Iran’s Ahmadinejad: Sharon dead and “others to follow suit”

Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd of theological students in the holy city of Qom on Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon “has joined his ancestors and others will soon follow suit”, according to the state-run Mehr news agency.

Ahmadinejad’s announcement of the death of the Israeli Prime Minister comes at a time when Sharon was reportedly fighting for his life on Thursday after a massive brain stroke.

Iran’s state-owned media and newspapers have been reporting the Israeli leader’s deteriorating health condition with evident glee. In a statement put out by state-run news agencies, the Headquarters for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement said “the death of Sharon brings joy to the hearts of Muslims”.

Ahmadinejad dwelled on his recurrent theme that the return of the Shiite Messiah, the Mahdi, is not far away and Muslims must prepare for it. “We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return”, Ahmadinejad said, referring to the Shiite Muslim belief that the Mahdi, on his return, will establish justice in a world consumed by chaos and corruption.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5165

sons brought joy to many Americans-complete with pictures to gloat over.

The Mahdi? The Christ? Evil vs good? It is so confusing.

180

http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=205012&n=31

The middle east will change again with new leadership in Israel. I think it's going to light up like shock and awe before it's over.

will never be able to resume his dutied. It is a whole new ballgame.

in a Schroedinger-cat-like state of not dead nor alive for a long time. But it is pretty clear he will not regain consciousness, much less power.

...is sounding more and more like a CIA plant, the new Saddam/Noriega/Ayatollah/Hitler.

He has a "surprise" win in the Iranian election. He immediately starts lobbing nuclear rhetoric toward the Israel and the US, alienating even the Europeans that support Iran. He marginalizes the growing moderate politcal movements in Iran. He is as much as painting a nuclear bullseye on his own country with little to show for it politically.

Oh yeah, he is also purported to be one of the "ringleaders" of the original Iranian hostage crisis, which ushered in the era of the "global Islamic terror threat," just in time for the "collapse" of the Russian threat. It also paved the way for the first Reagan Administration, the birthing ward of the current fascist neocon cabal.

All so neat and tidy.

:tinfoilhat:

Somebody had to say it.

because we want an excuse to strike. If * thought Iraq was tough wait until you have 78 milion Iranians on our back. It might be the end of the world as we know it.

That's why they're so scary. Even Saddam was thinking about his nation's, or at least his own, self-interest. He'd never have attacked the US because he knew what would happen to Iraq. But this guy is a religious fanatic, and he's not thinking about the best interests of Iran or even his own political career. The benefit to him is bringing about a war that will usher in the Messiah.

:(

He claims that god put a halo of light around him at the UN, then said the Holocaust isn't real, now he is practically admitting he wants to nuke Israel. He's begging for action to be taken aginst Iran. I wouldn't blame Israel for taking out their nuclear capabilities after this statement.

hands full with Iraq...

And he's trying to provoke Israel into a first-strike so we can have WWIII in the middle east.

With this asshole egging them on.

"...and others will soon follow suit". I think Mr. Ahmadinejad has something in mind. I think it involves Israel.

Let's not forget Russia recently sold missiles to Iran. China is a big ally of that country. (BIG). India is also purchasing natural gas and oil from them, so they're buddies. Venezuela is also a friend.

Iran is very powerful. I've read articles which say that this country, and not Saudi Arabia has the world's largest supply of oil. They definitely have the world's largest supply of natural gas. So they're unbelievably wealthy.

Bush better take some lessons in charm and not rub these people the wrong way. Let's just hope that goddamned idiot doesn't shoot his mouth off too much, so he provokes this POWERFUL leader. Got it, George?

he named them part of an 'axis of evil'. All the talk of going to war there doesn't help either.

As far as this guy is concerned, I'm beginning to wonder about him. He seems like the perfect person to have as Iran's leader right now, as far as the neocons are concerned. How great it must be for them to have him making public statements like that. He really is helping their agenda! In fact, they couldn't have hired a more perfect spokesperson for war in Iran, had they thought of it! :sarcasm:

Either that, or he's a complete nutcase who is literally giving the PNAC crowd what they want. Even Saddam knew better than that. Very convenient to have there right now with neocons just itching for war in Iran.

http://www.iranterror.com/ sister site.

