• On July 2, Iranians began using a new protest technique called “political traffic,” where they all drove in an attempt to cause traffic jams between 6 and 8 PM in Tehran. Photos can be seen by clicking “read more.”
• In an attempt to prevent a large uprising on July 9, the regime’s forced searched every single dorm at Sistan and Baluchistan University and cancelled the summer classes that were to begin July 6 so the schools can be shut down. Students say that very, very few people are being given permission to enter.
• At Tabriz University, students are being forced to leave their dorms for the summer immediately after they take their final exams.
• Click here for video sent to us allegedly showing the regime using Arabic-speaking, Lebanese Hezbollah members to attack demonstrators.
• A cleric says that some of the arrested British embassy staff members will be put on trial for their involvement in creating unrest.

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• On July 2, the regime’s agents raided the bazaar in Tabriz that shut down to protest the value-added tax. Shopowners described receiving threatening phone calls and the regime forced the bazaar to open back up.
• A report sent to me claims that the Center for Driving Guidance in Tehran has been identified as a Revolutionary Guards’ headquarters used to carry out the crackdowns. A photo can be seen after the jump.
• Seven students have been arrested at Babol University, including five from June 18. The regime has reportedly ordered the authorities to hold them until after July 9, due to a fear of heightened activity on the anniversery of the 1999 student demonstrations.
• Iranians are confirming to me that large, widespread demonstrations are being planned for July 9.

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Sorry for the lack of Iran updates. Yesterday was my 23rd birthday, and we all need a break sometimes.

• The Basiji militia has officially requested that the government prosecute Mousavi, accusing him of nine illegal acts including “disturbing the nation’s security,” which could put him in prison for up to 10 years.
• On June 30, 6,000 Iranians gathered in Kermanshah in honor of Kianush Asa, a student who died after being held in prison for 10 days and was allegedly tortured. There was another gathering at Tehran’s Science and Industrial University.
• On July 1, the Bazaar in Tabriz shut down in opposition to the value-added tax.
• On July 1, a student in Tehran released from prison described being tortured in a letter. The account was sent to me by student supporters of PMOI. The account reads: “From the day before Neda was killed until today, we were in jail. Today after threatening us and making us sign agreements, they let us go. We were about 20 people in a 5 meter long cell. All the girls and boys were in the same cell together. The prison guards would suddenly enter the cell and start beating the girls. Sometimes, they would take them out of the cell for a while. They would raid the cell every 30 minutes and start beating everyone. They would also take people for interrogation which would last for a very long time. In the interrogations, they asked, who tells you what to do? Why were you on the street that day? They would only feed us at night which was a sort of soup that tasted like water”.
• Click “read more” to view an extremely graphic photo sent to me of an Iranian student currently in a coma because he was so brutally beaten with batons by the regime’s security forces.

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The Supreme Court has ruled that the four Saudi princes and Saudi government as a whole cannot be sued by the families of those killed in 9/11 because foreign governments can’t be sued. The suit claimed that Saudi officials funded terrorists, including Al-Qaeda, through charities. Although the 9/11 Commission concluded that they “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization,” it can be argued that they funded charities knowing they were spreading radical Islam and helping terrorists as a whole, which benefited Al-Qaeda even if the Saudi officials weren’t directly transferring money to them.

New article up on Pajamas Media, which the editor referred to as “a hoot.” Click here to read.

There are two items of interest about North Korea today. The first is the expected firing of short range missiles from the eastern coast of North Korea as described here. These firings had been expected ever since the DPRK declared the firing zones a few weeks ago.

Along with the missile firings, JoongAng Ilbo is reporting here that there are critical food shortages in the DPRK. The United States, along with other countries, is refusing to provide food aid unless they can be sure that the aid goes to the people who need it the most.

I believe that the current level of North Korean provocations is directly related to the lack of food. From the Joongang article:

Also yesterday, South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Korea Development Institute estimated that North Korea’s total grain production may only reach about 4.3 million tons, well short of the minimum 5.1 million tons required to feed its people. About 3.3 million tons of the 4.3 million tons will be from North Korean domestic production, while the rest will either be imported or will come from overseas aid.

If the refusal of other nations to provide food aid continues, the anticipated one million tons from aid may not appear. We do not know at the moment what level of aid the PRC will provide. Given the state of the PRC’ s economy and the World economy in general, the PRC may not have the resources to provide that much aid. In addition, refer to the earlier post referring to North Korea’s sale of wood for fertilizer. Without sufficient fertilizer, the DPRK will probably not meet the 3.3 million tons estimate of domestic production.

Should additional unrestricted aid not be forthcoming, I would expect an increase in provocations aimed at South Korea, Japan and the United States.

