"Constitutional rule over Autocracy"-Obama

Excerpt from President Barack Obama's address to the Ghanaian Parliament: Time and again, Ghanaians have chosen Constitutional rule over autocracy, and shown a democratic spirit that allows the energy of your people to break through. We see that in leaders who accept defeat graciously, and victors who resist calls to wield power against the opposition. We see that spirit in courageous

Injured Anti-Regime Demonstrator - Tehran - July 9

Freedom for Iran!

Gambia's Donor Supported Dictator Strengthens His Grip

The latest on Yahya Jammeh in the Economist:The arrest of nine journalists on sedition charges appears to constitute an attempt to eradicate the last vestiges of resistance to the president's rule in Gambia. There are other threats, however...Meanwhile...Donors have some leverage over the administration and, along with public pressure, the withholding of aid is reported to have been a factor in

Iran - July Update

Although the Islamic Republic's heavy security presence in cities across Iran seems to have temporarily ended the mass-demonstrations of previous weeks, under the surface the Iranian peoples' hatred for this occupational regime continues to gather force for another day. Sporadic clashes between smaller groups of anti-regime demonstrators and the regime's mercenary security forces continue to take place.

People defend themselves against the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces:



And a 10 year old boy shot dead by the Islamic Republic:

The Islamic Republic continues to terrorize Iranians

In this clip, from the recent anti-regime unrest, an Iranian youth is savagely hunted down by a horde of the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces and beaten. There is at least 10 merceneries attacking the defenseless youth. These are the tactics which this hell-sent Islamic regime uses to stifle dissent against their illegal rule.



The Islamic Republic's internal propaganda machine is depicting the recent demonstrators as "thugs" and "hoodlums" who are "causing unrest and damaging public property". In this effort they get forced confessions (a result of physical and psychological torture) from arrested pro-democracy demonstrators or simply use their own actors and broadcast these propaganda productions to the general public:



It is however norm that the truth to what the Islamic Republic announces is in fact the complete opposite. Here are the actual thugs and hoodlums who have been destroying public property and instigating people to violence - none other than the Islamic Republic's own savage mercenary forces.

Democracy Attitudes

In a paper M. Bratton and R. Mattes report on attitudes to democracy building:The good news is that democratic attitudes are generally on the rise among the African populations we have surveyed. If sustained, this up-tick– measured prior to the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008 – is a promising portent forfurther democratization. But the bad news is that fewer than half of all

Islamic Republic continues to kill anti-regime protestors

Iranian anti-regime protestor shot in the head by the terrorist Islamic Republic occupying Iran (Warning: Very graphic footage)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/video/video_1251.html?1245970509

Clashes between the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces and anti-regime demonstrators continue...

Today more innocent blood of my compatriots has been shed. The numbers of killed are high enough for today's killings to be referred to as a MASSACRE! Reports state that rooms in some hospitals are piled with dead bodies. One cannot help but ask where is the world??!!

They dont count the dead anymore, they just kill.

............

Young woman calling from Tehran describing the savage manner which the Islamic Republic's mercenaries attacked peaceful demonstrations with bullets, clubs, and chains!!! She describes the scene at today's demonstration as nothing less than a massacre! Reports of scores of Iranians being killed today by the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces and hundreds injured. I still cannot digest the news that injured people are not being taken to hospitals because the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces are arresting demonstrators at hospitals!!! Where is the outrage from that useless institution called the UN!?!?!!?



The Islamic Republic's paramilitary "basij" force running away from a crowd of demonstrators whilst still opening fire on them!



More footage from today's peaceful demonstrations. The clip ends just as the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces are unleashed on the crowd:



More footage from today (GRAPHIC / BLOOD) :

"Death to the Islamic Republic!"

