Bloody Iran and its Lies

No outcry from the feminists and supposed human rights watchdogs at Harvard at former Iranian President Khatami's speech. (what, no outraged walkouts?). Distinguished Professor Harvey Mansfield spoke up in an editorial in the Globe, via RCP:

The feminists at Harvard seek to remove every vestige of patriarchy in America, but they have said almost nothing about the complete dismissal of women's rights by radical Islam. To do so would be to attack Islamic culture, and according to multiculturalism, every culture is equal and none is evil. They forsake women in societies that repudiate women's rights and direct their complaints to societies that believe in women's rights. Of course it's easier to complain to someone who listens to you and doesn't immediately proceed to slit your throat. No sign of any rethinking of feminism has appeared in the universities where it flourishes.

Perhaps Harvard's feminists could play some small role in fostering women's rights under radical Islam by inviting a prominent woman representative to campus---but unfortunately, the women most revered in radical Islam are suicide bombers, or their mothers. Might be a little problematic for the Radcliffe Institute.

Amir Taheri, NY Post, via RCP:

Khatami was also in total denial about the bloody history of his eight years as president. There was no mention of the 1,347 men and women executed during his two terms. And when it came to the murder of intellectuals and journalists by his henchmen, he pretended that other organs of the Islamic Republic had been responsible, without his knowledge. An Iranian student raised the murder of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi - and Khatami, with a broad smile, said he wasn't quite sure how the poor woman had died in one of his prisons.

And then we have a truthful translation of his remarks, rather than the sanitize-the-terrorist PC translation for western consumption. Taheri:

He used a vocabulary carefully designed to hoodwink the Americans without angering his fellow Khomeinists back home. The trick was reinforced by the fact that he often said one thing in Persian, while the interpreter said something else in English for the benefit of the Harvard audience.

For example, Khatami would speak of khoshunat, which means "roughness," but the interpreter would translate it into "violence" or even "terror." Thus, the Harvard audience would think that Khatami admits that there may be terrorism in the realm of Islam - while back in Tehran, he would appear talking only about "roughness" and "coercion."

In Persian, he would speak of "sodomy," but the Harvard audience would hear "gay sex." Referring to the leader of al Qaeda, he would say "that gentleman" (Aan Agha) in Persian, but the interpreter would say "Osama bin Laden.

Even as Khatami spoke with a forked tongue, the UN was predictably giving Iran cover by dumping its own chief weapons inspector at Iran's request and attacking US reports of Iranian nuclear development. Insight here at Roger L. Simon on a CNN report via RCP buzztracker, and at Rightwing Nuthouse. More disturbing news, as yet uncorroborated, has emerged on their program here in the Sun Times.

Tribune editorial on Iran's nuclear intransigence here.

UPDATE: Saw the president's news conference. He laid out the need for clear laws to protect our interrogators and our national security. Then, in response to a question about frustration with the UN, the president laid out, for example, the failure of the UN to stop the genocide in Sudan. And it will most certainly fail to join us to enforce its own resolution to impose sanctions on Iran for failing to stop its nuclear program. The military option will be the only one left, with terrible costs weighed against the unimaginable horror that will come if we do nothing. Charles Krauthammer, via RCP:

The mullahs are infinitely more likely to use these weapons than anyone in the history of the nuclear age. Every city in the civilized world will live under the specter of instant annihilation delivered either by missile or by terrorist. This from a country that has an official Death to America Day and has declared since Ayatollah Khomeini's ascension that Israel must be wiped off the map.

Against millenarian fanaticism glorying in a cult of death, deterrence is a mere wish. Is the West prepared to wager its cities with their millions of inhabitants on that feeble gamble?