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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/world/middleeast/21guards.html
Revolutionary Guards Extend Grip Over Iran
[New York Times] Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has emerged as a driving force behind efforts to crush a still-defiant opposition movement. The corps has assumed an increasingly assertive role in virtually every aspect of Iranian society and its aggressive drive to silence dissenting views has led many political analysts to describe the events surrounding the June 12 presidential election as a military coup. "It is not a theocracy anymore," said Rasool Nafisi, an expert in Iranian affairs. "It is a regular military security government with a facade of a Shiite clerical system." The corps has become a vast military-based conglomerate, with control of Iran's missile batteries, oversight of its nuclear program, and a multibillion-dollar business empire reaching into nearly every sector of the economy.