Cpt. Haddock! Heard Mr. Ahmadinejad was quite good at the UN, but he did not get the same "enthusiastic" response from the audience as Mr. Chavez did. By the way, today's NYT reports that Prof. Chomsky's book is now the bestseller, and if you want to promote your book, have Mr. Chavez endorse it. Mr. Ahmadinejad, however, held a press conferecne and held a panel discussion with the Council on Foreign Relations members. Now that is SOMETHING. There is a news report summarizing the main points on its website http://www.cfr.org/publication/11498/ I wonder if they will upload/publish the whole verbatim trancript or video/audio of that discussion. Now there are two ways to look at the Iranian President's denial of the holocaust: One, that he really believes that it did not take place or, as he stated in his discussion with the veteran policy makers and diplomats, the Jewish suffering was of the magnitude as what is regarded officially and historically and that far more Palestanians suffered because of the Jewish influx in Palestine. (However given the evidence, reords, memoirs etc. there's no reason not to believe in the official historical account of the Holocaust.) Two,-- and this I believe is the case-- it is his ONLY tool to rally the population behind him. If he does not become anti-western and anti-American and if does not assume a strong posture against the US, the anti-US nationalism that wants to create a stronger Iran which brought him to power will soon oust him from power. Another thing is, in a country like Iran where there are almost no outlets for the population to voice its disconetnt with the government, it is always the case that the population tends to be highly nationalistic and always demands a strong foreign policy. In Iran's case, due to the Iranian govt's. propoganda, and the American governmnet's "misguided" policies towards the Middle east, the population is turning nationalist. In this context, the leader has to appear super nationalist. To be a bit technical, the inward-directed nationalism has to be channeled outward. And I think this is what is happening. I don't think the Iranian population (or the majority of it) is Now the Iranian policy makers are aware of the fact that their nationalist agendas are in direct confrontation with teh US interests in the region, and having seen what happened to Iraq, denying the holocaust is one of the ways to protect Iran from any hypothetical or real US invasion. The Iranian govt. wants to reach out to the Muslim majority that sympathizes with the Palestanians in the countries of the region and elsewhere. If the US attacks/invades Iran, then the US has to deal with not only Iran and its problems but a potenial hostile to US/Israel majority in the Middle East and elsewhere. By directly linking Iran's security with Israel, he is making it difficult, if not impossible, for the US to use force or coercive diplomacy when it comes to dealing with Iran. And if we were living in the 18th century world, he would have been considered a great statesman.. however he is and his approach is a bit old fashioned, but brilliant nontheless for Iranian national security. I won't be surprised if the US will soften its rhetoric and position vis-a-vis Iran soon. This piece on this week'[s Newsweek is quite well-written: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14924428/site/newsweek/ ahile lai yettinai.. a very happy dashain to all.