Iran admits that June uprising was spontaneous, indigenous

PressTV, the Iranian regime's English-language media outlet, reports these "findings" from a statement by Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi:

"The Intelligence Ministry has obtained good clues in respect to the elements who had a role in the recent riots," Moslehi said in a televised interview on Thursday.

"This unrest is different from that of the past and is a prearranged counter-revolutionary movement, designed by agents of sedition," he added. 

 "Different from that of the past"? Such as the outpouring of hundreds of thousands of protesters in June, when the government asserted the following?

"We believe this is an organized network which is most probably affiliated to foreign-related groups and deliberately disturbs the peace and security of the public. Of course we have already ordered the law enforcement forces to deal with the issue," read the letter.

On a different note: as the brinkmanship continues between hardliners led by Ahmadinejad effectively calling for Mousavi's and Karroubi's heads and Mousavi asserting that he is ready for martyrdom, is there a hint of step-back in this part of the PressTV story cited above?

Meanwhile in a recently published statement, defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi rejected the allegations of his affiliations to western foes. He said he and his supporters are neither American, nor British.

Mousavi denounced those who disrespect the religious beliefs of the Iranian nation and dismissed the reports that his supporters desecrated the holy Qur'an and Ashura mourning ceremonies in Tehran last week.

He said if disrespect has taken place on the Ashura day, he and his supporters disapprove of it. The former Iranian prime minister condemned the killing of people during the Sunday demonstration in Tehran, describing it as the worst act of disrespect in the holy month of Muharram.

He also asserted that his supporters have never torn down the picture of the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini.

The defeated presidential candidate also called on the government to take responsibility for what he termed 'problems and shortcomings,' urging an amendment to the election law. 

That sounds like a distinctly moderate insider to me. Never mind  Mousavi's assertion (unreported here) that he is ready "to become a martyr" and his demand for "an honest and compassionate government that considers diversity of opinion and the popular vote to be opportunities, not threats.”

PressTV does periodically relay opposition leaders' statements deadpan, if bowdlerized. So maybe there's nothing worth noting here.  Still, the omission of the more challenging parts, and inclusion of those parts alleging sedition and sacrilege, does seem to buttress the image of Mousavi as a reformer from within -- as he always has been.