I knew it! The truth behind the Tehran tweets
I have found myself getting more and more suspicious about the western media coverage of the Iranian elections and their aftermath.As I wrote before, What I do know for sure is that there are two simultaneous stories:
1.) What
is actually happening in Iran
and
2.) How it is being reported here.
What I see is that my point two is pushing Bibi Netanyahu and his version of a Palestinian "state" off the front pages.
It is a good thing to remember that while Iran, in reality, actually poses no threat to Israel's existence (Persians are not suicidal), a free, sovereign Palestinian state in "Judea and Samaria" does. or at least to Bibi's version of it. In my opinion the neocons are back at work.The run up to Iraq made me a bit paranoid I'm afraid, and all those who whooped up that war, haven't folded their tents or committed harakiri either, they are still with us. I simply don't trust the intentions of the US media, not then, not now.
Just like during the run up to the war in Iraq, the US media is not checking the sources, they are just gushing over the twitters and their tweets. And that is professional negligence if there ever was, because they are quite fishy.
Have you noticed that you can read all these Iranian "tweets"? Are you aware that the language of Iran is Farsi, not English? Does this piece of information suggest anything to you? Perhaps, the world is like in Hollywood movies where all the exotic character speak English, albeit with charming foreign accents? Or maybe, the dial on a person's bullshit meter might tremble a bit?
But, unlike the run up to the war in Iraq, this time some amateurs have take the trouble to do the homework that the "professionals" seem too understaffed to do themselves.
A financial website, "Charting Stocks", has taken the trouble that the MSM can't be bothered with and has exposed a very effective Israeli psy-op.
So, whatever is actually happening in Tehran, we now know that the Israelis are manipulating our perceptions.
Sit back and read this:
One of the few things that I am sure of and understand in this situation is that the government of Israel, and those they influence, would like the USA to attack Iran. Up till now there has been little or no enthusiasm in the USA for doing so. How to "create" that enthusiasm? Stay tuned.Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter #IranElection
Right-wing Israeli interests are engaged in an all out Twitter attack with hopes of delegitimizing the Iranian election and causing political instability within Iran.Anyone using Twitter over the past few days knows that the topic of the Iranian election has been the most popular. Thousands of tweets and retweets alleging that the election was a fraud, calling for protests in Iran, and even urging followers hack various Iranian news websites (which they did successfully). The Twitter popularity caught the eye of various blogs such as Mashable and TechCrunch and even made its way to mainstream news media sites.
Were these legitimate Iranian people or the works of a propaganda machine? I became curious and decided to investigate the origins of the information. In doing so, I narrowed it down to a handful of people who have accounted for 30,000 Iran related tweets in the past few days. Each of them had some striking similarities -
1. They each created their twitter accounts on Saturday June 13th.
2. Each had extremely high number of Tweets since creating their profiles.
3. "IranElection" was each of their most popular keyword
4. With some very small exceptions, each were posting in ENGLISH.
5. Half of them had the exact same profile photo
6. Each had thousands of followers, with only a few friends. Most of their friends were EACH OTHER.Why were these tweets in English? Why were all of these profiles OBSESSED with Iran? It became obvious that this was the work of a team of people with an interest in destabilizing Iran. The profiles are phonies and were created with the sole intention of destabilizing Iran and effecting public opinion as to the legitimacy of Iran's election.
I narrowed the spammers down to three of the most persistent - @StopAhmadi @IranRiggedElect @Change_For_Iran
I decided to do a google search for 2 of the 3 - @StopAhmadi and @IranRiggedElect. The first page to come up was JPost (Jerusalem Post) which is a right wing newspaper pro-Israeli newspaper.
JPost actually ran a story about 3 people "who joined the social network mere hours ago have already amassed thousands of followers." Why would a news organization post a story about 3 people who JUST JOINED TWITTER hours earlier? Is that newsworthy? JPost was the first (and only to my knowledge) major news source that mentioned these 3 spammers.
JPost, a major news organization, promoted these three Twitterers who went on the be the source of the IranElection Twitter bombardment. Why is JPost so concerned about Iranian students all of a sudden (which these spammers claim to be)? I must admit that I had my suspicions. After all, Que Bono? (who benefits).
