↑ "Khamenei Will Be Iran's Last Supreme Leader". Newsweek. 17 November 2009. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. referring to the enormous power Khamenei has given Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which, under Khamenei's direct control, has brutally repressed demonstrators, human rights activists, and opposition journalists.
↑ Jamsheed K. Choksy. "Tehran Politics: Are the Mullahs Losing Their Grip?". World Affairs Journal. Archived from the original on 22 July 2017. Khamenei has strengthened alliances with militant commanders, especially within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in the hope that all opposition to his authority will continue to be suppressed—as it was during the protests of 2009.
↑ "IRAN 2015 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT" (PDF). US State Department. During the year the government arrested students, journalists, lawyers, political activists, women's activists, artists, and members of religious minorities; charged many with crimes such as "propaganda against the system" and "insulting the supreme leader;" and treated such cases as national security trials (see sections 1.a. through 1.e.; section 6, Women; and section 7.a.).