The following clip was taken today from Tehran:



The slogans shouted by the masses are:

Death to the Islamic Republic! (marg bar jomhoriye eslami)
Death to the basij (Islamic Republic's paramilitary force) (marg bar basiji)
[Islamic Republic] Wait until we are armed! (vay bar an rooz ke mosalla shavim)
I will kill whoever killed my brother! (mikosham mikosham an kass ke baradaram kosht)

***********************************


Son's Death Has Iranian Family Asking Why

TEHRAN—The family, clad in black, stood at the curb of the road sobbing. A middle-aged mother slapped her cheeks, letting out piercing wails. The father, a frail man who worked as a doorman at a clinic in central Tehran, wept quietly with his head bowed.

Minutes before, an ambulance had arrived from Tehran's morgue carrying the body of their only son, 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour.

On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.

The details of his death remain unclear. He had been alone. Neighbors and relatives think that he got trapped in the crossfire. He wasn't politically active and hadn't taken part in the turmoil that has rocked Iran for over a week, they said.

"He was a very polite, shy young man," said Mohamad, a neighbor who has known him since childhood.

When Mr. Alipour didn't return home that night, his parents began to worry. All day, they had heard gunshots ringing in the distance. His father, Yousef, first called his fiancée and friends. No one had heard from him.

At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.

Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn't amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows the Alipour family. In addition to their slain son, they have two daughters. Shopkeepers and businesses pasted a photocopied picture of Mr. Alipour on their walls and windows. In the picture, the young man is shown wearing a dark suit with gray stripes. His black hair is combed neatly to a side and he has a half-smile.

"He was so full of life. He had so many dreams," said Arsalan, a taxi driver who has known the family for 10 years. "What did he die for?"

RIP Neda Agha-Soltan 1982-2009 - "Angel of Freedom"

Angel of Freedom - Neda Agha-Soltan killed by the Islamic Republic occupying Iran

SIGN NEDA'S ONLINE MEMORIAL BOOK

Neda slumps to the ground after being shot during Saturday's demonstrations

Iranian men trying to help a wounded woman named 'Neda' after getting shot in the chest during a protest in Tehran at the weekend

The bleeding teenager is helped by the two demonstrators

Blood pours from a head wound. It is clear Neda has lost her brief fight for life.

Neda's resting place. The terrorist Islamic Republic did not allow any gathering for the burial and have banned any commemoration of Neda.

A woman looks up at the camera as she lies dying on the streets of Tehran after Saturday's democracy protests. Blood starts to pour from her mouth and her nose. Her eyes roll back as men scramble vainly to keep her alive. The woman, named today as 27-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan, had been shot through the heart. She died within minutes. Foreign media are banned from reporting on 'non-official' events in Iran and dozens of journalists have been arrested or deported in the latest crisis. But the video of the woman bleeding to death has been broadcast across the globe via the internet and has become a rallying point for protesters. Neda slumps to the ground after being shot during Saturday's demonstrations

It has been posted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and has become a rallying point for anti-government protesters inside Iran and around the world. Her name even became a 'trending topic' on Twitter, showing that had become one of the most-repeated words on the microblogging site. Tribute websites have also begun to spring up. Reports say Neda was watching Saturday’s protests with her father when she was shot by Iran’s militia. A message posted with the original YouTube video alleges she was intentionally shot through the chest by a Basij member hiding on a rooftop. 'He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart.' 'I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than two minutes.

'The protests were going on about one kilometre away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gas used among them, towards Salehi Street.' 'Neda' in Farsi means 'the call' or 'the voice'. A website linked to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi named the woman as 27-year-old Neda Agha Soltan. Mousavi warned supporters of danger ahead, and said he would stand by the protesters 'at all times.' But in the website letters, he said he would 'never allow anybody's life to be endangered because of my actions' and called for pursuing fraud claims through an independent board.The former prime minister, a longtime loyalist of the Islamic government, also called the Basij and military 'our brothers' and 'protectors of our revolution and regime.

He may be trying to constrain his followers' demands before they pose a mortal threat to Iran's system of limited democracy constrained by Shia clerics, who have ultimate authority.

Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles hold signs to identify with a girl known as Neda, believed to be a teenager, who was shot dead in Tehran

BBC Persia has interviewed Neda’s fiance. Nico in Huffington Post has got a translated transcript from readers:

Caspian Makan, Neda Agha-Setan’s fiancee, was interviewed by BBC Persia, noting that Neda would have turned 27 this year. “Neda’s goal was not Mousavi or Ahmadinejad, it was her country and was important for her to fight for this goal. She had said many times that if she had lost her life or been shot in the heart, which indeed what happened, it was important for her to continue in this path,” he said.

