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Scenes of Violence Now Leaking Out of Iran; Protests Continue

Aired June 21, 2009 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We continue to watch the developments unfold in Iran today. We got an Iran desk here in Atlanta, it is particularly difficult for foreign journalists to work abroad in Iran at this juncture but Ralitsa has been getting a number of images as well as information that she is able to convey to us right now. Ralitsa.

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, first of all, a new message on the official site of reformist leader Mousavi. You see the message here. It's a call to his supporters that they have the right to protest what he calls fraud and lies, but that is their right. This is the first time that we have heard from him today. Yesterday, a very chilling message on his Facebook saying that he is ready for martyrdom and if he is arrested, that people should go on a national strike.

Obviously, he was trying to tell his supporters that this is what he is expecting. He might be arrested. We don't know where he is today, however, we do have signs of him being able to communicate with his supporters via Facebook. This is his official site. So that is what we can tell you up to now about the fate of the reformist candidate. Also today, we have been getting some new video from amateur sites that we have been able to vet to show you. No clashes today, however, this, by the way is video from yesterday, a very disturbing video. I have to warn you these are the students' protests.

One student, it appears down. He was shot from this Basij station, this white building there that the protestors are stoning. You see the gunman there the Basij, the paramilitary gunmen on the rooftop. They are the ones who the protesters believe shot the student protestor and they are trying to throw rocks at them in protest. Very disturbing video. But this is from yesterday.

I also wanted to show you some video that we received today. That video came to us, unfortunately, we have some technical difficulties, but basically showing a huge crowd in one of the main thoroughfares in Tehran, evidence that people again today attempted to defy orders not to protest and go out and proceed. There, that's the video right there. You see that there are hundreds, possibly thousands of people who are out there trying to protest.

Again, we have heard from our sources that there was a very heavy security presence, both police and the basij, these paramilitaries, trying to prevent people from congregating and organizing, but as we see there are spots in the capital on major thoroughfares, where they have been able to do this. So this is what we can glean from bits and pieces of video information. We have a lot of people, Farsi speakers, who are able to watch all of these videos with me and we are watching them together. We are listening to what people are saying and able to tell what the mood is, what is happening there on the ground using a variety of sources and trying to spot trends of information and be able to inform you in that way.

WHITFIELD: Lots to filter. Our Ralitsa Vassileva, thanks so much, at our Iran desk.

Also here in the NEWSROOM, our Josh Levs is monitoring the tweets from Iran on a minute by minute basis. What more is being said, Josh?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDET: Fred, it's interesting to see what becomes the latest thing on twitter, at any given time, given how many people around the world are using twitter. I'm going to say what I've been saying a lot, just because a piece of information is on twitter doesn't mean we can confirm its accuracy, but a lot of people are using this to share information.

One of the biggest things people are talking about is Nadad. And not long ago you were hearing about Octavia Nasr's piece about this young woman who was killed, and was apparently a bystander at a rally. We have for you some video of before the shooting. I want to show you this video here, because this is a young woman that a lot of people are talking about today, specifically on twitter, just highlighted right there. She's a girl. She was with her father. And she has now become a symbol, her death.

She was shot while watching that. And the description that was posted online was that she was killed by basij, members of a paramilitary force that answers to the government. A tragedy, many people watching online, many people weighing in. Let's zoom in on the computer really quickly behind me. I want you to see what we've got up on the screen, we are updating it pretty much nonstop, every few seconds. But this one here says Nadad died with her eyes open. How many of us live with our eyes closed?

Also people posting video, more videos coming from Tehran. This one says a man down in a bus in flames. Check this out. That was less than 10 seconds ago, less than 10 seconds ago and this one at the top here, which is one of the freshest, says beware of government agents on twitter encouraging violence by protesters. Do not listen. Again, we cannot tell you everything that is happening but there is a lot of concern about security in that respect.

All right. Quickly, I want to go just to this final thing that we have for you which is a graphic that shows how you can reach me. It's a full screen. It's going to have my twitter page on it, twitter.com/joshlevscnn at the bottom, anything you think particularly significant or you just want to weigh in, Fred, when I'm back with you in a few minutes, I'll share some of the latest tweets not only from around the world and Tehran but also including from our viewers right here.