There's no question that Israel perceives Iran as an enemy, more so than any other nation. According to a recent poll, more than half of Israel's population support using military force against Iran if they do not cease from developing nuclear energy (which they have the legal right to do as per the NNP treaty). Oddly enough, this comes out of a country which is not a cosigner to the NNP treaty and has no right to develop nuclear energy, yet posses an arsenal of nuclear BOMBS.
Of course, Mousavi himself plays an important role in causing the social unrest within Iran. How often do you see a candidate declare himself the winner before any votes are counted and then, when faced with defeat, call the entire election process a fraud? As obvious as it was in our own 2000 election, Al Gore would not touch the topic of voter fraud. No major US politician goes near the subject. They know full well that such an accusation would shake the entire foundation of our democracy and threaten the political structures that are in place.
These twitting spammers began crying foul before the final votes were even counted, just as Mousavi had. The spammer @IranRiggedElect created his profile before a winner was announced and preformed the public service of informing us in the United States , in English and every 10 minutes, of the unfair election. He did so unselfishly, and without any regard for his fellow friends and citizens of Iran, who don't speak English and don't use Twitter!
Meet The Spammers
IranRiggedElect
3146 followers. 31 friends.
340 tweets in past 4 days. none before that.
Top 5 words - iranelection, cnnfail, mousavi, tehran,
All tweets in English
Time: Bulk between 12pm and 2pm eastern standard time
Most retweets: @StopAhmadi @IranElection09 @change_for_iranChange_for_Iran
14,000 followers. 0 friends
117 tweets in 2 days. none before that.
All tweets in English
Time: Bulk between 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm eastern.
Top 5 words: iranelection, people, police, right, students
No retweetsIranElection09
800 followers. 9 friends.
196 tweets in 3 days. none before that.
185 in English. 11 in Farsi (Arabic appearing letters. Not sure if it's Farsi)
Time: bulk between 2:00pm and 6:00pm eastern. Also 1:00am.
Top 5 words: iranelection, rt, mousavi, tehran, march
Most retweets: @IranRiggedElect @StopAhmadiStopAhmadi
6199 followers. 53 friends.
1107 tweets in past 3 days. None before then.
top 5 words: iranelection, ppl, news, rt, iran.
All tweets in English
Time: bulk between 9:00am and 5:00pm eastern
Most retweets: @mohamadreza @mahdimohamadreza
1433 followers. 142 friends
(protected account. cant see data)The following all have the same photo in their profile and are followed by the profiles previously mentioned.
http://twitter.com/SadeqEn
http://twitter.com/greenvote
http://twitter.com/Change_for_Iran (14,000 followers)
http://twitter.com/iranbaan
http://twitter.com/sdavood
http://twitter.com/IranElection09 (800 followers. 9 friends.)
that's interesting David. Political interests will never cease to try and misinform. They do it across all media. Not just Twitter.
I'm not prepared to dismiss the whole thing as a conspiracy though, sorry. (It's possible some Iranians only just recently joined Twitter because every other means of communication was taken from them.)
You present some provocative info here, for sure.
Did you see this?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/17/743478/-Ahmadinejad-Rally-Photoshopped-to-Appear-Larger
June 17, 2009 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
What the Iranies do or don't is there business, I am complaining about the US media and BTW I am very supportive of President Obama on this one, he is handling himself very well in this Iran crisis.
June 17, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
"By way of deception, we shall do war"
C
June 17, 2009 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Note:
I am not blaming the Israelis for trying this stuff, they are between a rock and a hard place. I blame the US MSM, who once again are failing to do their job properly.
June 17, 2009 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good post.
My what is wrong with this picture alarm went off when I checked the news this morning. There are hundreds of other photos of signs in English only. What idiot thought that was an effective tactic?
June 17, 2009 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well the idiot has had a good run for his or her money. Most people think seem to think it's normal for Farsi speakers to demonstrate in English.
June 17, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Short run, maybe. In the long run, fewer and fewer people will believe anything they see or read.
June 17, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
In a globalized media age? Yes, it is normal. Obviously these demonstrators aren't just looking for support from a domestic audience.
June 17, 2009 7:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agree this is a good post. The signs and the 'tweets' are different issues IMO. I'm not sure that the signs penned in English are an indicator of 'fraudulent' manipulation of the media. If protesters want to bring international pressure on their government wouldn't it make sense to make their signage in the international 'language of choice'?
