{"id":1788,"date":"2007-11-20T00:16:30","date_gmt":"2007-11-20T00:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/politics\/neocon-fabricated-quote-to-stir-war-with-iran\/1788\/"},"modified":"2007-11-20T00:16:30","modified_gmt":"2007-11-20T00:16:30","slug":"neocon-fabricated-quote-to-stir-war-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/politics\/neocon-fabricated-quote-to-stir-war-with-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Neocon fabricated quote to stir war with Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neocon accused of misquoting Iran’s leader to push case for invasion<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Nick Juliano<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the country\u2019s most prominent neoconservative pundits has been accused of using a fabricated quote from Iran\u2019s supreme religious leader in pushing his argument that a US invasion is the only recourse to deter that country\u2019s nuclear ambitions.<\/p>\n

Norman Podhoretz is among the most vocal in urging President Bush to bomb Iran, and he has predicted<\/a> the president will launch an attack before his term is up. Podhoretz\u2019s argument is based on his belief that a nuclear-armed Iran would not be deterred from launching its missiles because its leaders do not fear their country\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n

The Economist has called into question<\/a> an oft-cited statement Podhoretz attributes to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, saying it is likely \u201cbogus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Podhoretz, a prominent adviser to Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani, is unbowed<\/a> in his push for war, and he says he accurately quoted Khomeini saying the following:<\/p>\n

We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Economist quotes Shaul Bakhash, a Middle East scholar at George Mason University, who thoroughly researched the alleged quotation, which was first cited by Iranian journalist Amir Taheri. Bakhash could find no evidence that those words ever crossed the Ayatollah\u2019s lips.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis research, I think, clearly establishes that the alleged quotation is a fabrication,\u201d Bakhash writes in a private newsletter for Gulf experts. The scholar searched the Library of Congress, a database of Farsi-language holdings at libraries worldwide, books published in Iran and a \u201cpresumably comprehensive\u201d database of Khomeini\u2019s \u201cstatements, speeches, fatwas, etc.\u201d and could not find the quotation Podhoretz and other Iran hawks are so fond of.<\/p>\n

Andrew Sullivan, blogging at The Atlantic<\/a>, jumps at the chance to undercut Podhoretz\u2019s apparent misquotation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne should not expect intellectual honesty from Norman Podhoretz. \u2026 So I have no hope he will respond to this post at the Economist,\u201d Sullivan writes.<\/p>\n

Podhoretz shoots back<\/a>, accusing Sullivan of \u201cshrill hysteria\u201d and relying on his original source to back up the quote\u2019s validity. Taheri tells Podhoretz that the quote appeared in \u201cPaymaha va Sokhanraniyha-yi Imam Khomeini (\u201cMessages and Speeches of Imam Khomeini\u201d) published by Nur Research and Publication Institute (Tehran, 1981).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quote, along with many other passages, disappeared from several subsequent editions as the Islamic Republic tried to mobilize nationalistic feelings against Iraq, which had invaded Iran in 1980,\u201d Taheri writes. \u201cThe practice of editing and even censoring Khomeini to suit the circumstances is widely known by Iranian scholars.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Podhoretz, this is all the proof he needs that the Khomeini quote is accurate; he further pushes back against claims from the Economist that another quote from former Iranian President Rafsanjani is inaccurate. But even the quotes are inaccurate the case for war against Iran remains, he argues.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the case I make \u2026 rests on much more than the two quotations from Khomeini and Rafsanjani,\u201d he says, \u201cit would still stand even if those quotations were in fact \u2018bogus\u2019 or \u2018fabricated.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neocon accused of misquoting Iran’s leader to push case for invasion \u00a0 Nick Juliano One of the country\u2019s most prominent neoconservative pundits has been accused of using a fabricated quote from Iran\u2019s supreme religious leader in pushing his argument that a US invasion is the only recourse to deter that country\u2019s nuclear ambitions. Norman Podhoretz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,17],"tags":[34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}