Slugfest: Hitchens V Cole

"1. Christopher Hitchens quotes a listserv in which our good Dr. Ferret-face argues that jihadi President Ahmadinejad didn't really mean it when he said he intended to "wipe Israel off the map". Hitchens argues from authority (Nazila Fathi of the New York Times Tehran bureau) that the meaning of the speech was exactly what everyone but Cole understood it to be. He further argues from context that Iran's President-Saint was explicitly referencing "Mr. Death to Israel" Imam Khomeini. He asserts, in effect, that Cole is a fraud who is either lying about the self-evident meaning of Ahmedinejad's speech or who wouldn't know Farsi from a sack of elbows:"
IBC