WHITFIELD: Okay. Thanks so much, Josh. Appreciate that.

LEVS: You got it.

WHITFIELD: All right. For a week now, Iranians have taken to the streets risking jail, attack and in some cases, as you saw, death. Moshen Milani, is the author of "The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution from monarchy to Islamic Republic." He is also a professor of politics at the University of South Florida. He is joining us from Tampa. Good to see you, professor.

MOSHEN MILANI, UNIV. OF SOUTH FLORIDA: Good afternoon to you and happy father's day to your viewers.

WHITFIELD: A happy father's day to you. Well, I wonder are you surprised at the images that we're seeing. The escalation, the violence that pertains to the number of people who are demonstrating in Iran?

MILANI: Yes, I am quite surprised and I'm quite saddened. This event, the event of the last seven days, is truly unprecedented in the history of the Islamic republic. What we are witnessing today is an explosive combination of elite fragmentation on the one hand and popular uprising from below. And this has never taken place before. We have had cases in which Iranian elites were split. We've had cases in which the masses took to the streets, but we've never had a case where you had the combination of the two.

WHITFIELD: So what's - how do you assess what is fueling the passion of so many people who are willing to continue to risk their lives to come out in large numbers to protest, even at the discouragement of the Ayatollah?

MILANI: Well what I believe we have been witnessing in the last week is the struggle or is the war between the Islamic republic of Iran against the Islamic republic of Iran. So far, the struggle has been confined within the elite and one of the major factors, one of the major reasons why they are seeing this split is that for the past seven to eight years, especially after the presidency of Mr. Ahmadinejad.

There was an attempt to put an end to factional struggle. Mr. Ahmadinejad and his supporters tried to sort of unify the elite. They tried to undermine two important pillars of the Islamic republic. They tried to undermine Hashemi Rafsanjani and they tried to undermine Mr. Khatami.

WHITFIELD: And apparently five relatives of Rafsanjani have been detained, somewhere within the last 24 hours as a result of these protests and that sounds to me in concert with what you're saying this effort is all about, undermining.

MILANI: Yes. And here, I think we can look at what is taking place in the streets of Tehran but we also have to take a close look at what is taking place behind the scenes and what I believe are the major factors to look for, as, a number one, is when Mr. Rafsanjani is going to appear and what kind of position he's going to take. He has been quite silent after that important letter. WHITFIELD: And you think if he were to say something publicly, that's going to send a powerful message, might it help pacify or might it further disrupt?

MILANI: I think he has been silent for the past week or two because he believes that he can eventually become a kingmaker. He occupies two very important strategic institutions in the Islamic republic. He chairs the expediency council and more importantly, he chairs the committee that supervises the activities of the Supreme Leader and can ultimately decide whether Ayatollah Khomeini should stay in power or not. Therefore, when he speaks, he wants to make sure that he knows where the center of gravity is.

WHITFIELD: Professor Moshen Milani, thank you so much for your time.

MILANI: My pleasure.

WHITFIELD: Well, she was expelled from the University of Tehran after refusing to wear the veil. Next, the author of "Reading Lolita" in Tehran joins us live for reaction to the unrest in Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In major cities across the U.S., Iranian-Americans are showing their support of protesters in Tehran. There were more demonstrations in Washington today, New York and Los Angeles and hundreds of protesters again denounced the outcome of Iran's election. Their pointed message for Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, you are not legit. Protesters want President Obama to press for a recount or a new vote all together.

Well, the White House has taken a tougher tone in responding to the situation in Iran but some republicans, well they are still critical of Obama's stance. Kate Bolduan joins us now from the White House. Kate?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama facing pressure to do more about the situation in Iran, issued a statement this weekend, his strongest words yet, urging the Iranian government to "stop all violent and unjust action against its own people." But as violence continues in Iran, a amid a government crackdown, republican lawmakers again criticized the president for his cautious approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has been timid and passive more than I would like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that we could be more forceful than we have. If America stands for democracy, and all of these demonstrations are going on in Tehran and other cities over there and people don't think that we are - really care, then obviously, they are going to question do we really believe in our principles?

