Iranian protest blog thread highlights from irannewsnow.com: December 27, 2009

1:18AM Tehran Time]

Unconfirmed: A report that clashes are occurring now in front of the building for the Voice and Visage of Iran (Sedah va Seema), another broadcasting station.

[12:53AM Tehran Time]

Confirmed: Multiple reports of protesters clashing with special security forces in front of IRIB, one of the regime’s state broadcasting channels.

…Multiple reports are coming in of martial law being declared in the city of Najafabad, the deceased Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s hometown.

The situation in Iran is in chaotic and in constant flux. It is not clear what will happen next, but with the killings by regime goons of protesters on the tenth day of the Moharram ceremony of Ashura, the people will likely be even more enraged. It is not clear what will come next, but it has been a monumental day in Iran.

[6:39PM Tehran Time]

We have already seen a day of massive clashes across Iran, with people killed in a brutal crackdown by the regime of the now utterly hated so-called Supreme Leader of Iran, Khamenei. The evidence is clear.

…There is no way that this regime will be able to hide what happened today from the people of Iran and the world, just as they have not been able to do so during any of the many protests that have taken place since the rigged June 12th elections.

After today, everything will be different. I am predicting that the protest movement will grow as more and more people in Iran awaken to and accept that the regime in power is barbaric. Something has to give, and soon.

[6:03PM Tehran Time]

Reports coming in of continued clashes in Tabriz, where 4 people have been killed, according to Rouydad News. This brings the rough tally of people reported killed at 12 so far (if the hospital reports of 8 deaths are from Tehran only).

[5:17PM Tehran Time]

Reports of continued protests and clashes in Tehran, Esfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, Rasht, Babol, Sari, Arak and Ardebil.

Reports on known fatalities as of now sit at at least five.

[5:05PM Tehran Time]

Video of protesters in Tehran chanting:

“Down with Khamenei!”
“Khamenei is a criminal! His leadership is void!”
“Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!” (associating Mir Hossein Mosavi with Imam Hossein, martyred during Ashura in the founding years of Islam).
“Yazid will soon topple!” (Yazid is the reviled dictator who killed Imam Hossein. People are associating Khamenei with Yazid).

[4:51PM Tehran Time]

Despite the clear evidence of massive protests occurring in Iran today in which protesters were shot at and killed …the Iranian state-run media (IRNA and Fars News) are reporting that protests were small and unsubstantial, and they are denying that anyone was killed.

Quick opininion: The regime has clearly lost all control. These protests and the level of animosity displayed to the regime have been unprecedented in the history of the Islamic Republic (over the past 30 years since the regime was founded). This is a monumental challenge to the regime. It remains to be seen what their response will be. Likely, it will be more of what we have seen since the June 12th rigged elections: more crackdowns, more arrests, more torture, more rape, more murder, more lies and more denial of the situation in Iran. Barring the government unleashing unrestrained force and brutality on the people, it is difficult to see how they may possibly try to stop the momentum of the protesters seeking freedom and human rights. The despotic regime is looking more and more like a doomed one, but that does not mean they won’t continue to kill and fight until their inevitable demise.

4:27PM Tehran Time]

We reported on helicopters over Tehran earlier. More reports of many helicopters in the skies above Tehran, several spotted near Jamaran Mosque, where former two-term president Khatami’s speech was interrupted via an attack on the mosque by plainclothed pro-government vigilantes and Basijis…

1:32PM Tehran Time]

Quick Opinion: The fact that the regime is cracking down on people in the streets during Ashura is a clear indication that the regime has virtually completely shed its religious veneer. Clearly, they are far more concerned with keeping their own death grip on the nation (along with the associated economic benefits of being in control) than on encouraging an Islamic society.

This is a very risky calculation for the regime, because without religious, moral, or political legitimacy, the regime is more and more being seen in Iran as an occupying, alien-force, at least insofar as Iranian cultured and interests are concerned.

No matter what the outcome of today’s protests, it is very difficult to see a way out for the regime that will ever allow them to return to the status quo (as it was before the June election at least). Change is virtually inevitable now. What remains to be seen is how it will manifest, and at what cost. One thing for certain, the widespread nature of the protests (both in segments of the society and in geographic dispersion) indicates that the days of this government are numbered.

[1:21PM Tehran Time]

Unconfirmed report of 20,000 protesters in Shiraz from Saadi Cinema to Paramount Street. Protesters chanting slogans against Khamenei.

[1:17PM Tehran Time]

Reports of heavy clashes now in front of Polytechnic University student residences.

[1:10PM Tehran Time]

Unconfirmed: Another person reportedly killed in Vali Asr Street.

[12:54PM Tehran Time]

Unconfirmed report: One of the people killed was a young girl that was shot in the back. She was purportedly carried away by Basij.