Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad & NBC's Ann Curry

Is it all about semantics?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

(SALEM, Ore.) - I'm pretty sure NBC's Ann Curry has her own questions about her interview last week with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

NBC's Ann Curry

I don't think the questions she asked, sometimes over and over again, were all her own by any means. I suspect she had one or more producer in her ear making her ask the irritating, repetitive questions. It is a horrible thought, and would explain her almost overzealous persistence at times.

The biggest problem is the eternal cultural barrier between the east and west. It cost us dearly during negotiations with Vietnam, and I have seen the problems associated with it first-hand in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But in this case we're talking about a foreign President from a country that is an ancient place near the crossroads of the world, where the culture is extremely different from western countries. In all likelihood, he has some trouble understanding exactly how to answer wordy questions, especially when in the end, it is the same question that has been asked a thousand times and answered just as many.

Iran says it doesn't have a nuclear weapons program, and FOX News turns around and says it does. They aren't the only ones, and it isn't a right wing or left wing issue. On many occasions, the media has incorrectly translated Ahmadinejad, right in the face of the American public. A good example was his visit to speak at Colombia University. (see:No Chance For Truth About Iran With Western Media - Political Perspective by Tim King Salem-News.com)

Life in Iran Under the Thumb of the U.S.

It is often about national ego, and the time has come for Americans to make peaceful relations with countries that we have had difficulty with in the past. There are reasons that things have gone the way they have in Iran, and it all traces back to western interest in Persian oil, and the refusal of a British petroleum company to play fair with Iranian officials in the post WWII years.

Instead of letting Iran chart its own future path, the CIA and the British Secret Service took out Iran's first democratically elected President in 1953.

Then, after putting the Shah through nine months of reeducation in a CIA camp, the Americans installed him as a puppet leader in Iran for the next three generations. He kept his end of the bargain with the western governments, and made sure that Iran provided ample funding for the American and British economies through oil profits. (see: Warmongers, Chickenhawks, FOX News and Iran (VIDEO) - Tim King Salem-News.com)

But tensions in Iran over the country's lack of political and economic autonomy grew, eventually leading to the Revolution of 1979. Part of this involved the kidnapping of American hostages.

When that happened, American interests were lost. Iran was in control of its own country and economy for the first time in many years.

Tim King's Aug-30-2008 report from Baghdad, Iraq: Crossed Swords of Baghdad, Iraq: a Window into History

The response of the United States government was to bankroll then "friend and ally" Saddam Hussein, with the hard earned tax revenue of the American taxpayer, to launch the Iran-Iraq War, which Iraq lost, though it appears the country scarcely admitted it.

Today the people of Iran are doing well on many levels. In terms of strength, their military is well armed and supplied, many young people go on to college and become doctors and scientists, and there is an extensive national infrastructure that maintains many social programs, all catering to the well being of the Iranian people.

During the years of the Shah, which many Americans recall fondly as the "friendly years", the Iranian people were much poorer as a whole. It is largely because their natural resources were constantly pillaged by western countries that were intent on exporting Iran's oil.

I learned something about this in Baghdad when I was lucky enough to meet a U.S. Lieutenant Colonel who was an Army historian, while I was standing at the base of a set of Saddam's famous Crossed Swords over his former military parade ground.

Thousands of military helmets collected from Iran's soldiers killed fighting the Iraqi Army, were brought back from the battlefield to be displayed, and they told a story of Iran's underfunded military that existed during the years of the Shah.

The helmets the Iranians were almost all old surplus; WWII American, British and German helmets, others from Russia, Sweden... even a British motorcycle cop helmet. The Iranian military, certainly during the years that the U.S. had economic and political leverage through the Shah, did not appear to be well funded ones.

Today Iran has a free education system, universal health insurance and income assistance. In 2008, President Ahmadinejad launched a program called "Bring the oil money to the people's dinner tables". For all of his criticisms and faults, this seems like a genuine gesture for the welfare of his people.

The program that paid oil proceeds to the Iranian people drove inflation after the previous, more prosperous year. 2007 saw Iran's economy grow by a healthy 6.9% according to Foreign Policy Magazine, but as it did, Iran saw oil prices rise well above predictions, softening the impact of the social spending.

Nuclear Weapon Accusations

But it always comes back to the nuclear weapons accusations. Israel kept its nuclear weapons program, involving hundreds of U.S. supplies warheads pointing at Israel's neighbors, quiet until last year, sort of. Smart people knew. People in Europe knew. But somehow in this day and age of information, Americans were still believing that Israel didn't have nukes until May of 2008, when former U.S. President Carter exposed the matter on international television. (see: Carter Reveals Israel's Possession of 150 Nuclear Weapons - Tim King Salem-News.com)

Ann Curry certainly has an air of sincerity. When she first began to address the nuclear question, the Iranian President asked, "You're not asking me to give you permission to visit our missile sites are you?"

It seemed to take Curry by surprise, as she answered, "Yes I would love to do that sir."

Ahmadinejad replied, "Hopefully in the future you will have a chance to visit."

I hope Ann Curry takes him up on it, and I can see a bold step from a network like NBC helping lead the way to a new tomorrow.

Curry asked about nuclear weapons, and Iran's President said, "After everything is done we need to live in peace and harmony with one another and we are sharing the wish for all missiles around the world to be dismantled, all weapons for that matter be destroyed, in their place schools hospitals and clinics need to be constructed, this is what we are wishing for, hoping for."

Ann Curry steered the conversation around to the recent presidential election in Iran. It was widely speculated at the time that the true vote of the people of Iran was not reflected in the election results.

People who believed Mousavi was the candidate who was rightfully elected, took to the streets by the thousand. Those who stood behind the protesters included people like John McCain and others who called for the Iranians to stand fast. It was a heart wrenching bloodbath. We reported about the events extensively and maintained information from the Iran Election Twitter Grid and through Salem-News contacts in Tehran.

The way the western media presented the story, ourselves included, was far from rosy for the Ahmadinejad government. Nobody really cared for what he had to say at the time. Whether that was a correct tact, may not be as clear as it seemed then. Curry was confrontational, or at least direct, when she asked Ahmadinejad about the recent political process that left him in office.

"Did you steal this election?"

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After the translator explained the question to Ahmadinejad, he answered, "In Iran expressing one's point of view is free and permissible, any person can express their views and have their opinions."

Curry repeated the question, "Did you steal the election sir?"

"It's very clear, very well known that different people and parties will have a different view, and the people will decide. We should be courageous to accept the vote of the people."

Election counts aside, the demonstrations became riots and soon the police in the street were not even speaking the local language, a Salem-News contact in Tehran said at the time. This is when everyone figured out that the motorcycle cops were from Lebanon; they were Basij-e Mostaz'afin, commonly known as Basij Militia.

Curry asked, "Why did you release Basij enforcers?"

Ahmadinejad responded by blaming matters on western media and western politicians, who he believes used the internet to drive the situation. "I think the behavior shown by the British govt as as well as the U.S. govt was heinous."

Answering Curry's actual question, he said, "The responsibilities are clear cut. The police officers in Iran were hurt much more than others, injured more than anyone else."

It is true that police were hurt by protesters, but video shown here on this very site, told a story of police, these Basij Militia, beating innocent Iranians like brutal thugs. To really believe that Ahmadinejad was not somehow directly connected to that brutality seems like a stretch of the imagination.

Iran's protesters fight for a new day

On the other side of the coin, he was the President of a country in turmoil, and it begs the question... what would the U.S. government have done if Americans took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, for weeks, to protest the way Bush likely or almost certainly according to many credible sources, used the influence of his brother who was the governor of Florida, to skew the numbers enough to ensure W.'s victory? The former President's own quote was, "Oh, I'll win Florida, you can take that one to the bank".

And indeed he did, yet Americans don't have the apparent patriotism or honesty or drive or ambition as our Iranian counterparts did in this case. There were thousands of Americans protesting, but the American mainstream media gave it little or no coverage. That isn't conspiracy theory either.

Iran's President wants Americans to believe that most Iranian people are behind him, and I think that is possible. It is also important to note that many of the people of Iran who wanted Mousavi, are the county's liberal population. It seems hypocritical for conservative politicians like McCain to encourage people who essentially are left wing demonstrators there, while condemning them here.

Ahmadinejad said, "Our people are cohesive and are standing as one, I'm talking about the 40 million who participated in the vote and all of the total 70 million population of this country."

He believes that the people who took to the streets were attacking police and committing illegal acts in conjunction with the demonstrations and riots. I recall reading an account from a Tehran policeman who was racing from one city garbage can to the next with a fire extinguisher, trying to keep fires started by demonstrators from spreading. I do wonder how Americans would appreciate having political upheaval driven by unscrupulous Iranian TV reporters and political media whores.

"With the bad press that is directed against this country, they cannot sow the seeds of discord amongst the ranks of our people," Iran's President said.

"In each country you can find a handful of people who will go outside the confines of the law, and every day we see images of how the U.S. police deals with ordinary U.S. citizens. For that matter the British police and how they deal with British citizens. What they are doing compared to Iran, is tens of times bigger, if I can use the word. This has nothing to do with the elections or what administration is in power for that matter."

Where we go with Iran depends on many factors. Just today PressTV reported that American politicians like Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta are stirring the pot.

They are both issuing claims that Iran is up to this and that; it is like we're in grade school and someone needs to tell the teacher that a kid keeps lying, but who is there to tell? (see: As Talks Near, US Threatens Iran Over Nuclear Work - Salem-News.com)

As long as Clinton and people like her cohorts continue to assert that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, even though year after year, time after time, there is not a shred of proof or evidence to indicate there is one, Americans will go on believing it.

Many say it all comes back to Israel, and the fact that the Jewish State has such major influence over American politics. If only the different sides could sit down and articulate a sound peace process that would be fair to all, the problems would become a thing of the past. As it is those with influence in the western world, in all of its bourgeois glory, will likely remain a truthless band of angry bees.

Here is the link to Ann Curry's NBC report: Ahmadinejad: Americans ‘trampled the law’.

I have written many reports about Ahmadinejad and our writers have referenced him many times. This is the link that will take you to all of our stories about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.