Iran Feature: So Who Were the "Students" in the Embassy Attack?

Many reports have used the term "students" to describe those who demonstrated and occupied the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday. However, if you take a closer look at what the Iranian media and the "students" themselves are saying, you will get a much better idea of who is responsible. 

Throughout the attack, major State-run news organizations like Iranian Students News Agency and Islamic Republic News Agency were running updates of how "students" had broken into the Embassy. Fair enough ---  you would not expect these outlets to give away the identities of the attackers; there is a concept called plausible deniability, and the Iranian regime is fully aware of it. So to understand what was occurring, one has to look for the proverbial stupid friend.

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The Latest from Iran (5 September): It's the Economy, Stupid

See also Iran Snapshot: So How Does the Supreme Leader Spend His Day?

WikiLeaks and Iran Document: Why US Diplomats Suspected Fraud in 2009 Election
Iran Snapshot: A Protest With a Difference --- This One is by Kermanshah’s Basiji
Iran: Assessing Latest Cyber-Threat, Rogue Certificate Part 2
The Latest from Iran (4 September): Shrinking Lake, Growing Protests

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0350 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Nader Karimi Jooni, who has worked for Jahan-e-Sanat and Shargh, has been released 33 months after his arrest.

0335 GMT: When An Arrest is not an Arrest Watch. More from the slightly surreal press conference of Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei (see 1430 GMT)....

Mohseni Ejei explained that opposition figures Mir Hossein Ejei and Mehdi Karroubi were not under arrest -- "staying at home", i.e., their strict house arrests, was to their benefit to prevent "other things".

The Prosecutor General then applied his logic to the detentions of youths for water games in parks in Tehran and Mashhad. These were "not crimes" but "immoral actions must be punished".

And other acts escaping punishment altogether? Nothing was being done in cases of bank fraud and an alleged $11 billion in oil money "missing" from Iran's foreign reserves.

0315 GMT: He's Back. The President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has accompanied Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the official visit to Tajikistan. It is Rahim-Mashai's first trip with Ahmadinejad in four months.

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Iran Feature: Life Goes On in Tehran (Tehran Bureau)

The major shift in power over the last few years has been the rise of Ahamdinejad's faction and its alliance with [Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Sepah (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) to oust the supporters of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and sideline the old clerical conservatives. Having weakened their major competitors --- reformists are almost completely shut out now --= and harboring potentially serious ideological and practical policy differences, many people think that there is a good chance the Khamenei and Ahmadinejad factions will face off in the coming year or two.

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