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Iran: a backward, fanatical, tyrannical outpost?
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Iran is frequently portrayed as a backward and
fanatically fundamentalist tyrannical outpost. As a result of constant
repetition, most of us believe that we have a fairly accurate image of
Iran. But, do we really?
As the premier conservative British daily puts it:
There are
countries in the world that we know only through the prejudice of
others; countries that we are encouraged to avoid. ... we think we know about Iran: hotbed
of religious zealotry, hater of the West, sponsor of terrorism, and so
on. This précis bears little relation to the reality.
After six years of a comprehensive
survey of the Muslim world, Gallup's results show "plainly that much of
the conventional wisdom about Muslims -- views touted by U.S.
policymakers and pundits and accepted by voters -- is simply false."
Many charge that Islam encourages
violence more than other faiths, but studies show that Muslims around
the world are at least as likely as Americans to condemn attacks on
civilians. Polls show that 6% of the American public thinks attacks in
which civilians are targets are "completely justified." In Iran,
it's 2% .
Buried under a deluge of negative reports, there
are some news articles in the mainstream media that contradict the
common view of Iran. It is the aim of this weblog to highlight a collection
of stories published in The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London,
BBC, the New York Times, Reuters, etc. which tell a different story about
this much maligned country.
A backgrounder can be found in: Iran: A Geo-Strategic Brief
Index:
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Two Planets,
Two Views |
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"Iraq is the convergence point for two of the greatest
threats to America in this new century -- al Qaeda and Iran."
President Bush, April 10th, 2008 |
A Newsweek opinion piece highlights
the dichotomy: On the one hand we have Norman Podhoretz, the
neoconservative ideologist (who was the foreign policy advisor to Rudy
Giuliani and whom President Bush has consulted on the topic of Iran) who
has written that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "like Hitler …
a revolutionary whose objective is to overturn the going international
system and to replace it in the fullness of time with a new order
dominated by Iran and ruled by the religio-political culture of
Islamofascism."
On the other hand we have Fareed Zakaria, the
editor of Newsweek International, protest that "for this
staggering proposition Podhoretz provides not a scintilla of evidence."
... “Here is the reality. Iran has an economy the size of
Finland's and an annual defense budget of around $4.8 billion. It has
not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has
a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110
times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are
quietly or actively allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that
Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with
an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?”

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Times of London: Iran and Chile take on the Alps
“Skiers are suffering from Three Valleys fatigue
and now want new cultural experiences along with the snow. ..... The resorts
of the Alborz mountains in Iran have a reputation for “powder snow and
off-piste skiing”, said Magic Carpet Travel.”
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New
York Times, Trend Spotting | Liner Notes
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The Other Iran By JAMES VLAHOS Published: February 10, 2008
“If you’re going to get lost, Esfahan (also spelled Isfahan), a city of 1.3
million about 200 miles south of Tehran in central Iran, is an extraordinary
place to do it. There’s a centuries-old saying that Esfahan is “half the world,”
meaning it contains fully half of the earth’s wonders.”



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Iranians held spontaneous
candlelight vigils in sympathy with
Americans after Sept. 11 |
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The Best of Enemies? By Thomas L.
Friedman, Jun 12, 2002
“Quick
quiz: Which Muslim Middle East country held spontaneous candlelight
vigils in sympathy with Americans after Sept. 11? Kuwait? No. Saudi
Arabia? No. Iran? Yes. You got it! You win a free trip to Iran. And if
you come you'll discover not only a Muslim country where many people
were sincerely sympathetic to America after Sept. 11, but a country
where so many people on the street are now talking about -- and hoping
for -- a reopening of relations with America that the ruling hard-liners
had to take the unprecedented step two weeks ago of making it illegal
for anyone to speak about it in public. “
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Many in Iran bear the U.S. no ill will
by Michael Slackman, Feb 11, 2008
“America’s image in the Middle East is arguably as low as it has ever been.
From the occupation of Iraq to the Israeli bombing of Lebanon to the prisons of
Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the United States has been cited in polls
as the gravest threat to peace in the region. But Iran is different, even the
Iran of bearded fundamentalists …
Generally speaking, Iranians like Americans, not just American products,
which remain very popular, but Americans. While that is not entirely new -
Iranians on an individual level have long expressed desires to restore relations
between the two countries - the sentiment seems much more out in the open now.”

