Iran

Confused

<div class="IPBDescription">I certainly wasn't expecting this</div>I know I don't normally post in here and it would appear that not a whole lot of other people do either but i figured that some where we ought to have thread about this:

The TLDR story so far: Iran has election, many people claim it is rigged, protests occur, large numbers of people dying.
<img src="http://workers.podded.us/images/i29_19360635.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

As a result of twitter's integrate services the Iranian government has been unsuccessful in blocking it. it would appear that most of the data coming out of Iran is via twitter and social networks

so: <a href="http://iran.twazzup.com/" target="_blank"> some twitter digests</a>
<a href="http://emsenn.com/iran.php" target="_blank"> proxy instructions and news </a>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061602831.html" target="_blank"> news</a>
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/" target="_blank"> the beeb has/had gone green</a>
as has the pirate bay who now lik to : <a href="http://iran.whyweprotest.net/" target="_blank">http://iran.whyweprotest.net/</a>


Finally, a choice quote:

----------------------


6:03 PM ET -- "What I have witnessed." A powerful note from a female medical student in Iran, translated from Farsi by a trusty reader.

Hello,


It's painful to watch what's happening.

I don't want anything to do with what has been said this far, as I neither have the strength nor the resilience to face all these unfathomable events.

I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student. There was chaos last night at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff. The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help--I'm sure it will even be worst tonight.

What can anyone say in face of all these atrocities? What can you say to the family of the 13 year old boy who died from gunshots and whose dead body then disappeared?

This issue is not about cheating(election) anymore. This is not about stealing votes anymore. The issue is about a vast injustice inflected on the people. They've put a baton in the hand of every 13-14 year old to smash the faces of "the bunches who are less than dirt" (government is calling the people who are uprising dried-up torn and weeds) .

This is what sickens me from dealing with these issues. And from those who shut their eyes and close their ears and claim the riots are in opposition of the government and presidency!! No! The people's complaint is against the egregious injustices committed against the people.
-----------

I have to say that as some one who makes technology that utilizes this sort of thing as well as uses it. I am pretty excited about the technical side as well as the fact that it seems to have no sign of slowing down.

juice

I'm skeptical of things like this. The story itself is very reminiscent of the pre-Gulf War lies from the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Washington who posed as a nurse who saw the atrocities at a hospital, but it was a fabrication designed to sway public support toward military intervention (also known as war).

These days, you don't need actors, you just need twitter. You can't fake riots and many deaths, but you can distort the facts and bias the presentation.

Nonetheless, it's nice that we have distributed communications through the new twitterish-tech. I'll take that over "the News" any day of the week. There will still be groups and governments who take advantage of it in the wrong ways, though. But I can't wait for this generation's "War of the Worlds", twitter-style.

Confused

I would agree that it should be taken for what it is which is a bunch of anonymous poeple posting on the internet. I actually think that American news media is doing a reasonably decent job trying not to publish things like the text I pasted in. If anything they appear to be erring on the side of caution.

That said I find that to be the fun part the swirling allegations from all sides. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that I can step in read the latest things people have said are happening, compared to some of the other political crises I have spectated this has a much greater volume of data coming out despite the attempts at censorship. Even if the data is bad data i think it interesting that we have actually reached the point where "the internets" is the place to go to get immediate fresh data about what is going on any where in the world. I mean is that the front page of whichever paper you like on the internet is no longer the place to be for news. Data is just propagating some what magically from every corner of the net. As some one who spends most of my day trying to make sites that allow that sort of data to be pulled in or pushed out, it feels like vindication.

I kinda just pasted a dump last night, an had to run, so I failed to make a coherent argument aside from woo Iran.

I guess I probably shouldn't change that too much.


(also does any one else see controls ?)

locallyunscene

I'm not sure what I want to talk about first Twitter, or the tragic situation in general.

There is lot's of scepticism to go around. I'm sceptical that this isn't manufactured in some way by the CIA or some Bolshevik style minority. I'm sceptical of the results given some of the incongruities. All in all I currently believe the results were tampered with, but I'm not sure whether they needed to be. I'm sceptical of unconfirmed stories like that above, but I don't dismiss them out of hand and accept that these kind of things are likely happening if there is such a huge protest going on now.

I've heard some interesting bits of UNCONFIRMED info that I'll share now with hopes others know more:
<ul><li> The "terror free organization" report mentions the popularity of the incumbent and the unpopularity of his policies in the same breath. </li><li> The current vote count reports that the incumbents vote percentage is consistent across ethic groups and regions which is very uncharacteristic and contradictory of the above poll taken a month before the election and the previous elections.</li><li> Similarly, the rival''s home town/province had this same vote %.</li><li> At the time of the poll the percent totals broke down to 34% incumbent, 14% rival, 25% undecided, 15% refused to answer.</li><li> Campaigns are only allowed to last 30 days so the poll was taken at the very beginning of the campaign when the incumbent would have a natural lead.</li><li> A true majority (> 50%) is required for a candidate to be elected.</li><li> There was ~80% turnout which, usually but not always, signifies a good turnout for the challenger.</li><li> The rival was told he won before the incumbent declared a landslide victory for himself(Doesn't matter much, but interesting)</li><li> The votes results were returned uncharacteristically quickly. I've also heard this refuted.</li><li> The results were based off a sample of votes rather than all votes, but this is usually accurately representative.</li></ul>

Jiriki

I would also be cautious, atleast US or any other country should not intervene in any possible way. Even if it was rigged.

Although its hard to have fully warranted information, the fact that the government is limiting Internet access heavily is a very bad sign. I mean in the sense that they need to warrant to cencorship to stay in power.

Also a known open-source developer has set up a web proxy herd for Iranians (http://www.catb.org/esr/nedanet/), supported by volunteer servers. Apparently some their main leaders have received death threats.