Iranian paranoia hits CNN, BBC, VOA

CNN:

In a news conference Monday in Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi made some accusations about western media outlets.

Qashqavi accused "everyone working" at the BBC, the Voice of America and CNN of pursuing the "weakening of Iran's unity" and seeking the "disintegration" of the country all because, he said, of ties to Israel and Zionism.

In addition, Qashqavi specifically claimed that CNN "officially" trains people to "hack government and foreign ministry" Web sites.

He cited a CNN.com story about how protesters used a technique against the Web site of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In response, CNN released this statement: "The accusations are completely false...."

On top of that, the accusations are pretty silly and they reflect a paranoid regime. What they are really angry at the three about is they are publishing material that the regime has been trying to suppress. The publication comes through messages, pictures and video that is avoiding the Iranian censorship because its is sent through proxy servers to the news outlets by individuals in Iran. The censors have tried to cut off the normal internet channels, but the news organizations are getting the material indirectly when emails are sent to others who forward the news to the channels.

As for the hacking of Ahmadinejad's site, I am sure that the tech savvy young people of Iran do not need special training from CNN which has more important things to do anyway.

What the opponents of the regime need to do is come up with a strategy for using this paranoia against the religious bigots in charge of Iran. They need to consider some political jujitsu that will cause this paranoia to blow up in their face.