Iran: Blame Canada
Apr. 11 - Thanks to the wise and patient government in Iran, we now know exactly whose fault it is that there has been no justice for Zahra Kazemi.
You see, Canada has been going about this thing all wrong:
Canada has demanded an international forensic examination to determine the cause of Zahra Kazemi's death.
"Unfortunately Canada has been following a wrong approach from the very beginning, and caused things to get more complicated," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a weekly press conference.
"From the very beginning, the Canadians should have accepted that Mrs. Kazemi is an Iranian citizen. Demands by the Canadians have to be answered by Iran's judiciary," he said.
Oh my, this
is awkward. It's that moral equivalence multi-cult thing again, and Canada should never have poked it's nose in to what is clearly an internal Iran matter.
Maybe the Iranians figure that after Canada argued against regime change in Iraq and thus indirectly supported Saddam's right to murder his people she can't exactly argue that Iran doesn't have the right to murder theirs.
Time to update this: now the score is Iraq 5, Canada 0.
Apr. 13 - 00:30: This following is why the Kazemi case is important. She was killed in June, 2003. Chretien tried to downplay her death, but the news media, led by the CBC, kept it on the front burner (more credit to them.) Chretien left office in December, 2003.
In February, 2004, there are two curious items in Khazakhstan News:
Major Canadian-based oil company PetroKazakhstan plans to ramp its supply to the Tehran Oil Refinery (Iran) up to 21,000 barrels of oil per day in the next several months, the company announced in a statement this week.
"Over the next several months supplies [to the Tehran plant] will gradually reach their contract level of 21,000 barrels of oil per day (1 million tonnes per year)," according to the PetroKazakhstan press release.
PetroKazakhstan announced in 2003 that it had reached a swap agreement with the Tehran Oil Refinery. Under the agreement, PetroKazakhstan will supply the refinery with crude from its Kazakhstani field, while the Canadian company will receive a monetarily equivalent volume of light Iranian crude at Persian Gulf ports in southern Iran. The agreement obviates the need for PetroKazakhstan to transport its crude across at least part of the lengthy Central Asian export routes.
"The agreement enables the company to get maximum price for its crude oil while reducing destination and transportation costs," PetroKazakhstan said in its statement.
PetroKazakhstan sent its first shipment of 26,800 barrels to the Tehran plant in December 2003, Interfax noted. (Interfax)
[...]
Former Canadian Prime minister Jean Chretien has been named a special advisor to the board of directors of PetroKazakhstan, the company announced in a press release this week.
Chretien will advise the board on international relations issues, drawing on his ten years as Canadian PM as well as his earlier service in the Ministries of Justice, Finance and Energy and Mining. (Emphasis added)
Hmmm.
(By the way, Stephan Hachemi, Kazemi's son, expressed his outrage and disappointment in a letter to editor of the National Post.)
No. 528 on my list of reasons why I despise Jean Chretien!
To no one's surprise, Iran has rejected a Canadian demand for an international forensic team to examine the body of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who died in Iranian custody.
Maybe Canada will get mad, and recall the ambassador for the third time. Yeah, that'll show them!
More to the point, those who wish to stand pat on soft diplomacy may do so, but I'll see your soft diplomacy and raise you an armed Predator.
Posted by: Debbye at
10:11 AM
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1
Makes sense to me, I'm sure the Iranians consider those of Iranian birth (and probably their descendents) living in Canada to be under their jurisdiction.
Posted by: Jay at April 11, 2005 04:29 PM (PuNh2)
2
What is most interesting about this story is the idea that immigrants often themselves think that they are only resident in this country and their loyalties reside in the old homeland. Now with this story we see that many of the old home countries see it the same way too.
So much for 20th century immigration as nation building enterprise!! seems more like a devolution into a polyglot paradise run by the UN.
Posted by: Brian Walsh at April 11, 2005 05:39 PM (vAI+5)
3
Sounds like the best advice would be "Don;t go back to Iran ever".
Posted by: Jay at April 12, 2005 09:41 AM (PuNh2)
4
Uh are people capable of reading?
