But let it be known that the Islamic Republic is not circulating this howler. It appeared last week on the Facebook page of the Syrian military.
And it seems that this wild invention was too much even for many of those who visited the page. The most common comment was a simple “Ha-ha.”
The Facebook page from the News Network of the Syrian Armed Forces reported: “Sources confirmed to us that Hurricane Sandy, which is slamming the United States, was set off by highly advanced technologies developed by the heroic Iranian regime that supports the Resistance [to Israel], with coordination by our resisting Syrian government.”
The posting went on to say that the damage done by Hurricane Sandy was “punishment for whoever dares to attack Syria’s [President Bashar] al-Assad and threaten peace and stability.”
The posting did not explain why the Syrian armed forces thought the people living in coastal New Jersey and New York should be singled out for such punishment.
The Syrian claim did have a familiar ring to it. President Ahmadi-nejad has claimed on multiple occasions that the current drought in Iran has been caused by the European Union, which, he has charged, is making clouds drop their moisture over Europe so the clouds bear no rain when they reach Iran. Ahmadi-nejad has not said what has caused droughts going back centuries, even millennia, in Iran.
CNN, the news organization that discovered the Syrian posting, said one of the comments left on the page said, “This is complete baloney by the regime and its thugs. There is nothing worse than this nonsense. If you have such technologies, why doesn’t your great sophisticated regime get the temperature up a bit higher in Russia and make the skies rain in the dry lands of Syria?”
But there were also postings by Syrian government supporters that backed the claim of the Syrian armed forces. “Why are you surprised by such an heroic act that our special forces carried out with the help of Iranian experts?” asked one commenter. “Yes, this is the great work of the brave lions of Syria in retaliation for the evil conspiracy against our great nation. We will have our victory, even if it will take some time.”