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Sometimes Soccer Isn’t Just Soccer By Dr. Michael Ledeen

 
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cyrus
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 11:37 am    Post subject: Sometimes Soccer Isn’t Just Soccer By Dr. Michael Ledeen Reply with quote

Sometimes Soccer Isn’t Just Soccer

But the MSM doesn’t want to get that.
March 30, 2005, 7:59 a.m.

By Dr. Michael Ledeen

Source URL: http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200503300759.asp


A couple of years ago, before I learned better, I was on a BBC radio broadcast in which they had a reporter on the scene in Tehran reporting on big riots in Tehran following a soccer game. The BBC woman in London asked me what I thought about it all, and I said it was a sign of discontent with the regime.

She commented, "But we have soccer hooligans in England, too, don't we?"


And I said, "yes, but they aren't burning effigies of Tony Blair. The Iranians are burning pictures of Khamenei and Rafsanjani."

It was a wasted effort, of course, and I have since decided to decline the BBC's various invitations to legitimize their propaganda network. So it was deja vu when I noticed that the International Herald Tribune, the sly voice of the New York Times in Paris, had refused to see what is in front of everyone's eyes, instead treating the latest anti-regime demonstrations in Iran as a sporting event. Written by their soccer maven, Rob Hughes, the article doesn't even hint at a political component to last week's street battles:


The fullest range of human emotions, from triumphalism to national humiliation, are inevitably stirred when 80 countries around the globe compete over a weekend for places in the 2006 World Cup.

But all of the reactions are reduced to almost nothing by reports coming out of Tehran, where they are still counting the dead following Friday night's 2-1 victory for Iran over Japan in the Asian qualifying zone.

At the time of writing, the [Iranian News] agency had confirmed that five people had been trampled to death and at least 40 injured, some of them seriously, in the rush of 100,000 people to leave the Azadi Stadium in the Iranian capital.

We have seen this before. Europe is approaching the 20th anniversary of the Heysel Stadium tragedy in Brussels, where 39 spectators, mostly Italians, were crushed to death by a collapsed wall before the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool.


If he had been interested, Hughes could have seen pictures of Iranian security forces closing in on the "fans," both inside the stadium and out on the streets, where women — who are barred from attending athletic events in the Islamic republic — were singled out for special brutality. And if he had checked some of the Iranian blogs, he could have discovered that demonstrations were going on all over the country, not just at the Azadi ("Freedom") Stadium.

There really is no excuse for that sort of disinformation, and both Hughes and the Trib owe their readers a fulsome apology.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, at an event obviously staged by the hegemonic Bush administration, ethnic peace was accomplished at another soccer game. From the Corriere della Sera:

Never before had an Arab saved the Israeli national team. The savior was Suwan Abbas, who scored the tying goal [1-1] in the first minute of penalty time in the game against Ireland. Abbas is the captain of Sakhnin, the only mixed [Arab and Jewish] team in the Israel championship.

"Yes, it was very moving to hear forty thousand people chant my name. The goal" — said Suwan, called an "Israeli hero" on the front page of the daily Yedioth Aharonoth — "is dedicated to everyone in Israel. Enough with all this talk about Jews and Arabs, we are a single people..."


Interesting how soccer in Israel has profound political implications, but soccer in Iran, well, it's just soccer.

Oh, and by the way, remember that great line of the president's, something about promising the Iranian people that if they showed their desire for freedom, we would stand with them?

Well, they certainly showed it — indeed, there is hardly a day they don't show it — and, so far as I know, we haven't given them any support.


Or is it all about soccer?

— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:05 pm    Post subject: 5 killed in riots after Iran – Japan football match Reply with quote

5 killed in riots after Iran – Japan football match
Fri. 25 Mar 2005
Iran Focus

Source: http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1744

Tehran, 25. Mar – At least five people were killed and dozens left injured outside the Azadi stadium in Tehran after anti-government protests erupted at the end of the Iran–Japan World Cup qualifier football match this evening.

Eye-witnesses reported that the regime used special anti-riot units and hundreds of State Security Forces (SSF) to launch an offensive on the 100,000-strong crowd, after spectators started chanting anti-government slogans.

SSF commander Brig. Gen. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was present at the scene directing the crackdown.

Shortly after the start of the game, young people disfigured large portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to witnesses.

Handmade firecrackers were reportedly hurdled at the SSF forces stationed around the stadium. State television stopped broadcasting images from the crowd once smoke from the firecrackers was apparent.

Young people set tires alight in Nour and Sadeqiyeh squares after the match.

Iranian authorities ban women spectators from attending football, yet thousands of women and teenage girls gathered outside the stadium chanting slogans against the ruling authorities.

Protestors chanted slogans calling for the overthrow of the regime and the establishment of democracy in Iran, according to one eye-witness.

Dozens of buses were damaged during the ensuing clashes which lasted for several hours.

There were unconfirmed reports of similar disturbances in several other Iranian cities, where anti-government protestors clashed with security forces.















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Pasagarde



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PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like the general message of the article, but why does the article relate everything to Bush?

If you choose to reply to my question please do so without insults.


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haleh
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You know Pasagarde, I think it is because Bush is the President of the World's strongest Nation (At least currently strongest, but fading if nation fails to change course vis a vis - China - and confusing Iran policy) and he has made very important statements in his State Of The Union - "We will support the Iranian people" - So Michael Ledeen is dong what is right by reminding the public and President Bush that he should do what is right and backup his promises (supposed policy) with action, rather than making mistakes that previous Admins have made.

I don't think it is a Pro-Bush article. Michael Ledeen, from what I've read, is really fighting for the Iranian people - and exposing much that gets pushed under the covers in the mainstream media - and in Washington.
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Pasagarde



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PostPosted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

haleh wrote:
You know Pasagarde, I think it is because Bush is the President of the World's strongest Nation (At least currently strongest, but fading if nation fails to change course vis a vis - China - and confusing Iran policy) and he has made very important statements in his State Of The Union - "We will support the Iranian people" - So Michael Ledeen is dong what is right by reminding the public and President Bush that he should do what is right and backup his promises (supposed policy) with action, rather than making mistakes that previous Admins have made.

I don't think it is a Pro-Bush article. Michael Ledeen, from what I've read, is really fighting for the Iranian people - and exposing much that gets pushed under the covers in the mainstream media - and in Washington.




Ledeen is a hawk and a pro-Bush man. He is the man who was involved in the transfer of arms to Iran in the Iran-Contra affair where he armed the Iranian government to their teeth! Now that the Iranian government aren't obeying them, he seems "concerned" with the well being of Iranians all of a sudden! I really do wonder about these people. One minute, they are selling arms to the some country, the next, they oppose them!

In one of his writings, he states "Change -- above all violent change -- is the essence of human history,". He condones violence! He views any diplomatic solutions to conflict as wrong. In his view, 3 countries should be dealt with: Iraq, Iran and Syria. He thinks that the process by which change should be brought in these countries should be a violent one!!!
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