Nobody Expects the Iranian Inquisition!

Their weapons are three: tyranny, fear, and surprise. No, tyranny, flatbread, and a fanatical obsession with the Ayatollah. No, I'll start again...

Nobody expects the Iranian inquisition! Their weapons are three: tyranny, voter fraud, and Iranian Chief Prosecutor Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, who this week ordered Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi to show no mercy when trying opposition leaders and protestors.

The Iranian government not only wants to throw the book at anyone facilitating street protests, but it admits to attempting to break prisoners, encouraging pro-government demonstrations which have turned violent, and in some cases has publicly debated whether to apply the death penalty to leading activists for opposing the regime.

Tom Sakmyster, a wise professor of mine back at the University of Cincinnati, made a very strong point about revolutions. They tend to come in waves and, not so coincidentally, the dams of repression have long tended not to break when they were most fierce but actually after the tyrants have consented to the first basic reforms.

Iranian leaders have studied this. It was not when Shah Reza Pahlavi, the former dictator, was most fierce that his regime collapsed. It was after he consented to some reforms. Once the wheel was in motion, then his attempts to stop it were futile. That's what the Supreme Council of Iran is afraid of.

Photo credit: Nasiriphotos (A women's rights protest interface with police)