Special Report: Iran’s Leader Ordered Crackdown on Unrest: ‘Do Whatever It Takes to End It’

Special Report: Iran’s Leader Ordered Crackdown on Unrest: ‘Do Whatever It Takes to End It’
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during Friday prayers in Tehran Sept. 14, 2007. Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters-File
|Updated:

After days of protests across Iran last month, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared impatient. Gathering his top security and government officials together, he issued an order: Do whatever it takes to stop them.

That order was confirmed by three sources close to the supreme leader’s inner circle and a fourth official. It set in motion the bloodiest crackdown on protesters since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.