Does Anybody Care about Iranians who Yearn for Freedom?

Michael Ledeen is a voice in the wildnerness:

During the days that followed dissidents demonstrated on behalf of all political prisoners, and carried banners reading "Death to Despotism" and "Long Live Liberty." The numbers were smaller, and the regime moved in, using clubs, chains, knives, and iron knuckles. Hashem Aghajari, the well-known writer who was imprisoned for years and has paid for his bravery with the loss of a leg, was attacked by security forces with such violence that his artificial limb was separated from his body. Leaders of the Student Unity Organization — Mohammed Hashemi, Mohammed Sedeghi, and Nasser Ashjari — were rounded up and jailed. Any student found with a banner or poster was arrested, and all cellular phone communication in the University area was jammed.

And yet the protests continue, to the near-total indifference of the media of the so-called civilized world (the most notable exception being John Batchelor, whose late-night radio broadcasts have been a rare source of information on Iran). In the township of Mehabad in Kurdistan province, thousands of people demonstrated on July 11 against the murder of a Kurdish activist named Shovaneh Ghaderi. The demonstrators chanted "Death to the Islamic Republic," and "Death to Khamenei." The demonstrators were clubbed and beaten, at least one was killed, and significant numbers were arrested. On the 12th there was a work stoppage, nominally to protest the economic misery of the city, despite the torrent of petrodollars pouring into the mullahs’ coffers.

The mullahs tried to organize an attack by common criminals against the political prisoners in Karaj prison, but it was miraculously foiled.

Meanwhile, Western diplomats are preparing for the installation of Ahmadinejad, who has been misidentified as one of the hostage takers at the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. Some hostages believe they saw him, and they probably did, because he was at the time one of the most infamous interrogators and torturers at Evin prison, where some of the hostages were taken. But he was not at the embassy. His infamy, aside from his involvement in torture and executions in Iran itself, rests on his alleged involvement in the assassination of Abdurahm Qasimlou, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, who was assassinated in Vienna 16 years ago.

The evidence against Ahmadinejad comes from a variety of credible sources, ranging from an Austrian Green-party parliamentarian, Peter Pilz — who has shamed the previously paralyzed government into opening an investigation — to the excellent writer and analyst Amir Taheri, who says flatly that Ahmadinejad’s involvement in the assassination "is an established fact." Maybe the presidential election in Iran between Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani should have been called "murderer’s row," since both of them have been accused of involvement in assassination of the regime’s enemies in Europe. That fact alone tells you most everything you need to know about the Islamic republic.

Expect the Aqua Net Martyr's Brigade of the Hair Helmet Hamas to start cranking out stories of Ahmadinejad's "moderate" views by the bushel over the next several weeks.

Can't have the Bushies start thinking about those Tehran nukes or liberating the oppressed slaves of the mullahs now, can we?