[NYTr] "Wiped Off the Map" - The Canard of the Century
ny...@olm.blythe-systems.com
sent by Kevin Zeese - Jan 18, 2007
"WIPED OFF THE MAP" - The Rumor of the Century
by Arash Norouzi
Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic
implications. According to legend, Iran's President has threatened to
destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the
map". Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as the
following article will prove.
BACKGROUND:
On Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at the Ministry of Interior conference hall
in Tehran, newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a
speech at a program, reportedly attended by thousands, titled "The World
Without Zionism". Large posters surrounding him displayed this title
prominently in English, obviously for the benefit of the international
press. Below the poster's title was a slick graphic depicting an hour glass
containing planet Earth at its top. Two small round orbs representing the
United States and Israel are shown falling through the hour glass' narrow
neck and crashing to the bottom.
Before we get to the infamous remark, it's important to note that the
"quote" in question was itself a quote--- they are the words of the late
Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution. Although he quoted
Khomeini to affirm his own position on Zionism, the actual words belong to
/Khomeini/ and not Ahmadinejad. Thus, Ahmadinejad has essentially been
credited (or blamed) for a quote that is not only unoriginal, but represents
a viewpoint already in place well before he ever took office.
THE ACTUAL QUOTE:
So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in farsi:
"Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv
shavad."
That passage will mean nothing to most people, but one word might ring a
bell: /rezhim-e/. It is the word "/Regime/", pronounced just like the
English word with an extra "/eh/" sound at the end. Ahmadinejad did not
refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli
/regime/. This is a vastly significant distinction, as one cannot wipe a
/regime/ off the map. Ahmadinejad does not even refer to Israel by name,
he instead uses the specific phrase "rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods" (regime
occupying Jerusalem).
So this raises the question.. what exactly did he want "wiped from the map"?
The answer is: /nothing/. That's because the word "map" was _never used_.
The Persian word for map, "/nagsheh/", is not contained anywhere in his
original farsi quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech.
Nor was the western phrase "wipe out" ever said. Yet we are led to believe
that Iran's President threatened to "wipe Israel off the map", despite never
having uttered the words "map", "wipe out" or even "Israel".
THE PROOF:
_The full quote translated directly to English:_
"The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of
time".
Word by word translation:
Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e
(occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad (must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of
time) mahv shavad (vanish from).
Here is the full transcript of the speech in farsi, archived on
Ahmadinejad's web site:
http://www.president.ir/farsi/ahmadinejad/speeches/1384/aban-84/840804sahyonizm.htm
THE SPEECH AND CONTEXT:
While the false "wiped off the map" extract has been repeated infinitely
without verification, Ahmadinejad's actual speech itself has been almost
entirely ignored. Given the importance placed on the "map" comment, it would
be sensible to present his words in their full context to get a fuller
understanding of his position. In fact, by looking at the entire speech,
there is a clear, logical trajectory leading up to his call for a "world
without Zionism". One may disagree with his reasoning, but critical
appraisals are infeasible without first knowing what that reasoning is.
In his speech, Ahmadinejad declares that Zionism is the West's apparatus of
political oppression against Muslims. He says the "Zionist regime" was
imposed on the Islamic world as a strategic bridgehead to ensure domination
of the region and its assets. Palestine, he insists, is the frontline of the
Islamic world's struggle with American hegemony, and its fate will have
repercussions for the entire Middle East.
Ahmadinejad acknowledges that the removal of America's powerful grip on the
region via the Zionists may seem unimaginable to some, but reminds the
audience that, as Khomeini predicted, other seemingly invincible empires
have disappeared and now only exist in history books. He then proceeds to
list three such regimes that have collapsed, crumbled or vanished, all
within the last 30 years:
(1) The Shah of Iran- the U.S. installed monarch
(2) The Soviet Union
(3) Iran's former arch-enemy, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein
In the first and third examples, Ahmadinejad prefaces their mention with
Khomeini's own words foretelling that individual regime's demise. He
concludes by referring to Khomeini's unfulfilled wish: "The Imam said this
regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time. This statement
is very wise". This is the passage that has been isolated, twisted and
distorted so famously. By measure of comparison, Ahmadinejad would seem to
be calling for /regime change/, not war.
THE ORIGIN:
One may wonder: where did this false interpretation originate? Who is
responsible for the translation that has sparked such worldwide controversy?
The answer is surprising.
The inflammatory "wiped off the map" quote was first disseminated not by
Iran's enemies, but by Iran itself. The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's
official propaganda arm, used this phrasing in the English version of some
of their news releases covering the World Without Zionism conference.
International media including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Time magazine and
countless others picked up the IRNA quote and made headlines out of it
without verifying its accuracy, and rarely referring to the source. Iran's
Foreign Minister soon attempted to clarify the statement, but the quote had
a life of its own. Though the IRNA wording was inaccurate and misleading,
the media assumed it was true, and besides, it made great copy.
Amid heated wrangling over Iran's nuclear program, and months of continuous,
unfounded accusations against Iran in an attempt to rally support for
preemptive strikes against the country, the imperialists had just been
handed the perfect raison d'jtre to invade. To the war hawks, it was a gift
from the skies.
