whitebeard

261104110023 I have finally finished the biography of Marwan Barghouti that I was aiming to get online in time for the PLC elections of 26 January.

Barghouti is the most prominent prisoner among the 10,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli jails. He is an unambiguous supporter of the two-state solution, recognises Israel within its 1967 borders, and was an early and enthusiastic advocate of the Oslo Accords. However, he became increasingly convinced by the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories through the 1990's that Israel's commitment to a negotiated peace was a sham, and that Israeli would never be persuaded to end the Occupation by negotiations alone. When the Oslo process collapsed in October 2000, Barghouti was a vocal supporter of armed intifada, as a means of bringing home to Israelis the fact that as long as they remained occupiers, they would never have security.

Barghouti was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus 40 years in May 2004 for complicity in five killings carried out by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, charges he denies. Since his conviction, his popularity with the Palestinian public has soared, and since Arafat's death he has been easily the most highly-regarded leader by Palestinian public opinion. Barghouthi is widely-regarded as a likely future Palestinian leader, and what you think of that prospect depends on where you are coming from: if you're Silvan Shalom, Barghouti is the personification of Palestinian terrorism who will never be released; if you're Yossi Beilin, he's the good Palestinian gone bad, who nevertheless represents a better alternative for Israel than Islamist leadership of the PA. If you're a pro-Oslo Palestinian, he's the leader who's going to get you where you once thought Oslo was meant to lead; and if you're an anti-Oslo Palestinian, he's another of those Fatah quislings who even now is conspiring with Abu Mazen and the Young Guard to overthrow the Hamas government and sideline the external Fatah leadership...

So, I guess that's something for everyone. Read Barghouthi's bio here, or via the Palestinian Biographies link in the left sidebar.
Many thanks to Laurence of Cyberia

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:58 | link | comments |
israel, palestine

Imagine that you are strapped to a board, blindfolded, and your mouth taped shut. Suddenly you are upended and your head is plunged below water, or water is poured continuously on a pile of rags across your face. Water is forced up your nose, you choke and gag, you cannot cry out or do anything to stop it.

Torture? Heavens no, the U.S. doesn't torture! This is only "simulated drowning," as water-boarding is euphemistically called in the press. The sole merit of Vice President Cheney is that he says out loud what the others are actually thinking and doing. Asked about the administration's use of water-boarding in a recent radio interview, Cheney replied, "It's a no-brainer for me."

Is this use of torture a major issue in the current elections? Is any major political figure vowing to put an end to this? Do people even know about it?

"This is broad, this is sweeping, this is endless, this does not does not limit to a particular narrow geographic location or a very small period of time, this we have now to live with for many years and perhaps decades to come and it is a shame and a scandal that the United States Congress passed this statute." – Bill Goodman on the Military Commissions Act

Here are some comments from people signing up to view the New York teach-in in their area:

"Need to know what my options are beyond republicans and democrats - with the elections forthcoming, is there something within the electoral framework that I can do to mitigate the criminal nature of our gov't?"

If there is not a teach-in scheduled in your area, all you need is a computer with broadband (DSL or cable) internet access in order to view the New York teach-in. You can project the teach-in in a class room or view it with a group of friends on a computer screen. Go to the World Can't Wait web site for details.

The whole country needs to see this. So C-Span needs to get the message that YOU want to see it. C-Span invites viewers to submit suggestions of events for them to broadcast. Please write to them today, asking them to broadcast the national emergency teach-in in New York. The address to use is events@c-span.org

Dr. Les Roberts, an author of the study in The Lancet that there are a projected 650,000 civilian deaths caused by the war on Iraq.

Larry Everest has covered the Middle East for over ten years and is the author of Oil, Power, and Empire.

Chris Hedges, spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, winning a Pulitzer Prize

Cristina Page, author of How The Pro-choice Movement Saved America describes the assault on both abortion and contraception.

This event will be held at: Synod Hall of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
110th St & Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY

Delayed national broadcast on the Internet the same evening. See World Can't Wait for details on viewing.

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:32 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, torture, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 21:01 | link | comments |
environment, war, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:00 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, dante, nineleven

These verses remain the most poignant and most enduring memorial of Campaldino; rounding the awful human tragedy of the day with the terror of the mountains and the floods—with the overwhelming power of those mysteriously moved forces of Nature amid which his little torch of faith is man’s only safety. And the littleness of it in time, the quick recurrence of the green springing years bringing new hope and life to those left behind on earth, is told in that saddest word of the forgotten spirit: “Giovanna, o altri, non ha di me cura”.

You may follow to-day the course of the dying Ghibelline warrior over the fields once sprinkled with his blood to his place of death. Or if you take the high road towards Bibbiena and turn off about three miles beyond Poppi at the bridge which crosses the Archiano, and keeping the edge of the stream between the slender ranks of the poplars, you will quickly reach the spot where it loses itself and its vocabol in Arno. As a rule the Archiano is no more than a shallow rivulet, rippling merrily into the fuller current of the “royal river.” In the summer, when the rocky crannies where the hermits nest far aloft are parched and moistureless, it shrinks to a mere trickle. But the great tongue of shingly beach which runs out just at the meeting of the streams tells its tale of swollen waters. Here on the whitened stones one sits and thinks of that b1ind stumble, the gasp of Mary’s name, the fall in the sweating moment before the breaking of the storm. Then the sudden loosing of the rains, the down rush of the spate that nothing could hold in, the rigid body swept into the Arno, its arms unclasped, tossed over and over by shore and deep, and buried and wound at last in the drift of weeds and mud.

At all times this is a lonely and meditative place. To-day a solitary peasant guides his oxen in the field dose by, and stops to watch the stranger passing. We are in December. The water flows dark and quiet, contained within its narrow channel. A white fog lies upon the tree tops and everything is very still. But up there on the unseen heights the north wind is already unchained, and will tear up the shroud an hour hence, and toss up the great billows into the wild blue, ready for the morrow’ s snowstorm. But when summer comes again, six months hence, with its sudden clouds, the nightingales, hidden in that grove of trees, now leafless and dim, beside the water’s edge, will be singing the lament of Buonconte, loud and piercingly, as on that June evening long ago when the storm had passed away, and all the heavy odours, loosened by rain from grass and weeds, will float up like incense on a dead man’s grave. At no moment of the year can the place be other than sad.
We have far over-passed Poppi and must return on our steps. But before ascending to the Castle, there is another reminiscence of Campaldino to be related, the authority for which is that inimitable chronicler of anecdotes, Franco Sacchetti. Many years after the battle, on a day in March, two ladies, riding together for diversion, chanced to pass by Certomondo. One was the Lady Gherardesca, daughter of Conte Ugolino della Gherardesca, and wife of Guido di Battifolle; the other Manentessa, daughter of Buonconte da Montefeltro, and married to Conte Guido Salvatico. Their conversation is an interesting example of party spite, translated from men’s swords to women’s tongues. “Oh, Madonna,” said the daughter of the Guelf chief who had been starved to death in the Hunger Tower of Pisa to the daughter of the Ghibelline leader who had been slain at Campaldino, “look how fine is this grain and this grass ‘here where the Ghibellines were overthrown by the Florentines. I am sure that the soil still feels that fatness.” And Buonconte’s daughter quickly replied: “Fine is it in good sooth; but we might die of hunger ere we had it to eat.”

These loving kinswomen, as they returned to Poppi, must have crossed the bridge which is said to have been built by Count Guidoguerra a century before their time, and which still spans the Arno with its picturesque and hoary arches, beneath the town The suburb on the left bank, Ponte a Poppi, is an ancient growth, but is uninteresting and most squalid. Its houses have been a good deal modernised. Little else is changed since the Countesses rode across with their hawks and pages. On a bright morning the water would have danced and sparkled in its stony bed just as it does to-day, and the bare-legged women who kneel and wash in the stream or cross the strand balancing bundles on their heads had ancestresses in the fourteenth century who did just the same. The same steep flagged path ascends between the houses and is seen above the lower roofs, winding up to where the hill-top is ridged with churches and habitations, overtopped by the towering Castle. But one misses to-day in the setting of ancient walls, of rusty roofs and grass.-grown slopes, the brilliant colour and splendour of the medioeva1 figures. No more processions of proud horsemen pass up and down. But the place is alive with memories of some of the most thrilling moments in the story of the Conti Guidi. Over the bridge and up the causeway clattered that recreant “County Guy,” Guido Novello, fleeing from the slaughter of Campaldino below. Up here in 1343 the courteous Simone di Battifolle conducted the fallen Duke of Athens to choose between humiliation or a dungeon in the tower above. But most tragic of all was that last scene in the story of the Guidi when Count Francesco, having looked out from his castle upon the Florentine army stretched out below in a great half moon, reaching from Certomondo to Fronzola, descended to the bridge to treat with its commander, Neri Capponi, who has himself related the story. “‘Can it be,’ said the Count, ‘that your Signory will not leave me this dwelling, which has been ours for 900 years. Do as you will with the rest.’ I answered him: ‘Do not imagine it. You have not borne yourself in such wise that my Signory wish to have you as a neighbour. They would be very willing that you should be a great lord in Germany.’ He angrily replied: ‘And I should like to have you there.’ Whereat I laughed.” So amid the scorn of the citizen victors for the arrogant pretensions of this relic of feudalism, the last of the Guidi was compelled to surrender possessions, castle, everything, even the consolation of revenge upon two prisoners whom he was keeping in a dungeon at Pratovecchio and would have conveyed secretly away with him, had not Neri discovered and rescued them. Then came the final scene when, accompanied by his family and retainers, and followed by a mournful procession of thirty mules bearing the scanty remains of his wealth, the Count descended the hill for the last time and passed out of the home of his fathers for ever.
The hill-top is still encircled by the remains of the old walls and defences built by Simone di Battifolle in 1261, when he and Guido Novello ruled here together, and which were so strong that they resisted the repeated attacks of d’Alviano in 1490 and thus saved the Casentino from falling altogether into the power of the Venetian invaders. You enter through an ancient gateway, which is defended by the ruins of a massive bastion and by a tall bell-tower. Just within the gate is the Abbey of S. Fedele, founded by the Conti Guidi in the twelfth century for monks of the Vallombrosan Order. It was originally a dependency of the great Abbey of Strumi, which lay about half a mile away to the north of Poppi, and which enjoyed at one time great wealth and importance. Strumi produced, not a Pope indeed, but an anti-Pope, John of Strumi, the Abbot, being promoted to that ambiguous honour by Frederick Barbarossa. But the new monastery at Poppi flourished at the expense of the rnother house; Strumi felI into decay and the monks finally abandoned it and transferred themselves to S.Fedele, and nothing is now left of the original abbey but some fragments of old building used as a farmhouse. Nor does the daughter monastery exist any more, having been long ago suppressed. The church is a large building, restored in the eighteenth century; the altarpieces it contains are of little interest, with the exception of a large Madonna and Child, of the pre-Giottesque period, exceedingly stiff and unnatural, but noble in feeling and design, especially in comparison with the two vulgar seventeenth or eighteenth century figures of saints, between which the ancient panel is most incongruously fitted. There is also a large painted crucifix of the fourteenth century. Andrea del Sarto was painting an Assumption for this church when he died; his widow, the fair-haired woman with the inexpressive face whom he has portrayed for us, was paid seventy lire for it, the price stipulated by the monks. The picture has now passed to Florence. Many of the Conti Guidi were buried in the cloisters of the adjoining monastery, but their tombs were destroyed by order of Pius V.

