Telephoning the Revolution

Yesterday I saw this CNN video of an anonymous woman’s account of the alleged “Baharestan Square massacre” posted all over the web and it’s understandably provoking a lot of raw outrage (read the comments at C&L for an example). It’s fairly compelling stuff, but (here comes the heartless realism) I question its veracity.  Undoubtedly, there’s a tremendous amount of savage brutality going on in Iran now and it’s not limited to batons (witness Neda), but her account seems a little over-the-top (axes, etc.) when coupled with her overwrought pleas for US intervention (not to mention, no collaborating visuals). The NY Times’ The Lede has posted a few accounts that contradict the woman’s recounting of the events that took place during the rally at Baharestan Square and I think they’re worth highlighting:

Update | 5:03 p.m. The National Iranian American Council’s blog reports that “a trusted source who attended today’s silent rally at Baharestan Square” wrote to to them with an account of today’s events more like the one we heard from a reader of The Lede this morning — and quite unlike the account of the anonymous woman who spoke with CNN:

 

I was there from 5:15 to 7:30. It was very tense. Being out in Baharstan was an act of defiance. No one said anything, there were only a few chants coming from outside the square. Although the police were a lot nicer, the Basij continued to be brutal. No one was allowed to stand in one place, we had to keep on moving. The moment we stood in one place, they would break us up. I saw many people get blindfolded and arrested, however it wasn’t a massacre. I heard that someone was killed, however I didn’t see it.

Update | 8:34 a.m. An Iranian-American reader of The Lede, who witnessed some of Wednesday’s opposition rally, wrote this morning in an e-mail message from Tehran that he has doubts about the account of yesterday’s events given to CNN in a telephone interview on Wednesday. According to our reader:

 

When I was over there at the quasi-rally I realized that the repression of protests have now mostly devolved into the standard Irish cop swinging his baton rythmically and saying “nothing to see here folks.” That’s exactly what I saw. This stuff about shooting, tear gas, and even defenestration from a bridge that CNN reported … seems unlikely. Of course it could have happened but I don’t see the logic in it. These cops are tired — you can tell, and they’re not Lebanese either.

The reader adds: “The problem here is that, with the censorship, rumors become news fast,” and then, as they get passed on, “they get ‘telephoned’ into worse rumors.”

It’s great that Iranians have been able to get the word out about what’s going down in their country, but it’s extremely important that we run all of the information coming out of there through a reality-based filter. As noted above, “telephoning” will become an increasing problem and, as it’s more widely exposed, factual accounts that deserve widespread dissemination will erroneously be called into question and/or ignored.  And, without a doubt, the PNAC neoconmen, who are (mostly) out of power and have been wrong about everything, will be exploiting the internet and social networking to drum up support for yet another one of their foolhardy invasion schemes. Definitely support the Iranian protesters and continue to follow the events, but make sure you’ve got critical eyes firmly planted behind those rose-colored glasses while doing so.

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/25/09 at 11:16 AM • Permalink

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