We reported last week that Rafsanjani is making moves to take down the Supreme leader, a story that was largely ignored by mainstream, and even so-called ‘new’ media.

[1] http://blog.freedomist.info/2009/06/14/6-14-9-iran-election-news-rafsanjani-calls-for-emergency-meeting-showdown-with-supreme-leader/

The veracity of that story becomes all the more apparent with this story from iranalection2009.com

[2] http://iranelection2009.com/archive/2009/06/23/rafsanjani-poised-outflank-supreme-leader-khamenei

“A source familiar with the thinking of decision-makers in state agencies that have strong ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there is a sense among hardliners that a shoe is about to drop. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — Iran’s savviest political operator and an arch-enemy of Ayatollah Khamenei’s — has kept out of the public spotlight since the rigged June 12 presidential election triggered the political crisis. The widespread belief is that Rafsanjani has been in the holy city of Qom, working to assemble a religious and political coalition to topple the supreme leader and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

Here is another sign that things are beginning to unravel, also from the above-linked article:

“Among those who are now believed to be arrayed against Ayatollah Khamenei is Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the top Shi’a cleric in neighboring Iraq”The media is also reporting that it appears the protests have been crushed by the police, and the ‘experts’ state that the revolution is over.  John Bolton on Fox News stated that the other social groups haven’t joined the students, despite the video evidence we have all been seeing, despite the now apparent widespread strikes currently going on…despite this tweet from inside Iran (a credible source):

RT Iran: Streets of major cities like wartime; civil unrest everywhere…. #Iranelection

And this tweet from this morning:

RT Iran:

motorcycles are vulnerable to wire stretched between poles, 1m off the ground, and to nails in their tires #iranelection

Here is a tweet from one of the Iranian agents….they are scared:

fascist tweet- RT @[3] antifacista67 PUPPET REGIME being installed RIGHT NOW! #IranElection [4] http://tinyurl.com/m7w4pg interesting agit prop here

It’s as if they know it’s falling apart and they are already getting ready for the counter-revolution after they fall.

If you’ve seen the videos of Iranians chanting Allah Akbar in the face of being shot, you cannot conclude that the people are done with this revolution.  Why are the talking heads, the so-called experts on the middle east, the folks at stratfor.com so insistent on downplaying the growing resistence?  We suspect that no one can believe Iran can change, so they simply don’t want to be caught being wrong, they simply don’t want to go out on a limb.

In the end, organizations like stratfor, and talking heads like John Bolton are discrediting themselves and undermining the efforts of the Iranian people.  If you know history, you will know that America did not give Britain any type of aid until they were convinced Britain could win, which didn’t happen until Churchill turned his guns on French Naval vessels that refused to be boarded by the Brits after their own nation fell to Germany in 1939.

The Iranian people have demonstrated just as much, if not more, courage as Churchill by shouting down killers firing upon them, chanting every night, including last night, from the rooftops “death to the dictator”.  Yet, apparently, this isn’t enough, probably because Obama and other world leaders are surrounded by the same type of so-called experts who have already proved to be woefully uninformed about the dramatically shifting realities in Iran.

Let us be bold enough to proclaim that the Iranian people CAN win their freedom, but it will be difficult if world leaders don’t support them more aggressively.  The old saw that if we openly, and strongly support the protestors (you should now change that from protestor..to Iranians..it IS that widespread, across all social classes) the Iranian govt will use our support as propaganda against the protestors is simply not going to fly in the face of this reality:  the Iranian government has NO credibilty with the Iranian people anymore, not since they brought in foreigners to kill their own people (Hezbollah, Hamas).

Paul Collier

an american freedomist

This article may be reprinted so long as this link is included:

[5] for all the latest news on freedom around the world, visit http://blog.freedomist.info

The death of a student with a head wound…this video was from yesterday, a day the mainstream media said was won by the basij. This does not look like a people backing down in the face of fear. Nor will these deaths quell the unrest, only further erode their hold on the people. These are foreigners doing this, and the Iranian people will not forget. Things move slow in Iran, so we might not see the dramatic overnight overthrow of the govt, and the govt may be successful, or not, in quelling this round of unrest, but the Iranians will not forget, and they will eventually defeat the mullahs.This article reveals the Iranian authorities have made another ‘rubicon’ mistake, they’ve prevented a family from conducting the proper religious process of mourning, further discrediting the one claim they had to power that overrode all others, their authority from Allah.  By violating their own sacred laws, the mullahs are further eroding their place as the religious authority of the land.

[6]  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6561253.ece

“The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election.”

[7] freedom news feed