{"id":605002,"date":"2026-05-20T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=605002"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:00:00","slug":"us-israel-planned-to-install-hardliner-ahmadinejad-as-irans-leader-cartoonish-nyt-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=605002","title":{"rendered":"US, Israel Planned To Install Hardliner Ahmadinejad As Iran’s Leader: Cartoonish NYT Report Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

US, Israel Planned To Install Hardliner Ahmadinejad As Iran’s Leader: Cartoonish NYT Report Says<\/span><\/p>\n

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In a revelation that blurs the line between calculated covert strategy and sheer desperation, the deep state’s latest regime change playbook for Iran has officially leaked via the NY Times; however, there are many aspects to the story which defy belief, and so like many Iran-related things being reported lately, should be taken with a big grain of salt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to a fresh\u00a0New York Times<\/a> <\/em>report citing briefed US officials, Washington and Tel Aviv launched “Operations Roaring Lion” and “Epic Fury” with the objective to reinstall none other than former Iranian firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad<\/strong> as the nation’s new leader.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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via CBC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

The very man who had widely been deemed by West as a ‘hardliner’ was president of the Islamic Republic from 2005 to 2013 with a fiercely anti-Western agenda, and yet was apparently tapped by US intelligence to manage “Iran’s political, social, and military situation.”<\/p>\n

Another publication has correctly called<\/a> the story and alleged plan “cartoonish”<\/strong> and outlandish-sounding. Indeed just look at how the NY Times report begins: it first recounts how\u00a0President Trump in the opening days of the war mused publicly that it would be best if “someone from within” Iran took over, and then<\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n

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It turns out that the United States and Israel went into the conflict with a particular and very surprising someone in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president known for his hard-line, anti-Israel and anti-American views.<\/em><\/p>\n

But the audacious plan, developed by the Israelis and which Mr. Ahmadinejad had been consulted about, quickly went awry<\/strong>, according to the U.S. officials who were briefed on it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Ahmadinejad was injured on the war\u2019s first day by an Israeli strike\u00a0at his home in Tehran\u00a0that had been designed to free him from house arrest<\/strong>, the American officials and an associate of Mr. Ahmadinejad said. He survived the strike, they said, but after the near miss he became disillusioned with the regime change plan<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

An associate of Ahmadinejad further told the NYT that the Americans viewed him as someone who could actually hold the fractured nation together, despite his well known and colorful anti-Israel statements while he had been in power.<\/p>\n

But apparently some of the aspects which made him a candidate, or potential future US-Israeli puppet in Tehran (Delcy Rodriguez-style), was that he\u00a0had been barred three times<\/a> from running for president by Iran’s unelected 12-member Guardian Council (in 2017, 2021, and 2024). Following his 2017 disqualification, he apparently flipped, becoming a highly vocal critic of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

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For this story to be true, it would mean that Ahmadinejad is an Israeli-US asset. It would also mean that his Israeli-US handlers decided to disclose this to the NYT. And it would mean that an Israeli-US bombing of Ahmadinejad\u2019s home, which ended up wounding him, was actually\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/sfjsQI35z0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Aaron Mat\u00e9 (@aaronjmate) May 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Recent reports in the wake of the large-scale January protests, including in The Atlantic<\/em>, indicated that\u00a0his freedom of movement had been heavily restricted, and even his phones confiscated. He was by the start of Epic Fury under house arrest<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Because of all of this, a March Atlantic<\/em><\/a> piece had concluded, “For more than a decade, he has been known more as a regime opponent than as a supporter.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> report further alleges that blueprint to reinstall the former president was engineered by Israel, who supposedly had been actively discussing the plot with Ahmadinejad himself, but then the\u00a0plan collapsed after Ahmadinejad was wounded during the chaotic jailbreak attempt – or rather, large-scale airstrike on his home. Since the strike, his actual condition and whereabouts remain entirely unknown.<\/p>\n

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\u2060Ahmadinejad, SERIOUSLY? The Holocaust denier? The wipe Israel off the map guy? The Green Revolution death and torture guy who stole the 2009 elections? The nuclear program accelerator guy? The Islamic fundamentalist end-days guy? https:\/\/t.co\/xYCUoKjy76<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) May 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But he has managed to deliver a few public addresses since his alleged escape – including a highly strategic congratulatory message on Mojtaba Khamenei’s rise to supreme leader, after his father was killed. So ultimately, little of this NY Times account, which reads like a fantastical spy thriller, sounds too believable.<\/p>\n

What the report may have done is simply to paint a bright target on this back: “People close to Mr Ahmadinejad have been accused of having too close ties to the West, or even spying for Israel<\/strong>,“<\/strong> the NYT added.<\/p>\n

Pundits across the political spectrum have been scratching their heads over the NY Times report:<\/em><\/p>\n

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I wasn\u2019t a fan of Mr. Ahmadinejad during his first term, and my aversion only grew during his second. But why would the New York Times now publish a claim branding him an alleged traitor to his own country? Why would the criminal Trump regime reveal its supposed assets in the\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/JMEMcnUdph<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) May 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The more believable aspect does come when the NYT suggests he\u00a0Ahmadinejad was top of the list after he personally praised President Trump in a 2019 interview, and argued for a rapprochement between Tehran and Washington.<\/p>\n

“Mr Trump is a man of action,”<\/strong> Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. “He is a businessman and therefore he is capable of calculating cost-benefits and making a decision. We say to him, let\u2019s calculate the long-term cost-benefit of our two nations and not be shortsighted.”<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Oppositionist lobbies never seem to learn that Washington ‘loyalty’ doesn’t run deep, and is even quite fickle…<\/p>\n

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Notable development for the Reza Pahlavi crowd and and his \u201cThank you Bibi\u201d rallies. \ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udffc https:\/\/t.co\/wpIVPlbGuM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Vali Nasr (@vali_nasr) May 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 05\/20\/2026 – 18:00<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US, Israel Planned To Install Hardliner Ahmadinejad As Iran’s Leader: Cartoonish NYT Report Says In a revelation that blurs the line between calculated covert strategy and sheer desperation, the deep state’s latest regime change playbook for Iran has officially leaked via the NY Times; however, there are many aspects to the story which defy belief,… Continue reading US, Israel Planned To Install Hardliner Ahmadinejad As Iran’s Leader: Cartoonish NYT Report Says<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":605003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=605002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/605003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=605002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=605002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=605002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}