The Washington Post is painting a softer picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against the oppressive Islamist regime on Saturday.
Khamenei was 86 years old when he died, and the newspaper said the Shiite Muslim cleric “played a behind-the-scenes role in Iran’s Islamic revolution, served two terms as president in the 1980s and dominated the country for more than three decades as supreme leader.”
The Post then said, “With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Misérables.’”
In response to the Post‘s obituary of the Islamic leader, Breitbart News’s Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle pointed out the word “avuncular” essentially gave him the aura of an uncle who was kind, patient, and generous:
“I wonder what the current Washington Post team would have written in an obituary about Adolf Hitler if they ever got the chance,” Boyle added:
After the U.S-Israel joint strikes against Iran were launched Saturday, President Donald Trump confirmed Khamenei was dead and called on the Iranian people to take over their government in Tehran, per Breitbart News.
When announcing Khamenei’s death during a strike on his compound in Tehran, Trump said he was “one of the most evil people in history.”
“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” the president stated.
Reports said Iranians all over the world and in Iran have been celebrating Operation Epic Fury and Khamenei’s death, according to Breitbart News. The outlet also detailed the most recent horrors inflicted on the Iranian people:
“Operation Epic Fury” preceded an extremely violent period in Iranian history following the eruption of protests nationwide against the regime in December. The protests were triggered in part by the nation’s increasingly desperate economic situation, worsened by its rulers’ insistence on spending the nation’s money on financing terrorism abroad, and by the extreme human rights abuses regularly perpetrated against dissidents. In response, the regime massacred tens of thousands of people – some estimates suggest over 30,000 dead after just one month of protests. As a result, Iranians not under the yoke of the radical Islamist dictatorships openly celebrated the American and Israeli military operations around the world.
Hollywood celebrities have condemned the strikes on Iran and Democrats have also voiced their opposition, but Breitbart News’s Oliver JJ Lane noted, “The strikes are intended to destroy Iran’s stockpiles of missiles and to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s missile production industry, the President said. Most importantly, Trump said, was preventing Iranian nuclear-tipped long-range missiles from ever threatening the American mainland or America’s allies in Europe.”
In 2019, the Post was mocked over its obituary for founder of the Islamic State terrorist organization Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom it described as “an austere religious scholar” before making changes, Breitbart News reported at the time.
The outlet also referred to then-White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley’s comments during an interview on Fox News.
“Gidley reminded viewers that ISIS and al-Baghdadi burned people alive in cages and beheaded innocent people and put the graphic videos online. He also spoke specifically about Kayla Mueller, the American woman who was forced into marriage to al-Baghdadi, who repeatedly raped and tortured her before eventually killing her,” the report said, noting al-Baghdadi was killed during a United States raid.