Canada recalls ambassador to Iran

Australian Broadcasting Company ^ | July 18 2004 | AFP

[knighthawk]

Canada will recall its ambassador to Iran, after Tehran abruptly halted the trial of the accused killer of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.

Canada's Foreign Minister Bill Graham said that Ottawa, which had announced during the week that it would recall Ambassador Philip MacKinnon, then reversed its decision, decided on Sunday to pull the diplomat in protest over Tehran's handling of the murder trial of 42-year-old intelligence agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi.

"Ambassador MacKinnon will be returning to Canada immediately," Mr Graham said, criticising Tehran's decision to halt the trial.

"I am disappointed, but not surprised by this flagrant denial of justice," he said.

Ms Kazemi was detained while photographing a prison riot in Tehran in July 2003 and died at an Iranian hospital shortly after her arrest.

Officials initially insisted that Ms Kazemi had died of a stroke, but later conceded that she had lapsed into a coma after being struck with a blunt object during interrogation.

Her body was then hastily buried in southern Iran by her mother, who later complained of being pressured into not sending the body back to Canada.

Ahmadi, whom the judiciary has charged with "semi-intentional murder," pleaded not guilty during a preliminary hearing last October.

The international press rights watchdog Reporters without Borders condemned Iran's decision.

"We are outraged by this denial of justice," Reporters without Borders said in a statement.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Griffon76]

Is anyone at all suprised about this? Question for Canada.... you wait till NOW to withdraw your ambassador... Where have you been for the past 25 years?

Pathetic surrender monkeys!

[Don QN]

Short of getting into a bun fight with the Iranians it's the only thing Bill Graham could do. His Liberal/Socialist government [going back to the Trudeau days] as euniched the country to the point that the Canadian Forces couldn't defend our great lakes, never mind the rest of the country. It's enough to make REAL Canadians hang our heads in shame!

[familyop]

So this story is being published by the ABC (Australia) and BBC (probably smug about all the trouble they've gotten their not-really-subjects into over the centuries).

Is it censored in the Peoples Republic of Canada, or revised into a null piece of column to skip over?

[Clive]

Was it "pathetic surrender monkeys" who, during the Iran hostage crisis, issued Canadian passports to US embassy personnel and then at personal risk extracted them from Iran?

[Clive]

Is it now the practice of the United States to issue Bronze Stars to "pathetic surrender monkeys" as were awarded to members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry for their work in Afghanistan?

[Clive]

Perhaps you should take a look at Canadian papers, including Sun Media articles posted in this forum before you make such an unsubstantiated claim.

It has been a fromt page story in Canada long before the Yanks noticed it.

[kanawa]

"It's enough to make REAL Canadians hang our heads in shame raise our voices in anger!"

[familyop]

"Was it "pathetic surrender monkeys" who, during the Iran hostage crisis, issued Canadian passports to US embassy personnel and then at personal risk extracted them from Iran?"

...good point. But the contemporary question is, "Is that the kind of History being taught to students in Canada?" The answer, of course, is no. Most people in Canada learn their cynical, negative History from the CBC, CTV, etc, with news outlets like Fox News being censored.

At the last population count I saw, Canada had about 32 million people in it--not far from the population of California (not to mention similar anti-US sentiment and politics). It is not likely that Canada will be able follow its predominant sentiment to turn my country to ashes.

So Canadians may as well start some free media, openly disagree with its fascist media and government, and join us.

We don't easily forget things like that "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" idiocy and hatred episode (polar bear in Ontario, etc.) or the 900 or so soldiers we've lost while destabilizing and reorganizing the center (Iraq) of the most evil part of world that has vowed to destroy us. And we won't easily forget the majorities of people in the various countries that are now using recycled NAZI propaganda in their attempt to help others exterminate the few Jews in their teeny, tiny country. If those cowardly nations every decide to get froggy and jump on the Jews again, we'll be there to stop them in their tracks and rub their noses in their work a second time, just as we did with General Eisenhower.

Canadians should also address their own people who drum up hatred against the USA instead of allowing their country to join Euro-trash to bash the USA.

[familyop]

"Perhaps you should take a look at Canadian papers, including Sun Media articles posted in this forum before you make such an unsubstantiated claim."

