever they want in freedom."
He/she then returned to the business at hand:
"We are at the moment safe, going through many proxy servers to get our info out. There will always be others to carry on. I must sign off for now. I am not under arrest and please don't click on links in tweets saying I am. I need some rest and will then try and find some more real news."
It is amazing how people can remain, well, just normal people in the midst of the most abnormal circumstances we can imagine.
God has many names but only one face. May He bless these brave people in Iran and their cause and keep all innocent Iranians safe from harm. Goodnight.
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