He Didn't Start the Fire: Ayatollah in Iran

Iran's top leader warns of protest crackdown
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writers
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader sternly warned of a crackdown if protesters continue days of massive street rallies, escalating the government's showdown with demonstrators demanding a new presidential election.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his first response to the protests that the country's disputed presidential vote had not been rigged, siding with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and offering no concessions to the opposition. He effectively ruled out any chance for a new vote, lauding the June 12 election as an expression of the people's will.

"Some of our enemies in different parts of the world intended to depict this absolute victory, this definitive victory, as a doubtful victory," Khamenei said at Friday prayers at Tehran University. "It is your victory. They cannot manipulate it."
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He said Tuesday that opposition to Ahmadinejad represented "a questioning of the kinds of antagonistic postures towards the international community that have taken place in the past, and that there are people who want to see greater openness and greater debate and want to see greater democracy."

Khamenei reacted strongly, saying Obama's statements contradicted the president's stated goal of opening dialogue with Iran and the conciliatory tone of other recent American messages.

"The U.S. president said 'We were waiting for a day like this to see people on the street,'" Khamenei said. "They write to us and say they respect the Islamic Republic and then they make comments like this ... which one should we believe?

Payvand Iran News
President Obama: Unite Free World behind a Re-Vote Monitored by International Observers
By Reza Ladjevardian, Houston, Texas

Sadly, the Obama administration's Iran policies in so many ways resemble the bipolar policies of the Bush administration – only more exaggerated. Carrot and stick policy didn't work then and offering more carrots and threatening more sticks won't work now.

32% See Better U.S. Relationship With Muslim World
rasmussenreports.com
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken just before the election protests broke out in Iran this week, finds that 32% of voters now think that relationship will get better in the next year, although 28% say things will get worse in that time period.
At the beginning of the month just before the president's speech in Cairo, 28% of voters said the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world would be better a year from now, while 21% expected it to worsen.

The biggest change is in the number who expect the relationship to remain about the same. Thirty-five percent (35%) feel that way now, down from 45% two weeks ago.

Let's see... the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah) of Iran says the people have spoken. OK, the fact that they have a Supreme Leader running things behind the figure-head of a "President" is a joke to a democratic republic. He accuses the Obama Administration of hypocrisy or at least what the Bush Administration was accused of (bipolar and contradictory policies).

Obama has no clue what he's doing? I guess Hope goes just so far. At least the Bush Administration didn't make speeches and promises they couldn't back up. This President makes a grand gesture (quite a Change in foreign policy) but in the end it is all lip service like his campaign was. When the leaders of the muslim world realize that Obama is a typical American politician and not someone who has the will to back up his words (right or wrong) they will walk all over him while smiling at his face. It is quite honorable to lie with a straight and happy face to an infidel especially knowing he won't do anything.

The headline from Rasmussen is all wrong for the data. The real news is not how many see a better relationship with the muslim world, it is this:

2 weeks ago: 28% better, 21% worse, 45% same (6% don't know?)
Now: 32% better, 28% worse, 35% same (5% don't know?)

Looking at the changes in perception 4% more people think things are getting better, while 7% more people think things will get worse.

These are not good trends for Obama, I thought he would improve our image around the world by just being President.