UPDATED Iran: Complete Text of Soroush Letter to the Supreme Leader

The Latest from Iran (13 September): Lull — Storm?

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UPDATE 13 September 2130 GMT: The Supreme Leader's represenative to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has called Abdolkarim Soroush an "apostate".

On Thursday we noted that the prominent Iranian political philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush had written an open letter to the Supreme Leader to express his conviction that Iranians would triumph over "the decline of religious despotism". Several readers  expressed their interest in the text. We initially posted a summary from Mir Hossein Mousavi's Facebook pages, but our excellent readers have now found another summary and a translation (originally on the blog page of the excellent HomyLafayette). The translation is posted, followed by the summary from the Mousavi team:

Celebration for the disappearance of religious despotism

The blood-stained wedding ended and the false groom left the bridal chamber.
The ballot boxes shook and the fiends danced in the darkness.
The victims stood watching in their white shrouds and the prisoners, their hands cut off, clapped.
And the world, one eye filled with rage, the other with hatred, bore off the groom.
The veil was lifted and blood flowed from the republic's porch.
The Devil laughed and then the stars were extinguished and virtue fell into a slumber.

Mr. Khamenei,

In this drought of virtue and justice, everyone has complaints against you, but I thank you.

Not that I have no complaints. I do, and many, but I have set them before God. Your ears have become so full of the praises and caresses of sycophants that they have no room for the voices of those with grievances. But I thank you greatly. You said, 'The sanctity of the regime has been rended' and it has been disgraced. Believe me, in all my life I had never received such good news from anyone. My compliments to you for announcing the misery and affliction of religious despotism.

I am joyous that finally the sighs of morning prayers have reached the celestial spheres and awakened the fires of divine vengeance. You were prepared to allow God to be shamed, to preserve yourself from shame. To have people turn their backs on piety and religion, but not turn their backs to your guardianship. That tradition and the path and truth be crumpled up, so that not a wrinkle would befall your leadership. But God did not want this. The pained hearts and muzzled mouths and spilled blood and cut hands did not want it and prevented it. The pure and the devout and the prophets did not want it. The deprived and the peacemakers and the oppressed and the righteous prevented it.

'The fairy hides her face as the fiend is about,' (NB Soroush is quoting a line from the beloved Hafez's ode number 64) this is the story of your republic of guardianship. Praise God that the veil of this fiend's false purity has been torn. His secrets have been disclosed, his hands opened, and his guilt placed before the sunlight. And the world has looked upon its naked form with anger and astonishment.

Mr. Khamenei,

I know that you are passing through bitter and hard times. You have committed an offense, a severe offense. I explained this offense to you twelve years ago. I told you to choose freedom as your method. Forget that it is virtuous and just, choose it as a method of successful governance. Is this what you want? Why are you doing things backwards? Why do you send denouncers and spies among the people to look into their hearts and pull words from their mouths through trickery, and then report lies and truths to you? Leave the press, political parties, associations, critics, teachers, writers... alone. The people will express themselves in a thousand ways and cast open their windows to you and help you in organizing the country and the system. Don't strangle the press. The press is the breath of society. But you took dead ends and weaving paths. And now your are under the spell of nothingness and have become the prisoner of a closed regime that you yourself created long ago, in which neither criticism, nor opinions, nor science, nor information flourish. You think that by reading confidential bulletins or listening to subservient advisers, you will grasp the reality of what is going on. Both the election of Khatami and the green election of Mousavi must be obvious to you, otherwise disdain and the charms of despotism would not have chased away the knowledge and shrewdness within you. And now, to make up for that sin, which is due to ignorance and despotism, you are turning to even greater crimes. You are washing blood with blood in order to regain purity.

Treason and fraud were not enough, you turned to murder and crime. Treason and crime were not enough, you added the rape of prisoners to everything else. Murder and rape and fraud were still not enough, you added accusations of spying and dishonor to the lot. You did not spare dervishes or clerics or writers or students. And in the end, you reward the killers and wrongdoers. Then you laugh in everyone's face and take a poor soldier to task for stealing an electric razor. (NB Soroush is referring to the student movement of July 1999 in Iran. Dormitories were raided, students beaten and arrested, and an unknown number of people killed. The death toll is generally considered to be at least four. The ensuing trial acquitted all police commanders and security officers, except for one soldier who was fined and imprisoned for stealing an electric razor from the student dorms, and a police officer who was jailed for assault.)

