Monday, June 15, 2009

Defiant Iranians Take to the Streets

After Iran's government banned a rally, hundreds of thousands of Iranians take to the streets:
They came in swarms along the miles-long stretch leading from Revolution Square into Freedom Square, and from other streets, pouring in a nonstop stream, blocking traffic along nearby highways, where passengers in stopped cars began waving.

"Mousavi! Mousavi!" they chanted, in support of the 67-year-old former prime minister who showed up at the rally, along with other prominent reformist figures.

"If I died today it would be perfect," said Hossein, a 60-year-old retired schoolteacher, walking through the crowd with the help of cane. "The nation of Iran has woken up."
LAT
The Obama administration is not taking sides, saying it's monitoring the events, so it's not perceived influencing one side or the other. Reporter Richard Engel says the outcome of the election is in the hands of the so-called supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Others say Khamenei isn't all that powerful, rather it's the revolutionary guard that has the power and maybe even rigged the election:
I've heard people say that President Ahmadinejad is gathering so much power that he might be able to use the Revolutionary Guard and his other allies to make a coup d'etat against the state.

A coup d'etat? They've already made one! They've created a dictatorship, in fact. Do you know that last night the security forces occupied the offices of many newspapers, to make sure that their reporting on the election was favorable? They changed many headlines. They fixed the election.

The Guards are taking over everything, including many economic institutions. The ministry of the interior is increasing its control in all the provinces.

We have information that Ahmadinejad is thinking about changing the Constitution to allow the president to serve more than two terms, to make his presidency more or less permanent.

Of course, there are strong voices in the establishment that will challenge him. It is not clear that he and the Sepah (the Revolutionary Guard) will be strong enough to overcome them. But there will be clashes over this.

Where does the Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stand in regard to this?

The problem is that there is concern about the relationship between the Leader and the Guards. To what extent can the Leader control or moderate the Guards? This is a difficult question. Opinion by Robert Dreyfuss, NPR

An honest recount is unlikely:

Reza Aslan calls it a military coup:
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