I had to take a break from posting here for family-related things, and in the past 24 hours, several extremely disturbing videos have emerged from Iran. I won’t link to them. We’ve been following everything by iPhone, which makes it kind of difficult to post here during regular hours.

Summary for June 20 2009

• Tehran protestors were blocked off from the protest sites of Azadi and Englehab Squares by large numbers of heavily armed paramilitary and police.
• From Saturday, there is an accounting of at least 19 deaths, including the death of a teenaged girl, captured in the disturbing and emotionally charged “Neda video”.
• Against protesters, authorities are using water cannons, tear gas,possibly dropping tear gas and water from helicopters (likely CS), and clubs on protestors, equally vicious on old, young, female and male.
• The regime-friendly Basij militia are using concrete-filled PVC pipes as weapons. We also know that they are marking the doorways of protestor’s homes.
• Some areas of Tehran were without electricity on Saturday.
• Mousavi today asked protesters to remain peaceful and called for a new election.
• Mousavi has stated he is ready to become a martyr and asked Iranians to go on strike in the event of his arrest.
• Protesters are asked NOT to bring their wounded to the hospitals, as Basij are waiting to take them away.
• Several foreign embassies are recruiting doctors, and sending out the word that they are accepting injured protesters. There are unconfirmed reports that Basij are blocking entries into these embassies.
• Young protesters captured by the state are “confessing” to being recruited by UK, US, and Israeli governments in an attempt to bolster the nationalism in Iran. At least one commentator has said that this is unlikely to be believed by the Iranian protesters.
• Main Stream Media (MSM) has been behind the curve, with the BBC, Fox News and various papers in England being the most up-to-date MSM outlets. CNN is not reporting much outside the ruling party line (as far as we can tell)
• In fact, Ministry of Culture on Saturday banned international media from reporting on the demonstrations unless they receive permission from Iranian authorities.
• Iranian government will be recounting a subset of the (paper) ballots soon. Some say this is not adequate as the original accusations of election tampering included faked ballots.
• Tehran wasn’t the only protest site, as protests supposedly occurred in cities all over Iran and have been met with crackdowns and brutality.
• Protesters are fighting back when it’s impossible to peacefully protest, which is difficult as most of them are unarmed except for things like rocks, pipes, and any home-made weapon they can devise. Mousavi has asked them to not take out revenge on the Basij.
• Some police on the ground are asking the protesters to remain calm and peaceful.

News and Media

• BBC Correspondents from Iran

• The Independent’s Robert Fisk from Iran