Poppi loses on closer acquaintance the enchantment which distance lends it. But it is a picturesque enough little hill town. The long main street lined with arcaded houses, between which narrow, black-browed alleys run steeply down the hillside, leads to the central piazza and the seventeenth century oratory of the Madonna del Morbo, built to commemorate the liberation of the town from two dreadful visitations of the plague. It contains a very sacred picture of the Madonna, which is said to possess the gift of healing, and is kept strictly veiled; it has no artistic value. The ugly Church of the Propositura, San Marco, on the left, has nothing in it of interest. The church of the Augustine nuns, beneath the castle on the east side, contains a very charming example of the polychromatic terra-cotta work of the later Della Robbia school. It is a Nativity; the Virgin, and St. Joseph adoring the Babe, with St. Francis and another Franciscan saint kneeling on either side in front. The shepherds, with their crooks and lambs, are entering on the scene behind, and in the distance they are seen again with their flocks listening to the angelic message. A wreath of dancing angels, small figures, appears upon a cloud above the stable. The sentiment of the whole scene is sweet and touching, and the little subjects in the predella below, divided by pilasters decorated with rich arabesques in white on a blue ground, are enchantingly graceful, more particularly the Annunciation and the Salutation. The subdued colour of the whole piece is very decorative; there is none of that gaudiness which is so disagreeable in some of these polychromatic reliefs. Another work of the san1e school, the Madonna giving her girdle to St. Thomas, used to be on the front of a house just below the gate of the town; it has now however been removed, but is, I believe, to be placed in the castle. The town possesses a library of considerable value, consisting partly of the old library of the monks at Camaldoli, and containing some illuminated manuscripts and a number of early printed books.

The Castle stands on a rise above the town, on the verge of the hill, whence its lofty tower dominates all the country round. It is a splendid and imposing building, and remains to-day a witness to the power and opulence of the great Conti Guidi. It was built by the brothers Guido Novello and Simone di Battifolle, who lived in it in great magnificence, so that the expression became proverbial in Florence: Tu stai più ad agio che ’l conte in Poppi.‘ “ You are in greater ease than the Count in Poppi.”

Whilst he was vicar in Florence, Guido Novello stripped the city of its arms and harness of war and carried them hither and furnished his castle with them, as well as with all those taken from the Guelfs at the battle of Montaperti. Villani relates that one day the Baron, then at the climax of fortune and pride, was exhibiting his armoury to his uncle, Count Tegrimo of Porciano, and asked him what he thought of it. “The said Count Tegrimo responded promptly and unexpectedly with a witty and noteworthy jest, and said: ‘It appears to me very good, only I understand that the Florentines lend at heavy interest.’” The prophecy contained in the old man’s words was too well fulfilled later. In 1290, a year after the battle of Campaldino, the Florentines having spoilt all the country of the Aretines, entered the Casentino again and laid waste the lands of Guido Novello “and destroyed his fortress and palace of Poppi, which were very strong and wonderful.” Count Guido di Battifolle, son of Simone, rebuilt the castle. In gratitude for his services to the Guelf party, Florence had granted him a sum for repairing the damage done to the Guidi possessions after Campaldino. The builder was Lapo, father of Arnolfo da Cambio, according to Vasari, who also says that Arnolfo designed the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence after the likeness of that in the Casentino. Vasari errs however in making Arnolfo Lapo’s son, as he was apparently only the pupil of the elder architect, but there is certainly some such relationship between the two works of their hands. The massive walls and battlements and soaring tower of the feudal stronghold, which unite the grim and heavy character proper to the mediaeval Tuscan with a Gothic grace of ornamentation, make it seem a smaller version of the great palace of the Florentine people. A noticeable feature of Poppi Castle is the proportion of the eastern façade, which is narrower than the other three sides of the building, so that when seen from the valley road below, the flanks slope slightly outwards from it with peculiar effect.(1)

(1)This was probably for some purpose of defence. Can it be that the castle archers were thus able to shoot from a wider front than they would present to the missiles of a besieging foe?

The large green which lies before the castle, shaded with trees and reminding one of the peaceful surroundings of an old English baronial mansion, was once the great courtyard or piazza, and was enclosed within strong wails. It was the joust and tilting ground, the campo franco or field where duels might be fought, and the place of games and merrymaking. The splendid façade of the Castle on this side, in the midst of which rises the tower, is probably a later addition to Lapo’s origina1 building. The fine ornamentation of the gothic windows has a very renewed look, but in only one has the old work been replaced by a modem copy; the others have been cleaned and repaired.

Passing through the low postern tower and across the now filled-in moat, you enter beneath a great arched portal guarded by the image of a 1ion sculptured in bas- relief above it, a fifteenth century work, attributed to Jacopo Turriani. The dark and lofty castle hall, or cortile, of noble architectural form, is now in sad decay; the flag-stones are green and moist; the walls, plastered with the sculptured devices of the successive castellans and once richly frescoed above, are damp a n d crumbling. One’s voice echoes and is lost in the hollow silence of deep vaulted spaces. A massive wall encloses the lowest flight of the staircase, which ascends at a steep pitch to the gallery at the top, supported by arches in the wall, and has the remains of an ornate and graceful balustrade. This staircase is of later date than the great hall, as may be seen by the traces of old windows which it masks. The Castle is undergoing a very slow process of restoration, in the course of which a lower gallery on the east side has been pulled down under the probably mistaken impression that it did not belong to the original design of the building. 0ff the hall are prisons, still used, though the grimmer of the dungeons are left to the ghosts; one of them is confidently pointed out as the prison of Dante, who, if the vulgar are to be believed, must have passed a great deal of time in the Casentino in confinement. Some gratings in the floor cover the openings to gruesome underground dungeons and oubliettes, and a great stone table, upon which scourgings and various torments are said to have been inflicted upon offenders, adds to the grim impression of the place. Over this scene of baronial justice presides a colossal fresco, now almost indistinguishable, of the Madonna enthroned, with saints kneeling and standing around. On the left of the entrance there is a door leading into the old cistern or reservoir of the castle, a great vaulted underground chamber, still partly filled with water.

At the top of the long staircase stands an interesting statue of a warrior in armour, forming a caryatid, and popularly called Count Guidoguerra, who was, however, dead long before the castle was built. If one of the Guidi at all, it must be a much later Count. Passerini, the historian of the family, says it is Guido di Battifolle, who restored the castle. The staircase gives access to some fine rooms, showing remains of frescoes and decorations, much of which is sixteenth century work. The walls of the little chapel, however, are covered with fourteenth century paintings, by some follower of Taddeo Gaddi. They are usually attributed to Jacopo Landino, known as Jacopo del Casentino, a native of Pratovecchio. Vasari has included this artist in his lives of the painters, relating that when Taddeo Gaddi was working at La Verna, the superior of the convent placed the boy Jacopo with him to learn the art of painting, in which he succeeded so well that he was commissioned later to do many works in Florence and elsewhere as well as in the Casentino. There is little of his work now known. The one or two pictures to which his name is attached in public galleries seem to belong to the fifteenth century. The subjects represented here at Poppi are the Story of St. John the Baptist, the Death of the Virgin, the Presentation in the Temple, and scenes from the legend of St. John the Evangelist. The kneeling figures in the scene of John Baptist preaching are portraits of some of the Guidi, and the two foremost are in all probability Count Roberto di Battifolle, Petrarch’s friend, and his brother Count Carlo. Their heads are, however, scarcely distinguished from the conventional type which the painter uses for all the figures alike in these frescoes. The corresponding female figures in the fresco of Salome are no doubt the ladies of the family. In a passage or room now open on to the gallery there is a curious painting of a Love standing upon a fountain, with two figures below that seem intended for Dante and Beatrice. On the opposite wall appears a figure of Fortune on a wheel.

The traces of the old lords have been everywhere overlaid by the later Florentine governors or vicars who ruled the Casentino after the expulsion of the Guidi, and made Poppi their palace. I sought long in vain for some device of the original House among the heraldic emblems which adorn the walls of the castle, inside and outside—the Marzocco of Florence, the Palle of the Medici, the hundred and one shields of cavaliers of noble Tuscan families, including several of glazed terra-cotta, surrounded by garlands of flowers and fruit, by the school of the Della Robbia. At last, at the top of the long flight of stairs, just at the turn, I discovered a worn stone ornament, sculptured with the original shield of the Conti, the Cross of St. Andrew, on a field still showing traces of blue colour. The later Guidi introduced a lion—or sometimes two lions—into their arms, which varied a good deal in the different branches of the family. The shield in its later form is, I believe, upon the arch at the foot of the staircase.

It is the romantic associations with the Guidi and their days that one seeks in this Castle, and naturally the first question is, Was Dante ever here? There exist two letters, addressed from Poppi, by the Countess Gherardesca, wife of Guido di Battifolle, to Margaret of Brabant, Henry VII’s Empress, which were found in a manuscript containing letters of Dante’s, and have therefore been conjectured to have been composed by him, in which case he must have been an inmate of the castle at the time. Apart from this doubtful evidence there seems no very good reason for supposing that he found shelter with a noble who was closely allied with the Republic which had exiled him, and who served it faithfully against Dante’s beloved Emperor.

A guest of a very different sort, the odious tyrant of Florence, Walter de Brienne, was certainly here, and the great chamber off the cortile, where the archives are kept, is supposed to be the scene of his ratification of the act of abdication. In spite of the horrors of blood from which he had barely escaped with his life out of the enraged city, the Duke at first refused to sign. Then said the Count: “My Lord Duke, if you will not observe that which you have sworn to the Florentines I will not for that reason use towards you any force or violence except that I will carry you back to Florence and there you can at your ease settle the matter with the city, as seems most good to you.” The hint was enough. The Duke delayed no longer, but taking up the pen, ratified his surrender of the office which he had so shamefully abused.

