Iran's Chief of Police: You Know, the More I Think About it, the More this Neda Killing Seems Fishy. Come to Think of It, I'm Pretty Sure It Was "Prearranged" by the Protesters Themselves

Nice work, Detective Dickbag.

The murder of 26-year-old protester Neda Soltan was staged, Iran's chief of police said Wednesday — a statement that rights groups and Iran watchers are calling a propagandistic lie.

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Soltan's family and those with her at the time of her death said that members of the paramilitary Basij militia drove by on a motorcycle and shot her in an alley near a major protest in Tehran.

But, according to Iran's Press TV, police chief Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam declared Wednesday that the shooting was a "prearranged scenario" — a "premeditated act of murder" that could not have been committed by Iranian police.

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Moqadam led the investigation following an order from Ahmadinejad inquiring about the "suspicious" nature of the shooting. The Iranian president said even before the investigation that anti-government "elements" were behind the killing — presumably fingering either foreign agents or even the protesters themselves.

Iran analysts said the government's line was part of a "systematic lie" on which Iranian propaganda is based.

"They cannot deny [Soltan's killing] anymore, so they are trying to fabricate a scenario in which they are not accountable and Ahmadinejad now becomes someone who is seeking the truth," said Mehdi Khalaji, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"The story has been completely changed upside-down," said Khalaji, who noted the 30-year-old regime's history of turning victims into violators. "The people who were oppressed — now they are accused of killing."

Obama's Partners in Peace.

posted by Ace at 06:50 PM

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