I was amazed by God's patience.

[...]

I knew that bereaved mothers and fathers were weeping behind closed doors and asking God, Save us from this place of oppression and send us succor. [...] The prisons were temples where worshippers genuflected day and night, and prayed -- and are still praying -- to God for the collapse of the guardianship.

When Neda Agha Soltan was martyred, her chest pierced by oppression's bullet, I wailed to God, Do You not hear the voice of the people? (NB Neda means voice in Farsi) As Jesus said on the cross, I asked 'Father, why have You forsaken us?' [...]

Until that day when I heard that forced admission, I mean those life-giving words, 'The sanctity of the regime has been rended.' It was as if the words had come from You, God. I knelt and thanked You. [...]

Mr. Khamenei,

I want to tell you that the page has turned and the regime's fortunes have shifted. It has been disgraced. [...] Even God has turned His face and taken His light from you. Those acts you committed in secret places and behind curtains have been revealed. [...] Even the path of repentance has been closed to you. Religion will not intercede in your favor, you who have lost legitimacy. The green Iran will no longer be that black Iran of devastation. This movement's whiteness and greenness have taken precedence over the blackness of your tyranny. The earth and water and fire and clouds and winds... are aligned against you on God's orders.

For years, your cohorts and agents, under the umbrella of your protection and guardianship, savaged the people like hungry jackals and took safety and justice away from them. [...] They took them prisoner, like an invaded tribe, trampled their rights, plundered their freedoms, broke their dignity, subjugated their thoughts, and turned their religion upside-down. They started producing sanctities as if in a factory and sold superstition as religion. They shoved their treasonous hands into the people's ballot boxes. They placed the universities under the supervision of the uneducated. They filled a house of woes called the Islamic Republic's radio-television with lies and insults and gave the nation lessons on how to despair and be slaves. They created fake and extravagant gatherings and sold lies to the world about how the people loved the regime of the Supreme Leader. In prisons and houses of death, they murdered, raped, committed injustices, assaulted, and tortured to an extent unseen even during the Mongol invasion. They trampled the law and encouraged the science of ignorance and fanaticism. They lifted up the benighted and pushed down the wise. They took joy from the young and dignity from elders. They created colorful ayatollahs and obtained heavy fatwas from them. [...] Their psychosis about imaginary enemies created daily crises. People were imprisoned and ridiculous confessions were placed in their mouths and horrendous punishments were meted out. [...]

[These acts] lit a blaze in the conscience of the people that burned the house of the guardianship. The post-election protest was neither a military exercise, nor sedition, nor the Zarrar Mosque -- a term you have coined in your mint and employ often. (NB The Zarrar Mosque, mentioned in the Koran, was built by religious hypocrites to tempt the true Muslims.) It was an outburst of honor over plunder. The people, with awakened consciences, defended their vote, their elected choice, their rights as citizens, and their freedom of thought in a calm and collected manner against those who would plunder their vote and rights and freedom. The thieves were up in arms, but we heard God's laughter. He was satisfied with us. He had heard our prayers and had disgraced the murderers and the wrongdoers. Taraneh Mousavi's death was the death knell of tyranny.

Mr. Khamenei,

...

The green movement has been established with determination to create a green Iran. This movement has found its green martyrs, green poets and poetry, its green literature and arts and phrases. It is the fruit of 20 years of efforts on the part of intellectuals and activists in the political and cultural spheres. You are wasting your time trying to break it with your militarism.

This lion is not one that you can escape/There's no escaping the curse of God [Soroush is reciting from the mystical poet Rumi. The two lines immediately preceding this quote are: 'You bark like rabid dogs/You deny the Koran's truth'.]

