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Lies They Loved At Harvard

Sep 13, 2006 5:00 pm By Robert Spencer

Amir Taheri exposes the deceptions involved in former Iranian President Khatami’s taqiyya-laden recent U.S. visit in the New York Post:

Throughout, he presented himself as former president of “Iran,” rather than of the Islamic Republic – although, legally speaking, there is no state known as Iran. He also insisted on describing himself as hich-kareh – someone with no official position at all – hiding the fact that he is a member of at least 11 organs of the Islamic Republic, including the all-important Assembly of Experts.

Khatami altered more than his identity: He edited Islam into a lovey-dovey cult that abhors the use of force, is uncomfortable with capital punishment, would never fight except in self-defense and actively welcomes other faiths.

He never mentioned his ideological guru, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – knowing that this would revive memories of the hostages seized by the late mullah. Nor the current “supreme guide,” Ali Khamenei – who is, according to the constitution in force in the Islamic Republic, the world’s only truly legitimate ruler.

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.”

Asked what he thought of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s various outrageous statements, the Hojat al-Islam never mentioned his successor by name. In Persian, he took pains to endorse Ahamdinejad’s basic position – but in English he gave the impression that he did not fully agree with his successor.

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.

Read it all.

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