Ahmadinejad blasts Paul the octopus

TEHRAN, July 27 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Paul the octopus -- famed predictor of World Cup games -- is a tool to spread "Western propaganda and superstition."

Ahmadinejad said in a speech during the weekend that the octopus is a symbol of his enemies' "decadence and decay," the Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," Ahmadinejad said in one of several references to the animal.

Workers at Germany's Oberhausen Sea Life Center, where Paul lives, presented the mollusk with two boxes containing food, each with a team's flag on the outside. Paul opened the box of the eventual winner each time he was presented with a choice.

Paul correctly predicted the outcome of all of Germany's seven World Cup matches, going on to choose Spain over the Netherlands in the World Cup final.