By THE NEW YORK TIMESPublished: March 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/middleeast/04iran.html?fta=y
TEHRAN — Iran’s government might block private access to the Internet on its election day, March 14, two Iranian news outlets reported Monday.But the two accounts appeared to differ on the rationale. “Shutting down the Internet service will depend on security plans and on the Ministry of Telecommunication,” said Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister, according to the daily newspaper Etemad Melli.At the same time, a senior election official, Mohammad Javad Mahmoudi, said a shutdown would help ensure that the government had unimpeded Internet service for the election, even though the government’s Internet lines had been upgraded, according to the news agency ISNA.
Iran has placed many restrictions on the Internet, but it has never shut down the Internet on such a scale. Several million Iranians follow political news on the Internet, and political parties have their own active Web sites. The government uses sophisticated filtering equipment to block hundreds of Web sites and blogs that it considers religiously or politically inappropriate.
A hopeful admonition: The powerful, healing curative of freedom will destroy the social cancer of sharia in the Iranian fear society if given the opportunity to be administered properly. With some Western special forces/JDAM assistance, combined with the unafraid Persian written word, chances of a full recovery are high.
Two of the only things in this world I have faith in are the irresistible allure of freedom and man's overwhelming compulsion to do good. I've never doubted that Western civilization will defeat Islamic barbarism, as well as any other anti-human ideology. It's just a matter of how long we're going to sit on our hands watching everyone suffering and dying over the madness. Maybe the freedom and potential for good between a heart, a mind, a keyboard, and a connection to the world will shorten that time.
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