Shortly after January 10th official communique by Islamic Republic’s General Staff of the Armed Forces [1], conceding that indeed the regime forces were responsible for downing the Ukrainian UIA 752 plane, the Persian speaking social media was set ablaze. For days, Iranians have fiercely argued about the cause of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crash. Early reports by opposition groups maintained that it was shot down by surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile by the notorious Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The statement is worth examining more closely. It mentions “America” 3 times, once calling Americans terrorists. It has five sections which, haphazardly, tries to blame “America” for provocation and the resultant heightened security first, then pilot’s choice of steering of the airliner close to IRGC’s “sensitive” military site next, only to concede rather sloppily that it was shot due to ”human error” and “in an unintentional manner”. It never says who did it, but it can be assumed, based on the tepid apology and promise to “radically reform processes in armed forces”, that is was indeed the IRGC who took down the airliner.



For three days since this horrendous calamity, the press corps active on social media has sprung into action denying foul play by the Islamic Republic, blaming the United States, the pilot, Boeing, and pretty much anything and anyone else in between. Some falsely claimed the aircraft was a 737 Max 800 series, to implicate Max series tarnished record. The BBC Persian, a branch of British Broadcasting Corp funded by the British taxpayer, gave this blatant lie a veneer of credibility by tweeting in Persian that internal Boeing communications called the Max model “designed by clowns”.

بوئینگ ٧٣٧ مکس؛ 'طراحی با دلقک‌ها، نظارت با میمون‌ها' https://t.co/gGbPf12nHB — BBC NEWS فارسی (@bbcpersian) January 10, 2020

This was done a full 48 hours after Ashkan Monfared, an Iranian dissident tweeted a photo sent to him from inside Iran of the remains of the head of Tor 1 missile at the crash site:

این یک قطعه پیدا شده در محل سقوط هواپیمای مسافربری اوکراینی است که جلوی خونه یکی از ساکنان محل افتاده.



هواپیما چیزی شبیه این داره؟ سر موشک نیست؟ pic.twitter.com/4H0ZeUgMNl — Ashkan Monfared (@AshkanMonfared_) January 8, 2020

Ashkan’s twitter account was suspended to give free reign to the Islamic Republic’s disinformation campaign on Twitter.



Arash Sobhani, a prominent Iranian artist and dissident tweeted: “If this was a domestic flight with no non-Iranian nationals onboard, they would have cut access to internet, turned the crash site into a public park, and called it a day by blaming it on mechanical failure. International public opinion matters, and that is precisely why the Islamic Republic have heavily invested in Western media cultivating a cartel of “journalists” from New York Times to BBC.”

اگر این هواپیما پرواز داخلی بود و سرنشین خارجی نداشت، نت رو قطع میکردن و امروز محل سقوط تبدیل به پارک شده و نقص فنی هم دلیل سقوط اعلام شده بود و تمام! فشار افکار عمومی خارجی مهمه و حالا میفهمیم چرا ج.ا چنین سرمایه‌گذاری در پرورش کارتل خبرنگاران از نیویورک تایمز تا بی‌بی‌سی کرده — Arash Sobhani آرش سبحانی (@arash_sobhani) January 11, 2020

Here, Arash points out a crucial fact: Iran has successfully downplayed numerous blunders leading to loss of lives in the past, thanks to highly selective reporting and favorable views of the Western journalists towards the Islamic Republic regime due to its anti-American posturing. In short, the predominantly left-leaning bias of the mainstream media works in favor of the regime.



Masoud Behnoud, BBC Persian’s resident commentator, tweeted less than 24 hours before the regime admitted to be at fault: “Nothing is for certain. Even the Blonde (Donald Trump)’s statement was uncertain and mischievous about this. No one has confirmed the possibility of missile attack. I am amazed by “Political activists”, “Iranophiles”, and “freedom-seekers” claiming to know the cause, and the perpetrator(s).”

هنوز هیچ یقینی وجود ندارد. حتی موطلایی هم با کرشمه و تردید خبر را داد، بعد از آن هم کسی تایید قطعی نکرده احتمال برخورد موشک به هواپیمای مسافری را.



در عجبم این «فعالان سیاسی» و «ایراندوستان» و «آزادیخواهان» از کجا هم علت حادثه، هم مسئولان آن را شناسایی کردند.! — Masoud Behnoud (@BehnoudMasoud) January 9, 2020

This is a full scale information war, with the entirety of Islamic Republic’s apparatus in action. American social media platforms conveniently give them the platform, and cater to the regime’s demands when the opposition tries to fight back by blocking, censoring or suspending them. Shortly before the IRGC statement, Saeid Hossein Pour, an Iranian Canadian dissident and a founding member of Iran Revival (Farashgard) was booted out of Twitter. It is suspected that this was due to a targeted campaign of abusing Twitter’s own user reporting system by the Islamic Republic cyber army. At the time of this writing, his handle (@saiedpar) is still inaccessible, two days after Islamic Republic successfully silenced his voice, using technology developed for freedom of information. The same nefarious pattern of threats and mass reporting by the cyber army of the regime seems to be repeating for Maryam Shariatmadari [2], a women’s rights activist and one of the Girls of the Revolution Street who was beaten [3], jailed, and sentenced to prison [4] in Iran for protesting against compulsory Hijab and Sharia Law [5] by climbing on a stand [6], taking off her Hijab and displaying it on a stick in one of the busiest streets in Tehran.



One may be forgiven for mistaking these people for Generals in this information war waged by the Islamic Republic until yesterday. But the events of the past three days have exposed them for who they really are: foot soldiers taking orders from Tehran, or fellow travelers willing to be prized assets for the regime in Iran. The simple fact that they were not informed of IRGC’s statement in order to moderate their public statements to mitigate risk to their reputation, renders them expendable in the eyes of the Islamic Republic. They must not be treated differently by the opposition, the Western media, and the free world.



References:

[1] Statement in Persian, https://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1398/10/21/2179225/

[2] https://twitter.com/maryamshariatm/status/1091404105048834050 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D2lGmT4l6Q [4] https://limportant.fr/infos-moyen-orient/69/420030 [5] https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2018/02/24/en-iran-le-mouvement-des-femmes-qui-protestent-contre-le-port-du-voile-ne-s-essouffle-pas_5262139_3210.html [6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaHZ2OBtdpg