IND:  We had a posting of this a few days ago but here is the complete list…

Some of the organisations are difficult to identify and their names are not necessarily given correctly. Others are mentioned more than once but, after eliminating the duplicates, this seems to be the full list [ of the organizations the Iranians shouldn't contact according to the regime]:

1. Soros Foundation – Open Society

2. Woodrow Wilson Center

3. Freedom House

4. National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

5. National Democracy Institute (NDI)

6. National Republican Institute (NRI)

7. Institute for Democracy in East Europe (EEDI)

8. Democracy Center in East Europe (CDEE)

9. Ford Foundation

10. Rockefeller Brothers Foundation

11. Hoover Institute at Stanford Foundation

12. Hivos Foundation, Netherlands

13. MENAS UK

14. United Nations Association (USA)

15. Carnegie Foundation

16. Wilton Park, UK

17. Search for Common Ground (SFCG)

18. Population Council

19. Washington Institute for Near East Policy

20. Aspen Institute

21. American Enterprise Institute

22. New America Foundation

23. Smith Richardson Foundation

24. German Marshal Fund (US, Germany and Belgium)

25. International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

26. Abdolrahman Boroumand Foundation at Yale University

27. Meridian Center

28. Foundation for Democracy in Iran

29. Republican International Institute

30. American Initiative Institute

31. Private Trade International Center

32. American Center for International Labor Solidarity

33. International Center for Democracy Transfer

34. Albert Einstein Institute

35. Global Movement for Democracy

36. The Democratic Youth Network

37. Democracy Information and Communication Technology Group

38. International Parliamentarian Movement for Democracy

39. RIGA Institute

40. Berkman Institute

41. US Council on Foreign Relations

42. Foreign Policy Society, Germany

43. MEMRI, Israeli Institute

44. Center for Democracy studies, UK

45. Yale University and all its affiliates

46. National Defense University, USA

47. Iran Human Rights Documents Center

48. American Center FLENA, Active in Central Asia

49. Committee on the Present Danger

50. Saban Center, Brookings Institution

51. Human Rights Watch Go to Guardian.

Badoo, a social network popular in emerging markets like Russia and Brazil, has been banned in Iran. As of December 2009 Badoo says it had broken the 50 million user mark globally, with 250,000 of those coming from Iran. Pictured is the text that comes up when trying to access Badoo from inside Iran. Go to Washington Post.

He recounted the incident that could have cost him his freedom, and perhaps his life, in an interview with The Times in Paris. His story illustrates the oppression under Iran’s regime, but also the courage and ingenuity of those opposing it.

As a student in Tehran he would spend hours on his computer looking for videos of the West’s greatest contemporary dancers such as the American Merce Cunningham, who died this year. “I had to do it because this was my inspiration, my ignition. I just wanted to explore new ways of expression and this was my only source of information,” he said.

He formed an underground dance company with four other performers while studying for a degree in theatre studies at the University of Tehran. They danced to music, touched each other and even appeared on stage partially undressed — all crimes under Iranian law.

It was while filming in Haft-e-Tir Square, Tehran, on June 22, that he was arrested by the Basij and thrown into a van with about 30 other protesters. He spent ten hours in the vehicle, where he was beaten and told that he was a dead man.

He was then taken to a military camp, beaten some more and finally driven out of the capital and released. “I can only think there was no more room in the jails that day and they just did not know what to do with us,” he said. Ghaffarian was lucky — and he was to get lucky again when a German theatre director invited his company to an Iranian cultural festival in Mülheim an der Ruhr, in western Germany, this autumn. Go to Times UK.

IND:  The views of a very brave, admirable woman.

Whenever Mina, a 36-year-old Iranian, joins a protest against the regime she carries a piece of paper with her name and phone number so her body can be identified if she is killed.

Thousands have been arrested and many tortured since Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad was re-elected president in June, but Mina says proudly that she has missed hardly any demonstrations. At least eight people were killed during protests on Sunday.

“My motivation is further strengthened every time I go to a rally, and each time I feel more amazed at how brave others are,” says Mina, a researcher with a masters degree. “We have to achieve our goals and there is no way backward.”

Mina believes Mr Moussavi’s arrest would cause such anger that the future of the Islamic republic itself would be in doubt. Her own struggle will continue, regardless of the opposition leader’s fate.

Four times she has been beaten up by the security forces, while one of her friends fell into a coma for a month after being stabbed 15 times. Another was shot in the hand.

Mina admits that her “legs shake” before each rally. But she vows not to “hesitate even for a moment”. Go to Financial Times.

In a speech to Iranian provincial governors, the country’s minister of intelligence Heidar Moslehi isolated NGOs as having the largest role in creating the post-election turmoil in the country saying some 80 organizations, institutes and foundations had been identified in this regard. He classified the goals of these organizations in these words, “to change the behavior of government officials and the public, regime change and the disintegration of the regime from within.”

