Anne Bayefsky Claims that the Cordoba Initiative is Part of an Iranian Plot

The Hudson Institute‘s Anne Bayefsky in an article on Pajamas Media, attempts to link the Cordoba Initiative’s fund-raising for the planned community center at 45-51 Park Place in New York (rebranded the Park 51 Community Center) to the secretary-general of… Continue Reading

The Daily Talking Points

News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for August 19th, 2010: Washington Post: Columnist David Ignatius takes a broad view of the Obama administration’s diplomatic trouble spots and prescribes “patience plus” because time is actually on the side of U.S.… Continue Reading

Obama, Nuclear Proliferation and the Politics of Mistranslation

The right wing blogosphere is buzzing with rumors (denied by the White House, according to Ben Smith of Politico) that the Obama administration has refused visas to employees of the Nuclear Research Center-Negev (NRCN) in Dimona, Israel. Roger Simon, blogging at Pajamas Media, claims to be quoting an article published in the Israeli daily Maariv…Nestled in Simon’s (or an uncredited source’s) “exclusive Pajamas Media translation” is the revelation that the English version Simon is quoting “is from a Google translation that I’ve tried to fix up a little bit.” A little bit? Let’s play “Simon Says” and compare his (or his source’s) efforts to what Maariv writer Uri Binder actually wrote. Continue Reading