From New York, this is Democracy Now.

When they shut down the Internet, followed by the protests of the people,

we issued a statement saying that the complete shutdown of the internet and telecommunications

will end in a massacre.

But we never imagined the massacre to be in such dimensions and further to be a bloodbath.

As the reported death toll in Iran rises to 2,600, we'll speak to the world-renowned Iranian filmmaker Jaffa Panahi about the unprecedented protests, Iran's brutal crackdown,

and his new film, it was just an accident. The film was secretly shot inside Iran and has been

shortlisted for an Oscar. But first, here in the United States, the FBI raids the home of a Washington Post reporter

and seizes her phone and laptops.

We'll speak to Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute.

These kinds of raids, raids of newsroom, searches of reporters are the hallmarks of illiberal

regimes. They have been very rare in recent American history and we want to keep them that

way. You know, it's hard not to see this as kind of shot over the bow of the press and attempt to intimidate not just the press,

but sources who would communicate with them.

All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now.

Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report.

I'm Amy Me Goodman.

The U.S. has withdrawn military personnel from bases in the Middle East as President

Trump has repeatedly warned the U.S. will intervene on behalf of the protesters in Iran.

By Thursday morning, Iran shut down its commercial airspace

for a number of hours. A senior Iranian official said Iran had warned its neighbors in the

...