June 17, 2009 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have a point about the signs Miguelito, but at the same time, they might severely weaken the protesters case in the eyes of other Iranians. Imagine the effect something similar would have in the USA, signs in the language of an enemy country in an American demonstration.
June 17, 2009 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not only did that occur to me but I also remembered that many second-language English speakers use more accurate grammar than many of we native speakers do.:)
Still, using English in the signs makes it obvious that the photos were for foreign, not domestic consumption which is in line with David's post.
June 17, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
The prevalent use of English in the signs is an interesting choice for the demonstrators. Perhaps the protesters perceive change being more likely to be facilitated through international pressure than domestic, or at least in tandem with, though there is little in the regime's history to suggest such an approach would be effective. My guess is that they know their protests will fall on deaf ears in the government, and use English as a way of appealing to a more receptive audience outside their own country where political censorship is not de rigueur. This would not be the first time the use of English as opposed to the native language has been utilized in protest signs.
June 17, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
International pressure is likely to have the same effect on the Iranian regime and Ahmadinejad's supporters as international opinion had on Bush/Cheney and their supporters after 2000. It was counterproductive. Republicans closed ranks in defiance.
Fortunately for us, the legitimacy of Bush/Cheney 2000 was questionable enough to disturb and incite opposition from many independent voters as well as the Democrats. Was Ahmadinejad's election as questionable? I have no idea but if not, it will damage the creditability of Mousavi and his supporters both at home and abroad.
We will never really know what impact Bush/Cheney 2000 alone would have had on the electorate. 9/11, Iraq and other assorted disasters that followed obscured that theft. I do know it woke me up. Maybe what is happening in Iran will wake some voters there. They are who Mousavi et al should be appealing to. We can't vote there; they can.
June 17, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
On HuffPo's website there was a photo in one of their slide shows of what looks like millions of people gathering in protest and the date says the event occurred on June 16th. I wanted to get the picture by itself so I did a Google search. It led me to a site where one tweeter or twitterer (whatever) said that it might be a photo from an event that occurred before the election.
Here's the pic:
http://twitpic.com/7ki6e
I can no longer find the link that the tweeter provided as proof that the event took place before the elections.
June 17, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed that the MSM is weak and probably an unwitting conspirator in this, as they are too unsophisticated to wade through the unfilitered stream of info coming out of Iran.
But there seems to be something amazing happening in Iran that cannot be locked down by the Government. Because of cell phones, twitter, etc., it is impossible to keep a lid on what is happening. Of course all of this is source material, and some of it is fradulent or produced by people outside Iran with an agenda.
There's alot of moving parts here, and it's exhilirating to watch. You make a good point bringing up the motives of Neocons and the Israeli right....But I can't see how supporting Moussavi can be anything but damaging to those that just want to sow division, and ultimately military action against Iran's nuclear ambitions. Moussavi is a product of the real Iran, a real moderate alternative to Ahmadiniejad, but no revolutionary...More akin to a Democrat vs. Republican than a battle between an Autocrat and a Revolutionary.
But ultimately your advice is sound. Don't trust the blowhards in the MSM. Abso-frickin-lutely!
June 17, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think most governments think that Ahmadinejad has won, probably by getting more votes, but think that these disturbances may weaken the regime's bargaining position and prestige.
Earlier today I posted this from Haaretz
I must emphasize thatI think that Obama's is handling all of this Iran business very well. Eisenhower-like.
June 17, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
There has long been a very active net presence of anti-Iranian regime expats trying to influence the West to do something about the Iranian regime. They write in English, have websites in English, and live in places like Los Angeles, London and Washington D.C.
I don't see why you have to bring Israelis into it, what were are probably dealing with here is Iranian equivalents of Ahmad Chalabi.
Any of those folks who are all excited about Twitter being good for "political activism," well, keep in mind that people like Ahmad Chalabi do a lot of "political activism," too. Political activism does not mesh well with "truth" or "journalism," it meshes much better with advertising techniques and propaganda. After all, "going viral," is all about selling something to other people, whether it's a political idea or face cream.
Imagine if someone came out with the Saddam Hussein incubator story on YouTube these days, and the MSM refused to cover it much. The number of hits on YouTube would be gargantuan, I bet, and everyone would believe it precisely because it was a "hot" viral video that the MSM wasn't covering.
