Storm Warning

From the AP:

Iranian authorities are restricting all journalists working for foreign media from firsthand reporting on the streets.

The rules cover all journalists, including Iranians working for foreign media. It blocks images and eyewitness descriptions of the protests and violence that has followed last week's disputed elections.

The order issued Tuesday limits journalists for foreign media to work only from their offices, conducting telephone interviews and monitoring official sources such as state television.

This is a very bad sign. It likely means that the mullahs are planning to "go Tiananmen" and send in the tanks.

Every civilized government on the planet should be making it crystal-clear to the Khomeninites that the world will not tolerate such action, and that the individuals who give the orders will be held responsible for their actions.

That said, I have no particular expectation that such a warning will be given, or that the despots in Tehran and Qom would be frightened if it were. All they have to do is ask their Chinese advisors about how they were treated after they murdered their own children in the streets, just over twenty years ago.

In reality, the fate of the Second Iraninan Revolution rests in the hands of Iranian troops. If they turn against the regime, this will end quickly, and for the better. That happened in Russia in 1991. It did not happen in China in 1989.