Here is a glimpse of the Iran that Ahmadin-a-jihad won’t be speaking about to the American press anytime soon. Especially as he postures to the American voting public during his visit the U.N. this week. The article below is the story of a young activist originally sentenced to death for being photographed protesting publicly against the Islamic government in 1999. Why? The photo became published on the cover of The Economist and seen world wide. It nearly cost him his life had it not been for the publicity it received, and the public outcries on the depravity of the sentence… read on…
NINE years ago, Ahmad Batebi appeared on the cover of The Economist. He was a 21-year-old student, one of thousands who protested against Iran’s government that summer. He was photographed holding aloft a T-shirt bespattered with the blood of a fellow protester. Soon afterwards, he was arrested and shown our issue of July 17th 1999. “With this”, he was told, “you have signed your death warrant.”
During his interrogation he was blindfolded and beaten with cables until he passed out. His captors rubbed salt into his wounds to wake him up, so they could torture him more. They held his head in a drain full of sewage until he inhaled it. He recalls yearning for a swift death to end the pain. He was played recordings of what he was told was his mother being tortured. His captors wanted him to betray his fellow students, to implicate them in various crimes and to say on television that the blood on that T-shirt was only red paint. He says he refused.
He was sentenced to death for “creating street unrest”. But after a global outcry, the sentence was commuted to 15 years in jail. He speculates that his high profile made it hard to kill him without attracting negative publicity. For two years, he was kept in solitary confinement, in a cell that was little more than a toilet hole with a wooden board on top. He was tortured constantly. Only when he was allowed to mingle with other prisoners again did he begin to overcome his despair.
He suffered a partial stroke that left the right side of his body without feeling. He needed medical attention. The regime did not want to be blamed for him dying behind bars, he says, so he was allowed out for treatment. Three months ago, on the day of the Persian new year, he escaped into Iraq. On June 24th he arrived in America.
He spoke to The Economist on July 7th. Looking at the picture that sparked his ordeal, he says that another man in his place might be angry, but he is not. Mr Batebi is a photographer himself. He says he understands what journalism involves. Had we not published the picture, he says, another paper might have. Looking at the same picture, his lawyer, interpreter and friend Lily Mazahery says she is close to tears: in it, the young Mr Batebi’s pale arms are as yet unscarred by torture.
The protests Mr Batebi took part in nine years ago frightened Iran’s rulers. The students were angry about censorship, the persecution of intellectuals and the thugs who beat up any student overheard disparaging the regime. Mr Batebi thinks Iran could well turn solidly democratic some day. In neighbouring states, religious extremism is popular. In Iran, he says, the government is religiously extreme, but the people are not.
He is cagey about how exactly he escaped. But he says he used a cellphone camera to record virtually every step of his journey, and will soon go public with the pictures and his commentary. Meanwhile, he seems to be enjoying America. He praises the way “people have the opportunity to become who they want to be”. Shortly after he arrived, he posted a picture of himself in front of the Capitol on his Farsi-language blog, with the caption: “Your hands will never touch me again.” — The Economist Editors (his blog photos in the U.S. speak for themselves !! — ZZ staff)
This is an example of the kind of oppressive society that the religions leaders and radical Islamic jihadists have planned for all the non believer infidels of the satanic western world in their declared Jihad. Regardless of your political persuasion, please sit up and take note of the kind of government that Barack Obama wants to have a dialogue with. Do you think that the Messiah-Obama will be able to convert these people with his silver tongue alone??
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Do you think these cartoons exaggerate the issue? Or do they in fact under state the total lack of objectivity in the MSM when it comes to all things Obama??
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(New York) — Republican presidential nominee John McCain today for the first time said he can now support a timeline to reduce the American presence in Iraq, specifically advocating the withdrawal from Iraq of Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama, and several battalions of U.S. news anchors and reporters.
“It’s time to bring them home,” said Sen. McCain at a news conference attended by a journalism intern from the Des Moines Register. “The surge has worked, and it’s time to redeploy.”
Sen. McCain said bringing Sen. Obama home would help to ensure that “people in the U.S., who desperately need media attention, will get the help they deserve.”
