New York Times Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:12:24 GMT

Iranian Computer Game Packs a Political Punch

By The New York Times

Published: July 17, 2007

An Iranian group issued a computer game yesterday that combines the standoff over the nation’s nuclear program, its hatred of Israel and missing diplomats in Lebanon, Agence France-Presse reported. The eight-level game, “Special Operation 85: Hostage Rescue,” was produced by the Union of the Islamic Students, the organization behind the 2005 “World Without Zionism” conference, at which the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declared that Israel “must be wiped off the map.” A player of the game battles to free captured Iranian diplomats and nuclear scientists from the enemies: American and Israeli soldiers. Mohammad Taghi Fakhrian, secretary general of the Union of the Islamic Students, said: “In this game we are not promoting terrorism and violence. By freeing Iranian hostages we are promoting selflessness, devotion and defense of our country.”

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the guardian Fri, 03 Nov2006

Iraq a 'work of art in progress' says US general after 49 die

Julian Borger in Washington
Friday November 3, 2006
The Guardian

An American general in Baghdad called Iraq a "work of art" in progress yesterday in one of the most extraordinary attempts by the US military leadership to put a positive spin on the worsening violence.

On a day in which 49 people were killed or found dead around the country, Major General William Caldwell, the chief military spokesman, argued that Iraq was in transition, a process that was "not always a pleasant thing to watch.

"Every great work of art goes through messy phases while it is in transition. A lump of clay can become a sculpture. Blobs of paint become paintings which inspire," Maj Gen Caldwell told journalists in Baghdad's fortified green zone.

"The final test of our efforts will not be the isolated incidents that you report daily, but the country that the Iraqis build." Perceptions of how the war is going have become a central factor in next Tuesday's congressional elections, which could determine President George Bush's freedom of manoeuvre in his last two years in office.

Maj Gen Caldwell was speaking after a series of public disagreements between Washington and the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, over proposed benchmarks for his government's performance, and over a recent US raid on a Shia district of Baghdad.

Mr Maliki had also ordered the removal of some US military checkpoints in the capital set up in the hunt for a missing US soldier, who was identified yesterday as Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, an Iraqi-American working as an interpreter who was seized by gunmen last month while visiting his Iraqi wife in Baghdad.

Maj Gen Caldwell described friction between the Baghdad government and Washington as "misunderstandings". He said that the death toll in the conflict had dropped by nearly a quarter in the past week, but conceded that October as a whole had been worse than earlier months. The Associated Press counted 1,272 reported Iraqi deaths in that month alone.