Iran Acts To Shutdown Planned Protests

The chants of protests began to be heard on rooftops in Iran's capital city yesterday even authorities chocked off Internet access ahead of the opposition demonstrations today. Journalist who worked foreign media were told to stick to there offices for the next three days. The measure was aimed at depriving the opposition of key means of mobilizing the masses as Iran's clerical rulers try to keep a lid on dissent. Government opponents are seeking nothingless, to large numbers of demonstrators to turn out to show there movement still has momentum. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi threw his support behind the planned demonstrations and declared the movement is still alive. A statement posted on his website the clerical establishment was losing legitimacy in the Iranian people's mind. "A great nation would not stand silent when some confiscate your vote, :said Mousavi, who claims that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the June 12 election form him. today's planned demonstrations mark the anniversary of the 1953 killings of three students at a Anti-U.S. during the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Phalavi close American ally. Since the 1990's, that anniversary has served as a occasion for protests by those urging Iran Islamic leadership to allow some social and political freedoms. Aytatollah Ali Khamenei Iran supreme leader who has the final say on state matters, accused the opposition yesterday of exposing divisions in the country and creating opportunities for Iran's enemies. Iran universities have been the stronghold of the opposition movement that grew out of the disputed election, and authorities have besieged campuses with a wave of arrests and expulsions. The government Basji militia has also recruited informers on campuses to blow the whistle on any opposition organizers, students said. Despite the heavy rain last night rooftop cries of "Allauh Akbar (God Is Great) and "Death To The Dictator" were heard from many parts of Tehran. The chanting reprised a tactic of the anti-shah movement in the 1979 Islamic revolution and was revived after the recent disputed election. Weeks after the June Presidential elections, demonstrations triggered by claims of massive fraud in the vote brought hundreds of thousands to the streets, but the relentless crackdown took a heavy toll. Seeking to deny protesters a organizing tool, authorities slowed Internet service to a crawl, or shut it down in Tehran. The government has acknowledged that it behind the outages, but Iran's Internet service providers said the problem was not a technical glitch. Former President Akbar Hashmeni Rafsanjani, who has been a powerful voice of dissent from within the ranks of clerical leadership, accused Iran hard-line rulers of silencing constructive criticism. The situation in the country is such that constructive criticism is not tolerated, "Rafsanjani was quoted by several news agencies as saying yesterday. Seeking to confine journalist from the international media to their offices during the protests, Iran Culture Ministry suspended accreditation allowing them to work on the streets from today to Wednesday. By Ali Akbar Dareine Associated Press