Iran Riots Over Election Fraud Claims

Iranian supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi greeted reports that Mousavi's opponent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had won the Iranian elections by rioting in the streets in protest of what many view as a rigged election.

Iranian authorities responded by sending swarms of police into the streets of Tehran, the Iranian capital, to do battle with rioters with batons and tear gas. Iranian authorities also shut down text messaging services and Internet social networking in an attempt to obstruct Mousavi supporters from communicating with one another and with the outside world. There are reports of similar outbreaks in other Iranian cities.

Nevertheless, Iranians as well as foreign journalists are using Internet and cell phone technology to dispatch reports as well as videos of the uprising to the world outside of Iran. According to Hot Air, rumors, so far unsubstantiated, of fifty to a hundred people dead or that Mir Hossein Mousavi had been arrested were circulating in cyberspace.

The reaction of the Obama White House has been so far somewhat passive. While refusing to acknowledge that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had actually won the election, the White House has suggested that attempts to create "dialogue" with the Ahmadinejad government will continue. This is despite the fact that White House officials privately suggest that the Iranian elections were indeed rigged.

The Obama White House seems disinclined to go beyond mild protests of what appears to be a rigged election and attempt to take advantage of the furious reaction of many Iranians to destabilize the Tehran regime. Nevertheless, doubts about the "legitimacy" of President Ahmadinejad will complicate the Obama administration's attempt at a diplomatic solution to the challenge wrought by the Iranian regime, especially in regards to its nuclear program. In dealing with the current Iranian government, the Obama administration will be seen to be pandering and even appeasing an illegitimate regime.

If the riots in Iran follow the usual pattern, the Iranian government will eventually suppress them, leaving a country once again seething in resentment over the high handed tyranny imposed upon them by the Mullahs. Few people are predicting that the riots in Iran will lead to a full blown revolution against the mullahs, despite the fact that Iran's population is said to be mainly young and pro western.

Nevertheless, the is plenty that the United States can do, clandestinely and otherwise, to support Iranian dissidents. Everything financial, technical, and public relations assistance could be rendered. President Obama could speak out in support of the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom.

Unfortunately, for all of its rhetoric about "hope and change", the Obama administration seems inclined to pursue the pragmatic approach of dealing with tyrants, no matter how hostile they are to the United States, and offering no hope and no change to the people they oppress.

Sources: Iran riots over election results, Leslie Davis, Washington Examiner, June 13th, 2009

Senior U.S. official: Yes, the Iranian election was rigged, Allahpundit, Hot Air, June 13th, 2009