Iran's Revolutionary Guard takes command

LA Times:

The top leaders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard publicly acknowledged they had taken over the nation's security and warned late Sunday that there was no middle ground in the ongoing dispute over the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a threat against a reformist wave led by Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the elite military branch, said the Guard's takeover of the country had led to "a revival of the revolution and clarification of the value positions of the establishment at home and abroad."

"These events put us in a new stage of the revolution and political struggles, and all of us must fully comprehend its dimensions," he said at a Sunday press conference, according to reports that surfaced today.

"Because the Revolutionary Guard was assigned the task of controlling the situation, [it] took the initiative to quell a spiraling unrest. This event pushed us into a new phase of the revolution and political struggles and we have to understand all its dimensions."

Meanwhile, their commander in chief, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned Western leaders against exploiting the country's political turmoil for their own ends.

"The Western governments should be careful about their hostile words and behavior because the Iranian nation will react," he told supporters on the occasion of the birthday of the Shiite saint Imam Ali. "We take into account the interfering words and behaviors of these governments and their attitudes will definitely affect the future of Islamic Republic of Iran's relations with them.'

...

Religious bigots do not take criticism well. That seems to be the message of the head bigot in Iran. But with the Revolutionary Guard in charge, why is he still calling it a Republic?