From the Gulf Times:
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday declared that Iran was the world’s “number one” power, as he launched a bitter new assault on domestic critics he accused of siding with the enemy.
“Everybody has understood that Iran is the number one power in the world,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech to families who lost loved ones in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
"Today the name of Iran means a firm punch in the teeth of the powerful and it puts them in their place," added Ahmadinejad, who on Sunday will become the first president of the Islamic republic to visit neighbouring Iraq.
Ahmadinejad’s comments come amid renewed Western efforts on the UN Security Council to agree a third package of sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear activities.
They also came a day after former top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani launched an unprecedented attack on Ahmadinejad’s foreign policy, accusing him of using “coarse slogans and grandstanding. You can see how some people here... try to materialise the plans of the enemies and by showing that Iran is small and the enemy is big,” seethed Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad once again insisted that Iran was winning the standoff over its atomic programme, which the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons but Iran says is peaceful.
"The Iranian nation is on the verge of the final nuclear victory and no power can stop this nation. The enemies of the nation and bullying powers do not dare to admit that this nation has won in the nuclear field."
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who this week congratulated Ahmadinejad for his role in Iran’s nuclear case, said that Islamic countries do not need US approval to achieve great works.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki meanwhile sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon criticising what he described as "baseless accusations" by UN Security Council members about the Iranian nuclear drive, the official Irna news agency reported.
Rowhani’s speech on Wednesday was extraordinary for its explicit criticism of the president’s policies and for its attack on his inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, which has once again provoked Western condemnation.
While Ahmadinejad did not mention Rowhani by name, his address is likely to be seen as a clear message to his opponents that such criticism of his rhetoric is not welcome.
Ahmadinejad also told the families of the “martyrs” of the war that their loss was not in vain as the message of the Islamic revolution of 1979 was spreading all over the world.
"Today the message of your revolution is being heard in South America, east Asia, in the heart of Europe and even in the US itself," he said.
Ahmadinejad said he talked with people everywhere he travelled in the world and “it is like I am in district 17 in Tehran”, referring to the low-income area in the south of the Iranian capital where he was giving his speech. – AFP
Mr Bagel: Arr doesn't that make you feel all warm inside. Or is that from the nuclear fallout?
Iran world's number one power, now all we need is talk of another thousand year Reich.
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72 virgins or 72 Qassam rockets?
"A Palestinian man reacts after learning that his brother was killed by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip March 1, 2008."
Reading the news of the developing conflict between Israel and Hamas, one, without a good basis of knowledge, would start to conclude that 'those crazy Jews are killing everyone'.
'Half of our headlines are fabricated'
Indeed the catch cry of the recent Lebanon war was the totally unverifiable claim more than half the deaths were civilians'. Which was really quite amazing.
For most it might have seemed the majority of Hezbolah guerrillas didn't seem to wear a recognizable uniform. They tended to dress like civilians. This seemed to develop further and further as Israels incursions into the south of Lebanon became more intensive.
One did wonder how Journalist and sub editors sitting half way across the world safely behind their desks managed to decree that more than half of deaths were civilians.
Reuters published an article today which stated:
Israel kills 31 Palestinians in Gaza raidIt does not matter than many of these are disputed deaths, One case involving a Gazan family who by most accounts, fate was sealed by a Palestinian Qassam which fell well short of its intended Israeli civilian targets.
In fact considering the ploy of Palestinian terrorist to hide and fire rockets amongst the civilian population, the number of terrorist which have been dealt their just desserts without corresponding civilian deaths has been quite noteworthy.
'Faux Journalism'With many of these deaths murky to say the least, and with the propensity of Gazan Hamas hospital officials to have appallingly bad mathematical skills, this still does not stop Reuters and other agencies from running Faux death 'score boards'.
It might very well pander to their readership who desperately wants to cast the Palestinians in a role of victim hood and the Israeli's as cruel aggressors, but journalism it is not.
Reading the Reuters article
Israel kills 31 Palestinians in Gaza raid I notice the main displayed photo titled "A Palestinian man reacts after learning that his brother was killed by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip March 1, 2008." was taken none other than by Mohammed Salem.
A name I was sure I had previously discovered was nothing more than a rabid anti Israeli photographer.
Of course into google the name is placed and quickly his name pops up in several articles by Snapped Shot. A blog specialising in critique of photojournalism.
I click on the said link only to find AP's lawyers have started their nasty intimidation already.
Brian from Snapped Shot received a scary letter from The Associated Press 3 days ago because of his "frequent and systematic use of their copyrighted property"... Err I think that might be covered under 'review' exemptions of copyright law??
Now one might wonder as Brian does just how successful a Photojournalist review blog might fair not actually showing the photos being reviewed.
A minor detail for AP, accuracy is nothing, profit is everything.
Oh the article concerning Mohammed Salem? None other than a 'disturbing report' that he had been shot by the IDF .
Seems the IDF has no doubt whose side he is really on. Unfortunately Reuters has taken Snapped Shot of the web through legal threats. You can read about the 'alleged incident' in a google cached copy here:Becoming Part of the Story http://www.snappedshot.com/archives/1212-Becoming-a-Part-of-the-Story.html
Brian is needing some legal advice on his rights and responsibilities with regards this matter. If you can help him gratis then its a very worthy cause.
Make sure you cross link this example of the Associated Press trying to censor criticism!
Mr Bagel
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Can you believe this news agency?
Whilst every other news agency and Newspaper from the Western world has described Imad Mughnieh as a terrorist, this pathetic former reflection of itself stoops to describe him as :
"Jafari's comments came in a condolence message to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah after the murder last week in Damascus of top commander Imad Mughnieh, who has been blamed for a string of anti militant attacks on US and Jewish intrests."
Whats an anti militant? Is that the same as the mass murderer of innocent civilians, disabled shipping passengers, airline passengers, peace keepers?
Read the article, and see just how far
AFP has crawled under to appease its middle eastern targetted audience.
AFP: Iran predicts Hezbollah will destroy Israel
AFP: When all that matters is making money.
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I must confess I've have really not made many posts lately.
I'm involved in a personal project which is taking a great deal of my time. The project is going to last 12 weeks, I have just started into the third week of my project.
You might ask what project are you involved in? Well I'm a competitor in a regionally produced weight lost competition. It has a similar name to the Biggest Loser but for privacy reasons I will not go into its exact name.
The prize at the end of the competition is a new Honda.
How is Mr Bagel going so far?
Mr Bagel had the biggest weight loss last week, and had a similar result this week. Whether it was the weeks top result is unknown at this stage but, be assured Mr Bagel is losing buckets of weight.
In fact in the last 2 weeks I have lost a considerable amount over 10 kilos. For privacy reasons I will not say exactly how much.
I will try to blog a little more often, but those that know me I hope will understand the current scarcity of posts.
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