He quotes quite a large number of different people who all made very similar translations, including the NY Times, the previously mentioned sources in Tehran and the BBC. This clearly isn't a campaign of disinformation by a group of Zionists, is it?
were they his people? Nazila Fathi works for the NYT and the other 2 you mention are a MD and a random translator and steele is saying they got it wrong,
so you missed this bit Within days of the Ahmadinejad speech the then Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was calling for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations. Other foreign leaders have quoted the map phrase. The United States is piling pressure on its allies to be tough with Iran.
I'm sorry but the two of you seem to have some problem reading opinions that run contrary to what you already believe. I think I've been absolutely clear here about what I'm saying, but you've decided to ignore it and assume that I'm offering a completely different opinion. I'll clarify what I've been saying, so that there's no misunderstanding. President Ahmadinejad's speech was translated to mean "wiped off the face of the map" by a large number of sources when it was originally made, including his the BBC, the NY Times and various people in Iran. His own website used that wording and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, a state-controlled broadcaster, ran the story as, "Ahmadinejad: Israel must be wiped off the map", on it's English-language site. It's since been shown that his words have been mistranslated or misinterpreted, but claims that this is because of some Zionist conspiracy are clearly miles wide of the mark. I hope that I've cleared up any misunderstanding here over my opinion.
Just like the real debate, Pleasenotpoll has the bomb and can drop it if he loses his cool....MOD him.....
Rubbish Jacky, there are many arguments about what he said because it is difficult to get an exact translation from Arabic to English, but he was not misquoted, a fool can see his underlying theme and the gist of what he is saying is crystal clear.
If you read the whole thing, then he does make it pretty clear that he's talking about political change. The "wiped off the map" bit was a quote from the Ayatollah Khomeini though, who probably wasn't.
TBH the israeli's went running to the americans who took it to the UN, despite calls and evidence that it was a case of 'lost in translation'. Other countries, based on this translation, condemned it etc. Even the BBC ran with it Now despite the 'clarification' there has been no retractions, apologies, clarifications etc The fact that some still hold the view proves imo that the propaganda worked
PS the PERSIAN/Farsi (not arabic) to english translation is quite clear, only those not wishing to see it make an issue of it even the BBC etc have accepted it was not 'wiped off the map'
You two are making a complicated translation issue far too simple. It's clear that the phrasing is tricky and even now there's been no consensus on the correct translation. I believe that the word translated as "map", which is a major part of the problem, actually directly translates as "book of countries", which is just a strange way to put it. As the man that originally said it is now dead, we can't ask him what he meant, either. That Ahmadinejad made a mistake when quoting the original speech himself should tell you something.
