How to wrap your brain around this mess in Iran?  Here’s my formula:

1) Nico Pitney – an Iranian national liveblogging for the Huffington post (good video content);

2) Juan Cole at Informed Comment – he’s a Middle East expert;

3) Talking Points Memo – scroll down the front page – stories are all grouped together;

4) al Jazeera English (last, but not least).

Finally, I found this from Pitney to be very powerful – a female medical student said:

photo: Newscom/AFP

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One of those interesting-if-true moments:

According to the Cyrus News Agency, Tuesday morning 16 senior members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were arrested. “These commanders have been in contact with members of the Iranian army to join the people’s movement,” CNA reports. “Three of the commanders are veterans of Iran-Iraq war. They have been moved to an undisclosed location in East Tehran.” This report has not been confirmed by other sources.

Here’s the interesting part:
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Again, pretty amazing footage:

Not much news, but some pretty amazing footage:

Assholes:

An Associated Press photographer saw one person shot dead and several others who appear seriously wounded in Tehran’s Azadi Square. The shooting came from a compound for volunteer militia linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.

The gunfire Monday came after more than 100,000 opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad streamed through Tehran. They were not challenged by security forces despite an earlier ban on rallies for reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Disputes over alleged vote rigging in last week’s elections have touched off days of rioting in Tehran.

Video of marchers after the jump:
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Iranian callers to Brian Lehrer’s show on WNYC this morning say friends and relatives in the country are telling them the violence is much worse than reported.  Tehranlive photoblog is here. Lehrer has more links here. This is in Tehran:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyssJGHsGyw

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Although we didn’t explain it, our Sunday tweet — Allah O Akbar, or “God is Great” — is one of the legendary chants from the Iranian revolution. We ran it because we read reports that people were shouting it from Tehran rooftops last night, in a “deafening” chorus of protest. How deafening? Now we know.

(Update: No we don’t — video’s from June 9, as updated at niacINsight, and which we could have easily checked before posting. But while we’re here, latest reports have police going door to door and marking buildings where they hear the second night’s shouts.)