“Our mainstream media forces are stretched too thin,” he said. “If news should break here in the homeland, who’s going to cover it? We’re vulnerable.” — as reported by satirist Scott Ott / ScrappleFace
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So here’s an idea that we would like to suggest to John McCain to ponder. Maybe put in his speeches as a specific action for the American people to consider in November as opposed to the nebulous solutions that Obama offers. Couple the Democrat stance on us driving less and reducing consumption and being opposed to ALSO drilling and refining to increasing oil and gasoline capacity AND their simultaneous dislike of the concept of a Guantanamo Bay camp on the island of Cuba, it occurred to us that we might have an opportunity here.
Since Gitmo, as we understand it is a Federal, and not State, controlled territory why not develop the area for a DUAL purpose? Begin the appropriation of funds to initiate construction of a MAJOR oil to gasoline refinery at Quantanomo Bay. Perhaps build one of the largest in the world putting those in the Middle East to shame!
Advantages:
1. Closely located to the Gulf States to reduce transportation costs.
2. It provides a stronger reason for maintaining a security force there and places pressure on Venezuela and Cuba to stay well behaved. Who knows with time it might be an asset that helps democratize Cuba.
3. Protect the assets with the strong military presence already there.
4. Work out deal with China who are already planning to drill off the coast of Cuba and restore an old Russian refinery on the island. (Get in there before they decide to turn Cuba into the next Kuwait)
5. You have a labor pool as well. Put the low risk detainees to work !!
Maybe this sounds too simple, but why not think out of the box and put this land to even better use than it provides today? We do CONTROL that territory don’t we? Why not exploit it? Why not also drill off it’s coastline???
Something to consider anyway…. just thought we would put it out there in case someone running for President with some balls might consider it to help with the issue that we have not built a gasoline refinery in our country for decades, 25 years to be exact!! Here is a low risk place to start! Who would object there that votes in our elections ?? (Unless you consider illegal aliens from Cuba voting illegally for Obama - lol)
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Well we do have to admit that the New Yorker has out done itself here. Take special note of the American flag burning in the fireplace in presumably the Oval Office of the White House. The fist pump of victory, and the bisected Osama Bin Laden portrait on the wall. Yes folks this is satire and the New Yorker is getting its share of heat over it.
Barack and Michelle as you can imagine are not too happy. (And you thought it was only radical Muslims that did not like political cartoons). A note to both the Obamas on behalf of all satirists including the New Yorker: If you can’t take the heat then get out of the kitchen. This heat comes with the territory and please don’t call this racist! The cover might be considered by some as being over the top (i.e. the burning flag and the Bin Laden portrait) but hey, the apple does not fall that far from the tree with respect to the underlying symbolic suggestion and psychology of this cartoon given the past life experiance of these two. You can’t change history folks. Michelle did sympathize with the leftist, Marxist radical Black Panther movement in college. Just read some of her racially biased writtings at Princeton. Barack did have an Islamic upbringing as a child even though he claims to now be a Christian. (At least a Christian in the Rev. Wright sense of the word).
Hey folks, to those of you who have their panties in a bunch over this. What ever happened to artistic freedom and the 1st Amendment?? Isn’t that one of the mantras that the liberal left and ACLU always claims to be near and dear to their hearts? You know, freedom of expression and artistic license? Or do we have a double standard at play here when the shoe is on the other foot? LOL — the American media, you gotta love it.
Bravo New Yorker for having the guts to go with this front cover! Let’s keep free speech and the 1st Amendment alive and well.
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Let us know which one resonates with you…
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(TEHRAN) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his nation’s missile tests this week are part of a previously-secret plan to “Photoshop Israel from the map.” — [Hat Tip: LGF]
Images of the missile tests showed apparently-real, as well as computer-generated duplicates of Shahab missiles, which Iran claims have a range of up to 1,250 miles — long enough to strike Israel — a claim which has since been questioned by Western arms experts.
Mr. Ahmadinejad said that while it may take years to produce actual weapons that could strike “the Zionist state”, Iranian scientists and graphic artists have already demonstrated the ability, using Adobe® technology to “completely obliterate” Israel from the map.
“We can do it at a moments notice,” he said, “Even now I have my finger on the button of a device that can make the borders and all the cities of Israel vanish in seconds.” — as reported by satirist Scott Ott / ScrappleFace
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(Illinois) — Democrat presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama today faulted the “weakness of the Bush administration” for Iran’s recent long-range missile testing, and said when he sits in the Oval Office “Iran will know that we mean talk.”
