He Was on The Other Side!… Leon Panetta Says Obama Should Have Helped the 2009 Iranian Protesters

Former Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Obama should have done more to help the Iranian freedom protesters in 2009.

According to Breitbart:

Former Secretary of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday evening that his old boss, then-President Barack Obama, should have done more to support the Iran protests of 2009.

It’s a little late now.

Obama did not just remain silent during the 2009 freedom protests.
Obama was on the other side.

Never Forget — Barack Obama assisted the evil Khamenei Regime to crush the 2009 Green Rebellion

In 2009 tens of thousands of brave Iranian democracy protesters rose up against the brutal Khamenei regime after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced the winner in a disputed national election.
green protest iran

The protests quickly turned bloody when Iranian hardliners started firing on the protesters.
One beautiful young protester was shot in the neck by the regime.

Her name was Neda Soltani or Neda Agha Soltan — she was shot in the neck during a protest in Tehran on June 20, 2009. (AFP)

But Obama did nothing.

After several days the protesters called out to President Obama, “Obama, Obama, Are you with the regime or with us?”

But Obama never showed up.
He had other plans.
Barack Obama tooks sides with the Khamenei regime.
He was working on his sham nuclear deal with the liars and killers of the regime.

Now we know that Obama actively worked with the regime over the freedom protesters.
Eli Lake at Bloomberg reported:

One of the great hypotheticals of Barack Obama’s presidency involves the Iranian uprising that began on June 12, 2009, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced the winner of contested presidential elections. What if the president had done more to help the protesters when the regime appeared to be teetering?

It’s well known he was slow to react. Obama publicly downplayed the prospect of real change at first, saying the candidates whom hundreds of thousands of Iranians were risking their lives to support did not represent fundamental change. When he finally did speak out, he couldn’t bring himself to say the election was stolen: “The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was.”

But Obama wasn’t just reluctant to show solidarity in 2009, he feared the demonstrations would sabotage his secret outreach to Iran. In his new book, “The Iran Wars,” Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon uncovers new details on how far Obama went to avoid helping Iran’s green movement. Behind the scenes, Obama overruled advisers who wanted to do what America had done at similar transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and signal America’s support.

Solomon reports that Obama ordered the CIA to sever contacts it had with the green movement’s supporters. “The Agency has contingency plans for supporting democratic uprisings anywhere in the world. This includes providing dissidents with communications, money, and in extreme cases even arms,” Solomon writes. “But in this case the White House ordered it to stand down.”

At the time, Solomon reports, Obama’s aides received mixed messages. Members of the Iranian diaspora wanted the president to support the uprisings. Dissident Iranians from inside the country said such support would be the kiss of death. In the end, Obama did nothing, and Iran’s supreme leader blamed him anyway for fomenting the revolt.

Read the rest here.

The liberal media ignored these facts.
They lied to the public to defend their evil prince Obama.

Dear Reader - The enemies of freedom are choking off the Gateway Pundit from the resources we need to bring you the truth. Since many asked for it, we now have a way for you to support The Gateway Pundit directly - and get ad-reduced access. Plus, there are goodies like a special Gateway Pundit coffee mug for supporters at a higher level. You can see all the options by clicking here - thank you for your support!
Photo of author
Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

You can email Jim Hoft here, and read more of Jim Hoft's articles here.

 

Thanks for sharing!