Iran Focus (www.iranfocus.com): The MKO Propaganda Machine

http://www.payvand.com/news/05/sep/1122.html
By Nema Milaninia, Iranian Truth

I’ve written several times about my distrust of several news sources by hard-line monarchists or the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organziation (a.k.a MKO, MEK, National Council of Resistance of Iran, NCRI, People's Mojahedin of Iran, PMOI, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojahedin-e-Khalq ) as well as those who rely on these sources as "news". Reading news from one of these agencies isn't about reflecting on different interpretive accounts of events. This isn’t like choosing between the New York Times and Washington Post where there are different “spins” on the same source of information. Both the Time and the Post believe they are being objective, but in different ways. Relying on news sources by hardline monarchists and the MKO, is about choosing an agency that absolutely lies or exaggerates incidents in order to enhance their own political objective. Let us take Iran Focus as an example. In the past I have noted that Iran Focus is a agency run by the MKO for various reasons:

1) The current executive director of Iran Focus is Mohammad Hanif Jazayeri. Hanif is the son of Hassan Jazayeri. Until three years ago, Hassan Jazayeri was rumored to have died in 1980 as a result of being abandoned by MKO and Iraqi trainers. Later the story was changed to Hassan being executed by the Iranian regime for his membership with the MKO. Given Iran and the MKO's history of human rights abuses, I won't argue which is the correct account. Before Iran Focus was ever created, Hanif has time after time advocated his support for the MKO. In fact, earlier this year Hanif was engaged engaged in a campaign to remove the MKO from the UK’s list of terrorist organizations (it is worth noting that the MKO is also included in the State Department's list of terrorist organizations.)

Additionally, in various posts dated in1998 and 1999, Hanif has advocated his support for the MKO as Iran’s only "democratic alternative."

Hanif's signature also appears on this petition supporting the MKO cause.

2) Iran Focus along with its sister site Iran Terror (look at the website designs and stories as well as the website for the MKO and you can easily see they're created by the same designer) are registered in London and Paris respectively. In fact both organizations, including the MKO, tried to allege that the Human Rights Watch report illustrating all the human rights abuses committed by the organization was a result of some conspiracy between HRW and agents in the Iranian government. A response to the allegation can be found here. I'd like to add that the "Gulf 2000 list" which Iran Focus and Iran Terror refers to is a listserv with hundreds of academics, politicals, and thinkers on the Persian Gulf with different political viewpoints. Nevertheless, the Iran Terror email refers to emails sent in the listserv as "secret emails" which they had intercepted.

3) The Iran Focus website uses language supporting the MKO cause. There are particular ideological positions and phrases which MKO members and supporters use. By continously using the MKO as Iran's "democratic alternative" both the Iran Focus and Iran Terror websites intend to create the misleading image that the group, as well as their political counter-part NCRI, are legitimate proponents of human rights and democracy with a significant backing inside and outside of Iran. Read this article, this article, and this article for an image of the type of propaganda used by the websites.

As I stated before, the purpose of both Iran Focus and Iran Terror is twofold: 1) to disseminate information for political purposes and enhance a movement for external regime change and 2) legitimize the MKO in Western government by removing them from terrorist lists and enhancing their political influence. The sum of these objectives is to persuade Western govenments to militarily engage Iran in order to replace with Mullahs with the Mujahedin.

That being said there's a variety of reasons to view the MKO news agencies and similar modules as instruments of propaganda as opposed to instruments of news.

First, the organization is a terrorist group under both US and European law. The State Department continues to list the MKO as a terrorist group. Although MKO agents have claimed that the inclusion was part of Clinton's appeal to the reformist government in Iran, the argument is no longer cogent in light of the fact that during Bush's 5 years in office he has yet to remove the MKO as a terrorist group despite significant political pressure by various neo-conservatives (this includes Daniel Pipes who currently has a chair with the US Institute of Peace) and various Republican Congressmen. (see this article for a summary of US political figures who have been lobbyed by MKO representatives and supporters). Not only were the MKO were designated as a terrorist group under executive order on November 2, 2001, but the President used the MKO as an example of Saddam’s support for terrorism during the drive up to the Iraqi war:

Iraq shelters terrorist groups including the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which has used terrorist violence against Iran and in the 1970s was responsible for killing several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians.

By their very nature as a terrorist organization, information by them should not be trusted. Lets put it that way, would you trust al-Qaeda or Hizbollah about news in the US or Lebanon?

