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Iran's President Launches Blog

Posted by samzenpus on Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:05 AM
from the does-he-have-a-friends-list dept.
02bunced writes "The BBC is reporting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has started his own blog, the launch of which was announced on Iranian State TV. This is perhaps slightly ironic, given that the Iranian Government actively censors blogs on the Internet."
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  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2006, @10:07AM (#15902788)
    He had to start his own blog, the infidel CmdrTaco kept rejecting his "Was there a Holocaust?" poll.
    • by ettlz (639203) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:36AM (#15903062) Homepage Journal
      He had to start his own blog, the infidel CmdrTaco kept rejecting his "Was there a Holocaust?" poll.
      Hmm. Suddenly "pwn j00" takes on a very, very dark meaning.
    • Re:He Had No Choice (Score:4, Informative)

      by Rei (128717) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:47AM (#15903161) Homepage
      Just for your reference, here's a nice page on the sticky issue of translations and how they've been spun against Ahmadinejad [informatio...house.info].

      Ahmadinejad, like many people in the middle east, believes that the number of Jews killed by Germany during WWII is frequently greatly overstated. While, in the opinion of most (including myself), this is an unjustified viewpoint, it is certainly much more defensible than the "there is no holocaust" claim that a lot of people think he made. He talks about the "myth of the Holocaust" in reference to the claim that "six million Jews" were killed. His comments were that people have created this myth of six million Jews being killed and then using it to justify everything that Israel has done ever since, and that even if that was true, this is an unfair line of reasoning.

      Oh, and as per the "wipe Israel off the map" comments, that's a much worse mistranslation. He never used any language even close to that. He talked about his hope that the "occupying regime" would fall, akin to how the Shah fell, Saddam fell, and the Soviet Union fell. His speech was completely passive (didn't discuss any involvement from Iran) and spoke nothing of harm to the people in the state of Israel.

      Anyways, my point is... you don't have to agree with him, but it's only fair to accurately represent what he says.
      • by BobTheLawyer (692026) on Monday August 14 2006, @11:08AM (#15903339)
        There are almost no Holocaust deniers who say that "there was no Holocaust" - instead their standard operating procedure is to claim the numbers were exaggerated, say the deaths were an unintentional or inevitable part of the wider war, and to claim there is uncertainty about the history without making the slightest attempt to read the extensive literature (which must amount to literally millions of pages). Those who take this approach *are* denying the reality of the Holocaust, as it is generally understood, whether they admit it or not. Ahmadinejad's rhetoric - his use of the word "myth", his attempts to setup a Holocaust Conference, fits right in with the likes of David Irving, and it is not at all unfair to say that he is a Holocaust denier.
        • by iggymanz (596061) on Monday August 14 2006, @11:53AM (#15903716)
          why is it bad to say the initial numbers given right after ww-ii might have been exaggerated? The number of estimated deaths at Auschwitz, for example, has gone from millions to under one million in my lifetime. Millions of pages of textbooks from Jewish/Pro-Zionist educators, however well intentioned, might be a biased source. Yet sadly people who should be for honest historical truth turn into foaming rabid zealots if anyone wants to discuss or examine evidence. Revising or questioning an inaccurate historical account is neither anti-semitic nor an act or racial hatred, though of course there are those hate groups that engage in "revisionism" for the purposes of promoting anti-jew hate. But there are other folk like myself who are fascinated with history, and really want to know the numbers of Jews and other groups of people who were tortured, enslaved and mass-murdered by the Nazis and those who allied with them, and how many died in what manner. Making that subject taboo has exactly the opposite of the intended effect.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2006, @11:14AM (#15903381)
        From here [memri.org]:


        "'Imam [Khomeini] said: 'This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history.' This sentence is very wise. The issue of Palestine is not an issue on which we can compromise.


        "'Is it possible that an [Islamic] front allows another front [i.e. country] to arise in its [own] heart? This means defeat, and he who accepts the existence of this regime [i.e. Israel] in fact signs the defeat of the Islamic world.


        "'In his battle against the World of Arrogance, our dear Imam [Khomeini] set the regime occupying Qods [Jerusalem] as the target of his fight.