The fading fear of the people and the vanishing legitimacy of the concept of Supreme Leadership are the greatest achievements of the revolt of honor over plunder. The slumbering lion of courage and resistance has been awakened. Neither usurpation by the military, nor rape committed by the corrupt; neither dust thrown in the eyes of humanity, nor hot air to puff up the [regime's] ragged clothes; neither dependence on animal savagery, nor attacks on human sciences [Soroush is referring to a recent speech by Khamenei in which the Supreme Leader voiced concern about human sciences taught in Iranian universities because they instil secularism.]; neither the flattery of flatterers in your pay, nor the poetry of poem-selling fools; none of these will bend the back of the resistance. Religious tyranny has been besieged by blasphemy and religion, and it is time to cut it down in the green fields of the movement. We have asked this of God and God is with us.

There is no sweeter proof of your turning fortunes than the fact that all your celebrations have become mourning ceremonies. And whatever tweaked your mirth once, now brings you tears and tremors. The universities whom you wanted to kiss your feet, now provoke your nightmares. Street demonstrations, the usual gatherings, Ramadan, Moharram, the Hajj, and mournful prayers have all become curses which work against you. [The regime has had to cancel one event after another to prevent protesters from using the ceremonies for their own ends.]

We are of a fortunate generation. We shall celebrate the disappearance of religious despotism. A moral society and a government beyond religion are the beacons of our Green nation.

We shall cherish and esteem freedom, that same freedom which you did not value and unto which you heaped injustices. You were sold fascism and told that freedom is whimsical and permissive....If you had allowed the press to be free, it would have divulged corruption and the corrupt would not have dared engage in their misdeeds. If you had allowed people to criticize you, you would not have fallen into the abyss of dictatorship and the corruption of power. The people's true words would have dispelled your daze of ignorance. They are the schools of the nation, not "enemy bases". And what would have been so terrifying if the doors of those schools had been kept open and you had been able to learn there?

We will cherish religion, that same religion that you made a tool of your power and in whose name you gave lessons in slavery and melancholy. You did not understand that joy and freedom walk alongside true faith....and that religious power corrupts both religion and power. Governing a joyous, free, informed, and nimble people is an achievement, not lording over a bound and dejected nation.

I ask myself who I am writing this for? For a regime whose luck has turned?...And then I recall the words of God:

When some of them said: "Why do ye preach to a people whom Allah will destroy or visit with a terrible punishment?" Said the preachers: "To discharge our duty to your Lord, and perchance they may fear Him." (Sura 164 "The Heights")

God, bear witness. I who have spent a lifetime longing for religion and teaching religion, distance myself from this despotic regime's oppression, and if I once aided the evil-doers out of error or sin, I ask for your forgiveness and absolution. Oh God of wisdom and virtue, accept our prayers...and leave not your friends in the hands of enemies.

Call the winds to tear away despotism's tabernacle and call fire to burn the roots of oppression. Call the seas to drown the pharaohs and the earth to bury the qaruns (NB According to the Koran, 'Qarun was a man from the people of Moussa, but he oppressed them.') Call the clouds and the rains that they may rain grace and justice and joy and compassion upon this persecuted people, and that this barren land of the oppressors may become the flower field of the just.

Abdolkarim Soroush

The Mousavi Facebook summary

Abdolkarim Soroush, a prominent Iranian writer and resercher, and famous Islamic intellectual has harshly criticized Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and predicted the downfall of his regime in an open letter.

In a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic] Abdolkarim Soroush, the reformist writer and intellectual, has predicted that the opposition will celebrate the “downfall of religious dictatorship”in Iran.

Mr. Soroush in this letter issued on Wednesday September 10th has considered the decay of legitimacy of the Supreme Leader as the greatest achievement of post-election events. He writes: “getting over the fear by citizens and decadence of Supreme Leader’s legitimacy were the greatest achievements of this honorable protest against the incursion and it wakened bravery and resistance [in the people].”

Abdolkarim Soroush who had endorsed Mehdi Karroubi (one of the reformist candidates in the presidential election) writes:”we are a prosperous generation. We will celebrate the decay of religious dictatorship. An ethical society and a non religious government are shining in the future of our honorable people.”

