Oops.

They did it again.

Yesterday should have been a good one for the Iranian government - brutal and effective suppression of small,  disorganised protests,  near-silence from Mousavi,  opposition in disarray.

Unfortunately the day was marred by yet another own goal.  They faked a suicide bombing.  They faked a suicide bombing.  They justified all those American accusations of being a terrorist state by actually attempting to terrorise their own people into staying away from the protests.  And once again,  they did it in a really stupid,  blatant way.  First there was again the all-too-obvious foreshadowing in ominous remarks from on high - this time in Khamenei's address the previous day:  "Street demonstrations are a target for terrorist plots.  Who would be responsible if something happened?".  Then the suspicious choice of location - the tomb of Khomeini,  a long way from the protests  (perhaps so that the fraud would escape scrutiny,  perhaps so the state media could avoid showing images of the demonstrators)  and all-too-obviously symbolic:  Khomeini represents the Islamic Republic,  the established order.  Thereby associating the protesters with suicide-bombing terrorists.  And then they gave it coverage on the state media all day and night.  Just to make sure everyone heard about it.

Honestly people.  You're under attack for faking an election.  You're not going to fix that by faking a suicide bombing!!

They might still get away with it - something like this could be a button-pusher for the government's conservative supporters,  and the regime will certainly try to use it to justify greater brutality in future.  Much depends on how many people are prepared to believe that it was for real.  If they see through it - as I think they will - well,  even if the Assembly of Experts doesn't care about the protests,  they might still have to remove Khamenei for gross incompetence.  The man can't even do a reign of terror properly.