A later notability associated with the castle and with its last lord is Santi Cascesi, a boy of Poppi, whose story is one of the romances of history. About 1430 Ercole Bentivoglio, one of the great Bolognese House of that name, being in exile, spent some time at Poppi, where he fell in love with a beautiful carpenter’s wife, who in course of time bore a son. The boy was brought up by his supposed father, Agnolo Cascesi, and after the early death of the latter and of his mother, by Agnolo’s brother, Antonio. Re was much favoured by the Count of Poppi, who, when he was driven out of the Casentino, took the child with him to Bologna. Here Santi was seen by Annibale Bentivoglio, then lord of the city, who, pleased with his looks and manners, caressed him, saying: “Thou art one of us. I would have you come quickly to your rightful home.” But Antonio Cascesi, who was a man of substance and good standing, insisted on the boy being sent back to Poppi, and on his return apprenticed him to the Arte della Lana in Florence. Some years later Annibale Bentivoglio was murdered by his enemies, and the great party, of which he was the leader, was left without a head. Then the Count of Poppi, who had taken up his abode in Bologna, revealed that there was a son of Ercole Bentivoglio’s in existence. Whereupon the Bolognese sent messengers to Florence to seek out the youth, that they might set him in the place of his fathers at the head of the party. When Santi was told .who he was he was so deeply troubled for the shame of his mother that he could hardly be persuaded to consider the great fortune opened to him. His uncle, who was equally ignorant of the secret of his birth, was also much distressed at the revelation. But the Bolognese ambassadors, who looked upon the youth with the deepest devotion, declaring that he so resembled Ercole that there could be no doubt about his parentage, were resolved to have him for their lord. They set before him all the honour and wealth and power that should be his, but the boy hesitated long, deterred by shame for his mother, and also by some fear, remembering the fate of all the last three successive heads of the Bentivogli, who had each died a violent death. Then the advice of Cosimo de’ Medici was sought, and Santi was taken to visit him. The wise Florentine gave judgment on the question in characteristic spirit; he refused to persuade the young man to go or to stay, but bade him go home and consider well to which part his heart inclined him, for accordingly it would appear whose son he was. For if he were the real son of the man of high race nature would draw him to Bologna and to great purposes; but if he were the son of the carpenter he would stay in Florence and content himself with little things. And in the end the influence of his great blood prevailed with the youth, and he agreed to go. Conducted by the chief nobles of Bologna, whom the city sent to accompany him, and followed by a splendid train, the young apprentice, now transformed into a prince, set forth to the scene of his great destiny, where he was met by all the people, who greeted him with the greatest enthusiasm. He was put in possession of all the palaces and lands of Annibale Bentivoglio, and given chief office in the state, which he governed so well that he quickly won the love and esteem of the whole city. No fairy tale was ever more strange or more satisfactorily rounded off with “and lived happily ever after” than this story of real life.

At the other end of the castle green stands an ancient tower belonging to another palace of the Guidi, of which nothing else remains except a fine subterranean cistern beneath the villa now occupying the spot. An underground passage once connected the two palaces and served as a hiding-place or means of escape in case of necessity. There still hangs about the old Devil’s Tower, as it is called, a grim legend of sin and revenge, belonging to the old Guidi days. A certain Contessa Telda, granddaughter of the second Simone di Battifolle, lived in this palace. By her great beauty and fascination she allured to her all the most desirable young men that carne that way, and each after passing a short time with her mysteriously disappeared. It was discovered that as soon as she tired of a lover she had him precipitated through a trap-door into the dungeons below and there killed. One day a beautiful youth of Poppi thus disappeared; whereupon his kinsfolk, rousing all the people of the town, attacked the palace, and, taking her prisoner, shut her up in the tower and left her to perish of hunger.

But strenuous times, whether for good or evil, are over for Poppi. The only event of historic interest connected with the little town in comparatively modem times was the tragedy of Tommaso Crudeli, the last victim of the Inquisition in Tuscany. This brilliant man of letters, who belonged to a very old family of Poppi, was cruelly imprisoned by the Inquisition in Florence in 1739 on account of his liberal opinions and his witty and somewhat free tongue. His treatment formed the subject of great protests from the British Ambassador. But more than a year passed before he was released, and when he carne out of his prison he was completely broken down in health. Re returned to his native town, and died there a year or two later at .the age of forty-five.

And now, in these days of civil peace and liberty, Poppi’s walls and towers and secret vaulted places have lost their significance and grown melancholy. The little town clinging perilously to the steep slopes beneath the castle, on a foothold cut out in the rock and walled up to save it from slipping down, is a survival of the past. - Its lofty isolation, once its chief virtue, is become a defect. To sit proud and aloof upon a hill-top profits no one nowadays, and though the smooth, ribbon-like roads which score the plain beneath, running in all directions, unite Poppi with the outer world beyond the barrier of hills, she remains high and dry above the current of, life, with little to do but dream of the old joy of battle and hem vanished chieftains.

But over there on the eastern hill that other fortress of the past, still whole and unvanquished, looks down upon the dismantled citadel of the Guidi with the old reproach and admonition. The fabric raised upon the foundations laid by the apostle of poverty and humility has proved greater and more lasting than that based upon the shifting sands of earthly power and possession.

On a mountain spur overhanging Poppi on the south a huge fragment of masonry midges the precipice, like the buttress of some “Dark Tower.” This is all that remains of the Castle of Fronzola which in Villani’s day was one of the strongest fortresses in Tuscany. There was a proverb which ran: “Quando Fronzola fronzolava, Poppi e Bibbiena tremava” (When Fronzola rustled, Poppi and Bibbiena trembled). The castle was seized from the Guidi in 1322 by Bishop Guido of Arezzo and held by his family, the Tarlati, for many years, and the two castles, but a mile and a half apart, snarled at each other like two angry dogs. The reward claimed by Count Simone di Battifolle for helping the Florentines to rid themselves of the Duke. of Athens was their aid against the Tarlati, and with 500 men sent by the Republic he laid siege. to he Rock in 1344, and at last drove out the foe. The castle was dismantled by Florence after the .expulsion of the Guidi from Poppi in 1440.

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:11 | link | comments |
dante, noyes, casentino

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:35 | link | comments |
us, war, censored news, nineleven

Teach-Ins are planned in 7 cities and counting, including a major event in New York that will be broadcast on the internet. Organize your own. Think Big. Think Broadly. Is there an artist in your area who would show an exhibit to make your event come alive? A scientist or doctor that could speak about the Bush administration’s attacks on science? You can also organize a showing of the powerful new DVD of the Bush Crimes Commission Hearings or the webcast of the New York event as part of a teach-in, and follow it up with discussion of what makes the crimes of the regime a whole package, and how it can be driven out. Click here to post an event on our website, or email teachin@worldcantwait.org.

Through the active investigation of the past couple weeks, we are learning more deeply that throughout the country, the depth of understanding among many people of what the Bush Regime is doing and where it is heading, falls short of seeing the various aspects of the Bush program as a coherent whole which will lead to disaster for people all over the world if this course is not reversed by us.

People have said things like: "I knew the war is terrible, but I had no idea they had legalized torture!" There is a thirst to understand more about all this--and to learn what to do about it. At the same time, terms are being set going into the midterm elections that don’t start from how these crimes can be brought to a halt. This is the situation we will begin to transform through these Emergency Teach-ins.

I’m asking everyone to donate time & resources for these emergency teach-ins. Plan your own. Wherever you are, you can gather people together on Monday, October 30 at 7pm EST to view the live webcast from NYC.

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New on Worldcantwait.org: The Courage of the Thousands Who Acted and the Challenge to Bring Forward Hundreds of Thousands More : Report from October 5 protests online

A film review: Amen, 2002 film by Costa Gavras ” Amen is a depiction of a man of conscience doing what he can as an agent of Hitler’s machine in a situation where he could not transform it from within. The film and play are an examination of this dilemma. As Gerstein desperately tries to get the truth out, he goes to those in authority, the people he assumes can do something to prevent what is taking place. He goes to the heads of the Catholic church and to foreign diplomats. He counts on these people to let the public know what was being done in the camps, believing that if the people of

Germany

knew, they would rise up against Hitler and international opinion would come to the aid of the Jews. That belief w as well founded, but the avenue to the people was thwarted at every turn by those in authority who chose not to upset their positions or global ambitions of coming out as the international victor as so chillingly depicted in the films encounter with the U.S. Ambassador.” (read more)

Lynne Stewart, Right to Counsel, Attorney Client Privilege, and Free Speech Sentenced to Prison

Sit Down for Peace, Justice, and Accountability! November 4-8 Surround the White House

World Can’t Wait just received this from Cindy Sheehan & Gold Star Families for Peace:

“We the people, over two-thirds of us who disapprove of BushCo and their destructive foreign and callous domestic policies, need to stand up to be counted. Such memorials to our children who have been killed in

Iraq

as Arlington West and Eyes Wide Open are excoriated by the reich as "political," but they serve the purpose of showing we the people what 2768 actually looks like. 65% of

America

is just an abstract number. Who's going to sit down with us to show our blood-thirsty administration and Congress what a majority of

America

looks like?

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:33 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news

On Tuesday, October 17 at 9:35 a.m., President Bush will sign the Military Commissions Act (S. 3930) at the White House. In response, Tuesday is No Torture In Our Name! Day.

WEAR ORANGE

As close to 9:30 am as possible, take an hour and head to your local Post Office, coffee shop, or bookstore with copies of the ad below:

SILENCE + TORTURE = COMPLICITY

“Can’t the United States see that when we allow someone to be tortured by our agents, it is not only the victim and the perpetrator who are corrupted, not only the ‘intelligence’ that is contaminated, but also everyone who looked away and said they did not know, everyone who consented tacitly to that outrage so they could sleep a little safer at night, all the citizens who did not march in the streets by the millions to demand the resignation of whoever suggested, even whispered, that torture is inevitable in our day and age, that we must embrace its darkness?”
Ariel Dorfman, “Are We Really So Fearful?”

YOUR GOVERNMENT HAS NOW CODIFIED TORTURE. The new law does not prohibit the government from using “alternative interrogation techniques” that include sleep deprivation, extreme cold, personal degradation, waterboarding (simulated drowning), “temporary” disablement, and psychological disorientation. The new law grants George Bush the sole authority to decide what torture is. Abu Ghraib and the secret renditions were horrible. But to take the next step and write such practices into law is even worse — qualitatively worse.

Your government has officially shredded constitutional promises of basic and fundamental rights to due process — taking a huge step towards replacing the rule of law with the arbitrary rule of men. The new law will give the president the right to hold people indefinitely without charging them, and without review from the courts, nullifying habeas corpus rights. Congress has now passed legislation that denies defendants the right to see evidence used against them, and allows the use of “evidence” gained through torture. It forbids anyone to invoke the Geneva Conventions in any civil case or habeas corpus proceedings undertaken against the U.S. government, and, according to some experts, it may also forbid this in criminal cases.

Your government – which already holds over 14,000 people overseas without charges — has dramatically expanded the scope of who it can detain to include people anywhere in the world, including within the U.S. People can now be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” simply for providing what the president decides is “material,” including financial or indirect support for hostilities against the U.S.

Your government is rewriting the law on crimes against humanity to exclude itself, incurring the contempt and hatred of people all over the planet.

Few in Congress made anything but the most token show of opposition , as leading Democrats let Bush set the agenda, staying silent when it mattered, refusing to filibuster, then voting no only when the die was cast.

This unprecedented legalization of torture is part of a package coming from the Bush regime. That package includes an atrocious, nightmarish occupation of Iraq and now the ominous threat of war against Iran. It includes an assault on critical thinking and serious motion toward a theocracy. It includes the criminal response to Hurricane Katrina. It includes a systematic attack on women’s reproductive rights, and the demonization of gay people and denial of their basic human rights. It includes the scapegoating of immigrants and severely repressive new legislation aimed at them.

And it gets worse with every passing week. As the call for The World Can’t Wait–Drive Out the Bush Regime states: “The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come.” With this legalization of torture, who will now deny that? The stakes are clearly enormous.

THIS MUST HALT! This entire package must be repudiated, and the whole direction of this country must be reversed.