Following the results of the presidential election in Iran protests were held in Tehran and some other cities. According to the judiciary officials during these peaceful protests four thousand people were arrested.

The committee formed by Mehdi Karroubi and Mirhossein Mousavi to follow up the status of the detainees has reported:”in these protests 72 people are killed, while according to the latest report released by the government officials in Iran only 36 people are killed.”

People’s Religion and the Supreme Leadership

Mr. Soroush has clearly accused the Supreme Leader of demanding power and writes:
“You were willing to sacrifice God’s prestige for yours. You would be fine if people turned their back to religion and prophecy but as long as they didn’t do it to your leadership.”

Quoting Khamenei on his post-election remarks saying:“The respect of the regime is damaged and its prestige is ravaged”, Soroush writes:”believe me I had never heard such great news in my whole life!”

In this open letter Soroush says that he had advised the Supreme leader 12 years ago to take the path of freedom as a “method” and decline the supremacy and justice [of his position].

Regarding the suppression of media and political and social activists Soroush writes: “you took the wrong path and now you are trapped and have become victims of the closed system that you created a long time ago in which you could not tolerate any criticism, opinion, science or news.”

This religious thinker, who lives in exile due to the pressure from radicals and is currently teaching in a university in the USA, has accused Ayatollah Khamenei of “crime” in addition to “fraud”.

Soroush writes:” you started the crime as if your betrayal and fraud were not enough; since betrayal and crime did not suffice, you added the rape of prisoners, since that was not yet sufficient you accused them of espionage and dishonor; you did not even have mercy on the dervishes, the religious figures, writers or students and killed them all.”
He is pointing at the reports that have been released in the past months regarding murder, torture and rape of the protesters during the post-election events in Iran.

Soroush, who used to collaborate with the “Cultural Revolution Campaign” in the beginning of the Islamic Revolution regime, says:”God! I hold you witness; I, who have always been concerned about the religion and have taught religion, seek refuge from the injustice of this dictatorship; if I have ever mistakenly and unconsciously assisted the tyrants I seek forgiveness and salvation from you.”

Iran: Mehdi Karroubi's Letter to Sadegh Larijani on Detainees

The Latest from Iran (11 September): Prayers and Politics


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Translation by Pedestrian:

To Mr. Larijani,

The honorable head of the judiciary,

Greetings,

As you know, after the controversial presidential election and its painful, alarming aftermath, I wrote many letters to the officials to share with them certain points, critiques and objections and to give the necessary warnings. The last of these letters was addressed to you. You have just recently accepted responsibility [of the judiciary] and are chief justice. And now I will share with you the details of my meetings with your representatives and some of the marginal events that took place which led to my personal office and party being sealed. I do this as a religious and patriotic obligation. So that future generations do not say that Karoubi was frightened off by pressure and arrests. Even if you do not know, others do know that in the my past, pressure and threats and limitations not only did not deter me, but made me even more determined in the path I had chosen to follow.

Mr. Larijani,

I don’t know how updated you may be of our sessions with the committee you had appointed [from the judiciary]. To inform you and the people, I must tell you that we had two meetings with the honorable Mr. Khalfi, Mohseni Ejeie, and Raeesi, and these meetings went well and a glimpse of the evidence [we had] from the regrettable, unforgivable incidents that had occurred were presented. In the first meeting, information about three people was given, along with a CD and the necessary documents which were all evidence of torture and rape that had been inflicted on boys and girls in identified and unidentified detention centers. In addition to these three documents, we personally hinted at what had happened to two girls, Taraneh Mousavi (the real one) and Saeedeh Pouraghayi. The second meeting was this Monday and lasted for three hours and in this meeting too, in addition to our many debates, I put forth one of my other documents on one condition: that nothing would happen to this individual or the family just because of [our] demand for justice.

[We did not want anything to happen to the family] - things that did happen to another individual who I had introduced in another document, during the time of the previous prosecutor of Tehran [Mortazavi] and that family was forced to endure pressure and pain. Thus, this time I gave my evidence and I warned that the neglect of the previous prosecutor must not be repeated, we must not have wrongdoers enter this scenario, people who are not after justice, but would rather threaten and dishonor the person [evidence] that I had put forth. People who will sell off the honor of the judicial system, and that too in an Islamic society, for the price of keeping the culprits safe.

