are to pick up interesting stories from the Sunday Papers, I’m surprised to see that they missed this fascinating story by Philip Sherwell in the Sunday Telegraph, Ayatollah’s grandson calls for US overthrow of Iran. A couple of excerpts:
The grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the inspiration of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, has broken a three-year silence to back the United States military to overthrow the country’s clerical regime.
Hossein Khomeini’s call is all the more startling as he made it from Qom, the spiritual home of Iran’s Shia strand of Islam, during an interview to mark the 17th anniversary of the ayatollah’s death.
“My grandfather’s revolution has devoured its children and has strayed from its course,” he told Al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language television station. “I lived through the revolution and it called for freedom and democracy – but it has persecuted its leaders.”
and:
The Dubai-based satellite channel’s website spelt out his backing for armed intervention by America, a country excoriated as the Great Satan by his grandfather and Iran’s current rulers.
It stated: “As for his call to President Bush to come and occupy Iran, Hossein Khomeini explained that ‘freedom must come to Iran in any possible way, whether through internal or external developments.
This is all the more surprising since BBC Views Online has already shown its commitment to covering the 17th anniversary of Khomeini’s death… still, it’s not too late to cover this latest story – get to it Beeboids!
I didn’t even know that Khomeini had a grandson… The ‘BBC’ are going to report on him very soon, I guess. After all it’s their duty, isn’t it?
I agree this is a big story. At first I thought it must be about the Shah’s decendants. I too look forward to the BBC’s coverage!
BBC loves the mullahs, they don’t wanna say anything bad about them!
Did you hear the commedy peice from their reporter in Sordid Arabia on the Today prog, re the three guantanamo deaths – hardly objective reporting Al-beeb !!!
Think about it. This is a Sunday Telegraph article, reporting comments Hossein Khomeini made to an Arabic-language television station. But even then the top-line of the article (“Ayatalloh’s grandson calls for US overthrow of Iran”) is based on reported quotes from the channel’s website. It’s hardly robust sourcing, is it?
P. Groves writes:
“It’s hardly robust sourcing, is it?”
Since when has that troubled the BBC? Gilligan?, ‘The bomb on the beach’?