Posted by: Brian Walsh at April 12, 2005 04:46 PM (vAI+5)
5
Oh dear, I started something I didn't mean to start because I was angry at the Canadian government.
Kazemi travelled to Iran under her Iranian passport. Mistake? Maybe, but it is not necessarily relevant inasmuch as she was tortured and murdered.
The Canadian govenment accepted the Iranian government's claim that she fell, hit her head and died as a result at face value. It was only pressure from the news media - led by CBC - that forced the government to bestir itself even slightly. (Bloggers were involved too, but no one listened to us!)
I've updated the original post to show why this story continues to be relevant and why some of us won't let it go.
But it is most definitely true that some countries won't let you renounce your citizenship, including Iran, Syria, Greece and Italy.
Posted by: Debbye at April 13, 2005 12:37 AM (DraVn)
6
Debbye, you seem to have a very peculiar and American set of blinkers. On the one hand you seem to criticize Jean Chretien for his business interests in the oil patch in Khazakstan, on the other you see nothing wrong with Dick Cheney and Casper Weinburger doing what they are doing in Iraq.
You seem to have adopted Kate's double standard over at the Western Standard where she practices censorship and proclaims she believes in free expression.
Are you paid to be hypocritical, or does it come naturally?
Posted by: Joe Green at April 13, 2005 03:00 AM (5dXW9)
7
Say it ain't so, Joe!
Actually, the problem is that Debbye is limiting herself to
facts. I'm not sure what the hell you think Dick Cheney is doing in Iraq, but whatever it is, I can guarantee don't have any evidence to support your fever-dreams.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 13, 2005 04:26 AM (AIaDY)
8
Lewis Carrol wrote a wonderful book, "Alice in Wonderland". My favourite line came out of the mouth of the Mad Hatter, who said "words mean precisely what I chose them to mean, no more and no less". When a lie is as good as the truth, then a criminal like Dick Cheney cannot be distinguished from a businessman like Jean Chretien.
Anyway, kickbacks are not illegal in the US, unless you get caught. Its only we Canadians that fret over such triffles. Its standard operating procedure over at Halliburton and Bechtel. If they get caught, they have to refund the money to the government, but only in the amount of the overpayment.
We know certain things from observation about the US. Taking a hot stock tip on a company you have no function in running or managing, will get you a year in jail. Manipulating stock prices, filing false reports, cheating investors out of billions of dollars is just "good business". Stealing food three times in a row to feed you family in California will fetch a life sentence. Manipulating stocks and moving money offshore is simply "good business". If you move investments that also move jobs offshore, you get a tax incentive.
Posted by: Joe Green at April 13, 2005 05:19 AM (5dXW9)
9
Great, I have to go back to reading who the poster is before reading the post lest I run into insane drivel.
Posted by: Jay at April 13, 2005 10:21 AM (PuNh2)
10
Joe Green said, "My favourite line came out of the mouth of the Mad Hatter..."
And that doesn't surprise me. Not at all.
Speaking of Wonderland, Joe, perhaps you'd like to tell us more about the Workers' Paradise:
http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=%22joseph%40oanet.com%22&qt_s=Search
I'm sorry that your tea party at soc.politics.marxism eventually had to end, but maybe you really don't belong outside of Wonderland.
The Real World is full of "facts" and "truth," and the people who live here tend to place a high value on them. Needless to say, residents of the real world quickly lose patience whenever a mad hatter crashes their parties.
It's time for you to go back to Marxist Wonderland, Joe. I think you know your way to the rabbit hole.
Posted by: doloop at April 13, 2005 11:02 AM (hvgpL)
11
Poor doloop, apparently cannot read. If he did, he would have discovered that I view Karl Marx and Ayn Rand as evil incarnate, sparing neither for most of the death and carnage of the twentieth century.
You Americans seem to think that actually reading what Karl Marx wrote as an act of treason, and to then rebutt Marx as some sort of perverse titilation.
Stopping the further propagation of the ideas of Marx and Rand is the first necessary steps in stopping the carnage that follows in the wake of their books and ideas.
Posted by: Joe Green at April 18, 2005 09:00 PM (5dXW9)
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