Today, pro-government Iranians took to streets in Tehran and possibly other cities in a show of support for the Ahmadinejad government and for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. A report by CNN spoke of hundreds of thousands of people in Tehran alone and perhaps thousands more in “Tabriz, Shiraz, Arak, Gilan and Sistan-Baluchestan province.”
According to CNN, protesters chanted slogans against Mir Hossein Mousavi, America, Britain, France, Israel and the Green Movement’s protests on Sunday – Ashura. However, the CNN report while accurate in most respects, failed to mention some very key facts about the protests; facts that would show the true nature of the protests.
For starters, the CNN report and some other media reports do not mention the fact that dozens of Buses chartered by the Iranian government ran non-stop from villages and suburbs around Tehran and other cities, bringing in government supporters in hordes to the protest venues. The buses began their operation the day before, ensuring the protest looked large enough.
These protesters were then later dispatched to their homes outside Tehran and other cities by the same buses. So what seemed like tens of thousands of Tehranis was in reality a mix of Tehranis and non-Tehranis brought in specifically for the purpose of fooling the world into believing that Tehran and other cities fully supports Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.
And while government-run media claimed millions and CNN claimed hundreds of thousands and that Tehran was ‘packed’ with protesters, independent analyses show that the protest in Tehran was composed of no more than 20,000 people. (Click here for the picture and analysis from Tehran protest’s numbers.)
Secondly, they fail to mention the fact that the protesters were offered free refreshments at the expense of the government to keep them there and to boost their morale. Their banners, slogans and even the declaration they released denouncing the opposition was written, prepared and handed over to them by the government. Protesters received all their material needs from the government from the minute they boarded the buses to the minute they got back home.
Even so, the enthusiasm that Green Movement supporters show when they are out protesting was non-existent during this protest. People had simply brought their whole families out for a day out on the streets after being prepped up by the government to counter the popular movement that is shaking the core of the Islamic Republic.
And even the government’s own media announced that there were no protests in some of the other large cities. Mashhad, the second largest city saw almost nothing. Neither did Isfahan, the third largest city. And there was no independent confirmation of protests from the cities that the government-run media reported.
Finally, there was no riot police, Basij or IRGC members out with batons, cables, pepper spray, tear gas and bullets to disperse the people or stop them from chanting and gathering. Compare this to the millions of people who marched onto streets in June or the hundreds of thousands that marched on Sunday in the face of brutal repression and a government ban on their protests and you will clearly see the desperate attempts by the Iranian government to make the world believe it has significant support among the populace.
If the government lifts bans on opposition protests, does not cut off telecommunication systems to disrupt planning, does not arrests hundreds and kill dozens, then we’ll see millions out on Iran’s streets every day.
The truth is, if the government did have support among the people, the crowds on Ashura would have been split between the Green Movement and the supporters of the Islamic Republic. On that day, it was an overwhelming show of support for reform and a clear rejection of the Islamic Republic – plain and simple. The ‘Tehranis’ the government showed the world today were huddled up in small pockets on that day or sitting at home in their villages, watching government propaganda on TV.
Protests like today’s may make the government feel a bit less insecure about its prospects of survival, but it is in no way going to change the resolve of the Iranian people or the perception of the government’s brutality and weakness in the minds of foreigners.
[quote]Finally, there was no riot police, Basij or IRGC members out with batons, cables, pepper spray, tear gas and bullets to disperse the people or stop them from chanting and gathering.[/quote]
If they had them out on duty they would have lost half of their demonstrators! How many of the people from Tehran were actually Government employees given the day off to attend? (Or is that ordered to attend?)
I’m surprised the regime is doing this, they are pissing in their pants to get warm (and we know that goes). By doing this they are revealing how little popular support they have. 20.000, what the hell lets say 500.000 people coming out to support them is nothing when Government employees are given the day off, free bus and metro, free food and so on.
As you point out millions of people came out to support the green movement in June only in Tehran, while the violence was low. Now i believe even more people are against the regime and if they are allowed to come out, a figure like 500.000 is lost due to rounding error.
Excellent article … plz post on Huffington Post and please send to CNN Iran desk. We need to make sure the world knows the real demonstrators.
Thank you so much, Shahryar, for continuous reports and analyses on Iran.
hamvare sabz bashid!
Mansur
couldn’t make the points any better
one thing to mention: most of the same security forces,Ansar Hezbolah, IRGC Basijii, yegan veejeh, etc that beat up green protesters were also among the pro-regime protesters today
the rest are either government employees or the type of individual that you could buy from broke villages in Iran by offering them a free bus ride to Tehran, paid meals, cupons & other benefits (i could gather thousands like that here in the US just by placing trick adds in craigslist’s employment, volunteer and event section if offer free meals, ride & snacks, now imagine going to poor villages in Iran, controlling states media and being able to force all gov employees)
i dont know if it’s the CNN policies to close their eyes on the truth or the reporters are on the Iranian regime’s payroll (or both since there might be a secret contract bet the CNN & regime we don’t know about)
they only report things when too obvious to not to report since the rest of the media msy grab their bite
anyway, great article
Thanks for this. If the government-arranged gatherings took place in five locations around the country that’s a far cry from the (at least) 21 cities in which protests took place on Ashura:
http://www.pagef30.com/2009/12/how-many-cities-did-protests-yesterday.html
The link there that goes to Mohsen Sazegara’s group shows (in Persian) exactly where in each of those cities they took place as well.
Excellent article again, you wise owl. CNN is known for keeping their mouth shut about any real news. When Saddam was tossed out of Iraq, CNN president told us that he knew that Saddam was going to kill his daughter’s nephew before he did it, but it he didn’t it necessary to warn him not to come back into the country. Be careful what you tell them, because they are reaping it to the regime.
Hey, I just thought of something. Why don’t you tell them there is going to be a big explosion over somewhere far away, and then go in and take over the parliament! Well, maybe not that, but something like that to find out if you can trust them.
Be careful and have a blessed evening.
Thank you so much for your analysis, Josh!
Amid the heated discussions about the numbers of government supporters out on the streets it is good to have your sober judgement.
As always since June.
Take care and keep up the good work!
just look at this picture and see how many these perverts precisely are:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/photo.php?pid=30461656&id=1508993550&ref=nf
just look at this picture and see how many these perverts precisely are:
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs185.snc3/19231_1186096501769_1508993550_30461656_2187307_n.jpg
Who were the pro-regime demos for? While I am absolutely certain that there were real supporters in the crowd, no pro-regime demo will ever have credibility until opposition protests are allowed to proceed w/o violence and arrests.
worldwide boycott on anything made in china. for selling bulldozer to kill freedom loving people in iran spread the word please post over and over again and again on till china gets the massage!!!!!!!!!!
this article is missed many things. it tells that many people of iran is easy to be manipulated by the government, while the truth is iran people is clever enough to understand the situation. This article failed to mention also that the demonstration by green also have been supported by many elements. this article has degraded iranian as clever people who can differentiate bad and good. Just watch your own government out….
http://twitpic.com/wj8yl
This picture, we can see the number of people at Mousavi’s rally before the election. If we use the same population estimation technique for this picture, the number of people present at Mousavi event in Isfahan would be 88,000. That is about 3 times larger than the pro-regime gathering in a city with 1/5 of the population of Tehran.