Juan Cole

Aljazeera English now has a video report on Rafsanjani’s sermon and the Friday protests: Ghanbar Naderi points out that Rafsanjani has a long history of flip-flopping between the hard line and reformist camps. I would argue that this is because he is a pragmatic conservative, and his sermon today shows that he has concluded that […]

The USG Open Source Center summarizes Rafsanjani’s sermon on Friday. Full translation to follow. FYI — Iran’s Rafsanjani Gives Tehran Friday SermonsCorrected version; providing updated processing plans for full text in final paraVoice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Radio 1Friday, July 17, 2009 Document Type: OSC Summary Tehran Voice of the Islamic Republic of […]

Made my way down the west side of Laleh Park, large crowed was gathered around a radio listening to Rafi [Rafsanjani] give the sermons, moved down to Keshavarz Blvd, were people had already started to taunt the bassijis who look like teenagers with Darth Vader helmets that was one size too big for them. The […]

AFP has more on the beating and cursing by hard liners or the Basij militia of Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist cleric and two-time presidential candidate, before Friday prayers in Tehran. A pre-election profile of Karroubi is here. Even the hard line head of the Tehran Province security committee, Morteza Tamaddon, is said by Tabnak (itself […]

Borzou Daragahi in Beirut and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran have just filed a summary of Friday afternoon’s events in Tehran. They let slip about two-thirds down the article that opposition sources are claiming that a million protesters filled the capital’s streets and that even their political foes admitted that the crowds were enormous. It is […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an item from the opposition press alleging that the regime turned off cell phone service before Friday prayers in downtown Tehran. FYI — Website Reports Mobile Phones in Center of Tehran BlockedTabnak OnlineFriday, July 17, 2009Document Type: OSC Summary Tehran Tabnak in Persian at 1045 GMT on 17 July […]

Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran on Friday will be closely watched for the signals he sends about the future of Iran. Although he is a strong backer of opposition figure Mir Hosain Mousavi, Rafsanjani has tended to work behind the scenes and to say conciliatory things. As a multi-billionaire, […]

ITN reports on the bombings at hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday morning: Aljazeera English has a detailed interview with an eyewitness survivor: The difference between Friday morning’s strikes and previous bombings in Indonesia some years ago is that there was initially a question of how stable Indonesia was after emerging from dictatorship. The bombers […]

AP provides video of a memorable moment in President Barack Obama’s address to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: What a difference a few years make. George W. Bush repeatedly refused to address the NAACP. It isn’t that Bush is a racist, though his campaign was perfectly willing to deploy race to […]