Iranian "moderate" gets served, and today's articles from Maria

While the National Cathedral used for 'propaganda', and Khatami preaches to the U.S. choir (as Maria asks, "And by doing this we are achieving WHAT ?"), Richard Miniter reports on the Khatami visit, but that was before the self-designated "moderate" got served

On Thursday, lawyers representing seven Iranian Jewish families living in Los Angeles filed a lawsuit demanding that Mohammed Khatemi pay compensation for the disappearance of 12 of their relatives, who were detained, imprisoned, and in some cases tortured as they tried to leave Iran for Pakistan between 1994 and 1997. Mr. Khatemi became president of Iran in 1997.

The fact that Mr. Khatemi was served at all is a kind of victory for many Iranian-Americans, who were dismayed to learn that the former president had been granted a visa to launch a speaking tour in America. As if to add insult to injury, President Bush was quoted over the weekend by the Wall Street Journal as saying he personally approved the decision to grant Mr. Khatemi a visa because he was "interested" in what the ex-leader had to say.

A lawyer for the seven families, Pooya Dayanim, said the two former police officers who served Mr. Khatemi with the writs at the Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va., reported that the turbaned cleric expressed surprise upon receiving the court document. The complaint says the depredations the plaintiffs' kin suffered were "part of a pattern and practice of systematic human rights violations that was designed, ordered, implemented, and directed by the Defendant."

"It is a win-win situation," Mr. Dayanim said. "If he does not defend himself, then we will get a default judgment. If the State Department has to come in, they will embarrass themselves. It puts the administration in a bad position of defending him in federal court against victims of torture."

I'm amazed the plaintiffs were even able to get that far.

Ken Silver, who I met at Michael Totten's dinner on Labor Day, has a new article: Who's Going to Win?

At the blogs
The next time anyone starts telling you that Pres. Bush squandered international support, refer them to this post: 9-11 remembered by a French writer

But I especially remember September 12, 2001, when my colleagues scoffed me during our coffee break, mocking my distress, decrying the "arrogance" of the Yankees and the "imperialism" of their boss, Bush. What is worse, it is that, although I can be labeled today as an artist or intellectual, at the time I wasn't working in an artistic or intellectual milieu which are traditionally anti-capitalists and therefore anti-American.

No, I was working for the Paris police.

Read the rest.

Incidentally, one time, after listening to an interminable tirade against American imperialism, I managed to get in a word, and asked: To the north of the USA there is a rich country, with an educated labor force, vast land, huge natural resources (including oil), several viable ports and immense potential. Now, considering that, according to you, America is an imperialist invader, my question is, Why doesn't Canada have a viable army? Why has Canada essentially disarmed itself? The subject hasn't come up again.

For the ACLU, 9/11 is just another day to attack the Bush Administration
Five years after 9/11, the ACLU considers Christians the terrorists, via Maria
ACLU Loses In Latest Boy Scout Attack

More articles from Maria
9/11 enemies are still hiding in plain sight

Watch the video: AQ celebrates the 9/11 hijackers
Web site airs al-Qaida, Sept. 11 videos
Correction: I omitted html, and now have corrected this post. MEMRI has translated Arab TV and has an excellent video: The video is The Iranian and Arab reaction to 911 five years later. It's 47 minutes long, and worth every moment.
Mohammed of Iraq The Model has an article in today's WSJ: Blaming the Victim
When it comes to 9/11 the Arab media ignores the attack and concentrates on the American response to it.

Concentrating on the response and ignoring the attack that provoked it is an act of denial and running away from reality, and concentrating on the "erroneous" American policy is something I cannot accept because it comes either from dictatorships that see a threat for them in the American policy that calls for liberty and democracy, or from fascist religious powers that see in the pluralism and tolerance that America calls for a danger to their dominance on the minds of their people, or from some American politicians blinded by ambition and care only about discrediting their opponents.

Pathogens of cowardice

Mockumentary Filmmaking

Rockefeller: Bush Duped Public On Iraq. Senator Says World Would Be Better Without Iraq Invasion

Tortured screams ring out as Iraqis take over Abu Ghraib

Another 9/11 'on its way': American-trained terror leader declares 'beginning of collapse' of U.S. 'empire' He says he personally received training from the CIA. Would he lie about that?

Fidel Castro to Host Dinner for Leaders. It'll be interesting to see if Fidel's been out of the freezer long enough to 1. actually show up at the dinner and 2. sit down and eat. Those undated pictures get creepier by the day.
Non-aligned movement called 'more necessary than ever', sez the Cuban foreign minister, as if he's going to say anything other.

Showbiz news
This sounds like "one of those weird foreign movies G. and Fausta are so fond of", as a G's husband used to say: Film Sets Mozart's 'Flute' in Trenches of WWI

Man's better-than-ever friend

Sometimes I believe some people are born unlucky: Anna Nicole Smith's Son Dies in Bahamas

In a lighter mode,
What are the odds of finding a NYC cab driver that is American, speaks fluent English, actually knows where he's going, and doesn't drive as if he was in the throes of demonic possession? Exactly the same as the odds of taking the Cash Cab: 1:13,000

(technorati tags Khatami, Terrorism, Middle East, Iraq, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Michael Totten, blogs, Bloggers)