[lit-ideas] Re: Public criticisms of Ahmadinejad in Iran
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2006 13:17:13 -0800
There was too much slander, insult, rudeness, and sarcasm for me to take the
writer of the article seriously; so I didn't read it all the way through.
But the portion you quote below isn't accurate. I have discussed the
pro-American majority in Iran any number of times, but the "hardline
flibbertigibbet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" was elected president by this Iran the
author thinks utterly freer than we think. Ahmadinejad's views were well
known when he was leader of the Pasdaran. He advocated bombing Israel and
Britain and spoke of targeting the U.S. So why take joy in the words of an
out-of-office former president?
I recently discussed the case of Soroush. He voiced his anti-regime
opinions and was forced to flee Iran for his life. After Khatami became
president, Soroush was legally able to come back and do anything he liked,
but the Hizbollah Helpers caught him and beat him so badly that he decided
to hide out while in Iran and vary his schedule each time he went any place.
Whether he feels free to return now that Ahmadinejad is president I don't
know. So yes, Khatami can speak out. He is very popular in Iran. Perhaps
Ahmadinejad won't feel free to shut him up. I'm sure there would be a
popular backlash if he did, but all this is a long way from saying Iran has
a pluralistic society that is just as free as a Liberal Democracy. People
are still being executed for their political views in Iran.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Omar Kusturica
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 12:44 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Public criticisms of Ahmadinejad in Iran
Therefore it must have come as a great shock to the
system for Americans this week to hear Iran's former
president, Mohammad Khatami, rail against the ignorant
Holocaust revisionism mouthed by his successor, the
hardline flibbertigibbet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
(Excerpts after the jump below.) Or rather, it would
have come as a shock to the American system to hear
Khatami's words - if Americans had actually been told
about them. But it serves no interests among America's
own ruling cliques to dilute the current line of the
day: that Iran is a hellhole of unremitting evil, a
new Nazi Germany led by a new Hitler. So Khatami's
remarks, reported widely elsewhere in the world, were
not allowed to disturb the lie-drugged slumber of the
American consciousness.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=511&Ite
mid=1
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