THE SPINE JUNE 18, 2010
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MEMRI is the most authoritative source on news from the western Maghreb to Pakistan, concentrating on the Middle East and western Asia. It publishes a daily blog on Iran. Here is today’s:
Iran - June 18, 2010
The following is research published today from the MEMRI Iran Studies Project (www.memri.org/content/en/country.htm?country=iran), including reports from the Special Dispatch Series, the MEMRI TV Project, and the MEMRI Iran Blog.
Special Dispatch No. 3043 – Iran/Lantos Archives on Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial/U.S. and the Middle East
Ahmadinejad: The Jews Only Seem Human; We Are Advancing Step By Step Towards Implementing Our Plan to Change the World; From This Point Forward, We Will Act to Deliver the American People From Its Dictatorial Government
In a June 16, 2010 speech in the city of Shahre-Kord, in central Iran near Isfahan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated his anti-Semitic world view, calling the Jews the worst of criminals and claiming that they only appear to be human. Ahmadinejad also hinted at his apocalyptic outlook, saying that whoever relies on God's might need fear no one. He added that his regime is consistently and successfully acting to change the world order and spelled out his government's new mission – to liberate the American nation from the "undemocratic and bullying" regime that oppresses it.
The speech, which marked a year since the first announcement of President Obama's call for support of the Green movement – which Ahmadinejad called interference in Iran's domestic affairs – reflected an apparent policy of retaliation for every Western action. This was evidenced in Iran's response to the fourth round of anti-Iran sanctions, which include searches of Iran-bound ships, in which Iranian officials announced that Iran would conduct its own searches of Western ships in the Persian Gulf. In the same vein, in response to U.S. support for Iran's Green movement, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran would act to deliver the American people from its dictatorial government by aiding opposition activities against the U.S. government.To read the full report, visit http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4386.htm.
Special Dispatch No. 3044 -- Iran
Brother of Iranian Leader Khamenei Warns Against Second Islamic Revolution by Messianic Circles Led by Ahmadinejad and Khamenei
In a May 2010 speech at the Organization for Honoring the Imam Khomeini, Hadi Khamenei, the younger brother of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, harshly criticized his brother's policy of allowing members of the messianic Hojjatieh circle to infiltrate the ranks of the regime – in clear contravention of the instructions of Islamic Revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In 1980s, the Hojjatieh circles in Iran, which held that no Islamic government should be established until the Hidden Imam (the Shi'ite messiah) appeared, clashed with Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1983, the Hojjatieh announced that they were stopping their activity due to his vehement religious opposition to their views, and thereafter they remained on the political and religious margins in Iran. After Ali Khamenei's appointment as supreme leader, and especially after the rise to power of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they began to act in the open again, and today, their influence on the regime's centers of power is significant. Ahmadinejad is apparently affiliated with the Jamkaran group within the Hojjatieh, which is led by his mentor, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi.
Hadi Khamenei's criticism of his brother, Supreme Leader Khamenei, focuses on the leader's legitimization of the messianic Hojjatieh circles in their penetration of regime circles, their inculcation of their messianic outlook, and their takeover of the centers of power. These messianic circles make frequent statements about the imminent appearance of the Hidden Imam; for this, they are criticized by Iran's traditional ayatollahs, who reject the legitimization and politicization of the messianic stream in the Shi'a.
In his speech last month, veteran oppositionist Hadi Khamenei warned against a messianic coup within the Islamic Revolutionary regime, by the very same figures who had in the past opposed the path of Islamic Revolution founder Ayatollah Khomeini.
It should be noted that Hadi Khamenei's daily newspaper Hayat-e No was shut down by the regime in December 2009 because of its opposition to Ahmadinejad.
To read the full report, visit http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4387.htm.
*MEMRI TV Project – Iran Focus (www.memritv.org/content/en/country.htm?country=iran)
MEMRI TV Clip No. 2512 – Iranian Official Nasser Al-Sudani Criticizes Lebanon for Abstaining in the Iran Sanctions Vote, and States: It Is Forbidden for Iran to Produce Nuclear Weapons at Present
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2512.htm.
In Iran Friday Sermon, Ayatollah Jannati Condemns Security Council Sanctions, Criticizes Ahmadinejad For His View On Hijab Enforcement
In his sermon today, Tehran interim Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati condemned the UN Security Council's June 9 anti-Iran resolution, and said that Iran would turn the resolution threats into an opportunity.
Jannati, who is Iranian Guardian Council secretary, told the crowd at the Tehran University campus: "God willing, and under wise leadership of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ali Khamenei and through the people's backing, we will turn the threats into opportunity, thus bringing the U.S. disgrace."
