IRANIAN UPRISING – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  As we're watching airline terrorism, street terrorism is being committed by the mullahs of Iran against their own people.  Another day of demonstrations is underway, met by violence, as Fox News reports:

At least 15 people were killed during massive anti-government protests in Tehran when opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the streets, Iranian state television reported Monday.

Remember, you're getting this from state television, which means the mullah regime.

The report said 10 people killed during Sunday's fierce clashes in the Iranian capital were members of "anti-revolutionary terrorist" groups, apparently referring to opposition supporters.

The other five who died were killed by "terrorist groups" in a "suspicious act," the report said, without elaborating.

The five may be government security thugs.

Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices on Monday, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the country's reformist movement, opposition Web sites and activists reported.

The bloodshed, some of the heaviest in months, drew an especially harsh condemnation from one opposition leader, who compared the government to the brutal regime that was ousted by the Islamic Revolution three decades ago.

The American response thus far has been restricted to a bland statement issued by a low-level spokesman for a division of the White House.  We're not talking Churchill here.

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, expressed concern about the "increased repression" in Iran.

Well, that's a relief.  Sweden has taken the side of democracy.  I don't recall seeing this before.  In Sweden they call it the hard line.

COMMENT:  This can easily grow into the story of 2010.  An overthrow of the mullah regime won't solve the nuclear issue, but it will go a long way toward reducing the threat.

December 28, 2009