The New York Daily News, which endorsed then-Senator Obama last year, has an opinion piece today highlighting the successful withdrawal of US forces from all major Iraqi cities.

All who helped make this a reality - American troops and military leaders, the Iraqi police and government, and, yes, former President George Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates - have earned our thanks.

I have a new article up about the coup in Honduras. Although the coup may not have been the best course of action to take, those who took part in it were doing so to preserve the checks and balances that define democracy. Click here to read it.

The Sudanese government has admitted that the truck convoy that was bombed on their territory in the early part of 2009 was carrying Iranian arms for Hamas. The president’s advisor who admitted it in a press conference said that they believed the Israelis were behind the attack, as most believe now, but they could not prove it.

Former President Zelaya has decided to wait until the end of the three day period decreed by the Organization of American States (OAS) for him to be restored to power to attempt to return to Honduras. The details may be found here.

The salient part of this article is this:

“Soldiers stormed Zelaya’s residence and flew him into exile early Sunday after he insisted on trying to hold a referendum asking Hondurans if they wanted to reform the constitution. The Supreme Court, Congress and the military all deemed his planned ballot illegal.”

Here are the sections of the Honduran Constitution that apply to changing the Honduran Constitution.

ARTICULO 373.- La reforma de esta Constitución podrá decretarse por el Congreso Nacional, en sesiones ordinarias, con dos tercios de votos de la totalidad de sus miembros. El decreto señalará al efecto el artículo o artículos que hayan de reformarse, debiendo ratificarse por la subsiguiente legislatura ordinaria, por igual número de votos, para que entre en vigencia.

ARTICULO 374.- No podrán reformarse, en ningún caso, el artículo anterior, el presente artículo, los artículos constitucionales que se refieren a la forma de gobierno, al territorio nacional, al período presidencial, a la prohibición para ser nuevamente Presidente de la República, el ciudadano que lo haya desempeñado bajo cualquier título y el referente a quienes no pueden ser Presidentes de la República por el período subsiguiente.

I’m not literate in Spanish. It appears to me, however, that Article 373 dealing with amending the Constitution requires that the Congress in ordinary session propose changes and this requires a two-third vote of all the members. The changes then require ratification during a subsequent ordinary session of the Congress. Article 374 appears to prohibit the President from doing exactly what former President Zelaya was accused of trying to do when he was removed from the Presidency.

In a move which upsetted some Western analysts, Iran placed some employees of the British Embassy in Teheran under arrest recently for their ‘participation’ in recent protests. As of today, though, eight of the nine have been released.

Prime Minister Brown has condemned the detentions:

“This action is unjustified and it is unacceptable and some people in Iran are trying to seek to use Britain as an explanation for the legitimate Iranian voices calling for greater openness and democracy,” he said. “This action is unjustified and it is unacceptable and some people in Iran are trying to seek to use Britain as an explanation for the legitimate Iranian voices calling for greater openness and democracy,” he said.

Iran appears to release that holding these prisoners would cause increased tensions, so it appears that that country is attempting to smooth over differences for now.

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The National Association of Muslim American Women (NAMAW) is accusing the FBI of misconduct in recently arresting the four alleged New York bomb plotters, even though the agency has damning evidence against them. This is the same group that filed a complaint with the Justice Department alleging there was a Jewish campaign inside the U.S. government to ”demonize” Muslims and violate their rights and to punish enemies of Israel.

Click here for the original from CAN’s website:

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• Demonstrators in Karaj have attacked the head of the city council, who is also described as a “hardline” Revolutionary Guards commander with a “direct role” in the arresting and killing of protestors, with sticks near his home yesterday. The report I received from student supporters of the PMOI says he is currently in a coma and will probably die.
• General Odierno says that Iran is still training and financing insurgents in Iraq who use mortars and roadside bombs, that “many of the attacks in Baghdad are in fact done by individuals supported by Iran.”
• There is an unconfirmed report that six pro-Mousavi demonstrators have been hanged in Mashhad.
• Ayatollah Hadi Gafouri gave a speech a few days ago to demonstrators in Tehran, where he said that Ayatollah Khomeini never wanted Khamenei to succeed him as Supreme Leader. Another ayatollah, Seyyed Jaleleddin Taheri-Esfhani came to the defense of Mousavi this week.

The U.S. has won this standoff with North Korea. The U.S.S. John McCain had been tracking the ship, believed to be carrying missile parts and possibly other WMD-related equipment to Burma. It looked like the U.S. was going to have to board the ship, which the DPRK said would be considered an act of war and warrant retaliation, or watch it sail into a Burmese port. Well, the North Koreans blinked, and the ship is turning around to return home.