There is a way to act against this onslaught, effectively. There is a vitally important step to take now to begin driving out this regime and reversing this nightmare direction:
Join in raising the demand to DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME.

“The point is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it also full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they ever imagined. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.” — From the call “The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!”

posted by: Whitebeard at 10:24 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

The world faces a grave emergency. The very nature of U.S. society and its relationship to other countries are being reshaped in a horrific ways before our eyes. Yet the full implications of these sweeping changes are not widely understood, even among those who oppose the Bush administration. This must change!

Consider – the U.S. government has now legalized torture and shredded constitutional promises of the basic and foundational rights of due process. This unprecedented action is not an isolated incident; it is part of a larger Bush administration package that includes:

· the on-going occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, with ominous threats of war on Iran, possibly nuclear war — all expressions of a strategy of unchallenged global supremacy and an illegal doctrine of "preventive war"

· the Patriot Act, NSA spying, the Military Commissions Act – all represent significant and qualitative steps towards a police state under a president unrestrained by law

· systematic assaults on women's rights to abortion and birth control, with the growing danger abortion will be outlawed.

· the denial of the basic human rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people

· new repressive legislation aimed at immigrants, along with the militarization of the US -Mexico border

· a dramatic erosion of the separation of church and state, and serious motion towards theocracy where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism would rule

· the suppression of science that doesn't fit the extreme right's religious, political and economic agenda; if allowed to continue, this will inflict a terrible price on present and future generations

Each of these actions exacts an enormous human toll, and taken together the whole package is far worse. It is unrelenting and extremely dangerous. As the call for The World Can't Wait–Drive Out the Bush Regime states: "The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance."

Neither the full magnitude nor the staggering implications of the Bush program are well understood. The administration systematically lies about its actions and agenda, while the major media and Democrats allow it to frame the overall discussion. As a result, the most crucial issues are not discussed truthfully either in the public arena or in election campaigns. This is a major reason why public resistance to Bush's outrages is nowhere near what it urgently needed.

This is why "The World Can't Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime" organization, in conjunction with the Bush Crimes Commission and others, are calling for emergency teach-ins – in communities, on campuses, and in homes – to explore the actual content of the Bush program and where it is taking the people of the world.

Please take steps immediately to organize an event on your campus or in your community, or hold a house party to watch one of the Bush Crimes Commission videos and discuss these issues.

We're aiming for a nationwide impact building off October 5. Having hundreds of teach-ins on campuses and in communities across the country on the same day (or days) will make a statement that many, many people want to learn and discuss the truth about the Bush regime, not media spin and election-driven propaganda. This is a concerted push to raise and discuss the crucial issues of the day which can reframe discussion and break through the suffocating and false terms that characterizes what passes for debate in this country.

Or mail your check made out to Not In Our Name, to NION, 305 West Broadway, #199, New York, NY 10013.

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:12 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:19 | link | comments |
civil rights, censored news, nineleven

Information and the media, in Italy and the rest of the world, are in a distinctly alarming state. Information pluralism today has more to do with appearance than with reality. And things are tending to get worse. What countless millions of people listen to, read, and above all watch every day is determined by cliques that decide what the public at large must and must not know.

Almost everywhere the 'fourth estate', as it is called, is now so tightly intertwined with the political Establishment and so utterly dependent on the private interests which own and control the media that it has all but relinquished the roles of watchdog and critical voice. The overwhelming majority of communication flows are now produced or controlled by a handful of world giants, nothing short of a media oligopoly, prominent within which are dauntingly large and powerful conglomerates such as AOL-Time Warner, Vivendi International, Sky News, Bertelsmann, and the like.

One need only realise that the market value of the media industry worldwide has risen above the value of the entire motor industry. It is therefore no great surprise that communication is almost wholly the creation of the developed West and that the West interprets the dominant ideas in this world. Countries and peoples on the rest of the planet are excluded from the market and shut out because they are intrinsically uncompetitive; they are reduced to spectators who have alien news, ideas, lifestyles, and consumption patters hammered into them. They are thus being uniformised by processes which not only cause pain to those who undergo them, but also destroy languages, cultures, and civilisations.

At every turn the West presents its codes of behaviour and canons of wisdom as the only options possible. The real world's agenda is being eclipsed and replaced by the all-encompassing criteria of the global power conglomerates, chief among which is the absolute imperative, the market, in which everything (information, entertainment, and advertising) works in synergy to create needs, which in turn galvanise all-out sham production of commodities and amusement. In the end, therefore, it is completely immaterial – or at any rate it makes little difference – whether what is reproduced and broadcast bears any relation to reality. Given that, as is becoming increasingly more obvious, information too, and mass cultural processes and entertainment, are now essentially commodities, they are providing the wherewithal for making profit and at the same time for conditioning consumers. This is how the media system comes to play a central role in the organisation of command. The information that passes through it is filtered, channelled, and controlled as required by the controlling interests.

Hence it is anything but free and honest. In this way global society, the so-called ‘knowledge-based society', has in fact fallen into the hands of those who are running a gigantic ‘dream factory', an offshoot and sidekick of globalisation. If there is one field in which globalisation has already spewed out its full dose of poison, then it is the media. Even where media players themselves are concerned, their freedom, within these schemes of things, is severely restricted, if not completely denied to them. What all this means is that it is wholly immaterial, or at any rate makes little difference, whether what is thus produced, reproduced, and disseminated bears any sort of relation to reality.

Everything is grist to the ‘dream factory's' mill: reality can be transformed on the way to being depicted as a virtual image, whether embellished or dulled does not matter, it will in any case be manipulated as dictated by the needs of the market and, above all, the exercise of command. The media system does not give the world back to us once it has kneaded it into the desired shape: what it gives us is a selective simulacrum of the world, designed to ‘thrill' and be spectacular. Even wars are today waged in a kind of warped symbiosis with the media system, for the conduct of the former has become impossible to separate from the operation of the latter. Given that it is necessary to ‘win hearts and minds' in order to secure high ratings, any hoax likely to achieve that end is allowable or indeed inevitable.

The Italian situation, in which monopoly control of television is absolute and of the media, near total, and tainted in both cases by a colossal conflict of interests, is a particularly serious extreme case. The ultimate dire consequence is the operational deployment of infotainment (information plus entertainment) and soft news: these are Trojan horses smuggled into the already confined spaces remaining for information with the aim of emptying them of still more of their content. Television stations and newspapers are becoming increasingly more self-referential: they talk about themselves, among themselves, and with the powers-that-be; they are full of tittle-tattle; they exaggerate trifles and give them pride of place; and they forget about people's problems, the contradictions of society, culture, and civic values.

The influence of the media tends to devalue the public sphere and glorify, and give showbiz treatment to, the private sphere. Rights and duties are swapped around at will; phoney feelings gush out and are submerged in floods of tears and by phoney encounters, along with phoney surprises and phoney characters confused with flesh-and-blood humans. It is claimed that this is what the public wants. But that is true only ostensibly. What needs to be added is that the public – especially one moulded by the media – wants and thinks what society has to offer. And a public which has been starved of ideas cannot even conceive of alternatives, nor can it bring its critical judgement to bear on the messages that it receives. Styles are deliberately mixed up: entertainment overlaps with information, and both are intertwined with advertising. Everything is made to conform to show-business canons. How many manage to extricate themselves? Certainly not the weakest victims, children, who are forced to ingurgitate massive does of messages that they cannot decipher. The media manufacture thoughts and desires to substantiate their claim to represent the thoughts and desires of the public. Millions of people are consequently subjected incessantly to ‘background noise' (with devastating cumulative effects) which determines not only how well informed a society is, that is to say, its collective culture, but even its emotional sensibility and ethical standards.

Few people understand that school and the family, and, moreover, oratory and the parish church, have already been overwhelmed by the power of the media messages to which young generations are exposed. The decline in IQ, literacy rates, and moral and civic values is charted by the daily ratings reports from the various audience research devices, which pass judgement without appeal on our everyday lifestyle, our way of amusing ourselves, and our consumption pattern. They are judges whose verdicts are not open to appeal or criticism, because they are crucial in determining what happens to the millions of euros of advertising investment. And everything is laid down and produced in quarters which have no democratic mandate, but influence the lives of huge numbers of people to an extreme degree. Does all this damage democracy, civics education, and viewers' mental stability? That is their hard luck: business has to go on as usual.

Hardly anyone bothers about the fact that ‘Homo videns' is an anthropological variant that alters the terms of society's equation and even the ways of exercising democratic rights, starting with the right to be properly educated and informed. There is a modern ‘agora' where practically the whole of the political consensus market carries on its business, and that is television. Anyone who controls this medium – and so much the worse if there is a monopoly – can violate the principles underlying every democratic system. Modern societies, ours included, still have ample means to respond. Independent information, often not produced to be sold, that is to say, as a commodity, works and seeks to halt the advance of the media system by fostering the emergence and spread of a critical spirit and encouraging democratic participation to help shape public opinion.

We do not believe, however, that we should shut ourselves up in ghettos reserved for minorities. We want to address ourselves to the vast majority of those who profit from the media, and to tackle the media system where it secures consensus and claims its victims. It is utterly futile to forgo television because an individual choice to that effect cannot hide the fact that most people, this evening, today, tomorrow, and for ever after, will not turn off their sets. The end effect would be merely to create an illusion of release, without regard to what millions of others might be seeing and feeling. The awakening of collective sensibility, extending from Seattle to Genoa and into the fast-growing civil society movements, is necessary in order to pierce the armour-plating of information, but it is not enough. What is needed, therefore, is to respond to the widespread desire for participation and change by opening up the space for democracy in information and the media. This will be impossible to achieve without going on to the offensive.

We cannot defend ourselves 'like a polyp fighting the Empire State Building ' (McLuhan). The communication process has to be encompassed, and acted upon, as a whole. What is needed is a mighty force for good, capable not only of questioning media and messages, but also of stimulating forms of critical reading, constantly producing alternative viewpoints, and pressing for them to be represented. What we want to apply to the media system is a systematic multilateral ‘practical critique', which should extend to all parts of the territory and be genuinely pluralist and open to contributions from every component of civil society. There is in fact already a movement pursuing these aims, but it is fragmented in scattered in a hundred, or a thousand, pockets, each isolated from the rest. The very substantial and important work done to date cannot, therefore, attain the critical mass needed to challenge the ‘official' media, an empire which only seems to be unassailable. It is essential to reach the television-watching public at large, breaking the bounds within which independent information is at present confined. We consider it pointless to spread the word to those who already know.

It is likewise vital to challenge the processes which make defenceless slaves out of millions of viewers, who lack the means to defend themselves because no one has supplied them and, for that matter, because many are convinced that there is no need to defend themselves against such pleasant bombing raids.

Megachip is an attempt to solve the above problems. We firmly believe that the battle to be fought in this field is crucial in order to save democracy, and not just for the right to have accurate information imparted with decency. The proposals are aimed at information and communication channels as a whole, covering everyone from journalists to researchers and scientists, performers, advertising copywriters, students, and the audience intended to benefit, in practice citizens.

