If there was a World Cup for propaganda coups it would have been won last night by the Iranian National Council of Resistance, who defied a FIFA edict banning political sloganeering at the USA-Iran match here and turned one end of the Stade Gerland into a political rally. Dissidents 1, Ayatollahs 0.

The other losers were the tournament organizers and stadium security staff who sent in heavies to tear down banners showing pictures of the Rajavi family, the focus for opposition groups in exile. So much for freedom of speech in the west.

… Any thought that the 3,000 Iranian tickets would go to members of the country's Revolutionary Guard who would cheer their team obediently evaporated an hour before the game. A match that was subtitled as a clash between two hostile superpowers turned out to be a contest between the Iranian government and opposition groups. American supporters watched bemused from the opposite end of the ground as mere slogans were treated by the police as if they were lethal weapons.

… It was preposterous to think that decades of resentment and a highly-organized demonstration could be crushed by men with official armbands and boilersuits.

U.S. Loses Key Match to Iran, Miami Herald, June 22

LYON, France -… Iran defeated the United States, 2-1, Sunday in one of the most politically charged games in World Cup history….

Tens of thousands of Iranian exiles who oppose the country's Islamic fundamentalist regime showed up at Stade de Gerland carrying resistance flags, which were confiscated by police at the gates and stuffed in large garbage bags. Police were under strict orders to take away banners or flags that made political statements, but the exiles somehow managed to sneak in T-shirts and giant banners bearing the likeness of resistance leaders Maryam and Massoud Rajavi.

The game that was supposed to expose the 19-year tension between Iran and the United States was, in fact, a stage for exiled Iranian resistance groups to get their message to the estimated 500 million television viewers who tuned in.

… Roughly half the crowd waved Iranian flags while the rest of the Iranian fans waved posters of the Rajavis….
 

Mullahs Jam Uncensored Telecast of Iran-U.S. Match, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 24

Fearing the political and social repercussions of uncensored scenes of the Iran-U.S. World Cup match, on Monday the mullahs' regime jammed a satellite television report by the opposition network called Simay-e Moghavemat. The jamming signal was repeated Tuesday evening for four hours.

The regime's own telecast of the game was delayed to allow the mullahs' censors to edit out scenes showing tens of thousands of Iranian opponents in Lyon's Stade Gerland.

Simay-e Moghavemat is watched by millions in Iran, especially women and the younger generation.

The jamming represents a flagrant violation of international law, and demonstrates that the mullahs' terrorism is extending to satellite communications.
 

Iran Boots It, The Wall Street Journal, June 23

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei boasted before Sunday's U.S.-Iran World Cup soccer match that a "strong and arrogant opponent would feel the bitter taste of defeat." Just hours before the match, Iran's conservative legislature, presumably influenced by the Ayatollah Khamenei, voted to impeach President Khatami's Interior Minister, Abdollah Nouri.

Iran's goalie said after the game they wanted to be seen as normal people, but their leaders make that hard. According to the State Department, the regime has assassinated 13 political opponents overseas since Mr. Khatami came to power, an increase over previous years. Iran may rightly celebrate its victory, but its rule-breaking mullahs still deserve a red card.
 

Top Mullah: All Officials Resist And Reject Normalization With U.S., Agence France Presse, June 24

TEHRAN - The leader of Iran's conservatives, parliamentary speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, Wednesday dubbed Washington's offer of a roadmap for normalization "psychological warfare."

"The recent declarations of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on relations with Iran are aimed at launching psychological warfare against our country," Nateq-Nuri told Iranian newspapers.

The conservative leader insisted that "all officials" of the Iranian government "resist and reject normalization" with the United States.

Back to Brief on Iran