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Women In
Iran |
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According to various respected media reports, the
situation in Iran is not quite as hopeless as most would assume. While
discriminatory laws continue to be on the books, the fact that female
university graduates outnumber men in every field, shows a social
dynamic that will build upon the current gains by women in Iran. Women
today are lawyers, university professors, authors, film directors,
members of parliament and ministers in the cabinet. Indeed, Iran has
female vice presidents.
According to
WPO's 2008 polling data:
Large majorities of Iranians (89% according to Gallup) endorse the principle that
women should have equal rights with men and that over the course of their
own lifetimes, women have gained greater rights. A large majority says
that the government should act to prevent discrimination against women. A
modest majority also supports the United Nations working to further
women’s rights. (Page 24)
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As per a
BBC report “Well over half of university students in Iran are now
women.”
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“In
the applied physics department of Azad University 70% of the graduates
are women - a statistic which would make many universities in the West
proud.
It is a huge social shift since the 1979 Revolution: Iran's Islamic
government has managed to convince even traditional rural families that
it is safe to send their daughters away from home to study.”

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The New York Times reports that Iran’s passion for motorcar racing
is well served by its WOMAN ace driver, Laleh Seddigh
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“Ms.
Seddigh loves speed. She also loves a challenge. Last fall, she
petitioned the national auto racing federation in this male-dominated
society for permission to compete against men. When it was granted, she
became not only the first woman in Iran to race cars against the
opposite sex, but also the first woman since the Islamic Revolution here
to compete against men in any sport.
What's more, she beat them.”
“Ms. Seddigh is a
lively, energetic symbol of a whole generation of young Iranians who are
increasingly testing social boundaries. Seventy percent of Iranians are
under 35, and they have gently pushed for, and received, freedoms
unimaginable even a few years ago. For women in Tehran, at least, head
scarves are often brightly colored and worn loosely over the hair. The
obligatory women's overcoats are now often tight and short.”
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Infertile in Iran,
by Elizabeth O’Donnell, April 2008
Iran has unexpectedly liberal ideas about
contraception and assisted reproduction techniques, the result of pragmatic
decisions, and consequent laws, arrived at by Shia interpretations of religious
tenets.
The commitment to family planning is a religious and political edict in Iran
and part of a progressive initiative that has extended urbanization, influenced
healthcare and mortality rates, and educated the public on the cost of
overpopulation to families and the planet.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran lavishly spends money to
reinforce Iranians’ millennia-old spirit of tolerance and empathy for
others.

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“Every
Monday night at 10 o'clock, Iranians by the millions tune into Channel
One to watch the most expensive show ever aired on the Islamic
republic's state-owned television. Its elaborate 1940s costumes and
European locations are a far cry from the typical Iranian TV fare of
scarf-clad women and gray-suited men.
But the most
surprising thing about the wildly popular show is that it is a
heart-wrenching tale of European Jews during World War II.”

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According to the BBC:
“Although
Iran and Israel are bitter enemies, few know that Iran is home to the
largest number of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside Israel."
 "There are synagogues dotted all over Iran.” |

“Today many Iranian Jews travel to and from
Israel." |
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About 25,000 Jews
live in Iran and most are determined to remain no matter what the
pressures - as proud of their Iranian culture as of their Jewish roots.
It is dawn in the Yusufabad synagogue in Tehran and
Iranian Jews bring out the Torah and read the ancient text before making
their way to work.
In one of Tehran’s six remaining kosher butcher’s
shops, everyone has relatives in Israel.
In between chopping up meat, butcher Hersel Gabriel
tells me how he expected problems when he came back from Israel, but in
fact the immigration officer didn’t say anything to him.
“Whatever they say abroad is lies - we are
comfortable in Iran - if you’re not political and don’t bother them then
they won’t bother you,” he explains.
His customer, middle-aged housewife Giti agrees,
saying she can easily talk to her two sons in Tel Aviv on the telephone
and visit them.
“It’s not a problem coming and going; I went to
Israel once through Turkey and once through Cyprus and it was not
problem at all,” she says.
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Reuters's Fredrick Dahl
interviewed the Armenian archbishop of Tehran
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“We
have the feeling that the government is taking care of our religious
heritage, historical churches and sacred sites … This of course makes us
happy.”
Dahl asks: “Does your community experience
discrimination in Iran?”
The Archbishop answers: “Not as such … I think it
is an innovation from the West, that people are coming and always
asking: is there discrimination in this country? I can tell you that
I’ve felt discrimination even in the United states, even in Europe.”
Dahl asks: "Do you see a future for the Armenian community
in Iran?"
The Archbishop answers: “Yes,
definitely, our existence is rooted in this soil, in this country … I
don’t think we are in danger. If we are in danger it means the whole
society is in danger."