As for cable TV news, they can't win, they want to offer vetted info, and at first they tell the audience the truth, that they can't give much real info. because a regime won't let them report much with boots on the ground, but the audience complains that there's not enough coverage, so they give the audience what they want and fill it in with hearsay from Twitter and videos from cell phones from anonymous posters.
June 17, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very good comment Art.
Synthesis: The Shah of Iran was Israel's closest ally after the USA. You can mix pro-Shah Iranian expats with Israelis without problem.
June 17, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
P.S. The last big student protests in Iran were 1999, with Ahmad Batebi the poster child, including an Economist magazine cover. There were a lot of anti-regime expat Iranian activists on the net in the years following, I recall visiting a lot of anti-Iranian websites written by Iranian expat students in English, in the early Bush years, and they were more propagandistic than being about reporting truth. (Most anti-regime websites from inside, written in Farsi, wouldn't last very long, being censored.)
On the general news website I frequented back then, there were several anti-regime Iranians (who knows if they were American citizens or still could vote in Iran) who would post an anti-regime screed from time to time. Far from Israeli, one was a vehement anti-Islamist Persian nationalist who would post something on all the Zoroastrian holidays. (The latter were actually quite sweet, he obviously had a very touching fondness for his native ancient culture and religion.)
Anti-regime Iranian activists have lain a bit low the last couple of years, it seemed like the early days of Bush neo-conservatism got their hopes up, but its failures probably dashed them. I'm sure this has them all excited again, and they have net skills from way back, they know exactly what they have to do.
And here is Bill Keller, the New York Times' editor, reporting in today's paper on "reporting" from Iran. First he tells of failure in trying to access google for a certain search he first thought innocuous and a couple of other anecdotes. Then this:
By the way, that happy new year message to the Iranian people that Obama sent? It was for Norouz, the Zoraostrian New Year, March 20 (assumed to be the birthday of Zoroaster himself.) It is not an Islamic celebration, quite the contrary. I think that he chose that means something more in Iran than it does here, it's a subtle message about most conservative branch of the Islamic theocracy who'd prefer the people not pay so much attention to such pagan rituals.
June 17, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see, thanks.
June 17, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
David, this is a good post, thank you. I to think Obama is handling the situation well but my question is who do the neocons think are going to fight the war with Iran? We now have more private contractors in Iraq then regular military.
June 17, 2009 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's good to be suspicious. Of course, this works both ways, in that it's good to be suspicious of those who are convinced this is not really from Iran, as well. One thing that's missing from the analysis of the tweets is the time in Iran - they only display the time in the Eastern US, thus belying their assumptions, or so it seems to me. The Iranian time zone is 8 hours, 30 minutes ahead of our own. So, "between 12 and 2pm [EDT]" equates to "between 8:30 and 10:30 pm Iranian Daylight Time", "between 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm" equates to "between 4:30 am and 7:30 am", "between 2:00pm and 6:00pm" equates to "between 10:30pm and 2:30am", and "between 9:00am and 5:00pm" equates to "between 5:30pm and 1:30am". A few scenarios exist with respect to these tweets: (1) They're all legitimate, (2) None of them are legitimate, (3) Some of them are legitimate. Don't ignore the third option.
June 17, 2009 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure some of them are legitimate; I wouldn't tend to doubt anything in Farsi, although perhaps I should. I'm suspicious because I read the Persians as very patriotic, very nationalistic, very proud and this is a "family" affair if its anything at all. I don't the genuine protest would be playing to a foreign audience or appreciate their applause.
June 17, 2009 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to Wolfram Alpha (one of my new favorite sites), there are 71.2 million Iranians. They can't all be described with the same adjectives. I suspect that at least a few of the English tweets are from Iranians in Iran. Of course, I think it's also likely that a few are frauds. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised to find that a few of the Farsi ones are frauds. So, we're pretty much in agreement on #3, but I suspect our guesses might diverge on what fraction of them are legitimate. Either way, we're both just guessing, and it's good to question our assumptions.
Good post.
