American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
I’m having a busy day taking care of non-blogging matters, but Gates of Vienna has an excellent article, Remembering the Farhūd, on the Iraqi Arab equivalent of the mass violence on Kristallnacht, which took place 70 years ago yesterday. Definitely a must-read.
iran, whose embassy in Bolivia is the largest in our hemisphere, sent Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi to Bolivia at the Bolivian Defense Ministry’s invitation.
While in Bolivia, Vahidi attended a ceremony with President Evo Morales,
The article does not touch on the question of what the nature of Vahidi’s visit to the BDM would be. However, apparently Argentinian officials must have protested, because Bolivia’s foreign minister wrote a letter of apology to the Argentinian foreign minister, and Vahidi was sent out of the country. The apology claimed that
The invitation . . . had been issued by the Bolivian defence ministry which did not know the background to the case and had not co-ordinated with other departments.
Vahidi is wanted for being behind the AMIA bombing.
Iran minister accused of planning Argentina Jewish center bombing told to leave Bolivia
Bolivia sends letter of apology to Argentina for inviting Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is accused by Argentina of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center that killed 85. (Hat tip: Jewish Bro’s Twitter feed.)
Argentina had previously protested Vahidi’s appointment as Defense Minister, which Iran carefully ignored.
Vahidi is not the only Iranian accused of being connected to the AMIA bombing who travels to Latin America. As you may recall, Mohsen Rabbani, who is also wanted for the bombings, is recruiting in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
Argentina continues to press the case on the 1994 AMIA and the 1992 Israeli embassy bombings.
Cross-posted at Real Clear World.
It may or may not qualify as the Worst Press Conference EVAH, but it certainly comes close. Watch:
Look, when the CNN guy asks you directly, “Was it [the photo] from you, or not?”, and a simple “No” would have sufficed, it’s not a good idea at all to call the guy a jackass – particularly, as it turns out, the guy is CNN’s Congressional producer.
Another important point from this press conference is that Weiner himself is the one who said his Twitter/Facebook accounts had been hacked. That he’s changed to saying it’s a prank and a distraction does not alter the fact that hacking is a crime and should be investigated. He has not requested an investigation, as CNN’s Dana Bash points out.
In a lighter mode, Jon Stewart (via Instapundit) talks about his friend Anthony, the Distinguished Member of Congress,
“Wow! Those blogs sound like, reporting!”
Indeed.
Weiner is not doing himself any favors
dodging easily answerable questions is definitely not the way to make it all go away. For example, something like, “No, that was not my penis. I know this because I didn’t take a photo of my penis,” would have been a perfectly fine response. The mainstream press, at least, would be satisfied.
Evading questions, however, is a strategy most often utilized by people with something to hide, and will only further pique the media’s interest.
What’s next?
Since he’s a Democrat, I speculate that he’ll have a press conference with the bravely smiling Mrs. Weiner at his side.
UPDATE,
After reading Gerard’s post, I’m done with the subject.
UPDATE 2,
Not on the wiener, but on Weiner,
Weiner is not one to talk about conflict of interest. In the 2009 spending bill Congressman Weiner sponsored $18.3 million in earmarks for 22 groups and projects, over $500,000 of those earmarks went to campaign contributors.
Now, that is the real scandal.
UPDATE, June 5
Linked by The Other McCain – thanks, Stacy!
