Senior military intelligence figure reveals that there was plan to install Ahmadinejad to lead Iran
Analysis Summary
This article claims that the U.S. and Israel planned to overthrow Iran’s government using former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—a fierce critic of Israel—as a replacement, but the plan was scrapped after Turkey’s Erdogan convinced Trump it would backfire. It relies on a former Israeli intelligence chief and media reports to back the story, but doesn’t explain why Ahmadinejad, who openly called for Israel’s destruction, would work with the U.S. or Israel. The story pushes the idea that secret, high-level regime-change operations are normal and routinely carried out behind the scenes.
Cross-Outlet PSYOP Detected
This article is part of a narrative being pushed across multiple outlets:
FATE Analysis
Four dimensions of psychological manipulation: how content captures Focus, exploits Authority, triggers Tribal identity, and engineers Emotion.
Focus signals
"There was a sequence of special operations, very, very unique that was supposed to happen."
The phrase 'very, very unique' creates a strong novelty spike, implying unprecedented and extraordinary covert actions are being revealed, which captures attention by suggesting insider knowledge of rare, high-stakes operations.
"Trump surprised the Israelis out of nowhere and said he would strike Iran. Trump sort of shuffled the deck when he surprised Israel with his willingness to attack Iran."
The repeated use of 'surprise' frames the U.S. action as sudden and unpredicted, manufacturing a sense of dramatic, unexpected escalation that heightens attention and implies extraordinary geopolitical volatility.
Authority signals
"Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, who served in a senior military intelligence role during Operation Roaring Lion, confirmed reports..."
The repeated invocation of Hayman’s rank, military role, and specific operation experience leverages his credentials to lend unquestionable authority, making the claims appear more credible and discouraging critical scrutiny by appeal to military expertise.
"Hayman, a former head of Military Intelligence, has now confirmed the New York Times report..."
Labeling Hayman as a 'former head of Military Intelligence' amplifies his perceived authority beyond standard sourcing, using institutional weight to validate the narrative as insider truth, not speculation.
Tribe signals
"The American and Israeli choice of Ahmadinejad to replace Iran’s leadership was, however, unusual. During his presidency from 2005 to 2013, he repeatedly threatened to ‘wipe out Israel and Zionism,’ and became known as a Holocaust denier..."
This juxtaposition frames Iran’s past leadership as existentially hostile to Israel, reinforcing an adversarial identity ('them') and implicitly casting the U.S.-Israel axis as 'us'—a tribal alignment around shared enemies, reinforcing in-group cohesion.
Emotion signals
"he repeatedly threatened to ‘wipe out Israel and Zionism,’ and became known as a Holocaust denier who did not hesitate to use blatantly antisemitic language."
The inclusion of emotionally charged descriptors like 'wipe out Israel,' 'Holocaust denier,' and 'blatantly antisemitic language' is disproportionately emphasized relative to the article’s core disclosure, designed to provoke moral outrage and dehumanize Ahmadinejad, thereby shaping emotional judgment of the plot’s irony or danger.
"Trump surprised the Israelis out of nowhere... That led to Israeli planning, American motivation and February 28, the day the current war began."
The narrative constructs a rapid, cause-effect chain from surprise decision to war, creating a sense of high-stakes immediacy and irreversible momentum, which emotionally pressures the reader into accepting the volatility of the situation as urgent and uncontrollable.
Narrative Analysis (PCP)
How the article reshapes thinking: Perception (what beliefs are targeted), Context (what information is shifted or omitted), and Permission (what behavior is being encouraged).
The article is designed to produce the belief that a high-level, coordinated regime-change operation between the U.S. and Israel targeting Iran was both conceived and nearly executed, but was thwarted by Turkish intervention. The article leverages authoritative sourcing (a former Israeli military intelligence chief) and media corroboration (The New York Times, PBS) to install the perception that such covert geopolitical manipulation is not only plausible but operationalized within elite circles.
The article shifts context by positioning the failed Kurdish invasion as a decisive military obstacle rather than a geopolitical or humanitarian concern. It normalizes the idea of foreign powers orchestrating regime change using extremist figures by embedding the plan within a broader sequence of 'special operations,' thus making unconventional, high-risk geopolitical engineering seem like routine intelligence strategy.
The article omits any detailed explanation of how a leader who openly called for Israel’s destruction would be viable as a U.S.- or Israel-backed successor, despite his ideology being fundamentally incompatible with their interests. The absence of evidence addressing this contradiction materially strengthens the narrative's persuasive power by skipping over a critical credibility gap.
The article nudges the reader toward accepting that clandestine, high-stakes regime manipulation by powerful states is both common and rational, thereby normalizing covert interventionism and reducing skepticism toward future official justifications for military or intelligence actions in the region.
SMRP Pattern
Four manipulation maintenance tactics: Socializing the idea as normal, Minimizing concerns, Rationalizing with logic, and Projecting blame.
Red Flags
High-severity indicators: silencing dissent, coordinated messaging, or weaponizing identity to shut down debate.
"Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, who served in a senior military intelligence role during Operation Roaring Lion, confirmed reports..."
Techniques Found(4)
Specific propaganda techniques identified using the SemEval-2023 academic taxonomy of 23 techniques across 6 categories.
"Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, who served in a senior military intelligence role during Operation Roaring Lion, confirmed reports that the United States and Israel had planned for former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to replace Iran’s regime."
The article cites Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman’s military rank and former position to lend credibility to the claim about the regime replacement plan, using his institutional authority as a basis for validation rather than presenting direct evidence of the plan’s details.
"who became known as a Holocaust denier who did not hesitate to use blatantly antisemitic language"
Uses emotionally charged and pejorative terms — 'Holocaust denier' and 'blatantly antisemitic language' — to frame Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an unequivocally negative moral and historical context, reinforcing a negative perception beyond factual attribution.
"Let's start with Venezuela, because that is really what's behind the sense of confidence and maybe arrogance."
Introduces Venezuela as an unrelated point of reference to explain Trump’s decision to strike Iran, diverting focus from the core issue of U.S.-Israel-Iran dynamics by suggesting psychological motives based on prior events elsewhere.
"Trump surprised the Israelis out of nowhere and said he would strike Iran."
The phrase 'out of nowhere' exaggerates the suddenness and unpredictability of Trump’s actions, implying an almost theatrical or irrational impulsiveness that enhances dramatic effect beyond what is strictly necessary for factual reporting.