# Killing Khamenei > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Killing Khamenei," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/killing-khamenei/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's assessment that the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei during the 2026 war would change nothing, because the West had seriously overestimated his authority — an argument he extends to the American habit of expecting a war to end when a leader is removed.* - **Kiriakou's assessment:** The West "seriously overestimated Ayatollah Khamenei's authority" - **What his authority covered:** "The final word on religious issues" - **Predicted succession:** Another extremist; a new supreme leader within days - **Analogy used on the programme:** Killing the Pope simply produces another Pope - **Wider claim:** "Regimes radicalize in times of war" **Killing Khamenei** was raised with [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) by an Iranian viewer during the 2026 war, who asked what the Supreme Leader's death meant for the future of the regime and said he feared that another extremist would be chosen and the cycle would continue. Kiriakou agreed with the fear and disagreed with the premise behind the killing. *"That, I think, is exactly what's going to happen,"* he said of the succession.[1] ## The overestimated office The substance of his answer is an argument about how much power the office actually carried. *"You know, and the thing, too, is that I think that in the West, we seriously overestimated Ayatollah Khamenei's authority."*[1] He concedes the authority that existed and confines it: *"Certainly, he was the final word on on religious issues. Certainly. But, you can take him out and have literally nothing change."*[1][2] The comparison offered on the programme — that the effect would be that of killing a Pope — Kiriakou adopted and repeated after a push notification reported that the Iranian foreign minister expected a new supreme leader within a day or two: *"So, there it is right there. Nothing changes. It You can take out the Pope and there's just going to be another Pope."*[2][3] ## The general error Kiriakou treats the decapitation strike as an American habit rather than a single miscalculation, endorsing the observation put to him that Germany fought on beyond Hitler and that nothing about American daily life would change if a president were killed today. His own gloss is that a besieged leadership will do the opposite of collapsing: it will *"project continuity in order to maintain domestic control."*[4][5] He adds the historical rule that follows: *"regimes radicalize under in times of war. That's just sort of history."* The protests inside Iran, even at three hundred people, are in his reading exactly what makes a threatened government harden rather than yield.[5] ## The fatwa The sharpest consequence Kiriakou draws is about the war's own justification. Iran's nuclear abstinence rested in part on a religious ruling by the man who had just been killed; a friend of his had observed the day before that *"the next Iranian grand ayatollah or or supreme leader is just going to issue a new fatwa revoking the old fatwa and calling for a nuclear uh uh weapons program."* Kiriakou's response was unqualified: *"Of course they will."*[6] ## Whose line it is Kiriakou has been careful about the provenance of the analogy. Asked on 3 March 2026 for his opinion of Ali Khamenei as a leader and as a person, he answered by crediting his co-host: *"You know, Ted, yesterday I did an interview, I don't even remember I've done so many, I can't remember with whom. I did one last night. And I stole one of your lines that really went over well."*[7] The line he had borrowed was the papal comparison. *"Killing uh Khamenei is like killing the Pope. You kill the Pope, you don't bring down Catholicism. They just pick another Pope."*[7] Applied to Iran, the analogy carries a sting the original does not: *"killing uh Khamenei is not going to bring down Iran or Shiism. They're just going to pick another Grand Ayatollah. And he may be worse."*[7][8] The succession that followed — [Mojtaba Khamenei](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mojtaba-khamenei), the dead leader's son — is the case the analogy anticipated. ## See also - [Iran Posed No Threat](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/iran-posed-no-threat) - [Chaos As The Israeli Objective](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chaos-as-the-israeli-objective) - [Iran Nuclear Assessment](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/iran-nuclear-assessment) - [Marco Rubio And Iran Policy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/marco-rubio-and-iran-policy) ## Sources 1. John Kiriakou & Ted Rall's Live IRAN WAR Q&A / DeProgram Show (2026-03-01), at 04:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDJSeo-Et0&t=251s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-john-kiriakou-ted-rall-s-live-iran-war-q-a-de/ 2. John Kiriakou & Ted Rall's Live IRAN WAR Q&A / DeProgram Show (2026-03-01), at 04:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDJSeo-Et0&t=282s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-john-kiriakou-ted-rall-s-live-iran-war-q-a-de/ 3. John Kiriakou & Ted Rall's Live IRAN WAR Q&A / DeProgram Show (2026-03-01), at 05:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDJSeo-Et0&t=343s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-john-kiriakou-ted-rall-s-live-iran-war-q-a-de/ 4. John Kiriakou & Ted Rall's Live IRAN WAR Q&A / DeProgram Show (2026-03-01), at 05:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDJSeo-Et0&t=313s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-john-kiriakou-ted-rall-s-live-iran-war-q-a-de/ 5. John Kiriakou & Ted Rall's Live IRAN WAR Q&A / DeProgram Show (2026-03-01), at 06:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDJSeo-Et0&t=373s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-john-kiriakou-ted-rall-s-live-iran-war-q-a-de/ 6. John Kiriakou & Ted Rall's Live IRAN WAR Q&A / DeProgram Show (2026-03-01), at 20:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swDJSeo-Et0&t=1222s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-john-kiriakou-ted-rall-s-live-iran-war-q-a-de/ 7. Regime Derange / DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-03), at 53:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Fa5y2PaKY&t=3183s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-regime-derange-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jo/ 8. Regime Derange / DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-03), at 53:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Fa5y2PaKY&t=3214s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-regime-derange-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jo/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/killing-khamenei/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt