Ahmadinejad continues to stump for Israel's destruction

"They (world powers) should not think that the Iranian nation and other nations in the region would take off their hands off the throat of the Zionists and their supporters."

Ahmadinejad also reaffirmed his opinion that "Zionists" should move to empty lands in Europe or North America and out of the Middle East entirely.
(The News)

That quotation in the first paragraph (from Ahmadinejad) flips off the United Nations.

The claim is based on the belief that, as of the original sweep of Islam through the region of Palestine, the land itself belongs under Islamic rule.

By 651 C.E., the last of the Persian emperors had been assassinated. Portions of the Byzantine Empire, notably Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, fell rapidly to the Muslim armies.
(World Civilizations)

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Classic (Updated)

clipped from article.wn.com

The guy on the right is probably a greater danger to the world, oddly enough.

Sean Penn seems to be taking his sweet time publishing his story on Hugo Chavez. If this keeps up I'll start thinking he's either afraid for his life or that Chavez won't invite him back.

Update:
It seems reasonable to ask whether the photo above (assuming it's not Photoshopped!) reflects a chink in the argument that a secularist will not cooperate with a religious extremist.

Remember how there was no way that a Baathist like Hussein would cooperate with Sunni extremists?

Ahmadinejad at Columbia

If anyone from Columbia University is interested in seeing how Ahmadinejad played them in front of the Islamic world, here's a taste:

Ahmadinejad rose to applause, and after a religious invocation said Bollinger's opening was "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here".

He blamed the university president's "unfriendly treatment" on the influence of the US media and politicians ahead of his visit.

"Many parts of his speech were insults," he said. "We actually respect our students and the professors by allowing them to make their own judgments."

(Al-Jazeera)

Do read the entire thing to get the full effect. Those arrogant Americans!


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Bush lied again?

WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush charged Monday that Iran has openly declared that it seeks nuclear weapons -- an inaccurate accusation at a time of sharp tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"It's up to Iran to prove to the world that they're a stabilizing force as opposed to a destabilizing force. After all, this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon," he said during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
(The News)

Oh, really?
It's at least true that Iran has tended to deny that it is seeking nuclear weapons--but occasionally they let their intentions slip.

The clerics in Iran have more power than President Ahmadinejad.

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies. In yet another sign of Teheran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time questioned the theocracy's traditional stance that Sharia law forbade the use of nuclear weapons. Missiles beside a portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei One senior mullah has now said it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.

The News reported that the White House said that Bush was talking about Iran's actions. If that's the case, then he could pick a better word than "proclaimed"--or at least modify it by adding "by its actions" afterward.

I can't say I trust the press. Nor am I completely confident in the Administration's explanations of the president's statements after the ridiculous response they made during the "16 words" brouhaha.