“Mr. President, You Exhibit All The Signs Of A Petty And Cruel Dictator”
NEW YORK (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the stage at Columbia University to a blistering reception from the president of the school, who said the hard-line leader behaved like “a petty and cruel dictator.”
Ahmadinejad smiled as Columbia President Lee Bollinger took him to task over Iran’s human-rights record and foreign policy, and Ahmadinejad’s statements denying the Holocaust and calling for the disappearance of Israel.
“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Bollinger said, to loud applause.
He said Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust might fool the illiterate and ignorant.
“When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous,” Bollinger said. “The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history.”
Ahmadinejad rose, also to applause, and after a religious invocation, said Bollinger’s opening was: “an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here.”
“There were insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully,” Ahmadinejad said.
“At the outset, I want to complain a bit about the person who read this political statement made against me,” Ahmadinejad said. “In Iran, we don’t think it’s necessary to come in before the speech has already begun with a series of complaints … It was an insult to me and the knowledge of the persons here.”
“I should not begin by being affected by this unfriendly treatment,” he said.
He did not address Bollinger’s accusations directly, instead launching into a long religious discursion laced with quotes with the Quran before turning to criticism of the Bush administration and past American governments, from warrantless wiretapping to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Bollinger was strongly criticized for inviting Ahmadinejad to Columbia, and had promised tough questions in his introduction to Ahmadinejad’s talk. But the strident and personal nature of his attack on the president of Iran was startling.
“You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated,” Bollinger told Ahmadinejad about the leader’s Holocaust denial. “Will you cease this outrage?”
Ahmadinejad said he simply wanted more research on the Holocaust, which he said was abused as a justification for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians.
“Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?” Ahmadinejad asked. He closed his prepared remarks with a terse smile, to applause and boos, before taking questions from the audience.
President Bush said Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia “speaks volumes about really the greatness of America.”
He told Fox News Channel that if Bollinger considers Ahmadinejad’s visit an educational experience for Columbia students, “I guess it’s OK with me.”
Thousands of people jammed two blocks of 47th Street across from the United Nations to protest Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York. Organizers claimed a turnout of tens of thousands. Police did not immediately have a crowd estimate.
The speakers, most of them politicians and officials from Jewish organizations, proclaimed their support for Israel and criticized the Iranian leader for his remarks questioning the Holocaust.
“We’re here today to send a message that there is never a reason to give a hatemonger an open stage,” New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.
Protesters also assembled at Columbia. Dozens stood near the lecture hall where Ahmadinejad was scheduled to speak, linking arms and singing traditional Jewish folk songs about peace and brotherhood, while nearby a two-person band played “You Are My Sunshine.”
Signs in the crowd displayed a range of messages, including one that read “We
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LMFAO @ There are no homosexuals in Iran.
I thought Lee Bollinger did an EXCELLENT job! I owe him an apology. As for the assholes that were clapping when Monkey Ackipoopedmypantsagain spoke, what a bunch of morons.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:19 pmEver watch wrestling…
September 24th, 2007 at 12:22 pmBollinger was forced to give that introduction to save his Job.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:27 pmHis Idealology rhetoric was flowing for an A+ till he got to the “what Homo’s, there are no homo’s in Iran”….LMFAO
That and “I got jew friend”….”The holocaust needs more research, for instance was it 2 million or 1.75 million, hahaha see what I mean”. “We have newer physic’s to help with newer research, I am an academic, I know”…hehehehe, okay sorry, I’m paraphrasing
September 24th, 2007 at 12:31 pmThose who gave me crap about allowing A-Jad to speak can now eat crow. This is the strategy I have said we should use. Don’t draw inward, reaveal the evil for all that it is…in the open in broad daylight. It is time to elect leaders in this nation who are intelligent and have the cunning to win the debate against those who would do us harm; leaders like Columbia University’s Lee Bollinger. Pull away the shades with which the Bushites have covered this nation. Find someone who can win the philisophical depate as well as the armed struggle.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:33 pmHomosexuals all over the world, but, No homosexuals in Iran … Terrorists and A.Q. all over the world, but, No terrorists/Al-Quaida in Iraq?
Duuuhhhhh … gee, fellas! How the dad-gum heck could we`un been so dog gone wrong?
September 24th, 2007 at 12:33 pmOpen discussions with this a-hole does nothing. This is the typical mindset of the modern day liberal. That is, keep negotiating/appeasing the dictator and do nothing. Talking tough can accomplish nothing unless you back it up. Unfortunately, the only thing that can motivate a brutal dictator is brute force.
Ahmadinejad could care less about the blistering reception from the president of a school and neither should we. Don’t be fooled. This is nothing more than appeasement.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:44 pmIf you want to see the type of idiots who applauded this stunted dicktater watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfnn7wTgoE8
September 24th, 2007 at 12:47 pmThe implications of what is happening today won’t really be understood fully for quite a few more years but these last few years will be recorded as a major turning point in human history. It’s bigger than any one person can see right now.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:01 pmI was really against this at first, but the pres of columbia really did slam him. I am all for this, let him come to America and show himself as he truly is. Better to know your enemy then to ignore him. I actually see it as a stroke of genius on the President of Columbia’s part. It would be like inviting Hitler to speak before WW2, what better way to influence US opposition to him.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:09 pm“Those who gave me crap about allowing A-Jad to speak can now eat crow.”
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
“This is the strategy I have said we should use. Don’t draw inward, reaveal the evil for all that it is…”
Nobody here wants to “draw inward”. We want to fuck him up because “the evil for all that it is” has ALREADY been revealed.
You’re a great strategist though.
Go to Columbia yourself?
Nothing good or worthwhile came from this pukes mouth today and never will. Well, maybe ‘I surrender’.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:17 pm“I actually see it as a stroke of genius on the President of Columbia’s part. It would be like inviting Hitler to speak before WW2, what better way to influence US opposition to him.”
Is that a vote for Bollinger as Secretary of State?
September 24th, 2007 at 1:18 pmThe headlines should be Bollinger acknowledged the Patreaus report as true. Then ask Hilary if she has suspend reality to accept Bollinger’s opening statement. Now we need to take his sound bites and run them next to various Dems and ask the question wich direction is the dem party taking us into. His talking points sounded oddly familiar.
September 24th, 2007 at 2:12 pm[…] “Mr. President, You Exhibit All The Signs Of A Petty And Cruel Dictator” — Pat Dollard […]
September 24th, 2007 at 4:35 pm