Iran's Ayatollah to break silence

[stevedeshazer]

Source: BBC News

Iran's supreme leader is to address the nation for the first time since disputed election results sparked huge protests in the capital, Tehran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who backs the re-election of President Ahmadinejad, is due to speak at Friday prayers.

The authorities have been laying on bus services and urging people to come to hear Mr Khamenei speak.

Correspondents say the amount of people the ayatollah can rally will be as closely watched as what he says.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8108499.stm

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It's only a few more hours.

After this speech, we'll know a lot more.

History again in the making.

[MADem]

1. Mousavi's people will not be there. They are boycotting.

The word is being spread to stay away.

This is very unusual for Khameini to do this. It ain't Ramadan, and it ain't the anniversary of the Revolution. He's shitting bricks, is what he's doing....and he's going for the Hail Mary pass.

I hope he falls on his fat, cheating, disgraceful ass. I never thought he was capable of being such a duplicitous and petty person.

[Fearless]

2. I sincerely hope this doesn't turn into a group massacre.

I think he knows he's losing influence and pending the outcome of this speech, we'll know by how much.

[JI7]

3. what time will he speak ?

what time will it be in the United states ?

[dipsydoodle]

4. LIVE NOW ON BBC ! @ 9.54am Brit Summer Time : GMT +1

So - between 5 and 8 hours time diiference dependant on where you are in the USA.

[struggle4progress]

5. Huge demonstration, this time in black, in Iran (WaPo via SFGate)

Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post
Friday, June 19, 2009

... Press TV, an English-language version of Iranian state television, said the crowd numbered in the "hundreds of thousands" and described the rally as "peaceful." It said Mousavi, in a brief address to the crowd, called for "calm and self-restraint." A Mousavi Web site estimated the gathering at more than 1 million people, the Associated Press reported ...

Iran's elite Guardian Council Thursday invited the four presidential candidates to a special meeting Saturday to review their concerns. The council, a 12-member panel of senior Islamic clergy and jurists, is charged with confirming the election results. It is investigating allegations of fraud and has agreed to a limited recount in places where irregularities are found.

"We decided to personally invite the esteemed candidates and those who have complaints regarding the election to take part in an extraordinary session of the Guardian Council to discuss their concerns with the members directly so that we will be able to make a decision," Abbas Ali Kadkhodai, a spokesman for the council, told Iran's state television Thursday. He said the council has received 646 complaints from Mousavi and two other opposition candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad.

In a statement Thursday, Iran's Intelligence Ministry claimed it had foiled plots by "several terrorist groups" with connections to foreign enemies, including Israel and Americans in neighboring Iraq, to set off bombs in mosques, polling stations and other crowded places during the election ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/18/MNRD189UQR.DTL