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Ruling Cleric Khamenei warns opposition, blames Zionists
This will be where the mask comes off and Iran ceases to appear a "republic," Islamic or otherwise. Real republics don't have Fearless Leaders and they don't have Basij and they don't have Guardian Councils. They don't have to import Arab thugs to beat up on their people. With the masks off, Iran's the usual kind of tiresome dictatorship, which is why Hugo Chavez likes them so much.

I feel for the people of Iran. They're going to get slammed with the same kind of brown-shirted repression we saw over and over again in the 20th century, indeed from the time of Robespierre. But my feeling for the people of Iran is tempered by the knowledge that this is the system they brought upon themselves, culminating in the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. They turned out in the same kind of numbers, demanding to be ruled by their ayatollahs, who had all the answers. Now they're turning out and demanding to be ruled by... whatever Mousavi represents.

Someday perhaps they'll turn out in their numbers demanding their own individual liberty, demanding to be left alone to make their own decisions, to live their lives free from enforced religion, from enforced ideology. Maybe they'll demand a modicum of honesty from their politicians and a bit of discretion from their oligarchs.

Until then, they'll continue being repressed, beaten and exploited. Eventually they'll throw out their repressors, to replace them with new faces and the old slogans. I have no idea how many times that wheel will turn. I hope it's not many. I suspect it will be.
TEHRAN -- In his first public response to days of mass protests, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sternly warned opposition supporters on Friday to stay off the streets and raised the prospect of violence if the defiant, vast demonstrations continued.
Not a fan of real community organizers, is he?
He spoke somberly for more than an hour and a half at Friday Prayer to tens of thousands of people at Tehran University, with Mr. Ahmadinejad in attendance. His sermon was broadcast over loudspeakers to throngs in the adjoining streets, and the crowds erupted repeatedly in roars of support. Opposition supporters had spread the word among themselves not to attend.

"Street challenge is not acceptable," Ayatollah Khamenei said, according to a rendering by the BBC. "This questions the principles of election and democracy."Opposition leaders, he said, will be "responsible for bloodshed and chaos" if they do not stop further rallies.
The IRGC doesn't kill people, opposition leaders kill people- not exactly a catchy slogan.
Ayatollah Khamenei blamed "media belonging to Zionists, evil media"
Two days ago he blamed the Brits, then the US, now Zionists, next up Martians?
He must be on Twitter intercepting their secret Zionist messages.
for seeking to show divisions between those who supported the Iranian state and those who did not, while, in fact, the election had shown Iranians to be united in their commitment to the Islamic revolutionary state.
Posted by: Lord garth 2009-06-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=272368