Considering her young age she has taught a lesson to us all.

About the day of the incident, Mr. Makan said: “When the clashes were occurring, Neda was far away from the demonstrations, she was in one of the side alleys near Amir Abad. Thirsty and tired or being cooped up for about an hour in the car in heavy traffic with her music instructor, she finally gets out of the car and, based on the pictures sent in by the people, armed forces in civilian clothes and the Basiji targeted and shot her in the heart.”

“It was over in a matter of minutes, the Shariati Hospital was nearby, the people around her tried to bring her to the emergency room by car, but before that could even happen she died in her instructor’s arms.”

Mr. Makan added: “We got her body back finally yesterday with some diffculties. Of course, her body was not at the Tehran Coroner but at a one outside of Tehran. The medical examiners wanted parts of her body, including a portion of her femoral bone but the chief medical examiner would not say why and no explanations were ever given.”

“Finally the family consented just so they could get her body back as soon as possible, since just this issue could have resulted in delaying the reception of the body. We buried the body in a small area in the Zahra Cemetery in the late afternoon of 31 Khordad. Also, they had brought in other people who had been killed in the protests so it seemed that the whole event was scheduled to be such.”

About payment for releasing the remains, Mr. Makan had this to say: “No specific amount has been paid at this time, although hospitals, clinics, surgeons and medical examiners have been ordered by the Iranian security services, based on various orders, not to list ‘bullet wound’ as the cause of death on the death certificate in order to prevent the families from filing international complaints in the future. I haven’t seen the release notice of Neda’s remains yet, but I will obtain it from her father in the coming days.”

Mr. Makan regarding government ban of memorial service for Neda Agha Setan said: “We were going to hold her memorial Monday 1st of Tir at 2:30 PM at a mosque at Sharyati street north of Seyed Khandan. But Basijis and mosque officials refused our request for her memorial service so to avoid further public confrontation and instability. They knew that Neda died innocently, and people in Iran and the international community are informed of that fact. So they decided to avoid a situation where a mass rally would take place. In any way, we do not have permission for a memorial service for now.”

However, many eye witnesses told BBC Persia that a large gathering took place with the intention of performing a memorial service at Al Reza Mosque at Nilofar square in Tehran. But the security forces intervened by throwing people out of the mosque and intervening with the service.

Mr. Makan also commented on fake pictures of videos claiming to be Neda at various sites:”I was looking at some sites including ‘iReport’. There was a picture of a young woman with green signs from previous calm demonstrations and had claimed it was Neda before being shot. These pictures have no relation to the event. It seems that Mr. Mousavi’s supporters are trying to portray Neda as one of his supporters. This is not so. Neda was incredibly close to me and she was never supportive of either two groups. Neda wanted freedom and freedom for all.”

BBC Persian tried to contact Neda Agha-Sultan’s other family members but was told by a close relative of hers that, for reasons of their own, the Agha Sultan family couldn't grant an interview.

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-278807

Iranians fight back against the terrorist Islamic Regime

Injured Iranians being attended to by compatriots - the Islamic Republic is arresting any injured people taken to hospitals which has resulted in many injured Iranians not receiving the medical aide they need. This filthy criminal regime will pay for the blood of our heroes who have stood tall against the ruthless dictatorship.



HIM Reza Shah II of Iran addresses a crowd of Iranians in Washington with his two daughters HRH Princess Iman & HRH Princess Noor listening in amongst the crowd. HIM Reza Shah II of Iran called for unity amongst Iranians from across the political spectra in support of the Iranian people fighting for their rights, for freedom, and for democracy to replace the Islamic Republic occupying Iran.

Unified Iranians repel the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces

Battle w/ Police - Tehran, Iran - June 20th 2009
Uploaded by mightier-than. - News videos from around the world.

