The show of authority of the “divine order” that began on February continues today. During the week that followed the show, the regime’s desire to brag its power and return the country to the pre-coup days peaked. Divine order is the name hardliners in power use to identify themselves and the Islamic republic of Iran.

Two days before February 11, Basij general seyed Hassan Firuzabadi had said, “Millions of revolutionary and dedicated people will participate in this year’s February 11 marches with the utmost effect,” adding, “After February 11th, we shall return to the conditions of pre-elections, God willing.”

The only security authority in the world who is also the editor of a newspaper, had determined the exact number of marchers for the event. Hossein Shariatmadari knew in advance that 50 million people would pour into the streets. And that is exactly how things turned out. The 50-million man epic took place. The green movement turned into smoke and evaporated into thin air. And with the victory speech of the leader of the Islamic order and his repeated ‘final chance’ warnings, “the unknown agents of the hidden Imam” issued the order for the fall of the first curtain of the “show of authority” whose images were spread on Google displaying “lines of self-driven buses” and half empty Azadi square to the world as the events were recorded in history.

As the first week of the last month of the Persian calendar approaches, the “show of authority” continues.

A video showing the bloody suppression of students in their dormitory is publicly published. This time however, the film is shot by one of their own and its is professionally taken while the timing of its showing is after general Azizollah Rajabzade and Ali Fazli were removed from their posts.

The police commanders of greater Tehran and the Tehran province guard who played the principal role in the crackdown and brutal suppression of protestors in recent months and the “crackdown of the green ploy, are removed in two tumulus days.

In the appointment ceremony of the new commander of Tehran’s police force, he commends his “bright performance” asserts, “The police did not kill anyone or lose any of its members in the events following the elections.”

Then, he points all the fingers at the responsibility on Sarollah and Mohammad Rasoolola Revolutionary Guards force which was responsible for the security of greater Tehran after the elections.

The video clip carries several messages one of which is to show the “authority of the order.” This is the order that has 50 million people behind itself, but is still so scared of students that it treats them worse than it would treat prisoners of war.

University professors fair no better than the students. Professors from Tehran’s medical sciences university write to the president of the university, “Mr. Larijani! They pull students out of the classroom and arrest him.  In one unprecedented case they pull out a student from the class in front of other students and the professor and arrest him. Also, a number of professors have been summoned to courts or the security authorities and then interrogated. In one case, they left a medical science professor in the custody of a conscripted soldier to move him to a different location in blindfolds and then kept him in that condition for three hours at the courthouse waiting for his interrogator. All this while his patients were waiting for him at his clinic.”

The receiver of this letter is none other than Dr Bagher Larijani, one of the brothers of the Larijani household. He probably would pass the letter to Ardeshir khan so that he may recall the lies that he presented at the UN’s Human Rights Council meeting just a week ago.

Mothers too are dangerous for the “authoritative order.” Mourning mothers write in their statement, “It is now more than 14 days that 7 mothers are in Evin prison where they have been deprived of any kind of visitation while being given just one or two phone conversations with their family members.” They then ask in their statement, “Is being a mother a crime? Which law says that being a mother and asking after the condition of her child who is in prison in this country and requests to identify those individuals responsible for murder a crime?”

Under these conditions, the status of independent lawyers in Iran is also in limbo. “The qualifications of 36 attorneys vying for the board of directors of Tehran’s bar association, which includes the current and former chairman of the national board have been rejected. Among those that have been disqualified are prominent attorneys such as seyed Mohammad Jandaghi Kermanipour, the current chairman of the board, Goodarz Eftekhar Jahromi, the former chairman, Mohammad Ali Dadkha, Nematollah Ahmadi, Ramezan Haji Mashhadi, Naser Zarafshan, Abdolfattah Soltani, Farideh Gheyrat, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, Ali Najafi Tavana, Reza Noorbaha, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, Jahangir Mostofi and Akbar Sardarizadeh.”

It is clear that under the current atmosphere, members of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights too are not in peace. In its letter to the UN Human Right commissioner, the center recently wrote, “Members of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights have been given the opportunity to publish their resignation in the media, otherwise they will be arrested.”

And as the week grew to its end, two more curtains of this “authority show” fell. The regime’s loudspeakers pronounced the arrest of Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah, to be a “national victory” and called for celebrations. They want to revenge the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh who was the liaison for the arms that the Islamic republic sent to Hamas who was killed last month in Dubai after a meeting with a representative of the regime. The world attributed the killing to Israel but the Israelis only smiled. Apparently they do not need put up a show. As follow up news showed, Rigi was initially arrested by non-Iranian security forces and then handed over to the Islamic republic. Hardline Keyhan newspaper immediately associated Rigi to the green movement.

With the developments in Iran, it is now the turn of the “independent” Experts Assembly to thank the “laudable leadership, wise guidance of the esteemed leader of the revolution” and announce the completion of a hard-working round and write in its communiqué: “The revolutionary patience of the Iranian nation and the Islamic republic - which enjoys a high capacity and is capable of handling crises - ran out on December 30, 2009 after providing repeated opportunities to the leaders of the ploy to repent and return to the revolution and the ideals of Khomeini and after forever removing their political illusions.”

