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 EchoVortex
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 Iran Endorses Bush 
#3255234 - 10/20/04 08:06 AM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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No, this is not a link to The Onion. It's a fact.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st...an_us_elections
Bush Receives Endorsement From Iran
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran - The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush (news - web sites) was in Tehran's best interests, despite the administration's axis of evil label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists and threats of sanctions over the country's nuclear ambitions.
Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body.
"We haven't seen anything good from Democrats," Rowhani told state-run television in remarks that, for the first time in recent decades, saw Iran openly supporting one U.S. presidential candidate over another.
Though Iran generally does not publicly wade into U.S. presidential politics, it has a history of preferring Republicans over Democrats, who tend to press human rights issues.
"We do not desire to see Democrats take over," Rowhani said when asked if Iran was supporting Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) against Bush.
The Bush campaign said no thanks.
"It's not an endorsement we'll be accepting anytime soon," Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "Iran should stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons and if they continue in the direction they are going, then we will have to look at what additional action may need to be taken including looking to the U.N. Security Council."
Kerry, who says halting nuclear proliferation will be a priority if he becomes president, believes Bush should have done more diplomatically to curb Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions. He says Iran should be offered nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, but spent fuel should be taken back so it cannot be used to develop nuclear weapons.
"It is telling that this president has received the endorsement of member of the axis of evil," Kerry campaign spokeswoman Allison Dobson said. "But Americans deserve a president who will have a comprehensive strategy to address the potential threat of Iran's growing nuclear program."
The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran after militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Iranian clerics were crucial in determining the fate of the 1980 U.S. election when Republican Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) won in part because Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter was unable to secure the hostages' release.
The hostages were freed as Reagan was inaugurated.
The United States supported Iraq (news - web sites) in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, but by the late 1990s, U.S.-Iranian relations were somewhat better. They plummeted again after Bush accused Iran of being part of the "axis of evil" with North Korea (news - web sites) and prewar Iraq.
The Bush administration also accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons and sheltering operatives of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terror network. Still, Iran was happy to see Bush destroy two big regional enemies ? the Taliban in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in Iraq.
Iranian political analyst Mohsen Mofidi said ousting the Taliban and Saddam was the "biggest service any administration could have done for Iran."
And Bush, he said, has learned from his mistakes.
"The experience of two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the responsibility Bush had, will make it a very remote possibility for him to risk attacking a much bigger and more powerful country like Iran," he said.
Mofidi added that "Democrats usually insist on human rights and they will have more excuses to pressure Iran."
Republican and Democratic presidents have issued executive orders against Iran, with Reagan in 1987 barring Iranian crude oil and other imports, and Bill Clinton (news - web sites) in 1995 banning U.S. trade and investment in Iran.
"We should not forget that most sanctions and economic pressures were imposed on Iran during the time of Clinton," Rowhani said. "And we should not forget that during Bush's era ? despite his hard-line and baseless rhetoric against Iran ? he didn't take, in practical terms, any dangerous action against Iran."
Bush has been reluctant to offer Iran any incentives for better U.S.-Iranian relations, but in recent days there have been signs Washington will back European economic incentives if Iran stops uranium enrichment activities.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was quoted by state-run television Tuesday as saying Iran is interested in buying nuclear fuel from the West, but will not concede its right to the technology.
The nuclear issue has been most sensitive, and the Bush administration is threatening to press for sanctions against Iran over it. Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, for energy purposes.
Kavoos Emami, another Iranian political analyst, praised Kerry for mentioning the need for dialogue with Iran, and said the Democrat would be better for Iran.
"Bush has insulted Iran more than any other U.S. administration. If Kerry is elected, a U.S. military attack against Iran will never happen or will be a very remote possibility," he said.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
 
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: EchoVortex]
#3258119 - 10/20/04 08:51 PM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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Awesome.
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Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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Divided_Sky
Ten ThousandThings
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: Learyfan]
#3259067 - 10/21/04 01:07 AM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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Well, do you think Iran is ignorant to the fact Americans don't like them? If the Ayatollahs have any brains at all they know that by endorsing Bush they are hurting him. If they want him gone the best thing to do is say they want him re-elected.
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1. "After an hour I wasn't feeling anything so I decided to take another..."
2. "We were feeling pretty good so we decided to smoke a few bowls..."
3. "I had to be real quiet because my parents were asleep upstairs..."
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Phred
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: EchoVortex]
#3259649 - 10/21/04 07:53 AM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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And as usual, AP gets it wrong again. Iran hasn't endorsed Bush.
Notice that the actual quotes from Iranian official Hasan Rowhani do not contain an endorsement at all.
"We haven't seen anything good from Democrats."
"We do not desire to see Democrats take over."
"We should not forget that most sanctions and economic pressures were imposed on Iran during the time of Clinton," Rowhani said. "And we should not forget that during Bush's era ? despite his hard-line and baseless rhetoric against Iran ? he didn't take, in practical terms, any dangerous action against Iran."
