Mongoose – right, well it seems to me that although it appears such throngs challenge the legitimacy of the Revolutionary structure, the throngs favor Moussavi and have largely limited themselves to challenging the legitimacy of this election/vote. I’m not certain that that is the case, I only know what I’ve been able to read on the internet. Has there been a change in the demonstrators’ attitude since Khatemei’s defiant pronouncement today? I would think that if they truly are challenging the regime itself such statements as Khatemei’s would enrage them, or at least induce them to reveal definitively whether they were merely pro-”reform” or explicitly anti-Islamic Revolution.

If they are not explicitly anti-Regime, it seems to me that they must therefore basically accept the regime. If even under these conditions they accpet the regime, it suggests that the control exercised by the Council & Co. have successfully limited the people’s perspective to a rather limited sense of grievance. If this is true, it is my opinion that – in tandem with all the hard power and intelligence resources the regime could bring into play – the scope of the demonstrations could have been more or less anticipated by the Council in advance. If that is the case, then this whole event could have been used as a way to induce a certain response in the West, or at least provide powerful ammunition to the elites who favor non-intervention (diplomacy, sanctions) in the West.

Just my 2 cents. I don’t really know anything.