Whoa.

CAIRO — The most important group of religious leaders in Iran has called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

[...]

“This crack in the clerical establishment and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”

Professor Behzad Yaghmian's article in Counterpunch gives the sharpest analysis of the situation I've yet to read.

The electoral theft, and the political violence that followed—what people call a coup d'état on the streets of Iran—was an orchestrated effort to contain the democracy movement. It was also an important step by the powerful Revolutionary Guards in a protracted war against Hashemi Rafsanjani for the control of Iran’s economy.

My dear friend C. just wrote this email to me. C. is a Haitian activist and socialist. She was in Chile during the CIA throwdown of Allende, and she's been working for Haitian human rights, and for women's issues, all her life. In her email ,she hits precisely the idea that has been floating through my mind all day:

Iranians are giving us a lesson in democracy at work. I'm think about the 2000 elections in the US. Nobody protested and power was given to the presumed winner even with evidence of wrongdoing and denials of people votes.

Indeed. How different things would have turned out if we'd shown the bravery in 2000 that the Iranian people are showing now!