US fired $500mn in THAAD missiles defending Israel, Pentagon papers show

Monitoring firm NewsGuard said on Wednesday that official outlets in China, Russia and Iran mentioned Kirk more than 6,000 times from September 10–17, frequently framing the shooting as a conspiracy and recycling unsubstantiated claims.

“The more confusion and mistrust they can inject right after a breaking news event, the harder it becomes for people to know what’s true,” McKenzie Sadeghi, NewsGuard’s editor for AI and foreign influence, said.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said earlier this week that authorities were tracking “a tremendous amount of disinformation” and bot activity urging violence; he did not cite specific accounts.

Police have charged a 22-year-old suspect and said he acted alone. Authorities have not linked the killing to any foreign government.

Analysts and media reports say the narratives diverged: pro-Kremlin channels sought Ukraine links; Beijing-aligned accounts highlighted US polarization and gun violence; and Iran-linked outlets and influencers promoted anti-Israel conspiracy theories.

Pro-Iranian groups say Israel was behind Kirk’s death and that the suspect was set up to take the fall, according to New York Times.

“They’re picking up domestic actors and amplifying them,” said Joseph Bodnar of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Cox urged Americans to ignore viral claims that appear designed to provoke fear.

The activity fits a longer pattern US officials have attributed to Tehran. Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center reported in August 2024 that Iranian operators stood up US-facing pseudo-news sites such as “Savannah Time” and “Nio Thinker,” sometimes using generative AI, and in June 2024 attempted to compromise accounts tied to US presidential campaigns.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies said in September 2024 it had identified at least 19 pro-Iran sites targeting minority and veteran voters. Google Cloud’s Mandiant and Meta have separately flagged Iran-linked efforts aimed at US audiences.

Washington has sanctioned Iranian and Russian entities over alleged interference. In December 2024, the US Treasury blacklisted an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps subsidiary known as the Cognitive Design Production Center and Russia’s Center for Geopolitical Expertise, accusing both of seeding disinformation and, in Moscow’s case, using AI-generated deepfakes.

Russia, China and Iran have all denied targeting Americans with disinformation.

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  Slain activist Charlie Kirk praised Iranians, backed nuclear sites attack

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  Charlie Kirk urged Trump in Oval Office to avoid war with Iran, Carlson says

Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, had mixed public views on Iran over the years. In 2020 he warned against a broader war after the US killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. In June 2025, after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, he publicly backed the action while praising Iranian-Americans in earlier campus remarks widely shared online.

US officials say foreign exploitation of domestic crises predates the 2024 election cycle. A 2021 declassified assessment found Iran sought to undercut Donald Trump’s prospects in 2020 while eroding trust in US institutions; security agencies warned again in 2022 and 2024 that Tehran aims primarily to inflame social divisions.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate said posts calling for retaliatory violence after Kirk’s killing were viewed 43 million times on X, though the share from foreign sources is unclear.

“They push this oil through corrupt networks and the worst actors in the government— people already sanctioned internationally," said Miad Maleki, former head of the US Treasury’s Office of Global Targeting within the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), "They get paid for only one out of five barrels they ship.”

The United States has maintained sanctions on the Islamic Revolution for decades but the measures were dramatically ramped up in 2018 when Donald Trump launched his so-called maximum pressure campaign.

Tehran has developed elaborate methods to evade sanctions, including a dark fleet of tankers that baffle tracking by switching off their transponders and conduct ship-to-ship transfers to mask the origin of its oil.

Maleki, a US air force veteran, argues these methods renders oil sales extremely costly. “Most of the money is wasted on shipping, discounts and commissions paid to layers of corrupt actors,” he said.

In nearly eight years at OFAC, Maleki helped design and implement the Treasury's sanctions campaigns against the Islamic Republic and its regional allies including Hezbollah and Hamas

'Malign intent'

Maleki said he never saw signs that goal of Iran’s leadership was sustainable growth for its citizenry.

“It was mostly about day-to-day survival and paying political rent to supporters,” he said. Instead, Iran’s oil revenues have been funneled to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its elite clandestine wing, the Quds Force and other heavily sanctioned actors.

Born in Iran and a first-hand witness to life's hardships there, Maleki said he saw sanctions as a way to ultimately help the Iranian people, since Iran’s rulers would not use oil revenue for public benefit.

“Any value taken away from this cycle is value taken away from corruption and malign intent,” he said.

During President Trump’s first term, Maleki was an architect of the new sanctions regime and helped pushed their remit beyond oil.

“Sanctions on the financial sector were the key,” Maleki said. “Targeting IRGC and Defense Ministry-owned banks tied the regime’s hands in dealing with the global financial system. It was very impactful.”

