Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks we’re just as good as The Onion.
Which is great if you saw the keepers of modern satire last week on campus, but not so great if you want the truth.
The not-so-warmly-welcomed Iranian president said Sunday that media outlets “made up” news about an Iranian woman who was to be stoned to death after being convicted for adultery.
Although we wouldn’t go so far as to say the news was conjured up in a newsroom somewhere by editors who have nothing better to do than piss off a country that may or may not be storing massive amounts of uranium, we’re glad to see Ahmadinejad label the apparently-never-happened public stoning concept as an “ancient method that needs to change.”
We’re glad in the year 2010 some governments are finally speaking out against public stoning.
There’s never a bad time to publicly denounce death by stoning, especially when you’ve flown to New York City like Ahmadinejad did this weekend for a United Nations conference.
And we’re also glad to see Iran has made a “huge humanitarian gesture” by releasing one of the three alleged spies who have been detained for more than a year in connection with espionage charges.
Maybe now Iran will release the other two prisoners convicted as spies.
And if not, we’re sure the U.S. government has a few sanctions left up its sleeve it can use to force Iran’s hand behind its back.
