Tehran Calling: Part 6

Weekend events in Iran were still bloody and filled with protest, with another wave of demonstrations fueled by Friday's arrest of 36 military officers who planned to attend Friday's prayer service led by former President Rafsanjani in military uniform to protest the Iranian regime.

The officers intended the gesture to show solidarity with the demonstrations against last month's presidential election result, which was won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but which has been clouded by allegations of mass fraud.

Rafsanjani used the sermon at Tehran university to challenge the authority of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by questioning the result in the presence of the defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and tens of thousands of his supporters.

The Frog Pond's Steven D has a great wrap-up of more of Friday's events. Meanwhile, yesterday, opposition candidate and former Speaker of Parliament Mehdi Karrubi attacked the Iranian regime, calling the June election full of "thoughtless and clear lies."

Former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, who ran last in the June 12 election, compared government claims that it had not attacked his supporters to the statements that came out of the Iranian monarchy in the days before the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic republic, according to Iran's Aftab news agency.

"How do they try to say that they do not confront people violently or to blame others? All of this took place in front of people's eyes," Karrubi told supporters, according to Aftab. "They kill the youth in front of people's eyes and then say that they didn't have firearms. As a member of this system, I am embarrassed of these thoughtless and clear lies."

There were reports Friday that Karrubi himself was roughed up by members of the Basij, the paramilitary force loyal to Iran's hardline leadership. CNN could not independently verify those reports at the time, but Karrubi said he was "assaulted" and that his turban was knocked off, according to Aftab.

He called the official denials "truly astonishing" in light of the widespread distribution of digital pictures and video from the demonstrations that have followed the elections.

"It reminds me of the time just prior to the victory of the Islamic revolution," Karrubi said, according to Aftab.

"Now it seems that all those events are repeating themselves. They have lied to the people, to the point that any false rumors will be taken as truths."

More than a month after the elections, protests continue in Iran and opposition leaders are gaining momentum with the people. Crackdowns by the Khamanei regime are not breaking the populace. Tehran continues to burn and will for some time now.