Ahmadinejad as Truther

Now Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not only questions the extent of the Holocaust but is also a “truther,” saying, absurdly, that the US and Israeli governments were behind the 9/11 attacks. The USG Open Source Center paraphrased and translated his speech on Wednesday in Ahvaz (Islamic Republic of Iran News Network Television (IRINN) Wednesday, January 13):

The president said the enemies, after failing to dominate the region through sedition, have now turned to military action in the region. He said issues such as human rights were a pretext for the West to enter the Middle East. He said the West aimed to hold control of the energy resources of the region to save its economic failure.

He said: “Even the issue of 11 September is a suspicious development. Many of the researchers and opinion-holders are of the view that the issue of 11 September is an American-Zionist issue. It is an excuse for military presence in the Middle East.”
He added: “Using the excuse of 11 September, they started a war in Afghanistan, then Iraq then they occupied Pakistan and subsequently they fanned the flames of war in Yemen.”

In contrast, his predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, had warmly commiserated with the United States after the September 11 attacks, pointing out that Iran had also seen terrorist violence directed against it (by the Saddam-backed Mojahedin-e Khalq, MEK– or People’s Holy Warriors). Iranians mounted candlelight vigils for the victims in September of 2001. Then in January of 2002, David Frum and Richard Perle convinced a clueless W. to put Iran in a so-called “axis of evil.” Bush and the Neocons undermined the reformist Khatami, and so are in part responsible for giving us Ahmadinejad.

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