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August 29th 2006

'Wiping Israel off the map': Media conspiracy distorts Ahmadinejad's statements

To assist the US-led drive to war against Iran, the BBC and other major media outlets have been deliberately mis-translating the anti-zionist speeches of the Iranian president.

An article by Virginia Tilley, published in the US-based magazine Counterpunch on 28th August 2006, exposes the fraudulent media campaign to induce public opinion to believe that Iran is a legitimate target for sanctions and a military attack.  Ms Tilley writes:

"In this frightening mess in the Middle East, let's get one thing straight. Iran is not threatening Israel with destruction. Iran's president has not threatened any action against Israel. Over and over, we hear that Iran is clearly 'committed to annihilating Israel' because the 'mad' or 'reckless' or 'hard-line' President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel But every supposed quote, every supposed instance of his doing so, is wrong.

"The most infamous quote, 'Israel must be wiped off the map', is most glaringly wrong. In his October 2005 speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad never used the word 'map' or the term 'wiped off'. According to Farsi-language experts like Juan Cole and even right-wing services like MEMRI, what he actually said was 'this regime that is occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time."

The full article by Virginia Tilley can be viewed on:

http://www.counterpunch.org/tilley08282006.html

The media distortions are reminiscent of the vilification of Slobodan Milosevic  prior to and during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999.  Then as now, the BBC, which has a worldwide audience and a reputation for 'fair and balanced reporting', has taken part in a campaign to equate the leader of a country to Adolf Hitler - in order to mobilise public opinion to support a military attack on a country which did not fall into line with Western foreign policy.