(DIARIST'S NOTE: I was going to post tonight on multiple pieces in Sunday's NY Times on the total insanity that's occurring within the mortgage industry right now, wherein major banks are opting to foreclose and take a 64%+ loss on assets rather than modify principal. Check it out
here and
here. But the following story is breaking, and I don't see anyone else bringing it to the community's attention, so here goes...)
A major story has been breaking in Iran over the past few hours relating to documents posted on Iranian reformist leader Mir Hussein Moussavi's website that provides greater details of campaign fraud by supporters of current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The article, which is the lead story on the NY Times website as I write this, tells us that, "Many of the accusations of fraud posted on Mr. Moussavi's Web site Saturday had been published before, but the report did give some more specific charges."
Here's the link to the full story: "
Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election."
Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NAZILA FATHI
New York Times
Published Online: July 4, 2009 Published In Print: July 5, 2009
The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called for the results to be thrown out, the most public sign of a major split in the clerical establishment.
CAIRO -- The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country's supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country's clerical establishment.
A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult -- if not impossible.
"This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic," said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. "Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei."
The story continues on to tell us that earlier in the day, Saturday, a close associate of supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei "...called Mr. Moussavi and former President Mohammad Khatami 'foreign agents,' saying they should be treated as criminals."
The documents posted on Moussavi's website over the past few hours accused President Ahmadinejad's supporters of printing more than 20 million extra ballots and handing out cash to voters.
What makes this latest set of pronouncements from the most important group of clergy in Iran so inciting and tantamount to a major escalation with regard to overall propaganda about the matter, was the extent of the group's scathing criticisms, directly and indirectly, of virtually the entire election process, from Khamenei's actions relating to the election (and his finalizing of the results of it), to flat-out calling the 20 who died in the ensuing protests "martyrs."
Clearly, by far and away, this extreme (for Iran, anyway) act of defiance against the supreme leader underscores a massive rift that places most of the country's leading clerics in direct opposition to Ayatollah Khameini.
July 4th...when it comes to rebellion and independence, it's no longer just an important date for Americans!