(a) An independent media monitoring centre . It is absolutely essential to be familiar with and interpret world information and communication technology strategies, as well as national and foreign ownership arrangements, financial investment strategies, and advertising flows and the trends affecting them at national and international level. The decisions being taken in all these areas are of the utmost significance and will have a profound bearing on the future of the planet. Ignorance means that the battle will have been lost before it has even begun. The potential research field is vast and stretches out in many directions ranging from analysis of the effects which messages have on the public and on children to the workings of manipulation and the means and signs that can be and are used in journalism, advertising, television and radio broadcasting, and film-making. What is needed, in other words, is the degree of understanding required for quantitative and qualitative analysis of the impact of the media system in the age of ‘Homo videns' .

(b) Monitoring the quantity and quality of the products of the national media system (combined with monitoring from an international perspective) . The object is to provide a frame of reference for both professionals and citizens to enable them to identify the abuses, misrepresentations, and pressures which undermine freedom of information, violate the dignity of the public, and impede transparency and the exercise of rights. The first step to be taken in that direction will be to secure the involvement of the hundreds of independent information centres and groups, universities, and scientific research centres, as well as trade unions representing every type of occupation concerned, starting from journalists' organisations and including consumer associations.

(c) Training for information and media players . Ethical standards for the entire media system, which is undergoing sweeping transformations, need to be defined and redefined. This requires the direct involvement of the professions concerned, first and foremost journalists. A contribution will also be needed, however, from all those working to impart culture to citizens, most importantly teachers and educators of every description and status.

(d) Organising the political battle for democracy in the media . On the basis of the know-how acquired as described above, it is proposed to take stock of the forces in play, gain an insight into their experiences, and enable them to be disseminated via a network and a national coordinating body. It will be impossible to make the necessary impact without simultaneous coordinated actions. The invulnerability of the information powers-that-be is due to the fact that they have never really been challenged. The weakness of journalists and other media players stems not least from their fragmentation and isolation.

Megachip is accordingly seeking to join battle, in support of avowed and targeted objectives, focusing on every component of the media system so as to make for greater integrity in communication and information. We know full well that the battle will not be easy, and the media powers-that-be do their utmost to exploit the forces under their command. That is why we will need to produce solidly based knowledge and information above reproach. We wish to unite the thousand pockets of activity in a shared experience and make this a ‘news item' that can reach the public at large and political and institutional circles. Obviously, we shall be able to proceed in stages, in direct proportion to the forces at our disposal.

Those who support it and agree to participate will be able to capitalise on (instead of scaling down) their identity in a wider and more favourable context. What we are proposing above all is to open a debate with those – and there are many – who sense the strategic need to set up an unprecedented organisation for an unprecedented struggle.

This is a decisive step towards winning the battle to protect democracy, social and civil rights, and peace.

posted by: Whitebeard at 20:49 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, censored news, nineleven

Some Notes 1624/2/24
The purpose & objective of the formation of this site was having a straight, direct and immediate contact with the visitors and addresses. After my first post, I preferred to spend all the time that I have allocated for this web log, to read the viewpoints of the visitors. Because I felt most of the individuals who have left a message – a suggestion, a question or even a reproof – they expect me to read it personally.
* * *
The other day, I promised to provide the public, the detail of meeting that I had with the members of the U.S. foreign relation council. The purpose of the issuance of the detail of this meeting is to inform the public and also to brief the mass media.
The detail of the meeting with the council-which is introduced as an independent council and NGO- can help the people of the world to realize and recognize the way of thinking & also the mental level of the so called the elite and those who impress the U.S. policies.
In this meeting, I was waiting for some specialized and key point questions. But the level of the questions did not go beyond those that are raised in a regular news conference which have been answered many times.
In the aforementioned meeting, it was again proven to me that the actual reason for the failure of the U.S. policy in its political field and international relation is their lack of information regarding the world%q%s realities and also enclosure of the decision making people of that country in their own fabricated and false political propaganda.
* * *
In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate
Oh Almighty God, please, we beg you to send us our Guardian- who You have promised us- soon and appoint us as His close companions.
I thank you for your remarks and explanations. Of course you reconfirmed that you are an independent council. It’s interesting for me. But the points you mentioned are of special importance. I think today in the world we are facing numerous problems. And we shall not limit ourselves to the wishes of certain powers or parties. We shall take a look at the world and review the present circumstances. I don’t know what is your impression of the present circumstances in the world. But what I believe is that the elements, rules and structures shaped in the post second world war are closing to their end. These elements and structures can not run the world any more. Though there mny be some who are pleased with conflicts and wars because of their party’s interests. But all independent individuals who show sympathy with human values are not pleased with present status of the world. Today there are a few number of people who can see a bright future for the world given the existing political developments in the world. Every day we witness further distance between people and further tensions and hostilities. The structures, rules and element shaped in the post second world war period can no more settle the global problems. As a clear evidence I refer to Palestine, Iraq and even Afghanistan. Afghanistan which we hoped to be followed by positive development but now is facing unpleasant situation. In the African continent we are also facing many unsolved problems. It as the same with South American. Literature of certain powers is the literature of threat. Despite rhetoric commitments we still are witnessing stock-piling of unclear weapons and unclear race ...

Oh Almighty God, please, we beg you to send us our Guardian- who You have promised us- soon and appoint us as His close companions.
I thank you for your remarks and explanations. Of course you reconfirmed that you are an independent council. It’s interesting for me. But the points you mentioned are of special importance. I think today in the world we are facing numerous problems. And we shall not limit ourselves to the wishes of certain powers or parties. We shall take a look at the world and review the present circumstances. I don’t know what is your impression of the present circumstances in the world. But what I believe is that the elements, rules and structures shaped in the post second world war are closing to their end. These elements and structures can not run the world any more. Though there mny be some who are pleased with conflicts and wars because of their party’s interests. But all independent individuals who show sympathy with human values are not pleased with present status of the world. Today there are a few number of people who can see a bright future for the world given the existing political developments in the world. Every day we witness further distance between people and further tensions and hostilities. The structures, rules and element shaped in the post second world war period can no more settle the global problems. As a clear evidence I refer to Palestine, Iraq and even Afghanistan. Afghanistan which we hoped to be followed by positive development but now is facing unpleasant situation. In the African continent we are also facing many unsolved problems. It as the same with South American. Literature of certain powers is the literature of threat. Despite rhetoric commitments we still are witnessing stock-piling of unclear weapons and unclear race. If we look more forward towards peace and tranquility based on the present rules and elements we need to stop the nuclear race. The race for manufacturing unclear weapons and testing the second and third generations of unclear arms are indicatives of the fact that despite the fake claims of certain powers the present atmosphere is the atmosphere of threat. Intervention of certain powers in the internal affairs of other countries unfortunately is developing day by day. These scenes are continued in Iraq and Afghanistan. This shows that our drive in the last sixty years was not an acceptable one. I think all people who believe that they love the human being or are willing to do so and think independently must reconsider their behavior and look for a leeway. Elimination of ethical values from the political relation has been a decisive blow on the trust among nations and governments. Today diplomacy has been turned to distrust and unfrankness. Rarely can we see two authorities or officials from two different states sit together and speak frankly to each other. They smile at each other while they try to impose themselves on the other side and secure only their own benefits. This will lead to nowhere. I do not know whether there are some who think this trend will bring peace, tranquility and equity to the world. When we go through every social subject we can not see any promising futures. The distance between the poor and the rich as well as the views of every nation on its neighboring countries or poor ones, in neither of them can we find a promising future. I think all of us today shall include correction of the present structure in our agenda. Of course we believe that behavior of certain powers is a determining factor in this respect. The powers who are ready to move even in contrary to the interests of their own people. Today in the Middle-East we are witnessing an uncertain behavior on the part of certain powers. They do not know the nations. They enter the social and political scenes of nations hoping to ensure their own benefits. They deteriorate the relations and turn the situation into a fragile one. As examples we can refer to Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Certain powers shall reconsider their policies and behavior. Practically the US Government. The US Government today is moving against nations but striking the harshest blow upon its own people. The US policy in the Middle-East has brought only the rage, hatred and hostility of over one billion people and separation of the country from the rest of the world. These policies are wrong and the present circumstances differ from that of sixty years ago. A war raged and finished sixty years ago. This war had its winners who considered special privileges for themselves in running the world. But now after two generations people and nations have been awakened and are demanding their own natural and basic rights. I think now the time is ripe for us to reconsider our policies. A reconsideration which shall be based upon a number of accepted and rational principles. If we view the world with the same values of sixty years ago, we will reach nowhere even if we reconsider the methods and the means. Present world is in pressing need of justice. The present world is in pressing need of ethical values, and respect for all human beings. We all shall believe these principles. Of course I wish to have exchange of views and visions.

