Iran Police React to Continued Election Protests with Violence

Left with few alternatives, critics of the recent election fraud in Iran have taken to shouting slogans from rooftops, turning on car lights and holding up posters. The protestors have quieted down greatly after Iranian police reacted in seemingly the only way they know how when faced with dissension, i.e. – violence. Ruling clerics in Iran also made it clear that they would not countenance a new vote. Instead, those same clerics that protestors called upon to bring justice to their country are setting up special courts to deal with the hundreds of protestors arrested in the past week.

Iran also took the rather incendiary move of expelling two British diplomats, and has accused Britain of meddling in Iranian affairs. In return, Britain sent home two Iranian envoys, making it clear that nation’s opinion of the corrupt politics in Iran. A Tehran resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the protests thusly: "People are calmly protesting, more symbolically than with their voices."

There were no rallies reported yesterday, most likely be Iranians were afraid to face the violence that has been continuously doled out by the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia at the behest of "elected" President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and "supreme leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. President Obama, whose response has generally been more muted than that of his counterparts in Europe, noted, "I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."