The assumption was made on what the majority of Canadian media pieces have to say about the USA.

I've been reading from the Canadian press and watching its politics for ten years. Conrad Black was the only truly honest media owner that Canadians have ever had. The Canadian government lied about his reason of dispute with it, ran him out, and handed his publications to commies.

These arguments between you and I are really about how most Canadians feel about the USA and what most Canadian press columns have to say about us.

I will continue to assume and have an attitude against Liberals and Brit identity conservatives in Canada until those attitudes are minority attitudes.

[McGavin999]

So, exactly who is surprised by this? The only other thing that could have happened was for the trial to proceed with the perp proclaimed innocent at the end.

[Clive]

Conrad Black did not own the Sun Media chain of newspapers.

Perhaps you have been reading the Toronto Star and watching Mother Corporation too much. Both of those Liberal party house organs are controlled and staffed by people who believe that everything important in Canada can be seen from the top of the CN Tower.

Canada is not Toronto. Toronto is not Canada.

[mtbopfuyn]

What is semi-intentional murder? He intended to murder her but after it was done decided not to? Not to make light but Kerrycide?

[familyop]

Clive, after having a look, I'm admitting that the Canadian press has published the incident regarding Iran.

But after all that I've seen over the recent past from most Canadians regarding the USA, my smart-aleck and ironic answer is, "Oh! I can't believe that the fascist Canadian Government press is publishing this! We all know that the world [despots] loves Canadians and hates the Yankees! How could Canada's Islamic allies do such a thing?"

The Liberals won up there, once again, by running a late "our opponent is too american" campaign.

I have relatives on both sides of the border. Those on this side of the border would really like to visit their loved ones without receiving dirty looks, snotty snubs, threats, or nasty lies against our President. We would like to have guests down here who don't do the same.

Again, instead of denial, the more decent third of the population up there should be correcting what most of their own neighbors have to say.

[-YYZ-]

"Is it now the practice of the United States to issue Bronze Stars to "pathetic surrender monkeys" as were awarded to members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry for their work in Afghanistan?"

You go Clive. I've given up the fight with the Canada-haters here, there's just too many of them and they're just too strident for it to be worthwhile. I can only assume and hope that majority of Freepers and Americans in general aren't so irrational in their feelings about Canada. No doubt we've got issues but a lot of what they get all worked about is no more than many American journalists and even politicians say about the US.

[freeangel]

OOOh, I bet that scared the iranian mullahs--NOT!

[familyop]

How about the Toronto Sun, of Sun Media? Here's a

barf alert

for all. And yes, it's the Canadian majority speaking, as we saw in the recent Election up there.

Toronto Sun, Canada, March 2, 2003
Bush's war is not about democracy

By Eric Margilis, Contributing Foreign Editor

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- President George Bush claimed last week his impending war against Iraq would bring peace and democracy to the Middle East, and liberate Iraqis from repression.

At the same time, in a move clearly aimed at intimidating the media, the White House denounced a CBS News interview with Saddam Hussein, in which the Iraqi leader asserted his nation had nothing to do with 9/11 or al-Qaida, as "propaganda."

Now, I have no love for Saddam's sinister, brutal regime. The last time I was in Baghdad, in late 1990, the Iraqi secret police threatened to hang me as a spy after I discovered a group of technicians and scientists who had been secretly sent by the British government to produce anthrax and other germ warfare weapons for Iraq to use against Iran.

But what I dislike even more than Saddam's nasty regime are government lies and propaganda.

Since 9/11, Americans have been subjected to the most intense propaganda campaign from their government since World War I. Much of the mainstream U.S. media have been intimidated by the Bush administration into unquestioningly amplifying its party line.

Or, in the worst tradition of yellow, jingoist journalism, they act as cheerleaders for war.

I am reminded of the sycophantic Soviet media during the days of Chairman Leonid Brezhnev.

The American public, often wobbly about geography, history and international affairs, has been alternatively terrified and enraged by bare-faced lies that Iraq was about to attack America with nuclear weapons or germs, and was a secret ally of al-Qaida.

A shocking two-thirds of Americans mistakenly believe Iraq staged the 9/11 attacks.

