The WikiLeaks document dump continues to kick up surprises.
A new diplomatic cable says the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard smacked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the face for suggesting easing restrictions on the press.
The February 2010 cable, classified secret and puckishly headlined, "He Who Got Slapped," quotes an intelligence source recounting a contentious meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
The Iranian bigs were trying to figure out what to do in the wake of Tehran's explosive pro-democracy street protests of 2009.
"Ahmadinejad claimed that 'people feel suffocated,' and mused that to defuse the situation it may be necessary to allow more personal and social freedoms, including more freedom of the press," the cable says.
It continues, "Ahmadinejad's statements infuriated Revolutionary Guard Chief of Staff Mohammed Ali Jafari, who exclaimed 'You are wrong! \[In fact\] it is YOU who created this mess! And now you say give more freedom to the press?!'
"Source said that Jafari then slapped Ahmadinejad in the face, causing an uproar," the cable says.
Iran denies the slap happened. A Revolutionary Guard spokesman told the Fars News Agency that WikiLeaks' publishers "invent false stories."
The leaked State Department cables have painted Iran as a great global pariah, with even many Arab countries privately urging the U.S. to attack before Tehran can get a nuclear bomb.
hkennedy@nydailynews.com
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