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December 29, 2006

Irving Criticizes ‘Stalinist Law’
BBC News
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/uk_news/ 6204481.stm
British historian David Irving has said he is the victim of a “world-wide attempt to silence” him. He is back in the UK after his release on probation from a three- year jail term imposed in Austria for denying the Holocaust in an 1989 speech. Mr Irving said “Stalinist legislation” had put him in prison for expressing the “wrong views” about history. At his trial in February, he said his views on the Holocaust had changed, but did believe it had been exaggerated. The conviction had sparked intense debate, with supporters saying it was fully justified but opponents arguing it undermined the right of freedom of speech. In his speech in Austria 17 years ago, he denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz, though he later said he was “mistaken”.

Jews in Britain Protest Irving Release
European Jewish Press
http://www.ejpress. org/article/ news/uk/12380
British Jewish leaders have spoken out against a ruling which sees British Holocaust denier David Irving released early from prison in Austria. Veteran Jewish activist Lord Greville Janner, a former Labor MP, led the chorus of disapproval after a Vienna court has ruled that historian Irving, convicted on charges of denying the Holocaust, should serve the rest of his three-year sentence on probation. At the end of Irving’s appeal against his earlier conviction on Wednesday, Vienna’s highest court ruled to convert two-thirds of Irving’s three-year sentence into probation…

Imprisonment Has Hardened Irving’s Views, Says ADL
Anti-Defamation League (New York)
http://www.adl. org/PresRele/ Holocaus tDenial_83/4951_ 83.htm
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said that convicted Holocaust denier David Irving “has only hardened his views” despite having spent 13 months in an Austrian prison. At a news conference in London following his early release from a three-year prison term, Irving indicated that he has “no remorse” for openly expressing his views.

No Need to Show Remorse, Says Irving
Associated Press
http://www.cnn. com/2006/ WORLD/europe/ 12/21/uk. irving.ap/ index.html
British writer David Irving returned to England the day after he was released early from an Austrian prison — vowing to repeat views denying the Holocaust that led to his conviction. Irving said Thursday he felt “no need any longer to show remorse” for his views on the Holocaust, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. Vienna’s highest court granted Irving’s appeal and converted two-thirds of his sentence into probation on Wednesday. Upon arriving at London’s Heathrow airport, he also called for a boycott of all Austrian and German historians until laws which make Holocaust denial illegal in those countries are overturned.

Vienna to London: From Irving’s Diary
David Irving
http://www.fpp. co.uk/docs/ Irving/RadDi/ 2006/211206. html
The commandant himself, the prison governor, opens the door at 7 a.m., snaps almost imperceptibly to attention, and says: “Mr Irving, we are deeply ashamed that this is happening. We do not agree with this at all…” …I take another call, from… Agence France Presse… I feed him some safe lines… I stress that I am not a Holocaust denier; people who say the opposite have clearly never read my books of the last 15 years…

Let the Holocaust Deniers Speak Out
Ben Macintyre — The Times (Britain)
http://www.timesonl ine.co.uk/ articl e/0,,6-2515050, 00.html
It is far better that Irving should be at liberty to spout his vile nonsense, and derided for it. Let him traipse back to Britain, demanding an academic boycott of Austria and Germany, which everyone will ignore. Then his ideas can slide back into the intellectual mud where they belong. We need to hear the poisonous ideas to realise how wrong they are.

Irving Remarks Spark New Controversy
Evening Standard (Britain)
http://www.thisislo ndon.co.uk/ news /article-23379294- details/Irving sparks new controversy over ‘n***** brown’ Rolls- Royce/article. do
Controversial historian David Irving has come under attack for comments he made after being released from prison in Austria, including a reference to a “n***** brown” Rolls-Royce. Mr Irving made the remarks at a press conference on his return to the UK, after serving a third of a three-year jail sentence for Holocaust denial. The writer endorsed drunken comments by Hollywood actor Mel Gibson to the effect that Jews had been behind all modern wars.

