Lee Bollinger Was Rude To President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad loves New York, but what the University of Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger offered him was not a juicy Big Apple, but a sour grape. Because, Lee Bollinger skipped his company manners and pulled the red carpet off the feet of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he insulted him in front of the packed auditorium of the Ivy League Columbia University, Monday and Ahmadinejad retorted that Lee Bollinger was rude. And I agree with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Because, Lee Bollinger’s uncourteous behaviour was uncalled for. Why should he invite the leader of a great nation to speak at your college and turn around to call him "petty and cruel dictator" before ordinary students, other dignitaries and other members of the university community? Lee Bollinger was a bad host.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has the right to question the Holocaust and support the Holocaust revisionists. The Jews have been using the Holocaust for their own selfish reasons. The questions that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked on the 9/11 terrorist attacks were quite rational.
We should not show uncourteous behaviour to any, however they may differ from us in beliefs and politics.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has a more commendable academic record than Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a brilliant engineering professor before he became the President of Iran.
Ahmadinejad was right that Bollinger's inappropriate introduction was "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here."

"There were insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully," Ahmadinejad said.
He said Holocaust apologists have been using it in defence of the Jewish persecution of the Palestinians. And I agree with him. The Jews are among the worst racists on earth. And we are innocent of their Holocaust. And I wonder what the defenders of the state of Israel were doing when the Nazis were exterminating the Jews in Germany, Poland, Austria, France, Italy, and other parts they occupied during World War 2? The Holocaust would never have occurred if the so-called Allied Forces were not so dumb and hypocritical. When the Allies eventually intervened, it was already too late to save the majority of the Jews and Gypsies.

"When you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," Lee Bollinger ranted aloud to impress the Zionist Pharisees among other apologists in America.
Yes, the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history, because of the perpetuation of the persecution complex of the Jews and the hypocrisy of their imperialistic allies. They pretend to be ignorant of the holocaust of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The worst holocaust in history is not Lee Bollinger’s so called most documented event in human history, but the Holocaust of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They want us to forget that over 12 million Africans were taken as hostages from 45 tribes of the whole continent of Africa and over 8 million Africans were killed during the darkest period in human history.

My conclusion on the impropriety of University of Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger during the hyped visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is already made by one of the protesters in New York, who said:
"We refuse to choose between Islamic fundamentalism and American imperialism."


By Orikinla Osinachi




Below is the text of the President Lee C. Bollinger's Introductory Remarks at SIPA-World Leaders Forum with President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

President Lee C. Bollinger's Introductory Remarks at SIPA-World Leaders Forum with President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad



Sept. 24, 2007

I would like to begin by thanking Dean John Coatsworth and Professor Richard Bulliet for their work in organizing this event and for their commitment to the role of the School of International and Public Affairs and its role in training future leaders in world affairs. If today proves anything it will be that there is an enormous amount of work ahead for all of us. This is just one of many events on Iran that will run throughout this academic year, all to help us better understand this critical and complex nation in today’s geopolitics.

Before speaking directly to the current President of Iran, I have a few critically important points to emphasize.

First, since 2003, the World Leaders Forum has advanced Columbia’s longstanding tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate, especially on global issues. It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas. It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To hold otherwise would make vigorous debate impossible.

Second, to those who believe that this event never should have happened, that it is inappropriate for the University to conduct such an event, I want to say that I understand your perspective and respect it as reasonable. The scope of free speech and academic freedom should itself always be open to further debate. As one of the more famous quotations about free speech goes, it is “an experiment, as all life is an experiment.” I want to say, however, as forcefully as I can, that this is the right thing to do and, indeed, it is required by existing norms of free speech, the American university, and Columbia itself.

Third, to those among us who experience hurt and pain as a result of this day, I say on behalf of all of us we are sorry and wish to do what we can to alleviate it.

Fourth, to be clear on another matter - this event has nothing whatsoever to do with any “rights” of the speaker but only with our rights to listen and speak. We do it for ourselves.

We do it in the great tradition of openness that has defined this nation for many decades now. We need to understand the world we live in, neither neglecting its glories nor shrinking from its threats and dangers. It is consistent with the idea that one should know thine enemies, to have the intellectual and emotional courage to confront the mind of evil and to prepare ourselves to act with the right temperament. In the moment, the arguments for free speech will never seem to match the power of the arguments against, but what we must remember is that this is precisely because free speech asks us to exercise extraordinary self- restraint against the very natural but often counter-productive impulses that lead us to retreat from engagement with ideas we dislike and fear. In this lies the genius of the American idea of free speech.

