A truly courageous leader in a world full of bootlicking wimps!

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Germans should stop feeling Holocaust guilt - Iran
Sun May 28, 2006 4:16 PM BST

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN, May 28 (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told 
Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by 
a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the 
Holocaust even happened.

In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Ahmadinejad said 
he doubted Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the 
Holocaust and said he was still considering travelling to Germany for 
the World Cup soccer tournament.

"I believe the German people are prisoners of the Holocaust. More 
than 60 million were killed in World War Two ... The question is: Why 
is it that only Jews are at the centre of attention?," he said in the 
interview published on Sunday.

"How long is this going to go on?" he added. "How long will the 
German people be held hostage to the Zionists?... Why should you feel 
obligated to the Zionists? You've paid reparations for 60 years and 
will have to pay for another 100 years."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders have said his 
previous remarks questioning whether the Holocaust happened were 
unacceptable. Denying the Holocaust is a serious crime in Germany 
punishable with a prison term of up to five years.

Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their allies in 
concentration camps.

In the rare interview with Western media, Ahmadinejad said if the 
Holocaust really happened Jews should be moved from Israel back to 
Europe.

"We say if the Holocaust happened, then the Europeans must accept the 
consequences and the price should not be paid by Palestine. If it did 
not happen, then the Jews must return to where they came from."

WORLD CUP

He said he was still considering going to Germany to support Iran in 
the World Cup despite protest stirred by a "worldwide network of 
Zionists".

Iran's first World Cup match is against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 
11 two days after the tournament starts and German Interior Minister 
Wolfgang Schaeuble says he would be welcome to come because Germany 
wants to be a good host.

The invitation sparked protests from other political leaders and 
groups who said his anti-Israeli comments were unacceptable.

"My decision (on whether to go) depends on a lot of different 
things," said Ahmadinejad, a soccer fan. "Whether I have time, 
whether I want to and some other things."

He said he could not understand why his possible visit had caused 
such debate but was not surprised by the row.

"I was not at all surprised because there is a very active worldwide 
network of Zionists, also in Europe," he said in the rare interview 
with Western media that was published on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad's latest comments were condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal 
Center in Los Angeles. Rabbi Marvin Hier, a founder and dean, called 
on Merkel to keep him out of Germany.

"On a day when the Pope is in Auschwitz to remind the world of the 
horrors of the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad questions it again," Hier said. 
"For him to be at the World Cup and sit in a VIP seat would be a 
desecration of the memory of the Holocaust."

Asked by Der Spiegel, in its cover story entitled "The man the world 
is afraid of", whether he stood by his earlier view the Holocaust was 
a myth, Ahmadinejad said: "I only accept something as the truth if I 
am truly convinced of it.

"In Europe there are two opinions on it. One group of researchers who 
are by and large politically motivated say the Holocaust happened. 
There is another group of researchers who have the opposite view and 
are by and large in prison for that."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/attachments/20060528/7d94fb1c/attachment.htm