Bogus claims, fake sources: Who ignited the flames of unrest and sedition in Iran

By Shabbir Rizvi

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been defending itself against the no-holds-barred onslaught of imperialist media manipulation since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Bent on undermining its international standing, a network of imperialist networks - with key sources of funding linked to US intelligence agencies - has been at the frontline of driving a fraudulent narrative to create widespread support for aggression against the Islamic Republic.

In recent weeks, amid the foreign-backed deadly riots in Islamic Iran, many of these networks, including media outlets, were activated and brought to the forefront as “credible sources.”

The current function of these propaganda outlets must be seen in the context of the American-Israeli defeat in the 12-day war, which ultimately can be traced to the historic Al Aqsa Flood operation launched by Palestinian resistance in October 2023.

Unable to achieve the objective of “regime change” in the Islamic Republic, the Israeli regime was forced into a defensive position in June last year, ultimately pleading for a ceasefire. But the humiliation brought to Israel after nearly two years of genocide was also met with widespread praise for the Islamic Republic of Iran in its ability to bloody the Israeli occupation’s nose.

It was unimaginable three years ago that thousands would be in the streets of the global north cheering for Iranian missiles to strike the occupied territories.

The unwanted attention Israel brought from its genocide forced thousands of the previously Western indoctrinated masses to reapproach their position on the Islamic Republic, its role in supporting the Palestinian resistance, and its own history in defending itself from imperialism.

Israel is facing a challenge not just militarily, but also from its harrowing global perception: more than two years of its live-streamed genocide, coupled with its unquenching thirst for more destruction and devastation, has turned millions against the regime.

Its genocidal crimes - resulting in the deaths of a conservative 70,000 Palestinians per the Gaza Health Ministry - triggered massive global protests, particularly in the Global North, where Israel has traditionally enjoyed strong political support.

Why does this matter in the context of the news blitz against the Islamic Republic of Iran?

A look into the anti-Iran propaganda networks demonstrates that the atrocity propaganda being produced is meant to not only whitewash Israel’s crimes, but to position the Islamic Republic of Iran as the destabilizing actor in the region using fraudulent sources and claims - diverting attention away from Israel’s crimes, and paving the way for aggression against Iran.

Manufacturing fake news

Mainstream news outlets like CNN, CBS News, Fox News, BBC, and others have relied on a shady network of “Iranian insiders” to dish out imaginary figures, stories of “atrocities,” and a general tone for the events unfolding in Iran.

These so-called “insiders” are funded by anti-Iranian interests and thus are incentivized to exaggerate or brazenly fabricate figures such as civilians killed, omitting context, or manipulating information to serve hostile objectives.

A look into the “sources” and their funders reveals a lot: for example, the flagship “voice of Iranians” often cited by mainstream Western media is Iran International, a Mossad-linked media outlet that has a history of exaggerating or fabricating stories from Iran, frequently using unverifiable and bogus sources to back its claims.

This has been the flagship outlet to produce atrocity propaganda using its fraudulent, unverifiable “sources” - sources that seemingly only Iran International has a connection with.

However, when these “sources” are credited, they are credited to a tapestry of US-funded CIA cutouts focused on “human rights” to pave the way for foreign intervention.

For example, a "source" often credited throughout mainstream sources or hostile anti-Iran media is “Human Rights Activists in Iran” (HRAI). This group positions itself as a neutral observer of Iran's human rights record.

However, it is considered exceptionally close to war hawks in Washington, based in Virginia. It receives funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA-cutout used quite frequently in color revolutions or for a pretext for intervention, as seen in Syria, Libya, and so forth.

Another NED-partnered organization in this anti-Iran media blitz is “Abdorrahman Boroumand Center,” which is known to exaggerate death tolls and market other fake “atrocities” that are widely cited by mainstream media outelts.

Ironically, this group received the “Goler T. Butcher medal” from NED in 2024. Butcher was a voice for ending hunger and apartheid in South Africa - now her name is used to award organizations like the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which create the conditions necessary for sanctions on the Iranian people, starving them, as well as propping up the interests of apartheid Israel.

Next in the media rogue’s gallery, there is the “Center for Human Rights in Iran,” which has been vocal about the need for military intervention in Iran. Staff member Michael Eisner wrote an Op-ed for The Hill in April 2025, calling for Trump to investigate methods to pursue “regime change” through a color revolution, concluding that it's in “the national security interests of the United States” to overthrow the Iranian government.

Chairing the board of the “Center for Human Rights in Iran” is Minky Worden, who was a vocal supporter of the Hong Kong separatist riots in 2019-2020.

Despite having a liberal posture of being concerned with US approaches to immigration, Worden is a supporter of "regime change" abroad in parallel to US imperialist interests - having gained experience through her “coverage” of the Hong Kong riots, Worden is now tasked to oversee the consent manufacturing apparatus that is the “Center for Human Rights in Iran.”

These groups fall into a cycle of manufacturing unverified claims, then reporting them, allowing mainstream news networks to use them as “sources” to disseminate propaganda to broader audiences outside their niche of regime-change acolytes.

To top it all off, the mainstream Western media, discredited as ever, reports these stories without pushback. And why would there be pushback? Major news networks such as CBS are owned and operated by diehard Zionist billionaires such as Larry Ellison, installing right-wing hacks such as ardent Zionist Bari Weiss to oversee propaganda.

