As it does every year, the Iranian regime marked the anniversary of the November 4, 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, dedicating the day to the struggle against the "global arrogance" – that is, the West, led by the U.S. This year, the customary demonstrations stressed support for the Occupy Wall Street (OWS)protests in the U.S., as the regime strove to promote among the Iranian public the view that the U.S. administration was about to collapse economically and politically, due, inter alia, to the U.S.'s recent accusations that the Iranian regime was behind the attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
In this way, the Iranian regime is attempting to harness the Arab Spring in the Middle East – which it defines as the "Islamic Awakening" – for its own purposes, that is, to show the progress of the anti-U.S. struggle launched by Islamic Iran on November 4, 1979 with the U.S. Embassy takeover. This struggle, the regime claims, has now become global, with the OWS protests threatening to bring down the capitalist system in the U.S. from within.
After Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's November 2, 2011 announcement that Tehran would present 100 documents linking Washington to terror attacks in Iran and the Middle East,[1]Iranian Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jalili presented to the public, during a major speech at the demonstrations on November 4, two documents that he claimed were proof that Washington was involved in terrorism, although he gave no details about the content of the documents. He went on to promise that the regime would hand the documents over to the U.N. and the Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran, which deals with U.S. affairs in Iran. Majlis National Security committee deputy chairman Vali Esmaeili said, "We expect that after Iran releases these documents [proving that] the American administration is terrorist, the American people will take to the streets and act to prosecute the biggest terrorists in the world."[2]
Iranian Regime to Protestors in U.S.: "Continue The Wall Street Movement"
Regime officials are making no effort to hide their delight at the OWS protests in the U.S., and are predicting that they will lead to the collapse of the government as well as of the capitalist system in the country. In an October 12, 2011 speech at Kermanshah, in western Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said, "In effect, the American people are protesting against the minority of the 1% that controls the majority of the 99% and that uses the money of the people to cover the [costs] of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and of its support of the Zionist regime. Perhaps the American authorities will succeed in forcibly repressing the protest movement, but they will not succeed in uprooting it. The roots of this movement will spread greatly in the future, and will depose the capitalist regime in the U.S. and the West."[3]
In a November 5, 2011 message to Iranian Hajj pilgrims, Khamenei congratulated the OWS protesters, saying: "The West, the U.S., and Zionism are weaker today than ever. The economic morasses, the serial defeats in Afghanistan and Iraq, the deep popular protests in the U.S. and the other Western countries that are spreading more every day, the struggle and the martyrdom of the Palestinians and Lebanese, the courageous rebellions in Yemen, Bahrain, and other countries under U.S. influence – all these bear glad tidings to the Islamic ummah, particularly to the new revolutionary states."[4]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on November 3, also congratulated the OWS movement, calling it "a great event that will aid Iran's Islamic Revolution."[5]
Moreover, in a November 1, 2011 speech, deputy joint chief of staff of Iran's armed forces Massoud Jayazeri said, addressing the protestors in the U.S., "Continue the Wall Street movement. The capitalist system is collapsing... The American administration does not respect the rights of the American people, and we [in Iran] grant this [American] people the right to demand its just rights by means of gatherings, marches, and protests." Jayazeri further claimed that the American administration was trying to cover up its failings with false media propaganda, and added, "The elite in American society must fulfill its mission and uncover the repulsive essence of the American regime."[6]
Also, in a major speech marking the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jalili called for the prosecution of the leaders of the American administration, and noted: "Today, the Islamic Awakening has reached the tents of the enemy, and they have no option but terrorism... The Americans must know that 99% of the international community is steadfastly against them, and that the struggle of the front of justice – with the Islamic flag – against the lie [i.e. the West] has begun and will continue until the global arrogance [i.e. the U.S.] collapses."[7] He went on: "We support the 99-percenters who are opposing the U.S. policies at home and abroad with our maximum power and strength, and we will prosecute the U.S. statesmen."[8]
The Regime Launches Website Supporting OWS
As part of its support for OWS, on October 30, 2011, the Iranian regime's paramilitary militia Basij launched a website in Farsi and in English, wsfall.com,[9] in support of the protests, aimed at "providing web surfers with ongoing updates about the Wall Street movement." In addition to sympathetic coverage of OWS events, stated the website, "[m]ovies, movement supporters and OWS gatherings timetable are of other sections of this website."[10]
At an inaugural ceremony for the website, Basij commander Mohammad-Reza Naqdi stated, according to the English version of the website, "This news website can notably be influential in informing the people living under the sun specially those truth enthusiastics living in the west who are captives of universal Zionist media propaganda."[11]
Basij commanderNaqdi launches Wsfall.com. Wsfall.com, October 30, 2011.
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From Wsfall.com
The following is sample content from Wsfall.com:
"Is the US becoming a Police State?"
"Is this sort of intimidation and police force really necessary against peaceful protestors? The Phoenix Arizona police clearly outnumber the protestors and they have the badges and the guns. Who are they 'protecting'?
"This footage shows police lobbing a flash grenade into a group a people who were trying to help a critically injured person. This injured person was an Iraq War veteran who served 2 tours of duty as a marine and survived. Now he is gunned down by a rubber bullet to the face by those sworn 'to protect and serve.' He was diagnosed with a skull fracture by the hospital. Who was this cop 'protecting?' Do you think he will face any charges?
"Looks like our streets are more dangerous than an Iraq war zone. The Oakland Police Dept actually used tear gas, rubber bullets, and a SONIC CANNON on the protestors. Their offense was a 'curfew violation.'"[12]
Appendix: Photos From the November 4 Tehran Demonstrations By Iranian News Agencies
Endnotes:
[1] In his speech, Khamenei rejected Washington's "false" accusations that Tehran sought to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, and said that the White House had painted this "absurd, false, illogical scenario... in order to smear the Wall Street movement and to pressure Iran." Leader.ir, November 2, 2011. In its November 1, 2011 editorial titled "Obama Assassinated Himself," the Kayhan daily, which is close to Khamenei, said, "The terror story [i.e. that Iran aimed to assassinate the ambassador] has more than anything else targeted the intelligence and logic of the American rulers..."
[2] Fars, Iran, November 5, 2011.
[3] Leader.ir (Iran), October 12, 2011.
[4] Fars (Iran), November 5, 2011.
[5] Entehab (Iran), November 3, 2011.
[6] ISNA (Iran), November 1, 2011.
[7] Mehr (Iran), November 4, 2011. See clip of Jalili's statements: http://www.lenziran.com/2011/11/04/saeed-jalili-revealed-documents-against-us-in-rally-in-front-of-ex-american-embassy-in-tehra/
[8] Fars (Iran), November 4, 2011. Jalili added, "Even if the U.S. draws on all its capabilities to stand against Iran, it is enough for one man like [Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods Brigades commander]Qassem Suleimani to put them in their place... The global arrogance [i.e. the U.S.] will not succeed in targeting people like Suleimani..." Fars (Iran), November 4, 2011.
[9] For the English version see wsfall.com/en/ .
[10] Wsfall.com/en/
[11] wsfall.com/en/, October 30, 2011.
[12] Wsfall.com/en/, November 5, 2011