They Met in Tehran
Israel Shamir
http://www.israelsh amir.net/ English/Eng6. htm
…So why did the Tehran [Holocaust] conference draw so much attention and criticism? … The difference is that all other gatherings were amen- sayers accepting the official version provided by Jewish organisations as the Holy Writ given to Moses on Mt Sinai. The official version of the Holocaust goes even farther than Writ: you may deny Immaculate Conception and Resurrection of Christ, you may besmirch Muhammad, but if you have any doubt that six million of Jews were executed by Germans in gas chambers within the framework of a total annihilation project you may find yourself in a jail in Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and other ‘free’ countries.

The Holocaust is West’s Last Taboo
Robert Faurisson
http://www.mehrnews .ir/en/NewsDe tail.aspx?NewsID= 423519
This [Iran Holocaust] conference is a big and nice surprise. I had never thought that there could be such a thing. I was really pessimistic. When for the first time I heard that President Ahmadinejad said that the Holocaust was a myth, I was so surprised. I wondered if Iran would exist anymore. I thought that the U.S. or Western countries would try to destroy this country because the belief in the Holocaust is the central pillar of the West and the world. To say that it is a myth is something extremely dangerous. I, as a researcher, might say that it is a myth, but for the head of a state it is extremely dangerous. But he did it.

Canadian Professor Slams School for Criticizing Iran Trip
Canadian Press — The Globe & Mail (Canada)
http://w ww.theglobeandmail. com/servlet/ story/LAC. 20061223. DOSSA23/TPStory/ Education
A Nova Scotia professor who has faced criticism from his university and colleagues for attending an Iranian conference that cast doubt on the Holocaust lashed out against the school yesterday for failing to defend his academic freedom. Shiraz Dossa, a political science professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., raised the ire of the university after presenting a paper at the conference earlier this month. Prof. Dossa, who has insisted he’s not a Holocaust denier, used the forum to talk about how the Holocaust plays into the so-called war on terror. In a statement e-mailed to other faculty members yesterday — his first public comments since returning from Iran — Prof. Dossa said the conference was relevant to his ongoing work.

Rebellion in Washington: The Iraq Study Group Report
Eric Margolis
http://www.lewrockw ell.com/margolis /margolis 59.html
The Iraq Study Group report on Iraq turned out to be a bombshell that is shaking official and political Washington.. . The Iraq Study Group achieved three important goals. First, it told Americans what they have not heard for the past six years: the truth. The war in Iraq is lost. It’s time to retreat from this debacle. Second, the ISG provided protective cover for legislators to oppose powerful special interests advocating continued occupation of Iraq, and war against Iran. Third, it made clear a fair solution must be found to the festering Israel-Palestine dispute which lies at the heart of Mideast tensions and terrorism.

Six Brutal Truths About Iraq
Gen. William E. Odom
ht tp://niemanwatchdog .org/index. cfm? fuseaction=backgrou nd.view&backgroundid= 00146
Mythologies about the war in Iraq are endangering our republic, our rights, and our responsibilities before the world. The longer we fail to dispel them, the higher price we will pay. The following six truths, while perhaps not self-evident to the American public, are nevertheless conspicuously obvious to much the rest of the world.

Candid TV Footage Shows Olmert Coaching Italy’s Prodi
Associated Press
http://news. independent. co.uk/wor ld/politics/ article2073996. ece
Candid TV footage of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Italian counterpart, Romano Prodi, showed Olmert coaching Prodi on what to say at their joint press conference in Rome. In the footage, taken by a cameraman for Israel’s Channel 10 TV, the two men are seen - apparently unaware they are being filmed - conversing yesterday about what to say at the press conference, held during Olmert’s visit to Rome. Olmert tells Prodi that he should mention the international community’s demands that the Hamas- led Palestinian government recognise Israel, renounce terror and respect signed peace agreements.

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