LATEST Iran Video: Ahmadinejad Failure in Mashaad? (16 July)
Posted by Scott Lucas in Middle East & IranThe Latest from Iran (21 July): The Lull in the Cycle of Protest
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS- SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEEDUPDATE 22 July: Another small video twist: this new footage popped up today, claiming to show a protest against Ahmadinejad’s appearance in Mashaad:
This video surfaced last night. Activists claim it shows the lack of support for President Ahmadinejad’s appearance in Mashaad, which came the day before Hashemi Rafsanjani’s leadership of prayers in Tehran.
Given the limited quality of the film, and given possibilities for manipulation, we are cautious about the conclusions, but Mir Hossein Mousavi’s campaign is now featuring this to question the legimitacy of the Government.
A reader (see comments below) has pointed us to evidence that Ahmadinejad’s speech was heard by a large audience. The footage is from Press TV, who said in a story on the speech, “Ahmadinejad criticizes opposition to Iran vote”, that the President spoke “to thousands of people”:
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wow!
So is it possible that the huge crowd in the press tv coverage was from a former speech and had nothing to do with ANs show on friday?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5C7HwtNByQ
The Press TV footage is widely thought to be fake. Either from a prior speech or manipulated to make the crowd look and sound bigger. It is well known that Press TV is a propaganda arm of the Iranian regime. Why are you being so easily manipulated by the regime’s propaganda? One video is real, the other fake, so you put them both up and give them equal weight?
I also think that the Press TV footage is manipulated. You donT see Ahmadinejad and the crowd in the same outlook. Only ahmadinejad and the front row.
Btw, its not fair to acuse me or Scott for being manipulated by the regime’s propagada. I just wanted to discuss this. And its the right thing to post both videos to see how press TV is trying to make their own facts.
So in my eyes there is nothing wrong with uploading the press tv footage!
You can see the same huge poster of Ahmadinejad hanging from the mosque in both videos. And the poster is relevant to recent events. So it is likely that both videos are from the same event. It may also be that the amateur video was shot earlier in the day as the crowd gathered and the audio of the speech was added to those shots. There are a lot of people walking in that video (arriving?). It does zoom towards the podium twice and it is very blurry but white is seen which could be Ahmadinejad. He wore his signature white jacket as he usually does. On the other hand, right behind Ahmadinejad is the center white of the Iranian flag. So the white we see in the amateur video may be the white of the flag and not Ahmadinejad.
The opposition claims that they won the election and Ahmadinejad only received 30% of the vote. 30% is a large minority. I doubt that in Mashhad which is a conservative town, Ahmadinejad who has won at least 30% of the vote, would have had a hard time filling the square.
As far as credibility goes, all the characters involved have the same credibility issues. Rafsanjani was the president of the same regime for 8 years and Mousavi its Prime Minister for another 8. The likelihood of them lying and cheating is no less than that of Ahmadinejad or Khamenei.
Before flaming me or accusing me of anything, please please note that I am not against the protesters or for Ahmadinejad. However I do believe in critical thinking and would like to thank Enduring America for allowing that by putting both videos side by side. I also would like to respectfully ask commenters who write statements such as “widely knows” to provide links to their claims. I also want to say that I believe Press TV is a propaganda tool of the regime. However, unfortunately in this struggle, we are bombarded by propaganda on all sides and it is refreshing to find a site like Enduring America that is trying to be objective.
Nima,
Thank you for this analysis, which I find persuasive. And thank you very much for the compliment.
S.
Hey Nima, I just saw that banner you were talking about in both videos. I think you may be right. On the other hand, couldnT it be that this banner is always used anytime Ahmadinejad goes to Mashad? hmmm…
Jashar,
Honestly the videos and the various photos released (Fars news, Mehr, …) match, their is little doubt that the images broadcasted by PressTV are genuine.
Honestly i see no reason why AN would not be able to gather that number of people. After all AN does have a large number of supporters, and this regime has some experience of organizing large gatherings…
yeah Julio…sounds kinda convincing to me!