Q: Mr. President Thank you. I speak to you not as a member of the council of foreign relations but as an American who is not Jewish. Mr. President you referred to holocaust. In Dec 2005 you said they invented the myth in favor of Jews. D. my predecessors and I visited Auschwitz. I have seen with my own eyes how Jews were massacred. Sir! I hope you understand that the overwhelming majority of American people Jews or non-Jews alike are totally persuaded and horrored by the massacre of the Holocaust. They consider the Holocaust as a genocide two questions Sir. By what substance or evidence you called the Holocaust a "myth", and what is your aim in doing so? Do you appreciate that if you persist in such a claim for wiping out Israel you make constructive dialogue with America much difficult?
A: Thank you very much for your words. In your words a number of time, you said you were speaking on behalf of American people. I do not reject this claim but you need to provide us with evidence and documents. Even you claimed you have some evidence but you did not provide us with. I have not heard anywhere that the American people have presented their related view.
What I said is quite clear. I raised a number of questions which unfortunately received no response yet. Even any response from those who claim that thinking of various subjects shall be free. I, as a President, as a citizen and as a professor raised a number of questions but received only threats. My questions were quite clear. The question is that in the world war the second more than sixty million people were killed. Out of these sixty millions two millions were among military personnel and the rest were civilians who did not have anything to do with war. These civilians were killed differently and they were respected. Now why we shall focus on certain number of people. Another question was that if you claim that this incident is real, why no impartial groups are allowed to investigate on it? Why European citizens are put behind bars only because of expressing their views? This occurs while we are allowed to question the most proved realities of the world. We allow every one to investigate and raise questions on God, prophets, freedom of human being, human being democracy and human rights but we do not allow anyone to question or investigate a historical event which happened sixty years ago. This is a big question. We think if this is a real incident we can present and prove it more clearly through researches and investigations. But here we face the main question which is raised by no one: this incident happened in Europe but the Palestinians are paying the price. Palestinian people are punished for what? They did not play any role in the world war the second but five millions of their population are displaced. It is sixty years that the displaced Palestinians could not return to their homeland. Two Palestinian generations lost their lives but could not return to their mother-land. This is the main and serious question. I do not judge on historical events for sure. But why impartial groups are not allowed to make researches? For me the response is clear. When I see the anger of Zionists, when I see 5 millions of Palestinians are displaced on the pretext of the Holocaust. When I see Palestinian lands are occupied, then I understand the Zionist’s anger and I understand what has happened in this region.
The Main question is that why Palestinians shall pay the price? While they did not play any role why their lands are occupied? It is about sixty years that they are exposed to harsh pressures. Their houses are bombed on daily basis. Their youth get killed and their men killed under the rubbles, why? When they shout, then they call them terrorists, and when there comes somebody who asks, everybody who is any how related to such issues, get angry and call that person a terrorist and anti-Semitist. No we are not anti-Semitist. In our country the Jews and Moslems are living in peace, and they have a role in our rule, but we say why Palestinians must make up for the crimes which other people committed 60 years ago. I await a response to this question. If there is anybody who has a clear response, he may bring up this response.
Q: Mr. President, I have a narrow question that I ask you, I am only speaking for myself, I could make major distinctions between military soldiers and civilians, killed in war, and millions that were killed purposely, so that would be a genocide, so that would be my first response.
A: Yes, there is certainly a distinction, but the Palestinian nation is systematically being massacred. Is their blood different from the blood of those? Do we have two types of human beings. I haven%q%t heard of friends having made any remarks concerning the Palestinians, killed.
Q: Mr. President. I don%q%t think you answered the question, but you refused to have the holocaust confirmed during the war, I saw with my own eyes.
A: How old are you?
Q: I am 81.
A: You were there and you survived! Congratulations.
Q: So things did happen I would like to have answers. Mr. President, you now denied holocaust occurred.
A: I think my questions are highly clear. Should you think, it is real, then you should request your European states to launch some investigations in this regard. Why don%q%t you let investigations be accomplished. At present we have researchers who have been imprisoned due to their researches regarding holocaust. We don%q%t have such a thing in records that a history researcher is in prison due to his job. Doesn%q%t it occur to you that there is a complexity in this problem?
Q: Mr. President, I am overwhelmed by your comments but I think there is a council that should provide you researches which I am sure they could find researches by independent sources around the world, I am sure probably they could fill this room, this is enormously a scholarly work on whether it existed, so it is firmly established by professional people. The second I would like to say, I would like to know the country that has put people in jail because of their study positions, because I find that focused. The third thing I would like to say perhaps more important is that I find it inconceivable to hear you say what can be a total unsacrotary, Do you think that the things going on in Palestine has anything to do with what we have done as holocaust in the 1940s, I think you have been totally misled. What%q%s happening in Palestine is an issue of territory, history, religion, belief ,and is a very difficult situation to solve and they have arguments on both sides, but the fighting is going with Israel because of the people try to get even for holocaust? whoever has told you that, has totally deceived you.
I thank you for having spoken so emotionally. I say whether an event has taken place, we mustn%q%t restrict people on researching, and you mustn%q%t expect others to have the same opinion about the thing which has materialized for you, and if a person didn%q%t accept your opinion, you shouldn%q%t accuse him of being a terrorist or an anti-Semitist. You have been convinced of some researches, do you expect everybody to be convinced? This is a wrong expectation. Don%q%t you think it is a totalitarianistic expectation ? if the excuse of the European counties for supporting the occupying regime isn%q%t on holocaust, then why are they so overpassioned on holocaust? What is the benefit coming form the overpassioned support on holocaust, isn%q%t it the one whose fruit is being harvested in Palestine?
I think we must be transparent. Accidentally this is one of the points that we have to shift our attention to. Nobody can conceal the realities. This is the fact that people from around the world have gathered in Palestine, and have formed a government in a land belonging to others, and I see oversensitivity on a problem which is related to 60 years ago. We have so many historical events, but remarks are made on them. In history much genocide has taken place, but is there any sensitivity over them. This is the fact that the conclusion which we draw from holocaust is that it is related to the present time issues. To what thing is holocaust related that some people grow angry at, if it is questioned. I think we ought to have a change in opinion, this is a literature, intending to handle the world for 60 years, thus we see that it is not successful. We require a change of opinion. Why are the Palestinian children killed?
Where is Olmert%q%s father from? Where has he come? why are the Palestinian children astray and wandering ? Why don%q%t they have a right to decide about their fate?
But some people have gathered in their land. Don%q%t you think that the Palestinian people have a right to live? Haven%q%t we observed genocide in Balkan during the recent years? Who have committed genocide? Is any research clear about them? Can%q%t people have various opinions about them? Of course I have some opinions regarding those camps, but I don%q%t desire to speak about them. I just want to clarify the subject relation with Palestine for you. Why isn’t there any shout raised for the Palestinian people in the foreign relationship council? Aren%q%t they mankind?
Q: Mr. President, I would like you to answer the question I said, where are the people incarcerated for studying holocaust?
A: In Austria, Germany, France, you are definitely aware of it. Of course in my opinion, the question on holocaust has thrown light on many claims and shown many capacities. Some one asked about holocaust to know what secret there is in holocaust, and then he was invaded and even threatened. These are a set of serious questions, we are so much interested in you, thus we wish that all of us will find the realities, these are realistic questions. If there is anyone thinking that by attacking Ahmadinejad, this question will be cleared from the minds of the world%q% nations, that person is totally at fault. At present billions of people also the people of the U.S are thinking about this problem. We are ready to make something clear for you in a way that there will be one independent group in U.S.A. opinion-polling. Why do you think all the 300 million population of the U.S. support the interests of the Zionists? I don%q%t believe this.
Q: Mr. President, I have listened to which you are saying. I can say so when this is asking this question about holocaust every time, ignorance of disbelief, if it is ignorance, there is plenty of evidence, historical evidence, objective evidence and documents, evidence are there so I am sure that we can arrange all of this delivered to tell us so as to have a chance to educate? As a teacher I am sure you are interested to see. Is it so hard to believe this? As a matter of fact I have suggestions, why don%q%t you pick three scholars. Iran has a long tradition of scholarship and send them on fact-finding trip to places where this genocide is and then let them come back and report on the facts, I think you will have the answer to your question, and the other question is about Palestine, this is about the future, but what I am trying to give you is personally trying to find a just solution to this problem, trying to make peace between Israel and Palestinians, what I just want to is that I believe that if you consider starting justice, as there have been very serious efforts made to try to solve them through establishing peace between the two peoples trying to save their territory, and then if they achieve peaceful solutions, we will support by the pass of charges to these prime studies. That was you saying, your saying supports organizations like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and then they did everything possible to prevent the peace from being achieved. So there was a major effort being undertaken to resolve this conflict with giving dignity and justice, and Iran did everything possible to destroy that and Iran continues, so my question to you Mr. President is that, if you are so concerned with the Palestinians, why are you so close to peaceful resolution … ?
A: Thank you very much, apparently you believe that your information regarding the holocaust is more than my information, well I don%q%t want to talk about this case, but be confident that if my information isn%q%t more than yours, this information isn%q%t less than yours. My question is a very obvious one, why isn%q%t any permission for investigation given?
Do you let me send an independent international and disinterested group of researchers "not necessary to be only from Iran" to launch a full-scale investigation? And do you also promise not to attack them "the researchers" after their opinions and conclusions are announced? If you give such a guarantee, I will offer such a help.
There is much discussion regarding Palestine. Do you think the unsuccessfulness of Palestine is on Iran? That is your second mistake. If we want to solve the crisis, we must destroy the crisis roots. Covering the problem never solves the problem. Our suggestion is very OBVIOUS. We say that all of the Palestinian nation participate in making their fate, everybody from Palestine, Moslem, Christian and Jewish. The Astrays will return to their homeland, and Palestinians only will decide. I think that the main cause of the projects%q% failure is a unolateralisticness of them, and no justice is met in the plans. If you think Iran is a factor for not reaching the results, then you are greatly mistaken, and can%q%t ever play any useful role there. the problem of Palestine isn%q%t Iran%q%s. A few years ago this was the Moslems’ entire problem, but right now we tell you that this problem is for all of the human-beings. Don’t think that the South American peoples or the Africans are not sensitive to Palestine. Human integrity has been trodden and a bullying logic is predominant there, which irritate human-beings. We say that justice must be met. Are you disagreed with justice? Do you disagree with the Palestinian free–election? We say "let the Palestinian nation make decision all by themselves." Who has filled the depots of the occupying regime with laser-bombs? If a person thinks with fully-scaled helping the occupying regime, and the region nations will sit and watch, that person is mistaken. Don%q%t you ever think that the Arab countries are not happy with the existence of the occupying regime? We kept silent before the ostentatiously peaceful plans for Palestine. Do you believe capturing the governmental representatives of Palestinians denotes a pleasant symbol for peace? Do you ever think that invading Lebanon is a good sign for peace? Do you believe that the region%q%s peoples will receive a message of peace from repressing the nation of Palestine? You are at fault. I really wish to dissuade you from mistaking. If the above is your mentality, then all your plans will fail, because they ignore the realities and the truths. The problem of Palestine is not Iran%q%s, this problem is the one related to one billion people. You say that you are research–oriented, thus I give you a friendly piece of advice to take a deep look at the problem.
Q: Mr. President, you have articulated many principles, I want to ask you about the principles, for example you spoke about the important issue of freedom of expression in Europe, but in Iran, newspapers have been closed, scholars have been imprisoned, and Nobel-Prize-Winner Shirin Ebadi%q%s organization was closed, you speak about the importance of election for Palestinians, but in Iran the council of guardians disqualified candidates in the last election , and when the bus-drivers organized for better conditions in January, their leader was arrested and members were fired, and you spoke about the rights of Palestinians. But Hezbollah%q%s rockets which you gave them killed 15 Palestinians in the district.
A: Thank you for your attention to Iranians and the Palestinian nation. We are annoyed regarding people, murdered at every place. Iran is a great country and like other countries, there may happen events in it. Thousands of good events and some bad ones. If you think some bad events, intensified, cause problem, you are mistaken. There are 3 million captives in the U.S., which means one percent of the people, while this rate in Iran is 0.2%, which means one fifth of the U.S. rate. Nearly 90% of the prisoners in Iran are involved with narcotic-drug trafficking, which means that we are disbursing money to prevent narcotic-drug from going to Europe and U.S. Now can you say on what reason these three million persons are kept in prison. Did your states imprison them groundless?
There are laws in every country that everybody must regard them. Freedom is obtained under the supervision of law-enforcement. In our country, Iran, there is no one in prison, charged with research.
Yes, if anyone insults anyone else and treads anyone%q%s right, and if a case is processed, then the offenders will be convicted with the presence of judges and lawyers, thus it is highly clear, for there is the law and order ruling in our country. I inform you of a state-run newspaper, which was convicted three months ago because of an offence committed by it, and at present it is still shut-down. Don%q%t mistake! many of issues which are important for you, are not necessarily important for others. If anybody complains against a newspaper, it has to be tried before the presence of a Jury. It doesn’t bear such a meaning that anybody who owns newspaper, he is right, and anybody who doesn%q%t have newspaper, he is not right, and it doesn%q%t mean that whoever has media, can spoil the rights of others. Yes we are prepared to act based on the words we express and at present we are acting this way.
I would like to ask you whether anybody outside these two ruling Parties has reached the U.S presidency, you are more aware that I that the whole U.S. administration is in the hands of two groups. Are the Americans%q% tastes only summarized into two groups? Do you allow anybody outside these two groups to be a candidate for the presidential position? You never give him a chance to get elected. If there is even one case in your history, you may announce it. But in our country there is freedom, of course based on laws. In our election there were eight candidates from those who disagreed the system, and believed in a free economy, and hundred percent agreed with the system. Everyone participated the election. If you believe that the candidacy of one thousand people for presidential position is good, please let this thing happen in the U.S.A. This will be very great, and we will also learn from it. There is law ruling in our country. Please let%q%s not enter interior problems, because so many discussions will be brought up, meanwhile please correct your mentality towards the nation of Iran. if there is anybody thinking that with these words can affect our nation, he is mistaken. We have held the most liberal election. I am a teacher, I had words with the people and they elected. The people themselves formed civil self-motivated groups, and have spent from their own pockets for publicities. This is a pure and noble democracy. We must not close our eyes off this, because such a thing is impossibility in your country, I repeat it "it is impossibility in your country". Then which country is more liberated? And which one is more democratic? We are ready to have a dialogue in an independent meeting; we are prepared to fulfill these words we are expressing.