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27910.htm.
IRGC Warns West Not To Enter 'Dangerous Game' Of Inspecting Ships
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representative in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Hojjatoleslam Ali Saidi, has warned the West not to enter the "dangerous game" of inspecting Iranian ships.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27913.htm.
New Software Increases Iranian Ability To Censor Foreign Films
An official of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) said on June 16 that that new software has increased the IRIB's capability to censor foreign films.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27912.htm.
Iranian DM: Ban On Selling Weapons To Iran Has No Impact
Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has mocked the ban on selling weapons to Iran, saying that it will not affect Iran because Iran has independent capabilities and can even export weapons to other countries.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27899.htm.
France To Iran: Safeguard Protest Leaders' Lives
The French Foreign Ministry has demanded that the Iranian authorities safeguard the lives of the leaders of the protest movement, particularly that of Mehdi Karroubi.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27887.htm.
Cartoon In Lebanese Paper: First Anniversary Of Ahmadinejad's Reelection
Cartoonist: Hassan Bleibel
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27856.htm.
Iranian Daily: Egyptian President Mubarak – Israeli Soldier In Civvies
The Iranian daily Jomhouri-e Eslami writes that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is an "out-of-uniform Israeli soldier in the army of the Zionist regime," and calls him the main obstacle to the breaking of the siege on Gaza.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27855.htm.
Coca Cola, Nestle Investigated In Iran For Their Mossad Connection
The Iranian news agency Fars reports that Iran is conducting an investigation into a possible connection between the Coca Cola and Nestle companies, which market their products in Iran, to the "Zionist Mossad."
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27833.htm.
Ahmadinejad Mentor: Iran Must Create 'Special Weapons'
At a convention of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, the mentor of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that anyone who denies the "rule of the jurisprudent" is an apostate.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27831.htm.
Iranian Official: Egypt Has Authorized Iranian Delegation to Enter Gaza
Majlis National Security Committee chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Egyptian parliament, Mustafa Al-Fiqi, has authorized the members of the Iranian flotilla, which is to arrive via the Suez Canal, to enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/27788.htm.
Ahmadinejad: No Need to Cool Relations with China
Speaking in China on June 11, 2010, immediately after the latter voted in favor of sanctions on Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the relations between the two countries were warm and that there was no obstacle to developing and strengthening them further.
To read the full report, visit http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/27785.htm
22 comments
“The failure to take seriously what the Nazis themselves said is comprehensible enough. There is hardly an aspect of contemporary history more irritating and mystifying than the fact that of all the great unsolved political questions of our century, it should have been this seemingly small and unimportant Jewish problem that had the dubious honour of setting the whole infernal machine in motion. Such discrepancies between cause and effect outrage our common sense, to say nothing of the historian’s sense of balance and harmony. Compared with the events themselves, all explanations of anti-Semitism look as if they had been hastily and hazardously contrived, to cover up an issue which so gravely threatens our sense of proportion and our hope for sanity.” ("The Origins of Totalitarianism" Hannah Arendt)
- noga1
June 18, 2010 at 8:45pm
Victimhood flavor of the day.
- roidubouloi
June 19, 2010 at 1:22am
"Victimhood flavor of the day." No better example needed than Roi's disdainful and malevolent to illustrate Arendt's point: "The failure to take seriously what the Nazis themselves said is comprehensible enough. There is hardly an aspect of contemporary history more irritating and mystifying than the fact that of all the great unsolved political questions of our century, it should have been this seemingly small and unimportant Jewish problem that had the dubious honour of setting the whole infernal machine in motion... " "Intelligent woman, on being offered a book dealing with antisemitism and German atrocities: "Don't show it me, PLEASE don't show it to me. It'll only make me hate the Jews more than ever." (George Orwell)
- noga1
June 19, 2010 at 8:34am
No better example needed than Roi's disdainful and malevolent response to illustrate Arendt's point...
- noga1
June 19, 2010 at 8:35am
what George Orwell wrote about antisemitism in 1945 applies today when reading the news out of Kyrgyzstan, which offers a lesson to the one-state Israel proponents, not that they will see the lesson (the Uzbeks in Osh are building barriers to keep the Kyrgyz government OUT). btw, Uzbek refugees are now estimated at one million, yet no one is asking about the bizarrely contorted boundaries of the nation of Kyrgyzstan that Stalin created. Orwell continues: "...The point is that something, some psychological vitamin, is lacking in modern civilisation, and as a result we are all more or less subject to this lunacy of believing that whole races or nations are mysteriously good or mysteriously evil. I defy any modern intellectual to look closely and honestly into his own mind without coming upon nationalistic loyalties and hatreds of one kind or another. ..." http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/antisemitism.htm
- K2K
June 19, 2010 at 10:10am
"Victimhood flavor of the day." This is ignorant and stupid. Forewarned is forearmed!
