As bad as the Obama administration has been in gauging the feelings of the US population, the Iranian regime keeps making blunder after blunder in its attempt to hold on to power. They have reached the point where they are doing things that not even the Shah dared to do.

The BBC has been providing what information it can, after being ejected from the country following the first round of demonstration: Iran opposition figures arrested after protests

A number of opposition figures have been arrested in Iran, a day after at least eight people died during the most violent protests for months.

Those detained include senior aides to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, and a former foreign minister.

Mr Mousavi’s nephew was among those killed on Sunday. Officials deny opposition claims police shot them.

Juan Cole goes the the heart of the current missteps of the Iranian leaders:

The killing of Ali Mousavi, the 34-year-old nephew of former presidential candidate Mir Husain Mousavi, was also a violation of Shiite values. The Mousavis are putative descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, a sort of caste in Muslim societies called ‘sayyid’ or ‘sharif.’
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Killing a sayyid is a blot on any Iranian government. Doing so on Ashura, the day of morning for the martyred grandson of the Prophet, Imam Husayn, borders on insanity.

Martyrs are central to the Shi’ia form of Islam. Ashura is the most important day in the calendar for Twelver Shi’ia, the dominant sect in Iran. For a government that bases its legitimacy on adherence to the values and teachings of that sect to do something that not even the very secular Shah would have dared to do, is immensely damaging to the credibility of the country’s rulers.