0030 GMT: Just a quick note to say that we’ve extended our break. We’ll be back first thing Saturday morning with full updates, including the latest on “the plot against Ahmadinejad”.
1845 GMT: We’re going to catch our breath tonight after the excitement of today. We’ll be back later for a wrap-up; in the meantime, keep sending in information and your analyses.
1820 GMT: Larijani’s Opening? We’ll need to get more on this statement by Ali Larijani, during Friday Prayers in Saveh, southwest of Tehran, but there is a hint in Mehr News that the Speaker of Parliament has extended a hand to different factions when it paraphrases, “Every effort should be made to foster unity in society, and everyone should refrain from divisive actions meant to drive individuals off the political stage.”
The Persian-language report, significantly, devotes most of its attention not to the “unity” statement but to Larijani’s critique of the Government’s economic proposals.
1735 GMT: Press TV Censors Ahmad Khatami? Surely not, but the website curiously omits any mention of Khatami’s warning to Iranian protesters and the call for all to choose the side of the Supreme Leader (see 1250 and 1645 GMT). Instead, the entire report is “Cleric Says Iran Nuclear Case Important ‘Test’”. Read the rest of this entry »
2155 GMT: Hmm…. Looks like the homepage of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has been visited by a hacker.
2150 GMT: Are You Listening in Tel Aviv? The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has pretty much slapped a public restraining order on an Israeli attack on Iran. He told the Washington Institute of Near East Policy that Iran was “on a path that has strategic intent to develop nuclear weapons and have been for some time” and “that outcome is potentially a very, very destabilizing outcome”; however, he continued:
On the other hand, when asked about striking Iran, specifically, that also has a very, very destabilizing outcome….That part of the world could become much more unstable, which is a dangerous global outcome.
2125 GMT: An Iranian blog has published pictures of those trying to attack Mehdi Karroubi in Qazvin tonight (see 2025 GMT).
An Iranian activist has posted a summary on Facebook, claiming about 200 plainclothes “thugs” gathered outside the house where Karroubi was staying. The police tried to prevent a confrontation as about 500 people looked on; however, according to the activist, there were Revolutionary Guard commanders amongst the would-be attackers. When Karroubi was leaving, his car was pelted with eggs and broken bricks. Read the rest of this entry »
For an observer 1000s of miles away, the movement of events was dream-like. Initially, as Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s body was moved from his house to the Imam Hassan Mosque, the report were “30,000 to 40,000″ on the streets. An hour later, as the procession moved from the mosque to the Massoumeh Shrine, where Montazeri would be buried, the news came of “more than 100,000″.
Then it was hundreds of thousands. Not just claims of hundreds of thousands but the first pictures, with an aerial shot of of Qom filled with mourners and demonstrators. Then the videos, first in a trickle, soon a torrent, from Montazeri’s house, from the mosque, from the shrine, throughout the city, in Najafabad (Montazeri’s birthplace), and in other cities.
Just put two images side-by-side. Three days before Montazeri’s burial, the regime struggled (and possibly manipulated) to fill Tehran’s Enghelab Square with supporters. Yesterday, there was no need for PhotoShop: this was the genuine expression of emotions from anguish to anger to hope, in numbers not seen since the first days after the Presidential election. Read the rest of this entry »
2200 GMT: Stopping the Mourners. Rouydad News carries a story we’ve been hearing on the Internet all evening: Iranian security forces have stopped a bus carrying families of political prisoners and members of Women’s Human Rights Committee to the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in Qom, arresting several people.
2049 GMT: The Revolutionary Danger of Dating. More than 60 operators and managers of Iranian Internet sites for dating have been arrested for anti-cultural and immoral activities in their promotion of “a gallivanting lifestyle”.
2045 GMT: The Kahrizak Abuses. The blog Persian2English has produced an English translation of the official report of the Armed Forces judiciary panel concluding that three detainees died from abuse at Kahrizak Prison.
1845 GMT: Another Demonstration. A brief video clip has come in of a protest today at Arak University.
1600 GMT: Ongoing Coverage of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s Death. We have updated with extensive information and analysis on condolences, political developments, and plans — including tomorrow’s funeral — surround Montazeri’s passing.
1345 GMT: EA’s Mr Smith comments:
Grand Ayatollahs Safi Golpayegani, Mousavi Ardabili, and Sanei and Ayatollahs Gerami, Shabbiri Zanjani, Mousavi Tabrizi, and Taheri Khorramabadi have visited Montazeri’s bayt (house) to offer their respects. This is extremely important as, in Shia clerical custom, going to someone’s house means deferring to that person’s authority and or power. It is therefore a significant slap in the face of Government efforts to belittle Montazeri.
1145 GMT: The Political Challenge of Montazeri. We’re getting a lot of news on the regime’s attempts to deal with the challenge posed by Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s death, first by ignoring it, now by belittling it and criticising the cleric — all will be posted soon in an update in our separate entry.
Meanwhile Mr Smith checks in to give the political dimension of the events: “Montazeri simply could not have died at a more topical moment: the seventh day of his passing will be none other than Ashura itself, which this year is shaping up to be the very worst in the lives of Khameni, Ahmadinejad and their cohorts. The pressure on them on those days simply cannot be measured.”
