Anniversary of Iran's Disputed Presidential Election

Posted by DipNote Bloggers
June 13, 2010
Child Stands With Women as They Cast Votes in Iranian 2009 Presidential Election

On the occasion of the anniversary of Iran's disputed presidential election, Secretary Clinton released the following statement:

"When the Iranian people determined last year that their government had denied them their right to free and fair elections, thousands of Iranian citizens poured into the streets to protest peacefully. The Iranian authorities responded to their citizens' call for accountability and transparency with violence, arbitrary detentions, dubious trials, and intimidation. One year later, many political prisoners continue to suffer in jail, some facing death sentences for expressing their opinions. Other civil society activists in Iran are not in prison, but they face other forms of persecution. Over the past year, many of Iran's most accomplished journalists, academics, and activists felt they had no choice but to leave their homeland.

"The Iranian government's denial of the fundamental freedoms and rights accorded to its citizens in the Iranian constitution and international treaties to which Iran is a party has drawn broad international condemnation. As President Obama said when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to stand with peaceful reform movements seeking the rights that are our common birthright.

"The United States once again calls on the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran to meet their obligations to their own people and to the international community by respecting the rights and dignity of their citizens and by fully upholding Iran's international obligations. We also call for the immediate release of all imprisoned human rights defenders, including Shiva Nazar Ahari, Narges Mohammadi, Emad Baghi, Kouhyar Goudarzi, Bahareh Hedayat, Milad Asadi, and Mahboubeh Karami. We ask the Iranian authorities to release the three American hikers, detained without charge for almost a year, and to provide information on the status of Mr. Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007.

"The United States reaffirms its commitment to engage with Iran on all issues in pursuit of a negotiated diplomatic resolution, on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interests. But we also will continue to speak out in defense of basic human liberties and in support of those around the world who seek to exercise their universal rights."



United States
June 14, 2010

Zharkov in USA writes:

I avoid posting on this blog because it is such a waste of time, but this message is for foreign consumption as our own government is too slow to act on it.

The US government could do much more, although they haven't the expertise to cap British Petroleum's crude oil leaks, they could do far more to clean up the mess by declaring it a national environmental emergency, which it is. As Russian scientists have noted, eventually the oil slick will become an international emergency as the oil moves north in the ocean currents toward fishing grounds near Norway and Portugal.

The president might request an emergency bill from Congress to allow every oil company to keep, for free, all the crude oil they can skim from the Gulf, as payment for their trouble.

BP would lose millions of dollars because they failed to have enough equipment to do that job. That would be BP's fault alone.

The rest of the world's oil companies should seize the oil in the Gulf under the legal doctrine of treasure trove, which means, whoever finds lost treasure in the open sea can keep it. The leaked crude oil is definitely "lost" to BP.

So it's free oil for every oil firm in the world. All they have to do is come and scoop it up and sell it.

Of course a free enterprise solution will be rejected by the US, so it will be up to other nations to figure out what they will do when the oil slick reaches their shores.

I suggest they prepare to intercept the oil when it passes the US maritime border, take as much as they can, and if they can't sell enough to cover the cost, send their bill for cleanup to British Petroleum.

June 14, 2010

E. writes:

ENTERPRISE SHALL BE BUILT To go there where no man has gone before

Saman B.
June 14, 2010

Saman B. in Iran writes:

What difference dose it make who is coming to preside, if you refer the initial election of Iranian in April/1/1979 you can't find a logical title on the elective list, I just saw it in archives video, under of this index, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC [YES] [NO]; admittedly all of that morons fingered [YES].
I don't blame some of them because they'd been brainwashing.

I don't care! I born one year after that, the elections are tool for regime to govern so propaganda for the world and hobby or necessity for most of Iranian; election seal on the Iranian identity card is a main voucher to live without this seal they might be reject to university or governmental engage,etc.

I believe that the Tory and reformist so elections are null poetry.

Thank You

Virginia, USA
June 14, 2010

Flavius in Virginia writes:

The administration has not been forthright enough in their support of the anti-government forces in Iran. It is a great blemish on our present foreign policy.

When the President won his Nobel, he should have dedicated it to all those who died, were injured or imprisoned in their fight for their country.

United States
June 14, 2010

Zharkov in U.S.A. writes:

Iran should be at the bottom of the list of America's worries. Nearly one quarter of the world's food chain is in the process of being contaminated by British Petroleum.

The US government relying entirely on BP to stop the leak is as foolish as if Stalin had sent only one soldier to fight the German Army.

All of the world's oil companies should be concerned and involved in this cleanup mess.

Congress should decline permission for offshore oil drilling to every oil company which had equipment for oil cleanup but refused to help in the Gulf.

Every one of the world's oil companies should be granted a permanent Letter of Marque authorizing them to seize and sell all oil leaked into the ocean, in the Gulf or wherever else it may be found.

June 15, 2010

P writes:

can we watch LIVE when the first iranian Vassel with Humanitarian aid will approach Gaza please?

Minnesota, USA
July 31, 2010

Alfredo in Minnesota writes:

The same will happen in Venezuela, next September on the 26 we vote for the new National Assembly, and the Electoral Authorities are well known chavistas, plus, they are using Smartmatic machines to count the vote, while everybody knows they commit fraud.(Smartmatic was sued in Philippines)Venezuelans want manual counting, please help us sending international observers, and watch closely, specially after 4:00 pm, when votings is supposed to end and is when data is changed to make chavistas win. Why do the US continues to buy oil from Chavez regime? Irans dictator's best friend.

Kenneth T.
August 1, 2010

Kenneth E. in Canada writes:

The only man to bring a semblance of order and at the same time raising the standard of the Venezuelan people is Hugo Chavez Frias elected President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Not only is he loved by the masses, he has brought to his people a way of life that they never knew before.

The OIL which belongs to the Venezuelan people is now used to make their lives very comfortable. Iran with the Shah the favourite puppet of a foreign power kept the people destitute, their only choice was a revolution, albeit a bad one. Perhaps the People of Iran can throw off the Ayatullahs and return to REAL form of democracy, not foreign control.


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