McClatchy Washington Bureau

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Posted on Thu, Feb. 11, 2010

Iran suppresses protests as leader proclaims 'nuclear state'

Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: February 11, 2010 09:05:14 PM

WASHINGTON — Iran's government smothered Tehran and other major cities with security forces Thursday, overwhelming opposition protesters who gathered in small groups despite threats of repression on the 31st anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution.

State security forces attacked one of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's political opponents, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, and the wife of another, Mir Hossein Mousavi, according to opposition Web sites and other accounts that filtered out of the country despite government efforts to restrict and monitor Internet traffic.

Video accounts posted on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites showed helmeted riot police using tear gas and batons to prevent large crowds from gathering.

One widely circulated video showed a member of the riot police choking and punching a shirtless man. Before the 20-second clip ends, a woman dressed in traditional black walks up, points an accusatory finger at the policeman and remonstrates with him.

The show of force seemed intended to demonstrate, both to Iranians and to the West, that the leaders of Iran's Islamic Republic are firmly in charge eight months after a disputed presidential election sparked the country's deepest political crisis since 1979.

With most foreign journalists barred from Iraq, and Internet and other media tightly controlled, it's not possible to independently verify some of the accounts.

However, one of Karroubi's sons, Mohammed Taghi Karroubi, told the BBC Persian service that his father was sprayed in the face with tear gas and hit with a stone when he tried to join the protesters.

Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, who campaigned last year with her husband, was beaten and kicked by plainclothes police, according to Kaleme, an opposition Web site.

The crushing display of force appeared to be a setback for Iran's "green movement," as the protesters are known. Yet the movement, named after the color used in Mousavi's campaign, has proved resilient, and video clips showed opposition crowds gathered not just in Tehran, but also in other major cities. In Isfahan, crowds were shown shouting "Death to (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamanei."

Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, spoke to a huge pro-government throng in Tehran's Azadi, or Freedom, Square. In the past, the government has bused thousands of its supporters into Tehran from the provinces, often providing free meals and other enticements.

Ahmadinejad also used the symbolic occasion to claim that Iran is now a "nuclear state," a boast that U.S. government and private experts called wildly exaggerated.

The Iranian president announced that Iran's nuclear scientists have succeeded in enriching uranium to 20 percent purity, closer to the 80 percent enrichment needed to make a nuclear weapon.

"Iran has made a series of statements that are far more political than they are. They're based on politics, not on physics," responded White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

"The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a series of problems throughout the year," Gibbs said. "We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching."

David Albright, an expert on Iran's nuclear program at the Institute for Science and International Security, said earlier this week that Iran has the technical ability to produce uranium enriched to near 20 percent. He cast doubt, however, on Iran's claim that it could begin doing so immediately.

While Thursday's protests against Ahmadinejad were smaller than predicted, senior U.S. officials say that the government and its opponents are in for a long-term standoff, with neither side able to prevail.

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Pro-government demonstrators overshadow opposition in Iran

Despite weeks of calls to action, protesters fail to derail a rally marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Ahmadinejad gives a defiant keynote speech.

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut - A huge crowd of government supporters filled Tehran's Azadi Square on Thursday to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, overshadowing the smaller groups of nearby anti-government protesters confronted by plainclothes and uniformed security forces.

Despite weeks of calls to action, the opposition movement failed to derail the holiday's agenda set by supporters of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The president delivered a defiant keynote speech hailing the government's recent move to begin producing uranium at 20% purity and condemning the West.

"We must not neglect the power of the Iranian people," Ahmadinejad said. "Everybody is aware of the fact that our people are capable of influencing the whole of the region by controlling our own sources of energy. We don't want others to have control over our sources of energy and power.

"Iran must be free. Iran must be powerful. And it must be at the forefront of technology."

For the opposition, the large pro-government turnout generated concern about the so-called green movement born of Ahmadinejad's disputed June reelection and the campaigns of opposition figures Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

Many opposition supporters are questioning their leadership's strategy of issuing carefully worded commentaries on the Iranian system and vague calls to action cloaked in religious and nationalistic terminology. Supporters of the movement are beginning to demand stronger leaders with concrete tactical prescriptions and strategic goals.

Ahmadinejad did not walk away untarnished during the rally, which marked the day in 1979 when Iran's revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared the Islamic Republic.

Protesters could be heard chanting "Death to the dictator!" as Ahmadinejad described Iran's accomplishments.

And his announcement this week that Iran had begun to further enrich its supply of uranium from 3.5% purity to 20% to provide fuel for an ailing Tehran medical reactor has been dismissed by some nuclear scientists as a political stunt.

Such a move would edge Iran closer to producing highly enriched weapons-grade uranium.

A report issued Thursday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security suggested that Iran's uranium production is actually slowing, because of technical problems.

A separate report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that was obtained by The Times notes that the agency's inspectors had yet to see any 20% enriched uranium. Inspectors were told Wednesday that Iran intended to produce the higher-grade uranium "within a few days," according to the report.

Many analysts speculated that the announcement of progress on uranium enrichment was meant to create an international crisis to unify the country's fractured political establishment before Thursday's holiday.

State-controlled television showed people crowded into Azadi Square, some carrying effigies of Western politicians and coffins decorated with the flags of Britain and Israel.

Severe restrictions were placed on journalists in Tehran.


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Looks like things are well orchestrated.
Nuclear power, civil unrest combined with suppression of people's voices - Both aspects of the news are bothersome.

-- Edited by Sanders on Thursday 11th of February 2010 10:36:23 PM