Jack's Newswatch

And Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has banned the big demonstration called for 4 PM in Tehran.  If you follow Andrew Sullivan’s blog–and you should, if you’re interested in what’s happening in Iran, and also in what’s happening in the ranks of the American Left–you will see that many Iranians fear that Saturday is slated to be a day of bloodshed.

Khamenei did not budge at all.  No concessions.  The elections are legitimate, the results are final.  Moreover, he said, the battle is not between “the people” and “the regime,” it’s between four leaders who all believe in the regime.  The people voted, we counted their votes, and that’s that.  If anyone protests after my sermon, he said, whatever violence ensues is on them.

Which sounds like a promise of violence.  As I said earlier, tens of thousands of Revolutionary Guards have been brought to Tehran to put down the demonstrations.  These are older, well-trained and presumably loyal soldiers who will not shrink from attacking the crowds.  So some of the Iranians on Twitter have written messages that sound like “final thoughts,” not knowing if they will survive Saturday.

This is all the regime has left, because the demonstrations have revealed its hollowness, and the nightly chants of  “God is great” from the rooftops of all major cities in Iran have exposed the collapse of its central doctrine:  that the theocratic fascist system is blessed by Allah.  Millions of Iranians are openly rejecting that.

Khamenei recognizes this, which is why he has committed his own power to the defeat of Mousavi’s movement.  This confirms what I have been arguing, namely that, however Mousavi started, he now leads a revolutionary mass movement that is aimed at the dark heart of the corrupt theocratic fascist state.  When Mousavi asked the huge crowd on Thursday “where are our $300 billion?” he and everyone else knew that was a threat to bring the ruling mullahs to justice, to prosecute them for their thievery.

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Notes:

This is well worth the read as Ledeen takes note of writings on a Revolutionary Guard website which don’t jibe with what the west expects of them.

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