Oops! Ahmadinejad's Done It Again.

Iranian "president" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is back in headlines after the recent protests contesting the legitimacy of his victory in the June 2009 presidential elections. This time, Ahmadinejad is once again touting his denial of the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly this Wednesday and Iran, the United States, and other major powers are scheduled to begin negotiations in part addressing Iran's nuclear program. The United Nations will also be determining soon whether or not to enact stricter sanctions against Iran.

As quoted in the Associated Press, "the president's message during his U.N. visit will be 'peace and friendship for all nations, fighting suppression and interaction with all nations in the framework of justice and mutual respect," said a spokesman for Ahmadinejad's office, Mohammad Jafar Mohammadzadeh, according to IRNA.'" A little ironic given the elements of the government that supported Ahmadinejad and the crackdowns on protestors as recently as this past Friday, September 18, 2009...

In the words of Maz Jobrani:

Another Dilemma with Iran

The Associated Press reported that Iran ordered an aircraft to land due to invaded airspace and then questioned the plane's passengers. Iran then allowed the plane and its passengers to continue to their destinations.

If this behavior of negative reciprocity continues, there will be escalation and more tension between Iran and the United States, making attempts for genuine diplomacy more difficult. And genuine diplomacy is what is really needed between the United States and Iran. Also affecting the possibilities of real progress and improving relations between the two countries is each country's presidential election (2008 for the United States and 2009 for Iran). Hopefully, the leaders elected in each respective country are more serious and sincere about diplomacy and less inflammatory to one another.

Read the Associated Press article below for more information on the plane situation.

Iran says it forced down Western plane

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian news reports claimed Tuesday that Iran forced down a Western aircraft that accidentally entered its airspace, then allowed the plane to continue to Afghanistan after questioning its passengers.

The state-owned Al-Alam, Iran's official Arabic-language television station, quoted an unidentified senior Iranian military official as saying the plane belonged either to a British or Hungarian relief agency. It said Iran forced the aircraft to land on Sunday and then permitted the passengers and crew to leave the following day.

The U.S. military in Iraq issued a statement noting "media reports that a small, civilian passenger jet was forced to land in Iran. This was not a U.S. aircraft and there were no Americans reported on board. All U.S. aircraft are accounted for and none are missing."

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "We're looking into the various and conflicting reports coming from the Iranian `news' agencies, but do not have any information at this time that would lead us to believe they are correct."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said he had no information about the case. Other Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The official quoted by Al-Alam said the plane "lost its way" and violated Iranian air space. He said the passengers — who he said included American military personnel — were questioned and that the plane was allowed to continue to Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, officials with the U.S. military, the American Embassy and the British Embassy said they had no information about a plane being forced down in Iran.

Initially, the semiofficial Fars news agency said the plane was American. Fars reported that the plane was carrying five military officials and three civilians from Turkey to Afghanistan when it "unintentionally" entered Iranian airspace.

According to the Fars report, Iranian fighters guided the plane to an Iranian airport, the passengers were questioned and a day later were released and allowed to continue to their destination.

Fars said the plane was a Falcon, apparently referring to a passenger aircraft manufactured by the French firm Dassault and primarily used by business executives. Dassault Falcon produces five jets with ranges from about 3,250 nautical to more than 4,000 nautical miles, with cabins that typically carry about six passengers and two crew members.

A Heretic? Or a Sell-Out? Maybe Both.

The founder of Greenpeace said Tuesday night that "there is no proof global warming is caused by humans," but the relationship is likely enough that it's time to rely more on nuclear power.

This comes from IdahoStatesman.com.

Patrick Moore says while he believes Earth's atmosphere is changing of its own accord, "true believers" like Al Gore ought to endorse more nuclear power plants in an effort to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels. Of course, Moore says, that's just a precaution. In case global climate change is man-made. He says building more nuclear power plants to reduce the effect of coal emissions on the atmosphere would be akin to purchasing fire insurance. We purchase that insurance, he says, on the slim chance our house will burn down. We ought to shut down coal plants on the slim chance that they're contributing to global warming.

What?

Pardon me while I double-take.

Could we be any more wishy-washy? First he says the relationship is likely enough that we ought to fire up more nuclear power plants. Then he says the correlation between the actions of humankind and climate change is actually very low.

While I agree that we ought to rely more on nuclear power, I don't think Moore has a very good chance of convincing those "true believers" he talked about that it's a good idea.

I think any eco-credibility he had is going up in smoke. But at least it's not contributing to global warming, right?

Why won't environmentalists take Moore, the founder of Greenpeace, seriously? Greenpeace was founded to protest nuclear testing. Now who does he work for? He's a representative of the Clean Air and Safe Energy Coalition. That coalition happens to be backed, in large part, by the nuclear energy industry. This might explain Moore's argument that other alternative-energy sources don't have as much potential as does nuclear energy.

Moore says he's simply realized with the help of science that nuclear energy is a better route to sustainability. Critics say he's just sold out.

While I laud Moore for his position, I want to make two points about this case. The first is that the money trail is important to take into consideration, obviously. This leads to the second point.

While the money trail is important, it's not enough in this case to dismiss Moore's position, and malign him as a heretic. This seems to be the major tactic of the "true believers" of the global warming movement when confronted with a dissenting opinion: discredit and destroy.

Israel + Syria: It's Complicated

Yesterday: Almost wonderful news that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert was signaling that he was ready to negotiate with Syria. Going through the Turkish PM, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Olmert told the Syrian government that he was willing to return the Golan Heights in exchange for a lasting peace. However, returning Golan is unpopular in Israel and members of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, are working on a bill that would make withdrawal dependent on a nationwide referendum.

Today: The White House released a statement revealing that the target of Israel's September air strike was a Syrian nuclear reactor that "was not intended for peaceful purposes." Better yet, the technology seems to have come from North Korea. Don't worry, we're not going to war with Syria or North Korea. Although it's unclear how this will affect the six-party talks with N. Korea, the U.S. is working with/through the International Atomic Energy Agency to deal with Syria, which has some 'splainin to do about why the didn't inform the IAEA they were developing a reactor, as required by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty they signed.