Posted on 12/10/2006 3:20:05 AM PST by MadIvan
DEFYING international condemnation, Iran will open a conference tomorrow questioning whether the Holocaust — in which millions of Jews and other minorities were killed by the Nazis — really happened.
An official at the Iranian foreign ministry claimed that delegates from 30 countries, including Britain, would attend the conference, initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The president, who claims the Holocaust is a myth used to justify the occupation of Palestinian land, has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and suggested that its citizens could be resettled in Alaska.
Among the first arrivals in Tehran for the two-day forum, called Studying the Holocaust: An International View, was Frederick Töben, who describes himself as an “expert”. Töben, an Australian Holocaust denier, brought his own model of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He claimed that it proved there would have been no room for the Jews — at least 1.1m — whose deaths there were documented in Nazi records.
Asked why western countries were so outraged, he replied: “The Holocaust equals a lie. Therefore Israel is built on a lie.”
The agenda is chilling. The Iranians have presented the forum in the banal manner of international conferences where experts examine evidence in open debate.
The seminars could have been designed to cause maximum pain to Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Gas Chambers: Denial or Confirmation, is the title of one. Others are entitled Freedom of Speech and the Stance of Holocaust Deniers in the West, and The Current Laws Against Holocaust Deniers.
With no trace of irony, Iranian officials said the conference — sponsored by the Institute for Political and International Studies, a foreign ministry think tank — would include archives, photographs and demographic evidence to establish whether the number of victims was exaggerated.
“Our aim is scientifically to study the Holocaust and listen to both sides before reaching a conclusion,” said Manouchehr Mohammadi, the foreign ministry spokesman for research. “We weren’t involved in this event so we can be a neutral judge. If we conclude that the Holocaust happened, we will admit it, but we are still going to ask why the Palestinians have to pay the price.”
Iranian sources said the conference emerged from a behind-the-scenes struggle. Foreign ministry officials are well aware that it will have a negative impact on the country’s image at a time when Iran is already under pressure at the United Nations over its nuclear programme, support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shi’ite groups in Iraq.
Hence, although Ahmadinejad has been publicly flagging the conference for almost a year, foreign ministry officials who were supposed to organise it have been dragging their feet. Forced to go ahead by the president, the foreign ministry tried to portray the conference as an exercise in free speech. It was at pains to point out that Iran has a community of 25,000 Jews. who are protected by the government.
One foreign ministry official said: “Does this conference make sense politically for Iran? No. The conference is being held to answer the questions of the president.” Tony Blair, who was invited, called it “shocking, ridiculous and stupid”.
I have an idea. Why don't we have a corresponding "Mohammad Deniers Conference". We can claim that Mohammad never lived, that the Koran was made up by a bunch of stoned Arabs in a bazzar in Mecca and that all claims by Muslims to validity, legitimacy and territory are bogus.
Iran's last intelligent leader was stabbed in the back by Jimmy Carter.
Let's have a world-wide conference and look at whether or not Mohammed actually existed or is just a myth.
Or let's indict Mohammed posthumously, if he existed, as a child molester, war criminal, racist, ethnic cleanser, and preacher of religious hate.
Let's taunt him.
I'm confused. On the one hand, he's outraged that someone would allege something so improbable as a state slaughtering millions of people just for being Jews.
On the other hand, he thinks it's a darned good idea.
You think he's just envious Hitler thought of it first?
Hey! The happy hippie duo may actually "like" Yoko Ono music. I would give them a 24-hour-a-day track of John Philip Sousa, George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin and Toby Keith.
I beat you by three minutes!
Why does Israel leave him alive? Surely they can find a single Muzzie nutbag in Iran willing to hurl a hand grenade at President Tom in exchange for a hefty payout to his family.
We should arrange free samples of the newest scent in air fresheners - "Polonium 210".
The agenda is idiotic and childish. Kill him now. Today. Bomb, bullet, poison, polonium. We and Israel have agents in Iran. Kill him.
Have any of you ever seen an actual map of the middle east? Google map there and you see that Saudi Arabia is HUGE. There's plenty of space to re-settle the Palestinians. Also, if you were to give Israel the land promised by God in the Bible (from the Nile to the Euphrates), and relocate any non-Jews to the Huge country of Saudi Arabia, THAT would help ensure Middle East peace.
Yet we have waited perhaps all too long now to stop these madmen from obtaining nuclear weapons, and there are still those who want to "negotiate" with these nutcases.
Is Pat Buchanan one of the guest speakers?
There are no more Harry Trumans unfortunately. Can you just imagine the bloody mess we would have had if we had the political correctness during WWII?
There are laws in Europe that sanction speaking evil of the the loss of Jewish lives in Germany. If there are laws there must be absolute proof, or there can be no law.
Show the world and end the debate. If you throw a fit on the floor and refuse to present validation for the event in question, you lend credence to those who would deny it happened.
Why isn't this common sense?
Agreed. This could be the richest target since that Taliban funeral we failed to annihilate.
Whew. You are a COLD man, MadIvan. Glad you're on our side.
The official Iranian position is, that if it really happened, the Nazis didn't do a very good job of it.
What you say sounds reasonable to me. As I believe Winston Churchill said, "Jaw, Jaw is better than War, War" or to put it another way, talking is preferable to fighting. Let them talk all they want.
Right out of the democrat's play book.
State the ridiculous long enough and eventually it will be considered the truth.
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