Iranian mullah rejects Obama's back-channel peace message

Now we know why President Obama was silent for three long days while protesters died in the streets of Tehran, Iran. He thought his so-called silver tongue would work magic with the Iranian mullahs and bring about world peace. Today we learn Obama sent a letter to the head mullah himself prior to the election that sparked the current protests, offering some sort of peaceful overture, according to a Washington Times exclusive report this morning. And Ayatollah Khamenei bit a bloody chunk out of Obama's extended hand of peace.

In a lengthy sermon Friday that reaffirmed the disputed re-election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei made an oblique reference to a letter from the U.S. but embedded the reference in a diatribe against purported U.S. interference in Iranian affairs.

"The American president was quoted as saying that he expected the people of Iran to take to the streets," Ayatollah Khamenei misquoted Mr. Obama as saying, according to a translation by Mideastwire.com.

"On the one hand, they [the Obama administration] write a letter to us to express their respect for the Islamic Republic and for re-establishment of ties, and on the other hand they make these remarks. Which one of these remarks are we supposed to believe? Inside the country, their agents were activated. Vandalism started. Sabotaging and setting fires on the streets started. Some shops were looted. They wanted to create chaos. Public security was violated. The violators are not the public or the supporters of the candidates. They are the ill-wishers, mercenaries and agents of the Western intelligence services and the Zionists."

Obama sounded outright indignant at yesterday's news conference when he commented that the Iranians had "misquoted" him. Why Obama is surprised shows what a rank amateur he is with not only foreign affairs -- supposedly his strong suit due to his "multi-cultural background" -- as well as domestic affairs. (So how's Obama's economic stimulus plan for working for you so far? Same here. It sucketh.) The Iranians and all the rest of the Arab world have been blaming all the ills of the universe on the Jews since Abraham's sons Ishmael and Isaac began feuding, so why should anybody expect them to do any different now? The only modern update to that ancient feud is adding CIA spies in particular and the United States and Western allies into the mix.

The Washington Times offer a sober reassessment of U.S. vs. Iran relations in today's editorial.

Engagement is dead

Even if the regime in Tehran decides for some reason to extend an unclenched fist, President Obama would be shaking a bloody hand. The human-rights violations shown on America's computer screens make it impossible for the president to engage in some 1970s-style detente with Iran. Even the realists realize that is now unrealistic.

The diplomatic climate necessary for the Obama administration's engagement policy is gone. The subtle signaling dance of the last few months is impossible now. The Obama team's original timetable, calling for progress by the end of the year, has been overcome by events.

Iran's bomb now can't be ignored

Iran's quest for nuclear weapons now worries more Americans than ever. If the regime is willing to be this cruel to its own people, could the American soldiers or Israeli citizens living within reach of Iran's missiles expect any mercy? United Nations nuclear overseer Mohamed ElBaradei said last week that he had concluded the regime was seeking atomic weapons to send a message to the rest of the world: "Don't mess with us." With the frailty of the regime broadcast worldwide, its sense of insecurity will have increased and, with that, the need to have a nuclear insurance policy. It is extreme folly for the United States to continue the official charade that the Tehran regime is not actively seeking such weapons. Politicizing this intelligence must end. The Obama administration should take this opportunity to demand an immediate halt to Iran's bomb program.

The time has come to face the Islamic Republic without the comfortable blindfolds we have worn over the past few decades. The reality of Neda Soltan, dead with her eyes open, should open our eyes too.

Perhaps Neda's death will not be in vain. Perhaps Obama will wake up and smell the coffee burning on his "multi-cultural background" rangetop. But I suspect he's much too vain and egotistical to ever admit his rookie mistakes and start acting like the leader of the free world.

God help the people of Iran and God save America and Israel from this gathering storm.

The death seen around the world from Tehran

So the Noo Yawk Times has not completely forgotten how to do journalism. I'm astonished. Maybe their Tehran reporters didn't get the memo about checking with the Obama White House before writing anything. Whatever. From Tehran we get more news about Neda, the lovely young woman who died in the street at the hands of an Iranian thug in the employ of the mullahs, a Basij hitman. The NYT article calls Neda's murder The Death Seen Around the World.

TEHRAN — It was hot in the car, so the young woman and her singing instructor got out for a breath of fresh air on a quiet side street not far from the antigovernment protests they had ventured out to attend. A gunshot rang out, and the woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, fell to the ground. “It burned me,” she said before she died.