- jdyer
June 19, 2010 at 11:08am
When the leader of a country that wants to acquire nuclear weapons call you "sub-human" you better sit up and take notice. You should take notice if you don't want to become a victim. This is especially true of those who call themselves "realists."
- jdyer
June 19, 2010 at 11:22am
Iran: "calling the Jews the worst of criminals and claiming that they only appear to be human." [Ahmadinejad is hooked on Twilight vampire movies?] Turkey: on the 'Israel card': "...Hasan Cemal from the Milliyet daily says election fever has already surrounded the political arena, adding that political party leaders are eyeing the ballot boxes. Stating that the elections will be held in the fall of this year at the earliest, Cemal says: “For this reason, we should bear in mind that every step and word of [AK Party leader Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, [Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal] Kılıçdaroğlu and [Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet] Bahçeli is linked to the elections. For example, Erdoğan will not speak much about sensitive issues such as the Kurdish initiative and the Armenian issue during this period,” Cemal says. He thinks that Erdoğan will adopt a more nationalist discourse at election rallies this time when compared with the last elections, which were held in 2007. “From this perspective, Israel’s violent piracy served him well. Recent polls show that AK Party’s votes have increased by a few percent. Erdoğan can play this ‘Israel card’ in the election rallies,” he says. ..." http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/columnists-213493-possibility-of-early-elections.html (sarcasm) what a relief to know Israel is a political card populated by those who "only appear to be human" DEBKA reports that the USS Truman and eleven warships passed through the Suez Canal, out of the Mediterranean and into the Red Sea. This is so under-reported that I can not tell if that is the entire carrier group with the German anti-missile frigate. Egypt did a great job with security. A reminder as to why Hamas is such a threat to everyone in the world.
- K2K
June 19, 2010 at 2:58pm
Like I said, victimhood flavor of the day, with the usual applause from the usual flagellants. "When the leader of a country that wants to acquire nuclear weapons call you "sub-human" you better sit up and take notice." Yes, choral whining. Good idea. Should solve the problem. Just what Zionism is about.
- roidubouloi
June 19, 2010 at 9:52pm
Then there's the other approach to a grave threat -- build apartments, and make that a high foreign policy priority. What genius! Ben Gurion would be astonished at the decadence of Zionism.
- roidubouloi
June 19, 2010 at 9:54pm
"Like I said, victimhood flavor of the day, with the usual applause from the usual flagellants. "When the leader of a country that wants to acquire nuclear weapons call you "sub-human" you better sit up and take notice." Yes, choral whining. Good idea. Should solve the problem. Just what Zionism is about." Absolutely. All Israel has to do is stop building new apartments in Jerusalem and Iran will cease its nuclear efforts, Ahmadinejad will stop threatening her with extermination and the Arabs will come with arms stretched out for peace. roi seems to have trouble finding enough words in the dictionary to express his utter contempt for Israelis and their supporters. If you want to see who roi's fellow travelers are, just google "decadent Zionism" and see what the term yields and who uses it most often.
- noga1
June 19, 2010 at 10:15pm
I have trouble finding enough words in the dictionary to express my utter contempt for you. Language has its limits.
- roidubouloi
June 19, 2010 at 10:38pm
I don't mind one little bit any contempt from you, roi. You are like the Ahmadinejad of the Spine blog.
- noga1
June 19, 2010 at 11:33pm
Ahmadinejad? Why, two days ago it was Shylock. And I have quite lost track of your other florid analogies, at least half the Austen canon it seems. Your groping is pointless. A sociopathic liar cannot insult, as an effective insult must contain some grain of truth. Given the depth of your pathology, you haven't a clue.
- roidubouloi
June 20, 2010 at 12:54am
Der Spiegel now has all seven parts to "The Birth of a Bomb: A History of Iran's Nuclear Ambitions" By Erich Follath and Holger Stark. good map and photos too. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,701109,00.html noga: "Absolutely. All Israel has to do is stop building new apartments in Jerusalem and Iran will cease its nuclear efforts, Ahmadinejad will stop threatening her with extermination and the Arabs will come with arms stretched out for peace." Well stated! can a psycopathic bully be found in literature?