In 2019, Washington also sanctioned the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Maleki sees it as one of the most impactful measures against the Islamic Republic, citing the vast wealth controlled by sprawling state foundations under Khamenei’s supervision including Bonyad Mostazafan, the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (Setad) and Astan Quds Razavi.

Enmeshed in critical sectors spanning the economy, many of the entities disguised their activities as philanthropy.

“They invest in metals, petrochemicals and agriculture. But you don’t see much charity work,” he said.

Maleki said the sanctions were designed so that even after Khamenei, the next supreme leader and his appointees will remain under sanctions.

“The Bonyads and foundations and all the subsidiaries are operating Iran's economy and stealing from their own people and also engaging in funding a wide range of nefarious activities, supporting terrorism, instead of using those funds to help Iran's economy," he said.

Nuclear costs and wasted billions

US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June destroyed key parts of Iran’s nuclear program and ended tense talks between Tehran and Washington.

The United States urged Iran last week to take "immediate and concrete action" to meet its nuclear safeguards obligations.

France, Germany and Britain last month triggered the the so-called snapback mechanism of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran which could soon restore global sanctions unless resumed diplomacy secures a reprieve.

Maleki said it was unclear how damaging the move might be.

“The US sanctions are in place. Adding UN sanctions on top of it, I don't know how much meaningful financial restrictions that's going to bring on the regime, but politically, it's going to increase the pressure," he said. "You are going to see some shifts in governments, their approach to Iran, and how diplomatically they are engaged with Iran."

Estimates of Iran’s nuclear spending range from $500 billion to $1 trillion. Maleki said even per the low-range estimate of around half a billion dollars—equivalent to 17-20 years of oil revenue— the program produced only about 11–12% of Iran’s electricity.

A surge in electricity outages across Iran has caused severe disruption to daily life and economic activity, leaving Iranians frustrated and businesses paralyzed.

For roughly €15 billion (about $16 billion), Maleki continued, Iran could have built enough conventional power plants to avoid worsening shortages.

“Even if the goal was peaceful, the nuclear program never made economic sense."

From the very start of the killings, imprisonments, torture, murders and executions in the early days of the Islamic Republic, the pursuit of justice began in Iranian society.

In every era, under every condition and in every place, justice-seeking in Iran has taken on a form shaped by its social circumstances — but it has never been extinguished.

The images of the mothers and fathers of those killed and executed, the handwritten notes, the histories, the testimonies and memoirs of prisoners and torture survivors, and the protest actions carried out through public and private letters, petitions to judicial and security authorities, and appeals to international human rights bodies — all these have been part of the ongoing struggle over the past 46 years.

These acts — through their representation in poetry composed by renowned poets; in songs and ballads performed by celebrated singers from Marjan and Marzieh to the rap verses of young artists; in films created underground or in exile; in clandestine theater staged under fear; and in powerful stories penned by gifted and conscientious writers — have formed another part of our society’s effort to keep the pursuit of justice alive.

In truth, justice-seeking as a collective process has spread through every layer of society, accompanied by actions, reactions, creative and influential events and both individual and collective protests.

In recent years, civil activists have worked alongside prisoners, torture survivors, the wounded and the families of those killed and executed, bringing wider segments of society into this process and strengthening the justice-seeking movement.

Families and survivors of the executed, the killed, the imprisoned, the tortured, the abused, the oppressed and the wronged have all played a vital role in advancing this movement in Iran.

In the 1980s, when the solidarity of society, political and social forces and the broader public was not as widespread as in recent years, families endured indescribable suffering under government — and at times social — pressure, in order to plant the seeds of justice-seeking in society.

They made the historical tradition of justice-seeking in Iran richer and more meaningful.

With the continuation and intensification of the Islamic Republic’s oppression, every decade, every year and every day the number of justice-seekers has grown, as has the depth of their demand for justice.

Survivors of the 1980s executions and massacres, the chain murders, the 1999 student protests, the Green Movement, the protests of 2017 and 2019, and the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising have all been interconnected threads sustaining the pursuit of justice.

Together with civil, professional, social, political, and cultural circles, they have forged a powerful chain within society.

From the image of the Khavaran mother standing tall over an unmarked grave, to the embrace of Mahsa Jina Amini’s parents in a hospital corridor as they endured her final moments in pain and tears, countless scenes have been created that will remain eternal in the history of our nation’s quest for justice.

