Ayatollah's death stirs Iranian opposition to bitter protests

Times Online ^

[nuconvert]

The Iranian regime hit back viciously last night after the opposition turned the funeral of their spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, into another huge anti-government demonstration in the holy city of Qom.

Men on motorbikes attacked the car carrying Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader, back from Qom to Tehran. They smashed the back window and injured one of his aides, a reformist website reported. Hundreds of government agents halted the memorial service for Montazeri, according to a conservative website.

The assaults, which cannot be independently confirmed, came at the end of a day when the so-called Green Movement had carried its campaign to oust a regime it considers illegitimate into the heart of the country’s theological capital.

Six of Iran’s 12 leading Ayatollahs went to Montazeri’s house to pay their respects despite his repeated attacks on the regime. “Qom has been under serious security over the past six months, but today they have effectively lost control of it,” said Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews.

[silverleaf]

It seems Iran may be reaching a point where they need another war to foster “national unity”, to build up and channel the anger against an external foe, to divert domestic attention away from the corrupt sitting govt, a battlefront to which to ship the dissenters and unemployed, and a major diversion from world attentiuon to its nuclear weapons building program

Iraq?

[Michigan Bowhunter]

The Green Movement.......sounds like something we have over here.

Like Newt Gingrich says.......just a bunch of out of control “Rotary” members.