“Ayatollah Khamenei blamed ‘media belonging to Zionists, evil media’ 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.”
–The New York Times

It seems that much of the news about the unrest is coming from Iranian citizens individually publishing things on Twitter and YouTube. If what Ayatollah Khamenei says is true, then he must be surrounded by a citizenry of thousands or millions of evil Zionists right there in Iran. It can be argued that the government of Israel has done some evil things, but I don’t believe that causing the public unrest in Iran today is one of them.

He also said that the margin of votes was so large that there is no way it could have been falsified (I think that’s a reference to G.W. Bush who falsified an election with thin margins). Yes, those numbers are impressive, but just being large does not mean they are to be unquestioned. It is suspicious that Moussavi lost in his home district in an election where he lead convincingly in the nationwide polls. Maybe the outcome was accurate and no cheating went on. If so, end the debate and invite the staff of each losing candidate to verify the results.

Further he says, “street challenge is not acceptable.” But “street challenge” was acceptable when it  brought his predassesor to power 30 years ago. Free expression is more than a human right that I believe in strongly, no matter how much the person speaking may abhor me, it is uncontainable. Does this guy realize how ridiculous he sounds? I think that Khamenei’s arrogance is out of touch, and these words will only motivate the protests more.

The majority of the Iranian people are intelligent and free-thinking, and their rulers do not recognize that. The rest of the world can only sit back and watch this unfold. Stay tuned for big changes in Iran.