Cole, Hitchens, Ahmadinejad

A blogger tidies up the controversy (and could do with an editor). Two basic points. Firstly, nothing Cole said on a private email list has not been written by him in the public domain, so Cole's hyperventilating on this privacy point is a little strained. Secondly, Cole has publicly defined the Iranian phrase "Occupation Regime" to mean Israel proper, not just the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and parts of Jerusalem, as he subsequently tried to spin it. Substantively Hitch wins on all points. And Cole, for reasons I cannot fathom, is acting as a witting dissembler about the views of Ahmadinejad. I think his opposition to the current administration has led him to make excuses for a genocidal religious right fanatic.