A coup in Iran?

[anhinga_drafts]

There were suggestions in the blogs that what happened in Iran was more than just stolen elections, that it was actually a coup d'état. We might have a confirmation, from Amir Taheri writing in the Wall Street Journal:

A detailed study of Mr. Khamenei's text reveals a number of anomalies. It is longer than his usual statements and full of expressions that he has never used before.

This is, obviously, a very unpleasant development. A longer quotation:

"Then something unprecedented happened. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all issues of national life, published a long statement hailing Mr. Ahmadinejad's "historic victory" as "a great celebration." This was the first time since 1989, when he became supreme leader, that Mr. Khamenei commented on the results of a presidential election without waiting for the publication of official results. Some analysts in Tehran tell me that the military-security elite, now controlling the machinery of the Iranian state, persuaded Mr. Khamenei to make the unprecedented move.

A detailed study of Mr. Khamenei's text reveals a number of anomalies. It is longer than his usual statements and full of expressions that he has never used before. The praise he showers on Mr. Ahmadinejad is simply too much. The question arises: Did someone use the supreme leader as a rubber stamp for a text written by Mr. Ahmadinejad himself? With Mr. Khamenei's intervention, Mr. Ahmadinejad's three defeated rivals are unlikely to contest the results of the election beyond lodging formal protests to the Council of the Guardians, a 12-mullah body that has the legal duty of endorsing the final results."

Comments

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

And this is the man who is trying to become the dictator:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Taqi_Mesbah-Yazdi

http://tehranbureau.com/2009/06/16/the-leaders-of-iran%E2%80%99s-election-coup/