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Reuters reports:
Iran holds its Black Church as symbol of tolerance
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“The Shi'ite Muslim country has applied for Qara
Kelisa, or the Black Church, to be recognised as a United Nations World
Heritage site, to join the Persepolis and other archaeological
treasures.
"This is a symbol of the co-existence of different
religions and ethnicities," said senior conservationist Khosro Farri of
Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organisation.”

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Dissent & Accountability |
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A nation's
journey is marked by episodes which simultaneously manifest disgrace
and grace. None of the prominent government critics
cited below are in jail, which debunks the notion that Iranians
are servile, cowed, and afraid to loudly voice their opinions. |
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An Interview by Salon's Michelle Goldberg |
Nobel laureate and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi discusses the
plight of women in Iran, Bush's similarity to Ahmadinejad and why direct
negotiations are the only solution
In the fall of 2000, Ebadi, one of Iran's leading reformist lawyers,
represented Parastou Forouhar, whose parents, dissident intellectuals,
were butchered by government assassins. Their killings, part of a string
of murders of regime critics carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence
in the late '90s, were perpetrated with particular sadism -- the aging
couple were stabbed repeatedly and then hacked to pieces.
In 2000, some of those involved in the murders were finally brought to
trial. "The stakes could not be higher," writes Ebadi. "It was the first
time in the history of the Islamic Republic that the state had
acknowledged that it had murdered its critics, and the first time a trial
would be convened to hold the perpetrators accountable."
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Senior dissident cleric lashes out at country's
Islamic establishment |
Iran's
most senior dissident cleric has lashed out at the country's ruling
Islamic establishment, accusing it of imposing dictatorship and violating
the rights of its people in the name of Islam.
The 1979 Islamic revolution toppled Iran's former monarchy to bring
freedom and end despotism, but that supposed liberation never happened,
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said in comments released by his
office.
Montazeri is one of just a few Grand Ayatollahs — the most senior
theologians of the Shiite Muslim faith.
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The chairman of Iran's Jewish
Council has strongly criticised the country's hardline president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying the Holocaust was a myth. In his strongly-worded letter, Mr Yashayaei
asked the president how he could justify what he termed the crimes of
Hitler. |
Mr
Mohtamed, the Jewish member of Iranian Parliament who has strongly
condemned the exhibition of cartoons about the Holocaust organised by an
Iranian newspaper owned by the Tehran municipality.
Despite the offence
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has caused to Jews around the world, his office
recently donated money for Tehran’s Jewish hospital.
The Jewish hospital’s director, Ciamak Morsathegh
says: “Anti-Semitism is not an eastern phenomenon, it’s not an Islamic
or Iranian phenomenon - anti-Semitism is a European phenomenon”
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Iran: What Does ‘Exporting the
Revolution’ Mean? |
by
Nazila Fathi, May 7th 2008
Iran's ex-president, "Mr. Khatami said in a speech
on Friday that when the founder of the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, talked about “exporting the revolution,” he meant
making Iran a role model for other countries, not supporting sabotage
operations in other countries."
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Iran's System of Government |
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A “Tyrannical Outpost” with some bright spots, or a form of
democracy with some faults?
According to
WPO's 2008 polling data:
Eight in ten Iranians endorse the view that government
leaders should be selected through general elections. Six in ten say
they are satisfied with how members of Parliament and authorities in
general are elected, but few are very satisfied. (Page 22)
BBC News Website looks at
how Iran's political system works. Essentially BBC describes Iran’s
government to be composed of a set of directly elected bodies
(Parliament, President, Assembly of Experts) plus organs appointed by
and controlled by elected bodies (e.g. Supreme Leader is appointed by
the elected Assembly of Experts which also has the power to remove him
from office).
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“Iran's complex and unusual political system
combines elements of a modern Islamic theocracy with democracy. A
network of unelected institutions controlled by the highly powerful
conservative Supreme Leader is countered by a president and parliament
