Newsweek: Five Conspiracy Theories of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former President of Iran, has once again surprised Iranians and the rest of the world with his unpredictable behavior. On Wednesday, contrary to his previous promises and against the wishes of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, he registered as a candidate for the elections. The Leader had advised him not to participate in these elections. Hassan Rouhani, the current President of Iran, will run for a second time in the upcoming elections. Ebrahim Raisi, who is said to be the preferred candidate of the Leader, is another strong candidate in the elections. However, with Ahmadinejad's registration, and if his qualifications are approved by the Guardian Council, conservative votes may be split between him and Raisi. Ahmadinejad stated that his only reason for registering was to help his former advisor, Hamid Baghaei, get elected. During his eight years in presidency, Ahmadinejad promoted many bizarre and unproven anti-Western theories internationally. On the occasion of his re-registration for the elections, Newsweek published five of the strangest of these theories: 1. The West steals Iran's rain! In a speech in 2012, Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran was heading towards drought and stated that "part of this drought is unintentional and due to industrialization, and part is intentional, as the enemy is conducting an asymmetric human war by depleting the clouds heading towards the country." He described the aim of European countries as creating tension and conflict in the waters of neighboring countries. 2. Attack on Paul, the octopus predicting the World Cup. If you follow sports events, you know that one of the fun side events is predicting outcomes by various animals—from turtles to puppies. One of the predictors, an octopus named Paul, became famous during the 2010 World Cup. However, this fun activity, which almost no one takes seriously, gave Ahmadinejad an opportunity to criticize Western mechanisms. He stated in an interview at that time: "The Iranian nation has always been a faithful and monotheistic nation throughout its several thousand years of history. In the World Cup, you saw that the claimants wanted to organize people's minds with superstitions and octopuses and such issues, like fortune-telling." 3. Iran has no homosexuals. During a trip to the UN headquarters in 2007, Ahmadinejad gave a controversial speech at Columbia University in New York City and answered questions from the audience. In response to a question about the execution of two homosexual men in Iran, he said: "We do not have 'homosexuals' in our country like you do. This phenomenon does not exist in Iran. Who told you that it exists?" 4. Osama bin Laden and George Bush are friends. One of the unproven conspiracy theories that Ahmadinejad seemed to be very interested in was questioning the terrorist attack on September 11 on the World Trade Center in New York. In 2010, Ahmadinejad claimed that Osama bin Laden lived in Washington D.C. and was a friend of former President George Bush. He told a reporter from ABC News: "Bin Laden is in Washington because he had a good relationship with George Bush, the former President of the United States; they worked together in the oil sector, but bin Laden never worked with Iran." 5. The West created AIDS and spread it in Africa! In 2012, Ahmadinejad claimed that Western countries were responsible for the spread of the HIV virus (AIDS) in Africa. "It is clear that (Western governments) want to plunder African countries." According to Ahmadinejad, global tyrants are responsible for the creation and spread of AIDS in Africa because they want to sell their medicines and medical facilities to poor countries. One of the most famous conspiracy theories that Ahmadinejad repeatedly mentioned in both domestic and international interviews is the denial of the Holocaust. The Holocaust, or the genocide and mass murder of nearly six million Jews by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945, has undeniable evidence. The German government officially apologized to the victims and survivors of this tragedy after the war. However, Ahmadinejad first called the Holocaust a "myth" during a provincial visit in 2005 and subsequently questioned the occurrence of the Holocaust in several international speeches, claiming it was a pretext for the West to take Palestinian lands from them and give it to the Jews.