Let the nation of Palestine itself decide. The right of the Palestinian nation mustn%q%t be spoilt. Bear in mind that who ever plants wind, will reap storm. We don%q%t want such to happen. We want the U.S. to be friend with nation of the district as well .we don%q%t want it to behave in a way that spites will increase. You can send a group to our district to assess the people%q%s opinions towards your administration. You can perceive the peoples%q% opinions towards your administration even in Egypt which is your governments friend, Also in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, the Persian Gulf littoral states, Yemen, the Sudan%q%s also all other countries, I think, with this, many things will change.
Q: Mr. President, there is lots of other issues, to be introduced within the time; I apologize to some of my colleagues I want you to introduce some issues related to the nuclear programs.
Mr. President, among the conditions which you described, you said in the world, one of the most serious issues is about nuclear weapons which threatened a good part of the mankind, one of the dilemmas of the nuclear visions is that nuclear enrichment is essential both to creat nuclear fuels for power plants which brings help for various parts of the world and also identical process is able to produce nuclear weapons for the world, now your country and the U.S. and many other countries have argued about your nuclear program and you claimed that it is for peaceful purposes in other words the enrichment would be to provide nuclear power. The U.S. has argued no. We think you intend to produce nuclear weapons. I don%q%t know who, I don%q%t know what the truth is, but that is not the basic problem. The basic problem is that once you have the capability of enriching nuclear material, building a nuclear bomb is simple.
And there is no way to distinguish between enriching Uranium for peaceful purposes and for weapons purposes. So let%q%s suppose that the U.S. for example says, we believe you, we believe you have only peaceful intentions. It is my judgment that you still should not enrich Uranium because if you do, the reaction is likely to be in Egypt for example, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey and in a number of other countries around the world. They intend to do exactly the same thing. That would be a world, which would be much more dangerous for all of us and particularly for you because you would be in the worst position, in that case that if you agree to suspend and negotiate for security regime which with take care of your security. We do not have a perfect in the world, but I am sure if you are going down the path, its%q% much worse.
A: Thank you very much for having tried to offer a friendly recommendation, I have a question to ask you. Do you originally accept that other nations can use fuel - cycle or not? Does N.P.T. let other nations have it or not? Does it let or not?
Q: Yes it does allow it.
A: How? With the permission of America or within the framework of the IAEA’s regulations? If we accept one right, then we must let it get operational. If we are worried, we must then stop chemical and biological researches. Does any wise and sage person make such a decision? Will the right of a nation be stopped? Just due to this reason that maybe others ask for something. Don%q%t those people, producing new bombs fast, pose any danger for the world? Don%q%t other people have weapons in our region? They do have weapons, but the U.S. administration doesn%q%t feel worried, why? Are they really disagreed with weapons? You must know that the nuclear subject is a political one, not a legal one, because we work under IAEA. When we have oil, do we have a right to order the countries to stop oil-exploration? Can we stop the right of others?
We are a member of IAEA. We have also signed the N.P.T, and we are working within its framework. What problem is there that all of the members use their rights? Do you think if all nations use nuclear energy, they will make bombs? This is false. If a person recommends something, he must first proceed it himself. I believe if these four of five countries dismantle their bombs, they themselves are also relieved, and they won%q%t be suspicious to others. Our activities are absolutely peaceful. We are so much confident .Last year we offered a suggestion in the U.N, which allows everybody to participate in our activities, now I say the same. We are so much confident and opened the doors and took journalists and showed them our establishments. These establishments are at medical, agricultural and energy services. Why do you make them secret that will then get diverted? They can make their works transparent, U.S. and England make their works transparent as well, and they let authorities check their establishments. Last year I suggested that a disarmament committee would be formed, and the suggestion won votes, but they didn%q%t let it get operational. In fact those who have weapons, they must dismantle their weapons, and relieve the world. We are at the beginning of the enrichment, is it so worrying that they cause so much megaphone? While there are some people in our region that the U.S administration equipped them with nuclear weapons.
We believe that the nuclear bomb age has ended and anyone investing on it, has made a mistake. U.S. is also mistaken in this regard. Because it doesn%q%t have a chance to use and this is not effective. Other nations won%q%t give up before bombs, also nuclear bombs can%q%t protect a government. If it could, it would protect Soviet Union. Soviet%q%s nuclear lids overweighed the US’s, but it cracked down. Today nuclear weapons don%q%t bring superiority. But regarding the peaceful energy, it is the necessity of nowadays. You know the condition of oil. The oil reserves are near to end, but today%q%s demand is ever increasing, which needs pure energies. Which energy excels the nuclear energy? I think the system must be changed. All the members of IAEA must be able to have this energy, but the inspection teams should be strong to visit and prevent, they must also do the same thing for chemical and microbiological weapons, because they are also deadly. With deprivation on scientific technology is it possible to unravel the problem. We have to learn to use properly, and this is practical, I believe this is right and achievable.
Q: Thank you Mr. President, I may say so to take note this respect, the second part of your answer seems to me to be more to the point than the first part. In the first part you said that you have the right to enrich. but as a leader of a country, that%q%s in my personal judgment, is not a sufficient, answer. I mean, the question I asked you is why you insist on that problem given that it is causing you problems elsewhere in the world, about whether you have the right to do so, I ask you why you so want to do it. The answer you gave to that was that you want Iran to have nuclear power. I too am supportive of having nuclear power and believe this is part of your right to reach that powerin your government, but if you can have the nuclear power without enrichment - that%q%s a technical fact- so the question remains why given the problems the rest of the world proceeds with these particular activities in you country and given the fact you will have the nuclear power without doing. you are so intent upon exercising this right, we ask ourselves why? So that is to you very clear to use, but you are not clear with us of why you are insisting upon that.
Let me tell you. My answer to that Mr. President is that I don%q%t want any spread of the capacity for enrichment. I don%q%t think that%q%s good for any of us. It%q%s not because Iranians by nature are less trustworthy than other people around the world, it is not because those who historically enrich for example the French are more virtuous than the Iranian but it%q%s not good for any of us to have enrichment spread as nuclear power spread, so it%q%s not about you. It%q%s about a general public.
A: I would like to make some points clear for you. You said that the world is worried. It is not true. U.S. is not all the world, even if America and all the Europe are together; they don%q%t represent the whole world. Last week we had the N.A.M. conference, 118 countries supported Iran%q%s right. They are representing countries and are the world%q%s community. Then the worry is in the U.S .Of course in the U.S. administration and in 2 or 3 European states. Why are you worried? Don%q%t be worried. But what you said was that we don%q%t produce and we purchase from others, do you think it is a legal suggestion? A person who is able to produce something will be told not to produce the thing then he will receive it from others! Why? I am able to produce as I can produce wheat and rice. Can I tell you not to produce oil? I will sell it to you. Do they accept this from us? This is not a correct word that I don%q%t produce oil, and then I stand begging in front of others. Do you think it is right? Nations must be free to enjoy their legal rights. Let me talk to you about historical experiences. You know that in our plan there is a production of 20 thousand megawatts of power through nuclear fuel intended. So far we have had a few contracts from the west for the supply of fuel, which all of them were result less and cancelled, and the west violated their commitments. Nearly 50 years ago we had contract with America, which was unilaterally cancelled. We have had a contract with Germany for building a power plant, Germany unilaterally cancelled it. We had participation contract with France to produce fuel, and for many years France kept our reserves and didn%q%t meet its commitments. Canada was the same. How can we trust? We don%q%t have any confidence, because the contracts we have in front of us haven%q%t been met by them. Let%q%s talk about other things apart from the nuclear topic. Even the contracts related to the supply of Helicopters and Airliners spare parts haven%q%t been met. There are 25 years since the European countries didn%q%t sell us Airliners. Under which guarantee can we act? While we ourselves are able to produce and we are also regarding the laws, we are also under the supervision of the IAEA, and we have been most cooperative and obedient. In terms of religion, we are prohibited from moving to nuclear weapons, we represent a religious rule. Why mustn%q%t we have the fuel-cycle? The Boushehr power plant has a contract, do you know how long it has taken for it?
It took 30 years, and is hasn%q%t gotten completed yet! Because it is under political decisions. We can%q%t put our country%q%s fate under political decisions; we must improve our country, and have to produce. I suggest America to stop its fuel-production-cycle for 5 years, we are ready to supply the fuel after five years with a fifty percent discount, and we guarantee this word. We are a nation that has accomplished all our commitments so far. We don%q%t have even one unaccomplished commitment. And unlike western friend countries, we are a promise-keeper.
Q: Mr. President, there is one issue that hasn%q%t been raised here. This is a question of Iraq. We ask the Iranian policy for Iraq. When we read your statement on an issue, we find them somewhere confusing and somewhere consistent. For example, in you speech yesterday at the United Nations, you said that there is no indication at the same time you call the United States and occupiers in Iraq, when you say you are looking for a pretext step and I am trying to understand the relation between those two statements, and then you go on and criticize over and over for heightened security in Iraq but is that exactly what Iran is about? And then you also go on to say that Iraq%q%s central government should be strengthened, I want to ask you how is the consistency between. U.S. and policies that support the various relations between the Shiite Militias. I would appreciate your explaining Iranian policy in Iraq explaining these statements and at the end of it as you see there is an overlap between U.S. and Iranian interests in Iraq in a way to allow us to collaborate.
A: The American managers are confused in solving problems in Iraq. They don%q%t know what to do; because of this they accuse others. We don%q%t have forces in Iraq, America has more that 160 thousand military forces and bases in Iraq. We support security in Iraq, and we support Iraq. The Government of Iraq has been formed through the votes of people. Insecurity is harmful for everyone, it is harmful for us as well, we are Iraq%q%s neighbor, besides our people have a kind relation with the Iraqi people. We have been living with each other for thousands of years, and many of our peoples are family members. when anyone is hurt in Iraq, this has a reflection in Iran. Meanwhile insecurity in Iraq has caused some of our cities not to be secure. You are certainly aware of bombing in Ahwaz. Some people were killed. In some other cities we had insecurity as well. We support security in Iraq. When the Americans entered Iraq and toppled Saddam, so many people thought that the policy of the U.S. in supporting Saddam and its spite against the people of the region have changed, people tried to forget the memories of the 8 year war. But after the fall of Saddam, America announced that it wants to remain in Iraq. It is building strong bases and barracks. Are these for leaving? Anyone who wants to leave, he will soon transfer the power to the elected government, and won%q%t put the government and parliament under pressure. Two months ago, the Iraqi interior minister had an interview and announced that behind many of the terrorist attacks are American forces. It means the American forces kill the Iraqi people with rockets. This is not good. The nation of Iraq is a strong nation. The Iraqi people are not happy with the presence of Americans there. I think that Americans must get familiar with the conditions instead of accusing others. I honestly tell you that the American policies in the region bear disadvantages for the U.S. you don%q%t know the people. In many cases you enter the stage with the light of the British; the British have once known the people. But at present circumstances have changed, and the British are behind from the changes and don’t really know what%q%s going on. They avail false information, and your administration makes decisions based on that and the conditions are getting more complicated every day.
The day Saddam was ousted, everybody grew happy. They thought that U.S. had gotten right, but the following steps of the U.S. have changed this hope into disappointment. I tell you that your administration%q%s behavior in the region has made the public opinion very intense against you, which is ever increasing. We are interested to cooperate on any plan, which invigorates the government of Iraq and leads to the progress of Iraq.
Q: Mr. President, Iran the U.S have enjoyed a friendly relation for almost two hundred years.
There has been very little conflict and tension between U.S and Iran. I am wonder whether you believe, that it is possible to return to relation between these two countries. The president said yesterday that he understands and supported the desire of the Iranian people for having nuclear energy, the administration and all European countries have made an offer to sit down and talk to you about all standing issues, as long as it does not get to a process of enrichment, I understand you, I understand the matter of what you are speaking. Over the last two months it has gained a great deal of attention and publicities run out of international media. You are under the cover of time magazine, but you are sacrificing a great deal which seems for your countrymen. If Iran continues the course of confrontation, you will have less trade, less modernization, fewer resources, 40% of your people by your own government statistics live under poverty, this is one of the richest oil-producing countries of the world, the other matter, which is of greater cooperation with the U.S and with the world, will produce an enormous under of benefits for Iranian people; I am just wondering if you believe it is possible to go down the second path. Do you imagine for example to have relation with the U.S, would the administration open an embassy in Tehran. Would you allow?
A: Thank you for being merciful towards the nation of Iran, maybe you are more merciful and kinder than I. The principle in foreign policy is having relations. When our nation stood up for revolution and finally succeeded, Imam Khomeini explicitly announced that we are ready to have bilateral friendly relations with all countries except Israel, which doesn%q%t have legality. Even Imam disregarded the hostile steps of America during the period after the coup of the year 1332 (1953) , but the US statesmen haven%q%t appreciated Imam%q%s magnanimity and they have cut their relation for 27 years. of course we have also welcomed, but we did not cut the relation. They have also supported Saddam for eight years in the war against us. What have we done? We said that we want to be free, we don%q%t want dictator, and we want free election, and we want to live Islamic. 98.2% of our nation voted for Islamic Republic. unfortunately your statesmen didn%q%t respect it. Some of our people have been terrorized, and the terrorists have been supported in the U.S. congress. These are not good behaviors. Also at present, when U.S. fails anywhere, it accuses Iran. I believe they ought to think of their behavior. It is possible to have good relation, but the behavior must to some degree be corrected. We are not happy with this issue, but they never reformed. The persons, who destroyed, can correct and put it right.
Q: Thank you for the meeting today and if you have anything to say, please ask.
A: I thank you all. At the beginning of the meeting, you said that you were freelance, and I accepted, but almost all of the words you said, were from government’s stance, of course it doesn%q%t matter. I think above speaking, it is possible to hear, it is possible to hear from a far distance, to hear well in order to solve problems. Good luck.

