Iran election protests hit U.S. streets

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- Protests against Iran's disputed presidential election reached Washington, as Iranian-Americans marched from Iran's diplomatic offices to the Russian embassy.

The demonstration Wednesday followed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's receiving Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Moscow a day earlier, despite allegations of election fraud in Ahmadinejad's re-election last week, CNN reported.

The group Whereismyvote.org organized the demonstration and organizers say they're trying to build support for its "global protest" Saturday.

In Russia, Ahmadinejad was greeted as the "newly re-elected president of Iran," while Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters the election in the Islamic republic was "an internal affair of the Iranian people."

Also on Wednesday, hundreds of Iranian expatriates in Los Angeles and San Diego demonstrated against the crackdown on protesters challenging Ahmadinejad's re-election, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Protests began Saturday after Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner over his closest challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi. The Iranian government since has banned foreign journalists from covering "unauthorized" demonstrations live and set up firewalls to block Internet sites that support the opposition.

Iranians and others told the Times they have been filling in the information e-gaps created by the Iranian government's actions.

Philip Grant, a doctoral student at University of California-Irvine, said he has been sending information to friends in Iran about Web sites they can use to message each other and ways to get around the government's firewalls.

"We have much better access to Internet and things here, so we're doing what we can to disseminate information," Grant said.