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The bloody crackdown on the democratic opposition continued today in Iran. With virtually no independent reporters still in the country or allowed to report, information is meager. We do know that protesters tried again to mount demonstrations in several places in Tehran, including Baharestan Square, where at least several hundred demonstrators were set upon and beaten, shot, and even axed by security forces including a mob of the savage pro-regime Basij militias.
There is little I can add to the NBC report above (at the top) and the haunting phone conversation CNN broadcast (the second video) with a woman who was present in Baharestan Square. With her voice quavering in rage or fear or both, she describes how the regime thugs beat women mercilessly and threw people off bridges. Listen to the whole thing.
All Iran has now become a killing zone for Khamenei's fascists. Few will be able to stand up unarmed to this savage repression. But the regime will never be the same -- not with millions of its young, educated and skilled people -- those without whom a modern state cannot function -- alienated, angry and bitter in opposition to the regime. Either Mousavi and other leaders will persist or new leaders will come to the fore. The movement will endure and be heard from again.
Meanwhile, President Obama appears to have shelved his plans for engagement, at least for now. There is no choice for America; we cannot talk with a regime even as it beats, jails and kills its own people.
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