Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei, a constant liar who presides over a regime that sponsors terrorism and has arrested thousands of freedom protestors, released a video on his official website calling for “jihad” or “holy war” of “clarification” propaganda to counter media and social media content from the West, particularly the U.S. The video also specifically targets Joe Biden.
Khamenei lies regularly online about the legitimacy of Israel and the motives of Palestinian terrorists, and he has also lied repeatedly about the innocence of the late mass murderer Qassem Soleimani. However, he adopted a self-righteous attitude in a Dec. 19 video posted on his official website, Khamenei.ir. The video features audio from a Nov. 26 Khamenei speech along with images illustrating what he’s talking about. The opening image of the video, titled “Know your enemies and their weakness,” prominently displays the CNN logo as well as those of Yahoo! News, Google, Reuters, and the BBC. No matter how hypocritical Khamenei is, he has a point about fake news.
“Know your enemies,” the ayatollah pontificates as the video starts. “Begin by knowing who the Enemy is. Do not make a mistake about the Enemy.” I wish Joe Biden would take that advice. “Once you know who the enemy is,” the ayatollah continues, “find their weaknesses.” As Khamenei says the latter, an image of Joe Biden wearing a mask pops up on the screen. I guess we know exactly what Iran’s dictator thinks about Biden. But Khamenei then uses the language of Western censors against them. “Today, the spreading of lies and false information is the enemy’s most important tactic. The enemy’s most important strategy today is spreading lies,” Khamenei insists. “The satellite channels, which belong to the enemy, or social media.” An image of the Google Chrome, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter apps flashes across the screen. It’s interesting that Khamenei essentially accuses social media of spreading government propaganda soon after the Twitter Files and a lawsuit uncovered just how much government and Big Tech work together to censor content.
But the ayatollah didn’t just want to bash the West, particularly the US. “They present fake news, they present fake analyses,” the ayatollah claims, calling Western stories “barefaced lies” as Biden appears on screen again. This is all for a purpose. “We naturally have a duty,” Khamenei says, “Jihad of clarification.” Despite his desire for clarification, Khamenei does not explain what that means. “This is one of the areas where ‘Jihad of clarification’ needs to be carried out. One of the enemy’s weaknesses is your insight. If they succeed in bringing the minds of a nation under their control, that nation will then hand over its country to the enemy.” Is that what Khamenei plans to do with the American people? He certainly posts propaganda regularly on Twitter. But in the case of Iran, minds “need to be protected.”
“Do not allow yourself to be caught by surprise. This is one of the things that the enemy does: they start something in one place and create a lot of commotion,” Khamenei says, as an image of politicians sitting in front of the U.S., Israeli, and “Palestinian” flags is shown. “They then carry on with their main intended task somewhere else,” Khamenei says, using the World Cup as an example, saying nations’ focus on the World Cup could allow Iran’s enemies to carry out undefined but ominous deeds.
If you want fewer lies online, Khamenei, maybe you should start with your own words.
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