I should also add that in these meetings that took place to look into the allegations of torture and improper behavior in prisons and the events after the election, they repeatedly asked me: do you think it is beneficial to go on collecting information about rape and torture and the killing of people, is it not possible that these documents will get in the hands of the wrong person? And I replied that I keep these documents in a safe place, and if we reach a conclusion I will destroy them. And I reaffirmed that documents which reveal rape and torture are nothing to be proud of for me to want to keep , or to put on a wall. These are documents that will help us achieve justice and get back the rights of the oppressed and once that is achieved, they will be destroyed and the vile smell and hideous face of evil will be destroyed with them.

[I also said] know this, that if in my investigations I conclude that any of these allegations are false, I will step forward and right this wrong. In this regard, my further investigations had proven the falsity of some of the previous statements I had made about Saeedeh Pouraghayi, which I corrected.

In any case, these two meetings were over, and in the end, I pointed to another new painful case I had just heard and I added that I am in the process of following up this new case and I will present my documents once I am done. I was also asked to look further into the hidden aspects of the Taraneh Mousavi case, and to help the judiciary shed more light on this issue. At the end of the second meeting I gave a suggestion- which was met with the approval of the committee - that we should put an end to this process of taking and bringing documents and that you [the judiciary] can now start investigating the truth with the documents that have already been presented. Because those documents were enough to reveal the truth and to identify the guilty parties.

Mr. Larijani,

I gave this suggestion and left, and our meeting with the committee came to a good end. But the day after, the tides turned. On the orders of Tehran’s prosecutor, a group attacked my office. They searched the office and in doing so, they did not limit themselves to the office documents, but searched and confiscated my personal letters and writings, my bills and private papers. In the end, they sealed my office, and even confiscated the charity supplies I gather there every year. They arrested Mr. Davari, the editor of the Etemad Melli website. They had not finished shutting down my office when they did the same to the office of the Etemad Melli party, of which I am the executive. They unlawfully confiscated the documents of a party that is registered under the laws of the Islamic Republic and finally sealed the office of the party as well. These actions did not suffice and they arrested Dr. Alireza Beheshti, the son of the late Ayatollah Beheshti and Mr. Morteza Alviri, that devoted revolutionary who was once a member of parliament and the mayor of Tehran, and the ambassador of the Islamic Republic in Europen countries.

The Office of the Publication of Ayatollah Beheshti’s Books, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic, was also sealed. I am left wondering: did these events occur on Tuesday as a result of my meeting on Monday? I am left baffled not by what they have done to Karoubi, but that they think that Karoubi, the son of Ahmad, is going to leave the field and choose to remain silent? Now I know why some friends and advisers insisted that I give all the evidence for rape and torture as it had been retold to me by the victims, on a CD and to keep a copy in a safe place. Because the machine of terror is still at work and who knows, some of the witnesses may now take back their claims out of fear.

Because the Islamic Republic has reached a place where the house of Mehdi Karoubi too is no longer a safe place. Because any horrible, indecent act is possible in the Islamic Republic and nothing is far from the imagination.

Mr. Larijani,

I still insist on the original letter I wrote to the head of the expediency council, and after the terror of recent events, I am more determined than ever. When I see that the head of a military organization - the documents are all available - writes a letter to the ministry of health and orders it forbidden to give copies of medical records to those who have been inured in recent events, and prevents the hospitals from giving the victims their records, I am more determined to find out what reasons exist for such threats and fear? According to the oath doctors take, they are obliged to treat anyone who comes to them, even if the injured is a long, lost enemy of their father. And you, as the chief justice, should judge this: how can a doctor feel safe about attending to his medical obligations when such a letter is written by such a high ranking military official?

