Lesson 1: How NOT To Steal An Election

Amateurs!
If the Supreme Leader had waited two days after the election, and then announced that the returns gave Ahmadinijad 52%, Mousavi 43% and the rest of the contenders 5%, the losers would have grumbled and complained, but that would have been it. A plausible finish after a plausible period for the count.

The Grand Council and the Supreme leader could still have just pulled the results out of their rectitudes, but they'd have been accepted.

Instead, they got over-eager, and announced a ridiculously wide margin of victory before even Allah could have counted all the ballots.

Any good American politician could have warned them off. And there are plenty of unemployed but successful campaign consultants who'd have been happy to help in the theft of a national election, to the detriment of the nation and the world.

Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell come to mind...