elected by the people.
For much of the last decade, Iranian politics has
been characterised by continued wrangling between these elected and
unelected institutions as a reformist president - and, at times,
parliament - struggled against the conservative establishment.
But with hardliners' regaining control of the
parliament in 2004 and the presidency in 2005, all the organs of
government are now dominated by conservatives.”
Lost in translation
by Jonathan Steele, June 14, 2006
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Experts confirm that Iran's president did not call for
Israel to be 'wiped off the map'. ... The fact that he compared his desired
option - the elimination of "the regime occupying Jerusalem" - with the fall of
the Shah's regime in Iran makes it crystal clear that he is talking about regime
change, not the end of Israel.
| According to Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Professor of
Modern Middle East and South Asian History: |
(Wikipedia)
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Ahmadinejad did
not say he was going to 'wipe Israel off the map' because no such idiom
exists in Persian". Instead, "He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a
Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse". Ahmadinejad's statement should be
translated as:
"The Imam said that this regime occupying
Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time"
Some argue Ahmadinejad
meant genocide regardless what he said. An example can be found in the
Times of London article: "You don't have to be paranoid to want to take
these lunatics at their word".
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Others dismiss such
mind-reading. See New York Times article, "Fathers and Sons".
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The Washington Post reported on U.N. inspector’s protest
at US Congress inflammatory exaggerations about Iran’s nuclear program.
U.N. inspectors
investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush
administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent
House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the
document "outrageous and dishonest" and offering evidence to refute its
central claims.
Officials of the
United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that
the report contained some "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated
statements." The letter, signed by a senior director at the agency, was
addressed to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House
intelligence committee, which issued the report. A copy was
hand-delivered to Gregory L. Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA in
Vienna .
| Rationality +
Unwinnable = Unlikely to Play |
National
Intelligence Estimate Key Judgments: Iran: Nuclear Intentions and
Capabilities - November 2007
Tehran’s decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than
a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic, and military
costs. This, in turn, suggests that some combination of threats of
intensified international scrutiny and pressures, along with
opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for
regional influence in other ways, might-if perceived by Iran’s leaders
as credible-prompt Tehran to extend the current halt to its nuclear
weapons program.
Center for Strategic & International Studies:
CSIS's
Anthony Cordesman analyses the end result of an Iran-Israel nuclear
war and concludes in clear, concise and chillingly forensic style to
be the end of Persian civilization, quite probably the end of Egyptian
civilization, and the end of the Oil Age. This would also mean the end
of globalization and the extraordinary accretions in world trade and
growth and prosperity that are hauling hundreds of millions of Chinese
and Indians and others out of poverty. However, after the dust settles,
it is Israel that would survive. The only way to win is not to play!
International Atomic Energy Agency
"It is always interesting to
read the actual text of reports issued by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding Iran not only because of what they reveal
about Iran's program, but also because of the interestingly partial way
various news organizations and governments end up interpreting or
representing the report to audiences they are sure will not read the
reports themselves." (
Politics of Reporting on IAEA Reports )
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For actual IAEA reports on Iran click on the IAEA logo.
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Fueling Iraq Insurgency, Real or Exaggerated? |
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Persian and Mesopotamian meddling in one another's
affairs dates back to 600 BC. |
The New York Times reported that the number of foreign
fighters joining the Iraq insurgency breaks down as:
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France, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt,
Turkey, Syria, and Saudi Arabia
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100%
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Iran
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0% |


