The BBC report of President Ahmadinejad’s announcement of the release the 15 British service personnel quotes him thus:
On the occasion of the birth anniversary of the great prophet of Islam, and on the occasion of Easter and Passover, I would like to announce that the great nation of Iran, while it is entitled to put the British military personnel on trial, has pardoned these 15 sailors and gives their release to the people of Britain as a gift.
This report is referenced in a new Wikinews entry (hat tip Jonathan in the comments).
Why is this interesting? Well, for President “wipe from the map/remove from the pages of time/take your pick” Ahmadinejad to mention that well-known Jewish festival Passover, would be quite something. It’s almost beyond belief that the diminutive anti-Semite Ahmadinejad would allow the words to pass his lips. So unbelievable in fact that I thought I’d Google corroboration of the BBC’s take on the story. Before I started, I checked out the other sources listed on the Wikinews entry and none of these corroborates the BBC take. I then checked some other news sites:
Sky
Fox
CBC
Bloomberg
Scotsman
Still nada. In fact, the only other references I can find to “Passover” in the Google search results are sundry blogs and other commentary sites.
Now, I’m implying nothing and would genuinely welcome the input of readers who can either cite alternative news sources for the reference to “Passover”, or add to my list of news sites that mention no such thing.
P.S. The president’s official site is no help whatsoever.
