Iran Twitter Report - Saturday June 27

  (Written Sunday afternoon)

Even though the information coming out of Iran via Twitter remained sparse on Saturday there were several things of interest. The mainstream media has largely returned to reporting based on what is available from government sources which in and of itself is a large and unfortunate victory for the government's propaganda machine.

The victory is so big that many people are beginning to assume that the protest movement has been quelled and as one friend said to me on Saturday, "But that thing's over, isn't it?" It is clear that the government's violent campaign against its citizens and the efforts to restrict the flow of information and hunt down and arrest key sources of information has had a significant effect. We have entered a phase best characterized by that philosophical question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make any noise?"

So what was happening on Saturday? We will cover a demonstration by victims' mothers, look at what's happening behind the scenes, we have a few words about the battle for cyberspace and of course an update on Persiankiwi.

Victims' Mothers

Although the government's violence and intimidation has quelled almost all street protests and gatherings there was at least one yesterday calling for the mothers of victims to gather near the grave site of the heroine Neda. One Twitter reported:

- Victim's Mothers Will Gather in Park Laleh At 19.00, Near Where Neda Was Shot Dead Last Sat.
- More than 200 Women With Candles and Flowers Gathering Where Near Neda Shot Dead. (not confirmed)
- More Women Trying to Join Mother's Meeting, Police Blocked All Ways.

While another source reported that the protesters were attacked by security forces and include one fatality:

- Reports: More than 7,000 Protesters Siting on the Street Near Neda Was Shot Dead. Police Sourended Them (not conf.)
- Anti-Riot Police Attacked Protesters in Park Laleh...
- Police Crack Down ppl who siting where Neda Shot Dead.
- A Female Student Who Was Shoted, Named SHALIR 19yrs. Confirmed Dead.

There were also reports of between 20 and 60 arrests.

Behind the scenes - the trees we don't hear falling

Since the elections it has been clear that there is a split among the country's leaders. According to many sources, the out of sight maneuvering is still going on in full fury:
 

- believe it or not a number of hard line Mullahs saying calling for executing protesters goes too far
- storm perhaps gathering strength and reach. Confidence some of those quite close to Supreme Leader could turn green
- Finally some news from a clerical contact in Mashad, there are closed talks among reformist clerics in Qom and Tabriz

Evidence of these discussions and growing split has been reported by some other mainstream media. Several important spiritual leaders have surprisingly come out publicly with strong condemnations of both the elections and the government's handling of the protests. For example, Grand Ayatolah Montazeri issued a very clear and harsh statement:

“Over the last several days I have been witnessing the glowing presence and the lively and sacrificial efforts of my dear and dignified sisters and brothers, old and young, in the campaign for the 10th presidential elections. Our youth also demonstrated their presence in the political scene with hope and good spirit, in order to achieve their rightful demands. They waited patiently night and day. This was an excellent occasion for the government’s officials to take advantage of and establish religious, emotional and nationalistic bonds with our youth and the rest of our people.

“Unfortunately, however, this opportunity was wasted in the worst possible way. Such election results were declared that no wise person in their right mind can believe; results based on credible evidence and witnesses has been altered extensively, and after strong protests by the people against such acts ... they attacked the children of the same people and nation right in front of the domestic and foreign reporters, and used astonishing violence against defenseless men and women and the dear students, injuring and arresting them. And, now, they are trying to purge activists, intellectuals, and political opponents by arresting a large number of them, some of whom have even held high positions in the government of the Islamic Republic."

And from the same article: "Two other important ayatollahs, Ayatollah Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardabili, a close aid to Ayatollah Khomeini and the Chief Justice when he was living, and Ayatollah Asadollah Bayaat Zanjani, also issued statements in support of Mr. Mousavi, the main reformist candidate; they have rejected and harshly criticized the official results." If interested another article does a good job of describing the behind the scenes power struggle now playing itself out.

And while large public protests have all but ceased, there are also reports that there are serious efforts still on-going to implement strikes as the next weapon of choice in opposing the government. As one well-followed source reports, "Quite careful planning happening about national strike. It will be coming soon, but requires to be properly planned."

Information, disinformation and the battle for cyberspace

On Twitter there are on-going efforts by government agents to sow confusion and disinformation. The best example of that was a long exchange on Saturday by a Twitter who has been fingered by many as a government agent. He was claiming that a very trusted source had been arrested, was being tortured, was giving up the names and addresses of key protesters and that whatever the person continued to Twitter was false and should not be listened to. However the continuing reporting of the Twitter who was allegedly arrested left no doubt that this was an attempt to discredit the vital information he/she continued to distribute.

In addition, there are on-going efforts by many people to disrupt the ability of Iranian authorities to effectively use their own websites to attack the protesters and disseminate false information. Yesterday that effort seemed to focus on bringing down this security forces website which is being used to post pictures of protesters in an effort to trace their identities. One non-Iranian Twitter was leading that effort yesterday. He has made available for download a very small and simple program that can be run from any Windows pc that floods the website in question in such a way as to bring down the server it is being run on. I have three of our Windows pcs running the program.

In addition spontaneous groups continue to emerge around the world who are joining forces in creating alternative Internet pathways for the protesters to use which bypass the Iranian web structure, allow anonymous Internet communication and which are better hidden from the Iranian cyber authorities.

Creating these run-arounds is very simple from a technical point of view. The great challenge is maintaining trusted avenues of communication to get the IP addresses of these so-called proxy servers into the hands of those who need them. In the first days this information was communicated via Twitter but as the Iranian government quickly figured out the role Twitter was playing it was necessary to move this communication underground.

Unfortunately it is becoming more and more difficult for those inside Iran to maintain or secure safe mobile telephone numbers and Internet access points. The mobile network, installed by Nokia and Siemens, has a feature called deep packet inspection that allows the Iranian government to quickly and accurately trace mobile phones that are being used for sending and receiving more data than what is necessary for normal voice traffic.

Persiankiwi

The fate of Persiankiwi is still the subject of much speculation. The Twitter that appeared on Friday calling himself Persiankiwi2 has already disappeared and the account is closed. This leads me to believe that it was nothing more than someone playing a hoax. At one point there appeared the message, "persiankiwi has been arrested. I'm so sorry. I get this news from a credible source but I hope it is incorrect" only to be quickly countered by a different credible source with, "Please stop reporting rumours, no one knows anything, they may likely be safe and maintain radio silence.”

However, late Saturday night a new account appeared called Persiankiwie who made 4 tweets:

- Am Safe. Basiji corrupted my twitter acct. DO NOT SEND INFO TO ME @persiankiwi! Great danger!
- Am safe but on the move.
- Can confirm plain clothes inside and outside of Mir Mousavi's location.
- Situation chaotic- safehouses discovered-ppl released from police have fear in their eyes- some tortured-world forgetting us.

To me this sounds exactly like the original Persiankiwi but there is still no confirmation from those who could know. One credible Twitter source is still waiting a reply from his/her last message directed at Persiankiwie 11 hours ago, "Please send me 1 of our old private exchanges so I know it is yourself." (Again, I am paraphrasing some messages so they can not be googled.) Perhaps today will bring more clarity about Persiankiwi's fate.

As always, our thoughts and prayers are with all those who are struggling for a better Iran. May their struggle be triumphant and may they be kept from harm.