"No one in their right mind can believe" the official results from Friday's contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad.
Iran's senior ayatollah slams election, confirming split
learned of at huffpo:
nico pitney
Iran's senior ayatollah, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, harshly criticized the election and the force used by the government, confirming rumors of a split among the senior ayatollahs. The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei offered to recount the votes, but Mousavi is (rightly) refusing the offer, fearing any "recount" would be just as crooked as the election (my words, not his).
But Montazeri did not mince words:
"A government not respecting people's vote has no religious or political legitimacy," he declared in comments on his official Web site. "I ask the police and army personals (personnel) not to 'sell their religion,' and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before God."
A little more on Montazeri:
leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution who's often feuded with Khamenei and once vied with him for the supreme leader's position, Montazeri accused the government of attacking "the children of the people with astonishing violence" and "attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and scientifics."
This seems like great news, and I hope it leads to a new election.
McClatchy also stated that the state killed 11 protesters, 8 confirmed.
It seems there may be at least two "armies" in Mehdi's camp: the Basij, a "hard-line Islamic volunteer militia," and the Revolutionary Guard.
Since Iran forbade Western news organizations from broadcasting anything, we don't have the inspiring march footage we had yesterday. If anyone has good video, please post.
Luckily, I hotlisted Kaelri's blog, which has good links. Fleet Admiral, clifflyon, and electricmaji and more also had terrific diaries. I would provide links but I'm not sure of the spelling of their handles. Nico Pitney's at huffpo is at the top.
kaelri
I'm just copying Kaelri's links here, because I thought their might be an interest in an Iran diary to post thoughts and new info to, and I figured instead of asking about it, I might as well post one. Thank you, all of you who kept the diaries going!
niac
andrew sullivan
tehran bureau
the lede
juan cole
Please add videos of the silent march today if you have them, or whatever. If someone has the link to the awesome Green Revolution poster, would you post it? And feel free to post links to all of your diaries, too.
Updates
Al Giordano
Thanks dr fatman.
ndhapple has lots of links: ndhapple's diary
wiki background on Montazeri from jaywillie:
Montezari
Sylvester McMonkey Mcbean brings us a new site: fark
Frank Cornish's Iran Analysis:
Frank Cornish
COwoman's Iran Tonight:
COwoman
CanuckinMA gives us Montazeri's whole statement, and more:
occident blogspot
Yikes! I either forgot or missed this very news in Clifflyon's diary, the one mentioned earlier. Here's the link:
CliffLyon's Diary, featuring Payman
smugbug gives us a source who saw the Iranian military protecting the protesters:
ABC
Update II
Another tip from jaywillie and huffpo:
Rafsanjani calling meeting