Will AP Stop at Nothing to Push for War on Iran?

The Associated Press Lies and Deceives While Defaming Islam and Christianity, in Its Latest Apologia for Israel’s Massacre on Gaza

On December 28 — the day after the Israeli carpet-bombing of the 1.5 million impoverished and imprisoned Palestinians of Gaza began — Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree stating that those who die while defending Palestinians against Israeli aggression in Gaza will be considered martyrs.

Since then, thousands have reportedly volunteered, and on December 30, the Iranian daily, Payvand News, released a news brief titled “Students ready to launch ‘Esteshhadi’ operations in Gaza,” reporting thus:

A large number of students from various universities of Iran on Tuesday voiced their readiness to launch Esteshhadi (martyrdom-seeking) operations in Gaza.

In separate phone calls to IRNA, students from universities of Tehran, Mashhad and Kerman announced their readiness to undertake operations in defense of the people of Gaza.

So according to a Persian source, the Persian term those students are using — Esteshhadi — translates to “martyrdom-seeking.”  And their actions are reportedly “in defense of the people of Gaza.”

AP, on the other hand, translates it only slightly differently. This morning’s AP headline on the story is titled “Volunteer suicide bombers seek to attack Israel” [1]; its lede goes thus:

Hard-line Iranian student groups have appealed to the government to authorize volunteer suicide bombers to leave Iran and fight against Israel in response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip. . . .

Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched a registration drive on Monday, seeking volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against Israel.

Now, that is how you get people’s attention, from the headline to the lede, and if you’re a really good compiler-editor, your readers will be salivating for the juicy bits in the ensuing dialogue:

“Volunteer student suicide groups … are determined to go to Gaza. You are expected to issue orders to the relevant authorities in order to pave the way for such action,” the students advised Ahmadinejad in an open letter, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

(Yes. They were “made available,” and no doubt subsequently translated to the liking of AP’s settler-editors at the W. Jerusalem bureau, as well as the IDF and the Hasbaranik groups that practically edit for them.)

Now let’s recap.

— Ayatollah Khamenei called the missions voluntary defense of the people of Gaza against Israeli aggression; the reward upon death being martyrdom.

— Payvand News gave us the actual term (Esteshhadi) students are using to describe the act of dying while defending Palestinians against Israeli aggression, along with the correct translation according to Muslim faith: martyrdom-seeking.

— AP calls it by its typical war-on-terror name: suicide bombings (and “attacks” on “Israel”), even though, as far as both AP’s and Payvand’s readers know, the students said NOTHING about bombs or particular acts of violence. And of course, those students are “hard-line”: a designation given by AP to practically anyone (but especially a Muslim or an Arab), who staunchly opposes Israeli and U.S. policies in the region. (Perhaps Ghandi and Mother Teresa are “hard-line” too.)

This is ridiculous enough, what with the obvious sensationalism typically employed by “the world’s most trusted source of news and information”; but consider the following.

ANY mission wherein an Arab or Persian Muslim — or really, anyone — goes into Gaza, seeking to defend Palestinians against practically indomitable Israeli aggression, will have about a 1-in-100 chance of coming out alive. AP can very well refer to this as “suicide”; but the fact is, even in Christian tradition, when someone dies in the service of God —  and particularly, in defense of the weak, defenseless, and oppressed — it is NOT considered SUICIDE. It is MARTYRDOM. There is honor and holiness in martyrdom, while there is shame and blasphemy in suicide.

AP’s selective, sensationalistic, and obviously agenda-inspired use of the “translation” — suicide bombing — is no better than referring to the Israeli Army’s practice of putting Druze and Christian soldiers on the frontlines as blood libel. In the very least, it shows  a lack of professionalism, honesty, and objectivity on AP’s part; at most, it is a disgusting, politically-motivated, collectivist attack on several billion humans of the world and their faith.

Now, if that wasn’t enough deception and collectivist defamation to get the war drums pounding, don’t worry: the editor threw in a nasty use of scare quotes, as well as AP’s favorite and most-prolific bald-faced, anti-Iranian lie:

In a speech Tuesday, Ahmadinejad called for the trial of Israeli leaders on charges of massacring Palestinians in Gaza. His comments come a day after Iran’s judiciary set up a court to try Israeli leaders for such “crimes.” [Using double quotes on only the word crimes is done for no other reason than for the AP editor to tell us, "Crimes? Ah ha ha ha ha!" -dt]

Iran considers Israel its archenemy and Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” [See the accurate translation of Ahmadinejad's statement, here, and proof of AP's intention to keep lying about it, here. -dt] Iran also is Hamas’ main backer, though Tehran denies sending weapons to the Islamic militant Palestinian group that took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

And of course,  just in case we forget whom the bad guys are, the Israeli military-state is just “Israel”; while its Palestinian counterparts are always modified with several adjectives and adverbs because, after all, it’s bad to be Muslim and violently defend yourself, your people, and others against the wanton aggression of the Almighty States.

AP stands for Abominable Propaganda.

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1. apnews.myway.com//article/20081231/D95DLPD01.html. Emphasis added.