Monday, June 15, 2009

Latest From Iran

Protests continue in Iran after the disputed Presidential election... some reasons why it was disputed here.

Twitter feed here.

Some statistical analysis here and a breakdown of the results here.

Liveblog from HuffPost here.

It's really hard to say what's going on Iran right now because the situation is so fluid- I never really saw the point of Twitter up until now and I'm happy to say that I've completed turned around on it. I viewed Twitter as this strange, weird 'Facebook status update' thing that I couldn't see the point of, but right now Twitter is the best way, hands down to get updates on what the situation on the ground is.

What I can say though, is this: I'm cheering all of these people on- I know I'd be right there out in the streets with them if I was over there. There's footage everywhere on the internet of huge crowds, of students showing the welts left by the batons of the riot police- this is a huge moment in Iran right now and potentially one of the most significant events in the Middle East in thirty years.

It was therefore pretty depressing to see that the main news networks were so lax and behind in picking this story up- they're coming around now, but still... way late on this one folks. The latest... estimates have up to a million people on the streets of Tehran (that may be wishful thinking- no confirmation on that from Twitter yet)- the Ayatollah in a stunning climbdown has called for a probe into allegations of voter fraud. This is after calling the election results a 'divine assessment.' Apparently, God's assessments need to be double checked.

Watch this closely in the coming days...

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