And as some senior clerics supporting religious dictatorship are gathering to wash their hands with the blood of young Iranians, Kamran Daneshjoo, the minister of science of the coup administration announced on Wednesday at a press meeting, “The political free atmosphere in Iran is not found anywhere else in the world.”

And of course before he could even finish his sentence, thousand instances of this appeared all over. First and foremost is the administration’s audacity to change the color of the Iranian flag, replace its green stripe with blue.

Seyed Hamid Rowhani, the former director of Iran’s archives of the Islamic revolution, entered the scene and to show the world that a cabinet minister of this administration was talking nonsense, said in an interview with a reporter for the Sazmane Basij Daneshjooyi (Student Basij) which was published in Raja website that the killing of political prisoners en masse in 2008 was carried out under the direct orders of ayatollah Khomeini while calling for massive murder of political opponents.

The judiciary in Iran is releasing some political prisoners after they meet exorbitant bail amounts that can only be met by Sadegh Mahsouli: $800,000 for Abdollah Momeni and $500,000 for Ziaedin Nabavi.

Ahmadi Moghadam seems not to have heard the decrees about the “end of the ploy” and expresses his concerns about the fire festival that Iranians annually celebrate on the last Tuesday of the Persian calendar that turns on March 21st and mocks the traditional ceremony.

This show of authority is also for the world. Last week, the Islamic republic launched a 1,400 ton vessel dubbing it as a destroyer, after working on it for 13 years. And as it became apparent this week that the Russians are treating the S-300 missile systems that they had promised to Iran the same way they have been treating the Bushehr nuclear plant, Allaedin Boroojerdi, the head of the Majlis security and foreign affairs committee warned, “If the Russians don’t deliver, we will build it ourselves.”

The head of Iran’s nuclear agency also threatens to build 20 additional enrichment facilities in the country. But the world has already learned of the cards that the regime plays and is not fooled by this “show.”

Commander of US forces in the Middle east and Central Asia general David Petraeus announces that efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program are now in the pressure phase. He adds that this phase enjoys strong support because nobody can now say that the US and the world did not give Iran sufficient opportunities to solve the problem diplomatically.

This “strong support” also has Russia on board. China may be assumed to understand the meaning of the Obama-Delai Lama meeting that took place last week. And Saudi Arabia announced that it was ready to provide China with its oil needs.

White House spokesperson Robert Gates, last Tuesday issued another warning to Iran making it clear that the time of patience had run out, adding that Tehran had demonstrated that it had no interest in reducing the concerns of the international community and that if Iran continued the expansion of its enrichment capabilities it would certainly face consequences.

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak who handles Iran’s portfolio is on his way to the US to meet the US defense secretary, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and secretary Hilary Clinton.

Things are so bad that the name of the third Larijani is now also in the news. Ali Larijani bolts to Japan and as usual, Iranians do not know way. But as expressly put by the Japanese foreign minister Okada, one may conclude that Iran is expected to suspend uranium enrichment as called by IAEA and the UN Security Council. If the Security Council passes another resolution against Iran, Japan will have no choice but to stand by it.
The anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism organization has put Iran on its black list declaring that Iran is endangering the world monetary system.  The other six countries are Ethiopia, Angola, Ecuador, North Korea, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.

Two major German insurance companies, Munich and Allianz, announced that they are ending all their operations with Iran. Munich is the largest insurance company in the world and said that it was ending its business dealings with Iran because of the heightening political tension. According to the Washington Post, the world has other effective means also on its agenda.

Two researchers at the American Foundation for the Defense of Democracies announce that the Iranian regime can be disrupted if sales of petroleum to Iran are put under sanctions along with open support for the green movement.

And finally, Tabnak website writes that green DVDs are Iran’s new green media and explains, “The events following the elections are spread in a suspicious and organized manner in the streets and avenues of Tehran. DVDs carrying images of the recent events appear in large volumes in front of houses and cars. The discs show video clips from opposition websites and foreign news agencies such as the BBC, VOA, and social e-sites. The DVDs also contain information on distributing the clips, the address of websites of the clips and filter breaking software. The beginning of the DVDs also contains electronic addresses to which people can send their video clips and movies.”

In an interview with Bahar newspaper in Tehran, Hamid Reza Jalaipour explained the situation in these words. “The toning down of street protests is not a sign of an improvement in the situation. A good sign would be when the administration feels confident enough to grant permits to its critics to hold gatherings. As long as continues to fear doing this, it demonstrates that society is still hot and that the propaganda of the regime about its victory is only good for its own supporters while the country will not return to normalcy. Perhaps in the short term hardliners may come to believe that things have calmed down, but so long as the issues are not resolved these opponents will continue to be in society.”

The leaders of the green movement continue to be on the side of the people.

After meeting with Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karoubi continues to stress on his two major demands: the right of assembly and demonstrations for the opposition and a referendum on the authoritative rule of the Guardians Council.

Dr Abdol-Karim Soroosh is right when he says, “The green movement in indestructible. There will be fundamental changes in Iran within the next one or two years.”