June 17, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you want to read anything about Iran that unlike Laura Secor drivel, read M K Bhadrakumar's articles in Asia Times. Here is a link to his latest one:
Khamenei rides a storm in a tea cup
June 17, 2009 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow! Another Zionist conspiracy! Thanks, David, for pointing out how the Jews control the world. All those people out on the street marching for fair election-- they are tools of the Zionist enemy! Mousavi=Mossad because they start with the same sound!
Ahmadi Nejad is the friend of all American peoples. The Holocaust never happened. It is a lie of the Jews!
Real Iranians would only use Farsi because they don't want anyone in the outside world to be able to read their signs. And all their cellphones made in China and Finland have Farsi keyboards.
Allah Ahkbar!
June 17, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Horse shit... if I may coin a phrase.
June 17, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think any Israeli involvement in the present situation in Iran would have its objective making Obama's rapprochement with Iran, more difficult or impossible.
June 17, 2009 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
one thing i dont understand here. most everyone agrees that a mousavi victory would remove whatever small chance there is the US would either undertake their own or allow an israeli attack on iran. so the whole premise seems false. in fact, the hawks in israel seem very unhappy about the prospect of a mousavi presidency. so how does this make any sense?
June 17, 2009 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. It is certainly possible that these "right-wing Israelis" are stupid enough to do that, but it seems a bit unlikely.
June 17, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
David's been arguing/hinting that it's a set-up - Mousavi's not going to win. But we all fall in love with Mousavi and his youthful followers, then they're brutally repressed, all the blooming flowers cut off, we then all feel enough hatred and fear toward the madman Ahmadinejad to support "reluctantly" taking action to bomb the nukes there. So the Twitter manipulation is just to build the love. The bombs come later.
June 17, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey! It just occured to me that I left out of my comment a rather favored western destination for disgruntled Iranian expats. Not suggesting you're in on the big twitter conspiracy, but then, on the other hand, you are a pretty good storyteller... :-)
June 17, 2009 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Precisely right, Quinn. No-one on the right wants Mousavi to win. No-one on the right thinks there's the slightest chance Mousavi will win.
Maybe a majority of those on the streets of Tehran think that's possible, but those in the West shedding crocodile tears on their behalf are NOT their friends and definitely not friends of Iran as a whole.
Look at a partial list of those egging on a violent confrontation: Republicans, neocons, the son of the bloody shah!
In Tehran, there may be real anger and a conviction the election was stolen. Here in the West, I see mostly sheer political exploitation. By people who think another war will be good for their interests.
June 17, 2009 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ooh, I get it, it is the old humanise-your-opponents ploy! Sure to win the backing of the public to bomb the people whe they formerly thought to be evil but turned out to be for democracy and stuff, who knew.
Foolproof.
June 17, 2009 9:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bingo. Mousavi's going to lose, but everyone's going to care, which is the whole point.
June 17, 2009 10:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
i'm sorry but the world doesn't work in this double-carem bankshot way. it just doesn't. it would actually make a certain amount of sense to heighten antagonism toward Ahmadinejad to build up Mousavi. But actually, the folks on the right were saying Mousavi was no better. They were clearly caught off guard by the turn of events. not everything is planned. if anything, whatever the outcome of this struggle, I think this has close to eliminated what was already the very, very marginal possibility of a US or Israeli military attack on Iran.
June 17, 2009 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I'll leave the trick shots to David - I'm just saying I think this is how he sees it.
I think events caught everyone by surprise. But it's plain that a range of players wouldn't mind if Ahmadinejad ended up looking more monstrous - not just in words, but in deeds. That would serve a lot of purposes, and not just the nuclear one.
For me, everyday this process goes on, in public, in the media, the Middle East gets further humanized, and Muslims in particular. Osama's face becomes less the symbol of what all Muslims want, replaced by the Tehran crowds in green. And that's a big deal, a possible end to the post-9/11 chapter. If it went so far as the marchers winning... then we're looking at a 30 year deep reading of the ME shifting. A grass-roots democratic revolution in Tehran before Baghdad? That's a new world.
June 18, 2009 12:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
It was Mousavi who started Iran's atomic program... it is perfectly cynical to pretend to pin the west's hopes on Mousavi.
June 18, 2009 1:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
So if Mousavi hasn't changed, and the Israelis are amp'ing up Twitter, what's causing the excitement? Some long-time disgruntled Mousavi stalwarts?
June 18, 2009 2:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
What it is surely going to do is to make things more difficult for Obama to defuse the Middle East. Who could want that? Go figure.