BOLDUAN: At the same time, democrats say the administration is striking the right balance, supporting the Iranian people while being careful not to inject the United States into Iran's internal political debate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's been strong. The worst thing that we could do at this moment for these reformers, these protestors, these courageous people in Tehran is allow the government there to claim that this is a U.S.-led opposition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is very crucial, as I see that we not have our fingerprints on this, that this really be a truly inspired by the Iranian people.

BOLDUAN: Senator John McCain, a leading critic of the president's response so far, commended Mr. Obama for toughening his stance.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, this - I appreciate what he said yesterday was the first time and I hope that he will continue to do that. We need to hear a lot more.

BOLDUAN: And what of the president's desire for more diplomatic dialogue with Iran? The ranking republican on the foreign relations committee says despite the violence, all options should remain on the table.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We would sit down because our objective is to eliminate the nuclear program that is in Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And Kate Bolduan joins us live now. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Hi there, Frederica. Well and moving into next week, the president's schedule is largely focused, largely centered on domestic issues, including health care and immigration but no doubt, developments in Iran could easily shift that focus.

WHITFIELD: Kate Bolduan at the White House. Thanks so much. Appreciate that.

BOLDUAN: Of course.

WHITFIELD: Well, there have been demonstrations in Iran today but no reports of any injuries or clashes. Pictures on internet sites however like youtube show Saturday's violence mostly and a word of caution, some of it is quite graphic.

Take a look at video now showing a demonstrator who has been severely wounded, possibly killed. Quite graphic images there. Hospital sources say 19 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll as high as 150 for yesterday primarily.

And this video right here on Facebook shows a man who was killed in Tehran on Saturday. It was shot in the western part of the city. As you can hear, men pick the body up and carry him away. Very upsetting images coming out of Iran there. No sign of the protest in Iran however easing up. Azar Nafisi is the author of "Things I've been silent about" and is best known as the author of "Reading Lolita" in Tehran. She's joining us now from Washington. Azar, it has to be really disturbing to see these images, these very graphic images of people not just being hurt but possibly gravely injured. What's your response when you see images like this?

AZAR NAFISI, AUTHOR "READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN": Well, Fredricka, you're right. I, like millions of people who are watching these images, I'm disturbed, I'm sad and I'm also angry and I'm taken back to various stages over the past 30 years where confrontations with the regime have led to violence but I think this violence shows also the fear of people like Mr. Ahmadinejad and Mr. Khomeini and that they feel this is a life and death struggle for them.

WHITFIELD: You feel that you do think that this exhibits some fear, meaning the government feels like it is losing power and it has to try a strong arm these demonstrators, which assembled in a peaceful manner initially?

NAFISI: You have to ask yourself, from -- would there be a competent government, one whose representative has just won so many votes, feel so insecure as to so brutally and so openly kill a young girl who has - whose only weapon is her voice? From the very first moment that these events started to happen, I felt that the language of violence is also the language of fear and therefore it is out of vulnerability and not out of power.

WHITFIELD: Can we talk about some of the symbolism that we've seen, whether be in the protests or even in the election, we're talking about the opposition leader whose wife was very powerful in the campaigning for her husband, Mousavi, and now an image of a woman, a young woman dying during this protest. As you just mentioned, her weapon was her voice, and now that image of her death has been streaming on video across the world and many say she is coming to symbolize now what has become a violent conflict between the government and these peaceful protestors. Do you see any real common denominators here with women's roles and how they have come to symbolize the struggles and now this?

NAFISI: It is very just that the symbol of this young woman has become a symbol of the struggle for freedom in Iran. My memory goes back to the first days of the Islamic revolution, where women were both the first victims of the repressive laws and also the first victims of violence. You go back to the images at the beginning of the revolution and you see hundreds of thousands of women protesting in the streets of Tehran saying freedom is neither Eastern nor Western. Freedom is global and the vigilantes from the regime were throwing acid into their faces and beating them and harassing them. And this young girl today is the daughter and the granddaughter and direct descendent of those women who were fighting for their freedom 30 years ago.