If an innocent victim dies in such circumstance, how can you hear the pleas of his/her family as chief justice [under such conditions]? If someone has been raped, how can they obtain the necessary documents from medical experts and give them to you in such an atmospheres of terror? Before, we argued why military personnell were entering the spheres of politics and economics. We now see that politics and economics were not enough to satisfy their hunger, and they have now entered the field of medicine as well.

Mr. Larijani,

I assume that you claim to represent justice and I am certain that you are well aware of your responsibility to defend the victim and to punish the oppressor. Thus, in response to your religious and legal obligations, and for the sake of the public, I ask of you to demand that the documents that have been released be investigated. And in this path, I ask that you prevent this atmosphere of terror. And that you do not allow armed and paramilitary forces to contemplate an intervention into law, as they have done politics and medicine. [That you stop] them from conquering another mountain after they did the presidential election and creating an even worse situation. I also recommend that in this environment where thanks to the ex-prosecutor, the free press has been silenced, you do not allow some to take paper to pen claiming to do so for Islam, when in reality, they are doing it against Islam. And [for them] to enter an even more safe haven where they can spread their vulgarity and to blast any hopes for justice. And to terrorize and ridicule revolutionaries. Do not let counterfeit documents take reign, to a point where national TV can broadcast another sham scenario like that of Taraneh Mousavi, and create new ambiguity and chaos, to throw such deep stones in the well that even one hundred fair minded people can not attempt to bring them out.

Mr. Larijani,

You formed a committee to investigate the regretful events and the wrongdoing that occurred after the election and Mr. Khalafi, who was your representative, claimed on your part that you have said that these claims must all be thoroughly investigated. But my question is this: after such terror, fear and threats, is it even possible to attend to the terror and atrocity that occurred after the election? You are left to answer this question but know that Mehdi Karoubi still insists on reclaiming the rights of the oppressed. Such old, overused tactics may work to silence some, but they will not work on Mehdi Karoubi and he will forcefully take a stand, and he will not allow a group of nouveau riche to sell off a country and the legacy of an Imam which was attained after a democratic revolution and the blood of many martyrs.

With hopes of your success in the judiciary,

Mehdi Karroubi

The Latest from Iran (8 September): Picking A Fight?

NEW Iran Urgent Analysis: Is This the Defining Showdown?
Iran: Ahmadinejad Chooses Confrontation Over Compromise and Governing
UPDATED Iran: Mousavi HQ Raided by Security Forces
Iran: Green Wave Resurgent?
The Latest from Iran (7 September): Countdown to 18 September Begins

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2020 GMT: One to Watch. The last posting on the Etemade Melli (Saham News) website, a full report on Mehdi Karroubi's Eftar dinner party for the employees of the Etemade Melli newspaper), went up at 1:10 p.m. Tehran time (0840 GMT).

2015 GMT: In the midst of developments, this from Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani's address to members of a reformist faction earlier today (1510 GMT): "Power is not the foundation of legitimacy; rather legitimacy is the foundation of power. Some think that by playing with words they can change this."

1945 GMT: I don't think we realised this morning, when we chose the title for the updates, how appropriate the question would be.

Cross-posted from our emergency analysis, "Is This A Defining Showdown?": "Just after 1800 GMT, Mir Hossein Mousavi's chief advisor, Alireza Beheshti, was arrested. (We held off posting until this was confirmed in a reliable source.) The only step up from this action is the arrest of leaders such as Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi."

So far no Western media outlet, to our knowledge, has picked up on the story.

1855 GMT: "New" v. Mainstream Media.

Report of raid on Mehdi Karroubi's office on Enduring America: 1340 GMT.

Emergency analysis of raid on Karroubi office on Enduring America: 1415 GMT.

1st report of raid on CNN's website: 1743 GMT.

1845 GMT: Press TV's website has acknowledged the raid on Karroubi's office with an account lifted word-for-word from the report in Parleman News (see 1340 GMT).

1710 GMT: A Revolutionary Guard official has said that the recent comments of IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari, claiming that former President Khatami and other reformists seek to "unseat" the regime, are "backed by evidence" given to Iran's judiciary which the IRGC is willing to publish.

1700 GMT: Radio Farda reports that Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli has expressed his intention to carry on the work of the Committee for the Tracking of Prisoners, whose offices were raided yesterday.

