of skeptics who said that the opposition movement is really limited to the elite youth of northern teheran and lit fizzle out. six months later, we see how strong it has maintained the momentum and how it is happening not only in teheran, but throughout the country, and i think that the protesters really transcend age, geographic location and socioeconomic class. >> this is one of the most important stories of our time, and if there is a democracy, mahmoud ahmadinejad is taken out of power, but before we go on, do you believe he is going to be taken out of power? you believe he is a puppet between khomeini and mousavi but has no power. >> well, over the last three months, he is no longer a figure. the concentration, and the world attention on this issue is absolutely extraordinary and necessary, because it is a unique phenomenon, don, is a nonviolent civil rights movement in the context of a very violent context, and the implication of this give ten demographic aspect of the movement, 80% of the iranian population is under the age of 40 and 50% of it under the age of 25 and the reason it h

states do to balance our support of the human rights activists and demonstrators in the streets of teheran? how do we balance those issues? >> it is a balancing act. the most important is to make sure that our very strong opposition to what is going on inside iran does not, in any way, undermine the legitimacy of the protest movement that has taken hold. this is one of those very good examples of a hard call. after the election and the reaction that began almost immediately by people who felt that the election was invalid put us in the position of seriously considering what is the best way we can support those who are putting their lives online by going to the streets? we wanted to convey clear support, but we did not want the attention shifted from the legitimate concerns to the united states. we had nothing to do with the spontaneous reaction that grew up in response to the behavior of the iranian government. so it has been a delicate walk. the activists inside know that we support them. we have encouraged their continuing communication of what is going on inside iran. one of the calls t