Just How Far Did They Go
How far does the New York Times go to provide a soapbox for Juan Cole? To the extent of publishing his "translation", giving it full coverage and putting it well above statements from the President of Iran's own official translators which refute it utterly.
"Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian," remarked Juan Cole, a Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan and critic of American policy who has argued that the Iranian president was misquoted. "He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse." Since Iran has not "attacked another country aggressively for over a century," he said in an e-mail exchange, "I smell the whiff of war propaganda."
…..
But translators in Tehran who work for the president's office and the foreign ministry disagree with them. All official translations of Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement, including a description of it on his Web site (www.president.ir/eng/), refer to wiping Israel away. Sohrab Mahdavi, one of Iran's most prominent translators, and Siamak Namazi, managing director of a Tehran consulting firm, who is bilingual, both say "wipe off" or "wipe away" is more accurate than "vanish" because the Persian verb is active and transitive.
Generally speaking, this would be in the same league as the Black Knight from Monty Python's Holy Grail denying his arm had just been lopped off. In other words Hitchens was right, Cole is wrong and the NYT publishes utter nonsense yet again.
Other Links to this Post
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Ninth State » On Nuclear Weapons and Persian Linguistics — Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 8:19 am
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The Political Pit Bull — Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 8:32 am
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » This Is Pretty Straightforward — Friday, 16 June , 2006 @ 5:38 am
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » Argument By Motive — Saturday, 17 June , 2006 @ 5:39 pm
By skip, Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 7:34 am
Horrors! Giving a soapbox to Juan Cole , whether he is right or not. But fear not, the Israeli lobby has been busy denying Cole a chair at Yale, despite the search committee’s strong recommendation. You are of a piece with that lobby, which no doubt has its career advantages, as your rumpot pal Hitchens so well illustrates.
By Gaius, Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 7:46 am
Gee, skippy, since the article itself disproves Cole, your beef would be with the Times.
And if I’m part of a lobby, the pay sure sucks.
By Hurricane Shirley, Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 9:26 am
I agree, the Black Knight’s arm was not cut off. And that parrot isn’t dead, either, it’s just … resting.
By Gaius, Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 9:35 am
This is an ex-parrot!