It should be noted that in other references to the conference, the IRNA's
translation changed. For instance, "map" was replaced with "earth". In some
articles it was "The Qods occupier regime should be eliminated from the
surface of earth", or the similar "The Qods occupying regime must be
eliminated from the surface of earth". The inconsistency of the IRNA's
translation should be evidence enough of the unreliability of the source,
particularly when transcribing their news from Farsi into the English
language.
THE REACTION:
The mistranslated "wiped off the map" quote attributed to Iran's President
has been spread worldwide, repeated thousands of times in international
media, and prompted the denouncements of numerous world leaders. Virtually
every major and minor media outlet has published or broadcast this false
statement to the masses. Big news agencies such as The Associated Press and
Reuters refer to the misquote, literally, on an almost daily basis.
Following news of Iran's remark, condemnation was swift. British Prime
Minister Tony Blair expressed "revulsion" and implied that it might be
necessary to attack Iran. U.N. chief Kofi Annan cancelled his scheduled trip
to Iran due to the controversy. Ariel Sharon demanded that Iran be expelled
from the United Nations for calling for Israel's destruction. Shimon Peres,
more than once, threatened to wipe /Iran/ off the map. More recently,
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, who has warned that Iran is "preparing another
holocaust for the Jewish state" is calling for Ahmadinejad to be tried for
war crimes for inciting genocide.
The artificial quote has also been subject to additional alterations. U.S.
officials and media often take the liberty of dropping the "map" reference
altogether, replacing it with the more acutely threatening phrase "wipe
Israel off the face of the earth". Newspaper and magazine articles dutifully
report Ahmadinejad has "called for the destruction of Israel", as do senior
officials in the United States government.
President George W. Bush said the comments represented a "specific threat"
to destroy Israel. In a March 2006 speech in Cleveland, Bush vowed he would
resort to war to protect Israel from Iran, because, "..the threat from Iran
is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel."
Former Presidential advisor Richard Clarke told Australian TV that Iran
"talks openly about destroying Israel", and insists, "The President of Iran
has said repeatedly that he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth".
In an October 2006 interview with Amy Goodman, former UN Weapons Inspector
Scott Ritter referred to Ahmadinejad as "the idiot that comes out and says
really stupid, vile things, such as, 'It is the goal of Iran to wipe Israel
off the face of the earth' ". The consensus is clear.
Confusing matters further, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pontificates rather than give
a direct answer when questioned about the statement, such as in Lally
Weymouth's Washington Post interview
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092201306_pf.html
in September 2006:
Are you really serious when you say that Israel should be wiped off the face
of the Earth?
We need to look at the scene in the Middle East --- 60 years of war, 60
years of displacement, 60 years of conflict, not even a day of peace. Look
at the war in Lebanon, the war in Gaza --- what are the reasons for these
conditions? We need to address and resolve the root problem.
Your suggestion is to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth?
Our suggestion is very clear:... Let the Palestinian people decide their
fate in a free and fair referendum, and the result, whatever it is, should
be accepted.... The people with no roots there are now ruling the land.
You've been quoted as saying that Israel should be wiped off the face of the
Earth. Is that your belief?
What I have said has made my position clear. If we look at a map of the
Middle East from 70 years ago...
So, the answer is yes, you do believe that it should be wiped off the face
of the Earth?
Are you asking me yes or no? Is this a test? Do you respect the right to
self-determination for the Palestinian nation? Yes or no? Is Palestine, as a
nation, considered a nation with the right to live under humane conditions
or not? Let's allow those rights to be enforced for these 5 million
displaced people.
The exchange is typical of Ahmadinejad's interviews with the American media.
Predictably, both Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes and CNN's Anderson Cooper asked
if he wants to "wipe Israel off the map". As usual, the question is thrown
back in the reporter's face with his standard "Don't the Palestinians have
rights?, etc." retort (which is never directly answered either). Yet he
/never/ confirms the "map" comment to be true. This did not prevent
Anderson Cooper from referring to earlier portions of his interview after a
commercial break and lying, "as he said earlier, he wants Israel wiped off
the map".
Even if every media outlet in the world were to retract the mistranslated
quote tomorrow, the major damage has already been done, providing the
groundwork for the next phase of disinformation: complete character
demonization. Ahmadinejad, we are told, is the next Hitler, a grave threat
to world peace who wants to bring about a new Holocaust. According to some
detractors, he not only wants to destroy Israel, but after that, he will
nuke America, and then Europe! An October 2006 memo titled _Words of Hate:
Iran's Escalating Threats_ released by the powerful Israeli lobby group
AIPAC opens with the warning, /"Ahmadinejad and other top Iranian leaders
are issuing increasingly belligerent statements threatening to destroy the
United States, Europe and Israel."/ These claims not only fabricate an
unsubstantiated threat, but assume far more power than he actually
possesses. Alarmists would be better off monitoring the statements of the
ultra-conservative Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who holds the most
power in Iran.
