If the devil didn't exist, our government and media would create him

Rogue State author William Blum comments on the demonization of Ahmadinejad and how misquotes have quickly become common wisdom. As I've mentioned here before, the "wipe Israel off the map" is a total misquoting of a statement which translates (via Juan Cole) more directly as "the regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." In other words, regime change, not genocide (although we know those frequently go together). But he's not talking forcible regime change--he's merely expressing a belief in the inevitability of regime change in Israel.

Blum also discusses the so-called "Holocaust deniers conference," which was actually called "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision." Attendees included many who have no doubt that there was a Holocaust and who expressed these views freely at the conference. Blum also notes that there is no simple declarative statement from Ahmadinejad in which he actually denies the Holocaust; most commonly, Ahmadinejad says something like "If the Holocaust happened, targeting Europeans and caused by Europeans, why has the Middle East been forced to pay for it?"

Nevertheless, Imperialists rarely let the facts get in the way of a good story, especially when it serves their purposes.

Several other interesting articles by Blum at that site, as well.