Ghoba Mosque Revival

Hundreds of thousands were at mosque to show the Iranian people are not bending or even trembling in the face of the staunch condemnation from Khamenei, the Guardian Council and Iran's Revolutionary guard, aided by paramility forces of Basij.

"Today shows the protest movements is alive", said a prominent Iranian reporter on Twitter. Ordinary citizens on Twitter have become the de facto reporters from the tense Iranian conflict over possible voter fraud in the June 12 election.

Notable dissidents showed up
Karoubi, Mostafa Malekyan, Fazeh Hashemi, Efat Marashi Hashemis wife were all reported to be in teh rally, as well as Mir Hossein Mousavi, who could not get near to the mosque, either prevented by crowds or by security forces.

Mousavi delivered his message to the protesters by Ghoba Mosque from the vicinity via cell phone, connected to a megaphone.

He urged them to remain confident and peaceful.

CNN, like other Western news agents, prevented and prohibited from reporting from Iran, said around 5,000 marched slowly and silently through Tehran in the first public rally allowed by the government for days.

3000 may be a bit on the short side

Later the number of protesters publicized was set at 3000, but with a consistent track-record of misreporting from Iran CNN's credibility is severely pressed by citizen's reporters on Twitter who are actually on the ground or in direct contact to people on the ground.

Other, more credible sources, set the number to somewhere between 3000 and 750,000 people.


Early reports indicated about 100,000 people being stopped by anti-riot police and prevented from participating, joining as many as 20,000 people in front of Ghoba Mosque.

People were chanting "Where are you Beheshti? Mousavi's left all alone" and "Ya-Hossein Mir Hossein!"

Many arrests were made

A couple of hours into the rally, which began around 6 PM Tehran time, anti-riot police attacked people in front of Ghoba Mosque and in nearby streets.

Ghoba Mosque was closed, but more than 20,000 people stuck around chanting against regime. Tumult developed into clashes, as more people were trying to join the scene in front of the mosque.

Reports stated tear gas was used, and forces were heavily beating people to disperse them.

About 30 people were arrested including activists, politicians and artists.

This message was sent into wide circulation by a prominent Iranian Twitter reporter:

Technicality may have unleashed clamp-down

Tehran's Ghoba mosque gathering honors Mohammad Beheshti hero of 1979 Islamic Revolution killed in bombing this date in 1981, which is the reason the Guardian Council was unable to forbid it and the Basij were unable to break it up in advance.

Ghorba mosque and surrounding streets were full of people, and officials could not easily tell the difference between people who had just come for the Beheshti celebration and protesters who came to hear Mousavi.

At Ghoba Mosque low-ranked police showed no knowledge of the permit and kept telling people there's no permit. There is speculations that permit for Ghoba Mosque gathering was deliberately not passed on in order to make confrontation easier.

Later it was discovered the permit was only for Ghoba mosque and did not include the rally outside on the streets, or so was the excuse.

Helicopters were flying over the crowds, and anti-riot police asked people to leave, saying "The Meeting is Cancelled!"

But people etaying in the streets, as 700,000 people in and around Ghoba mosque. Lower numbers reported by Western media were contested by Iranians, who said that 3000 would not even fill up the Ghoba Mosque.

A video from Ghoba Mosque today, protesters chanting loudly, in contrast to CNN reports of a "silent protest".

Eyewitnesses also spoke of "lots of Basiji and plain clothes bikers in Mohseni Sq and Shariati Ave" and "anti-Riot vans moving toward Shariati St".

Clashes were reported at Mohseni Sq.

A new video uploaded to YouTube also showed protests in another city.

Return of the Rafsanjani
About the same time as reports of the demonstration began to tick in, other reports broke the long awaited news that Rafsanjani had, at last, broken his silence and aired a public message calling for reconciliation, non-violence and a fair review of the votes.