[Dean's World] Dave Price: Is Amer Taheri A Liar? (Or, "Those Wacky Leftists")

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Posted by Dave Price:
Is Amer Taheri A Liar? (Or, "Those Wacky Leftists")
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1195669301.shtml


   Hmmm. According to Aziz:

     He essentially invented - or at best was spoon-fed - the story
     about jews wearing yellow ribbons in Iran.

   What Taheri said was [1]basically correct -- the law was actually
   being discussed at one time.

     The Associated Press reported from Tehran that the draft law, which
     has received preliminary approval, would discourage women from
     wearing Western clothing
     ...
     the requirement that Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians wear special
     insignia might be part of an older version of the Islamic dress
     law, which was first written two years ago.

   We know how the Iranian government "[2]discourages" [3]people. It's
   sad that such a brutally repressive government finds willing defenders
   (or Tools, if you will) here in the free West.
   At worst, Taheri can be accused of exaggerating the insignia issue; he
   certainly did not invent the concept. Similarly, Taheri's claim about
   the Ayatollah's quote seems to be grounded in reality:

     The quote can be found in several editions of Khomeiniâs speeches
     and messages. Here is one edition:
     Paymaha va Sokhanraniyha-yi Imam Khomeini (âMessages and Speeches
     of Imam Khomeiniâ) published by Nur Research and Publication
     Institute (Tehran, 1981).

   In Aziz' link, though, we get analysis from a Professor Bakhash, who
   can't find the book.

     Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University looked into the quote, and
     has written the following for a private newsletter for Gulf
     experts:

   Hmm, he seems credible; after all a professor must be objective,
   right? Oops, no, it turns out Bakhash has been [4]feuding with Taheri
   for 20 years. Gee, odd the other article doesn't mention that. Seems
   somewhat relevant, given that the person they're relying on to look
   for the quote has every reason to not find it. This is like asking
   DailyKos to find evidence the Bush Guard memos were fake.
   Taheri's statemment isn't a supposed 1971 memo clearly typed in MS
   Word or a secret [5]Christmas in Cambodia supposedly ordered by a
   President who hadn't been sworn in yet, this is just a quote someone
   who doesn't like Taheri couldn't find.
   Aziz' Khrushchev quote is also interesting, because it illuminates
   how, in these the halcyon days of American military preeminence, it's
   often forgotten that we had nukes not so much because of the fear of a
   Soviet nuclear strike (we had nukes first, after all, and no one
   thought the atheist Communists were seeking glorious martyrdom) but to
   deter the Soviets' massive conventional superiority. Our forces were
   greatly outnumbered in Europe, and we needed the threat of a nuclear
   response to keep a river of Soviet tanks from rolling through the
   Fulda Gap and crushing free Western Europe.
   And Iran poses a special problem for another reason as well: the
   regime can't survive without oil revenue, and someday that oil is
   going to run out. At that point, facing their own end, they may decide
   to take as many infidels with them as they can, or at the very least
   engage in some N Korea-style nuclear blackmail. This inevitability
   renders the whole "are they suicidal" point moot, and reduces the
   question to "are they capable of such atrocities?" Anyone want to bet
   a billion lives they aren't?
   Again, I'm not on board with Podhoretz' plan for bombing Iran. It's
   unnecessarily disruptive; the world should instead simply stop
   financing their building of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, that will
   almost certainly not happen because, as in the Cold War, too many
   useful idiots in the West are intent on minimizing this latest threat
   to civilization.

References

   1. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1148108954.shtml#68835
   2. http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/11/news/edmenard.php
   3. http://pageoneq.com/news/2005/IRAN_GAY_EXECUTIONS_D0812.html
   4. http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000796.php
   5. http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Christmas