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Police Block Protest Site in Tehran

Catz Part Deux

Catz Part Deux

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Police block protest site in Tehran, witness says - CNN.com

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Heavily armed police prevented several thousand Iranian protesters Saturday from entering Revolution Square -- one of the main protest sites in Tehran, a witness told CNN.

About a mile away, police kept the crowd back by throwing two canisters of tear gas at their feet, the witness said.

The Web site of the main opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Moussavi, quoted news reports as saying a flood of people were headed to the capital from surrounding towns.

Two rallies had been scheduled to begin about 4 p.m. Saturday (7:30 a.m. ET) to protest a disputed presidential election, despite stern warnings from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He said Friday that protest organizers would be held responsible if the demonstrations led to bloodshed.

There have been conflicting reports about whether the rallies would go on as scheduled -- or on the scale at which the organizers first envisioned.
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Andrew Sullivan is live-tweeting. This is one instance where he is faster than MSM:

9.35 am If there was an explosion, it was done by Gov. Part of effort to construe protests as violent.

9.34 am People chant: "Seyed Ali Pinoshe, Iran won't be Chili", "Death to this decieving gvnmt". "I will kill who killed my brother"

9.30 am. Reports of some kind of bomb blast at the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum. Is the regime itself now bombing shrines to blame on the uprising? Or is this something else entirely?

9.29 am. If you stop schedule protest, you will get unscheduled fighting.9.26 am. Live-blogging from Shoreesh:

5:20
A lot of conflict happenning at Kosh St. now
5:26
shooting in Azadi ave. near Gharib!
5:30
In Khosh Street police is attacking people with batons and pepper spray trying to disperse people, shots can be heard around Azadi
5:33
They are throwing Teargas constantly people: down with khamene'i
5:35
Heavy clashes on azadi street, chants of death to khamene'i,The street is full of rocks and fire!
5:38
Voice of shooting in Azadi street...
5:40
police using tear gas, water cannons to disperse thousands of protesters in Tehran,They are beating "people" in Enghelab St., not only the protesters!
5:42
people are trapped between Behboodi and Enghelaab
5:48
people are trapped between Behboodi & Enghelaab. gunshots being fired into the air...
5:50
2,000 to 3,000 protesters at Tehran University!
5:53
Enghelab street is fulll of people between ghods st. and Enghelab square
5:54
So Hard conflict in Azadi ST
5:55
Intense clash in Enghelab
5:55
Houses in alleys opening doors to injured protestors,hallway is full of beaten people!
5:56
Police have closed off Tehran University
5:58
Two bomb blasts in Tehran
5:59
Many of people arrested
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My heart and prayers are with the people of Iran, and with my friend Perham.

(as much as the prayers of an agnostic count, mind you).
 
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Obama's statement today:

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
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The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The people of Iran are finding more safety right now in foreign embassies than in their own hospitals.
 
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