In the Western experience, social justice and even democracy are not real. You see, today, in the advanced Western countries there is no opposition, in the true sense of the word; the disagreement is over whether or not to attack Iraq: an overwhelming majority of one party is in favor of attacking; whereas, another is in favor of the invasion with a lesser majority. In France, a politician believes that Israel must be treated in a certain manner; whereas, another politician believes that Israel must be dealt with in another manner. The same is true in Austria and other places. The fight is not over the accepted principles of those countries; or, that the person who opposes those principles be allowed to enter elections or campaigning scenes, or be taken into account; that is not the case. In the last presidential election in the U.S., a person who belonged to neither of the two famous parties in the U.S. entered the arena. Although he was wealthy and spent a lot of money, he was not even allowed to reach the initial stages of the election. He was pushed out of the scene by various methods.
There [in the West], the media are free. But, to whom the media belong? The media belong to major corporations. In the United States, freedom of media is equal to free speech for the capitalists. The main press belongs to them. The most important printing houses and book publishers belong to the capitalists. One of the current officials had written a book in English about the takeover of the spy den [former U.S. Embassy in Iran]. This respectable official told me: “All the publishers in the United States refused to publish this book, because major publishers were affiliated with capitalist systems, so we had to go to Canada. We finally managed to find a publisher in Canada that accepted to print this book.” He said, “The Canadian publisher contacted me later and said that since he had made the commitment to publish this book, he received phone calls, threatening his life!” Real freedom of speech and freedom of choice do not exist in the West, in the sense they claim they exist.
Two years ago, all the press wrote that a high-level security officer in the United States was identified as a spy for the former Soviet Union, and then spying for the current Russian state. He was arrested, and they interviewed him. I read this interview in an American magazine; it was either Times or Newsweek. They asked him: "You were a high-security officer, why did you spy on behalf of foreigners?" He answered: "I was dreaming of a small villa and a comfortable life, but it was not possible for me!" This is the life of a high-level officer who has to spy, in order to gain a small villa for himself; despite his critical and sensitive position!
Imam Khamenei, May 9, 2005