When I watch the bravery of my compatriots working together against the Islamic Republic's mercenery forces it makes me feel good and proud to be Iranian.

Iranians take up arms against the occupational Islamic Republic

Armed Iranian citizen taking the lead in leading the anti-regime protest actions - flanked by a man and woman holding rocks in their hands.

Iranians are starting to get armed in order to defend themselves and their compatriots against the savage security forces of the Islamic Republic. It's only a question of time when this will escalate and more and more people realize that they cannot fight bullets with their fists.

Reports from people on the scene state that numerous transport planes have landed in Iran filled with Basijis (brainwashed religious zelouts) from the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas and Venezuelan anti-riot police (courtesy of AhmadiNejad's close friendship with the Hugo Chavez!). "The reason such forces are being brought in is that some of the Iranian police are unwilling to hit people as ordered and some are even joining the protesters" (Source #2)

Last night the natural gas line going into a Basij Headquarter, located in Eastern Tehran, was set on fire which consequently resulted in the building being blown up. The Basij had locked themselves in the building once they couldn't withstand the Iranian freedom fighters - at least 5 of these Basij animals were disposed of in this action. The below clip captures footage of the blown up building (at 0:05 you see the building going up in flares to the right of the screen):

WARNING: Graphic clip of innocent Iranian woman shot dead by the Islamic Republic

These two following clips were just uploaded on youtube showing an Iranian woman shot dead in Tehran by the Islamic Republic's mercenary forces. These are EXTREMELY GRAPHIC & DISTURBING IMAGES!




“Neda, don’t be afraid. Neda, don’t be afraid. Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!”

At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave. (at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.)

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.

The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gas used among them, towards Salehi St.
The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.

Please let the world know.

Her name was NEDA and she was 16 years old - let the world know.

The rage and sadness within me right now is indescribable! The Islamic Republic will be brought to justice for the crimes against humanity which they have committed for the past 30 years and which today have intensified further with scores of innocent people having been killed in cold blood! Please spread these news and put pressure on your political representatives to condemn these crimes and to TAKE CONCRETE ACTIONS to support the people of Iran who are being slaughtered by the Islamic Republic!!!


UPDATE 1:

Several embassies in Tehran have announced they will open their doors to injured Iranians:

Portugese Embassy No.30, Nezami St., Abbas Pour St., Valy-e-Asr

Australian Embassy No. 13, 23rd Street, Khalid Islambuli Ave - Telephone+98 21 8872 4456

Embassy of Finland No. 2, Haddadian St., Mirzapour St. (former Soheil St.), Dr. Shariati Ave.

French & Italian Embassies accepting injured protesters

German Embassy Avenue Ferdowsi 320-324

Canadian Embassy is rejecting injured protesters - staff is looking for doctors so that they can accept wounded.

List of embassies in Tehran.



UPDATE 2:

Someone is reporting on Iranian radio that an elderly woman who was fighting back with her supporting cane was shot dead in Tehran.

Demonstrations in provincial cities are said to be heavier and are being met with even more violence by the Islamic Republic's security forces.

Phone lines are cut and internet speed is extremely slow across the country.


UPDATE 3:

A 12 year old boy has been killed (GRAPHIC & DISTURBING IMAGES 18+):




Hospital close to the scene in Tehran: 30-40 dead thus far as of 11pm and 200 injured. Police taking names of incoming injured.

Shame on a country in which foreign embassies are safer than hospitals


UPDATE 4:

Reports from someone on the scene:
http://shooresh1917.blogspot.com/

Ongoing Anti-Regime Protests in Iran

I am still uncertain on where the people demonstrating this past week in Iran want to take this growing movement.

Have they risen up because their votes in a sham s-election, supervised by a terrorist and corrupt regime, did not give the results they wished for? Or have people used the s-elections as an excuse to advance the freedom-fighting movement of Iran by using one of the Islamic Republic's selected candidates, Seyed Mir-Hossein Mousavi (an Islamic Republic servant, who served as PM during the darkest years of this terrorist regime marked by the genocide of political prisoners), as an excuse through which they can voice their rejection of this system?

