Iran and dissent: where it counts is at the Ayatollah level: Via Examiner NY.

Now, it's serious.  Not that it had not been serious before, as Iranians were appalled by the results of the recent presidential election and took to the streets and protested, set vehicles and trash cans on fire, were arrested and beaten by police, - and who could forget  beautiful Neda, so brutally shot by thugs, and rising above the violence to represent the voice of the people? But it didn't seem to matter. Five hundred people were imprisoned; Moussavi himself was under threat of arrest for 'disobeying direct orders' from Ayatollah Khameini that Iran had to accept the 'legitimate' results of the election.  That was the turning point of 'serious'.

Though Ahmadinejad was Khameini's little darling, it was perhaps a fatal mistake for the aging ayatollah to align himself with a specific candidate. He lost credibility, prestige, and as reported today, the word on the street in Iran is that people no longer fear him as the voice of ultimate authority. He's just a man. And he's being challenged by one of the most influential and wealthy men in Iran: Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Friday prayers in Iran today were a little different: The setting was Tehran University, where Rafsanjani led prayers for the first time since the June 12th election and seized the moment to pronounce that the country was in 'crisis'.  He expressed his will to help 'save' the Islamic Republic; according to him, the Guardian Council, designated to look into complaints about irregularities, did not do its job properly.

Naturally, Rafsanjani supported defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Make no mistake about it, Mousavi was very much a part of the Iranian revolution machine. He was an insider, and held the post of Prime Minister until the position was eradicated. Al Jazeera did a splendid piece on Mousavi titled 'Mousavi and the masses'  that clarified the type of man/leader he had been, and how his transformation came about.

Rafsanjani referred to the late Ayatollah Khomeini, who was the founder of the Islamic Republic thirty years ago,  and declared that he never wanted Iranians to resort to terror or weapons. This was a direct reference to the brutal repression by the Basij and the Republican Guards to the demonstrations that followed the election results.  He emphasized in his speech, in direct defiance of Khameini, that 'if the islamic and republican aspects of the revolution are not preserved, then it would mean that we have forgotten the principles of the revolution'.

Rafsanjani lost the presidential election of 2005 to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a virtual unknown at the time. Ahmadinejad would have eliminated him had Rafsanjani not enjoyed the support of important figures and gained membership into the elite Assembly of Experts.

He is considered to be a realistic negotiator, a supporter of economic liberalism and easing of tensions with the West; at the same time, he supports the preservation of the theocratic system set up by his mentor Khomeini.

Of course, Rafsanjani's comments spurred vigorous street demonstrations in the streets of Tehran once again.

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