Posted on 06/21/2009 2:01:18 AM PDT by Chet 99
TEHRAN (June 19, 2009)-- Iran’s supreme leader took issue Friday with U.S. claims about human rights violations in his country in the wake of a bitterly contested presidential election, and cited the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco as he questioned whether U.S. officials even “know what human rights are.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned protestors of a crackdown on massive street demonstrations.
He said protesters would be "held responsible for chaos if they didn't end" days of massive demonstrations.
He blamed Great Britain and Iran's external enemies for trying to foment unrest, and said “the worst thing to me in all of this are comments made in the name of human rights and freedom and liberty by American officials,” according to translations of his remarks posted online Friday.
“During the time of the Democrats...time of Clinton…80 people were burned alive in Waco,” he said.
“Now you are talking about human rights?”
His reference was to the fiery end to the 51-day standoff between federal agents and Branch Davidians in 1993 at the group’s compound outside of Waco.
Plans for the federal raid on the compound were actually set in motion while George H. W. Bush was president.
International human rights organizations say Iran's crackdown in response to protests over a disputed election has swept up dozens of activists and politicians.
The director of the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights, Hadi Ghaemi, says he's been told at least 200 had been arrested or disappeared.
The Iranian government has said that it has arrested a relatively small number of people responsible for violence and other crimes.
Amnesty International and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran say they've heard similar reports.
Meanwhile, in the strongest message yet from the U.S. government, the House has voted to condemn Tehran's crackdown on demonstrators and the government's interference with Internet and cell phone communications.
Republicans initiated the resolution as a veiled criticism of President Barack Obama.
The president has mostly spoken in quite measured terms, reluctant to speak too strongly about the disputed elections that left hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in charge of the Muslim nation.
Democrats, who are quick to voice their support for Israel, easily agreed with the GOP on pushing through the mildly worded resolution.
Congress frequently weighs in on foreign policy matters, when a similar message from the State Department or the White House would be considered confrontational.
Clinton and Reno did it...but it was Bush’s fault those people were burned alive...riiiight
The MSM never disappoints. Ha!
He does have a point.
Wait till he hears about the number of abortions each year.
Yes he does, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
The Iranian leadership should have held honest elections and allowed the will of the people to rule the day.
No amount of bluster about Waco will absolve what the Iranian leadership is up to.
I’m sure you agree, so this isn’t directed at your personally.
We have had our own presidential elections stolen ... JFK/Nixon in ‘60.. Al Gore came within a hair of pulling it off in 2000.
You are right that “two wrongs”.
In Iran the party in power is afraid if they lose power they will be killed.
Makes one fight to hold that power that more intense.
Though different, Waco and a few other incidents have obviously put a blemish on America.
They certainly have a point - when the Democrats are in office egregious things certainly can happen. And when the Republicans are in office, bad things will certainly be reported - whether they happen or not, whether they happened because of the administration or despite its legitimate efforts to prevent them. "Korans will be flushed down toilets," American soldiers will be murdered by terrorists in Iraq, and "al Qaeda will gain recruits" because an officer in a jail disobeyed standing orders. All Bush's faultTM, of course.Janet Reno took "responsibility" for Waco. Not that she took the logical consequence of being responsible, of course . . .
After all, she got on board so late that it "wasn't really her fault" . . . which begs the question of whose fault it was. But of course we weren't to ask that question.
This is an open sore that is still festering. The monsters that did this have never really been brought to justice.
All thanks for this should go to Janet Reno and Sen. John Danforth ( for whitewashing this atrocity).
The mullahs have a point. Previous outrageous democrat action in Waco bites us in the rear end. We don’t have any credibility in this area, thanks to the excessive zeal of our religion hating democrats. That’s why they should never be allowed power.
Accuracy in reporting is restored.
Thanks Joe. I agree.
Yes, two wrongs don’t make a right; you’ll get no argument from me on that.
But the mullah has every right to point out our hypocrisy.
Kinda takes the wind out of our moral high ground, considering no one was ever brought to justice for murdering these people.
sadly he could also say the same for our election and *representatives* as well...
with each passing day Im more convinced that there truly is no getting off this merry-go-round, and that God will surely show His Power and Glory by causing/allowing men to destroy themselves...all according to His Plan...
If you’ve ever seen the video “Rules of Engagement,” showing the ANIMALS the federal government sent down to Waco—absolutely brutish, bloodthirsty, thuggish, ANIMALS, making jokes about roasting the Davidians DAYS BEFORE the fire—you would know that there’s plenty of blame to share among Democrats and Republicans. Because the FBI and the BATF have been recruiting and training ANIMALS under both Republicans and Democrats.
>>> Plans for the federal raid on the compound were actually set in motion while George H. W. Bush was president. <<<
Plans to set the compound on fire and let the fire burn out of control, killing dozens? Somehow I doubt that.
Score ONE point for the mullah.
He’s dead-nuts on to finger this glaring point of hypocrisy.
Of course, it takes Democrats at the helm to pull off that kind of crap in these United States, and of course that only makes the hypocrisy all that more acute. For who but the Democrats howl longer and louder for “social justice” and “human rights,” and who but the Democrats more readily twist the power of government to hinder actual progress on both of those fronts? And who but the Democrats are the very LAST persons on God’s green Earth to recognize how those dots connect??
Of course, it’s really the blockhead Democrat voters who are the ultimate Philistines in continuing to re-elect officials who incite these kinds of events, and it is this same brainless cabal of nincompoops who then swoon all over their favorite media talking heads when the news breaks defending idiot Democrat bureaucrats for their heinous acts.
Heinous, Satanic evil, the formerly-free press, the Democrat Party, and their putty-brained, gum-smacking Democrat voters together form the most deadly circle-jerk in the known universe.
Sorry, one has nothing to do with the other.
You can’t silence reasoned voices, if your policies are wrong.
You can only change your policies.
Nobody on this forum thinks our actions at Waco were more flawed than I do. I think those actions require prosecution and extensive prison sentences for people from the local to national level. That still does not tarnish sound comments of reason, regarding what the Iranian government is up to.
What we have to remember here is that it is our people who are supporting the Iranian people. It is not government driven.
I do believe our elections were subverted. That doesn’t mitigate the justification of our people standing up to support the Iranian people.
I do appreciate that you stated “causing/allowing”, but there is something I try to remain constant about when it comes to human events. God can only allow human events to play out. He cannot cause them to.
That’s not to say it isn’t within His power to, it’s just that sin has to play out it’s natural course, or the whole sin vs God’s plan could not be deemed to be a fair test.
In the end, Sin will have had it’s chance without God’s interference. It will fail on it’s own merits.
When it has, God will intervene.
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