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| Axis of Evil |
| Iranian pollster who said Iranians favoured US ties admits mistakes |
| 2002-12-11 |
| Tehran Times A pollster caught in a legal case about a survey that showed most Iranians favor dialogue with the U.S. admitted in court Tuesday to an error of judgement and expressed remorse. It wasn't the data that were wrong, but the taking of it... On the second day of hearings, Hossein Ghazian of the Ayandeh Polling Institute told a judge he was unaware he had courted accusations of passing sensitive information to foreign governments. "Without paying attention to the nature of the foreign organizations (that commissioned the surveys), I agreed to conduct the polls," Ghazian acknowledged. "I committed an error of judgement because there was a judicial black-hole on this issue," he added, before asking for an acquittal. Obviously the poor man was an unwitting pawn in the hands of insidious spy organizations, such as... The Ayandeh Institute stands accused of conducting polls on behalf of the Washington-based Gallup organization, which court officials charge is linked to the U.S. government. Oh, heavens! Not... Not... Gallup? The Judge said Mortazavi had admitted Ayandeh had received 450 million rials (56,000 dollars) from Gallup. He also accused Ghazian of "secret and illegal contacts with elements linked to foreign intelligence services", "incitement to riot" and "propaganda against the Islamic regime." "Yar! We be throwin' the book at 'im!" "I do not believe in revolt or violence, nor do I believe in revolution. I believe in dialogue and peaceful methods, and that is why I cannot concur with such an accusation," Ghazian replied. "So please tell them to stop hitting me, and please don't stretch my neck!" |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 A side note: 56,000 bucks / 450x10e6 rials = 0.000124 dollars/rial |
| Posted by: mojo 2002-12-11 11:19:16 |