Jack's Newswatch

I spent a couple of hours today filming for PJTV at the Westin Hotel on Century Blvd near LAX where the Islamic Republic of Islamic of Iran had set up a polling place for its presidential election. I was joined by frequent Pajamas commentator Iranian filmmaker Ardeshir Arian. You can see the voting (and protests) at the Westin here and Ardy’s updates on the election, as of approximately four PM PDT, here.

As of now, both sides are claiming victory and, Ardy tells me (he reads the Iranian websites, those not being blocked at least), the police commissioner in charge of public security has decreed no public demonstrations in support of any candidate on the streets of Tehran Saturday. Mousavi, the putative reformer, is insisting he has thirty million votes. Apparently that represents something in the vicinity of 65% of the electorate. If that’s true and Supreme LEader Khamenei still insists on keeping his boy Ahmadinejad in office, then the conditions are rife for something approaching civil war. Or an even worse police state. Who knows what will transpire? The mullahs clearly are nervous. They closed the polls early in numerous places because too many were voting for Mousavi. (In the last election they kept them open extra long to garner votes for Ahmadinejad.) Moreover, they banned the wearing of colors, any colors, at the polling places. Again according to Ardeshir, the mullahs were afraid too many would be seen wearing green, the color associated with the reform movement.

In other news, Ayatollah Rafsanjani – a key player for decades in Iranian politics and supposedly something of a pragmatist; he supports Mousavi – has mysteriously disappeared from view. Two of Mousavi’s important advisors were briefly arrested and there are reports of grenades going off in his headquarters. Truth or rumor? A shot being fired across the bow of a potential revolution. I certainly don’t know.

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