Tough qeustions and answers showed that

Mahmoud is either a moron or evil

in his failure to answer and trying to spin the interview.

Hey, nwerle. You're the one who's moron. Ahmadinejad have answered all of the questions very clearly and rationally, despite of being attacked and condescended by these so called "journalists". I wonder if these "journalists" would question George "the war criminal" Bush with that same arrogant tone if they had a chance.

Or has he just been sneaking a peek at their playbook? Admit no fault, accept no blame, insist that the other side unilaterally accept your views as the basis for "negotiation", and constantly portray yourself as the victim.

Very interesting interview.

of logic and restraint, compared to dubya.

america's track record in the middle east is simply vile, and iran has suffered greatly from it. so, too, has iraq and the palestinians.

europe has profited from this as well. the establishment of israel painted over europe participation in the holocaust, transforming europe's 'jewish problem' into the palestinian's jewish problem.

the great injustice of zionism may succeed, with this powerful backing, but the people of the middle east know what happened and will not soon forget.

And Zee Germans pwned him. Good on Der Speigel.

He reminded me of Martin Short's character Norman Thurm on SNL in the 80's. "I know that. What makes you think I wouldn't know that? Its funny you'd think I wouldn't know that. I'm not being defensive, you're the one that's being defensive."

A joke.

He does not represent the majority of Iranians, thankfully.

Now Iranians need to vote this asshole Ahmadinejad out of office.

To American and European leftists, Iran can do no wrong, and Israel can do no right.

Ahmadinejad mentions the Palestinian prople, like they have an ethnicity, language and culture that somehow seperates them from other Arabs. Right! What a fraud.

Actually, the Palestinian people is nothing more than an invention of the thug called Arafat during the 1970's and has been popularized by anti-western leftists.

For instance, there is no mention of 'palestinians' in the Belfour agreement' which called for a jewish homeland in the birthplace of Judaic culture. Only arabs are mentioned, not Palestinians. The whole idea of a palestinian people is a fraud.

The Jews were in the holy land a thousand years before the first arab goat herder stumbled onto the holy land. It was the Jews who made the holyland holy. The God of the Israelites five thousand years ago is the same God that one and one half billion people prey to today.

The only question they didn't ask Mr. Ahmadinejad was the one I really wanted answered, 'When did you stop beating your wife?' What a sickening, ignorant display from these three. It was as if George W. Bush had grown three heads and just kept repeating 'Axis of evil, axis of evil, axis of evil'. Anyone would think thatIRAN had invaded Iraq instead of America being the guilty party or that the United States hadn't attacked and bombed countries and overthrown their governments for decades, while Iran has attacked no one. But I got a good laugh out of this garbage when they quoted the CIA's criticisms of Iran -the CIA!!!! The CIA, which has overthrown more governments than Dick Cheney's had windfalls from war profiteering. What a farce. Iran has not profited from the war in Iraq or the war in Afghanistan but American coporations have raked in billions and in September 2008,according to Reuters, the U.S. government gave defense corporations the go-ahead to supply Israel with 330 million dollars worth of weapons, including F-36 jetfighters, upgraded patriot missile systems and 1,000 GBU-9 small diameter bombs as well as 60,000 training rockets (Raytheon, Boeing, Talley Defense, Lockheed Martin) to use on the people of Gaza. Es ist zum kotzen, meine Freunde.

This interview is a classical one. It shows that the president of Iran is a real pro. He either gives very evasive answers or responds with a question. He does not mind to distort the truth here and there.

Here we go.

M.A.: “Fundamental changes must take place, to the benefit of all parties. The American government must finally learn lessons from the past.”

Der Spiegel: “But you should not?”

M.A.: “Everyone must learn from the past.”

D.S.: “Then please tell us which lessons you are learning. “

M.A.: “We have been under pressure for the past 30 years, unfairly and without fault on our part. We have done nothing …”

D.S.: “… according to you. Americans see things quite a bit differently. The 444-day hostage crisis during which 50 U.S. citizens were held from late 1979 until early 1981 in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran is still a collective American trauma today. “

M. A.: “But think of the things that were done to Iranians! We were attacked by Iraq. Eight years of war. America and some European countries supported this aggression.”

Can anybody connect the last comment of Der Spiegel with Ahmadinejad’s response to it?

Number one. The American hostages were taken in 1979, whereas Iran was attacked by Iraq in 1980.

Number two. America supplied Iran with the planes, anti-aircraft missiles systems and anti-tank missiles either directly or through Israel. But Ahmadinejad doesn’t “remember" that.

Here is another example of his “truthful” answer.

D.S: “But the accusation of support for terrorism has been made. Where is your constructive contribution?”

M.A.: “First of all: We do not commit terror, but we are victims of terror. After the revolution, our president and prime minister were killed in a bombing attack in the building adjacent to my office.”

This is definitely news to me. I don’t recall any Iranian president or prime minister who were killed by the bomb. Who attacked them? Does anybody know?

What I do know is that on April 1 Ayatollah Khomeini declared an Islamic republic.

“The courts were to be established at the discretion of the Revolutionary Council and with Ayatollah Khomeini's permission. They were authorized to try a variety of broadly defined crimes, such as "sowing corruption on earth," "crimes against the people," and "crimes against the Revolution." The courts resumed their work on April 6. On the following day, despite international pleas for clemency, Amir Abbas Hoveida, the shah's prime minister for twelve years, was put to death.”

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/islamic_revolution/revolution_and_iran_after1979_1.php

As it often happens during the interview, one of the most important questions was not asked.

This interview originally was published by Der Spiegel on April 10, 2009. A few days before that, on March 29, 2009, Human rights organizations reported the death of Omidreza Mirsayafi, the 28 year-old Iranian blogger, who died March 18th in Tehran's Evin prison.

“Mr. Mirsayafi had recently begun serving a 30 month prison sentence for the purported crime of insulting the country's leaders in his personal blog. Most of the articles on Mr. Mirsayafi's blog were about traditional Persian music and about culture.”

http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2009-03-30-voa3.cfm

I want to conclude by saying two things:

1) Next time, when “public defenders” of Ahmadinejad start defending him again, please remember this 28 year-old Iranian blogger.

2) The Salon bloggers don’t realize what a wonderful country America is.

They can bash President of their country all day long and not go to prison for that.