Trying to get news from Iran this morning is very difficult. Most contact with the outside world has been severed - including phone and cable traffic - while the internet is very unreliable and slow from all reports.What information is getting out reveals a nation close to chaos but with the authorities evidently well prepared in advance for trouble. So what does the Iranian election mean? Was it a coup by Ahmadinejad and his supporters in the Revolutionary Guards, done without the support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei? Or is Khamenei behind the whole thing and this is an attempt to purge the "reformers" who threaten the position of the powerful clerics who run every facet of the country - its economy, its culture, its social structure, and especially its politics?A good case can be made for both scenarios. Haaretz is reporting that the opposition leader who challenged Ahmadinejad, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has been arrested. There are reports that many visible...(Read Full Post)