From a leader

A few days ago, President Mahmoud Ahmedinajib sent a long letter to the White House. I will type in some excerpts, from a translation provided by Le Monde, a French publication.

"September eleventh was a horrendous incident. The killing of innocents is deplorable and appalling in any part of the world. Our government immediately declared its disgust with the perpetrators and offered its condolences to the bereaved and expressed its sympathies."

"There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation, their families cannot see them and are obviously kept in a strange land outside their own country. There is no international monitoring of their conditions and fate. No one knows whether they are prisoners, POWs, accused or criminals."

"Why is it that any techonological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime? Is not scientific R & D one of the basic rights of nations?"

"The people of Africa are forebearing, creative and talented. They can play an important and vital role in providing for the needs of humanity and contribute to its material and spiritual progress. Poverty and hardship in large parts of Africa are preventing this from happening. Don't they have the right to ask why their enormous wealth--including minerals--is being looted, despite the fact that they need it more than others?

"Again, do such actions correspond to the teachings of Christ and the tenets of human rights?"

And in conclusion,

"Whether we like it or not, the world is gravitating towards faith in the Almighty and justice and the Will of God will prevail over all things."

Now, do these words sound like the rantings of an evil lunatic? Or should we quesiton the propaganda we receive daily courtesy of the nightly news?