ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style2 { font-size: x-large; } .style3 { text-align: left; } .style4 { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Iran&#39;s Disgrace</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright June 22, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style2">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span><span class="style5">C</span>rushing protests over a disputed June 12 election, Iran s cult of mullah dictatorship, tear-gassed and opened fire on reform-minded marchers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When 26-year-old protester Neda Sotani took an assassin s bullet uncensored on YouTube, the world watched a beautiful face bleed to death on global TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Whatever happens to Iran s fledgling protest movement, Neda lives on, giving the Iranian government a humiliating black eye in world opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Despite Iran s news blackout, the mullahs face a losing battle against a global communication revolution, where digital age records, transmits and shares disturbing images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bleeding to death on the world stage, Neda became the face of Iran s growing youth movement, where roughly 70% of the population is under 30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Grand Ayatollah Ali Khaenei believes he can put the genie back in the bottle by violent repression.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Aside from the disputed election, Iran s theocracy faces daunting challenges suppressing the natural instinct for freedom and change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Iran s reelected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rubber-stamps the conservative religious philosophy of Iran s ruling mullahs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Young people are sick of persecution by the plainclothes Basij militia, whose paramilitary goons routinely persecute, beat and arrest youths for wearing makeup, showing skin, listening or watching Western music or TV or simply donning European-style clothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Neda s up-close martyrdom reminds disenfranchised youth that the ruling mullahs only care about power, not the plight of youth seeking a bright future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Tehran s police stepped up violent tactics, firing tear-gas and bullets to disperse crowds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While the mullahs posses enough lethal force to set down the rebellion, they can t stop the yearnings of unbridled youth.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>President Barack Obama tried his best to restrain judgment, drawing ire from his conservative critics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He s trying fruitlessly to maintain a dialogue with one of the planet s most repressive regimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Both the U.S. House and Senate have condemned Iran s crackdown, while the White House sits on the fence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Responding to the criticism, President Barack Obama hasn t caught up with the reality that he won t dialogue or win concessions on Iran s nuclear enrichment anytime soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Barack claims his restraint helped the protest movement, keeping the mullah s from blaming the U.S. or lashing out at protesters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Both counts haven t panned out, inviting criticism and a drop in Obama s approval ratings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Responding to his critics, Barack called a Rose Garden press conference for noon, June 23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No matter how your spin it, the news hasn t been kind to the president.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Putting more pressure on Barack to take a stand, European officials condemned Tehran s Gestapo-like tactics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Neda s bloody face gasping her last breaths hurt the mullahs cause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>British Foreign Secretary David Millband rejected Iran s Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki s suggestion that the U.K. was behind Iran s unrest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> French officials, usually reticent to criticize a major energy supplier, rejected Iran s contention that the West had anything to do with political unrest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama was forced to the microphones to explain his noncommittal response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Obama s responses  timid and  feckless, prompting tomorrow s news conference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Regardless of the West s frustrations about Iran s nuclear enrichment program, Obama must decisively condemn Tehran s violent crackdown, offering hope to all seeking self-determination.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Tehran has a despicable record of manipulating the press<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">, p</span>referring, instead, to allow state-run broadcast and print to tell a one-sided story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cutting off Internet service, restricting phone access, incarcerating and expelling journalists and asserting control of the airwaves, displays Iran s Stalin or Maoist-like control of the airwaves, necessary to brainwashing average citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Expelling the British Broadcasting Corporation and Dubai-based Al-Arabiya correspondents reveal the extremes to which government will go to control the airwaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Meddling by Western powers and international media is unacceptable, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi, accusing the foreign press of  a racial mentality that Iranians belong to the Third World, blaming the West for Iran s current strife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When Obama faces the press tomorrow, he needs to set the record straight.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Iran s ruling elite hides behind Islamic extremism to justify actions against individual and human rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei s 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has manipulated the airwaves asserting totalitarian-like control of Persian society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Focusing on Israel, the mullahs pander to the street and divert attention from their brutal repression of individual and civil rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I don t thank their willingness to crack down was ever in doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They won t let these protests grow this was the way the Shah was brought down in 1979, said Ali Nader, an Iranian expert with Rand Corporation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Opposition candidate Mir-Hossain Mousavi reminded his supporters to  keep protesting lies and fraud is your right, urging protestors to avoid violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>World governments see firsthand what motivates Iran s ruling mullahs:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>To control and dominate Persian society.</p> <p class="style3"> &nbsp;<span class="style4">About the Author</span></p> <p class="style3"> &nbsp;<b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.htnl">Operation Charisma</a>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homene.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>