Between Twitter, isolated reports from the media and live blogging, particularly by Nico Pitney of huffingtonpost, it is clear that things are becoming not only more chaotic in Iran, but also that more are getting involved in the protests.

Twitter has become a major tool, even a "weapon," used by protesters to keep the rest of the world informed as the Iranian government has cracked down on all efforts to report on and cover the protests.

A Twitterer reports that troops are entering Tehran.

Another Twitterer tweets that foreign journalists have been warned they will be arrested if they report what is happening on the streets.

Protest in Tehran

flickr image by faramarz

Pitney cites the NY Times,

The latest from Roger Cohen of the New York Times, who has been in Iran since before the election.

For the first time, I saw traffic police smiling at the crowd. Even the black-clad elite riot police were impassive. "Raise your arms, raise your arms," one man murmured to them.

If the regime had hoped to quell Iran's powerful democratic stirring with a massive show of force since last Friday's vote, it failed to do so.

For the first time, in that crowd, it seemed to me that the forces of change, the deeper Iran of civility and courage that I first encountered several months ago, might prevail. Seldom has silence been more eloquent or potent. [...]

Many women are trying quietly to bridge the chasm and avoid the worst. I've heard them whispering to the Basij and the police that "We are all Iranians," urging them to hold back.

As Pepe Escobar reports in Asia Times, this is no longer about who won the election.

This has nothing to do with the US-supported color-coded revolutions in Eurasia. This is about Iran. An election was stolen in the United States

in 2000 and Americans didn't do a thing about it. Iranians are willing to die to have their votes counted. There is now an opening for a true Iranian people-power movement not specifically to the benefit of Mousavi, but with Mousavi as the catalyst in a wider struggle for real democratic legitimacy. The die is cast; now it's people power against "divine assessment".

The true power struggle in Iran could ultimately be between Khameni and Rafsanjani. Escobar explains,

Rafsanjani is the de facto number two most powerful player in the Iranian system, and has been so for more than 20 years now. He controls the Expediency Council and the Council of Experts (which has the power to depose the Supreme Leader). The IRGC fear him and are against him. It's no secret that those that really matter in the Iranian system are the top mullahcracy and the IRGC. (The name says it all; they are the guardians of the whole idea of the revolution. And they only respond to the Supreme Leader.)  

Currently, Ahmadinejead is in Russia, pretending that nothing is happening back home.

Women, Twitter and cell phones

are powering this revolution

flickr image by Hamed Saber

 

It appears more and more that the best response the US can make is to make no response at all, not recognizing Ahmadinejead, keeping out of the picture. Meanwhile, the European Union has already recognized Ahmadinejead.

 

According to Abbas Sadeghian, author of Sword and Seizure; Mohammed's epilepsy and the creation of Islam, born in Iran, but living in the US since 1975.

"This will be Iran's third revolution.

The first was in 1906, when the dynastic Shahs lost control and the country was changed to a constitutional monarchy, like England. The Shah had no power or responsibility, like the Queen of England. But during the second world war, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlevi rose to power, installed by the US. When Iran nationalized oil drilling done by US companies, the CIA engineered a coup in 1953 that replaced the legitimate prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh with the US-installed Shah.

The second revolution was started in 1978 and ended in the removal of the US installed and supported Shah. Ayatollah Khomenei took over as ruler. He killed off many of the people who had started the revolution, including some of his closest supporters because he had originally promised, when living in exile in Paris,  that Iran would be a democratic, parliamentary country, that the job of clergy would be a non-ruling supervisory one.

Once in power, Khomenei hijacked the revolution and created a sharia-based theocracy.

This third revolution appears to now be under way.

A couple of years ago we all hated the government, but couldn't do anything about it.

To fight the government, there are three possible ways to revolt.

army, which will make a coup,

church or mosque, which will do a religious uprising,

or, you have the political party which will do it.

In Iran, the supreme leader controlled the Mosques and the army and there were no free, legitimateparties, no real chance for the people to vote for an alternative, no chance to organize and start an uprising.  The parties were a sham that government put together.

Because the government ended up with a split over this election, the people now have a leader as well as their organization .

In a week, things could be very different. Many people see Mohdavi as just another government figurehead.

Remember, billionaire Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who was Khomenei's student, just like the supreme leader, is the reason that Mohdavi could stand up as he has done. Rafsanjani is much more liberal, but also known as corrupt, but all of them are corrupt. Rafsanjani is more friendly to the US and would have been more likely to normalize relations with the US.

By the way, Obama, when in Cairo, handled Iran perfectly, appealing to all of the population.  Interestingly, in Iran they pronounce his name as Oo Ba Ma, which in Farsi means, "he is with us." The full phrase they use is "Oo Ba Ma, Ma Ba Oo," which  means he is with us and we are with him.

In Iran, there is no free media. But in Los Angeles there are about 20 TV stations broadcasting Iranian television to Iran.

The difference between 1979 and now is the people in Iran have so many more technologies-- cell phones, twitter, facebooks, text messaging (though the government has attempted to block texting,) ability to send images by phone cameras...

Now things are moving so fast, anything can happen. Someone in exile may come in as a leader. The government may collapse. 

Today, Iran is the least religious country in the Middle East, with the most religious government. The contrast is the fuel of the revolution.  

This revolution is too powerful, the hatred of the government, people are so angry at what the clergy has done that it cannot be stopped. It cannot be oppressed at this point. 

Follow #iranelection on twitter.com for latest updates.

Author's Bio:

Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com

He is a frequent Speaker on the bottom up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.

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