posted by: Whitebeard at 05:51 | link | comments |
israel, war, iran

A message from the World Can’t Wait Steering – Drive Out the Bush Regime Steering Committee

A day we’ve all been waiting for is happening. We are standing up together, all over the country, determined to carry forward a great movement to drive out the Bush Regime. This movement is made up of many people of many different viewpoints and backgrounds---all uniting to accomplish something that must be done. This audacious and historic venture is born of urgent necessity. “The Bush Regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.”

Government spying--bolted into law;
Alito & Roberts - installed in the Supreme Court;
The Patriot Act passed - again;
Theocratic anti-abortion and anti-gay laws - spreading intolerance;
War in Iraq--more murderous;
War on Lebanon - approved and fueled;
War on Iran - in preparation;
Cuba, Venezuela and other countries in their sights;
Torture - legalized.

The act passed last week stripped the fundamental right of habeas corpus for 14,000 detainees in secret prisons around the world and to anyone anywhere that the president accuses of being an enemy combatant - all without any real opposition in the halls of power.

This is how fascism happens here, with an orderly transfer of power to the executive branch, to a president and administration claiming war time powers - in a war promised to last generations; to a president who lied about Iraq and is now laying plans for a catastrophic war with Iran; to a president who believes he is on a mission from God.

This is indeed a defining moment. It is not too late to stop this fascist trajectory. But if it goes unopposed by the people of this country, it could be too late. The darkness of this regime descending on the country and the world will succeed in silencing dissent, critical thought, science, the ideals of equality and even the way people think of basic human decency.

Millions of people deeply disturbed by this have been looking for a vehicle to express their outrage. Today in more than 200 cities – 90 of them in 26 states that went for Bush in 2004-- people are finding their courage in this vehicle. We are punching a hole in the political atmosphere of silence and fear that has people going along with a fascist program. And we are opening the way for the kind of resistance we need to stop and reverse the direction this government is taking this society and the world.

Acting in this way, we join with and give support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently need and want this regime to be stopped. We have to look at ourselves through their eyes – how is the rest of the world seeing us. We have to reckon with how the people of the Middle East, whose countries have been turned to rubble, are seeing us. To be silent when your country is waging endless war, legalizing torture, and taking step after step towards consolidating a police state to "make us safe" is just not conscionable. But when we are out here as we are today, we are demonstrating to the world that there is a difference between the people and the government of George Bush.

Having taken this historic step, we must promise to take this forward to make resistance to all this a reality, now. We must go forward--transforming the anguish, outrage and frustration millions of us feel into truly effective, positive and massive political mobilization. We must stay on the offensive with our opposition to the WHOLE direction of things, and to this regime---including through the immediate period before and after the mid-term elections.

We must not stop, we must go forward. No matter who is elected, we ourselves, the people, by our OWN active initiative, have to now set entirely different political terms than the ones presently accepted as “realistic”.

It is time to change the terms of discourse. It is not acceptable, at a time when the Supreme Court is getting ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, for the opposition to be saying that the right of a woman to control her own body is expendable.

It is not right for the terms of debate on war in Iraq to be “No exit till victory v. sending more troops”. It’s totally unacceptable that in a civilized country there would even be a debate about torture - or that the opposition is only how to regulate and legalize it.

We must not stop. There is time but there is very little time. We have to change the political landscape so everyone has to respond to what hundreds of thousands of people are now actively on a mission to accomplish: to drive out this criminal regime and to repudiate, to reject, to put beyond the pale the whole immoral and unjust program of this regime.

We have taken a gigantic step today - now we have important plans to make, including over the next days and weeks. So, as you end this day, know that this is not one of those demonstrations you march and go back home to the same old same old. What do you do when there is warning of a tsunami coming your way? You make plans for emergency mobilization. And we are going to do just that.

In one week, we are calling for MASS MEETINGS – where thousands across the country must come to be part of summing up what we have accomplished and be part of planning how to go forward, rapidly expanding our capacity. We’ll discuss “how do you drive an illegitimate regime from power?” We have very important plans for what the next ambitious and necessary steps this movement should make.

In the meantime we must not lose an ounce of momentum - immediately getting other people to join us. To keep the profile and message of World Can’t Wait pulsing through the political atmosphere over the next 6 weeks. We are calling on people to:

1) Be out in the streets - be out in the public square. Wear orange. Wear orange armbands. Decorate yourself and the city with orange Emergency crime tape to symbolize those being disappeared and tortured in our name. We’ll be here in Union Square (replace with site of rallies, or elsewhere, in other cities) every Thursday evening for the next 6 weeks, creating a culture of resistance in song and theater, holding speak-outs on the “Your Government” indictments, making exhibits and showing films. We’ll be ready to respond to an October, or November surprise by the Bush Regime.

2) Today is a gigantic step forward in starting the society-wide debate needed for people in their millions to act even more powerfully. So we are calling today for STATE OF EMERGENCY TEACH-INS to take place before the end of October that can carry out emergency education on each of the “Your Government” indictments found in our Call. We are out to wake people up to what is going on, in their name. We will make the case that this regime is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

So go home with something orange and wear it the rest of the month. Come to the meeting next week and plan to bring your courage and your imagination, bring your resources and your political connections because together we will plan our next steps needed to drive out this Regime before 2008.

Because Bush, because Cheney, because Rumsfeld, because Rice, because Gonzales must all be driven out, they must leave the White House politically repudiated and thoroughly discredited as the war criminals that they are. Anything short of that is unacceptable to the world, to our children, to the future.

Marwan Barghouti: No Peace With Occupation

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:58 | link | comments |
israel, palestine

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:32 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, torture, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 21:01 | link | comments |
environment, war, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:00 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, dante, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:11 | link | comments |
dante, noyes, casentino

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:35 | link | comments |
us, war, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:33 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news

WEAR ORANGE

SILENCE + TORTURE = COMPLICITY

posted by: Whitebeard at 10:24 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:12 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:19 | link | comments |
civil rights, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 20:49 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 05:51 | link | comments |
israel, war, iran

posted by: Whitebeard at 15:13 | link | comments |
civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

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Chris Hedges	Bill Goodman	Cristina Page	Larry Everest	Les Roberts

Marwan Barghouti: No Peace With Occupation

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:58 | link | comments | israel, palestine

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:32 | link | comments | us, civil rights, torture, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 21:01 | link | comments | environment, war, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:00 | link | comments | us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, dante, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:11 | link | comments | dante, noyes, casentino

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:35 | link | comments | us, war, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:33 | link | comments | us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news

WEAR ORANGE

SILENCE + TORTURE = COMPLICITY

posted by: Whitebeard at 10:24 | link | comments | us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:12 | link | comments | us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:19 | link | comments | civil rights, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 20:49 | link | comments | us, civil rights, war, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 05:51 | link | comments | israel, war, iran

posted by: Whitebeard at 15:13 | link | comments | civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

About me

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Counter

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:58 | link | comments |
israel, palestine

posted by: Whitebeard at 09:32 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, torture, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 21:01 | link | comments |
environment, war, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:00 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, dante, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:11 | link | comments |
dante, noyes, casentino

posted by: Whitebeard at 08:35 | link | comments |
us, war, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:33 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news

posted by: Whitebeard at 10:24 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 07:12 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 17:19 | link | comments |
civil rights, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 20:49 | link | comments |
us, civil rights, war, censored news, nineleven

posted by: Whitebeard at 05:51 | link | comments |
israel, war, iran

posted by: Whitebeard at 15:13 | link | comments |
civil rights, war, torture, censored news, nineleven