1135 GMT: Videos, Protests in Memory of Montazeri. We’ve posted the first videos of demonstrations in memory of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, and we also have put up the video of his October criticism that the Supreme Leader was not worthy to be a marja (senior cleric worthy of emulation).
1110 GMT: The Latest on Montazeri’s Death. We have latest developments in a separate entry. One notable political move: the pro-Government newspaper Raja News is using Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s passing to attack Hashemi Rafsanjani, claiming the Grand Ayatollah was working with the “gang” of Rafsanjani’s son Mehdi Hashemi.
1100 GMT: Karroubi Responds to Threat of Arrest. We’ve posted Mehdi Karroubi’s letter responding sharply to the threat of Iran’s head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, that he has enough evidence to arrest the cleric and other opposition leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
1735 GMT: Making Stuff Up – The Twitter Attack. There’s not much to add to Austin Heap’s guest analysis for Enduring America this morning. Instead, The New York Times shows the power of pointless speculation, backed up by lack of any knowledge of important context, in an article by their technology writers:
Beth Jones, a senior threat researcher at the Internet security firm Sophos, said the attack did not look very sophisticated and probably was not the effort of a Web terrorist or other professional. “It could have been any number of people doing it,” she said. Ms. Jones said the incident may have been “hacktivism,” an attack with a social or political motivation. “The point could purely be just to prove the site is insecure,” she said
Just gonna say this one more time: if this was just “hacktivism” unrelated to the Iran internal crisis, why did the attackers first go after one of the Green Movement’s primary websites for news?
Enemies will not give up their devilish moves against the Iranian nation, they have brought their front to our streets and universities today and the battle is still on….Pointing to the enemy’s nonstop strategy to confront the Islamic Republic, the commander noted, “These moves form a chain of profound global plot against the Iranian nation….If we do not practice the necessary vigilance, we could (be obliged to) play in the enemy’s court.
If a demonstration occurs in the square but no one really notices, does it make a sound?
It is less than 24 hours after the Iranian regime tried to build up a mass rally on the first day of the religious month of Moharram, not only for the pretext of protesting the burning of Ayatollah Khomeini’s photograph but for the wider goal of showing the Government’s political superiority over its opposition. Yet this morning, Iranian state medium Press TV, which was proclaiming that “millions” were on the streets of Iran, is not even bothering to mention the story, let alone update it. Fars News is now on the nuclear issue and promoting art about martyrs. The Islamic Republic News Agency is trying to boost President Ahmadinejad, after his appearance at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, with his rhetoric on how Iran — unlike European countries — supports freedom and democracy around the world. (IRNA, further down its page, has a short, rather limp story that a million people marched in support of Khomeini and the Supreme Leader.)
We tentatively suggested yesterday afternoon that the attempted demonstrations in Tehran, let alone in other parts of Iran where I have still not seen visual evidence, were a regime “flop”. No need to be tentative now: this was a clear picture, after six months, not of a regime asserting its political strength but of a Government and even Supreme Leader struggling to maintain even a 24-hour appearance of political legitimacy. The sensational cries of “Death to Mousavi”, whipped up by an Ayatollah Khamenei ally, made little more than fleeting headlines; indeed, I don’t think even the base charge of “insult to Khomeini” was successfully stuck upon the opposition.
2310 GMT: A Sad End, Another Day. We took the night off to catch our breath (and catch up with some friends), as Iran winds down after an anti-climactic and possibly damaging day for the regime.
On a day that started with the cyber-drama of the attack on Twitter, probably by a group supporting the Iranian Government, the evening ends with the sad news that the domain of Mowj-e-Sabz, one of the key locations for information in this crisis, has been released for purchase. The activists of the website announced yesterday that they are taking a well-earned break.
But we’ll back in a few hours to see what Saturday brings.
1810 GMT: Stratospheric Media Speculation of Day. The cyber-attack on Twitter this morning (see separate analysis)? It’s all down to the Iranian Government’s new strategy in the nuclear negotiations. Read the rest of this entry »
0030 GMT: Just a quick note to say that we’ve extended our break. We’ll be back first thing Saturday morning with full updates, including the latest on “the plot against Ahmadinejad”.
2155 GMT: Hmm…. Looks like the homepage of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance 
For an observer 1000s of miles away, the movement of events was dream-like. Initially, as Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s body was moved from his house to the Imam Hassan Mosque, the report were “30,000 to 40,000″ on the streets. An hour later, as the procession moved from the mosque to the Massoumeh Shrine, where Montazeri would be buried, the news came of “more than 100,000″.
2200 GMT: Stopping the Mourners. Rouydad News carries a story we’ve been hearing on the Internet all evening: Iranian security forces 
1735 GMT: Making Stuff Up – The Twitter Attack. There’s not much to add to 
If a demonstration occurs in the square but no one really notices, does it make a sound?
2310 GMT: A Sad End, Another Day. We took the night off to catch our breath (and catch up with some friends), as Iran winds down after an anti-climactic and possibly damaging day for the regime.
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