The bloody video of her death on Saturday, circulated in Iran and around the world, has made Ms. Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old who relatives said was not political, an instant symbol of the antigovernment movement.

Her death is stirring wide outrage in a society that is infused with the culture of martyrdom...

Ms. Agha-Soltan’s fate resonates particularly with women, who have been at the vanguard of many of the protests throughout Iran.

“I am so worried that all the sacrifices that we made in the past week, the blood that was spilled, would be wasted,” said one woman who came to mourn Ms. Agha-Soltan on Monday outside Niloofar mosque here. “I cry every time I see Neda’s face on TV.”

...Her singing instructor, Hamid Panahi, offered a glimpse of her last moments.

He said the two of them decided to head home after being caught in a clash with club-wielding forces in central Tehran. They stepped out of the car. “We heard one gunshot, and the bullet came and hit Neda right in the chest,” he said. The shot was fired from the rooftop of a private house across the street, perhaps by a sniper, he said. On a Facebook posting along with the video, an anonymous doctor said he tried to save her but failed because the bullet hit her heart.

“She was so full of life,” said a relative who spoke on condition of anonymity. “She sang pop music.”

The relative said the government had ordered the family to bury Ms. Agha-Soltan immediately and barred family members from holding a memorial service.

Mehdi Karroubi, an opposition candidate for president in this month’s election, called her a martyr on his Web site. “A young girl, who did not have a weapon in her soft hands, or a grenade in her pocket, became a victim of thugs who are supported by a horrifying intelligence apparatus.”

A woman called Hana posted a comment on Mr. Karroubi’s Web site: “I am alive but my sister was killed. She wanted the wind to blow into her hair; she wanted to be free; she wanted to hold her head high up and say: I am Iranian. My sister died because there is no life left; my sister died because there is no end to tyranny.”

God help the people of Iran, because it's certain Obama will not.

Her name is Neda, the face of unrestrained evil in Iran

The face of evil in Iran has a name. Neda. A beautiful young woman who died on the streets of Tehran, Iran, the victim of an Iranian thug on a motorcycle, a Basij, as the people call the hit men who carry out the will of the mullahs to keep the people in chains.

Allahpundit at Hot Air has the details.

Word on the street via one Iranian tweeter is that her name was Neda Agha Soltan. That’s also the name circulating on a few websites and now being attributed to her in a hastily arranged Wikipedia bio. The rumor — and it’s all rumor until some newspaper tracks down her family — is that she was 27 years old and a philosophy student. I hope to god this isn’t really her photo because the thought of her being so beautiful and dignified makes the murder somehow that much more obscene.

... this blogger is claiming that Neda was at the protest with her professor and several other students and that the fatal shot was fired by a Basij driving by on a motorcycle. No rhyme or reason; I wonder if he even aimed. The burial, reportedly, was today — and her memorial service was ordered canceled by the regime.

Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive is mad as hell and has a few choice words about the mullahs in Iran.

I have not had much hope that the nascent revolution in Iran would produce anything more than hundreds, perhaps thousands of nameless victims. The regime holds all the cards, the police, the Basij, the military, but the protesters now they have.......a martyr.

What a beautiful girl, and what a horrifying death. I will not embed the video, but go to Hot Air and watch it if you haven't. Go and watch the life leave her eyes, go and watch the blood from her shattered heart pour from her mouth, go and watch, just f**king go and watch the human face of this revolution.

The Mullahs had everything and then they did this. The one thing that will speak to all decent people, the ruthless and mindless slaughter of an innocent, especially in a culture so attuned to martyrdom. Iranian women have begun to chafe under the yoke of oppression and now this perfect example of the deadly wrongness of this. I am sick that she died, sick that she had to, sick that a power-mad, Islamic state killed her, sick that we legitimize that state, sick that she is one of so many victims of oppressive evil around the world.

But hopeful that martyrdom is powerful, hopeful that iconic images inspire, hopeful that her death can help topple the Mullahs. Persia deserves better than the backwards, uncivilized, barbaric bastards who currently govern it. Free Iran, for Neda.

Amen, Uncle Jimbo, amen. Pray for the people of Iran. Pray that Neda's death will spark a true revolution that will force the mullah's feet off the necks of the people of Iran.

Here's the awful, horrible video of Neda's last moment on earth, shortly after being shot.