Can this be the "smoking gun" some were hoping for?
A secret letter from Iran's interior minister to Ayatollah Khamenei has recently surfaced that declares Mousavi the frontrunner in the recent Iranian presidential election. Some are touting it as proof of a rigged election, while others will obviously dismiss this as phony propaganda that will go down in history with other political hoaxes.
Or will it?
More after the fold...
Robert Fisk of The Independent, reporting from Tehran:
Interior Ministry's letter to the Supreme Leader
Salaam Aleikum.
Regarding your concerns for the 10th presidential elections and due to your orders for Mr. Ahmedinejad to be elected President, in this sensitive time, all matters have been organised in such a way that the results of the election will be in line with the revolution and the Islamic system. The following result will be declared to the people and all planning should be put in force to prevent any possible action from the opposition, and all party leaders and election candidates are under intense surveillance. Therefore, for your information only, I am telling you the actual results as follows:
Mirhossein Mousavi: 19,075,623
Mehdi Karroubi: 13,387,104
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 5,698,417
Mohsen Rezai: 38,716
(signed on behalf of the minister)
Apparently, not only are thousands of protesters carrying the letter as a symbol of vindication, but Marjane Satrapi (writer/director of "Persepolis") appeared before Green Party members of the European parliament in Brussels to present the letter as proof that Mousavi won the election. Also worthy of note is Ahmadinejad's third-place showing, behind a relatively unknown third candidate, Mehdi Karroubi. If you do the math, Ahmadinejad wound up with only 12% of the vote.
Of course, there's no proof behind the letter's authenticity, and it should take more than a declassified document to seal the deal for official election results. Imagine if a letter from the Florida Election Commission turned up that verified Al Gore as the winner in 2000?
Now, the question is where should this letter go and who would take action? The holy clerics in Iran? The U.N.? Should the U.S. stay out of the matter and continue to let Iran decide its own conflicts (despite the supposed manipulation of Twitter to take a position)?
One can only hope that this really isn't a "smoking gun" but perhaps the spark to trigger a series of events that may lead Iran toward a result that reflects the will of the people.