From the images of anti-execution activists outside prison walls who kept vigil with families through the night of darkness until the dawn of execution, to the journalists who paid the price of reporting and speaking with families through imprisonment, torture, solitary confinement and the silent suffering of exile — all attest to the hidden strength of the justice-seeking movement.

Justice-seeking is a path toward liberation through the realization of justice itself — justice trampled by a tyrannical government and stripped of the tools to achieve it. In the wasteland of injustice and oppression, justice-seeking is a lamp to light the way, a hope in the darkness of despair and an effort to resist defeat and passivity.

Our society, in its pursuit of justice and its struggle to expose oppression and discrimination so that history cannot erase them, stands among the greatest in the world.

Long live the justice-seeking movement.

IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Ali-Mohammad Naeini told Tasnim News that the depth of Iran’s response caused Israel to reconsider its war aims.

“It was an eye for an eye, one for one, with precision. And when we struck the minus-one level of a 31-storey building, it showed our intelligence was complete and our missile attacks were carefully planned,” Naeini said.

“When the enemy struck our research center, we hit theirs. When they attacked our refinery, we immediately struck their refinery. When they targeted our air base, we wasted no time in hitting their air base,” Naeini added.

A surprise Israeli military campaign on June 13 targeted military and nuclear facilities in Iran. Iran responded by launching drones and ballistic missiles at Israel.

On June 22, the United States joined the conflict, striking three major nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. A US-brokered ceasefire ended fighting two days later.

Miscalculation of weakness

Naeini said Israel had assumed the surprise attack would devastate Iran, but the outcome showed they had miscalculated.

“The enemy’s assumption in both wars was that Iran had been weakened. They believed Iran had no deterrence, no response capability, and no ability to regain strength,” he said.

He was referring to the Iran–Iraq War (1980-1988), fought between the neighbours led by Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini, which ended with a UN-mediated ceasefire.

“They thought Iran would lose Khuzestan in a short, intense war during the eight-year Sacred Defense, and that in this 12-day war the Islamic Republic would lose its elements of power, leading to unrest, overthrow and even partition," Naeini added. "But the outcome was different.”

Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said on Wednesday that Tehran’s defensive preparations had deterred enemies from launching a new assault.

US and Israeli officials said their strikes aimed to block Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Britain, France and Germany have triggered the resumption of international sanctions which could take effect within weeks if Iran doesn't accede to their demands on transparency and renewed talks with the United States.

Tehran denies seeking a nuclear bomb and describes the measures as diplomatic blackmail in service of American and Israeli interests.

In response to Iran International query asking viewers what had changed since her death and the igniting of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement, most said life had become ever harder.

“Every day people fall deeper into ruin: more penniless, more unemployed, more hungry. There’s no water, power, or gas in places. Killings and violence have increased,” another message said.

Many Iranians are grappling with shortages of water and electricity and cited the mounting toll of high inflation and broader economic strain.

Sanctions, corruption and mismanagement have plagued Iran's economy for decades.

The wave of civil disobedience especially among women and girls continues subtly across Iran and has even spread to many traditionally religious cities.

“We’re in Mashhad. Even though it’s a religious city, many women come out with freer dress. I used to wear the chador, but since Mahsa I no longer wear hijab. Men have also changed. They’re united with the women,” one respondent said.

Other messages confirm that civil disobedience over dress codes and open defiance of Islamic regulations is widespread across the country.

“Women this year gained a little more freedom in dress. Men wear shorts and tank tops in public now. The government is failing on the hijab issue, but a woman still cannot claim her rights even in a court. Child laborers and people sleeping in cardboard boxes remain — poverty is rampant,” a caller said.

Patchy enforcement

A harsh new sanctions and chastity bill passed by the hardliner-dominated parliament was frozen by Iran's top security body this year in an apparent bid by the theocracy to forestall further unrest.

Some messages suggested that in affluent areas, obedience to the Islamic dress code has collapsed almost entirely, but that the trend was far from universal.

“The Mahsa movement caused the costly system of forced hijab to crumble. But in practice nothing changed, it got worse," in person said.

"A few women walking unveiled in the streets only benefits the wealthy; it does nothing for the millions who are starving. In fact, those who were killed and injured suffered the most. There’s no benefit for the poor.”

Beyond shortages of water and electricity, callers pointed to critical deficits in health and food supplies.

There are reports of shortages of essential medicines including treatments for rare diseases, cancer and chronic illnesses, as well as a scarcity of powdered milk and infant formula.

Rising food inflation has placed basic staples out of reach for many families. Still, messages of hope and a desire for change are widespread.

“Life has become much harder financially, socially and psychologically," one respondent said, "but we feel that a small spark, one small spark could become the final ax to tear down this tree of oppression."