As Iran's U.N. Press Officer, M.A. Mohammadi, complained to The Washington
Post in a June 2006 letter:
"It is not amazing at all, the pick-and-choose approach of highlighting the
misinterpreted remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in October
and ignoring this month's remarks by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, that "We have no problem with the world. We are not a threat
whatsoever to the world, and the world knows it. We will never start a war.
We have no intention of going to war with any state."
The Israeli government has milked every drop of the spurious quote to its
supposed advantage. In her September 2006 address to the United Nations
General Assembly, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused Iran of
working to nuke Israel and bully the world. "They speak proudly and openly
of their desire to 'wipe Israel off the map.' And now, by their actions,
they pursue the weapons to achieve this objective to imperil the region and
threaten the world." Addressing the threat in December, a fervent Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert inadvertently disclosed that his country already
possesses nuclear weapons: "We have never threatened any nation with
annihilation. Iran, /openly/, /explicitly/
/and publicly/ threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this
is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as
America, France, Israel, Russia?"
MEDIA IRRESPONSIBILITY:
On December 13, 2006, more than a year after The World Without Zionism
conference, two leading Israeli newspapers, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz,
published reports of a renewed threat from Ahmadinejad. The Jerusalem Post's
headline was _Ahmadinejad: Israel will be 'wiped out'
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/800098.html>_, while Haaretz posted the
title Ahmadinejad at Holocaust conference: Israel will 'soon be wiped out'
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/800098.html>.
Where did they get their information? It turns out that both papers, like
most American and western media, rely heavily on write ups by news wire
services such as the Associated Press and Reuters as a source for their
articles. Sure enough, their sources are in fact December 12th articles by
Reuter's Paul Hughes [_Iran president says Israel's days are numbered
<http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-12-12T173514Z_01_L1213060_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-HOLOCAUST.xml&src=rss&rpc=22>_],
and the AP's Ali Akbar Dareini [Iran President: Israel Will be wiped out
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/12/ap/world/mainD8LVI2AO0.shtml>].
The first five paragraphs of the Haaretz article, credited to "Haaretz
Service and Agencies", are plagiarized almost 100% from the first five
paragraphs of the Reuters piece. The only difference is that Haaretz changed
"the Jewish state" to "Israel" in the second paragraph, otherwise they are
identical.
The Jerusalem Post article by Herb Keinon pilfers from both the Reuters and
AP stories. Like Haaretz, it uses the following Ahmadinejad quote without
attribution: ["Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not
exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out," he added]. Another
passage apparently relies on an IRNA report:
"The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union
was, and humanity will achieve freedom," Ahmadinejad said at Tuesday's
meeting with the conference participants in his offices, according to Iran's
official news agency, IRNA.
He said elections should be held among "Jews, Christians and Muslims so the
population of Palestine can select their government and destiny for
themselves in a democratic manner."
Once again, the first sentence above was wholly plagiarized from the AP
article. The second sentence was also the same, except "He called for
elections" became "He said elections should be held..".
It gets more interesting.
The quote used in the original AP article and copied in The Jerusalem Post
article supposedly derives from the IRNA. If true, this can easily be
checked. Care to find out? Go to:
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0612134902101231.htm
There you will discover the actual IRNA quote was:
"As the Soviet Union disappeared, the Zionist regime will also vanish and
humanity will be liberated".
Compare this to the alleged IRNA quote reported by the Associated Press:
"The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union
was, and humanity will achieve freedom".
In the IRNA's actual report, the Zionist regime will /vanish/ just as the
Soviet Union /disappeared/. /Vanish/. /Disappear/. In the dishonest AP
version, the Zionist regime will be "wiped out". And how will it be wiped
out? "The same way the Soviet Union was". Rather than imply a military
threat or escalation in rhetoric, this reference to Russia actually
validates the intended meaning of Ahmadinejad's previous misinterpreted
anti-Zionist statements.
What has just been demonstrated is irrefutable proof of media manipulation
and propaganda in action. The AP deliberately alters an IRNA quote to sound
more threatening. The Israeli media not only repeats the fake quote but also
steals the original authors' words. The unsuspecting public reads this,
forms an opinion and supports unnecessary wars of aggression, presented as
self defense, based on the misinformation.
This scenario mirrors the kind of false claims that led to the illegal U.S.
invasion of Iraq, a war now widely viewed as a catastrophic mistake. And yet
the Bush administration and the compliant corporate media continue to
marinate in propaganda and speculation about attacking Iraq's much larger
and more formidable neighbor, Iran. Most of this rests on the unproven
assumption that Iran is building nuclear weapons, and the lie that Iran has
vowed to physically destroy Israel. Given its scope and potentially
disastrous outcome, all this amounts to what is arguably the rumor of the
century.
Iran's President has written two rather philosophical letters to America. In
his first letter, he pointed out that "History shows us that oppressive and
cruel governments do not survive". With this statement, Ahmadinejad has also
projected the outcome of his own backwards regime, which will likewise
"vanish from the page of time".
[Arash Norouzi <http://www.arashnorouzi.com> is an artist and co-founder of
The Mossadegh Project <http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com>.]
*
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