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Iran Cracks Down on New Protests
(Daily Beast) Omid Memarian - The Iranian protesters who came out Monday found that the riot police had changed their tactics, disguising themselves as young protesters. "The Basijis [militia] were unrecognizable," a journalist said. "They went among the people and all of a sudden they would take someone by the hand and pull him on the ground. Unlike the last times, when they sported beards, they had styled hair and wore stylish clothes." The moment people stopped marching and formed a group, riot police came out, according to eyewitness accounts. And the moment they started chanting, there seemed to be more police than demonstrators. "American-backed autocracies, like Mubarak's Egypt, are more vulnerable than anti-American dictatorships like Iran, for they are subject to the scrutiny of American politics and public opinion," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment, a Washington-based think tank. "Iran can slaughter its people without worrying that China or Russia is going to hold it accountable or withhold aid money." And there are no live Internet streams, as there was in Egypt, making sure the world is watching.