WHITFIELD: Do you worry about particularly women who have been so engaged in this movement, do you worry about them from this point on in a very different way prior to what's transpired the last week?

NAFISI: Yes, I do, because the more dangerous their existence comes to the ruling power, the more dangerous you also become to yourself. I worry about them and I hope for them and I cannot separate the anxiety from the hope.

WHITFIELD: Azar Nafisi, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it from Washington.

NAFISI: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: Other stories from the streets of Iran some very riveting accounts that are being posted on social networking about the protests and the crackdown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: New images of protests taking place in Iran today. Amateur video showing these demonstrations right here. Hundreds if not thousands of riot police and militia members have lined the streets of Tehran as well but no reports of clashes between the demonstrators and the riot police in this location.

Hospital sources say, however, 19 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police yesterday. An unconfirmed report puts the death toll as high as 150. Our Josh Levs is monitoring tweets from Iran on a minute by minute basis and he joins us with more. Josh?

LEVS: Yes, Fred, we got some of the latest, and again I will tell our viewers we're keeping a close eye on twitter because there are people inside Iran using it. Also, people all over the world sharing re- tweeting, what's called RT. Let's just go to some of the absolute latest that have come in the last few seconds or the last couple of minutes.

We're going to start off with this one, you have right here a graphic. Let's bring it in. Do not forget there have been many innocent lives, he says, lost in this chaos. That is a different one, saying, OK, let's take a look at this one, it says, calling soldiers of Iran, lay down your arms or join the protesters. He says, protect them from tyrants instead of shooting them.

We are seeing a lot of these kinds of calls telling people those kinds of things of what should be done? Let's go to this next one here, this is people talking about what kinds of video they are saying are available online. It talks about several protesters, you can see in Tehran today and the chanting that's been going on, death to dictator and Ya Hossein Mirhossein. That's what we've been hearing a lot yesterday.

I think we got one more for you. This is someone who is posting - a lot of people encouraging other people to please call their foreign offices in whatever country they live in and encourage them to help injured people. That is good. Now I want to let everybody know a few things. First of all, we cannot authenticate every piece of information we are getting on twitter but more and more people are turning to twitter, partly because of -- as Fred was saying, that media crackdown that is leading so many people to these online social networks.

We're also hearing directly from you. Let's show everyone the graphic where you can weigh in. Then we're going to see if we can read a few. We got the graphic right here. That is my page right there, twitter.com/joshlevscnn. And Fred, we are getting a lot of traffic on Facebook as well, in our NEWSROOM blog, twitter.com/joshlevscnn.

Let me ask our control room, can we show the computer behind me for just a second? Will we be able to do that? Okay. We are getting a few, a bunch of tweets down here. I'll just read you what a couple say. This one here says let this be a stern warning to volatile governments and world leaders that fascist governments will burn by the will of all free people. And this one here talks about gunfire allegedly being heard in west Tehran. There is no mobile network there. This is a good example of the way people are sharing information on twitter and yet we cannot be sure, because of that media crackdown.

So Fred, we are keeping a close eye on these, as you were saying, minute by minute, you all keep weighing in and we will be back not long with some of the latest tweets we have.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Josh. Appreciate that.

LEVS: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Angry, noisy chanting against Iran's election results, protests not in Tehran but on U.S. soil. We will take a look at where the protests are heating up today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We continue to follow developments out of Iran. The government says it will complete a review of this month's disputed presidential election this week but many Iranians aren't waiting for the results. Reports out of Tehran say there are new protests today, including a protest at Tehran's Azad University where 200 students refused to take their final exams today. No injuries are reported so far. Hospital sources say 19 people were killed yesterday in other locations but unconfirmed reports put the death toll as high as 150.