Hmmm. I don't see any endorsement there. And of course AP deliberately omitted a key portion of Hasan Rowhani?s statements that make it clear Iran does not endorse Bush at all. Here's an excerpt from an Agence French Press article http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=31107 that gives more thorough coverage of Rowhani's remarks:
Quote:
TEHRAN, Oct 19 (AFP) - It makes no real difference to Iran whether US President George W. Bush or Democrat contender John Kerry wins the presidential elections, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday.
?It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections,? Iran?s top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television.
?We have not seen any good coming from the Democrats, so we won?t be happy if the Democrats win,? he said.
"Also we should not forget that most sanctions and economic pressures were imposed on Iran during Clinton's administration," Rowhani added, referring to former president Bill Clinton.
The official said a victory in next month's elections for Bush and the Republicans would also not have much impact on the Islamic republic, arch-foe of the United States.
"We are not afraid of the US even if the Republicans win since, at least in the region, they had found out that aggression and bullying will only result in their interests being threatened," he added.
So the AP's "news" is really analysis that omits direct quotes directly contradicting their narrative, extrapolates endorsement from the context of some of the source's words and presents this extrapolation at face value, not even bothering to note Iran's previous prevarication that would indicate a tendency to try and game the political process with shifting positions.
pinky
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Divided_Sky
Ten ThousandThings
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: Phred]
#3259946 - 10/21/04 10:07 AM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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Well that's kind of sketchy.
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1. "After an hour I wasn't feeling anything so I decided to take another..."
2. "We were feeling pretty good so we decided to smoke a few bowls..."
3. "I had to be real quiet because my parents were asleep upstairs..."
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
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Posts: 34,213
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: Phred]
#3260195 - 10/21/04 11:19 AM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
"We haven't seen anything good from Democrats."
"We do not desire to see Democrats take over."
"We should not forget that most sanctions and economic pressures were imposed on Iran during the time of Clinton," Rowhani said. "And we should not forget that during Bush's era ? despite his hard-line and baseless rhetoric against Iran ? he didn't take, in practical terms, any dangerous action against Iran."
Why don't you see these quotes as endorsements for Bush? He doesn't come right out and say it, but he does in so many words. He's obviously saying that he doesn't want the democrats in power here in the US. Therefore, he must want the republicans in power.
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Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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Phred
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: Learyfan]
#3260259 - 10/21/04 11:42 AM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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The New York Times has endorsed Kerry. That barking moonbat anti-semite Muhathir Mohammed of Malaysia has endorsed Kerry. Winner of the Nobel peace prize and murderous terrorist Yasser Arafat has endorsed Kerry. Vladimir Putin has endorsed Bush.
But not only has the president of Iran not endorsed Bush, neither has the Iranian official quoted in the AP and AFP article. At best, he has expressed his distaste for the way Democrats have dealt with Iran in the past.
Despite what AP would like you to believe, saying ?It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections,? is not endorsing Bush.
Lest you think I'm being too harsh on Kerry because he has the endorsement of several world leaders of dubious character, I'm not. I think it extremely unlikely that Kerry or Kerry's campaign made any attempt to persuade these folks to contact these people and ask them to make those statements. It does, however, make me wonder if these are three of the same mysterious word leaders Kerry was refusing to name (although he did suggest he might have spoken to these people in some caf? or restaurant in New York) earlier in the campaign.
No, these folks decided on their own to endorse Kerry, just as Putin decided on his own to endorse Bush.
pinky
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: Phred]
#3260296 - 10/21/04 11:51 AM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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I think when you put the two articles together what you have is Iran saying "We don't care who wins.....but we'd rather have Bush win."
Read between the lines. You guys have trouble with that. Just as Bush didn't come out and say Saddam was involved in 9-11, Iran doesn't need to come out and say that they endorse Bush. It seems obvious to me.
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Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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EchoVortex
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: Phred]
#3260418 - 10/21/04 12:28 PM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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The New York Times has endorsed Kerry. Correct, as have a majority of other large-circulation newspapers in the United States.
That barking moonbat anti-semite Muhathir Mohammed of Malaysia has endorsed Kerry. Correct.
Winner of the Nobel peace prize and murderous terrorist Yasser Arafat has endorsed Kerry. Incorrect. Arafat has made no public endorsement. There is only one "news" organization reporting that Arafat has a preference, worldnetdaily, and that on the basis of interviews with aides:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40988
BTW, I find it rather suspicious that Arafat's close advisors would be giving "exclusive" interviews to a right-wing news site like worldnetdaily. That's kind of like Dick Cheney AND Donald Rumsfeld giving exclusive interviews to the Socialist Worker's Daily because they know they'll give them a sympathetic hearing.
Anyway, to count THAT as an official endorsement while discounting comments made publicly to Iranian state-run television by the head of the nation's security council is a clear double standard. Hell, even the Bush campaign acknowledges that it's an endorsement: "It's not an endorsement we'll be accepting anytime soon," Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said in response.
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 Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: Iran Endorses Bush [Re: EchoVortex]
#3260524 - 10/21/04 01:37 PM (19 years, 5 months ago) |
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