by Thomas Good

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Video (NLN on YouTube)

Interview with investigative reporter William Blum
(Video: Thomas Good / NLN)

Comments

Alan Haber
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"I hope those seeking a more open society in Iran can persist and prevail. Mousavi and the other "reformers" will become captive of the increasingly principled, meaning radical, demands of the movement. Such insurgencies were put down in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, China. In other places they overwhelmed national authority, and stirred the people's desire to be free. I heard an Iranian student say, on a phone broadcast, "this is our best chance to be free; if we fail, it will be a long time before we have a chance again." When the freedom call merges with "god is great," it can be a powerful force indeed: an underground organized from the rooftops. People are furious, it can lead to an awakening of consciousness, rethinking everything, until there is no going back. When the women take up the freedom call, when it is rhymed and rapped, sung and strummed into the popular culture, as it is, the dictatorship days are numbered. Maybe the blood on the hands of the supreme leader will lead the workers to lay down their tools and turn off the engines. There is an irony when Iranian young people chanting and marching against the government and demanding respect, draws praise from the right wing government in Israel and the American right also. I hope the youth of Palestine, Israel and in America take it to heart, that the voice of the youth be heard."

-- Alan Haber, former president of SDS, member of Movement for a Democratic Society Organizing Committee

Bob Ross
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"In 1979 many of us cheered heartily as the enemies of the Savak (Iran's secret police under the Shah) overthrew the Peacock Throne. But the successor regime borders on fascist. As Iranians take to the streets now it is important to restrain our enthusiasm, as they say on TV: we know less than meets the eye."

-- Robert Ross, founding member of Students for a Democratic Society and scholar on sweatshops in the U.S.

Brian Kelly
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"Iranians don't need the excuse of "election fraud" to try to overthrow a fascistic theocratic regime!"

-- Brian Kelly, former member of Pace SDS (new Students for a Democratic Society)

Carl Davidson
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"The democratic upsurge in Iran is an expression of the political will of the large majority of Iranian youth, in a country whose demographics are largely young to begin with, and not much enamored of the semi-feudal clerics who have their boots on their necks. The CIA, of course, meddles everywhere, in deep plots or with plans waiting on the shelf, ready-at-hand. That is their nature. But we can't use that to either over-estimate their role here, which I'd guess is rather small, or to be dismissive or otherwise disdainful of the Iranian peoples' desire for democratic change. In the current situation our own ultraleft, in large part, is doing just this, revealing its traditional contempt for democracy, albeit with a left veneer. The Iranian democracy movement may still lose this round, faced with what still appears to be a military united behind the mullahs. But things are not the same anymore. I think Obama is taking a fairly good stance, 'don't meddle, but be concerned and keep the world watching.' It's the GOP hardliners and the 'Bomb Iran' crowd pressing him to do more. Our approach should be 'Hands Off Iran, Support the Iranian Peoples Struggle for Self-determination and Democracy.'"

-- Carl Davidson, former SDS National Secretary and a member of Progressives for Obama

Cindy Sheehan
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"The US CIA has a long, long history of meddling in Iranian affairs and I realize that the US has been salivating for regime change in Iran during the Bush regime and now in the Obama regime. I support legitimate people's uprisings, but I am not sure this is one and we need to be careful of supporting or condemning something we don't understand."

-- Cindy Sheehan, "Peace Mom" and former congressional candidate

Clark Kissinger
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"This crisis represents the confluence of two contradictions, the underlying antagonism of interests between the people and the reactionaries in power, and the cracks within the power structure that are now sharper than at any point since its foundation. These two contradictions overlap and create both opportunity and danger for the people and all the regime factions. The cracks within the regime have never before been so wide as to endanger its stability. There is no doubt that masses have correctly recognized a favorable situation to express their hatred for the regime and its symbols Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. They have every right to protest and fight against a reactionary regime.

At the same time there is no doubt that leading figures in these events such as Mousavi, Karoubi and Khatami will try to use and channel the people's rage and protest to strengthen their position in their fight with the conservative faction of the regime. They want a situation where they can trade off the people's struggle for their own political advantage, and they will try their best to call off the people's struggle when it no longer suits their interests. They do not want to risk the overall stability of this regime they have built on the corpses of thousands of revolutionaries and the oppression and suppression of the entire sections of the people. They would prefer no change at all to that kind of fundamental change, but that's not what the people want."

-- C. Clark Kissinger, former SDS National Secretary (statement from the "A World To Win News Service")

Jay Jurie
(Photo: UCF SDS)

"It is difficult to decipher events as they unfold, but aspects of the current unrest in Iran exhibit characteristics of a CIA destabilization campaign, particularly regarding electoral manipulation (see "Inside the Company: CIA Diary" by the late Philip Agee for excellent background on such clandestine campaigns and how they threaten the sovereignty of independent nations). Last year investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported the Bush government allocated $400 million to the CIA for purposes of this sort in Iran; operations may have continued since Barack Obama assumed office.

