The Latest from Iran (11 October): The Bank Fraud Expands

See also Iran Document: The Formal Complaint over "Plot to Kill Saudi Ambassador to US"Iran Document: US Account of the "Plot to Murder the Saudi Ambassador to Washington"
Iran 1st-Hand: The Flogging of Peyman Aref

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1941 GMT: The Terrorist Plot. We have just posted the US Department of Justice press release summarising the alleged plot, backed by elements of the Revolutionary Guards, to kill the Saudi Ambassador to Washington.

We have also posted a copy of the original complaint filed in the Court of the Southern District of New York.

Iran's State news agency IRNA, has called the accusations "America's new propaganda scenario" against Tehran.

1912 GMT: CNN clarifies how the US is going to respond to this terrorist plot, on which the US President Barack Obama was briefed in June:

Attorney General Eric Holder, when asked how Iran would be held "accountable" in an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said he expected action from the White House, the State Department and Treasury within the next few hours.

A US official expanded more about how the U.S. might hold Iran accountable. The official told CNN's Elise Labott that there are likely to be more sanctions and the U.S. will be taking this up with to the United Nations Security Council and other members of the international community.

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Libya, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Waiting for Sirte to Fall

1819 GMT: Reuters is reporting that the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Jalil, has visited Sirte, as NTC fighters close in on the center of the city. The BBC is also reporting that all civilians fleeing the city are being searched for weapons, and if it is suspected that they are pro-Qaddafi fighters, then they will be tried accordingly.

1812 GMT: Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has said that the violence between Christians and Muslims is not representative of his country, and he will be launching investigations into the circumstances. He also said that the Finance Minister, who resigned over the violence, will remain in place until a replacement can be found:

The situation in Egypt... there is no doubt that what is going on, based on feelings like this... it is something strange. It is impossible that this is the relationship between one Egyptian and another Egyptian, or a Muslim and a Christian; it is impossible. I will not go into any details, however investigations are currently underway and let us leave it there until we find out what it is. But I sense that this is not the nature of the Egyptian people neither is it the relationship between the Egyptian people with various institutions. Therefore, when the investigations are over, we'll be dealing with more direct issues but for now what I am saying is that one's personal feelings is that when you see what happened, could this have happened from one Egyptian to the other? it is impossible.

1759 GMT: Al Jazeera reports on the latest situation in Sirte, one of Qaddafi's last real strongholds in Libya, where Qaddafi loyalists are increasingly cornered by NAtional Transitional Council Fighters:

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Bahrain Propaganda 101: A Tale of Tom Squitieri, Ali Abbas Shamtoot MP, and the Latest PR in The Huffington Post

Last week, amongst our coverage of the US and British public-relations "army" employed by the Bahraini regime to praise its achievements and denounce protesters, we noted Tom Squitieri, a journalist fired in 2005 by USA Today for plagiarism. Squitieri now runs the public-relations consultancy TS Navigations LLC "to immediately end the negative while building toward a pro-active platform". That was good enough to get a Bahraini contract and place an article in The Huffington Post demonising demonstrators as puppets of foreign powers and malevolent leaders of the opposition.

Squitieri, unaware or uncaring that some people are noticing his paid shilling for Bahrain's monarchy, followed up with a piece last Wednesday on Bahrain's recent Parliamentary by-elections. Perhaps needless to say, Squitieri tried to dismiss the low turnout of 17.4% in the first round of the 14 by-elections and the failure to announce any level of participation in the second round. 

Instead, invoking the spirit of protest in the US through Tom Hayden, a prominent leader of demonstrations in 1968 who eventually became a California legislator, Squitieri presented us with this success story of protester-turned-Parliamentarian....

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Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): The Fight for Real Democracy (Hardt/Negri)

Boston police arrest protesters early this morning

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Occupy Wall Street should be understood, then, as a further development or permutation of these political demands. One obvious and clear message of the protests, of course, is that the bankers and finance industries in no way represent us: What is good for Wall Street is certainly not good for the country (or the world). A more significant failure of representation, though, must be attributed to the politicians and political parties charged with representing the people's interests but in fact more clearly represent the banks and the creditors. Such a recognition leads to a seemingly naive, basic question: Is democracy not supposed to be the rule of the people over the polis -- that is, the entirety of social and economic life? Instead, it seems that politics has become subservient to economic and financial interests.