Moslehi said that the leaders of what he called the “ploy” pursued four goals: “create a destructive atmosphere, change public opinion, disseminate the idea of fraud in elections, and engage in civil disobedience.” Go to Rooz Online.

The post-election crisis in Iran has managed once again to unite Iranians of conflicting political viewpoints against the Islamic Republic. As the protesters inside Iran show ever greater courage in challenging the regime, exiled Iranians also gain courage. Fearless demonstrations against the regime in Iran have catalyzed demonstrations abroad despite various attempts by Islamic Republic embassies to intimidate demonstrators in countries such as Germany and Sweden by visibly photographing them from inside the embassy premises. Those brave students using the December 7 Student Day demonstrations to protest the regime serve as role models for each and every Iranian, and indeed any pro-democracy activist in the world. This is indeed encouraging, but there are tougher challenges ahead. Iranians both inside and outside of Iran must learn to peaceably develop civic culture while resisting regime provocations. Go to original article.

Azar Nafisi is one of Iran’s most critically acclaimed writers – outside Iran that is. Because she is both critical and a woman; a combination the present conservative regime finds hard to digest. Living in America, she learned that all women in Iran seem to look similar to Westerners: equally veiled and victimised under Islamic rule. But Nafisi told RNW that Iran has two faces, and if we look beyond the surface we are in for a surprise. Go to original article.

Iran’s fraudulently elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will clearly stop at nothing to stifle legitimate dissent and hold on to his illegitimate power. The most recent horror is the sharp rise in executions since the June presidential elections.

The viciousness of the current repression is another sign of the government’s desperation. But that is no consolation to Iranians at the receiving end of the terror. Washington is rightly increasing its already substantial efforts to make accurate, uncensored information more widely available through satellite television, radio broadcasts and Internet sites. Last month, Congress authorized $50 million to be spent over the next year on expanded programming, increased transmissions and anti-jamming technology. An America that stands up for its own values of free, uncensored expression need not worry about the epithets a desperate dictator hurls against it. Go to NY Times.

Every year, Transparency International ranks 180 countries to creates its corruption index. Find out how each nation does…The CPI scores countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption and 10, low levels…Countries which saw their ranking drop included Iran, which fell to 1.8 from 2.3 following the presidential election in June. Go to Guardian.

Rooz: Why do you think they are arresting and brutalizing so many people, especially some of Iran’s intellectuals and learned men and women?

Matthee: It’s clearly an attempt to nip the popular opposition in the bud through sheer force and intimidation. The current rulers know what happened to the Shah and how he fell. The Shah was a dictator but he was also loath to spill blood, arguing that a king who kills loses legitimacy with his people.  So when the Revolution came he lacked the personality and the will to use the kind of brutal force that might have quashed the opposition. Besides, the Shah built a house of cards without any loyal constituency. The current rulers have learned from this; they have championed the underprivileged, who have benefited from their policies and who continue to be their defenders. [IND: We beg to differ.  It is Iran's poor that suffer the most from the Islamic republic's disastrous economic policies which resulted in high unemployment and inflation.  Moreover, no nation eliminated poverty through economic populism.] Unlike the previous elites, who packed up and decamped to the West when the house crumbled, the current rulers have nowhere to go. So they will do anything to hang on to power. They target intellectuals because they believe that these are the driving forces behind what they dread most, a “velvet” revolution, a creeping reform movement that will undermine the Islamic Republic from within. Go to Rooz Online.

IND:  We hope to some day see Iran improve in such international rankings.  The Iranian people deserve more enlightened and competent leadership.

…Under the heading “History Is Not Destiny,” the survey points out encouragingly that the highly ranked nations include not only those with a long history of productive economies. There are also those which a couple of decades ago were afflicted with poverty, oppression, and unhappiness.

For instance, Ireland, an economic disaster zone a generation ago, today occupies 11th place in the list of 104 nations.  Similarly, in one generation, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea have risen from nowhere to be star economies.

…Iran is relegated to a position — No. 95 — near the end of the index, with failings in most categories, comprising economic fundamentals, democratic institutions, security and safety, governance, personal freedoms, and social trust. It achieves an average rating only in entrepreneurship, education, and health. Go to Radio Free Europe.

AS President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief advisor on media and the arts, Mahdi Kalhor is famous for his diatribes against the pernicious influence of Western “cultural saboteurs”.

Now, though, having railed against everything from the BBC to Hollywood, he is grappling with a challenge from rather closer to home – in the form of his own film-maker daughter.

In a move that shows the widening gap between Iran’s revolutionary generation and their Western-leaning offspring, 25-year-old Narges Kalhor has claimed asylum in Germany, fearing for her safety because of an outcry over a film she made which criticised the Islamic regime. Go to Telegraph.

