August 16



USA//OHIO:

Demjanjuk claims judge biased ---- Appeal is a last shot at staying in
U.S.


John Demjanjuk says the judge who ordered him deported is biased because
he once wrote about targeting Nazi war criminals.

Demjanjuk, 86, says former Chief Immigration Judge Michael Creppy should
have stepped aside because of his "unmistakable interest in such cases."

The allegations came in a filing last month with the Board of Immigration
Appeals.

The appeal is one of Demjanjuk's last chances to stay in the country. The
government began its fight to deport him nearly 30 years ago, when it
first accused him of being "Ivan the Terrible," allegations that were
later linked to another man.

If the appeal is rejected, Demjanjuk's only remaining options would be to
go to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. If
Demjanjuk wins the appeal, his case would be sent back to immigration
court.

A federal judge in Cleveland stripped Demjanjuk's citizenship in 2002 and
ruled that Demjanjuk collaborated with the Nazis by working as a guard at
a death camp and two concentration camps during World War II. Last year,
Creppy ordered Demjanjuk deported to his native Ukraine.

The lawyer for the Seven Hills retiree, John Broadley, said in the filing
that Creppy wrote an article for the Georgetown Im migration Law Jour nal
in 1998 that said the U.S. government should push for the removal of Nazi
war criminals.

Creppy wrote that "as long as we per sist in taking action against them,
then we continue to triumph over them," according to the court filing.

Broadley said reasonable people would agree that vigorously prosecuting
Nazi war criminals is important. But he said that for the chief
immigration judge to give such opinions betrays "an improper bias." He
also said that Creppy assigned the case to himself.

Attorneys with the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations said Creppy did nothing wrong. In fact, they said, he was
quite reasonable.

They said he simply expressed "a bias in favor of upholding the law." The
article did not mention Demjanjuk and never mentioned any personal bias
against him.

Prosecutors said there is nothing wrong with federal judges taking a
special interest in certain areas of law. Nor, they said, is there
anything wrong with chief judges assigning cases to themselves, especially
if they involve complex issues.

It is unclear when the Board of Immigration Appeals will make its
decision.

(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)






SCOTLAND:

Holocaust humor tests joke boundaries

Two stand-up comics accused of making light of the Holocaust at the
Edinburgh Fringe festival hit back at their critics on Tuesday, igniting
a debate about where, if anywhere, to draw the line in comedy.

The famously irreverent Fringe is renowned for over-the-top humor, and
this year religion has been a popular target of ridicule in a trend
welcomed by commentators arguing for freedom of speech over religious
sensitivity.

But Jamie Glassman, a Jewish comedy writer who has worked on the often
outrageous "Da Ali G Show", said at least two comedians had gone too far
and reflected broader anti-Jewish sentiment at the festival which he
called "shocking".

"Stand-up comedy is as good a prism as any through which to look at the
changing attitudes in our society," Glassman wrote in the Times newspaper
on Tuesday.

"If my past few days are anything to go by then it is becoming
increasingly acceptable to hate the Jews. Again."

One Edinburgh comedian singled out in the article was Reginald D. Hunter,
an African-American with a show called "Pride and Prejudice and Niggas".

At one point Hunter says he should go to Austria, where it is illegal to
deny the Holocaust, get arrested for saying Germany's genocide against
Jews did not happen, and tell the judge he was talking about the Rwandan
holocaust all along.

"The joke isn't about the Jews, it is about freedom of thought and freedom
of expression," Hunter told Reuters.

He referred to the Holocaust as "one of those things considered to be
off-limits; that's what I'm poking fun at.

"There have been loads of holocausts. Jews have the honor of having their
Holocaust known as the Holocaust and that's fine. That's the way the world
works."

Hunter said he found it "amazing" Glassman could extract anti-Semitism
from his act.

Also criticized was Australian Steve Hughes, whose show "Storm" includes a
gag that indirectly equates playing cowboys and Indians to playing Nazis
and Jews.

Glassman recounted how at the show he attended audience members shouted
"Throw them in the oven" in response to the joke, but Hughes defended his
routine and said his remarks were taken out of context. He said the actual
joke was:

"I grew up playing cowboys and Indians, which as an adult I can see is
very strange; that you market the genocide of an indigenous people as a
game for kids.

"Australians are far from perfect - I've never played Cops and
Aboriginals, and you wouldn't play Nazis and Jews!"

Hughes added that he was not responsible for what hecklers shouted during
his act.

But he did apologize for describing Richard Perle, formerly chairman of
the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee under George W. Bush's
administration, as "that f---ing Jew".

His spokesman said the phrase was made "off the cuff" and Hughes regretted
using it.

(source: Reuters)





IRAN:

Iran Opens Controversial Holocaust Cartoon Exhibition



An exhibition of more than 200 cartoons about the Holocaust opened Monday
in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Participants include cartoonists from Iran and foreign countries, such as
the United States, Indonesia, and Turkey.

The Iranian newspaper "Hamshahri," which co-sponsored the event, says the
exhibition is aimed at testing the West's tolerance for drawings about the
killing of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

The event is also designed as a response to the outrage caused among
Muslims last year by Western caricatures of the Phophet Muhammad.

According to AP, the display is strongly influenced by Iranian President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad's negationist comments about the Holocaust.

Several Iranian intellectuals -- including Emadoddin Baghi, a journalist
close to former President Mohammad Khatami -- have criticized the
exhibition.

The exhibition will run until September 13. It is being held at the Museum
of Palestininian Contemporary Art.

In other news, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki met with
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem in Algiers today.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said the two men reviewed bilateral
issues and the situation in Lebanon, and Belkhadem reportedly called for
cooperation between Tehran and Algiers in the oil and gas sector.

Mottaki, who is on a regional tour of Middle Eastern and North African
countries, was due to hand over a message from Iranian President
Ahmadinejad to his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

(source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)





RUSSIA/IRAN:

Russian slams Iran's Holocaust satire


A senior member of Russia' parliament has denounced an Iranian
newspaper's contest for the best cartoon mocking the Holocaust as a
fallacy.

Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the State Duma's international
affairs committee, denounced the move, and said by allowing, Iran's
government had "pitted themselves against the civilized world," the
Novosti news agency reported.

Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, said
the contest would test how committed Europeans were to the concept of
freedom of expression.

Earlier this year, a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Muslim
Prophet Mohammed, which enraged Muslims worldwide.

"The Holocaust is one of the most heinous pages in mankind's history, and
its use as a 'weapon of retaliation,' especially a satirical weapon, is
utterly unacceptable in any circumstances," Kosachev told reporters.

(source: United Press International)