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Saturday, May 22, 2010

Breaking News!

UPI reported this morning the following which I find amazing:

"With pending legislation in Congress to impose unilateral sanctions on Iran unless it stops the development of nuclear weapons, the White House today announced that it opposed any legislation that singled out Iranians for punishment as this amounted to racial and religious profiling. President Obama pointed out that a sanctions law might be applied by the US authorities in a manner that could lead to bigotry against Iranians and others (mostly from the Middle East) who aid them in their quest for nuclear weapons. The President was asked about the language in the senate bill that specifically prohibited the use of national origin or religion as a consideration in determining whether or not to apply sanctions, and, in response, he admitted that he had not read the bill, but he repeated that racial and religious profiling would not be tolerated.

About an hour later, a high ranking State Department official announced that Secretary Clinton had directed all US ambassadors in Islamic countries to meet with the foreign ministries of those countries and apologize for the pending bill since it might lead to racial and religious profiling. Specifically the ambassadors have been instructed to tell their counterparts that America can and will do better in the fight against bias against Iranians.

When asked about the resolution that has been introduced in the security council at the UN, the State Department official said that he had been informed that in the event that the resolution is passed, both President Obama and Secretary Clinton were planning to go to New York and chain themselves to the fence outside UN headquarters for at least ten minutes. In addition, Obama will bring the chorus of the United States Naval Academy to sing "We Shall Overcome" in a message of solidarity with the Iraninan people who may possibly be racially profiled under the terms of the UN resolution.

When asked to explain how the UN resolution could be known to use racial profiling when it has not yet been written, the state department official declined comment."

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