The most interesting thing I found was Ahmedinejad's clear separation of Israel as a political entity and the "followers of the prophet Moses" who he speaks inclusively of as monotheists like him. This flies in the face of his characterization in the west as an anti-semitic zealot.

As a secular non-monotheist myself, this singular focus on monotheism rubs me the wrong way, but Ahmedinejad is definitely for reconciliation between the believers of this one and the same God.

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Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), the great messenger of God, feel obliged to respect human rights, present liberalism as a civilization model, announce one's opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and WMDs, make "War on Terror" his slogan, and finally, work towards the establishment of an unified international community... but at the same time, have countries attacked, the lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed and, on the slight chance of the presence of a few criminals in a village, city or convoy, for example, [have] the entire village, city or convoy set ablaze?

There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation, their families cannot see them . . . there is no international monitoring of their conditions and fate. . . . European investigators have confirmed the existence of secret prisons in Europe, too. I could not correlate the abduction of a person, and him or her being kept in secret prisons, with the provisions of any judicial system.

Mr. President, I am sure you know how -- and at what cost -- Israel was established: Many thousands were killed in the process; millions of indigenous people were made refugees; hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland, olive plantations, towns and villages were destroyed. . . . Unfortunately it has been ongoing for 60 years now.

A regime has been established which does not show mercy even to kids, destroys houses while the occupants are still in them, announces beforehand its list and plans to assassinate Palestinian figures, and keeps thousands of Palestinians in prison. . . . Another big question asked by the people is, "Why is this regime being supported?"

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Ahmadi-Najad: ...their hands stained with the blood of others...on the pretext of the existence of WMDs, this great tragedy came to engulf both the peoples of the occupied and the occupying country. Later it was revealed that there were no WMDs to begin with.

Of course Saddam was a murderous dictator. But the war was not waged to topple him, the announced goal of the war was to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction. He was toppled along the way towards another goal...

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Of course, Ahmadi-Najad's moral outrage at the shocking crimes of US imperialism would carry more weight if the fate of Canadians like journalist Zahra Kazemi were different. When a Canadian is tortured in Iran everything else its President says is also "stained with the blood of others" until that issue is properly resolved.

Zahra Kazemi (~1949-2003)

There are some interesting comments from one fundamentalist to another...

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Ahmadi-Najad: Is the truth known to the Almighty lost as well? ... Would there have been an ever increasing Global hatred of the American governments?

The good will be directed towards Heaven and evil doers will meet divine retribution. I trust both of us believe in such a day ...belief in the Last Day....History tells us that cruel and repressive governments do not survive.

Mahmood Ahmadi-Najad
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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Of course, Ahmadi-Najad's moral outrage at the shocking crimes of US imperialism would carry more weight if the fate of Canadians like journalist Zahra Kazemi were different. When a Canadian is tortured in Iran everything else its President says is also "stained with the blood of others" until that issue is properly resolved. -N.Beltov

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Except that one is trotting the globe "spreading" democracy and human rights and the other never pretended nor attempted to do so.

Except that one has deliberately planned a war, coated his war-pill with lies and deceit and went ahead with his machines killing and maiming people thousands of miles away from his shores and the other has yet to be proven implicated in the horrendous murder of Zahra Kazemi.

[ 10 May 2006: Message edited by: sidra ]

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sidra: Except that one is trotting the globe "spreading" democracy ... deliberately planned a war ... the other has yet to be proven implicated in the horrendous murder of Zahra Kazemi.

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Of course the crime of war is far greater. You're right to point that out.

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Tudeh Party Statement: Following the first wave of arrests, security forces arrested three more active members of the Amalgamated Bus Company workers' union on Friday December 23rd. Contrary to the claims of (Tehran's Public Prosecutor) Judge Mortazavi, who is among the prime suspects in the murder of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, the charges against the union activists have no legal basis ....

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and more...

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The arrest of the workers' rights activists, who were fighting for their rights, had created a lawful and public syndicate, and were not involved in any acts contrary to the law, is not an accidental move by the regime. The attack on independent worker' unions and the arrest of workers' movement activists are part of the plan of the Ahmadi-Nejad regime to rein in, and control the workers' rights movement in our country.

Repression of the independent workers' syndicates, along with the threats, arrests and pressuring of journalists, writers,and progressive thinkers, women's rights activists in the main part of the same policies that the defenders of the regime - where a single person is the sole dictator, meaning the Valiye-Faqi - had in mind when their appointed president was put in place.

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Well, well, well. Seems there is a pretty strong connection, after all, in the minds of those on the left in Iran, between the death of Zahra Kazemi and the current President of the Republic, Mahmood Ahmadi-Najad.

Tudeh Party (click on "English")

I see that the Tudeh Party had some harsh words for the Iranian President in regard to some recent remarks about Israel.

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Tudeh Party: The deeply irresponsible comments made by Mahmood Ahmadi-Nejad, President of the regime of Velayat-e-Faquih in Iran, on Wednesday October 26 about "wiping Israel off the world map" has once again put Iran in a serious political crisis. The Tudeh Party Iran, along with all progressive and democratic forces of Iran and the world, condemns this foolish and vain posturing.

The extent of the international condemnation of Iran, has been such that in the past few days a number of the regime's commentators have been struggling to portray these comments as the re-iteration of the regime's previously expressed positions and not warranting special attention. But it is clear that these comments are contrary to the norm in international politics and for this very reason it was predictable that the United States and its allies in the European Union would take advantage of Iran's stance and orchestrate a comprehensive campaign against Iran; the first results of which were the unanimous condemnation of the Iranian President by the UN Security Council and the EU. Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, who has the current chairmanship of the EU, mentioned the possibility of military action against Iran for the first time. Condoleeza Rice also counted Iran's current policy as a clear justification for America's anti-Iran policies, and accused the Iranian regime of supporting international terrorism.

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