Iran Media Splits over Intelligence Chief--Part II

        The Iranian leadership split over intelligence chief Heidar Moslehi has spilled over into the media, which has offered widely diverse accounts of his reported resignation—and the political repercussions. The scandal became public on April 17 when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly dismissed his intelligence chief, who was then reinstated by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 

         Some media outlets have openly supported Ahmadinejad and his controversial chief of staff Esfandiar Mashaei, who is reportedly behind the intelligence chief’s forced resignation. Other media have questioned or challenged the president over the firing because of the potential costs to his political relationship with the supreme leader.

 

         Iran’s media has become deeply engrossed in the political scandal, with daily reports for more than a week in most outlets. The press has been engrossed in the long-term implications of the split between the president and the supreme leader as well as on the controversial role of the chief of staff.

 

        The main media outlet supporting Ahmadinejad and Mashaei is the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). IRNA has criticized other outlets for running their stories without proper sources and falsely suggesting a rift between the supreme leader and the president.

 

        Media challenging Ahmadinjad and his chief of staff over the resignation include Fars, Mehr News, Iranian Students News Agency, Alef, and Kayhan. In various forms, they have warned the president about the dangers of a split with the supreme leader. These newspapers and wire services have also criticized IRNA for its limited coverage of Khamenei’s decision to keep Moslehi.

 

        In a speech on April 23, Khamenei said he intervened to reinstate the intelligence minister in the name of a “greater good.” His public relations office later criticized IRNA for failing to properly cover the leader’s speech explaining the reinstatement. It asked media outlets not to use IRNA’s coverage of the speech and said that the public relations office was the only credible news source about the supreme leader.

 

        Since April 17, several websites have been hacked, filtered or completely shut down, apparently because of their positions on the controversy over the intelligence chief and the chief of staff. A few websites close to the president and his chief of staff—such as Dowlatyar, Mahramaneh News, Bakeri Online, and Rahva—have been filtered.

 

        In one case, the personal blog of Ali Akbar Javanfekr—the managing director of IRNA, which supports Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff—was hacked with a caricature of the director. It showed him holding a sign that said “Everyone is lying”—but his own nose had grown as long as Pinocchio’s. The post was first featured on Fars News, which criticized the president.  Javanfekr’s blog was shut down shortly after.

 

        In a subplot to the political scandal, Gholam Hossein Mohsen Ejei, the attorney general, runs the committee that decides which websites should be officially filtered. But Ejei has his own issues with the president, since he was also abruptly fired as head of the Ministry of Intelligence byAhmadinejad in 2009. “What happened to me was similar to what happened to Moslehi,” Ejei said as the scandal unfolded. “I did not understand why and how I was dismissed. Many officials were not aware…I do not know whether the supreme leader, at the time, was informed of my dismissal, but he was not aware of Mr. Moslehi’s dismissal.”  

 

        In another subplot, conservative outlets such as Alef, Raja News, and Jahan claimed that Moslehi’s resignation was linked to his dismissal of an intelligence deputy minister Hossein Abdollahi, who is an ally of Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff.

 

        The following are key quotes from the media.  

        “Unfortunately the approach taken by some newspapers with regards to these remarks was suggestive of divide and dispute in the country instead of peace.” Apr. 24, 2011

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of hardline Kayhan newspaper, appointed by the supreme leader

        “The dismissal of Mr. Moslehi from the ministry of intelligence was done under the cover of ‘resignation,’ but then opposition from the exalted leader of the revolution returned him to the ministry.

 

        “[The question people have] is that with what explanation can the imposed presence of this gang beside the president be justified and why doesn't Mr. [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, as someone for whom the people voted under the belief that he is an unquestioning follower of the leader, cut off the hands of this deviant gang of infiltrators?” Editorial in Keyhan, Apr.19, 2011

 

 Ali Akbar Javanfekr, managing director of Iran’s official news agency, which has supported the president

 

        “For the politically informed it is evident that a change in such a strategic ministry as the Intelligence Ministry, cannot be carried out without coordination between the president and the leader of the Revolution. And such report that the president should take a decision that is overruled by the leader after two hours is not logical. It only aims at weakening the position of the president, the leader and the leadership.” Apr. 18, 2011

  

Mahramane News editorial, website close to Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei

        “Why has [Esfandiar] Rahim Mashaei become the sole political problem these days? Have our other problems been solved?...The supreme leader would have named this year that of ‘battle with Mashaei’ not the year of ‘economic jihad,’ if Mashaei was the country’s main problem.” April 20, 2011