More About Neda

Don't Worry. It's Just One Bullet and It's Over

For the record, her name was Neda Agha-Soltan and she was 26 when thugs working for the Iranian Fascists murdered her. That's only about a year older than my daughter, which might be why I'm so obsessed with this.

The government yesterday blocked a wake for her in a central Tehran mosque for fear that the outpouring of grief would lead to more anti-regime protests, her fiancé, Caspian Makan, told the BBC.

"The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story," Makan said.

"They were afraid that lots of people could turn up."

Much like Tiananmen Square 20 years ago, the world is watching this. Constantly and in real or near real time. Unlike 20 years ago a repressive regime can not stop the flow of information.

If this revolution succeeds and we should all hope that it does, Nema's death will be the tipping point and her face will be the face of the revolution. The Iranian despots can block TV, they can block the Internet (or some of it), they can violently suppress protests. What they can't do is stop the flow of information internally and to the rest of the world.

Freedom loving people around the world, and particularly one who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, should speak out against this regime and for the people of Iran who want to live in freedom.

That the man in the White House won't speak forcefully says a lot about him, and what it says isn't at all good. On this day forward on this blog, and I hope others, he will be known only as President Feckless.