Ahmadinejad speaks
And makes a fool of himself.
NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust in a tense appearance Monday at Columbia University, whose president accused the hard-line leader of behaving like "a petty and cruel dictator."
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Ahmadinejad smiled at first but appeared increasingly agitated, decrying the "insults" and "unfriendly treatment." Columbia President Lee Bollinger and audience members took him to task over Iran's human-rights record and foreign policy, as well as Ahmadinejad's statements denying the Holocaust and calling for the disappearance of Israel.
It is for this reason that I don't mind when people like Ahmadinejad are given forums outside the safety of a sympathetic audience.
You get to hear things like this:
Asked about executions of homosexuals in Iran, Ahmadinejad said the judiciary system executed violent criminals and high-level drug dealers, comparing them to microbes eliminated through medical treatment. Pressed specifically about punishment of homosexuals, he said: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."
With the audience laughing derisively, he continued: "In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this."
Similarly, there were no coalition forces at the Baghdad airport.
Ahmadinejad is diminished in the eyes of anyone who was present or who reads these reports. What sympathy he has left in the states is held by those believing that an enemy of President Bush's is a friend of theirs.
It was also fun to see thousands of people demonstrating against him in New York. If he held any delusions about being the Persian Gorbasm they were soon dissipated.
NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust in a tense appearance Monday at Columbia University, whose president accused the hard-line leader of behaving like "a petty and cruel dictator."
ADVERTISEMENT
Ahmadinejad smiled at first but appeared increasingly agitated, decrying the "insults" and "unfriendly treatment." Columbia President Lee Bollinger and audience members took him to task over Iran's human-rights record and foreign policy, as well as Ahmadinejad's statements denying the Holocaust and calling for the disappearance of Israel.
It is for this reason that I don't mind when people like Ahmadinejad are given forums outside the safety of a sympathetic audience.
You get to hear things like this:
Asked about executions of homosexuals in Iran, Ahmadinejad said the judiciary system executed violent criminals and high-level drug dealers, comparing them to microbes eliminated through medical treatment. Pressed specifically about punishment of homosexuals, he said: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."
With the audience laughing derisively, he continued: "In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this."
Similarly, there were no coalition forces at the Baghdad airport.
Ahmadinejad is diminished in the eyes of anyone who was present or who reads these reports. What sympathy he has left in the states is held by those believing that an enemy of President Bush's is a friend of theirs.
It was also fun to see thousands of people demonstrating against him in New York. If he held any delusions about being the Persian Gorbasm they were soon dissipated.