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Egypt Feature: After Sunday's Deaths in Cairo --- "The Beginning of the End of Military Rule" (Ahmed)

The people who were violently clashing were regular citizens, Egyptian vs. Egyptian, with no army or police forces in sight. Needless to say one couldn’t tell the Muslims from the Christians (because we all look alike), and neither could the people fighting each other. After engaging in a street brawl where not a single person could tell who is with who or against who, they stopped and started chanting. One team started chanting “The People and the Army are one hand” and the others started chanting “Muslims and Christians are one hand”, thus providing us with the choices that we as Egyptians were told to make yesterday. And then, strangely, both sides at the same time changed their chants to “One hand”, and both sides started chanting that fiercely, stopped fighting each other, and joined each other into one big march chanting “One hand, One hand”, and thus showing us that they made the right choice.

They were presented with the choice between the Army and National Unity, and they refused to make that choice and collectively and organically made the only correct choice: Each Other. Egypt. In the midst of the battle, they realized on a very basic level that they can’t chose one over the other, and that , even if they have prejudices, they really do not want to fight each other. There is a lesson in that incident for all of us, and it may just hold the key to our salvation.

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Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): LiveStream of the Protests

This is the LiveStream from Global Revolution on the Occupy movements, carrying video from the protests and a running discussion among activists:

Watch live streaming video from globalrevolution at livestream.com

EA on the Road: Talking about "America and the World" in Austria

UPDATE 1730 GMT: Because of cancelled flights, I have been delayed in return from Austria. EA's LiveBlogs will be back on Tuesday morning about 0500 GMT. Thanks to readers for their patience.

I am returning from the Salzburg Global Seminar, where I have been working with scholars and postgraduate students on "Continuity and Change in US Presidential Foreign Policy: Plans, Policies and Doctrines".

Updates to LiveBlogs will resume this afternoon. Meanwhile, I thank readers in advance for keeping us ticking over with latest news and ideas.

Iran 1st-Hand: The Flogging of Peyman Aref

For exactly what crimes was the sentence of flogging performed on you?

For insulting Ahmadinejad, as per Article 609 of the Islamic Republic penal code. Judge Pirabasi issued the 74 lashes sentence in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court.

Where and how was this sentence performed:

In the Prosecution’s office in Evin, witnessed by Mr. Dehnamaki, the Office Manager for Public Prosecutor’s Deputy. The sentence was carried out in the most brutal manner.

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The Latest from Iran (10 October): A Moment's Relief from House Arrest

0850 GMT: Eggs and the Economy. Nikahang Kowsar illustrates the current economic situation with the sharp increase in the price of eggs --- the chicken tells the pleading Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "You cannot have them":

Aftab, noting that the price of a single egg is now 300 tomans (about 25 cents), declares, "Soon you will show your children pictures and tell them: 'These are eggs!'"

0840 GMT: Iranian authorities have imposed a travel ban on director Nader Davoodi, preventing him from participating in the Beirut International Film Festival on Monday.

Davoodi was going to present Red, White and Green, his 2010 documentary about violence after the disputed 2009 Presidential election.

“The Lebanese censorship authorities told us Friday afternoon we would have to remove Iranian director Nader Davoodi’s film from our program, and then we were informed that he would not be able to travel,” said Colette Naufal, director of the Film Festival.

Naufal added that she was told that Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Ibrahim Al-Saaidi, director of Mandoo, will be unable attend the festival due to travel difficulties.

In June, Iranian director Hana Makhmalbaf's Green Days, which also dealt with post-election violence in Iran, was cancelled after Lebanese intelligence warned the organisers of the film festival against screening the film.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Darkness in Homs

0915 GMT: A woman mourns over last night's deaths of at least 24 people in clashes around a Coptic Christian march in the Egyptian capital Cairo:

0905 GMT: In the United Arab Emirates, the families of five activists who are due back in court on charges of insulting senior officials have made a joint plea for their release.

The five activists --- Ahmed Mansoor, an engineer and blogger; Nasser bin Ghaith, an economist, university lecturer at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi and advocate for political reform; and online activists Fahad Salim Dalk, Ahmed Abdul-Khaleq, and Hassan Ali al-Khamis --- were arrested in April. Some of the defendant had signed a petition in March calling for political reforms, including direct elections and broadening the powers of the UAE legislature, the Federal National Council.

Mansoor faces additional charges of inciting others to break the law, calling for an election boycott, and calling for demonstrations. In March, e publicly supported a petition signed by more than 130 people advocating universal, direct elections for the FNC and legislative powers for the council.

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