Iran Turns Sailor Arrest into a Twitter Meme
Iran Turns Sailor Arrest into a Twitter Meme
We knew that the arrest of 10 Navy Sailors would be a propaganda bonanza for Iran. And they are making as much “hay” out of the incident as possible.
(Too bad they don’t know the difference between sailors and Marines, but you know, they are not all that bright.) The Military Times reported the bragging. There are more tweets than these, but you get the gist of it.
Tha Ayatollah congratulates Revolutionary Guard members involved in the arrest of American sailors – Iran photo
Twitter:
God’s deed; IRGC’s timely job; Americans with hands on heads pic.twitter.com/b4XkdOdWoF
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 24, 2016
Photos of meeting between Leader and IRGC forces who arrested US intruding marines. https://t.co/hEKxRmaxLp pic.twitter.com/etGej5L09H
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 24, 2016
The event must be seen God’s deed bringing Americans to our waters so that with your timely job they get arrested with hands on their heads.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 24, 2016
The Instagram account of the Ayatollah also held an image of the sailors with their hands behind their heads.
Propaganda tool
The Ayatollah’s posts are not insignificant. In point of fact, he has over 600,000 followers on Instagram and 184,000 on Twitter. The propaganda value for those followers is extreme. They not only posted the video of the sailors being arrested, they posted the video of the sailor apologizing to Iran for straying into their territorial waters.
The Ayatollah views the capture of the sailors as the providence of allah. He is downright gleeful that Americans were dropped into their hands. The value of such incidents for Lebanon’s Hezbollah is priceless as well. ‘Weak and cowardly Americans doing bad things got caught.’ Yada yada yada.
Home
All ten sailors returned to their home station in San Diego on Monday and seemed to be none the worse for wear after the incident. The Navy’s investigation is continuing. While under arrest, the Revolutionary Guard took sim cards from two of the sailor’s SAT phones, but it appeared nothing else.
But the incident served to make the U.S. look foolish, and that’s what they were going for.
Related:
- Iran Exploited Our Sailors
- Sailors Released, Boats Returned in Iran Incident
- Two US Boats, 10 Sailors in Iranian Custody
