A Conference on Counter-Terrorism: Iran's No-Lose scenario.

So: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presentation to the U.N. My my, what a controversy. For those of you who haven't glanced over the speech yet(Provided in full a few stories down, due to the contributions of our venerable Socrates), The Iranian President spends the first portion of the speech exchanging pleasantries such as sympathy towards Pakistan for the tragic flooding situation, congratulations and thanks to the President of the U.N. for it's 64th session, and well wishes to the president of the 65th session.

He then continues onward to explain global attitudes and beliefs, citing the excesses of capitalism and democracy as the root cause of religious collapse and the failure of human rights. Normally, this would be the section that draws all sorts of wonderful attention from pundits across the seas, but never to be outdone, President Ahmadinejad continues forth with comment on the infamous attacks of September 11th.

Possessing three view points, he further questions, with out coming right out and saying it, whether terrorists were really responsible for the attacks. He even goes so far as to say the majority of Americans actually believe that 9/11 was an inside job, a comment that would be incredibly hilarious if the matter wasn't so serious. This has been the portion of his speech that has drawn the most outrage. After all, he is accusing the U.S. government of committing a public atrocity against it's own people, and not just any public atrocity, but the one that is widely regarded as the worst tragedy this nation has ever seen. Some are questioning whether President Ahmadinejad really thought about the impact this speech would have. The U.S. delegation walked out of the U.N. rather than hear the rest of this controversial speech. But I have an alternative hypothesis to madness: perhaps that was the desired effect?

There has been much ado about President Ahmadinejad's comments about 9/11. But what I haven't heard anyone mention as of yet, is an equally perturbing announcement that was nestled into the midst of the speech. On it's own, the quote would be very curious indeed, but surrounded by such sensational material it has avoided attention. It is as follows:

"I wish to announce here that next year the Islamic Republic of Iran will

host a conference to study terrorism and the means to confront it. I invite
officials, scholars, thinkers, researchers and research institutes of all
countries to attend this conference."

What exactly does this mean? It means that Iran is inviting specialists on counter-terrorism from around the world to Iran to "study terrorism and the means to confront it." Somebody has been reading their Orson Scott Card.

Perhaps that last comment bears explaining: In the book "Empire" by Orson Scott Card, separatists who infiltrate the U.S. government use counter-terrorism as a pretense to get a report written on the best way to eliminate key targets, including the President, under the auspice of wanting to install counter-measures to stop them. I'm not saying that the only reason that President Ahmadinejad could hold a counter-terrorism conference is to collect secrets on how to be a better terrorist, but it is a plausible reason. With Afghanistan and Pakistan becoming less and less safe as havens for terrorism, and Iraq already under U.S. control, Iran is the next logical successor.

At best, this conference is a simple PR stunt to offset the fact that President Ahmadinejad has been saying a lot of things that could be seen as "pro-terrorist". At worst, it is an attempt to get leading experts together in one convenient bombing area. Or, perhaps it is a Cardian level of sinister plotting, but instead of trying to figure out how to beat counter-terrorism, he wants to use it to root out any terrorists that will not swear loyalty to him. Then again, perhaps I'm just a paranoid loon. I suppose only time will tell, eh?

~Wesley F., self-confessed conspiracy theorist.