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A broad internal purge would be unprecedented, however, and the political cost might be too high. Already, the regime's post-June 12 violence has exacted a political price. While worldwide public outrage greeted the killing of innocent people such as Neda Agha Soltan, the regime's real problem is that some of its other victims were well connected. The one who counted the most was one Mohsen Ruholamini, a 25-year-old student arrested on July 9. His family was informed of his death on July 21. Officially, Ruholamini died of meningitis; actually, the police guards at the Kahrizak detention center beat him to death. Of course, not a year passes without Iranian guards killing prisoners, but Mohsen's father is Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini, who in his youth helped seize the U.S. embassy and took American diplomats hostage on November 4, 1979. Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini has since become a leading scientist and advisor to Mohsen Rezaie, a former IRGC commander and defeated presidential candidate. Ayatollah Khamenei was forced to promise the elder Ruholamini justice for his son's killing. Three of the guards at Kahrizak were arrested in August. The doctor on duty at
Kahrizak, Ramin Pourandarjani, then died on November 10. The initial explanation, that he died of a heart attack, has been replaced with the claim that a drug overdose mixed into a salad killed him. In Iran, healthy eating has a price.

The regime would have the same difficulty dealing with Moussavi's top adviso... >>>