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Iran taunts the West with Holocaust debate
The Sunday Times ^ | December 10, 2006 | Marie Colvin

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”.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; holocaust; iran; jews; secondholocaust
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To: bushfamfan
Can you just imagine the bloody mess we would have had if we had the political correctness during WWII?

It would have been a big mess determining whether we would speak Japanese or German as a nation.

61 posted on 12/10/2006 8:00:46 AM PST by EGPWS
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To: MadIvan
Hillary and Bill would be at Guantanamo, in a tiny, un-air conditioned cell with Yoko Ono "music" piped in 24 hours a day...and forced to share a bed.

One would have to die and go to he!! before being placed in such a position of horror.

62 posted on 12/10/2006 8:08:14 AM PST by EGPWS
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To: MadIvan
Asked why western countries were so outraged, he replied: “The Holocaust equals a lie. Therefore Israel is built on a lie.”

This a curious double standard in the Muslim world. On the one hand, they revere Hitler and the Nazis for their hatred of the Jews - even using translated old German texts in their schools to teach kids. On the other, they deny that the holocaust happened.
63 posted on 12/10/2006 8:31:36 AM PST by Old_Mil (http://www.constitutionparty.com/)
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To: Howard Jarvis Admirer
I've read this thread and with the exception of one post, all I see is directed hatred expressed with no sense or thought whatsoever.

This conference is an opportunity to end the controversy on a world level forever. What is wrong with these people?

64 posted on 12/10/2006 8:35:37 AM PST by William Terrell (Individuals can exist without government but government can't exist without individuals.)
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To: reg45
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 kept on reading to see if anyone had posted what I was thinking. You hit the nail on the head!

65 posted on 12/10/2006 8:46:28 AM PST by houeto (Jacob's enemy is the revitalized end-time beast!)
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To: mkjessup

Me too.


66 posted on 12/10/2006 8:52:29 AM PST by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: MadIvan
A cruise missile aimed at the conference would do a world of good. Afterwards we can tell their families that it never happened and they're conspiracy kooks for thinking so.

Roger THAT!

67 posted on 12/10/2006 9:12:17 AM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Democracy: The worst form of government, except for all the others.)
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To: MadIvan

Iran's President: "We will help with security in the west and help the U.S withdraw- oh and the holocost was a western sham, Israel is the great Satan, and before I forget we're almost ready with our nukes!" http://sacredscoop.com


68 posted on 12/10/2006 9:13:12 AM PST by CottShop
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To: Old_Mil

Just like the ones who blame Mossad for 911 as a plot to turn America against Arabs and then honor Bin Laden as a hero and hope there's another one.


69 posted on 12/10/2006 9:16:29 AM PST by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Give Them Liberty Or Give Them Death! - IT'S ISLAM, STUPID! - Islam Delenda Est! - Rumble thee forth)
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To: MadIvan
Among other ideas I have, such as forcing the French to adopt English as their national language, are things perhaps too much to contemplate.

While you're at it, why not force the French to hire only Germans for their police and armed forces?

70 posted on 12/10/2006 9:19:24 AM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Democracy: The worst form of government, except for all the others.)
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To: reg45
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.

That would be almost as bad as suggesting that they worship a meteor.

71 posted on 12/10/2006 9:22:06 AM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Democracy: The worst form of government, except for all the others.)
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To: MuttTheHoople

Ninety percent of Saudi Arabia is practically uninhabitable desert -- an absolutely perfect place to send the Palestinian vermin.


72 posted on 12/10/2006 9:26:32 AM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Democracy: The worst form of government, except for all the others.)
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To: EGPWS

I tested Yoko Ono music on Mexican border vendors when I was waiting to cross back into the U.S. I popped in the cassette, turned it up, and magically the Mexican vendors who usually climb over your car to sell you chicklets or statues backed away from my car. If only there was a way to use it on Telemarketers . . . .


73 posted on 12/10/2006 10:20:05 AM PST by Howard Jarvis Admirer (Howard Jarvis, the foe of the tax collector and friend of the California homeowner)
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To: MadIvan

New name for the terrorists: jihadanazi's


74 posted on 12/10/2006 10:25:50 AM PST by Defender2 (Defending Our Bill of Rights, Our Constitution, Our Country and Our Freedom!!!!)
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To: MadIvan

Thanks for a Christmas Dream to hope for!!!


75 posted on 12/10/2006 10:33:51 AM PST by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, thats how you sell clothing.)
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To: MadIvan

Will there be belly dancers at the convention?

I hear Ahmadinejad has a special thing for them.


76 posted on 12/10/2006 10:37:30 AM PST by airborne (MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Jesus is the reason for the season!!)
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To: MadIvan

And Jimmy Carter, the Dems non-stop self-righteous indignant blabbermouth has nothing to say.


77 posted on 12/10/2006 3:05:23 PM PST by cookcounty (The Jew-killers love the ISG.)
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To: MadIvan

Heck, I'm sold. Where do we vote?


78 posted on 12/10/2006 3:09:05 PM PST by kenth (I wish compassionate conservatives were more compassionate to conservatism.)
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To: kenth
As soon as there is as "Dark Side" Conservative party, as opposed to a "Compassionate Conservative" party.

I'm not compassionate to the enemies of civilisation - that includes Muslim terrorists, the media, socialists and Bill and Hill.

Regards, Ivan

79 posted on 12/10/2006 3:28:54 PM PST by MadIvan (I aim to misbehave.)
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To: MadIvan

Maybe we should announce the opening of our own conference on the life of Muhammad.


80 posted on 12/10/2006 3:37:18 PM PST by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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