Iranian democracy

padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
vimothy said:
Two for cyberwarfare:
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big look.

& I'm sorry that this thread has also become a de facto running debate on the impact of Twitter etc. - tho certainly it's relevant re: Iran - but trying to synthesize a few things linked, also w/r/t DDOS attacks:

from Clay Shirky:
as a medium gets faster, it gets more emotional. We feel faster than we think.
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from: On The Weaponization of the Collaborative Web

The goal was to promote democracy, and I could actually watch as it happened...We practiced distributed, citizen-based warfare...When people want to attack someone or something, they usually can't do it immediately. It takes time to prepare. And during that preparation, they are repeatedly forced to reconsider their actions before going trough with it...The DDoS tool does away with these barriers
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from: Evgeny Morozov - DDOS attacks on Iran's web-sites: what a stupid idea
I have come to believe that DDOS attacks must be the new counselling, for they seem to be much more effective at neutralizing the anger of millions of angry Americans and Europeans (not to mention Iranians themselves)...The question, however, is whether it's going to help anyone but the angry netizens
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padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
scottdisco said:
that hadith that P quotes is lovely.
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yeh I think so too - it's a real desert quote yunno. Islam is a desert religion I mean - that is a real thing of beauty actually IMO. I like the desert.

this will sound hopelessly nerdy but it reminds me of something the Fremen from Dune would say - Frank Herbert based on them on desert people (mostly the Tuareg I think, but also the Bedouins & others) & a lot of their language is either bastardized Arabic or actual Arabic. e.g. Mu'addib (مؤدّب) = educator.

alright back to Iran & the role of new media.
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
Twitter exchange between Pletka and Twitterer "khoobehi" re NYT piece posted upthread:

khoobehi: WTF??: "5 days later, the uprising is little more than a symbolic protest, crushed by the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps." your NYT oped: agree about coup but disagree in that it is failing. also crckdwn is basij not rev guard. some revguard helping ppl.

Pletka: sorry perhaps unfair but fundamentally unsure reins of power will B retaken by the ppl. tell me, wht does victory look like?

khoobehi: 2 many ppl to crackdown IMO. khamenei grtly weakened. future gov oblig 2 respect ppl. btw diff POV but enjoy yr column.

Pletka: hre's my fear: victory looks lk status quo ante. Iranians still enslaved under IRI tyranny. hence "symbolic". Is victory in sight?
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vimothy

vimothy

yurp
That FP blog has some good stuff on it. Wrap yer head round this:

Today I was struck with the realization that I don't really know if we would really be observing the same intensity of cyberactivity if Twitter were desktop-based rather than Web-based. Imagine if it were like MSN Messenger: to be able to use it, you needed to download a file and install it on your computer.

Well, if the comparison of Twitter with MSN Messenger is adequate, it means that the former would not be available to Iranians today! Just to remind you, MSN Messenger could not find a way around the tough licensing restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on software exports to the embargoed countries (of which Iran, is of course one). The end result is that MSN is no longer legally available for downloads in Iran.

(...)

At minimum, can't OFAC make an exception and waive any export (and hence download) restrictions for a week or so? I bet this would be extremely well-received by Iranian netizens who need all the support we can offer and would actually help us temporarily get rid of a completely irrelevant, counterproductive, and obsolete piece of legislature.

In this age, one would think that America would be doing its best to flood the Iranian Internet with tools that could help Iranians organize, use proxies, swap files and so forth. But no, instead, the U.S. is pushing on with its silly policies that have, alas, outlived their usefulness a decade ago.

Otherwise, all these calls on Twitter to postpone maintenance are simply aimed at generating additional publicity without forcing American diplomats to do any real work. So, let me really challenge the State Department folks reading this blog: why not use this crisis to finally put an end to restrictions on the export of tools that are widely used all over the world without causing any threat to national security?
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vimothy

vimothy

yurp
"Iran's Ex-Foreign Minister Yazdi: It's A Coup."

I've heard people say that President Ahmadinejad is gathering so much power that he might be able to use the Revolutionary Guard and his other allies to make a coup d'etat against the state.

A coup d'etat? They've already made one! They've created a dictatorship, in fact. Do you know that last night the security forces occupied the offices of many newspapers, to make sure that their reporting on the election was favorable? They changed many headlines. They fixed the election.

The Guards are taking over everything, including many economic institutions. The ministry of the interior is increasing its control in all the provinces.

We have information that Ahmadinejad is thinking about changing the Constitution to allow the president to serve more than two terms, to make his presidency more or less permanent.

Of course, there are strong voices in the establishment that will challenge him. It is not clear that he and the Sepah (the Revolutionary Guard) will be strong enough to overcome them. But there will be clashes over this.

Where does the Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stand in regard to this?

The problem is that there is concern about the relationship between the Leader and the Guards. To what extent can the Leader control or moderate the Guards? This is a difficult question.

After the last election [2005], after Ahmadinejad was first elected, there were many questions raised about Ahmadinejad's effort to isolate the Leader. We talked openly about this. This time, in preparation for the vote, they isolated him even further. For instance, in years past [former President] Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani was influential, perhaps even more influential than the leader. Now, with the slogans being used at Ahmadinejad's rallies, things like "Death to Hashemi!", they have created a deep rift. Khamenei has also lost the support of many high-ranking members of the clergy.

Many old comrades of the [1979] revolution don't trust Ahmadinejad. It is only the Sepah that supports him.
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According to the Huffington Post live blog, this guy has been arrested since...
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
Here's a translation of a video for Karroubi's campiagn (one of the reform candidates) that appeared on Andrew Sullivan's website yesterday:

1 (Girl in street): Defending civil rights
2 (Boy next to old man): Counterbalancing poverty/deprivation
3 (Boy pushing away donation box): Nationalizing oil income
4 (Man standing on rooftop): Reducing tension in international affairs
5 (Boy sitting next to satellite dishes): Free access to information
6 (Girl sitting besides her mother): Supporting single mothers
7 (Girl with cast): Knock down violence against women
8 (Boy): Education for all
9 (Boy infront of man locking car): Increasing public safety
10 (Girl on rooftop): Ethnic and religious minority rights
11 (Man on rooftop): Supporting NGOs
12 (Girl in front of wall): Public involvement
13 (Boy and girl): We have come for change
14: Change for Iran
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vimothy

vimothy

yurp
Abolhassan Banisadr is claiming via Twitter (how fucking weird is that!) that the Sepah leaders arrested earlier were ordered to kill large numbers of protesters and refused.
 
S

scottdisco

rip this joint please
The regime's attempt to paint the protesters as nothing more than US intelligence agents underlines how wise President Obama has been not to insert himself forcefully into the situation in Iran. The reformers and the hard liners are not stable groupings. The core of each is competing for the allegiance of the general Iranian public.
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Cole
 
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