The Iranian regime arrested eight locals who worked in the British Embassy in Tehran, provoking strong words in Whitehall and elsewhere. This just showed up in an email, quoting the London Times:
Foreign ministers of European states, gathered for a European Union conference in Greece, quickly condemned the arrests… France, Italy, Germany and Britain maintain robust diplomatic missions in Tehran.
“Harassment or intimidation of foreign or Iranian staff working in embassies will be met with a strong and collective EU response,” said a statement issued by the foreign ministers.
Just shows you what’s really important, eh? Where was that “strong and collective EU response” when peacefully demonstrating Iranians were being butchered in the streets?
No wonder the Iranians feel abandoned by the West. They are.
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8 Comments
1. Alexis:Dr. Ledeen:
Much of the West didn’t abandon Iranian dissenters because they were never on the side of Iranian freedom to begin with. However, some people in the West are doing what they can to help Iranian dissidents. The fight isn’t over.
For example, there is an outfit called nedanet dot org. Check it out.
Two key dates to watch for in the coming month are July 19 (25 Rajab 1430) and July 30 (7 Sha’aban 1430).
July 19 is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the seventh Imam of Twelver Shi’ism who said, “The best generosity is the help to the oppressed.”
July 30 is forty days after the martyrdom of Neda Soltani. July 30 is also a day for Shi’ites to celebrate the birth of Qasim, son of the second Imam. Assembling to mourn the martyrdom of Neda Soltani may require a pretext of celebrating the birth of Qasim.
Is there some way a theater troupe could produce a Farsi language adaptation of the play Antigone on July 30? (An amateur production would do!) This Greek tragedy is about the same blasphemy of prohibiting families from mourning their dead loved ones. Khamenei & Ahmadinejad are now playing the part of Creon. If there is some way for one or more of the Irangeles satellite television stations to broadcast a live theatrical production of Antigone on July 30, this may have an effect.
The key question in Iran is now whether the government will allow the practice of Islam.
I realize that some Iranians are not afraid, but many are. For those Iranians who want to speak out but are too afraid, filtration technology exists for masking video to make it more difficult for governments to track down dissidents online. (It also makes the video look more artistic and avoids the implicit shame of overtly fuzzing out someone’s face.) If you want more details about this technology, you know where to contact me.
Let’s face it, there are more people in the West who are presently worshipping an idol named Michael Jackson than those who are willing to do anything to help those Iranians who want freedom. That’s life. To those Iranians who believe in letting the families of victims of Basiji violence at least mourn their dead, to those Iranians who truly desire a better future for themselves and their country, to those Iranians who want freedom, you have not been forgotten, at least not by those who truly understand what is at stake.
Jun 28, 2009 - 5:43 pm 2. David W. Lincoln:Good reference to Antigone, Alexis. Natan Sharansky makes eloquent testimony to it in, “Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy”.
The arts have been used to propel movements, for
Jun 28, 2009 - 6:19 pm 3. David Thomson:instance “Les Miserables” in 1989.
Michael Jackson’s death really put the screws to the Iranian dissidents. The odds significantly increased against them once their plight was relegated to the back pages. Out of sight—and out of mind. Sad, but true.
Jun 29, 2009 - 5:06 am 4. Me:Strong response? How so, another sentence with the word ’strong’ in it.
I’m sorry I fail to see how claiming a response will be made, is a response at all. More empty rhetoric from the empty suits we continue to employ in Western governments.
It’s time for revolution, folks.
Jun 29, 2009 - 9:46 am 5. Professor Guvinoff:The savage repression of the bullies does not cool the anger of the abused, it only makes it less conspicuous. If the criminals in charge increase Ahmadinejad margin of victory in the second bogus “re-count”, they will further diminish whatever was left of their legitimacy.
Things can progress in slow-motion even as they proceed underground. Obama made himself into an electoral darling by trumpeting his willingness to talk with the mullahs, whose illegetimacy has been exposed by the courageous demonstrators.
But there is more: By ricochet, the courage of the street protestors has also uncovered the fallacy of Obama’s presumed wisdom. It takes time for people to reconsider their ill-begotten beliefs, but it does happen, as fast as emotional adjustment can, which is not very fast at all, as we know if we had to mourn a dear loss.
Of course nobody knows how long it takes for a tectonic shift to trigger an earthquake, but we do know that earthquakes (and their political counterparts) do happen, suddenly, regardless of how rarely.
Alexis @#1 suggest a Farsi language adaptation of the play Antigone on July 30, even an amateur-made version if that’s all that can be done in such a short time. That sounds like a great idea, and it’s a lot more realistic than an amateur rendition of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” sung in Farsi, which conveys similar notions. but in more subtle ways, which we are told the Persian culture values. If such a production has already been recorded(???), it could be useful, too.
Jun 29, 2009 - 10:51 am 6. Jassem Othman:Might will be there a collective European response, but NOT strong enough!
Jun 29, 2009 - 3:50 pm 7. Winston:Europeans also are killing Iranian people through their complicity with evil regime in Tehran, among them robust diplomatic relations on the account of the Iranians freedom.
Today the Iranians want the west help, and they want deeds not words, and those Europeans must strike while the iron is hot.
Jassem Othman, Syrian
Europe is in bed with the criminal Mullahs. I don’t believe it for a second the EU cared about the well being of the people of Iran or the democratic aspirations of other people. EU’s support was out of question. The US is now led by a quasi-Marxist man. So yes, the Iranians are on their own. I guess the best chance to topple this fanatic regime in the past 30 yrs just whizzed by all of us and we missed it. Damn it!
Jun 29, 2009 - 11:25 pm 8. Alireza:Have you seen slow motion films where people and things move in a total numbing motions? Now, can you imagine in making a slow motion film into yet another slow motion picture?
This second slow motion film is the speed that EU is working to DO SOMETHING about Iranian coup-dete regime.
If the same leadership in EU was leading their countries in WWII, Hitler was the super power by now, and I was writing my text in German with Broken Cross fonts, and most probably Dr. Ledeen was either a Lutheran or Catholic like Albright.
It is breath taking to watch these leaders in EU being so balls less to stop picking their nose and simply slap Ahmadinejad and Khamenei in the face. Their GREED DNA prevents them to do anything! ANYTHING!
The people in Iranian government have grown so arrogant that they finally dispatched their assassin and pro Israel and top secret Israeli agent Keyhan newspaper manager Shariatmadari to call for prosecution of Mousavi!!! (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124670357481294541.html). These people are so arrogant and taking advantage of people’s reluctance against violence for toppling these anti Iran and Iranians.
So what is EU doing? They will have a meeting to discuss how they will talk about it in a meeting that will have to discuss what will be planned to discuss on the subject in another meeting and then another meeting to discuss the other meeting… It is no wonder in Austria a man keep f.. her own daughter and has 2-3 kids with her and STILL the Austrian government and its people have no f…g idea this old man is f.…g his own daughter and keeping her in the basement!!!! And when the news comes out they want to keep it very low profile.
Meanwhile their blood soaked Nokia like whores selling their bodies have sold Iran spying tools to be used against Iranian people. SHAME! SHAME!
Jul 4, 2009 - 3:38 pm