Iran Election Violence: Ahmadinejad Supporters Reportedly Attack Rival's Campaign Office

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A campaign organizer for the main election challenger to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says about a dozen of the president's supporters attacked one of the opponent's campaign offices in Tehran with tear gas.

No one was injured. But it was the first report of violence in the presidential election Friday pitting pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi against Ahmadinejad.

Saeed Shariati, head of Mousavi's youth cyber campaign, said Ahmadinejad supporters attacked his office in north Tehran with tear gas. He said police quickly dispersed the group. There was not independent confirmation of the attack.

The cyber campaign ran several Web sites and Facebook pages supporting Mousavi. Authorities blocked at least three of them Friday.

Comments

[DavidET]

A quiet coup just happend in Iran . The word is out in streets of Iran.
Results were switched. Security forces are all over. 1953 coup atmosphere is in the cities.
with all these new voters 28% for Mousavi is a joke.

[clifflyon]

Woops. here it is

http://news.gooya.com/didaniha/archives/2009/06/088948.php

[clifflyon]

link to original video. Its flying around the Web. I'm impressed (stunned really) by the bravery of the students.

[clifflyon]

Sitting here with an Iranian friend who just showed this to me. Its flying around the Web. I'm impressed (stunned really) by the bravery of the students.

This is early today (election day) at Sharrif University in Tehran.

Ahmadinejad is forced to climb over the top of his car to escape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXxbmwoMxDo

The crowd is yelling "Mousavi, Mousavi, Mousavi."

Then at the end, they are yelling 'doorogh gou!' ...LIAR!

Ahmadinejad is the guy in white.

[GoodwithWood]

There is no evidence in that video that it was Ahmandinejad.

[Kassandra]

Sounds a bit like what Bush/Rove did to Ann Richards, who was the best governor Texas had in a long time and maybe a long time to come.

[chronic5]

Same pattern as elsewhere with the right wing resorting to violence and cowardly attacks when the will of the people and law doesn't deliver fto them their desired result.

[ReichWingKaput]

"Iran-ic", ain't it,
that one of the two most dynamic democracies in the Middle East is Iran?
And it didn't cost nearly 5000 American soldier's deaths,
nor hundreds of thousands of Iranian civilians dying by our hands.

But let's be scared. Very scared.
Rush commands it.

[Nomccain]

I'm hoping that this two bit demogogue will be defeated. It's to the benefit of Iran's people if he is. However, I would think that he would rig the elections. Call for an investigation if he has.

[DFutureIsNow]

This is a good sign, Ahmedinajad knows he lost so he is doing the desperation thing, reminds me of the McCain/Palin campaign

[BradGd]

Who knew it was so easy to obtain tear gas in Iran - or did the "Govt" provide it to the protesters?

I would bet on the latter.

[pirx]

You can make very effective tear gas grenades with common household items. You can also make chemical weapons. The salient point is the willingness to use terror to achieve political ends, all that is required is a bit of encouragement from your cultural spokespersons. Good old Homo Sapiens fear of the "other" will do the rest.

[Subterfuge]

Remember when the GOP flew the campaign gophers down to florida who breached their way into the voting office and then accused the official with the sample ballot in his hand of tampering with votes?

[Kenji]

They don't quite have that democracy notion down yet -- again, kind of like Frorida.

[chabnormal]

I'm a Floridian and we do understand democracy. There were evil forces at work in 2000, it was beyond the control of the average citizen.

[fiorastar]

You are right. It was very much overtaken by the neocon Rovians. It was disgusting and it was not the fault of the average citizen who tried to vote.

[blaharumph]

god help those folks.