Followup to "President Obama, Apologize to Iran!": pt 2

The Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum have challenged the legitimacy of the Ahmadinejad regime:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/world/middleeast/05iran.html?_r=2

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_iran_discontented_clerics

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has taken over and is stifling dissent:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran7-2009jul07,0,1530538.story

AP story detailing how hardline Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi is bolstering the Revolutionary Guard’s resolve to crush dissent:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_iran_discontented_clerics

Report in Al-Arabya in June that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was trying to form a collective leadership to replace Khameini:

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/06/21/76567.html

Very important story by Steve Schippert that discusses the potentially huge implications if Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is trying to get rid of the Khamenei regime. This is a must read:

http://threatswatch.org/rapidrecon/2009/06/regime-change-iran-movement-se/

Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek writes:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/204225

“There is one way religion could be used against Iran's leaders, but it would involve an unlikely scenario: were Iraq-based Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to issue a fatwa condemning Tehran in any way, it would be a seismic event, probably resulting in the regime's collapse. Remember, Sistani is Iranian, probably more revered in the entire Shia world than any other ayatollah, and he is opposed to the basic doctrine of velayat-e faqih that created the Islamic Republic of Iran. His own view is that clerics should not be involved in politics, which is why he has steered clear of any such role in Iraq. But he is unlikely to publicly criticize the Iranian regime. (He did, however, refuse to see Ahmadinejad when the latter visited Iraq in March 2008.)”

For a transcript of this video see:

http://www.themaskedanalyst.com/VideoTranscripts/Followup%20to%20Obamas%20Iran%20speach.htm