        "'I do not doubt that the new wave which has begun in our dear Palestine and which today we are also witnessing in the Islamic world is a wave of morality which has spread all over the Islamic world. Very soon, this stain of disgrace [i.e. Israel] will be purged from the center of the Islamic world - and this is attainable.


        The phrase "purged from the center of the Islamic world" is pretty damn close to "wiped off the map".

        So much for your apology for genocide.

                • by Jagasian (129329) on Monday August 14 2006, @05:17PM (#15906536)
                  Are Jews and non-Jews given the same opportunity in Israel for immigration and citizenship? No. Can a Jew and a non-Jew be legally married in Israel? No. If an Israeli Muslim marries a Palestinian, can the Palestinian gain Israeli citizenship? No. There are many laws in Israel that discriminate against non-Jews. Most of these laws are in place due to Israel's official stated purpose: to forever remain a Jewish nation. If Jews and non-Jews were given total equality, then more non-Jews would immigrate than Jews, more non-Jews would be born than Jews, etc... The population, culuture, and government would slowly become non-Jewish.

                  Compare that with the USA. The first ammendment alone forbids such laws. So the USA is secular, while Israel is not. This isn't talked about much in the West, because criticizing Israel is not politically correct in many Western nations, especially the USA.
      • Re:He Had No Choice (Score:5, Informative)

        by badasscat (563442) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .57tedacssab.> on Monday August 14 2006, @11:52AM (#15903701) Homepage
        Ahmadinejad, like many people in the middle east, believes that the number of Jews killed by Germany during WWII is frequently greatly overstated. While, in the opinion of most (including myself), this is an unjustified viewpoint, it is certainly much more defensible than the "there is no holocaust" claim that a lot of people think he made.

        Whether or not there was a holocaust is wholly dependent on the "number" of Jews killed. That's the whole point. If six Jews were killed instead of six million, that's not exactly a holocaust, is it? Playing this sort of numbers game is what the holocaust deniers do to try to get you to admit that there was no holocaust.

        I just saw Mike Wallace's interview with this guy last night. While he didn't say the holocaust was a "myth" this time, he did say "if there was a holocaust, where did it take place?" as if he's just throwing the idea out there for the sake of argument. He also played the same numbers game that all of the holocaust deniers play. And there is no point in debating the translation - he has a personal translator with him at all times so that the translation cannot be argued.

        as per the "wipe Israel off the map" comments, that's a much worse mistranslation. He never used any language even close to that. He talked about his hope that the "occupying regime" would fall, akin to how the Shah fell, Saddam fell, and the Soviet Union fell.

        The guy is a master of double-speak. Mike Wallace directly challenged him on this "wipe Israel off the map" comment and he never once denied it. Wallace asked him what he meant by that and he refused to answer, repeatedly, basically saying it was a 3 page answer and Wallace wasn't giving him the time he needed. Eventually he did say that Israel should not be located where it is - that sounds a lot like "wipe Israel off the map" to me.

        Whenever he was asked an uncomfortable question, this was basically how he responded - Wallace also asked him yes or no if he'd like to re-establish a relationship with the United States, and his initial stab at it was "well, let us ask first who broke off ties in the first place?" Wallace asked him again, regardless of who broke off ties, yes or no would he like to re-establish them? He then launched into another history lesson. Wallace interrupted - "yes or no, why won't you answer the question?" Then he got mad - "is this multiple choice? These are complicated questions!" This is basically the guy's MO - say all kinds of crazy things, then when he's pressed for clarification, launch into a life story that's got nothing to do with the issue at hand in an attempt to confuse.
        • by Knara (9377) on Monday August 14 2006, @12:32PM (#15904026)
          The simple fact is that the creation of the state of Israel is justified by the Holocaust of WWII. There is no other way that the survival of Israeli people and culture can be assured without an independent state, and there is no other region of the world that could be used by the Israeli people other than their own historic region.

          Wow. Now, while I would have to agree that killing large amounts of people based on their ethnicity is a Bad Thing(tm), how exactly does that entitle them to their own country? Furthermore, how does it make the survival of that ethnic group the responsibility of everyone in the world? How many ethnic groups have faded from history over time? What makes the Jews more special than those extinct ethnic groups? And what about the other groups that the Nazi's rounded up and killed en masse. Do the Gypsies and the homosexuals get their own homelands, too?

          Additionally, "the only one they can use"? It was kind of in use before they came back. How was that area more appropriate (ignoring the geopolitical reasonings by the US and what not) for use than any other in terms of letting them set up a government and economy? For that matter, there's probably a lot of other more appropriate (and easier to survive in) places than where they are now. If they'd been given part of Brazil, you think they'd be having the problems they have now? Unlikely.

            • by Knara (9377) on Monday August 14 2006, @02:11PM (#15904928)
              The fact that we are not animals. We are rational and, therefore, we become conscious of the suffering of others.

              If you feel it is necessary and proper for us to be guiding the fates of other countries, I suppose.

              The fact that they aren't extinct yet.

              Israel would be extinct without our aid, obviously. This, however, does not mean the Jews would be extinct. You're committing the common error of equating Jews with Israel. This had not been the case for almost 2000 years until mid-last-century.

              If the Gypsies had an original homeland, yes. But, different from Jews, their culture was never associated to any particular land. Homosexuals are not a nation. I'm not saying that any group of people have a right to their own land, only those groups which came to exist associated with a land, like Germans, Italians, Scots, Tibetans, Navajos, Kurds, Armenians, etc.

              See above. By your logic we should be not only evacuating the US to allow the native american tribes to take back their ancestral homelands, but seeking out the proper persons who are the true heirs to Babylon.

              So, if you are willing to roll back history cancelling the effect of foreign domination on that land, it should be given to the Ottoman Empire, which ceased to exist in the 1920s.

              Not only that, but really if you want to go the whole way on that, the Caananites had it first, even by Jewish reckoning. I have no problem giving the land back to their descendants. Do you?

              The same can be said of Palestinians.

              Sure. Except that the Palestinians were there for the Jews' 2 millenia absence from the place.

              Why do you assume Brazilians would be more willing to give up part of their territory than the Arabs? If that's a solution, then why doesn't Iran or Syria give part of their countries to the Palestinians?

              Simply put, because there's more usable, unoccupied land in Brazil than in the middle east. But that wouldn't satisfy the people who believe, rather irrationally, that the Jews *need* a state (as if a concentrated effort by a organized nation state couldn't conquer them just as well all in one place as Nazi Germany did with them spread out across Europe), nor the American evangelicals who believe the return to existence of Israel is a sign of imminent messianic return.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2006, @10:22AM (#15902957)
        Of course it was rejected. The Iranian president forgot to include "Cowboy Neal" as one of the poll answers.
        Oh shit man, you used your username (Krell). Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just went public with a list of 34 Slashdot user names that he's got a Jihad against.

        There's probably nothing to worry about ... but you just made the list.
  • Governmentisement? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by metasecure (946666) * on Monday August 14 2006, @10:08AM (#15902792)
    When clicking through to the address referenced by the BBC story ( www.ahmadinejad.ir ) , and then clicking "English" (at the bottom left of the page) it takes you to http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/index.aspx [ahmadinejad.ir] , which does not contain the blog and reads like a big advertisement for the "National Integrated Services Network". I wonder if they will survive a slashdotting.
  • by melonman (608440) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:08AM (#15902795) Journal
    is the fact that it's hosted on Windows (which we know from the .NET error page it was showing this morning).
  • by krell (896769) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:10AM (#15902816) Journal
    I decided to visit it and was reading all the nasty stuff he said about Jews and Booze. Then I found out I was on Mel Gibson's blog by mistake.
  • i like (Score:5, Funny)

    by namekuseijin (604504) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:10AM (#15902819)
    i like the "Decapitations of the day" section. :P
  • Where's the irony? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Daniel Dvorkin (106857) * on Monday August 14 2006, @10:10AM (#15902825) Homepage Journal
    Leaders have always tried to simulatenously exploit and control the power of whatever media was current at the time. Does anyone doubt that the skald who came up with the original version of Beowulf was paid off to chant about the virtues of the king -- and knew exactly what would happen if he didn't? Through the age of pamphlet, newspaper, radio, and TV, nothing changed; I don't see why we should be terribly surprised now that it's ON THE INTERNET (tm).
    • Well, he also has a myspace. On it, he lists his favorite activities as "long walks on the sand dunes, researching nuclear weapons... I mean power plants, and torturing those with opinions different from mine".
  • by kalidasa (577403) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:10AM (#15902829) Journal
    Before we start seeing a "The CIA is trying to prevent the world from reading my blog by using a distributed denial of service attack" posting when the real problem is that the site is hosted on Windows and has been slashdotted?
  • Where's the irony? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by slofstra (905666) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:12AM (#15902852) Homepage
    Let's see. A tyranny that restricts others' use of communication media while at the same time fully exploiting it's potential for propoganda purposes. That is unusual.
  • Next up... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Russ Steffen (263) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:12AM (#15902853) Homepage
    So, does he have a MySpace page yet? Or is he a Facebook kind-of-guy?
  • His webserver is MS, and it was down earlier. From Georg Greve's blog: Technical difficulties all around [fsfe.org]

    Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has no problem being dependent on US software, which in turn has no problem failing on him.

    • I've seen a similar view. I've been to IOI'96 -- a guy from the Iranian team actually defended the censorship, claiming they have only a single 56k link (as of 1996) for the whole country on purpose! For them, faulty software/network has its benefits as it pulls people away from the "American way of life".
  • by $RANDOMLUSER (804576) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:13AM (#15902855)
    I'm sure all his posts will be calm, reasoned, factual and well stated.
    • I've read some of his stuff, and he actually seems very intelligent and capable of logical reasoning. You just, well, kinda have to get past his hatred of Jews, refusal to recognize Israel, fascist ideology, Holocaust denial, and slavish adherence to a pretty obviously false religion. (I think most of those are just to maintain his support from Iranians.)
    • by owlnation (858981) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:38AM (#15903072)
      I'm sure all his posts will be calm, reasoned, factual and well stated.
      Sure, that'd be nice. Though I don't see why his blog should be different from all the others.
    • by Red Flayer (890720) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:50AM (#15903184) Journal
      Well, his opinion of American imperialism is reasoned, factual, and well-stated (remember the letter he wrote a few months ago?), as is his observation of the irony of Christians (purportedly) taking very un-Christian actions.

      His response to American imperialism is a little less calm, but I suspect it is definitely reasoned pretty thoroughly.

      Of course, it's quite possible to come to a logically correct conclusion that is still false, if one's precepts are false.
  • Not surprised (Score:5, Informative)

    by Denial93 (773403) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:14AM (#15902868)
    His job basically amounts to representative/propaganda roles because he doesn't have any significant executive powers. And he's certainly more competent at it than a couple of other politicians. Try his letter to Bush [wikisource.org] for a preview of what he's going to write there.
  • by Starker_Kull (896770) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:15AM (#15902875)
    If you are going to crack down on a common method of dissemination of information, make sure you replace it with one of your own that repeats what you want to be heard, ad nauseam. Right out of Goebbel's playbook. For a guy who doesn't think the Holocaust happened, he sure seems comfortable using the same rhetoric and early tactics.
  • by 02bunced (846144) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:16AM (#15902880) Homepage Journal
    Just in case it doesn't survive Slashdot...

    In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate Oh Almighty God, please, we beg you to send us our Guardian- who You have promised us- soon and appoint us as His close companions.

    During the era that nobility was a prestige and living in a city was perfection, I was born in a poor family in a remote village of Garmsar-approximately 90 kilometer east of Tehran. I was born fifteen years after Iran was invaded by foreign forces- in August of 1940- and the time that another puppet, named mohammad Reza - the son of Reza Mirpange- was set as a monarch in Iran. Since the extinct shah -Mohammad Reza- was supposed to take and enter Iran into western civilization slavishly, so many schemes were implemented that Iran becomes another market for the western ceremonial goods without any progress in the scientific field. Our Islamic culture would not allow such an infestation, and this was an impediment in front of shah and his foreign masters' way. Thus, they decided to make this noble and tenacious culture weak gradually that Iran be attached strongly to the west as far as its economy, politics, and culture was concern. After the implementation of this policy and the unreal and outward of upswing, the villagers began to rush to the cities. Upon the enforcement of the land reform, the status of the villages became worst than the past and villagers for earning some breadcrumbs, they were deceived by the dazzling look and the misleading features of the cities and became suburban and lived in ghettos.

    My family was also suffered in the village as others. After my birth -the fourth one in the family- my family was under more pressures. My father had finished 6 grade of elementary school. He was a hard-bitten toiler blacksmith, a pious man who regularly participated in different religious programs. Even though never the dazzling look of the world was appealing to him, but the pressure of the life caused that he decided to migrate to Tehran when I was one year old. We chose to live in south central part of Tehran where is called Pamenar.

    My father used to buy newspaper all the time. I remember one day, when I was in first grade, by looking through a newspaper - with the help of the adults in our house- I read the news of the capitulation passage by the shah's so called "parliament." Even though I did not understand the meaning of that issue at that time, but due to the protests and the objections of the religious schools of thoughts with the leadership of Imam Khomeini -Almighty God bless his soul- and the relentless reaction of the extinct shah, I realized that Mohammad Reza attempted to add another page to his vicious case history which was the humiliation and indignity of the Iranian people versus Americans. That was the year that the extinct shah slaughtered many followers of Imam Khomeini.

    Imam Khomeini was released from prison. I never forget Imam Khomeini's speeches during those years which was very persuasive and appealing. You would hear the strong faith to Almighty God in his orations. He invited the people to pure Islam. His message was invitation to the belief of monotheism- Unity and Oneness of God- and also justice, elimination of oppression, injustice and sedition in the world. He was courageous and had a valiant heart. He spoke firmly and securely. His orations were simple and honest. The people accepted his guidance sincerely. Due to these characteristics, he was a beloved leader for every individuals-young or elderly. Of course he was a disgrace for shah's regime and his Americans masters. Notably, even among his enemies, he was respected with a special honor.

    Eventually, the existence of Imam Khomeini was unbearable for the extinct shah and he could not tolerate him any more. Since they knew if they kill him-as they did a great number of his followers- the bloody uprising can not be controlled. Consequently they decided to exile him in order to separate the leader from his followers and to restrain th
  • by MikeRT (947531) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:28AM (#15902991) Homepage

    It's good enough for him, but not his own people [instapundit.com]. This guy is a menace. He's neither stupid nor insane and is in fact the closest thing the region has ever seen to a leader who could fill in the shoes of a Middle Eastern Hitler. Read some of Mike Wallace's comments about him after an interview with him [codemonkeyramblings.com], if you think he is such a joke.

  • Whois infomation (Score:3, Informative)

    by ems2 (976335) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:41AM (#15903095) Homepage
    domain: ahmadinejad.ir
    remarks: (Domain Holder) Mahdi Ahmadi Nejad
    remarks: (Domain Holder Address) Motahari Ave. at Raham St. Tehran, IR 1567718571
    admin-c: nic38790h87
    tech-c: nic38790h87
    zone-c: nic38790h87
    nserver: ns1.nisn.ir
    nserver: ns2.nisn.ir
    source: NICIR # Filtered

    person: Mahdi Ahmadi Nejad
    remarks: ---
    address: Pasteur Sq., Pasteur St., Peresident Office
    e-mail: president.irsite@gmail.com
    phone: 64451
    fax-no:
    nic-hdl: nic38790h87
    source: NICIR # Filtered
    I feel for Google, now they unfortunately have to put up with Ahmadi Nejad. Maybe that we-can-read-your-email clause is useful.
  • Syndication (Score:3, Funny)

    by skamp (559446) on Monday August 14 2006, @10:44AM (#15903117)
    I'm surprised his weblog doesn't have an Atom [ietf.org] feed. His engineers must still be working on it...
  • VIRUS Warning (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dougman (908) on Monday August 14 2006, @12:08PM (#15903830)
    Link on the left of the new blog pops a "HTTP MS IE File DragDrop Embed Code" in Norton. Is this intentional or not? You decide.

    Check out http://olehgirl.blogspot.com/2006/08/pres-ahmadine jad-trying-to-infect.html [blogspot.com]