Iran Election Diary

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, the Iranian authorities have paid the country's opposition activists a twisted compliment.

The militia's "Center for Investigation of Organized Crime" website Gerdab.ir, which calls on the public to help track down protesters, has turned the opposition's grassroots tactics against them.

Sympathetic viewers are asked to scroll through pages of photos and stills from video taken during the recent protests and identify the individuals by name or address.

A grim red circle appears around the faces of the victims -- teenagers to dissident mullahs to activist Iranians living abroad -- and a special stamp indicates those "identified."

The authorities seem to have taken their lead from lebasshakhshi.blogspot.com, an opposition site that also uses a red circle in shots of government forces, particularly those working undercover during recent clashes, so that other activists can identify them.

Despite efforts on Facebook, comments from Andrew Sullivan, and cyberattack instructions, the site has managed to protect itself fairly well from attacks (indeed, it claims 99 percent uptime).

-- Kristin Deasy

Hundreds of people, including some opposition leaders, gathered in Tehran's Behest Zahra Cemetery to mark the 40th day since the death of Neda Agha Soltan and remember other victims of the postelection unrest at Neda's grave.

Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Musavi was in attendance, though police later forced him to leave and began arresting demonstrators.

In this video, mourners chant: "Don't be afraid, we're all together. Don't be afraid, we're all together"; "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein. Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein. Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein"; and "Death to the dictator":



Another video from the cemetery:



This video (poor quality) offers a glimpse of opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi in attendance:



This video shows riot police confronting young protesters at Vanak Square after the gather in the cemetery: