Rhetoric Increasing - But What Does it Mean?

The Rhetoric is increasing in Iran among the opposition. (For background on some of this, see here.)

From Reuters:

"Preventing people from expressing their demands through civil ways will have dangerous consequences," [Former Reformist President] Khatami, a Mousavi ally, said in a statement, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

His comment, implying criticism of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has backed a ban on protests and defended the outcome of the election, found an echo with Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the most senior dissident cleric.

"Resisting people's demand is religiously prohibited," said Montazeri, an architect of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution who fell out with the present leadership and has been under house arrest for some years.

In a statement on his website, Montazeri called for three days of national mourning for those killed.

But what's it mean? The Huffington Post has provided this helpful analysis:

A reader who has been very helpful over the last week sends in this note about today's statement by dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Montazeri (slightly edited for clarity):

Just had call with Iranians who read the whole Montazzeri statement (I have not myself - note - my farsi is not good enough to get all the nuances of the thing). But the main point I think you should be aware of is that he's asking people this coming Wed-Fri to mourn the people who have died. The people I talk to suggest it's his covert way of asking people to strike.

As point of reference - in the '79 Revolution, it was the strikes that did it. This is super important - because roughly right now you have some of the population that are hitting the streets, while others are Ahmadinejad people -- and it's the silent 30-40% they are after. Each day this silent majority is slowly stepping towards the reformists.

One important point with strikes -- they cannot shoot people who are striking. That will leave them in a bind -- and more people dare to strike than hit the streets. Again, this is in reference with what happened in '79 - strikes are the most potent weapon.

Also - what is happening now with regards to spreading information to the people. They are going back to 79 strategies. basically they are printing papers having people distribute them all over the country. twitter/net etc is not effective right now - they are going back to old-fashioned style.