June 18, 2009 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
We really have to define what the word "right" means here. The "realists" like James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, Mearsheimer and Walt are quite conservative in the traditional sense and could be considered the "right" by some: they don't want to go to war with Iran, and then there are the neocons are also referred to as the "right" and they do.
Which "right" are we referring to.
June 18, 2009 1:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
It wouldn't be the first time that people in some troubled country were lured into believing the USA would intervene in their favor and would be left out to dry.
June 18, 2009 1:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
There isn't just one kind of hawk. All kinds of diverse parties might be attempting to spin reality and influence the outcome.
One possibility: some hawks who originally thought a clean Ahmadinejad victory would best serve their needs now see in the post-election, post-fraud chaos the opportunity to spark some really massive creative destruction in Iran, and pursue their long-held dream of toppling the whole Islamic Republic. I don't think there are a lot of people in Iran thinking that way, but there are no doubt many in America thinking that way.
And there are people in both Israel and the United States who are more extreme than even the Netanyahu government. Some of them have angled to spark a major regional war for years. They tried and failed in their efforts to get Israel and the Bush administration to extend the 2006 war against Hizbollah to Syria and Iran.
How many such people are there? I don't know. But how many people do you need to start a few Twitter accounts and present themselves as Iranian students?
Anyway, the Twitter aspect of the events in Iran is overblown. Clearly there is a large and broad-based movement occurring in Iran that extends beyond a core of radical student activists, and that also can't be pinned down as the work of a few agents provocateurs in either Iran or other countries.
But it is good to be skeptical of what we read and hear from sources whose origins can't be confirmed.
June 17, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/exmoonie_diane.php for what happens when one believes in a cult where she reveals that a certain point in her life she would have accepted the idea of genocide as justifiable if needed to save the world.
Asking if the Persians are suicidal is the wrong question -- just as asking whether the Germans were murderous was the wrong question with respect to WWII. The better question is what are the people with the power going to do? Truman did not ask us before he built and dropped the bomb.
Further, Jonestown on a gigantic scale is not inconceivable.
June 17, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have been watching Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabia, BBC, and CNN for the last week.
All of the coverage differs greatly depending on which network you happen to be watching.
As David says here, it is very difficult to confirm anything out of Tehran. Especially twitter.
Does anyone remember the reliance placed on blogs in November 2004 during the election results, and the accuracy thereof after?
But my main question is this while watching the hours of coverage: I have found it strange that whether they show protests in Tehran, London, or LA--the people protesting all have either english incribed signs, or printed out ones that say in english, "Where's My Vote?"
I was wondering why this would have been done in English?
Are they 1-trying to get Obama's attention, or 2-being planted for ulterior motive as David has suggested in some manner?
June 17, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only 55% of Iranians are native Persian speakers.
Also the protesters looking for foreign support are like to put their signs in English, the world's most widely-spoken language.
June 17, 2009 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we have the first case of Naked Short Tweeting. You heard it here firstest.
June 17, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post. I was on twitter and as a ton of messages came in I unwittingly posted that I wished I spoke Farsi.
I am member of Flickr and I haven't seen much on that site from Iran. I may have a couple of contacts in Iran in my list. When something large (important) happens in the world it usually appears on Flickr. I will continue looking for information.
June 17, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn, that is possibly the flimsiest "proof" I have seen for anything in a long while, including from the "birthers."
Josh above makes exactly the right point on the logic of it, aside from their "facts."
You are amusingly quick to take to a bizarre theory peddled by some random website over the slightly more conservative theory that there could possibly be, say, 1000 or so people in Iran who A) speak English and B) computer-savvy (even to the degree to use proxies to connect out of the region.)
I am quite certain that there is a bunch of misinformation, pranks and outright fraudsters on #iranelection etc. but your view of the Iranians is a bit unseemly.
June 17, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that after the Cairo speech there are people on the Likud-AIPAC circuit that would like to derail Obama's momentum in the Middle East.
June 18, 2009 1:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Photos from Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/armin_bb/sets/72157619751476797/
There is one picture of someone who is dead. I don't know the cause of the death but it is graphic.
June 17, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
The picture is of someone killed in 80s. The story explains more. The link is at the bottom of the picture.
