The irrepressible thirst for liberty

Iran | Tehran protests show no less driving force than the freedom movements that felled the Berlin Wall and ushered in U.S. civil rights | Mindy Belz

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What President Barack Obama has seen in Tehran is not what I saw.

Crowds that Western reporters on the scene estimated to number 300,000 filled the four-lane wide Vali e Asr Boulevard and jammed into Vanak Square after Iranian officials declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the landslide winner in June 12 elections. As supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi kept up massive street protests, they streamed video and photos of bloody confrontations between police and protesters, defying a shutdown of the internet and outside media.

"Nothing has been seen upon the streets of Tehran like this since the revolution right back in 1979," said the BBC's John Simpson, whose camera crew was briefly arrested and its tapes confiscated by police June 15. In the streets behind him Mousavi supporters wearing trademark green scarves chanted, "We want freedom, we want freedom." By midweek the unrest had left at least 12 dead, according to on-site reporting by The Los Angeles Times, and as many as 1,500 in Tehran are reported detained by police.