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We are in the holy city of Qom an amazing place that feels a bit like
the Vatican and quite a lot like many other places of religious faith
even Jerusalem, if it's not sacrilegious to say so (I don't think it is
because it's a precious place to Christians, Muslims and Jews alike.)
Qom is the capital of Shia Islam. Mullahs wrestle over doctrine in
little cubby holes of small dusty side streets. Glittering mosaics festoon
the shrine of the sister of the 8th Imam, the gold leaf of the dome
above glistening in the night sky.
This is the centre of Iran's theocratic state, this is where decisions
are taken about temporal matters like the nuclear issue.
Tonight we're trying to find out how they do that. How does Shia Islam
decide what fits with their interpretation of their faith?
Julian Rush has gone one further he's been to labs here where Iranian
scientists are in the vanguard of stem cell research and amazingly he's
found the mullahs here backing it enthusiastically.
An intriguing contrast with America where George Bush has struggled to
contain stem cell research, Qom is actively supporting experiments to
revive the spinal nervous system of rats.
They believe they will produce a cloned sheep within three months, the
mother is pregnant already and they may be on the edge of other
breakthroughs...
By the way the Americans have confirmed that they have asked Iran to
help them in Iraq - our story from last night. We're continuing to work
on this matter, not least because it stands at such strange variance
from all the rest that is going on.
snowmails
and Pax:
Today we celebrate a new holiday in Iraq. It’s Democracy day. On this day last year we voted for the first time after the war.
Now give me a moment to do my Happy Dance to celebrate the fact that we have a couple of religious extremists sitting in parliament and deciding what my future will look like.
also:
The war was sold as something that can be done on the cheap because Iraq was basically supposed to pay for its own reconstruction with its big oil reserves. Then-Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (now the president of the World Bank) made it clear that Iraq's oil was going to save American taxpayers a lot of money.
Wolfowitz told Congress on March 27, 2003, that the U.S. was "dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." He added that Iraq's oil revenues could "bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years."
In fact the Department of State's reports say that oil revenue over the last 3 years has been approximately $45.5 billion but this money seems be going down a black hole. The money is not paying for reconstruction and Iraqis are not enjoying any energy riches.
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