Here in this country, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking republican on the foreign relations committee appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" today. Our John King asked if the U.S. should engage in diplomatic dialogue with Iran and right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: If President Ahmadinejad or the supreme leader Mr. Khatamei (ph) came back now and said we want to sit with the United States at a high level, Secretary Clinton or the foreign minister or president to president, should the United States say yes or would you be rewarding the unjust to use the president's word, behavior he sees on the streets of Iran right now?

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR, (R) FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: We would sit down because our objective is to eliminate the nuclear program that is in Iran.

KING: Even though they are shooting people in the streets and beating people in the streets and arresting political opponent s? If they called tomorrow, you would sit down with them?

LUGAR: Yes. It's totally improbable, and the reason is, this regime now is under fire. This is not a stable regime in which two people suddenly sit down with the United States. They may not be able to impose their will. This is what this is all about in the streets. For a direct answer to your question, of course, we need to have nuclear weapons; we need terrorism out of Iran and other areas in the Middle East. We have an opportunity where we might very well say we want communication with Iran; we want openness of the press.

We want the press on the ground. In order to have any kind of relationship, we need to be able to talk to people, hear from people, and argue with people. This is not imposing our will, but it's fundamental to our democracy and to the development of democracy and/or better governments in Iran at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Further on the political wrangling taking place in Washington, our senior political analyst Bill Schneider is joining us from Los Angeles. All right. Bill this is very interesting. Because lots of different messages coming out of Washington as it pertains to Iran. Right? You got some on Capitol Hill who are saying yes to talk and also saying the president is not saying enough but the president of the United States is saying I think I've said enough and don't want to say too much how in the world might Iran or the rest of the world interpret Washington when there are so many different messages going on here?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The president is being very cautious and he is receiving a lot of criticism for his caution, mostly from Republicans but some others as well. These are very shocking and stirring pictures coming out of the streets of Tehran. Americans would like to do something. The problem is, anything we do will probably make the situation worse. Every year, every commentator I have heard, knowledgeable commentator who knows what's happening or thinks he knows, has studied Iran, believes that the United States were to take sides in this or to speak out more forcefully, the president were to speak out, or give a pretext to the government of Iran, the crackdown on the demonstrators who depict them as American stooges.

The United States is very much an issue in Iran, has been ever since the 1950s, and certainly the 1979 revolution. The administration is trying not to give them any pretext. If the president were to sit down with Ahmadinejad, I think it would be a terrible explosion. There would be huge protests and it is not going to happen. It simply won't happen and probably won't happen for quite some time. WHITFIELD: That is in part because of the legitimacy of the argument of the legitimacy of his presidency, Ahmadinejad?

SCHNEIDER: Yeah, exactly there is a big question about it. If we were to sit down on the level of foreign minister, secretary of state, it would look like in some way; we were treating them as a legitimate government. That would just provoke even more protests that cannot be done. Americans are feeling frustrated, they are feeling a little bit impotent right now because they want to affect these events, they at least want to speak out about these events, yet common sense tells them that anything we do is likely to make the situation worse.

WHITFIELD: Bill Schneider from Los Angeles. Thanks so much. Appreciate that.

Iranian Americans are demonstrating in a big way in cities from coast to coast. CNN's Kara Finnstrom is also in Los Angeles where many people have assembled again for a second day. Kara.

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Frederica, people are just starting to gather here for a demonstration of march that is expected to take place later on this afternoon. We will give you a look at the crowds here, they are going to be marching about three miles throughout Westwood, that is an area of Los Angeles into an area called Persian Town because there are a lot of Persian restaurants and business there.

Now a lot of these people have been demonstrating every day since that election took place, really popped up as impromptu demonstrations in many cases. We want to introduce to you a woman though that I met earlier today. Hello. She is a first time protestor here today, very concerned, as you were telling me, about a 50-year-old relative. You spoke with her last night. What did she have to tell you?

(UNIDENTIFED FEMALE): She was crying, she was chased by the militia Basij to home. And Basijs followed her; she didn't know how to talk. Thank you for bringing this to the world. Thank you.

FINNSTROM: Thank you for speaking to us. A lot of fear, a lot of concern on the protests here. Seeing the images come down, unconfirmed reports. Just quickly I want to tell you that one of the chants that we have been hearing here translated from Farsi is about a woman they say was killed yesterday, according to these unconfirmed reports, and it say Neda, Neda, we will not forget you.

WHITFIELD: Kara Finnstrom thanks so much. We saw some of the images, very graphic images of Neda's death. That image being broadcast quite a bit on to youtube and that is exactly who they are talking about has a lot of people talking about it in many corners of the world thus far.

All right. Well let's talk about another protest taking place on the East Coast. This out of New York. Here now is Susan Candiotti.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across the street from the U.N. today, half as many protesters as were here on Saturday but the group is just as vocal. As you can see, a number of them this day are lying down on the sidewalk to bring attention to the number of those who have been killed during nonviolence protest in Iran. One young woman, perhaps you can explain to me why you have chosen to do this, if you can lower your hands for just one moment?

(UNIDENTIFED FEMALE): Because I want to show my support to Persia and Iran, all my brother and sister are getting killed in the streets and they are fighting and I just want to show my support, whatever they want, they want justice, they want their vote to be counted, so that's why I'm here and I just want to show them that they are not alone. Outside country, we love you and we are supporting you.

CANDIOTTI: Thank you. And you're hearing that sentiment from many of the people here, again holding roses in memory of those who were killed. Many people here say even if nothing changes in terms of the vote in Iran, that the revolution, they call this a revolution, that nothing will ever be the same again. Reminiscent of what happened, perhaps, they say, 30 years ago.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

WHITFIELD: Let's go now back to the West Coast, Los Angeles, the largest Iranian-American population exists there they also tune in on many occasions to talk radio, radio Iran. Siamak Kalhor is a host for this program as well as a producer. Well what are you hearing your listeners say about all that's transpiring in their homeland?

SIAMAK KALHOR, RADIO IRAN HOST: Well, we just -- I just wanted to say hello to you, Fredricka. They have the right in covering this right now, experiencing in the 2000 ballot counts.

WHITFIELD: Well thanks. You have a great memory on that story and that coverage. Thank you.

KALHOR: We were following you. You did a great job then.

WHITFIELD: Oh, thank you.

KALHOR: Imagine if we would have all jumped into the streets and started a revolution then what would have happened? It would have been great. But we have opened our telephone lines in the last five days, right before the election actually, opened them up, all our programming is dedicated to our listeners coming in and expressing their sentiments and opinions.

WHITFIELD: And is it very similar to what we are seeing in the many demonstrations that have taken place this weekend alone, whether it be in Los Angeles or in New York or even Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, are you hearing that same kind of sentiment where people are in large support for the opposition leader, Mousavi?

KALHOR: Absolutely. There are sentiments, the common denominator is the green color, and we still have a fraction here between our own people, different agendas, different group, different political groups, as well as we have in Iran, but right now, we are all thinking about unity and unifying and just supporting this movement, this uprising that hopefully will shed some freedom and democracy in the country of Iran.

WHITFIELD: And now how concerned are you? Your mother is in Iran, correct, and you have been trying to reach out to her? Have you had any success talking to her and if so, what is she expressing to you?

KALHOR: Yeah, both myself and my brother, we talked to my mother this morning and she was OK. She's caught in the whole passion of the thing. She doesn't want to come back right now, she wants to see what happens, and she wants to see the conclusion of this whole thing.

WHITFIELD: What kind of images is she seeing while there, since there have been huge restrictions placed by the government on the kinds of images that the state run television are conveying what is she seeing? Does she have a clear picture about what is taking place in the streets there?

KALHOR: Well, being a 70-year-old, she is being cautious, but a couple days ago, she was on the streets and walking around and watching this whole demonstrations and she was in the area that was pretty quiet. She is trying to stay out of trouble. The movement is happening there is no stopping it, the whole uprising, facebook, blog coming out of Iran. We have tweeter hash tag, 670 a.m., KIRN, actually. We get news coming out of the post every three seconds, every seven seconds.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it is pretty extraordinary how much information is being conveyed that way, you said there is no stopping the movement, but do you see this movement actually provoking some change or do you see the change has already happened?

