Iranians have long believed that someone else was pulling the strings. The mullahs are capitalizing on this when they claim that the CIA was behind the demonstrations or that Neda was murdered by her fellow protesters.

It’s all an ongoing symptom of the cognitive dissonance in the Middle East and the Islamic culture whereby responsibility for one’s actions is absolved by the mere utterance of two magic phrases - It was da Joos or the it was the USA (tweaked to include the UK).

So, they use these excuses to butcher their own people, and brand those who are standing up against the rise of Ahmadinejad’s totalitarian regime as enemies of Islam - laying claim to a religious obligation to wipe out the protesters - jihad. Make no doubt that was the intention of Khatami today, and his willing followers are more than willing to spill the blood of their fellow Iranians in the pursuit of ideological purity and the fulfillment of prophesies.