Talk:Ahmadinejad's 2006 letter to Bush


 * Also at Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush, needs to be merged or something.

So far only parts of the letter have been published.

Sources include:
 * http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961309617&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

In principle there are more excerpts here, but the javascript script is not working for me:
 * http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/09/news/web.0509excerpts.php

Boud 12:55, 9 May 2006 (UTC)


 * http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/09/uiran.xml - says full text is "18 pages" Boud 12:55, 9 May 2006 (UTC)


 * swissinfo (long url) Boud 13:16, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Warning: this same swissinfo article perpetuates the urban legend that Ahmadinejad used the phrase "wiped off the map" to talk about what should be done to Israel. See Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel for a full discussion. So there certainly could be mistranslations here too. Boud 13:19, 9 May 2006 (UTC)


 * http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=271209 "Will you not accept this invitation?" Boud 13:29, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Full source via Le Monde and Chris Floyd.com
Boud 15:24, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
 * http://medias.lemonde.fr/mmpub/edt/doc/20060509/769629_lettre.pdf
 * http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=641&Itemid=1

Full scan by WSJ

 * http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsj-IranianPres_letter.pdf

From comment by Aluzisadeh http://www.blogger.com/profile/24066044 on Juan Cole's blog - there are apparently some errors in Le Monde's transcription: http://www.juancole.com/2006/05/ahmadinejad-as-w.html

The only errors i found were quite minimal, about eight words altogether, or only 24 characters in error - i don't think Le Monde can be strongly criticised for this - cross-checking either an optical scan or a human-retyped version of this would take quite some time, no other journal seems to have made the same effort, and i presume the main interest for Le Monde was publishing a French translation, in which case getting a 100.0% perfect English version was not necessarily the priority, 99.9% is IMHO reasonable. Le Monde does not claim to be an English language newspaper! Boud 01:34, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

To Do
If we want to be really authentic, then we could fix paragraphing, sentence indenting etc to match everything in the WSJ scan except for the font (looks like a real typewriter ;) and page numbering. But i'm not sure if wikisource wants to be that pedantic. Boud 01:34, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

old patched version (for archival purposes, crosschecking, ...)
... any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime. ...

... Liberalism and Western-style democracy have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity. Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems.

... repressive and cruel governments do not survive.

How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people's houses destroyed over their heads? Are you pleased with the current condition of the world? Do you think present policies can continue?

... On the pretext of the existence of WMDs, this great tragedy came to engulf both the peoples of the occupied and the occupying country. Later it was revealed that no WMDs existed to begin with.

... Lies were told in the Iraqi matter. What was the result? I have no doubt that telling lies is reprehensible in any culture, and you do not like to be lied to.

... I have been told that Your Excellency follows the teachings of Jesus and believes in the divine promise of the rule of the righteous on Earth.

We increasingly see that people around the world are flocking towards a main focal point -- that is the Almighty God. My question for you is, 'Do you not want to join them?'

... Will you not accept this invitation? That is, a genuine return to the teachings of prophets, to monotheism and justice, to preserve human dignity and obedience to the Almighty and His prophets?

... Why have the various aspects of the attacks been kept secret? Why are we not told who botched their responsibilities?

... The people will scrutinise our presidencies. Did we manage to bring peace, security and prosperity for the people or insecurity and unemployment? Did we intend to establish justice, or just support special interest groups and, by forcing many people to live in poverty and hardship, made a few people rich and powerful?

Full text on official Iranian website
Full text of President Ahmadinejad's letter to George Bush. Islamic Republic News Agency (Iran). It is in 7 parts. Links for "Next news" or "Previous news" work on most of the pages, but not consistently, and some links skip parts. All 7 parts were linked from the right column of some pages at one time. But not now. So to save time here are direct links to all the parts:


 * Part 1: http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0605094639235358.htm
 * Part 2: http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0605104600001017.htm
 * Part 3: http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0605108605002457.htm
 * Part 4: http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0605108396003932.htm
 * Part 5: http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0605108913005529.htm
 * Part 6: http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0605106249011048.htm
 * Part 7: http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0605101827012003.htm

The first part does not currently link to the second part. The second part currently links to the 4th part. So to prevent problems I linked to all 7 parts at the top of the page. Like this: --Timeshifter 14:03, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Can URL be shortened, and all pages redirected to one page
Please put the letter in a wikisource page with a short URL please. This URL is too long:
 * http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad%27s_letter_to_George_W._Bush_%288_May_2006%29

Can we redirect all the URLs to a short one such as
 * http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ahmadinejad_letter_to_Bush - Long URLs are difficult to put in forum posts, email, etc. because they can wrap to 2 lines, and then oftentimes don't work. --Timeshifter 11:48, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

How do people redirected from long URL get the new shorter URL?
Thanks for the shorter URL!: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ahmadinejad%27s_2006_letter_to_Bush

When people come there after being redirected from the longer URL I suggest that they see the shorter URL somewhere near the top or bottom. So they can copy the short URL and pass it on if they so choose. Is there a way to make the shorter URL show up also? For now they only see the long URL in the address window of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. --Timeshifter 14:27, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


 * That’s unfortunately how the internet browser works, since the Wiki simply redirects the frame...”or something like that”. So the simple answer is no, you can copy/paste the new url, (simply put “Ahmadinejad's 2006 letter to Bush” after the /wiki/ in your url), but if people are clicking the old link, their browser will still show it Sherurcij 16:12, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I tried pasting the new title onto the first part of the URL: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/ and it worked. Thanks for that tip. I thought about it once before but thought that the spaces would be converted to multiple characters instead of underscores. I think spaces are first converted to multiple characters but then they seem to be almost immediately converted to underscores in the end. I think that is what I saw happening. But it happened so fast I am not sure. --Timeshifter 16:23, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Maybe wikisource could put the full URL at the top of all pages so that people don't have any problems passing on URLs. I think I may try it now and see what happens. --Timeshifter 16:23, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
 * In a word, “no”. It would clutter up thousands of pages where it really isn’t needed. Removed. Sherurcij 18:39, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I was thinking of it being done automatically by the wikisource software somehow. But I see your point. Maybe just put the URL on pages that have had URL changes. That way it wouldn't clutter up all the pages that don't need to see the full URL other than in the address bar. My point remains true, though. People coming to this page from the long URL have no easy way to get the new shorter URL, and can have many problems if they try to share the old long URL. Since this is an important document, and is not on the web in many places, could you please leave the URL where I put it for at least a few weeks until most people stop passing on the URL, or linking to it. I maintain several websites, and so I am not an amateur at all this. It is a real problem.

Possible copyright violation
I believe that this letter is incompatible with our policy of GFDL-compatibility and am continuing to contest the status of this document on WS:COPYVIO. Pleae discuss this on the WS:COPYVIO page. --Kernigh 18:06, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Iran is not party to the Berne Convention. Boud 22:53, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Apparently the released translation says "hunt", not "haunt". Both words kinda make sense, but just so you're aware it's a "sic" carried over from the official release. Sherurcij 15:00, 22 May 2006 (UTC)