It's unfortunate that the rock band, "Mine" cannot play in public in Iran. Iran, on the other hand, offers freedoms that do not exist in many European countries such as France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In Iran one can discuss and even print differing views on history. In the European countries I've mention it is ILLEGAL to discuss certain historical events, unless they are "politically correct". By any objective standard, Iran is today a much more "democratic" state than many with which the US has cordial relations, including Israel, China, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In several countries, including Germany, France, Israel, Austria and Switzerland, it is a crime publicly to dispute standard "Holocaust" claims that six million Jews were systematically killed during World War II, most of them in gas chambers. Numerous writers and publishers have been fined or imprisoned for "Holocaust denial." In 1998 Jürgen Graf was convicted of this Orwellian "thought crime" by a Swiss court. Jürgen Graf, born in 1951, is an educator, researcher and author of several books, including "Holocaust on the Test Stand," which has appeared in more than half a dozen languages. In March 1993, following publication of the 112-page German edition, he was summarily dismissed from his post as a secondary school teacher of Latin and French. In December 1994 the French-language edition, L'Holocauste au scanner, was banned in France by order of the country's Interior Ministry. Some 200,000 copies of an expanded edition of this work have been published and distributed in Russia under the title "The Myth of the Holocaust." Graf does not intend to return to Switzerland until normal rights of free speech and free intellectual inquiry are restored. However, he has not yet decided where he will settle and make a new home. Graf arrived in Tehran on November 17, 2000, concluding a journey that had taken him to Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. He is impressed with the hospitality and helpfulness of his hosts, as well as with the orderliness, cleanliness and sense of security in the Iranian capital. At the conclusion of his trial in July 1998, a court in the Swiss town of Baden sentenced Graf to 15 months imprisonment and Rather than begin serving the politically-motivated prison term that was to commence in October, Jürgen Graf traveled to Tehran at the invitation of a group of Iranian scholars and university professors who are sympathetic to Holocaust revisionism. The German speaking countrries of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have all banned Holocaust revisionism, and they have thus made free speech and free expression illegal in violation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights(which Germany and Austria signed. Switzerland is not a UN member nation). Britain, Ireland, Italy and the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden have refused to enact laws prohibiting freedom of speech. However, the United States is not much better than Germany, France, et. al. Ernest Zundel and Germar Rudolf are German citizens who sought refuge from persecution in the US after they were convicted of thought crimes in Germany, because, while they didn't deny many Jews were undoubtedly killed, they both wrote that the figure of 6 million deaths was incorrect and the gas chamber story was technically impossible. Rudolf and Zundel were both sentenced to prison and sought refuge in the US, but they were both deported by US authorities back to Germany at the request of the German government. On May 1, 2000, the Iranian embassy in Vienna granted refuge to an Austrian engineer, Wolfgang Fröhlich, who had been hounded for expressing dissident views on history. At Graf's 1998 trial, Fröhlich had testified that, for technical reasons, mass gassings with Zyklon could not have been carried out in the German wartime camps as alleged. In his request for asylum, he reported that he had been offered $5 million to repudiate his expert testimony in the Graf trial, and instead state that mass killings with Zyklon could somehow have happened as claimed. So you see, Iran isn't so bad after all. In many ways it's more democratic than the US: Iran has never deported scholars and historians to recieve show trails in kangaroo courts in Orwellian police states. Iran is certainly more democratic than many of the countries in Europe and more democratic than many of the countries with which the US has cordial relations, such as Israel, China, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

So, does this mean that if you can find one person in the West who will disclaim Historical fact, then the state sponsored revisionist history as it is practised in Iran must be true? Or are you saying that Iran is just as good a place to fool yourself as anywhere in the West. Maybe you just meant to say that since there are state lies told in Iran and you found one liar in the West, that Iran is just as good at lying as any Western Bi-Polar, psychotic citizen. I think that every state should be held to a higher standard and the citizens of that state are responsible for the actions of their government.

The issue isn't whether Graf, Rudolf and Zundel are lying or telling the truth. The issue is Freedom of Expression. All UN member nations are obligated to honor to UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and Austria have outlawed Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press and for all practical purposes, the US is repudiating the Constitution by deporting two scholars who only questioned what some would call a historical myth, namely the assertion that 6 million Jews were killed on German occupied territory during World War Two. I'm not arguing whether that happened or not. What I'm arguing is that someone should be able to say that 2 million died, or 100,000 died, or 25 million died. And in fact one can say whatever one wants regarding the Holocaust in Iran, or in Britain, or Ireland, but not in Switzerland or Germany. Germany, Switzerland, et.al are not only in violation of article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights--it is repugnant to any civilized person's notion of free inquiry, and free discussion for IDEAS TO BE MADE ILLEGAL--for "THOUGHT CRIMES" to be created. It's well known to any historian--indeed to anyone with common sense, that stories told during wartime and shortly after wartime are often nothing more than wartime propaganda. It is therefore essential that historians be allowed to examine all sides of a historical issue to arrive at the truth. But the "official" World War Two story has for some reason NEVER been questioned in the mainstream media in the Western nations. In schools and universities in the West only the "official history" as written by the victorious Allied Powers has ever been printed in history books. Only the "official" version has ever been cinematically portrayed. No one would be arrested for questioning to "Official Story" of the American Civil War. Yet people are arrested(in some countries) for questioning the official story of World War Two. This is an appropriate strategy for intellectual cretins, but intelligent people should be able to discuss all sides of an issue. The fact that historian are prosecuted for expressing dissenting views on the Holocaust has to make any thinking person wonder at the motives of those who don't want the other side told. Many people in Germany today say that living in Germany is like living in an ORWELLIAN POLICE STATE. People often say to each other, things like, "You had better not even think that!". This is exactly the kind of thing George Orwell warned about in "Animal Farm" and "1984". Why don't we see news reports at Yahoo about the sorry state of Freedom in Germany, a nation which is second only to China for it's oppressive atmosphere?

I wish people in the media would start using their heads. Just tell the whole world what their names are and exactly where they are breaking the new law! I wonder how long they will continue after this?

Send Ted to Iran or better yet Harry Belafonte!!

Has anyone noticed that "Forced Underground: Transcript" has been "forced underground"? i.e. removed from the SBC Yahoo Front Page? This happened shortly after I posted my comment(within an hour or so...it seems). Hmmm...an article about censorship is censored...

Im very glad that 'mine' has the guts to continue their music, regardless of what their childish government says. it is even better that they have hired a female lead singer! good job! It is people who continue to do what is right that change history. I hope i do not end up reading another article that says they have all been tortured and beheaded for continuing their music. Music is okay and good whether western or iranian. It is MUSIC. i agree though that the rocket scientist who wrote the article probably should not have given their names and location. way to be widely spreading incriminating evidence.

Hoffman, you seem to be a very well read idiot. Stating that "Iran isn't so bad after all. In many ways it's more democratic than the US: ... Iran is certainly more democratic than many of the countries in Europe." That's ridiculous. On the one issue of Holocaust Revisionism, you are correct. But by making that statement, you ignore the plethora of ways in which the US, Germany et. al. are much more democratic, such as public performances, freedom of speech in the media, elections, etc.

East or west, Islamic or secular, man or woman, English or Arabic, Metal is a dish best served sub-terranean ^_^

Why can't people write in paragraphs anymore?