The Illinois senator said he would engage Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in face-to-face negotiations offering “carrots as well as sticks,” meaning that he would “reward Iranian goodwill gestures with stirring laudatory speeches, and punish Iran’s violations of U.N. resolutions with bold rhetorical rebukes.”
“We know that President Ahmadinejad wants to see Israel wiped off the face of the map,” said Sen. Obama, “Of course, the first step in negotiating is to determine what the other party wants that you might be able to provide”
“Iran needs to know that our words mean something,” he said. “During the Obama administration, our words will mean that we are saying things by combining those words into sentences to express ideas about how we feel, using dramatic phrases and dynamic cadences. Iran must never question our resolve to deliver…speeches.”
While the Bush administration has tried to get allies to unite in applying pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program, Sen. Obama said he would bring change to American foreign policy by trying to get U.S. allies to unite in applying pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program.
“It’s a lot different than the Bush approach,” he said, “because in my strategy, there is no Bush.” — as reported by satirist Scott Ott / Scrappleface
To all the Democrats out there: Barack sure sounds more and more like Bush every day. A Bush 3rd term without the Bush (and without the balls if Jesse Jackson has his way).
McCain at least has been true to his centrist leanings before, during and we are sure after the nomination. Barack on the other hand has bamboozled all of you — Jessie Jackson, “the castrationist,” knows it all too well — that’s why he wants to cut off his balls!
Also perhaps a bit of jealousy lingers since Obama has stolen the good preacher’s black political spotlight of many years. And as for Reverend Al? Well we suspect he is simply lying low until after the election just to make sure he doesn’t “step in it” too. However… if Barack keeps up his back peddling, the good reverend just might give brother Jessie a call, as well as his two good friends Hillary and Bill, and put on a real show for all of us in Denver !
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For your amusement. Here’s our picks for the top three Obama / Wesley Clark political cartoons of the week.
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Feeling the heat from the left closing in, and sweat accumulating under his collar, Obama reassures his constituency in St. Louis on Saturday Jul 5th that he still plans on his surrender and withdrawal of troops as he announced to the enemy earlier this year… Al-Qaeda you don’t have to change your victory celebration timetable as long as he makes it to the White House. His eye is winking at his core following. The entire city of San Francisco was heard to breath a collective sigh of relief - wink wink.
ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Saturday his plan to end the Iraq war was unchanged and he was puzzled by the sharp reaction to his statement this week that he might “refine” his timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat troops.
“For me to say that I’m going to refine my policies I don’t think in any way is inconsistent with prior statements and doesn’t change my strategic view that this war has to end and that I’m going to end it as president,” Obama told reporters on his campaign plane. — Reuters
So here is a guy who has exploited the radical left since his college days in his bid for the highest office. What’s the first thing he does after his nomination is locked up? Pander to the right and middle of the road voter in rural America. Does anyone see anything different about this guy then any of his predecessors? To make matters worse he acts dumbfounded as to why the left is furious over his recent remarks.
Hey Obama… We have a news bulletin for you. You are now beholding to the radical left and Moveon.Org unlike your rival Hillary Clinton. Now you need to reassure the left that you have not flipped, but you must at the same time flip for those in the middle. This is what happens when a campaign is only built on rhetoric and double speak. Where is the change your are bringing to the political process Oh Ye Messiah Obama? Do you really expect mainstream America not to see through your ‘I will say anything to get elected’ charade while you pander to the middle of the road voters with both eyes on the polls? How far to the right, and hypocritical are you willing to become to capture that middle vote? Have you no shame?
And here is the clincher… radical leftists - read it and weep. You have been bamboozled:
Obama said his willingness to consider changing conditions on the ground and the potential ramifications of the pull-out plan was a strength — and a sharp contrast to Republican President George W. Bush’s stay-the-course strategy in Iraq.
“The tactics of how we ensure our troops are safe as we pull out, how we execute the withdrawal — those are things that are all based on facts and conditions,” he said.
“I’m not somebody who, like George Bush, is willing to ignore facts on the basis of my preconceived notions. I want to pay attention to what is happening on the ground.”
Under heavy pressure from McCain, who criticized his failure to visit Iraq since 2006, Obama plans to travel to Iraq and Afghanistan. The dates have not been announced for security reasons but the trip is expected within the next month. — Reuters
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