If the demonstrators truly believe that they can bring change through within this regime by bringing Mousavi to power they will be very disappointed when they realize that Mousavi endorses the foundations of this terrorist regime and will only bring cosmetic changes rather than uprooting the rotten system which has thrived on the Iranian nation's wealth and keeping them in the dark/isolated for the past 30 years.

What I truly hope for is that the blood of innocent Iranians has not been shed because of this criminal Seyed Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and the infighting occuring between different factions within the terrorist Islamic system. I truly hope that people have reached a level of awareness where they see that there is no space for fundamental change within this regime and that they need to bring this regime down and hold a free and fair referendum on the future political system of Iran. I hope that people are not risking their lives for reform, which is a road already tried with the Islamic Republic's smiling mullah Khatami, but that people are fighting for freedom and democracy - to have their human rights restored and respected by a government elected by the people for the people.

Tens of peaceful demonstrators have been shot point-blank or knifed to death by the Islamic Republic's paramilitary force, the "Basij", consisting of foreign merceneries and brainwashed and illiterate religious zelots people from rural areas. Reports from people on the scene confirm that many of these merceneries are Arabs imported from Iraq, Palestine, & Syria with no emotional ties to Iran/Iranians and who won't hesitate to crackdown on the demonstrations in the most savage of ways that they have been trained in. There are many disturbing videos that have been uploaded on youtube and elsewhere in the past few days showing Basiji's, riot police, and members of the various branches belonging to the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard mercilessly attacking defenseless people in the streets (men, women, elderly) and breaking into peoples' homes and beating them for no reasons whatsoever. Hundreds of people across the country have sustained injuries and hospitals continue to receive a steady flow of casualties and injured people. There were reports that hospitals across the country had been given orders by the government not to treat injured Iranians which the regime refers to as "thugs, troublemakers, and hoodlums".

With orders now having been given to the Islamic Republic's security forces to use maximum force the demonstrators will have no choice but to get armed in order to defend themselves and their compatriots who are fighting for their basic rights - their human rights - which this terrorist and anti-Iranian regime has denied them since its inception 30 years ago.

Despite the bloodshed and violence the demonstrations keep growing larger as people find the courage to fight back against the people who are suppressing them and killing their compatriots.

Two of the notable slogans heard on the streets of Iran today are:

DEATH TO THE DICTATOR!
I WILL KILL WHOEVER KILLED MY BROTHER!

The Unreasonable Heretic!

A friend told me not too long ago that some people tend to find my position on the Assads to be somewhat unreasonable. After all, some of their stands and policies, especially with regard to the peace process and the Arab-Israeli Conflict seem to reflect how the majority of people in Syria and elsewhere in the region and the world feel and think. So why we not support them on these matters? Wouldn't this be the patriotic thing to do, regardless of how we feel about their internal policies?

Not from my perspective. If democracy and development are the things that we care most about, then we simply cannot let the fact that the Assads are robbing the country blind, squandering its scarce resources, mismanaging its affairs and depriving its youths of any real chance at making a decent living and of hope in a better future slip out of our mind, no matter how momentarily. Otherwise, we will continue to fall into that all too familiar trap wherein the national cause is given primacy over all other consideration.

For long we have been told that the national cause comes first, I say democracy and development come first. No, I believe that democracy and development are the real national cause.

So, it does not matter in the least to me if the Assads tend to say or adopt the right rhetoric sometimes, so long as they hold on to power through sham elections, laws and constitutions and the sheer might of their military, there is nothing right or legitimate about them or about anything they do or represent. For all practical purposes we have to consider them as evil, even at the risk of sounding too corny or unreasonable sometimes. That’s the way it should be. People who hold on to power in an absolutist manner do not merit our understanding, our nuanced perspectives and our reasonableness, only our contempt and enmity.

The national interest does not benefit in the least from postponing the struggle for our freedom from oppression, for any reason whatsoever. Freedom comes first.

This emphatic stand of mine, however, should not be misconstrued as signifying some kind of appeal to violence or a willingness to resort to it. No. The Assads are not going to drag me to their depraved level. My personal approach will remain nonviolent in nature, albeit somewhat revolutionary.

___________

Speaking of revolutions, the latest edition of BitterLemons-International has a special on the Arab Blogosphere that features an article by yours heretically, two wonderful fellow bloggers from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and a regional correspondent that I absolutely respect and admire.

So, What Do You Have On Your iPod?

Imagine this: you are a well-known TV correspondent and you now have a rare occasion to interview one of the main troublemakers in one of the world’s most turbulent and troubled regions, so, what would you do? What would you ask him about?

Well, I don’t know about you, but Diane Sawyer of ABC News (Video, Text) thought it will be a rather wonderful and congenial idea to give this man a platform from which to attack her country’s democratically elected administration, while ignoring the man’s and his regime’s record in oppressing his own population, dabbling in neighboring countries, and exporting chaos and terror, that is, in being one of the region’s the main domino players for decades.

So, there were no questions about the Hariri Investigation, or the situation in Lebanon, or connection to Iran, the sham referendum that brought him to power, the shame referendum that is designed to keep him in power, and about the fact that many insurgency leaders in Iraq are roaming around free in Damascus and talking to foreign journalists and operating their insurgency TV from Syria, not to mention the continuing crackdown against democracy and human rights advocated in the country. After all who cares about these issues, right? Because what inquiring minds really want to know is what’s on this fucking murderous moron’s iPod. For if it is by any chance Shania Twain and Faith Hill, well then, gee whiz, the man must really be good and wholesome like the milk from grandma’s farm ya all. And we can just to talk to him. After all, he is “the son of the legendary Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad, who negotiated with five American presidents” you know, which is offered as a sign of prestige somehow, rather than a mark of eternal shame.

But then, we Syrians, although we look more modern and secular than most other Arabs (except the Lebanese and Tunisians), are still products of the East to Diane Sawyer, it seems, and, as such, we do somehow expect our leaders to lord over us for a long time, and we just looove it when we they do. The fact that we have a Republican system rather than a monarchical one is not seen as an indication of our desire for a responsible government and a peaceful and regular transition of power. Naah, it’s just an accident of history, a little curiosity, like having Faith Hill on you ipod, or riding a bus in London when you are the son of a Middle Eastern dic-fucking-tator. iPleaaaase.

If the interview was intentionally designed to make this “Basher” of our democratic aspirations look good it would not have done a better job. This was not simply a nice performance by our national thug, who had obviously rehearsed every response this time around and paid more deference to why his hired media goons had told him, this was a seriously poor, unprofessional and moronic performance by the ABC team who set this up, or should we just put sole blame on ABC’s own Dame Edna for this?

And so our village idiot ended up sounding like a statesman, did he? Well, how else should a man sound when he is allowed to make such claims as “We are the main player,” in reference to helping stabilize the situation in Iraq without being challenged on it, and “What good is democracy if you are dead?” without actually being reminded that he had done his best from the very beginning to ensure that death rather than democracy should prevail in Iraq, and he is on the fucking public record on this.

Sure his regime’s survival was at stake. But, you know what?, he is a fucking maniacal dictator, his fears in this regard, albeit natural, are not legitimate. People often confuse the natural and legitimate in this case. The Assads’ reactions are often natural, but always illegitimate. The way they took over and (mis)managed the affairs of the state should stigmatize them for life. And the least that representatives of the democratic media can do when they get the occasion to interview such figures is to bear this simple imperative in mind and to press them on it. You don’t get to interview a dictator only to give him a free pass on all the criminal things that he habitually commits. You don’t give him an easy time of it, just because you happen to hate your own democratically elected president, one who is about to be democratically replaced soon, unlike the dictator you are interviewing, or because you find the opposition unconvincing perhaps. Because as a representative of the free media, it is indeed freedom that should be on your mind, and freedom is the agenda that you should be ultimately serving here, and no other consideration should be allowed to weigh in and dilute the issue. Because when representatives of the free media allow for the dilution of critical issues, what chance does freedom, truth and justice have?

But then again, who cares about all this? What do you have on your iPod? iPray do tell.