The news coverage of the United Nations debate/diatribe on Iran's nuclear programme has deliberately excluded information on the replies of Iranian and other delegates.

Some voices (not in the pay of, or intimidated by, the world's dumbest state) must have asked: why can't we include in this debate the fact that Israel not only openly threatens every country in the area with a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons supplied by the US and the UK but does so under the command of an acknowledged war criminal?

Or: how is it possible for the US to criticise while openly developing a new generation of nuclear weapons?

The UN should be discussing world-wide nuclear disarmament.

The lack of real news undermines the notion of democracy. The press, and the BBC in particular, control the mindset of all who do not scour alternative sources of news for a counter argument. We are now being softened up for British soldiers to be sent to yet another US massacre.

I believe the US is the most evil influence the world has ever endured. The White House is dominated by religious fanaticism and imbecility. It is the only country to use nuclear weapons and, along with Israel and the UK, is one of the only countries to threaten their use against non-nuclear states.

The US has also invaded or otherwise destabilised half the nations on earth in the interests of the obscenely rich one per cent who own 57 per cent of the world's wealth.

Now it threatens the continuation of life on this polluted planet and still the media prostrates itself at the tyrant's feet.

What is going on?

Roger Westmoreland,

The Oval, Pocklington.

Updated: 09:59 Thursday, September 22, 2005