Archives: June 2009

The events in Iran over the past week have raised a number of important and difficult questions.

Last week’s summit of the so-called BRIC countries in Yekaterinburg, Russia was meant to celebrate the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China as emerging economies and major players on the world stage. It is a bit ironic then, that this meeting was held in Russia, given the current state of that country’s economy.

The New Yorker‘s Laura Secor has a richly detailed account of some complicated history that runs between Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Ali Khamenei.

An anonymous student in Tehran who has been writing and speaking in the media under the name, “Shane M.” has just sent in some more dispatches.

~ Mir Hossein Mousavi calls on his followers to not allow the government to steal the election and calls for more action. Juan Cole has posted a translation of Mousavi’s letter. ~ Grand Ayatollah Montazeri has condemned the attacks on civilians and called for three days of mourning for them. ~ Arrests continue.

All students of revolutionary change should read Chalmers Johnson’s epic work, Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power. The book is about so much more than China. It provides one of the best templates ever written to understand that most revolutionary conflict in the modern age is rooted in competing frames of nationalism.

EyeRanProtestr is an example of a Twitter identity that is clearly being used by a pro-Khamenei/Ahmadinejad deployer of misinformation. It’s a remarkable line-up of statements, including the so-far false claim that Mousavi was arrested and that hooligan students are doing all the killing.

(cartoon credit: Jonathan Guyer of The Washington Note) A short while ago, a space-obsessed friend sent me a CNN clip about what it would be like to fall into a black hole, in case I wanted to break up my Iran coverage with something else.

A few years ago, I met then chief Iran nuclear negotiator and now Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani at the Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai.