- b at Moon of Alabama (good comments too, pointing out how lousy the opposition candidate really was).
- Angry Arab, on the general western propaganda game about elections.
As b points out, this looks like a 'color revolution', one of these phony opposition movements paid for by the Americans who print posters and hand out flags to create spectacles for American television, giving the American public the notion that the party of the elite - in this case, the people who supported the Shah (I hasten to add in anticipation of criticism that some of the 'reformers', and most of their supporters, are well-meaning and completely legitimate) - actually has massive popular support. After the election, some agents provocateurs are paid to cause a commotion, and the American intelligence agents give us their instant expert opinion that the election is illegitimate based on anonymous internet postings, rumors, and addled misuse of statistics. You can tell bullshit by the following factors:
- certainty;
- delivered instantly;
- based on rumors and hot air;
- in opposition to common sense and what we know about the election, including the fact that the results were in accordance with polls, and were monitored by scrutineers; and
- in accordance with the goals of the American Empire destabilization campaign.
You can't forget the context. The American and Israeli governments have been sponsoring violent terrorist attacks against the people of Iran for years, using the MEK and others, attacks which continued right up into the election campaign. If the Iranian authorities are taking some steps to suppress violent insurrection by the American/Zionist agents, it is perfectly understandable. When the smoke clears, we will find that the most outrageous stories of political oppression were pure American/Zionist propaganda lies.