Corporate media talking heads have been describing the Iranian unrest as the "first social networking and internet revolution" and praised "courageous demonstrators" for defying the violence of the Iranian government. Why haven't these talking heads described anti-Iraq war unrest as the "first social networking and internet movement"? Why didn't they praise the courageous demonstrators who defied the violence of the U.S. government at the Democratic or Republican national conventions last year? An unintended consequence of the Iranian crisis is exposure of the double standards behind the selective coverage of the corporate media. "

-- Jay D. Jurie, member of Movement for a Democratic Society

Richard Stallman
(Photo: stallman.org)

"Those who steal elections do not have legitimate governments. This applies in Iran just as it does in the US and Mexico."

-- Richard Stallman, founder of GNU Project and the Free Software Foundatin, software programmer

Ron Jacobs
(Photo: Ron Jacobs)

"It will be interesting to see how the Iran thing plays out. I am not a fan of the reformers or Ahmadenijad, but hope that the mass mobilization will not be diverted by the neoliberal--pro-business clique inside Iran. Watch what Rafsanjani does--he's a wily politician who always manages to put himself on the side of the winning group. He's made more money off the revolution than any other Iranian and has been involved in every wrong turn in Iran since 1979--the purging of the left from the revolutionary ruling bodies, the deals with Reagan around Iran-Contra, the war with Iraq, etc. The Iranian left has an opportunity to continue the revolution that was diverted by the rightist elements in 1980 and 1981. The protesters need the support of the US left."

-- Ron Jacobs, author ("The Way The Wind Blew") and journalist

Rosalyn Baxandall
(Photo: Rosalyn Baxandall)

"Iran is like watching a new revolution. A revolution in the streets and in technology. It's the first rebellion to make use of Twitter. I even joined Twitter to know more. John Snow, Channel 2 reporter in Britain told me he was in Iran last year and there was lots of sophisticated female rebellion not reported by the Western Press. It shows us that veiled women can be braver and stand up against the odds day after day in both Tehran and the countryside. Whoever rules it will not be the same. I wish North Americans had been in the streets for days at a time when Bush won a contested election."

-- Rosalyn Baxandall, Distinguished Teaching Professor and Chair of American Studies / Media and Communications at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury

Sabrina Jones
(Photo: Sabrina Jones)

"The tide of outraged Iranian voters surges in the streets, wider than the cameraman's lens -- our electronic horizon. It's thrilling, poignant, and for us Americans, shameful.

Where were our impassioned millions when Bush and Cheney stole our votes right from under our cable network noses back in 2000? Dumbfounded in front of the tube, mostly, waiting for the powers that be to sort it out. Those who did take to the streets to protest were largely ignored by the media, reinforcing the passivity of those who waited on their sofas for the verdict. But don't just blame the TV. Blame also the car culture that has alienated us from the street as the forum for popular expression.

Pervasive suburbanization has muted our common voice. It has made a quaint historical re-enactment ( 'Oh, how '60s!?') out of that primal impulse to take to the streets in protest, an impulse still widely followed around the world. In places where 'development' has not shunted the citizenry off into private enclaves, to huff and sigh helplessly between commercial breaks. The crowds still amass to vent their outrage in the lands whose oil wells fuel our disconnected way of life.

Unlike most of the countries where our oil fix comes from, the Iranian street also teems with women. They have not been cowed by thirty years attempt to segregate and cloister them. They are fighting for their lives, and sometimes paying with them.

Don't romanticize these protests. They may not topple this regime. Protesters will be hunted down and persecuted. Even if the Iranian government lacks the absolute power that China used to hush up Tiananmen Square, it will do its best. But there's a huge, visible crack in the fortress, and the people have felt their collective strength."

-- Sabrina Jones, author / illustrator of "Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography", contributor to "Wobblies"
and longtime contributing editor to World War 3 Illustrated

Thomas Good
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"Demonizing Ahmadinejad serves no purpose for Leftys. We have the corporate press for that. They specialize in binary thinking as it facilitates the pandering that sells papers and advertising space -- and advances CIA foreign policy objectives. Assisting the CIA has been a function of the corporate press since the days when the media was known as 'Wisner's Wurlitzer', a reference to Frank Wisner who orchestrated Operation Mockingbird.

At the same time, the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' notion -- that anyone who stands up to U.S. bullying is given a pass on their own behavior -- doesn't cut it either. It seems clear that antiauthoritarians cannot accept any individual or regime that shoots unarmed protesters. There is doubtless a CIA destabilization operation underway in Iran but the actions of Ahmadinejad and Khamenei made it possible. I support the aspirations of the poor, the women and the children of Iran and oppose both the CIA and the bureaucrats in Iran who are responsible for civilian deaths. The CIA, Ahmadinejad and Khameini all have far too much blood on their hands for me to regard any of them as anything other than criminal."

-- Thomas Good, Editor, NLN

William Blum
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

"Another good example of the ODE effect. Once the US government declares that a particular foreign leader is an Officially Designated Enemy, the mainstream media, and therefore the American public, know what they have to think, write and say. They don't need any further instructions. (See Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Slobodan Milosevic, Jean-Paul Aristide, etc., etc). Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an ODE; therefore no proof is needed to charge him with electoral fraud."

-- William Blum, author of "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II" and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower"