WHITE HOUSE RALLY FOR IRAN - AT 8:24 P.M. ET:  The Iranian-American community is notoriously fractured, but one faction at least managed a demonstration for Iranian rights at the White House today:

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of protesters, many of them Iranian-Americans, marched from Capitol Hill to the White House on Saturday, most holding Iranian flags and chanting demands for the U.S. to take more action after Iran's disputed election.

After marching through several blocks of downtown Washington, more than 200 people rallied in front of the White House. They shouted demands for President Barack Obama and leaders of other countries to "reject the sham elections, impose complete sanctions."

They also shouted "death to Ahmadinejad," referring to the Iranian president whose disputed June 12 re-election prompted days of street protests in Iran. Some carried pictures of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman who bled to death in a Tehran street. She became a symbol of the postelection protest movement after videos of her death by gunfire were posted online.

COMMENT:  This is potentially important.  As we reported earlier, Iran is about to present the "international community" with a negotiations package.  The danger is that it will suck the "negotiations yesterday, negotiations today, negotiations tomorrow" crowd into endless talks, during which the repression in Iran will be effectively ignored.

But if Iranian-American dissidents organize, can stay reasonably united, and can avoid being co-opted by pro-mullah operatives posing as something else, they can keep the heat on the White House and force public recognition of their position.  It's tough work, but that's what effective lobbying is about.  My fear is that skillful Iranian government negotiators will trap us into talks that will let the nuclear program go forward and let Tehran continue to arrest and harass its opponents.

July 11, 2009