KALHOR: I want to tell you that would be my personal opinion but what we hear from the people in southern California, which is a big populous of Iranian, half a million to 1 million from San Diego to Santa Barbara, including Los Angeles, their opinions differ, some people want Mousavi, they want the people of Iran to decide what's happening and let it all happen. Some people here are trying to come out and say this whole thing is not the election anymore. We are looking for change.

WHITFIELD: Siamak Kalhor thanks so much for your time. I appreciate your insight from Los Angeles. Radio Iran is where people can hear you.

KALHOR: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And get a handle of your work on radio Iran on a regular basis.

KALHOR: We are on the Internet and on every g 3 phones that exist, they can search JIRM. We are live all the time.

WHITFIELD: Happy Father's Day. Appreciate your time.

KALHOR: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Back to the frontlines in Iran, citizen journalists sharing their images of the protests through CNN ireports and much more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Very remarkable images out of Iran, there have been protests today in the capital of Tehran, but no reports of clashes, violent clashes so far. However, here is a contrast. This was yesterday, Saturday. Images that are very disturbing here. Protesters were clashing were pro-government militias and riot police and this video showing a mock that was during Saturday's unrest in the capital. Early images the beginning of day.

Demonstrators chanted "don't be afraid, we are together" and "death to the dictator" that is a resounding chant that we heard many different occasions yesterday during various demonstrations. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is calling on Iranians to exercise self-control that message is coming from him on his Website but he says they have a right to demonstration.

Josh Levs is monitoring tweets that are changing by the minute, just as we are following the developments abroad. What are people saying whether they be in Iran or perhaps they are tweeting from the U.S. as well?

LEVS: That is right. We are looking at both and we are grabbing some of the absolute later come in the last couple of minutes in some cases, less than a minute. Lets go to this first one here, it talks about just this message saying do not forget there have been many innocent lives lost in this chaos. The next one talks about Mousavi declaring three days of mourning for a protestor that was killed by Basij. Basij are the paramilitary forces that answer to the Iranian government.

Got a couple more to show you, this one talks about a rally coming up, tomorrow's rally with candles to remember martyrs, and protests, 5 to 7 p.m., all over Iran. I will show you one more here, this is reference to the young woman, girl who was killed while apparently at the demonstration watching it, this one says let the world see what this beautiful woman looked like before had her bloody murder.

They are coming in really fast, Fred. You heard me, for example, refer to something that candle light vigil tomorrow this is the kind of thing we are often seeing first on twitter, trying to confirm the information there is a huge media crackdown going on, and that really is sending a lot of people to social networks like twitter, the reason it plays a bigger role than several days ago, the more a crackdown, the more people turn to social networks.

Here is how you can join the conversation right here this graphic, twitter.com/josh levels cnn. Part of that facebook the same thing, slash josh levels cnn. And our newsroom blog, CNN.com/newsroom and Fred throughout the evening, we will be sharing some of the posts from our guests and viewers.

WHITFIELD: Excellent. It is so great to hear from so many people on so many levels, describing what they are witnessing and what they are feeling about this. Josh Levs thanks so much. All right. Well protest has been going on for a week now but the mood of the protests has changed, really on a day-to-day basis. We are going to be joined by a CNN journalist who covered the election while in Iran, now he is back here state side to tell us about his experience and what he has witnessed.

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WHITFIELD: A look at the demonstrations for a week now coming out of Iraq. They have evolved tremendously from peaceful to silent and to heart-stopping. Our Dubai bureau Chief Samson Desta was there in Iraq leading up to the election, the day of the election and then into the early days of the demonstrations that took place but now state side. You have seen these demonstrations change so tremendously at first, people went to the streets, and they were encouraged even by the government to do so. And there were even moments where there were silent protests, they didn't say a word, they just would assemble, but now it's become very tenuous, very dangerous. What happened and what has happened?

