The Tehran regime has new gear to help squash today's pro-democracy protests: high-tech anti-riot vehicles, imported from China.
Live bloggers of the events reported seeing the vehicles stationed around the city, noting "it appears that they will be used in the suppression of people's protests today." Suppression may be a bit of an understatement since the armored vehicles are apparently "equipped with water cannons that can douse people with boiling water or teargas."
One Iranian opposition site reports that the vehicles "have a capacity of 10,000 liters to shoot cold and hot water, and three 100 liter tanks to shoot burning chemical liquids" at a distance of up to 70 meters. Manufactured by Dalian Eagle-Sky Co., the vehicles cost an estimated $650,000. The site also said that "a lot of extra burning liquid, paint, and tear gas was purchased" in addition to the vehicles. The riot stoppers are another example of how China is surpassing the European Union as Iran's biggest trading partner.Iran is also using paint in more low-tech suppression tactics. Having successfully restricted the digital flow of information by cutting off access to GMail, the Iranian government is using spray paint and paintball guns to mark protesters in order to easily identify and arrest them later. Jason Shams over at the Daily Beast notes that the regime forces "marked people with spray paint or shot them with paintball guns when they couldn’t arrest them because things were too chaotic. Later, when things died down and the mass groups dissipated, the Guards arrested those with paint on their clothes."
-- Caitlin Hamilton is an intern at WIRED's New York office. This is her first post for Danger Room.*
*[Photo: Dalian Eagle-Sky]ALSO:
- Activists Use U.S. Tech to Poke Holes in Iran Firewall
- NYC Tweeters Give Iran Boss the Green Middle Finger
- Activists Launch Hack Attacks on Tehran Regime
- Tehran Threatens Bloggers, 'Deviant News Sites'
- Does Iran's Green Movement Need U.S. Aid?
- Facebook, Google Go Persian, Aiding Iran's Activists
- Web Attacks Expand in Iran's Cyber Battle
