by albion » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:07 pm
[note: this is the "Italy, Iran...Cartoons?" thread. I just re-titled it.]<br><br><br>Ok, this is completely weird. It doesn't make enough sense for me to try to work up an explanation, so I'll just lay it out there. First, for some reason, last November some Iranians decided to propagandize the late would-be heir to the Fiat empire, making him into a martyr for Islam.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>IRAN: LATE FIAT LONER BECOMES 'ISLAMIC MARTYR'</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Tehran, 15 Nov. (AKI) - A demonstration in front of the Italian embassy in Tehran, more than 100 university events marking the anniversary of his death and a 'documentary' about his life to be aired on Iranian state television. The subject of such obsessive interest in Iran is the late Edoardo Agnelli, heir to Italy's most famous industrial family, the Agnellis, who own the FIAT motoring empire. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Under an Iranian urban myth, recently resuscitated and embellished, Edoardo Agnelli's suicide five years ago was 'a Zionist plot' to rob him of his inheritance because he had 'converted to Islam'.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>State television is broadcasting a 'documentary' which accredits the thesis of a "Zionist plot" to get their hands on FIAT wealth by killing Edoardo Agnelli. The programme is also being shown on the Sahar satellite channel, translated into Russian, English, Arabic, Urdu and Azeri.<br><br>[...] The attempt to make the late Agnelli a Muslim martyr and portray him as persecuted by Jewish business interests is also part of a wider campaign to discredit Italy - one of Iran's biggest trading partners - in a moment of tension betwen Iran and the international community over its nuclear ambitions.<br><br>Rome and Tehran have been at loggerheads since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments last month that Israel should be "wiped off the map". The Italian government immediately summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against the remarks, while the Tehran did likewise once news broke of a pro-Israel rally organised by a Italian daily newspaper outside the Iranian embassy in Rome.<br><br>[...] The news agencies close to the government, such as Fars and Mehr, have given unprecedented coverage to any form of protest against the Rome government.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Business&loid=8.0.229030148&par=1&offset=0">www.adnki.com/index_2Leve...p;offset=0</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Frankly, I don't put much credence in the theory that Agnelli was "suicided" by Zionists to rob him of his inheritance, but clearly <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>something's</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> going on. Here's Wikipedia on Edouardo Agnelli's death:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>Gianni Agnelli, The industrialist patriarch of the Fiat empire at 79, looked at his dead son and listened as the police reported to him that his only son, Edoardo, had committed suicide by throwing himself off a 200-foot motorway bridge just outside Turin, headquarters of his family's car manufacturing empire. Realistically, he had never been in line to succeed his father. Nicknamed Crazy Eddie by the media, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>he despised the Agnelli business interests and capitalism and opted for the reading of literature and philosophy at Princeton and spending large amounts of time in Africa and India, pursuing his interest in spirituality, and drugs.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Edoardo was detained in Kenya ten years ago on heroin charges</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->; he was in possession of approximately 300 grams. The drug charges were eventually dropped and Edoardo was banned from entering Africa again.<br><br>The funeral was immediate. Later that day, the Agnellis began to arrive at the family mansion at Villa Perosa, near Turin. Edoardo was laid in the Agnelli vault on Friday. The gigantic Fiat vehicle plants paused for a moment of respect, then resumed production.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edoardo_Agnelli">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edoardo_Agnelli</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>FWIW, according to Wikipedia, Gianni Agnelli was "close friends" with Henry Kissinger. Anyway, today the whole "cartoon" thing became part of it:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>IRAN: HARDLINE NEWS AGENCY BLASTS ITALIAN DAILY</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Tehran, 6 Feb. (AKI) - The hardline Fars news agency, close to Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday launched a harsh attack on the Turin-based daily La Stampa - which is controlled by the Agnelli family, owner of the Fiat automobile empire. Fars called the paper a "Zionist organ" and heavily criticised its decison to publish some of the Danish-originated cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed that have recently triggered a crisis in Muslim-Western relations after their appearance in dozen newspapers worldwide.<br><br>"Since the Zionists laid their hands on Italy's largest industrial group, even Italy's foreign policy towards Iran has changed, and has become pro-Zionist. If Fiat continues with its anti-Iranian, pro-Zionist policies, the agency warns, we don't rule out a boycott of Italian cars, not only in Iran but in in the rest of the Islamic world," said Fars.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Business&loid=8.0.261299770&par=0">www.adnki.com/index_2Leve...&par=0</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>My only question is...wtf? <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=albion@rigorousintuition>albion</A> at: 2/8/06 12:16 am<br></i>