Yes, you read that correctly. The U.S. sent its condolences to Iran over Ebrahim Raisi’s death. At first I thought it was a sick joke. But no, it really happened.

The @statedept send its condolences on the death of Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi was overseeing the Ministry of Intelligence’s efforts to assassinate senior former U.S. diplomats, including Secretary Blinken’s predecessor, @mikepompeo, and my former boss Brian Hook. pic.twitter.com/O43cEOyVCs

— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) May 20, 2024

Which is absolutely egregious given that Raisi’s nickname as “The Butcher of Tehran” was well-deserved, as Sheila Nazarian knows from experience. 

Raisi, seen as a likely successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, gained notoriety in the early days of the Islamic Republic. In 1988, as a young deputy prosecutor in Tehran, he was appointed to the “Death Commission,” a group responsible for the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners. The victims were subjected to sham trials that lasted mere minutes. Raisi played a pivotal role in these proceedings, deciding who would live and who would be sent to the gallows. One former political prisoner wrote that Raisi “clearly reveled in having power over life and death, and he wielded it freely in thousands of cases during that summer’s massacre. For those who have dealt with him personally, Raisi symbolizes the death of hope,” wrote former Iranian political prisoner Mahmoud Royaei.

Tens of thousands of Iranians were murdered with Raisi gleefully giving the thumbs up or thumbs down on a whim. Furthermore, she reminds us that Raisi is a virulent anti-semite and Holocaust denier. Which he made very clear during his 2022 60 Minutes interview. 

Yes, he was indeed a butcher and a terrorist. So why in the world would the U.S. send condolences??!!

“There should be no word of sympathy from any member of the Biden administration for Raisi,” former National Security Council official Richard Goldberg, now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Post before the State Department statement came out.

“If a mass murderer in the United States died, no one would issue sympathy statements; they would issue statements of support for the victims. That’s exactly what we should be doing now.”

Or, as Bill Ackman asked on X, did anyone offer condolences when Hitler died? How about Pol Pot? Idi Amin? The list goes on. The optics are really horrendous at this juncture. 

This is US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood standing for a moment of silence in honor of the former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi today at the UN Security Council meeting.

Reminder: Raisi represented the government that calls for “death to America.” pic.twitter.com/7bkihCLkgT

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) May 20, 2024

Add to that, the Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Robert Wood STOOD for the moment of silence! What an absolute disgrace. 

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the moment of silence in memory of “mass murdering” Raisi a “disgrace.”

Erdan slammed the U.N. Security Council for doing nothing to advance the release of the remaining hostages who have been in Hamas captivity since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

This Council, Erdan said, “bowed its head for a man responsible for massacring and murdering thousands in Iran, in Israel, and around the globe. What’s next? Will the Council dedicate a moment of silence to commemorate Hitler?”

Again, the optics here are just horrendous and no matter the spin, the offering condolences to a mass murderer and terrorist is a complete and utter disgrace. 

Condolences? Why is the U.S. sending condolences for Raisi’s death?

Raisi ordered protesters be killed. He oversaw the systematic rape of women – and demanded gay men be hanged and thrown off buildings. pic.twitter.com/3Zq5bqjzmO

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 20, 2024

The spin itself is horrendous. 

Asked if the U.S.’ participation was appropriate, Miller clarified that “we have been quite clear that Ebrahim Raisi was a brutal participant in the repression of the Iranian people for nearly four decades.”

Miller pointed to Raisi’s involvement in “numerous horrific human rights abuses, including playing a key role in the extrajudicial killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.”

“Some of the worst human rights abuses occurred during his tenure as president, especially the human rights abuses against the women and girls of Iran,” Miller said, but qualified: “That said, we regret any loss of life. We don’t want to see anyone die in a helicopter crash. But that doesn’t change the reality of his record, both as a judge and as the president of Iran.”

Do these people even HEAR themselves? Do they even pay ATTENTION to the reality that Raisi was, bluntly, a terrorist and a butcher who slaughtered thousands of Iranians? No, they evidently do not. 

‘On one hand, there was the brutal repression and mass murder. On the other hand, he hated Israel almost as much as we do.’ #MixedLegacy https://t.co/2PxZqQgDQh

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 20, 2024

Then we add in the Chaplain of the United States Senate!

The Senate Chaplain just offered a prayer for the Butcher of Tehran: "Lord, we pray for the Iranian people who mourn the death of their president." pic.twitter.com/FDjzJKFXCJ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 20, 2024

We have moved beyond disgraceful to contemptible. At least Mitch McConnell was present to essentially blast the chaplain and offered up one helluva response to this horrific pander-fest. 

“I too would like to extend my condolences to the people of Iran for their long suffering under the brutal, theocratic rule of the Islamic Republic,” he said. “I suspect a great many Iranians would rather Western admirers stop lionizing a man known as the ‘Butcher of Tehran’ for executing political prisoners. They might prefer that foreign leaders not further legitimize the regime that actively represses all of them.”

It doesn’t surprise me that the United Nations, NATO, and the EU are pandering. But the U.S. should’ve known better, but did so anyway to continue their strategy of appeasement. Offering condolences to the “Butcher of Tehran” was and will always be a disgrace.

Feature Photo Credit: Raisi in 2018 via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and modified