Second, the MKO have demonstrated time and time again the extents for which they'll engage a disinformation campaign for purposes of propaganda. For example, the MKO continously contend that no Mujahedin member has targeted Americans or Europeans figures during acts of terrorism. These arguments are clearly false in light of the following:

- In 1973, the MKO assassinated Lt. Col. Lewis Hawkins, a U.S. military advisor in Iran.
- In 1975, MKO members shot and killed two U.S. Air force officers in Tehran and attacked a U.S. Embassy van in Tehran resulted in the death of a local employee.
- In 1976, the MKO assassinated three American employees of Rockwell International working in Iran.
- In 1979, the MKO openly supported the holding of US hostages until 1981 when they began directing their attention to Khomeini.

Whether or not the MKO targeted Americans or not is a irrelevant argument anyways. Terrorism anywhere is terrorism everywhere regardless of our relationship with its targets. Evidence of MKO propaganda in Iran Focus is also apparant when we compare their report to a report by the Washington Times concerning a recent MKO event. The Iran Focus report indicates that there were thousands of participants, while the Times only reports 300. See a similar report where Iran Focus reported that over 40,000 participants intended to protest in Berlin. Interesting for an organization that is only reported to have 10,000 members.

Lastly, the MKO are highly disliked and disregarded by Iranians worldwide. During the Iran-Iraq war, the Saddam Hussein financed and utilized the MKO to institute several attacks against Iranians. (Note: the MKO were also responsible for assisting Saddam Hussein suppress Shiite and Kurdish uprisings in 1991.) It is no suprise, therefore, that most Iranians regard the MKO as a cultish organization. There is no statute of limitations against murderers or conspirators to murder, nor is there one for terrorists and those who conspire with terrorists. Similarly, the MKO do not gain immunity for their previous actions simply by refraining from targeting European and American targets for 30 years. Nor have they in the eyes of Iranians.

For all these reasons I note that Iran Focus, Iran Terror, people who rely on the two for information, and all affiliated groups should not be used as a source of "alternative information." There's nothing alternative about propaganda, regardless of if it addresses the same human rights issues which we are concerned with. "The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted."

I would like to note that often those who do not share the same political sentiments of the MKO or hard-line monarchists are branded as “apologists” as if to place them in the same group as hezbollahis. We are not apologists when we wish freedom Iran based on principles of reconciliation and accountability. To do so would be similar to saying that opponents to the Khmer Rouge were apologists when the Cambodian government was committing human rights abuses in the early 70's. As Congressman Bob Ney rightfully stated, “Opposition to the Mujahedin is not the same as support for the regime in Iran.”



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Last Updated on: 01-DEC-05

Administrative Contact:
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Iran Focus
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IRAN'S hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said overnight that he hoped Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was dead and wished the same for the rest of the Jewish state's leaders, the ISNA student news agency reported.

"Today you will all have heard, and I hope that this is final, that the criminal of Sabra and Chatila has rejoined his ancestors," Mr Ahmadinejad said referring to Sharon's alleged role in the massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese militiamen in Beirut refugee camps in 1982.

"God willing, the others will join him soon," he added.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17743940%255E23109,00.html

Rightwing hate radio here. They outright lie, and by the time someone tries to correct the lie, the impression is already out there? If that's true, then the above article should be ignored. Sounds like all those Jeff Gannon, rightwing backers or the OSP where lies are cooked up and disseminated to the public ~

Pardon the previous pun, but can't we all move past this whole savior frame of mind. Start with trying to save the planet.

That would be something. And then we can all see a superhero grudge match similar to Godzilla vs. King Kong.

through the religious leaders of all time into separate fables.

Just like "God" itself.

"“We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return”, Ahmadinejad said..." That sounds so familiar!

this guy wants to be a martyr and have a Holy War...

He's been backed into a corner and its pretty ugly...

... the parallels between him and Curious George are just a lil' frightening.

Both trying to play themselves off as 'humble men of the people' ... both believing in and
hoping to hasten their culture's version of 'the Rapture' ... both stating they have a direct connection to 'God' ...

I wondered for a second if they didn't highlight those things to show (upon viewer reflection) how totally nuts our Fuhrer is, too.


:shrug:

I certainly saw the parallels & it seems like the reporter tried to really highlight the similarities to Bush (w/o being outright about it).

in the middle of the night, to tuck him in.

While it is very possible that Sharon is indeed dead, this source is acting more from political expediency and desire than any reliable information. Please wait for a posting from a source that not only has gravitas, but also some measure of journalistic validity.

Lithos
DU Moderator