ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 66

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Dissidents hack Iran state TV, broadcast call for Khamenei’s death

A broadcast on Iran state TV shows dissidents' call for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's death, after an apparent hack, January 27, 2022. (Screenshot: Twitter)
A broadcast on Iran state TV shows dissidents' call for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's death, after an apparent hack, January 27, 2022. (Screenshot: Twitter)

Channels of Iran’s state television broadcast images Thursday showing the leaders of an exiled dissident group and a graphic demanding the country’s supreme leader be killed, an incident that state TV later described as a hack.

For several seconds, graphics flashed on screen showing the leaders of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and the name of a social media account, which claimed to be a group of hackers who broadcast the message honoring the dissidents.

The MEK, now largely based in Albania, did not immediately answer telephone calls seeking comment.

The hack represented a major breach of Iranian state television, long believed to controlled and operated by members of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence branches, particularly its hardline Revolutionary Guard. Such an incident hasn’t happened for years.

Iran’s state TV acknowledged the breach as a “hack,” saying the case was “under investigation.”

A clip of the incident showed the faces of MEK leaders Massoud Rajavi and his wife, Maryam Rajavi, suddenly superimposed on the channel’s regular 3 p.m. news programming. A man’s voice chants, “Salute to Rajavi, death to (supreme leader) Khamenei.”

Then, a speech from Rajavi briefly plays over the images. He can be heard saying, “Today, we still honor the time that we declared death to the reactionary. We stood by it…”

Massoud Rajavi hasn’t been seen publicly in nearly two decades and is presumed to have died. Maryam Rajavi now runs the MEK.

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