Thursday, August 13, 2009

Iran Calls for Ban on Striking Nuclear Facilities

VIENNA, Austria Iran, whose nuclear facilities are under threat of possible Israeli military strikes, proposed Wednesday that a 150-nation conference convening in the fall ban such attacks, according to the Charlotte Observer (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/551/story/884286.html).

Was there ever such "chutzpah"? Iran threatens to anihilate Israel with nuclear weapons, and yet it seeks a ban on attacking the weapons that would carry out the anihilation...! And the world will probably go along with this upside-down logic. The web site goes on to report:

Iran says the proposal, revealed to The Associated Press by diplomats and confirmed by a senior Iranian envoy, is not linked to veiled threats by Israel of an attack as a last resort if the international community fails to persuade Tehran to freeze its nuclear activities.
Instead, all of the diplomats said the Iranian initiative seeks support for a generally worded document prohibiting all armed attacks against nuclear installations anywhere, when 150 nations convene for the September general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.


"We are not worried about Israel," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief envoy to the IAEA. "Nobody dares to do anything against Iran."

He said an Iranian resolution will seek a worldwide ban on such attacks as "a matter of principle."


Ah, principles! yes, Iran is such a pricipled nation these days that it denies the Holocaust, threatens to wipe out Israel, arrests French and American tourists, - oh, almost forgot - rigs its elections and then executes members of its opposition.

Iran has a many "principles" as an alley cat: I wonder if the world will notice when 150 nations convene for the September general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

UN hails Ahmadinejad win: 69 Opposition said killed in protests

The United Nations said on Tuesday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose contested re-election sparked violent protests across the country.”

Thus it was reported in Ha’aretz this week, from a Reuters feed...

What is it with the UN? Have they finally, after so many, many, reprehensible actions – not least allowing Arafat to address them wearing a uniform and with his pearl-handed revolver strapped to his hip – actually lost their minds and their moral compass?

Fair-handeness is one thing: so, let’s be fair, Idi Amin was only looking after his own interests after all, and as a sovereign state was allowed to do what he wanted: Pol Pot was another beneficent mass-murderer who just got away with it for so long; the Sudan, Darfur, Eritrea, the Lebanon, Zimbabwe – where do they actually draw the line and say: “Enough”?

The answer is simple: they don’t. Iran can posture and fulminate and call for the destruction of Israel (another “member” state, mind you). Their scruffy little president (reminds me so much of another scruffy little corporal who came to power somewhere 75 odd years ago...) can deny history’s MOST iniquitous crime, riggs an election, throws the opposition into prison, murders them and the UN SecGen CONGRATULATES him???!!!

I think Ban Ki Moon should also send a congratulatory note to the rulers of Burma for the way they have treated Aung San Suu Kyi; or perhaps to the rulers of Darfur for their successful ethnic cleansing program. How about a medal parade for the brave Taliban, struggling against democracy and modernism and a tickertape parade for Robert Mugabe? After all, he’s won Zimbabwe’s elections a number of times - one man one vote rules: he was the one man with the one vote...

Am I pissed? You betcha...but I’m also highly amused, because we have to find some humor in this situation. You see, it’s just as Orwell predicted: Love is Hate, Peace is War, newspeak rules. And this (what follows) is how the world’s most enlightened 9sic!) leaders have reacted to Ahmawhatsitsface “official” re-election:

Among those leaders who withheld their congratulations to Ahmadinejad were U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A UN spokeswoman said Ban's letter, sent Monday, was a "customary letter on occasion of inauguration" but added that the text would not be made public. The United Nations routinely releases the content of such congratulatory messages.

Meanwhile, a top aide of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said Tuesday that he had handed over a list of 69 victims of the post-election crackdown to parliament. "The list, which was submitted Monday, included only those they could verify," added Ali Reza Beheshti when speaking to the Associated Press on Tuesday. He said the list also includes 220 detained and should by no means be considered exhaustive. He said the names came from the families of the victims and there were more coming all the time.