Claims about Iranian arms
carry familiar lack of proof
Feb. 13th, 2007
"So it's fair to wonder exactly what unnamed
Pentagon officials were thinking on Sunday when they called a secretive
briefing for reporters in Baghdad's Green Zone to show off an array of
weapons supposedly made in Iran to assert that Iran's government is
supplying weapons to Iraqi Shiite extremist groups.
The evidence they laid out, like Powell's
presentation, was impressive at first glance: mortars, rocket-propelled
grenades, and armor-piercing explosive devices called explosively formed
penetrators, bearing serial numbers that the officials claimed link them
to the Iranian regime. Such weapons, the officials said, have killed more
than 170 Americans in Iraq in the past three years.
But
because the officials, who insisted on anonymity, could offer no direct
evidence of Iranian regime involvement, their claims were met, properly,
with widespread skepticism."
'NYT' vs
McClatchy on Iran's Link to Iraqi Insurgents
by Greg Mitchell May 05, 2008
Michael
Gordon, the military writer for The New York Times who contributed
several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the runup to the U.S. attack on
Iraq in 2002, has written several articles in the past year about Iran’s
alleged training of Iraqi insurgents -- or supplying them with weapons
to kill Americans. He produced another major report on this subject for
today’s Times – based solely on unnamed sources -- which is at odds with
an account today from McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau.
| New York Times: |
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McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau: |
Gordon asserts that “Militants from the
Lebanese group Hezbollah have been training Iraqi militia fighters
at a camp near Tehran…An American official said the account of
Hezbollah’s role was provided by four Shiite militia members who
were captured in Iraq late last year and questioned separately.
“The United States has long charged that the Iranians were training
Iraqi militia fighters in Iran, which Iran has consistently denied,
and there have been previous reports about Hezbollah operatives in
Iraq.
“But the Americans say the reports of Hezbollah’s role at the
Iranian camp offer important details about Iranian assistance to the
militias, including efforts Iran appears to be making to train the
fighters in unobtrusive ways.”
Here is a list of Gordon’s sources in his Times article:
--“An American official”
-- “But the Americans say”
-- “American officials”
-- “American officials”
--“The Americans “
--“American officials”
--“An American official”
-- ditto, and so on
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The Iraqi Government seemed to distance
itself from U.S. accusations towards Iran Sunday saying it would not
be forced into conflict with its Shiite neighbor. And Prime Minister
Nouri al Maliki ordered the formation of a committee to look into
foreign intervention in Iraq.
“As the government appeared to back down from its hardening stance
against Iran, four marines were killed in Anbar in the deadliest
attack in the Sunni province in months.
"The government spokesman, Ali al Dabbagh, told reporters Sunday
that a committee was formed to find ‘tangible information’ about
foreign intervention, specifically Iran's role in Iraq rather than
‘information based on speculation.’
"’We don't want to be pushed into any conflict with any neighboring
countries, especially Iran. What happened before is enough. We paid
a lot,’ Dabbagh said, referring to the eight years war between the
two nations in which an estimated 1 million people died.”
Agence France-Press: “Iraq said on Sunday it has no
evidence that Iran was supplying militias engaged in fierce street
fighting with security forces in Baghdad.
“Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said there was no "hard
evidence" of involvement by the neighbouring Shiite government of
Iran in backing Shiite militiamen in the embattled country. Asked
about reports that weapons captured from Shiite fighters bore 2008
markings suggesting Iranian involvement, Dabbagh said: ‘We don't
have that kind of evidence... If there is hard evidence we will
defend the country.’" |
According to the Associated Press:
"The accusations come almost every day from U.S. officials: Iran is
seeking a nuclear weapon. Sponsoring terrorism. Killing Americans in
Iraq. Intent on Israel's destruction. Yet, some officials add, its
government will collapse if only given a push.
Does the U.S. have solid proof that Iran is guilty of such a long
list of misdeeds? Or is the case against Iran — and the certainty of its
ill intent — a bit fuzzy?
In the buildup to the Iraq war, the Bush administration made
allegations against Saddam Hussein that polls show Americans believed,
but which later proved wrong.
Now, with U.S. officials leading the pressure on Iran, many
Americans are weighing the evidence. Is there a smoking gun or even a
smoldering one?"
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