1555 GMT: The family of the late Ayatollah Taleghani, whose memorial ceremony was blocked by the Government for the first time since his death in 1979, have announced an alternative site for the gathering.

1510 GMT: Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani, speaking to reformists, has claimed that the headquarters of the Supreme Leader no longer have any shame before God or people.

1420 GMT: We have posted an emergency analysis, "Is This the Defining Showdown?"

1350 GMT: Reuters has an English-language summary of the raid on the Karroubi offices.

1340 GMT: URGENT Mehdi Karroubi's office has been raided by security forces on the orders of Tehran's chief prosecutor. CDs, documents, videos, and computers have been seized.

The editor-in-chief of Etemade Melli website, Mohammad Davari, has been arrested. Karroubi aide Morteza Alviri was arrested at his home. An Etemade Melli party spokesman said Karroubi had been escorted out of his office by the security forces.

1335 GMT: A source on the National Security Council has told Norooz that President Ahmadinejad ordered yesterday's raid on the offices of the Committee for the Tracking of Prisoners.

1320 GMT: Mehdi Karroubi (pictured) has issued another statement via an interview in Saham News. Following up his weekend comments on the investigation of detainee abuse, he said false accusations, such as the report of an arrest warrant for his son over a financial dispute, are threats to silence him.

Karroubi emphasised that he will not give up defending people’s rights, urging people to join him in the Qods Day demonstration on 18 September.

1235 GMT: Make That a Triple Signal. Farhad Tajari, a member of the Parliamentary committee investigating detentinons, has said, "Members of this committee had some criticisms over the conduct of trials of detainees accused of being linked to the recent unrest. One of the points we stressed during the meeting was to immediately release those detainees who did not have big roles in the unrest."

1205 GMT: A Double Signal? Press TV is featuring two articles on post-election conflict. Neither of the developments are new, so it's their timing of their re-appearance that raises eyebrows.

This morning, Press TV reported, from State television, "Iranian authorities say they have launched an investigation into public complaints regarding the post-election unrest, with a focus on charges of prisoner abuse. The Supreme National Security Council has formed a committee to look into the cases of those who sustained losses of any kind after the June 12 presidential elections."

Since a Parliamentary committee was set up weeks ago to consider the allegations, this is far from an unprecedented development. However, the move from the legislature to the Executive, with the NSC's involvement, is at least a symbolic step up. Add to that the specific focus of Press TV's article, which is line with the Supreme Leader's public statements, "The officials are investigating the charges of mistreatment made by a number of detainees who were held at the Kahrizak detention center." (Pay attention also to the highlighting of the death of Mohsen Ruholamini, which prompted so much conservative and principlist fury with the Government.)

Two hours later, Press TV posted the statement of the Governor-General of Tehran Province, Morteza Tamaddon, from Fars News: "A panel has been formed in Iran's Supreme National Security Council which is closely looking into events that unfolded in a Tehran University dormitory….The investigation will be seriously conducted to reach a final result."

Previously, Tamaddon has been notable for tough talk against protestors. This statement brings him in line with the position taken by Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani within two weeks of the 12 June election.

So are we seeing, 72 hours before the Supreme Leader's Friday Prayers address, a convergence around specific investigations? This would give at least a token acknowledgement of claims brought by the opposition, while at the same time emphasizing the need for "unity" and "observance of the law". It would bring together Ayatollah Khamenei, the Larijanis (Ali and head of judiciary Sadegh), key figures in Parliament and senior clerics, and maybe Hashemi Rafsanjani?

And, if this is the case, has President Ahmadinejad been told?

1105 GMT: Stopping the Gatherings. The Government has withheld permission for the memorial ceremony for the late Ayatollah Taleghani, a key figure in the Revolution who died in 1979. According to Taleghani's daughter, this is the first time in 30 years that a permit has been denied.

The obvious explanation is that the regime, which has cancelled other Ramadan ceremonies including those at Ayatollah Khomeini's shrine, is fearful of any occasion where people can gather and express opposition.