Creating a full-spectrum media war against Iran, from shadowy and deeply problematic "sources" to major news networks, all the way to social media influencers, the goal is to create the conditions for “regime change” in Iran and restore the tattered Israeli reputation.

Whitewashing Israeli crimes

The stories of alleged “atrocities” from inside Iran - pushed by a US-Israel-funded atrocity-vendor network - should raise eyebrows for anyone approaching this situation with a sober mind.

The numbers these organizations cite are in total contradiction with one another, and they offer little or no sources.  Reports exaggerate anywhere between 2,500 and 20,000 killed within mere days of unrest. The bulk of these casualties occurred on January 8 and January 9, with no credible sources to rely on beyond unverified “insiders” they refuse to name.

Some of these reports claim that Iranian security forces “stormed hospitals” and “shot at doctors” - others claim security officials were “indiscriminately firing into crowds.” 

All of these unverified claims and figures are indeed used to create the context for foreign military intervention. US politicians like Linsey Graham and Ted Cruz have used these figures to call on President Trump to strike Iran. However, these figures and stories also serve a dual purpose - to move the spotlight away from Israel’s genocidal atrocities.

Consider the stories mentioned and the numbers that accompany them. The scale of the horror and the video documentation demonstrate that these are, verifiably, crimes that the Israeli regime committed during its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

It was the Israeli regime’s indiscriminate bombardment that killed scores of Palestinians daily, totalling up to over 100,000 deaths by some figures, and 70,000 at their most conservative.

It was the Israeli regime that dressed up as doctors and nurses and stormed a Palestinian hospital to murder Palestinians while they lay on hospital beds - that is, in addition to their ruthless bombing of hospitals and kidnapping of doctors and nurses in Gaza.

Indeed, it is the Israeli regime that fires indiscriminately into crowds of Palestinians, some at aid sites trying to receive food.

The crimes of Israeli forces are well-documented and have been broadcast for years, even before the genocide in Gaza. These same crimes are now being pushed onto Iranian security forces. The exact, near-word-for-word accusations should raise eyebrows: it is an attempt to erase Israeli atrocities digitally. 

Investigating atrocity

Israeli influencer networks - with regime loyalists like Eyal Yakoby, “Dr Eli David,” Eve Bartlow, and others - are pushing a false framework based on a flawed framework of moralism.

Demanding people to take to the streets for “regime change” in Iran, these influencers are trying to discredit the massive Pro-Palestinian movement that has taken shape in the West, ultimately insisting that solidarity with Palestine does not matter if people do not stand in solidarity with Mossad-backed Iranian rioters.

The influencer networks are pushing atrocity propaganda to not only break the widespread support of the Palestinian cause, but to ultimately erase the very crimes Israel has committed by erasing the digital footprints of Israeli crimes.

Using propagandist keywords like “thousands of bodybags” and “shooting at doctors” - these search results on social media platforms like X now appear as top results - again, false claims coming out of Iran - pushing back the very real crimes committed by Israel.

The online propaganda blitz is also coupled with a slew of AI-generated images and videos, which made tremendous waves on social networks before they were proven to be fake and dismissed. However, by the time that happens, the damage is often done, and the imperialist narrative is absorbed.

Furthermore, these Israel-loyalist atrocity influencers manipulate figures and remove context to serve an imperialist agenda. For example, an image showing a collection of body bags insists that these martyrs were all civilians shot by security forces.

It is simply impossible for these influencers and their networks to consider, furthermore mention, that these may be the body bags of security forces, or even more plausibly, civilians killed at the hands of armed rioters, which is far more likely.

Consider the tactics of the rioters, which are on camera: Mosques where hundreds to thousands come to pray daily are burned or damaged. Government buildings where civilians work are torched. Hundreds of buses, firetrucks, and ambulances are destroyed. Markets, where everyday vendors and customers come and go, are burned to the crisp.

The destruction of these alone at the hands of armed rioters suggests that civilians had to be targeted intentionally by them.

Furthermore, the videos of armed rioters firing indiscriminately at traffic or into crowded areas demonstrate an objective to cause chaos, kill civilians intentionally, and create a pretext for foreign intervention. One video showed a Molotov cocktail thrown by a rioter into a mosque, targeting children at the entrance.

The destruction of civil infrastructure at the hands of US and Mossad-backed rioters is verifiably a greater and more truthful indicator of the source of civilian deaths than unverifiable claims coming from thin air, published by CIA-cutout human rights groups and distributed by an array of Zionist influencers.

The current propaganda blitz against Iran is the strongest one we have witnessed in years. In a new technological-social environment, coupled with a global north generation that is increasingly more alienated from capitalism and angered with its role in imperialism, anti-Iran propaganda not only seeks to demonize Iran, but also justify imperialism and whitewash the genocidal crimes of the Israeli regime and its allies.

Atrocity-vendors understand that impactful imagery and videos make all the difference in real-time situations, such as social unrest gripping the Western world, as well as economic protests in the EU and anti-ICE protests in the United States.

Perceptions of situations for an unwitting audience are often shaped by initial exposure.

As experts say, it cannot be overstated that the Israeli occupation and the United States are exhausting all means necessary to restore the credibility of the Israeli occupation. It is a gift to imperialist hands if they convince the population to call for “regime change” against Iran.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk