which is widely portrayed as the beginning of the end for the United States.
The movement is not described as against the power of financial institutions or the maldistribution of wealth in the United States, but rather as an uprising against the Obama Administration.
The Fars news agency led off its article last Friday by saying, “The Day of Action in the US turned into the Day of Rage of the American people against the Administration.”
Articles have splashed in great detail all the arrests taking place in many cities across the United States. This has the benefit for the Islamic Republic of saying that Iran’s suppression of the 2009 post-election protests was not out of the ordinary but identical to the way the United States operates.
Some stories have portrayed the crackdowns as mandated by the Obama Administration, ignoring the fact that city police forces in the United States are directed by city governments, not by the federal government. The coverage has also avoided pointing out that the “Occupy” protesters in Washington, DC, are still camping out and have not been pushed from their encampment.
Iranian officials have liked to say that Iran’s revolution has been the inspiration for the “Arab Spring” protests, the British disorders and now the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.
But Ali-Akbar Javanfekr, the senior media adviser to President Ahmadi-nejad has taken that argument in a new direction, At a news conference just before his arrest Monday, Javanfekr said there is no doubt that the Occupy Wall Street movement was inspired by the “illuminating remarks” President Ahmadi-nejad has made in New York during his seven annual visits to the United Nations.
Referring to Ahmadi-nejad’s “impressive” presence in interviews and speeches in New York, Javanfekr criticized the imperialistic system of the West, which, he said, has now landed them in a difficult situation.
He said Iran’s enemies are currently suffering reverses while Iran’s power has been steadily growing because of its revolutionary views.
A few months ago, the Iranian media were reporting on the impending fall of the British state and overthrow of the monarchy, making it sound as if the four days of street riots there were an ongoing revolution against the queen. The stories about Britain have now ceased.
