Can I kick it? No, you can't.

Saturday in Tehran

Reports are that things are very quiet there, not just in terms of rallies, but just in general. Traffic is very light, and businesses, while open, are seeing very few customers, even beauty salons.

People may be afraid to go out for fear of being attacked as dissident protesters, just for being on the street. In a report by Nazila Fathi of The New York Times, a businessman who declined to give his name on Fredossi Street said, “We are waiting, we have to see what will happen after all these lies and bloodshed.” Best guess is that several hundred people have been jailed already.

The Iranian Expediency Council, headed by former president Rasfanjani put out a statement declaring that the supreme leader’s decision would be the final word on the election, although it did say the government should investigate voting complaints “properly and thoroughly.” Rasfanjani has been generally supportive of the opposition, but seeing as how he is perhaps the ultimate political insider in Iran, he may see the writing on the wall.

Moussavi issued his first statement in a few days, but it merely made the same demands for a new election, which Khameini has dismissed out of hand.

Reports of Soviet-style forced confessions are beginning to surface, including Amir-Hossein Mahdavi, was the editor-chief of a reformist newspaper close to Mr. Moussavi that was shut down before the election. He is alleged to have said that reformist politicians were the masterminds behind recent protests that drew tens of thousands into the streets.

A hairdresser called Nassim, said it best, “People are depressed, and they feel they have been lied to, robbed of their right and now are being insulted. It is not just a lie; it’s a huge one. And it doesn’t end; they keep on insulting people’s intelligence with more lies on TV.”

Saturday, June 27, 2009