- K2K
June 20, 2010 at 9:02am
"can a psycopathic bully be found in literature?" Well, Aunt Norris was one. Uriah Heep, Mr. Bounderby ("The bully of humility"), Bill Sykes (from "Oliver Twist"). I think Dickens had a talent for drawing a sociopath. "Your groping is pointless. A sociopathic liar cannot insult, as an effective insult must contain some grain of truth. Given the depth of your pathology, you haven't a clue." Projecting again, roi? I withdraw my Shylock analogy. It does his character a disservice to be compared to you. But Ahmadinejad remains.
- noga1
June 20, 2010 at 9:22am
psycopaths lack empathy, so not sure any Austen character is relevant. Dickens "Mr Tulkinghorn — the Dedlock family lawyer. Scheming and manipulative, he seems to defer to his clients but relishes the power his control of their secrets gives him over them. " from wiki Bleak House. I would add Tulkinghorn's vendetta against young Jo(e) seals the psycopath definition. Dickens had it right about lawyers. have to admire Benjamin Kierstein's view of looking beyond the U.S. lead on Iran, though admit my own thoughts are very similar "...It is impossible, for course, for such disparate interests [Israel, Russia, France, Germany, China, India, and Sunni Arabs] to band together in any formal way, but a quiet, tacit alliance of convenience – and, perhaps more importantly, fear – is by no means unthinkable. ...The truth is that even a cursory look at the big picture reveals a strong majority of nations whose interests stand to be damaged by the emergence of a hegemonic Iranian theocracy. ..." http://newledger.com/2010/06/the-inevitable-nuclear-iran/ Seems the DEBKA idea that at least one Israeli 'warship' joined the USS Truman [Motto: The Buck Stops Here] carrier group through the Suez Canal got picked up by some media. No matter what the pundits write, Iran is facing a tense summer with Truman and Eisenhower armed and ready offshore. I assume France's sole carrier, the DeGaulle, is still in the Mediterranean. The deployment of the Truman group to the Persian Gulf in addition to, not in relief of, the Eisenhower is why I still retain a glimmer of hope.
- K2K
June 20, 2010 at 11:00am
"psycopaths lack empathy, so not sure any Austen character is relevant. " You are right. Aunt Norris can be categorized as a rather straightforward sadist.
- noga1
June 20, 2010 at 11:03am
There can be no literary analogue of noga. A character so monotonically deceptive and twisted in perception would be both too boring and too incredible for fiction. Hence, one must look to real life to find the proper analogy. I have no need to change my mind from one day to the next about the proper analogy for noga. I had it right the very first time -- Goebbels and his relationship to truth: There is no truth, only useful lies and useless lies. That is noga, the relentless, sociopathic liar in what she imagines is the service of a cause. This is decadent Zionism, no self-respect, no responsibility, self-loathing, accusation upon accusation, complaint upon complaint, falsehood upon falsehood. Pitiful and pathological. Truly.
- roidubouloi
June 20, 2010 at 11:28pm
roid: go to more weddings - everyone here welcomes the absence of your psycopathic derangement and abusive attacks
- K2K
June 20, 2010 at 11:59pm
Wow, missed a couple days of reading while I was ill. Looks like the fur has been flying. While we're in a literary vein, Roi is reminding me ever more of Alfred Jarry's mad king, Ubu Roi. With the caveat that Jarry's character, although wonderfully incoherent in similar ways, was much less nasty than our own roi of ubu.
- willjames77
June 21, 2010 at 10:34am
Sorry, K2K, weddings and the company of normal people (that specifically would not include you) are lovely, but there is still work to be done here. For one, we have the continuing spectacle of you with your head firmly planted up your ass, unable to see any daylight, and desperately in need of help to get it out of there. In one breath you spew abuse, in the next you complain about it. If there is anyone here at TNR who qualifies as a bona fide clown, completely at sea and completely unaware of it, it is you. I must admit, I find it difficult to muster any serious ire in your direction because you are such a hopeless idiot. Every shot from you feels like being gnawed on the ankle by a two-year-old. And enter the lists, willjames. Still smarting, little willy, because I called you on that inane remark you made about how the best first example of a conservative "policy alternative" is a satiric music video? Oh poor baby. Have noga kiss it for you and make it better. If you believe that when someone is abusive here they should expect a condign response -- as I do -- then it is open season on you, little willy. You want to play, fine. Then we shall play. A big welcome to you to the nasty little prick club -- that's you, a nasty little willy. I do believe that you didn't just stumble in here, but are the genuine article. Not at all the gentle man you like to imagine yourself to be. So, let the games begin. (But no whining! Nothing worse than being one of the little cowards, the wannabe tough guys, who talks big can't take a hit.)
- roidubouloi
June 21, 2010 at 6:03pm