The fallout from the election in Iran continues. Roger Cohen of the NY Times is on the ground in Tehran, and today's op-ed conjures some frightening images, and some even more frightening possibilities.
She was in tears like many women on the streets of Iran’s battered capital. “Throw away your pen and paper and come to our aid,” she said, pointing to my notebook. “There is no freedom here.”
The Ayatollah has called for an investigation, which is pretty huge considering he called the suspect results "divine intervention." Still, it's hard to imagine this would be anything but going through some motions to tamp down the protests, sparked from landslide results being released to the public within a couple hours of the polls closing.
He won as the Interior Ministry was sealed, opposition Web sites were shut down, text messages were cut off, cell phones were interrupted, Internet access was impeded, dozens of opposition figures were arrested, universities were closed and a massive show of force was orchestrated to ram home the result to an incredulous public.
With foreign journalists mostly slated to leave in the coming days, I fear we have not seen the worst of this. Iran, teetering on the edge of change for the better, turns out to have indeed been too good to be possible.
Cohen's article is powerful. Don't miss it.
No comments:
Post a Comment