President Ahmadinejad believes his chest-thumping. I don't think Supreme Leader Khamenei does, because Supreme Leader Khamenei's great concern about cultural invasion and a velvet revolution suggests he thinks his regime is in fact in danger and that the people don't support it. I think their Supreme Leader greatly exaggerates the extent to which the regime is in danger. But this is a man who throws reporters in jail, and in the case of Canadian Iranian reporters, he kills them. The hasn't happened to American Iranians, but there are lots of them who have been thrown in jail, because this regime is so paranoid about their activities that it thinks they could bring about an overthrow.
So it would seem to me that Khamenei's concern is how to use the nuclear program to force the west to back off and not to provide support for non-governmental organizations. And I say the “west” advisedly, because in my prepared remarks, I quoted from an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps statement this last week that held forth about the grave dangers to Iran from the Dutch. It's the first time I've heard the Dutch described as a great world power in some centuries.