IRAN'S PRES SCRUBS GAYS FROM SITE

Personally, I find President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be a very loathe some individual. Obviously, from this PageOne Q story (http://pageoneq.com/news/2007/Irans_President_scrubs_reference_to_gays_in_speech_fr_0925.html), he does not get it that the media in the rest of the world is not as easily intimidated and controled in his country. His statement that gays do not exist in Iran simply shows him to be a delusional idiot. Nowadays with the Internet, Iran can scrub its official site, but the truth can and will get out. That was a lesson learned by the former Soviet Union and which is being learned by China (Chimperator Bush still has not learned the lesson). Every time a means is found to block the flow of the truth, creative individuals will find a way around it. Here are highlights from the story:

The official website of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has removed a portion of a transcript of his speech yesterday at Columbia University. In the scrubbed section, part of a question and answer period, Ahmadinejad said there are no homosexuals in Iran. In a statement released by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission the organization noted that the comments had been removed from the Persian language version of the site, but left in the English transcription of the speech. Following an inquiry by PageOneQ made to the Iranian embassy, the entire question and answer period has been removed from the site.

In response to a question on the execution of gays in Iran, Ahmadinejad said there were no homosexuals in his country. "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," he said. Audience members booed and howled at the guest. "In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it," he added.

According to IGLHRC, no Persian language papers have reported on the remarks. "To date, not a single Persian-language media outlet in Iran - including Iran's official news agency, IRNA, and the semi-independent news agencies, ISNA, Mehrrnews and Farsnews, and the Wednesday morning newspapers - has reported on the President's comments," said IGLHRC's statement.