Here are some tips I posted on Twitter last night, that I was told the Iranian protesters found useful. I do not advocate violence but I do believe in the right of self-defense.

PLANNING AND PREPARATION

Insurgents in many countries have been effective against security forces. Take heart, think before you act, and plan before you start.

Stone throwing does not injure security forces and gives them excuse to retaliate.

There is always a rear to any security forces formation. Much better to locate the rear than to be in front. Think and plan.

Always have two different paths of retreat before confronting security forces. If they are in vehicles, use narrow routes.

Do not make yourself a target by publicly leading. security forces will look for leaders. Make plans before you near security forces.

Your goal is to shape the playing field, control security forces movements and to prevent their activities.

Tipping point will only be reached when Army or security forces side with the protesters. Until then, just blood and tears.

Try to create multiple disturbances to tie up security forces away from main objective. Disarm security forces when poss and hide their weapons.

There are more of you than of security forces. Take shifts if necessary and run them ragged. No sleep. No chance to eat or drink.

Separate security forces from vehicles. Hamper their communications. Distract them with many protests. Do not let them rest.

Sec forces will tend to pause if confronted, so that pause can be used. Flank them, get away or be aggressive.

Tear gas canisters are v hot. Do not pick up. Use stick to bat away.

If security forces rampaging in your neighborhood, shut off all lights. Make it difficult for them to see you.

Sports gear can be used for protection. Any sport where the player wears pads or guards or helmets.

Change clothes often. security forces will be using descriptions to round up protesters. Wigs, hats, eyeglasses, disguises

If you are going hand to hand with Basij, wear clothing you can shed. They grab clothing. You slip out of it and run.

Wear heavy shoes / boots to protect feet in crowds. Steel toed boots are excellent. Wear natural fiber clothes. Nylon can melt to you.

Make shields from wood or metal to protect against batons. Pad the surface your arm touches to prevent force damaging arm.

The key to a successful protest is movement and communication. Keep the security forces off balance. Use hand held radios.

It is possible to run telephone wire house to house where all have common walls, to communicate without being tapped.

Use runners to pass messages between groups. Children 11 or 12 are always running about and not suspected by security forces.

If security forces from out of town, will need to use street signs. Remove signs and house numbers or change them around.

Reminder, security forces need supplies. Take those or destroy them and soon security forces will be on same level as you.

Do you have superglue? cyanoacrylate based fast-acting glues Lots of annoying uses to vex security forces. What can you glue shut?

Security forces need fuel. If you get access, sugar or soap in fuel will wreck their vehicles.

Need to break security forces morale, encourage desertions. If you know someone, call them and ask they stay home.

Find water or sewer shutoff for security forces buildings and turn them off. Cut electric and phone wires, carefully.

Security forces have to eat. Prevent supplies from reaching them, or dose meals with laxatives.

If  Hezbulloh active, ask police to suppress. Foreigners interfering in Iran affairs.  Hezbulloh should be fair game for all Iranians

Keep talking with police, especially commanders. Try to get them to suppress Basij.

False flag operation. Let security forces find fliers saying one thing – you do another. Say you’ll seize airport. Stuff like that

False flag operations. If you have access to military uniforms have them worn in protests to seem like military is supporting the protests.

Watch for their leadership. If you can grab leaders, you cut off the head of the security forces.

Electrical engineer students s/b able to create jammers for security force radios. Use laser pens against helicopters if attacked.

Tracked vehicle vulnerable to jams in tracks. Heavy steel needed. Can paint over ports. If gas tanks on rear, can be ruptured.

Vegetable or cooking oil can be poured on road with a slope to make them slippery.

Park vehicles in front of doors on walk, take keys and flatten tires. Blocks doors.

Make caltrops, out of 3 nails bent together to flatten tires. Wikipedia. Larger and stronger caltrops can disable tracked vehicles. Use paint to cover vehicle windscreens.

Scooters and motorcycles are vulnerable to wire stretched across highway about 1 meter off road. Tie ends to utility poles.

Picture on June 20 2009, posted on TwitPic by madyar http://twitpic.com/7wjz2

Here is a short selection of Twitter messages about the situation in Iran at this time:

• TehranBureau : People reportedly attacking police near Laleh Park and pushing them back, first injury transferred to Khomeini Hospital near the clashes
• Mirriaam : they beat & arrest every one with green wristbands or cloth
• iranpirooz : I saw a very elderly man crying for victory and freedom in kargar street Tehran
• TehranBureau : From Tehran: they’re killing people here
• iranpirooz : Near Paiga Basij in Tehran – police and militia are loading trucks with arrested young protesters – source VOA
• iranpirooz : Iranian Militia were acting like wild animals against protesters – most inhuman beatings I have ever seen. God help us.
• TehranBureau : crowds from ferdosi sq to enghelab sq to azadi and fatemi
• TehranBureau : some forces are refusing to attack the people, but basij and special forces are attacking people
• Mirriaam : 2 chopper r spraying hot water on ppl
• iranpirooz : Crowd are shouting “DEATH TO KHAMENEI” in streets
• Mirriaam : Heavy clashes on azadi street, chants of death to khamene’i,The street is full of rocks and fire
• Mirriaam : police using tear gas, water cannons to disperse thousands of protesters in Tehran,They are beating “ppl” in Enghelab St not only protesters
• TehranBureau : basij is even attacking young girls and women
• iranpirooz : Protesters have attacked Paiga Basij (Basij Military Centre)
• iranpirooz : Many helicopters seen in Tehran
• Mirriaam : Houses in alleys open doors to injured protesters,hallway is full of beaten people
• TehranBureau : forces dressed as civilians are beating on people and using tear gas to keep them from entering the square, they are being dispersed into … lower streets
• TehranBureau : reports from Azadi square and that whole area say very brutal clashes taking place
• TehranBureau : Gunshots continuously heard from Ghasr-ol-dasht street
• TehranBureau : Got A Call: Many People Injured By Police and Militia Near Tohid SQ.
• TehranBureau : Eye Witness: At Least 20 injured Protesters transfred to Loghman Hospital in last 30 [now 50] mins.
• Ashavan : People are not backing off. I hear shooting…around teh block. But people are coming back to the street. no one cares.

The just completed election for President in Iran involved four candidates. Over 200 originally applied to run, but the vetting process by the mad mullahs reduced that number to four. These were the theologically and politically acceptable candidates. The differences in policy and program were minute and the “moderate” candidate was no friend of the United States or freedom by any definition of the words.

Still, the very rich mullahs of Iran seem to have underestimated the situation. Current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been announced as the winner but the results are so out of variance with the experience of the people that protests have erupted.

This is not the first time there has been rioting and no one should believe that this is a movement that will succeed in the short term. The majority of the protests are centered around universities and neighborhoods where the losing candidates were popular.

There is no sign that the police or security forces are joining the protests. Indeed, they seem just as enthusiastic as ever about breaking heads and arresting protesters. Without the support of the security apparatus, no protest can succeed at this time.

The Internet is enabling the exiled Iranian community world wide to see what is going on in their homeland. It is allowing interested non-Iranians a view into a society most have little comprehension of.

Here are a few sources where you can obtain the latest information:

Twitter hashtag #iranelection

Google RSS feed on Iranian election

Photos:

• Green Wave
• vnnb2′s photostream
• ZhuPix’s Election photos
• Iran Election protest in San Francisco
• Khordad Protests in Iran

Coalition jet fighters shot down an Iranian drone that was hovering over Iraq late last month, Multinational Force Iraq officials confirmed today.

The incident occurred Feb. 25, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, officials said in a statement.

Two coalition aircraft were directed to visually identify the unmanned aerial vehicle after it was detected hovering inside the Iraqi border. The pilots confirmed that it wasn’t a coalition aircraft and that no collateral damage would result from a shoot-down. Coalition air forces tracked the UAV for more than an hour before the pilots engaged it, officials said.

“This was not an accident on the part of the Iranians,” officials said. “The UAV was in Iraqi airspace for nearly one hour and 10 minutes and well inside Iraqi territory before it was engaged.”

Officials said they believe the drone to be an Iranian-made Ababil 3 model UAV.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and military leaders have long accused Iran of interference in Iraq. Iran poses “a real problem,” Gates said on PBS’ “Tavis Smiley Show” March 11.

“I think it’s one of the significant challenges that we’re going to face over the next several years,” he said.

DoD
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

American and Iraqi forces have discovered Iranian weapons in Iraq that were manufactured as recently as last year, a U.S. military official said today.

The yield of Iranian-made weapons consisted of hundreds of rockets and makeshift bombs, Army Col. Philip Battaglia, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team said in a Baghdad news conference.

“We have found many Iranian-made munitions with a manufacture date as late as 2008,” Battaglia said, referring to weapons discovered since June.

The seized weapons include hundreds of 107 mm and 122 mm rockets, and about 500 deadly bombs that military officials call “explosively formed penetrators” because they’re designed to pierce armor in various stages of construction, he said.

The colonel’s area of operations, known as Multi-National Division – Center, covers the Iraqi provinces of Dhi Qar, Muthanna and Maysan, the latter of which borders Iran.

“We have never captured any munitions being smuggled across the border, but the border is very open,” he said. “There is movement across quite freely.”

Battaglia said smuggled weapons were identified by their “apparent Iranian marking with a date of manufacture from 2008.”

As a matter of procedure, troops hand the weapons over to Iraqi security forces for disposal, while others are sent for further analysis, he said.

DVIDS
Story by John Kruzel