Guardian

Iran’s police chief admitted yesterday that protesters who were arrested after June’s disputed presidential election had been tortured while in custody in a prison in south-west Tehran. But he denied that any of the detainees had died as a result. General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam said the head of the Kahrizak detention centre had been dismissed and jailed. “Three policemen who beat detainees have been jailed as well,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Moghaddam as saying. (Emphasis mine)

In fact, Iranians did die in prison and more are in danger of dying. Iranian citizens, some just children, were systematically arrested and tortured to extract confessions, which — as we are finally beginning to understand in America — is exactly the point of torture: to extract a confession. Any confession. It is a form of punishment, not interrogation.

Iran is entering a process of grief now. More details will get out, no matter how severe the government’s control of media. They will spread by word-of-mouth if need be. With each new revelation, the Supreme Leader and his President take another blow to their legitimacy. The Green Revolution is not over; in fact, it has barely begun.