Then he speaks of "Neda", who is rapidly becoming the face of the protesters, the example of the repression and human right's violations against the Iranian people by the government of Iran and their corrupt leaders.
The video of Neda's death was shown across the globe, we showed the video here in a previous piece. A young girl, watching the protests, shot and killed for nothing more than standing there.
Video below of John Mccain (H/T Top of the Ticket)
LA Times shows Neda before:
This is Neda after:
Iranian authorities are concerned how "Neda" has become a symbol of what the people of Iran are fighting for and against in their defiance of the government cheating them, ignoring their votes, faking the results of an election, then declaring they would violently make them shut up about being repressed.
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election.
Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26, was killed as she watched a pro-democracy protest, and mobile phone footage of her last moments have become a worldwide symbol of Iran's turmoil.
The authorities had already banned a public funeral or wake and have prevented gatherings in her name while the state-controlled media has not mentioned Miss Soltan's death.
Today it was reported that they had also told her family to take down the black mourning banners outside their home in the Tehran suburbs to prevent it becoming a place of pilgrimage. They were also told they could not hold a memorial service at a mosque.
Nevertheless posters of Miss Soltan's face have started to appear all over Tehran.
The attempted crackdown came as friends present as Miss Soltan died came forward to detail what happened.
In the meantime, in a blatant attempt to spin after Obama got slammed, left and right, for his weak, pathetic response to the atrocities being committed against the Iranian people by their government, the Washington Post reports the White House is trying to credit Obama's Cairo speech with the Iranian uprising.
Excuse me for a second while I laugh hard enough to fall off my chair.
Try this on for size.
The Iranian people look to their neighbors, Iraqi's, who have obtained freedom, liberty and Democracy, hold fair elections where their votes DO count and they see what they want for themselves.
Maybe more people should point out that the Iranian people would not have had that type of example from a Muslim country in the Middle East, if not for...yes, I do dare say it.... GEORGE BUSH.
George Bush, 2003:
The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and in other free nations. The triumph of democracy and tolerance in Iraq, in Afghanistan and beyond would be a grave setback for international terrorism. The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall, and resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of terror, and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will retreat.
Our enemies understand this. They know that a free Iraq will be free of them -- free of assassins, and torturers, and secret police........
From George Bush's 2005 State of the Union Address:
Today, Iran remains the world's primary state sponsor of terror -- pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve. We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium re-processing, and end its support for terror. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.
The Domino Effect that many criticized and scoffed at, seems to be moving forward, as we speak, in Iran.
Reaction from people in the Middle East, at that time:
My Iranian friends were in disbelief when they heard the American president committing America to stand with "the democrats of Iran, if they stand for themselves." Tehran's despots cannot expect to oppress their people much longer. "Even if nothing else happens after this speech,” an Iranian activist told me over the phone, "I feel I had enough of human recognition." He and his fellow reformers have not been so recognized by any administration in the past.
President Bush also crossed other lines last night. By asking Egypt to lead the Arab world towards democracy as it led it towards peace, the president responded to those who accused him of being one-sided in his call for change. For years, on al-Jazeera and scores of fundamentalists and anti-American commentators pounded America with a familiar accusation: the U.S. wants freedom for its enemies, but not for its allies. Last night, Bush's answer fell hard on the Arab world's inquisitors. The American president coaxed his own Arab allies to move towards democracy. More importantly, he defied policies established by the previous State Department, which barred touching the Wahhabi Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as it is the chief provider of our oil. The president spoke directly to them: Riyadh must open up its system, emancipate women, and move out of the Middle Ages with respect to human rights.
The praise for Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain was right on target. Constitutional monarchies are making a few steps forward. And skillfully, Bush's speech elevated the issue of Palestinian rights higher – with recognition of their statehood. The president grabbed the historic opportunity to define its necessary terms: two states living side by side, with security for Israelis.
America's commitment to freedom worldwide, and especially in the Arab world, has no equivalent in international relations. But the alliance between the American people and the democratic movements in the Middle East is a startlingly new doctrine. In his first term, President Bush declared the strategy of fighting terrorism must be pursued with the spread of freedom. In his second term, Bush's administration is now fulfilling its election mandate of committing itself to build the alliances necessary to win the War on Terror.
Spin that.
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