On the Web: ‘Something must be done’

June 23: A 'bullet fee'
The Wall Street Journal online described the unimaginable horror for the family of 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour, who was "shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.

"The details of his death remain unclear. He had been alone. Neighbors and relatives think that he got trapped in the crossfire. He wasn't politically active and hadn't taken part in the turmoil that has rocked Iran for over a week, they said.

"Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a 'bullet fee' —a fee for the bullet used by security forces — before taking the body back, relatives said.

"Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn't amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family."

'She was shot and taken away'
Saeed Valadbaygee, writing June 23 from inside Iran on his Revolutionary Road blog, shares accounts of continued violence against students. There is this chilling report:

"After 5 days of not being heard of a female student of Azad university of Bandarabbas, now it has been confirmed by security guards that she has been killed.

"She was shot and taken away by security guards in front of the entrance of Bandarabbas Azad University on June 18th

"To avoid spreading this news ... by Bandarabbas people, her body was buried secretly and without informing her relatives."  

Video   Twitter outrage over Iranian 'bullet fee' June 23: Msnbc.com's Helen Popkin talks with MSNBC's Contessa Brewer about how most of the outrage appearing on Twitter over an alleged "bullet fee" to retrieve a teen's body is coming from users outside of Iran. MSNBC

And at Mazandaran University, north of Tehran, "While eleven students remain in detention and no information available on their status, in the last two days also two female students, Marjan Fiazi and Sogand ALykhah, were arrested.

"In the meantime, 40 of the other students were also prohibited from attending university.

"According to their friend, Marjan fiazi and Sogand Alikhah, while the two were in the campus courtyard, were attacked by molai, the force responsible for campus security and protection (harasateh Pardis). 'Molai' forced these two students into their official cars (jelodaar) and drove away. Since then there has been no news on these students' whereabouts and their health condition.

"Per our correspondent, these two students families informed us, they have been detained by the security and protective force and transferred to the Intelligence Bureau of Babolsar.

"These repressive encounters in Mazandaran (are) happening while alireza Kiani, siavash safavi, Milad Hosseini Keshtan, Ali Nazari, Rahman Yaghoubi, Maziar Yazdani, Ali Abbassi, Shovaneh Merikhi and...are still in detention. While, a large number of students are prohibited to enter, the university is still under severe security measures."

Neda's family  told: Take down mourning  banners
The family of Neda Agha Soltan, whose shooting death was captured on video and circulated worldwide, has more injury added, as if it were possible, reports the Times Online June 23:

"The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election.

"Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26, was killed as she watched a pro-democracy protest, and mobile phone footage of her last moments have become a worldwide symbol of Iran's turmoil.

"The authorities had already banned a public funeral or wake and have prevented gatherings in her name while the state-controlled media has not mentioned Miss Soltan's death.

"Today it was reported that they had also told her family to take down the black mourning banners outside their home in the Tehran suburbs to prevent it becoming a place of pilgrimage. They were also told they could not hold a memorial service at a mosque.

"Nevertheless posters of Miss Soltan's face have started to appear all over Tehran."

Out of the car 'for just a few minutes'
German newspaper Die Welt reports that Soltan's fiance, "Caspian Makan told BBC Persian TV that Neda Agha-Soltan had been caught up accidentally in the protests.

" 'She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir Abad area. She was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic,' " it quoted him as saying.

"'She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the car for just a few minutes.' "

Phone monitoring a 'standard architecture'
From the BBC, reporting on phone monitoring in Iran:
"Nokia Siemens Network has confirmed it supplied Iran with the technology needed to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls.

"It told the BBC that it sold a product called the Monitoring Centre to Iran Telecom in the second half of 2008.

"Nokia Siemens, a joint venture between the Finnish and German companies, supplied the system to Iran through its Intelligent Solutions business, which was sold in March 2009 to Perusa Partners Fund 1LP, a German investment firm.

"The product allows authorities to monitor any communications across a network, including voice calls, text messaging, instant messages, and Web traffic.

"But Nokia Siemens says the product is only being used, in Iran, for the monitoring of local telephone calls on fixed and mobile lines.

"Rather than just block traffic, it is understood that the monitoring system can also interrogate data to see what information is being passed back and forth.

"A spokesman described the system as 'a standard architecture that the world's governments use for lawful intercept.' " 

Spokesman: Rallies only contribute to 'bloodshed'
From Arab news agency Al Jazeera June 23:

"Despite the deaths, arrests and an earlier warning from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, the demonstrators appear to be undeterred.

"Alireza Zaker-Esfahani, an adviser to Ahmadinejad, accused Mousavi of not trying to calm his supporters.

" 'The weakness is in Mir Hossein Mousavi's political behaviour. ... He is currently issuing statements inviting his supporters to take to the streets. That will not solve any problem,' he told Al Jazeera on Monday.

"'Rallies will ultimately contribute to abuse, setting buses on fire, bloodshed and constant insecurity for the people.' "

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