IND:  It’s time for the older generation of Iranians with their failed, conspiratorial world view that brought us the nightmare that is the Islamic republic to step aside and allow a new generation of Iranians – educated, inclusive and tolerant – to lead us to democracy and prosperity.

It had been years since Narges Kalhor could talk about politics with her father, Mehdi, a senior adviser and spokesman for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. He advocated greater restraints on social and political expression, while she favored more freedom. Still, they had always managed to get along.

But after Iran’s disputed presidential election in June and the protests that followed, the disagreement exploded into a breach. Last week — as her father accused her of being manipulated by the opponents of the government — Ms. Kalhor, now 25, applied for refugee status in Germany.

“The difference between my generation and my parents’ generation, who are very ideological, is just increasing day by day,” she said in a telephone interview from Germany. “Their goals have not materialized, and it is our turn to lead the way.”

While Ms. Kalhor’s case has been widely publicized, she is hardly alone. Numerous children of prominent Iranians have become estranged from their powerful parents since the election, which the opposition says was rigged. Thousands more middle-class families have been divided by the generational chasm that opened over the summer.

Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards, was arrested during the protests in July and tortured to death, according to his father, who has staunchly defended the government’s handling of the unrest.

The son of another senior official close to Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is a student activist in Tehran but spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his father, said he and his father had for years avoided talking about politics.

“I know he has tried to protect me in the past and he tells me that whatever I do, I should not get into trouble,” he said. Last year, his father tried to send him to London to continue his studies and stay out of politics. But he refused to go and stayed to campaign against Mr. Ahmadinejad.

Mehdi Khazali, the son of Ayatollah Abolghassem Khazali, a senior cleric close to Mr. Ahmadinejad, criticizes the country’s top leadership on his blog, drkhazali.net. At one point, he wrote that his father supported Mr. Ahmadinejad and the conservatives only because he had been “cheated, lied to and taken advantage of for his religious beliefs.”

Because of the growing alienation of young Iranians, family dynamics could be complex, particularly among the families of elite government officials. “These children are more affected by society and even Facebook and Twitter on the Internet than their families,” said Alireza Haghighi, an Iranian political analyst at the University of Toronto. “The younger generation has been very frustrated with the political situation.” Go to NY Times.

Blogger Neveshte bar bad (Written on the wind) writes about his attachment to his green wristband, which for him is a symbol of commitment to freedom.

He glanced at my green wristband and said, “You’re brave.” There was a queue and behind me people were waiting their turn — there was no time to explain. I left with a smirk on my face.

On my way back from the university, a biker passed by me and said, “Only Musavi!” I wanted to say…. but again there wasn’t any time.

There wasn’t any time to say that it’s not a matter of bravery, my sister, or a matter of Mir Hossein Musavi, my brother. I am not a brave person. I am an average person; brave was Mohsen Rouhullahi [the son of a prominent conservative official who reportedly died from torture after being arrested in the postelection crackdown] who’s gone. When he was arrested, the students were separated and the rest were sent to [Kahrizak detention center]. He didn’t give in to this suppression and didn’t identify himself as a university student. Brave? When I was surrounded from all sides at Mohsen’s funeral by the Special Forces, I was scared out of my mind.

I am not a supporter of Musavi; I am a mere supporter of freedom and justice. I am not against the Supreme Leader; I am against lies and crimes. I wear a green wristband so that anyone who sees me might not think that I have given in and accepted Neda’s murder. Never should anyone think that I remained silent to the sight of those eyes.

I remain a human without my hobbies; without cinema, music, IT, poetry, engineering, even without all my friends, but without freedom, I don’t exist anymore. Without this green wristband, I am not a human anymore. Go to Radio Free Europe.

IND:  We agree with Mr. Friedman about the importance of people power but to compare Iran’s Green Movement/Revolution to Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution or especially the Sunni Awakening in Iraq exhibits a complete lack of understanding of the significance of Iran’s Green Movement.  What’s taking place in Iran today is nothing less than the West’s Renaissance, Reformation & Enlightenment all accelerated and combined into one mega movement.  Iran’s Green Movement is the most promising thing that has happened in the Islamic world in the past century if not longer.

A few weeks ago, Americans “observed” the eighth anniversary of 9/11 — that day in 2001 when the Twin Towers were brought down by Al Qaeda. In a few weeks, Germans will “celebrate” the 20th anniversary of 11/9 — that day in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was brought down by one of the greatest manifestations of people power ever seen…The most promising progressive people-power movements have been Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution, the Sunni Awakening in Iraq and the Green Revolution in Iran. But the Cedar Revolution has been stymied by Syrian might and internal divisions. The Tehran uprising has been crushed by the iron fist of the Iranian regime, fueled by petro-dollars. And it is unclear whether the Iraqis will set aside their tribalism for a shared people power. Go to NY Times.