Jumping the Shark

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Jumping the Shark
by DM
03-Dec-2009
 

So today’s Wall Street Journal is reporting that the IRI is trying to intimidate bloggers and activists all around the world, not just it Iran. They’re firing off lots of threatening emails (We’re everywhere! We know where you live! You’re not safe in the US!), arresting family members of expatriate bloggers, and detaining people for things they’ve written on Facebook and Twitter.

Sounds to me like they’re getting a little desperate.

I mean, threatening to kill Salman Rushdie was one thing. Threatening hundreds of thousands of bloggers living abroad…well, you can’t fault them for lack of ambition.

But fear can make people do crazy things. The IRI realizes the Internet has become the new mosque—the place where people can take refuge and organize—and it scares the hell out of them. For good reason, too. Young kids with cell phones are recording their misdeeds every day and posting the evidence on websites all around the world. And the IRI can’t stop it.

It makes me think of a passage in Haleh Esfandiai’s memoir about her recent imprisonment in Evin. In it she writes of one of the female prison guards who goes to a museum dedicated to remembering the abuses of SAVAK: The museum featured pictures of SAVAK’s jailers, interrogators, and torturers. When[the guard] saw the pictures, she told me, she remarked to a friend who was with her, “Someday, they will put our pictures in this museum.”

That prison guard was right. And the faces of the IRGC and Basij goons will be remembered as well. In fact, a good start has already been made on Facebook: //www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&gid=119...

So what’s next for the IRI? Will they try to intimidate the shareholders of Facebook and everyone else who has a hand in the Internet? Take down that page or else… Is Bill Gates on the list? It sounds crazy to even think it, but once a story has jumped the shark, there’s no telling where it will go next.

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yolanda

......

by yolanda on

 Hi DM,

      I found the WSJ article last night, Iranian Crackdown Goes Global, and I submitted it. It is now in IC's Featured News section. I read the whole article. It is mind-boggling! I set up a Face-book account during the post-election protests and I hooked up with Mousavi's website in order to read the protest news........if I decide to visit Iran, I think I have to close my account.......it is kind of scary!!

    LOL! I am not sure if I desserve the "award".........for some unknown reasons, 2 people were offended by my posts wthin a week......I flagged my posts and begged IC to remove my posts....life is not easy! :O)

Thanks for your blog!

Delaram Banafsheh (Yolanda)

"Cactus in the Desert"


DM

Hi Delaram Banafsheh. If

by DM on

Hi Delaram Banafsheh. If they ever pass out an award for consistently posting the nicest comments, I'm voting for you!Thanks for reading.

I noticed the pro-IRI bloggers on IC too. Strange and disturbing--which I suppose that's the point.

Be well,

DM


yolanda

........

by yolanda on

 Thank you for your blog:

So today’s Wall Street Journal is reporting that the IRI is trying to intimidate bloggers and activists all around the world, not just it Iran. They’re firing off lots of threatening emails (We’re everywhere! We know where you live! You’re not safe in the US!), arresting family members of expatriate bloggers, and detaining people for things they’ve written on Facebook and Twitter.

I noticed that some pro-IRI bloggers are taking IC by storm...his blog ranked top on IC....now I started to understand more what is going now....IRI is waging a cyper warfare....wow!

Thank you sooo much for keeping us informed!

Delaram Banafsheh (Yolanda)

"Cactus in the Desert"