June 17, 2009 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just as an aside I think we're greatly underestimating the number of English speakers in Iran.
http://www.slate.com/id/2220307/
"In many photos, riot police wear uniforms with the English word police on them. Ambulances, too, bear the word ambulance in English. Why not use Persian words instead of their English equivalents?
Because everyone knows English. Like many capital cities, Tehran has its emergency personnel wear markings that are internationally recognizable. Street signs, too, are translated into English, and police cars are generally inscribed in both English and Persian. That makes the city more tourist-friendly without sacrificing clarity for locals. After all, the Persian word for police is the same: polise. (Persian, or Farsi, is an Indo-European language that uses an Arabic script, but people will often use Latin lettering, also known as Penglish or Fingilish, especially when typing or texting.) It's also the same word in French (police), German (polizei), Italian (polizia), Czech (policie), and many other languages. Iranian students are required to take English classes in high school. So using the English word for police actually maximizes the number of people who will understand it."
June 17, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not forget the DIRTY WAR that Israel and the U.S. have been waging inside Iran for a few years now, and I haven't heard that Obama has stopped it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l0sGTrwujU&feature=related
Does Obama and company really want to force a civil war in Israel to pursue real Mid East peace?
Israel undoubtedly wants to spin up a story that the U.S. public will support, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of Obama's advisers looked forward to such an opportunity to avoid forcing an Israeli civil war, and political turmoil among Israel's more hawkish supporters in the U.S.
June 17, 2009 10:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
As part of this dirty war, the U.S. was recruiting Iranian Sunni terrorists, and bringing them across the Afghan border for training.
Obama also just got the head of Cheney's assassination squad appointed in charge of Afghanistan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ_w7G4jsRQ&feature=related
Remember that the Gaza massacre was planned 6 months before it happened, to occur right before the Israeli election and right after Christmas when the American public would be preoccupied.
Coordinating bogus Tweets would be par for the course, as would further inciting violence in Iran in the next few days.
I would bet a dollar that we'll see some gruesome terrorist attacks in Iran in the next few days, and they might just eventually be revealed to have American or Israeli fingerprints on them.
Such attacks would give Ahmadinejad an excuse to impose brutal measures to stabilize the country, and these measures would be eaten up by an American press that "believes" Netanyahu's speech was a major overture in the peace process.
We saw with the Iraqi National Congress that a group of Iraqi expats were eager to hand over Iraq to America just to get their palms greased and to get rid of Saddam.
Surely some of the Sunni extremist groups in Iran would be willing to sell out Iran as well, if they are well paid and perhaps promised a role in Iran's future regime.
They could carry out sophisticated terrorist attacks with Israeli and/or American weapons/intelligence support, and take full credit while claiming no connection to the Dirty War that has been ongoing by America and Israel since 2005.
Does any of this seem at all unrealistic to you?
June 17, 2009 11:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember the Shock Doctrine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvG0gbvZ4tY
A contested election in Iran is puddy in certain motivated, experienced, and conscience-free people's hands.
June 18, 2009 12:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I mentioned above that after the Cairo speech there are people on the Likud-AIPAC circuit that would like to derail Obama's momentum in the Middle East. The same people are very worried by the pressure from Obama on the settlement freeze. This Iranian opportunity could be seen like knocking over the table in a losing chess game. While everybody is picking up the pieces, the one who was losing gets some time to think and his opponents rhythm is broken. Or the corner cutting a groggy boxer's glove so that the fighter can get a chance to clear his head while the ref is inspecting the glove. Playing for time, changing the subject.
June 18, 2009 2:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
There are a lot of people who want the USA to attack Iran and many of them are the same people who wanted the USA to attack Iraq. Since very few people in the USA, including the president (take note that I am giving him full credit here) want to attack Iran, especially after seeing what a disaster attacking Iraq was, it is necessary to build public anger.
For the record: I am very impressed by the way that Obama is handling this one. He reminds me of Eisenhower: a practicing adult. If he doesn't cave into all the neocons on this, I may finally come to Jesus and become a fan of his.
June 18, 2009 1:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here is something just in from today's Jerusalem Post:
This kind of make my point, I thinkJune 18, 2009 3:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let the Iranians pick their own leader.
If we didn't have to maintain the ability to snake a missile down any chimney on 3 hours notice then maybe our judgment wouldn't be clouded by the constant temptation to launch a few.