A surging wave of anti-Islamic hate, promoted in part by Bush's allies on the loony far right, and administration repression of Muslims, frighteningly recalls Europe's growing anti-Semitism of the early 1930s.

These are the reasons why a majority of Americans still support a war of aggression against Iraq, though more and more question the president's motives.

A frightening claim

It's frightening to see Bush claim with a straight face his war against Iraq will bring democracy and peace to the Mideast, and save Iraqis from repression.

Why didn't he begin by saving Palestinians from the repression by his alter-ego, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon? If Bush really cared about Mideast democracy, he's had two years to do something about U.S.-sponsored dictatorships like Egypt and Pakistan, or medieval autocracies such as Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and America's Gulf protectorates.

When Bush says he will bring democracy to benighted Iraqis, what he really means is U.S. rule.

In Bush-speak, "democracy" has been perverted to mean U.S. imperial hegemony: nations run by puppet rulers who make all the right noises, like Afghanistan's U.S.-installed figurehead, Hamid Karzai, while following Washington's orders to the letter.

Bush's war is not about democracy, weapons of mass destruction, human rights, or terrorism. It has two main motivations. First, the Manifest Destiny crowd in Washington, led by VP Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The terrible events of 9/11 have seemed to produce an almost psychotic reaction in these good, patriotic Americans, transforming them into 19th century imperialists.

Their intention is perfectly clear:

1) prevent any nation ever challenging U.S. global hegemony;

2) dominate oil. The aggression against Iraq is not about oil per se, it is about control of oil. Before the Iraq crisis, the U.S. imported about $18 billion of crude oil annually from the Mideast, but spent $31 billion keeping military forces there. Why? Control of Mideast oil gives the U.S. domination over Europe and Japan, which draw most of their oil from the region.

Domination of the Mideast and Caspian Sea oil will assure the U.S. a permanent stranglehold over China and India, as well as Europe and Japan.

The second driving force is Israel's far-right Likud government, many of whose ideas have come to dominate Bush administration policy and U.S. media commentary on the Mideast.

The Clinton administration was close to Israel's moderate Labour Party; Bush's camp is totally aligned with Israel's aggressive far right and mirrors its views and policies to a remarkable, unprecedented degree.

Likud and its powerful American supporters want the U.S. to crush Iraq into pieces. The principal beneficiary of the war against Iraq will be Israel.

Many Americans simply don't understand their leadership is about to plunge the nation into an open-ended, dangerous colonial war. All the propaganda about democracy, human rights and regional stability is the same kind of double-talk used by the 19th century British and French imperialists who claimed they were grabbing Africa and Asia to bring the benefits of Christian civilization to the heathens.

A veteran U.S. diplomat, John Kiesling, who just resigned from the State Department in protest over Iraq, eloquently described the damage inflicted on America by the run-amok Bush administration:

"Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offence and defence since the days of Woodrow Wilson." Amen.

Misery loves company. An American-occupied Iraq looks destined to join the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza as another human, political and moral disaster for all concerned.

---

I noticed that Stormfront and other neo-NAZI sites also like that piece of Goebbels-esque garbage.

There are few of us so uninformed that they don't know the prevailing sentiment in Canada. So start some new media outlets to change Canada as we are starting new conservative media in the USA.

[familyop]

"No doubt we've got issues but a lot of what they get all worked about is no more than many American journalists and even politicians say about the US."

That our Euro-effete in the USA have similar commentary against the existence of the USA and the Jews doesn't make their treason and fascist support of the world's most evil despots the right thing to do. And an example of what we "get all worked about" is behind the following link (or scroll in this thread).

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1173773/posts?page=18#18

But opinions from the likes of condescending Gunter (pre-9/11 opinion column in the National Post) trying to show us the error of our ways that won in Afghanistan are not much better.

And I don't think it's very cool for most Canadians to be spitting on their relatives in the USA--those who only learn the truth about us "Yanks" by moving to live here in places other than the likes of NY City or Florida.

My point is a suggestion to chat with us and learn. Then start conservative media efforts in Canada (and not like most of the condescending "conservative" media efforts in England). Recognize the problem, inform Canada, and change the majority Canadian opinion of the USA.

[kanawa]

So start some new media outlets to change Canada as we are starting new conservative media in the USA.

http://www.canadafreepress.com