1005 GMT: President Ahmadinejad has withdrawn his "replacement" nominations of Fatemeh Aliya as Minister of Education and Ali Zabihi as Minister of Energy. The original nominees were rejected last Thursday.

0950 GMT: It Just Got Interesting. Fars News reports that the Supreme Leader will lead this Friday's prayers in Tehran.

No further details but look for Ayatollah Khamenei to try and pre-empt the Green movement's plans for Qods Days demonstrations the following Friday, possibly in combination with prayers led by Hashemi Rafsanjani. The Supreme Leader will do that by calling for "unity" and, while acknowledging that the Government needs to serve the people, upholding the system.

Two questions: 1) if this is indeed Khamenei's speech, are he and Rafsanjani finding common ground?; 2) will the Supreme Leader cross the line and issue threats against opposition leaders?.

If the answer to 1) is Yes, then we may be seeing an alignment trying to resolve the crisis. If the answer to 2), then the conflict continues.

Meanwhile, the head of Iran's police, Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, has warned against demonstrations "politicising" Qods Day. (Big thanks to reader Ali for pointing us to both these stories.)

0915 GMT: Larijani's Manoeuvre. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has positioned himself behind yesterday's call by the Supreme Leader for the Government to heed "benevolent criticism": ''In uncertain situations we should take advantage of Supreme Leader's advice and thoughts''. What may be more interesting is the possibility that he is converging with Hashemi Rafsanjani's call for unity, ''All governments and societies have differences in ideology, strategy and tactics. Prejudgment is a trap for pluralism which should be avoided in current situation."

And, if I read this right, Larijani is calling for the opposition to back down from its challenge to the legitimacy of the Government over detentions and trials: "If we want to solve differences we should all follow the Law even if it may have defects."

0840 GMT: Josh Shahryar's "Green Brief" roundup of Monday's developments is now posted.

0715 GMT: The Detentions Issue. One of the important political dances right now is that between the three-member judiciary panel and Mehdi Karroubi, as he sets out the claims of detainee abuse. We didn't give this justice on Saturday, so are picking up now. Karroubi said:
"I offered [the panel] three documents at [Friday's] meeting. The first was a video statement by the individual who has gone missing because of threats issued by the representative of Judge Saeed Mortazavi. My second document was about the [sexual] assault of a woman. The third was a document about one man who was subjected to various calamities after his arrest and I offered a CD and the medical examiner’s report on him as well. In that session I also offered two verbal reports as well."

One of the [verbal] reports was about Taraneh Mousavi….I told them her family [is so scared] after the incident that they refuse to even let the girl who was with their daughter on that day [when she was taken] into their home anymore… [I told them] that you, as the officials of this country, must visit the family yourselves and find out the truth of matter….Go to Karaj city’s Imam Khomeini Hospital and seek the doctor’s opinion about the injuries on this girl’s body.

The case of Mousavi, raped and killed in detention, has raced around the Internet, with rumours as to who might have been responsible and why the incident has been covered up.

On a wider front, however, this is a political showdown. Karroubi had agreed with the panel not to reveal any details of discussions, but one of the members, Deputy Judiciary Head Ebrahim Raeesi, told the press that Karroubi had not presented any evidence for his accusations. It was then that the reformist cleric broke his silence.

We await the next developments.

0650 GMT: We've spent this morning on a special analysis of President Ahmadinejad's latest political strategy, which seems to consist of shoving around his opponents as "dust" and "contaminants", and the tension that it might have caused within the regime.

That tough approach is evident in two other developing stories. We've got new information and analysis on last night's raid on the offices of the Committee for the Tracking of Prisoners, run by Mir Hossein Mousavi's staff. And today the Government is pushing ahead with its public display of strength against the opposition, putting three prominent reformist detainees --- Saeed Hajjarian, Mohammad Atrianfar, and Saeed Shariati --- on television for a "roundtable" confessing the errors of their political activity. The showpiece is part of the campaign to control discussion and activity at Iranian institutions, as the trio discuss the "promotion of pathology at the University of Western humanities, and the social and political consequences that come from following elites and political activists and Western ideas".