I mean, the guy who's REALLY in charge of Iran wouldn't lie about an election to be his next mouthpiece, would he?

Like any high profile "investigations" and "trials" in totalitarian regimes the result is whatever suits those in power.

Unfortunately this will give the go ahead to the bloody Basiji brown-shirt types to be even more brutal.

I hope his bags are packed and the car is running because he's finished.

Last night with Keith Olbermann, Richard Engel thought Khamenei might try to at least pay lip service to the "middle way". Now that doesn't seem to be the case at all. Khamenei and the ruling structure don't want to be accountable to popular will and demand nothing less than millions to slink off with their tails between their legs. Right from the universal playbook of tyrants, Khamenei wants submission from people who have tasted the promise of freedom, democracy and, most importantly, the idea of a new community. Watching the attempt to stuff all that back into the bottle is going to be painful.

The only consolation is that tyrants -- like Ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- have pretty abysmal retirement plans.

The protesters have been labled outlaws, will they continue to challange or is this the end?

You keep using that word, democracy. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Not long ago my country too had a national election stolen by a smarmy looking numb skull who was also backed up by a junta of unelected elders pretending to have legitimacy and the best values of democracy in mind. However, just as in Iran, their was nothing but corruption and power grabbing going on.

It is an old story with very little to redeem it.

Hope for strength and struggle if you can.

Unfortunately, and forgive my dichotomous thinking, there are two choices: The uprising disbands and Iran becomes a demoralized nation living under the foot of a regime that can't even pretend legitimacy.

The second is right out of Emerson:

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard 'round the world."

What else is there? If that happens, the question is what, if anything, do we Americans do?

Oh, good. Moving on...

There are only two things we can do! The US Iran becomes a demoralized nation living under the foot of a regime that can't even pretend legitimacy.

or...

We all want to believe that the majority of Iran voted for the slightly more progressive candidate, but maybe not, and with no real proof, the rest is just speculation.

Maybe the little nutter actually did win and then everyone yelling for freedom and democracy is hypocritical.

We will never know but that has never stopped our "outrage" in the past, has it. We should just keep yelling no matter what the truth really is because that's what we do best.

On a related note, I just wrapped up an interview with the top CIA Officer for the invasion of Iraq who interviewed dozens of al Qaeda and Ansar al Islam members. He has some fascinating tales and says he saw no cooperation between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda.

http://regimeofterror.com/archives/2009/05/former_cia_operations_officer/

There is no way that gay guy lost.

kickstarts, you're right that we don't really know if Ahmadinejad won, lost, or should be in a runoff. But consider the following.

From the article: "...Khamenei said that the 11 million vote differential between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi indicates that there was no voter fraud."

They know it was 11 million votes apart because they took nearly 3 hours to count them all, by hand, before announcing the results.

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Mykeru, here's (or click on my sig) a representation of your statement about the bottle (if you don't look at it today, just find the June 19 cartoon):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinions/tomtoles/

...if Ahmadinejad really won 2:1 against the progressive candidate, why aren't there protest groups twice as big as the ones we're seeing marching in support of him all around Iran?

I mean, if I understand Iran politics right, Ahmadinejad's support mostly comes from the rural/impoverished/uneducated types, and they're usually the first to flip the fuck out when they're not going to get what they want after an election.

I mean more so that GWBush and the other "compassionate conservatives"? I guess as a hard-core socialist (it's unsurprising he's a hero in the "red" states) he ought to be pretty progressive, but wasn't he also the favored son of the clerics back when he was a leader of the Islamic revolution?

So far I've heard him promise to "review" the status of women; what's that mean?

it doesn't really matter how "progressive" Mousavi is.

people should get to decide who represents them.