Shayan Ghajar
As tensions between Iran and the United States reach levels unprecedented in recent years, the United States seeks to pressure nations and corporations with a stake in Iran’s oil industry to join in an embargo on the Islamic Republic’s most lucrative source of revenue. more»
Staff
The Iranian response to the recent IAEA report has been quick, dismissive, and defiant.
Lawmakers, politicians, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp commanders have bluntly attacked the report and questioned the credibility and independence of the IAEA, charging the Agency with illegally conducting its proceedings and accepting fabricated evidence. All have vehemently reiterated a commitment to the continuing progress of Iran’s nuclear program. more»
Shayan Ghajar
On October 16, in an otherwise unremarkable and routine speech, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dropped a potent political bomb by suggesting that Iran could easily transition from a system with a presidency to a parliamentary-based system with an appointed prime minister. The comment, however brief, was certainly intended as a major warning to the politically rebellious faction spearheaded by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and may even indicate a sincere intent to abolish the presidency in Iran. Indeed, a number of statements by powerful elites before and after Khamenei’s speech seem to lend credence to the idea that Ahmadinejad may be one of Iran’s last presidents.
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Iranian Government Launches Communications Blackout on February 11
Shayan Ghajar
The Iranian government intensified its internet filters and communications blackouts on February 11, 2010. The day marks the 31-year anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and is witnessing massive demonstrations both for and against the government. Getting news out of the country is increasingly difficult for Iranians as the government clamped down on communications systems ranging from text messaging to email services. In previous protests, opposition supporters organized demonstrations on various social networking sites, and published videos and accounts of protests online in defiance of strict regulations on domestic and foreign press in Iran.
Iranians have reported that the internet has been slowed to a crawl at best, or is simply not functioning altogether. The Iranian government is the only internet service provider in the country, and as such, has total control over internet speeds. Twice in the past few weeks the internet in Tehran slowed almost to a stop, in what the government claims were routine maintenance periods. Ironically, at the time of writing of this article, the two bulletins posted on government websites regarding the alleged repairs remain inaccessible due to the current internet slowdown.
Text and SMS messaging, also managed by the government via Revolutionary Guards-owned companies, are blocked today as well. In the past, these mobile phone services were used by the Green Movement to plan protests and maintain updates on where police and militia were cracking down on protesters.
The government is also tightly monitoring its television agencies reports regarding the demonstrations today. Pedestrian, an Iranian blogger, has posted an analysis of the state news channels coverage of the demonstrations commemorating the Revolution. The government seems to have dramatically altered its format this year, taking great lengths to avoid showing demonstrators wearing green, the color of the opposition, or to broadcast any sound of the demonstrations live for more than a few seconds, possibly to ensure no opposition slogans are accidentally aired on state television. The sound of the crowds was filtered out in state news footage and replaced with revolutionary songs.
Internet-savvy dissidents within Iran are high on the government’s list of targets. State-affiliated Mehr News Agency reports that “cyberspace offenders” are being tracked by a state agency and will face government punishment, saying “directors of websites that violate the social norms and regulations will be prosecuted.” The article accused dissidents of being part of an American-funded psychological war: “The monitoring body also asked the faithful Iranians to inform on the websites publishing materials in line with the U.S.-funded soft war project against the Islamic Republic.”
The Iranian government has expanded its filtration of sites outside the country as well. This week, Iran announced it would be blocking Gmail inside Iran and encouraging citizens to join a national email service. Gmail is one of the preferred email services amongst Iranians, and has been a favored method of communicating with friends and relatives outside Iran.
The cyber war has also extended beyond Iran’s borders: multiple sites in the past few months have been hacked by a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army. In December the group disabled Twitter, a popular social networking site used by the opposition to disseminate news and organize demonstrations, rendering the site unusable around the world for hours. Baidu, the most popular search engine in China, was hacked in January. Radio Zamaaneh, a Press Now project funded by the Dutch government, lost control of its site to Iranian Cyber Army hackers two weeks ago, and averted another hijacking attempt earlier this week. Sites supporting or being used by the opposition are invariably the targets in these attacks.
Some groups outside of Iran are fighting back by providing tools for the opposition to circumvent filters and avoid being traced. The Censorship Research Center wrote a program called Haystack specifically designed for Iranian users to bypass government restrictions. Iranians also favor the TorProject, a proxy network that simultaneously masks a computer’s location and IP address while slipping past government firewalls.
In the next few days, it is programs such as these that will allow Iranians to tell the world their stories of the February 11 protests despite the national media blackout in Iran.