Maybe our government would be more self-aware of its bipartisan ignorance, and stop imagining itself capable of divining who is our loyal friend, who is playing us for a sucker and who genuinely needs a missile down their chimney.
Maybe the rest of the world would worry more about growing their own economies and building their own prosperity, and less about deterring and thwarting an arbitrary and capricious United States.
Maybe we could afford universal health insurance.
June 18, 2009 5:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Aatos,
¡Olé tus cojones!
(pardon my French)
June 18, 2009 6:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
What I think is obvious is that the internal undercurrents and tensions in Iran are being exploited by the foreign corporate media for their own interests... the neocons are piling on too. Reading through the Iranian cast of characters it is also obvious that America does not have a dog in this fight. Simply put, the situation if being used to weaken Obama's ME strategy. The question: qui bono? Answer: the usual suspects.
June 18, 2009 6:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice research on the Twitter, Mr. Seaton. I don't think your neo-con conspiracy theory is as plausible as the alternative progressive conspiracy theory. The first holds that the Moussavi movement will be successfully and brutally put down and thereby expose the Iranian regime as radicals who it is impossible to negotiate with. The second holds that Moussavi is a moderate, and will gain some kind of victory (recount/power sharing, etc) thereby showing that moderates have real power in the Iranian government warranting a negotiation approach. I personally am not sure that Moussavi is much of a moderate (or rather, a pragmatist about foreign relations), but I do think the media is building him up to be some kind of revolutionary force.
Your theory seems a bit too far-fetched.
June 18, 2009 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
What I think is evident is that the USA, from its own point of view and interest, has no dog in this fight. The question, is what is moving this story, not in Iran, but outside of Iran.
June 18, 2009 8:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, that was what I was addressing. I'm saying one could make a better case for a progressive 'conspiracy' in setting up Mousavi as a reformist savior. I guess it depends on your view of the likelihood of success, in one form or another, for his movement. If you think it's a given they will get savagely put down, then you have a case.
I don't think the outcome is so obvious. Mousavi's support goes quite high up - Montazeri, Rafsanjani, even students at the elite's Imam Sadiq University.
June 18, 2009 8:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
The support of Rafsanjani is both Mousavi's strength and his weakness.
June 18, 2009 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Or, instead of thinking up a conspiracy theory, you could do a bit of research.
Why are Iranian police markings written in English?
Post-election protests continued in Tehran for the fifth day on Wednesday. In many photos, riot police wear uniforms with the English word police on them. Ambulances, too, bear the word ambulance in English. Why not use Persian words instead of their English equivalents?
Because everyone knows English. Like many capital cities, Tehran has its emergency personnel wear markings that are internationally recognizable. Street signs, too, are translated into English, and police cars are generally inscribed in both English and Persian. That makes the city more tourist-friendly without sacrificing clarity for locals. After all, the Persian word for police is the same: polise. (Persian, or Farsi, is an Indo-European language that uses an Arabic script, but people will often use Latin lettering, also known as Penglish or Fingilish, especially when typing or texting.) It's also the same word in French (police), German (polizei), Italian (polizia), Czech (policie), and many other languages. Iranian students are required to take English classes in high school. So using the English word for police actually maximizes the number of people who will understand it.
http://slate.com/id/2220307
June 18, 2009 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, David--where the hell did all the protesters come from?
Are they just clay in our hands?
Are are stooges?
Do you mean to say that the feelings expessed, the videos and photos are manipulated, and that Mousavi's website and such as "revolutionary Road" are in a conspiracy with BBC,CNN, etc. to dupe us all?
Do you likewise believe that JFK and Marilyn are on an island with Jimmy Hoffa?
June 19, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
from (link in my reply below because of spam filter here)
June 21, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
the above blockquote from Twitter on the Barricades in Iran: Six Lessons Learned
By Noam Cohen, New York Times Week in Review.
Minor notes of interest: in the print edition of the New York Times article above, the Farsi script was inserted for Mousavil388's quoted warning message, as well as the English. They don't seem to have a capability for this to transfer to the net version of the article.
And the photo with the article, both in print and on the net, happens to be one with protesters holding two posters in Farsi, and Agence France Presse took it from a "Twitpic."
June 21, 2009 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink