Posted on 05/09/2006 11:12:27 AM PDT by RightOnTheLeftCoast
bfl
Hey code one, whats the color of the sky in your world?
Well, I guess this settles the debate over whether Iran's President was inviting US President George W. Bush and the American people to Islam.
From the horse's .... errr ... ummm... mouth.
Laura
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0605110155191821.htm
President says his letter to President Bush was invitation to Islam
Jakarta, May 11, IRNA
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that his letter to President George W. Bush did not concern the nuclear dossier, but rather was an invitation to Islam and the prophets culture.
He made the above remarks in reply to a reporter while attending press conference on his letter to President Bush in Jakarta in the afternoon of the third day of his stay in Jakarta.
Stressing that the letter was beyond the nuclear issue, the chief executive said that in principle, the country's nuclear case is not so significant to make him write a letter about it.
"We act according to laws and our activities are quite clear. We are rather intent on solving more fundamental global matters.
"The letter was an invitation to monotheism and justice, which are common to all divine prophets. If the call is responded positively, there will be no more problems to be solved," added the president.
The president said that the letter actually contained a clear message of invitation to human beliefs, adding that its response will determine the future.
Concerning Iran's readiness to hold talks with the US, he said that Iran is in favor of dialogues, but it depends on the conditions.
"We hold talks with our allies, such as Indonesia, quite smoothly. However those intending to speak to us with authority should attempt to change their attitude," he added.
About the possibility of military attack on Iran, he said that psychological war is quite likely and expressed his doubt about the military option.
In response to a question about suspension of enrichment, the president said that Iran will agree to suspend the process only if all those having access to nuclear fuel will suspend theirs and let their relevant facilities be inspected.
"Otherwise, we do not find it necessary to suspend our uranium enrichment and consider the call for it as unfair and will continue to reject it,"
In reply to another question whether Iran will need the assistance of other Islamic states in its nuclear issue, he said that the country has the potential to defend itself.
"However, given that we do not merely defend our own nation, we wish to feel the presence of our allies, including Indonesia as one of our closest friends," he added.
In response to a question about Indonesia's mediation between Iran and the US, he said that if such dialogue has to take place for the sake of global peace and detente, Iran prefers Indonesia to be one of the negotiators.
That should be in Breaking News I would think. This thread is falling to the bottom
This falls into the same class as 9-11 before 9-11. The perps who tried to knock the towers down in '93 said their brothers would knock them down. It was difficult to believe what they said and we all know the rest.
Don't hold your breath for an answer. He/she/it be ZOTTED.
This article (below) by Amir Taheri sheds a lot of light on just how "into the messianic stuff" Ahmadinijhad is (underlines are mine). IMO, this madman has more evil potential than Hitler. We'd best not take him lightly. - OB1
The frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb
By Amir Taheri -- (Filed: 16/04/2006)
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/16/do1609.xml
Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed "the nuclear club", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tête-à-tête) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into "grand occultation" in 941.
According to Shia lore, the (12th) Imam is a messianic figure ('Mahdi') who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or "nails", whose presence, hammered into mankind's existence, prevents the universe from "falling off". Although the "nails" are not known to common mortals, it is, at times, possible to identify one thanks to his deeds. It is on that basis that some of Ahmad-inejad's more passionate admirers insist that he is a "nail", a claim he has not discouraged. For example, he has claimed that last September, as he addressed the United Nations' General Assembly in New York, the "Hidden Imam drenched the place in a sweet light".
Last year, it was after another khalvat that Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency for a single task: provoking a "clash of civilisations" in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the "infidel" West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.
In Ahmadinejad's analysis, the rising Islamic "superpower" has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim "ghazis" (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world's oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.
According to this analysis, spelled out in commentaries by Ahmadinejad's strategic guru, Hassan Abassi, known as the "Dr Kissinger of Islam", President George W Bush is an aberration, an exception to a rule under which all American presidents since Truman, when faced with serious setbacks abroad, have "run away". Iran's current strategy, therefore, is to wait Bush out. And that, by "divine coincidence", corresponds to the time Iran needs to develop its nuclear arsenal, thus matching the only advantage that the infidel enjoys.
Moments after Ahmadinejad announced "the atomic miracle", the head of the Iranian nuclear project, Ghulamreza Aghazadeh, unveiled plans for manufacturing 54,000 centrifuges, to enrich enough uranium for hundreds of nuclear warheads. "We are going into mass production," he boasted.
The Iranian plan is simple: playing the diplomatic game for another two years until Bush becomes a "lame-duck", unable to take military action against the mullahs, while continuing to develop nuclear weapons.
Thus do not be surprised if, by the end of the 12 days still left of the United Nations' Security Council "deadline", Ahmadinejad announces a "temporary suspension" of uranium enrichment as a "confidence building measure". Also, don't be surprised if some time in June he agrees to ask the Majlis (the Islamic parliament) to consider signing the additional protocols of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Such maneuvres would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director, Muhammad El-Baradei, and Britain's Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, to congratulate Iran for its "positive gestures" and denounce talk of sanctions, let alone military action. The confidence building measures would never amount to anything, but their announcement would be enough to prevent the G8 summit, hosted by Russia in July, from moving against Iran.
While waiting Bush out, the Islamic Republic is intent on doing all it can to consolidate its gains in the region. Regime changes in Kabul and Baghdad have altered the status quo in the Middle East. While Bush is determined to create a Middle East that is democratic and pro-Western, Ahmadinejad is equally determined that the region should remain Islamic but pro-Iranian. Iran is now the strongest presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, after the US. It has turned Syria and Lebanon into its outer defences, which means that, for the first time since the 7th century, Iran is militarily present on the coast of the Mediterranean. In a massive political jamboree in Teheran last week, Ahmadinejad also assumed control of the "Jerusalem Cause", which includes annihilating Israel "in one storm", while launching a take-over bid for the cash-starved Hamas government in the West Bank and Gaza.
Ahmadinejad has also reactivated Iran's network of Shia organisations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen, while resuming contact with Sunni fundamentalist groups in Turkey, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. From childhood, Shia boys are told to cultivate two qualities. The first is entezar, the capacity patiently to wait for the Imam to return. The second is taajil, the actions needed to hasten the return. For the Imam's return will coincide with an apocalyptic battle between the forces of evil and righteousness, with evil ultimately routed. If the infidel loses its nuclear advantage, it could be worn down in a long, low-intensity war at the end of which surrender to Islam would appear the least bad of options. And that could be a signal for the Imam to reappear.
At the same time, not to forget the task of hastening the Mahdi's second coming, Ahamdinejad will pursue his provocations. On Monday, he was as candid as ever: "To those who are angry with us, we have one thing to say: be angry until you die of anger!"
His adviser, Hassan Abassi, is rather more eloquent. "The Americans are impatient," he says, "at the first sight of a setback, they run away. We, however, know how to be patient. We have been weaving carpets for thousands of years."
• Amir Taheri is a former Executive Editor of Kayhan, Iran's largest daily newspaper, but now lives in Europe.
Laura, do you maintain a ping list by chance on FR?
If yes, please add me. - OB1
I know who you're referring to. He had an Iran link/forum, as well.
It's Dr ZIn.
Ping for later - very intresting
She is not alone. Robert Spencer (JihadWatch & DhimmiWatch) agrees, as does Charles Johnson (LittleGreenFootballs) http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20504_An_Islamic_Declaration_of_War&only
The President appointed Daniel Pipes to some org a few years back. I take this as a sign (just as the radiation monitoring near mosques) that he is a bit more hawkish toward Islam than his RoP rep...
Thanks!
Time to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.
ping to laura ;)
I am basically scared $#!+less, and I do not scare easy. I've, in my younger days, faced things that most folks only see in the movies. Been awakened by a kick to the head, looking up the muzzle of a real ugly gun when my eyes opened -- and having to take it away from the lunatic. Been held hostage while waiting for "the guy" to show up with the .38 to finish me off. And more.
If you recall, there was a very high meeting shortly after 9/11 of all the major network honchos and some high level intel/NSA types to plan a course of action if/when it is deemed necessary to utilize airtime coverage in the WOT. Well, it appears there is some usage in getting the general public aware in the soft sell mode. I would imagine more folks are starting to stock up on basics but that will be a drop in the bucket if the H2H transmission is forced while at the present 55% mortality of this virus. It will turn our clocks back 2 centuries if it hits without major attenuation. Even if it has attenuated 50% it will still devastate humanity well beyond the 12% mortality of the 1918 flu.
And "current events" are a lot more sobering than anything I've experienced in all my years.
And my fear is NOT based on emotion. It is based on clinical analysis of the current world "game board" -- and the more I examine it, the more scared I get.
We are poised on a precipice the likes of which combines the worst features of the runup to WWI and the runup to WWII -- and, like then, most folks are too busy with "eat, drink, and be merry" to let themselves by bothered with any "negative talk". Some things never change.
I am in the process of taking years off my life (literally, due to my "health") by putting in as big a garden as I can possibly manage. I will do what I can to build up our goat herd (micro-sized as it is), and chicken and duck flocks.
That last part strike you as stupid, in a bird-flu world? I don't think so. First, I plan on keeping them mostly indoors. Second, if "it hits", it'll be H2H to worry about, not "B2H". Third, even if I don't have any poultry, I live in an area littered with birds! I have stinkin' grackles flying down my chimney about once a week! Lots of waterfowl flocks regularly flying overhead (can you say "migratory"), crapping as they flap their wings (birds have no sphincter control!)
I live in a world peppered with bird crap. Bird crap that will dry, become airborne "dust", to be breathed in by any and all. The least of my worries will be my chickens and ducks (which will be receiving a steady dose of colloidal silver, which will kill any virus it contacts). And, in a world of chaos, FOOD will be quite an important factor.
My goal is to have enough "momentum" going so that if I get a dose of flu (which I would not expect to survive), my family will be able to go down to the garden and barnyard and find enough food to survive.
Between bird flu, threat of EMP, and even worse, I cannot help but think that this is NOT how I planned on spending "the best years of my life"!
Remember the "Free Mike Hawash" website? It seems to have very unceremoniously evaporated one day.
Prior to its demise, it was filled with indignant rants over the injustice of good ol' "Mike" (Maher Mofeid) Hawash having been arrested!
Hawash was a very well-known hardware engineer, employed by Intel. He created the "MMX" multimedia extentions used by all Pentium CPU chips (as of the point they were released). In other words, if you're running a computer with an Intel chip, you are using "Mike" Hawash's engineering.
He was a prominent author, having published books on the topic.
And, he was arrested, for being an Islamic terrorist subversive.
That's when the "Free Mike Hawash" movement kicked into gear, spurred in large part by those who knew him. Or rather, thought they knew him.
He was a great all-American type guy, we were told. The government was nuts to arrest him. It was a witch-hunt! Bias! Profiling! Bigotry!
But a funny thing happened.
While good ol' "All-American Mike" was in prison during his prosecution, he grew a long, scraggly beard, and confessed!
Oops! There went the website! The "Free Mike Hawash" folks went strangely (and permanently!) silent on the topic. I guess perhaps they felt just a little bit "used".
Somehow, I doubt that "Mike" Hawash was the ONLY fifth-columnist of that type.
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