SAMSON DESTA, DUBAI BUREAU CHIEF: In the early stages, by and large, they were very peaceful because, as we said, people were quite confident, quite energetic that some change would take place. It was only when it was decided that they were actually far behind and about to lose the votes, that you saw that people were quite shocked and the frustrations were played out on the streets.

So it became quite, quite ugly. But at some point, they wanted to make sure they could go back to what they were believing, and that is they weren't looking for a change in regime, they wanted to make sure their votes were counted. They wanted to bring about change. So they didn't want to be seen as troublemakers or rioters, so they made a change in strategy at some point and said, look this is going to be -- from now on, it is going to be a silent protest. You know --

WHITFIELD: Turn out in large numbers where we're going to make sure that people are aware of our sentiment that we wish some -- you know, the outcome were a bit different but we are not trying to be disruptive?

DESTA: Exactly. They wanted to continue to get this point across, but in a different way. And that is we're not going to provoke the police, we are not going to provoke anyone, we are going to go out in force, show people that we want to do this peacefully but we want our votes to be counted.

WHITFIELD: Was there almost a feeling that they might be a bit influential since the government was allowing this, endorsed this kind of assembly?

DESTA: You have to keep in mind, by this time, all these rallies were illegal. Actually declare illegal. People were just going out peaceful we are not creating any chaos, we are not rioting, just simply want to make sure that people are aware that we want our votes counted, you will be fine. It was fine. It was allowed to continue at some point. Symbolically, just as strong. WHITFIELD: But it was just Friday when the Ayatollah said declaratively, if you assemble starting tomorrow, Saturday, it will indeed be illegal and now there was this voice saying I'm challenging you to do this. And what changed the tone of the demonstration? Was it necessarily the demonstrators or was it I guess the confrontation, the visible confrontation between government forces, police and demonstrators?

DESTA: Well here is what you have; a lot of people, hundreds of thousand of people quite passionate about what they were determined and quite determined to make sure their voices could be heard. You have that saying the law was illegal, the two was clashing but nothing was going to stop people from saying I have a vote that needs to be counted and I'm going to go out and make sure that people can see me, can hear me and then you see the results. At the end of the day, you are confronted by police and have such an ugly turnout.

WHITFIELD: You see even though you are here now and not there, you see this carrying on for a while or do you see that because the numbers, according to some reporting have dwindled in terms of the turnout, that maybe this whole effort might be --

DESTA: You know, it's difficult to say. Up until now, they have demonstrated a will to continue to fight for this but how long can they sustain this?

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

DESTA: People are getting hurt, people are getting killed, people are being detained, and so, how long can they continue to do this? That's the question. What is different this time around is that again it has been such an energetic campaign for these people, they truly believed in what they were doing, and so at some point, and a lot of them said you can't stop this. I had one individual said to me; look at the lines of people. You think you can stop this? That is how they felt. We will see. It remains to be seen whether they can continue to do that.

WHITFIELD: Samson Desta thanks so much. Great job while over there and still while you're here, too, doing your reporting on Iran while now state side. Appreciate it.

DESTA: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. Missing now in Tehran, his picture showing unrest in Iran made the cover of "Life" Magazine. Now, the family of a photographer says he is missing.

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WHITFIELD: "Life" Magazine is reporting the photojournalist who shot the cover story of "Unrest in Iran" is missing. The pictures currently posted online are attributed only to an Iranian photojournalist. "Life" says it received an e-mail yesterday from the photographer's family saying he has not returned home there the organization reporters without borders says 23 journalists and blogers have been arrested since protests began in Iran a week ago.

A journalist working for "Newsweek" has been detained in Iran. The magazine says Mazeer Bahari (ph) was picked up today and being held by Iranian authorities but no charges have been filed against him. Bahari (ph) is Canadian citizen and a filmmaker. He has spent the past decade working and living in Iran. "Newsweek" is condemning his detention and calling for his immediate release.

CNN's Don Lemon talks with the son of an Iranian journalist who has gone into hiding in Iran that is one hour from now. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Meantime, Fareed Zakaria, and "GPS" starts right now.