Lastly, in universities, we have a deep and almost single-minded commitment to pursue the truth. We do not have access to the levers of power. We cannot make war or peace. We can only make minds. And to do this we must have the most full freedom of inquiry.

Let me now turn to Mr. Ahmadinejad.

THE BRUTAL CRACKDOWN ON SCHOLARS, JOURNALISTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES

Over the last two weeks, your government has released Dr. Haleh Esfandiari and Parnaz Axima; and just two days ago Kian Tajbakhsh, a graduate of Columbia with a PhD in urban planning. While our community is relieved to learn of his release on bail, Dr. Tajbakhsh remains in Teheran, under house arrest, and he still does not know whether he will be charged with a crime or allowed to leave the country. Let me say this for the record, I call on the President today to ensure that Kian Tajbaksh will be free to travel out of Iran as he wishes. Let me also report today that we are extending an offer to Dr. Tajbaksh to join our faculty as a visiting professor in urban planning here at his Alma Mater, in our Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. And we hope he will be able to join us next semester.

The arrest and imprisonment of these Iranian Americans for no good reason is not only unjustified, it runs completely counter to the very values that allow today’s speaker to even appear on this campus.

But at least they are alive.

According to Amnesty International, 210 people have been executed in Iran so far this year – 21 of them on the morning of September 5th alone. This annual total includes at least two children – further proof, as Human Rights Watch puts it, that Iran leads the world in executing minors.

There is more.

Iran hanged up to 30 people this past July and August during a widely reported suppression of efforts to establish a more open, democratic society in Iran. Many of these executions were carried out in public view, a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party.

These executions and others have coincided with a wider crackdown on student activists and academics accused of trying to foment a so-called “soft revolution”. This has included jailing and forced retirements of scholars. As Dr. Esfandiari said in a broadcast interview since her release, she was held in solitary confinement for 105 days because the government “believes that the United States . . . is planning a Velvet Revolution” in Iran.

In this very room last year we learned something about Velvet Revolutions from Vaclav Havel. And we will likely hear the same from our World Leaders Forum speaker this evening – President Michelle Bachelet Jeria of Chile. Both of their extraordinary stories remind us that there are not enough prisons to prevent an entire society that wants its freedom from achieving it.

We at this university have not been shy to protest and challenge the failures of our own government to live by these values; and we won’t be shy in criticizing yours.

Let’s, then, be clear at the beginning, Mr. President you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.

And so I ask you:

Why have women, members of the Baha’i faith, homosexuals and so many of our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?

Why in a letter last week to the Secretary General of the UN did Akbar Gangi, Iran’s leading political dissident, and over 300 public intellectuals, writers and Nobel Laureates express such grave concern that your inflamed dispute with the West is distracting the world’s attention from the intolerable conditions your regime has created within Iran? In particular, the use of the Press Law to ban writers for criticizing the ruling system.

Why are you so afraid of Iranian citizens expressing their opinions for change?

In our country, you are interviewed by our press and asked that you to speak here today. And while my colleague at the Law School Michael Dorf spoke to Radio Free Europe [sic, Voice of America] viewers in Iran a short while ago on the tenets of freedom of speech in this country, I propose going further than that. Let me lead a delegation of students and faculty from Columbia to address your university about free speech, with the same freedom we afford you today? Will you do that?

THE DENIAL OF THE HOLOCAUST
In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as a “fabricated” “legend.” One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers.

For the illiterate and ignorant, this is dangerous propaganda. When you come to a place like this, this makes you, quite simply, ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.

You should know that Columbia is a world center of Jewish studies and now, in partnership with the YIVO Institute, of Holocaust studies. Since the 1930s, we’ve provided an intellectual home for countless Holocaust refugees and survivors and their children and grandchildren. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history. Because of this, and for many other reasons, your absurd comments about the “debate” over the Holocaust both defy historical truth and make all of us who continue to fear humanity’s capacity for evil shudder at this closure of memory, which is always virtue’s first line of defense.

Will you cease this outrage?

THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL
Twelve days ago, you said that the state of Israel “cannot continue its life.” This echoed a number of inflammatory statements you have delivered in the last two years, including in October 2005 when you said that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”

Columbia has over 800 alumni currently living in Israel. As an institution we have deep ties with our colleagues there. I personally have spoken out in the most forceful terms against proposals to boycott Israeli scholars and universities, saying that such boycotts might as well include Columbia. More than 400 college and university presidents in this country have joined in that statement. My question, then, is: Do you plan on wiping us off the map, too?

FUNDING TERRORISM
According to reports by the Council on Foreign Relations, it’s well documented that Iran is a state sponsor of terror that funds such violent group as the Lebanese Hezbollah, which Iran helped organize in the 1980s, the Palestinian Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

While your predecessor government was instrumental in providing the US with intelligence and base support in its 2001 campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan, your government is now undermining American troops in Iraq by funding, arming, and providing safe transit to insurgent leaders like Muqtada al-Sadr and his forces.

There are a number of reports that also link your government with Syria’s efforts to destabalize the fledgling Lebanese government through violence and political assassination.

My question is this: Why do you support well-documented terrorist organizations that continue to strike at peace and democracy in the Middle East, destroying lives and civil society in the region?

PROXY WAR AGAINST US. TROOPS IN IRAQ
In a briefing before the National Press Club earlier this month, General David Petraeus reported that arms supplies from Iran, including 240mm rockets and explosively formed projectiles, are contributing to “a sophistication of attacks that would by no means be possible without Iranian support.”

A number of Columbia graduates and current students are among the brave members of our military who are serving or have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. They, like other Americans with sons, daughters, fathers, husbands and wives serving in combat, rightly see your government as the enemy.

Can you tell them and us why Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq by arming Shi’a militia targeting and killing US. troops?

FINALLY, IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM AND INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS
This week the United Nations Security Council is contemplating expanding sanctions for a third time because of your government’s refusal to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. You continue to defy this world body by claiming a right to develop peaceful nuclear power, but this hardly withstands scrutiny when you continue to issue military threats to neighbors. Last week, French President Sarkozy made clear his lost patience with your stall tactics; and even Russia and China have shown concern.

Why does your country continue to refuse to adhere to international standards for nuclear weapons verification in defiance of agreements that you have made with the UN nuclear agency? And why have you chosen to make the people of your country vulnerable to the effects of international economic sanctions and threaten to engulf the world with nuclear annihilation?

Let me close with this comment. Frankly, and in all candor, Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions. But your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mindset that characterizes so much of what you say and do. Fortunately, I am told by experts on your country, that this only further undermines your position in Iran with all the many good-hearted, intelligent citizens there. A year ago, I am reliably told, your preposterous and belligerent statements in this country (as in your meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations) so embarrassed sensible Iranian citizens that this led to your party’s defeat in the December mayoral elections. May this do that and more.

I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for. I only wish I could do better.



Note: A complete video of the SIPA-World Leaders Forum with the President of Iran will be available on the Web at www.worldleaders.columbia.edu.

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Lee Bollinger is just another tyrant like Ahmedinejad. Only difference between them was that one was on his home-turf while the other was in unfamiliar territory. What kind of a man initiates that kind of session just so he can score cheap points and play to the gallery?

Orikinla, you simply blew my socks off with your twisted logic and aversion to truth as expressed in your heavily biased write up.

Orikinla:

Lee Bollinger Was Rude To President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad loves New York, but what the University of Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger offered him was not a juicy Big Apple, but a sour grape. Because, Lee Bollinger skipped his company manners and pulled the red carpet off the feet of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he insulted him in front of the packed auditorium of the Ivy League Columbia University, Monday and Ahmadinejad retorted that Lee Bollinger was rude. And I agree with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Because, Lee Bollinger’s uncourteous behaviour was uncalled for. Why should he invite the leader of a great nation to speak at your college and turn around to call him "petty and cruel dictator" before ordinary students, other dignitaries and other members of the university community? Lee Bollinger was a bad host.

Where were you when Ahmedinejad told us TWICE that Isreal be wiped OFF the map of the world? Where were you when Ahmedinejad refered to those he expects to be "good hosts" as the GREAT SATAN?
Where do you hide your head when thousands of Iranians chant "death to America" after every friday prayers?

Now you suddenly think Bollinger was rude?

Orikinla:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has the right to question the Holocaust and support the Holocaust revisionists.

this is laughably ridiculous. And Bollinger does not have the right to question Ahmedinejad's mental capacity to refer to one of the world's most documentated cases of genocide as a myth?

Get real Oriki!

Orikinla:

The Jews have been using the Holocaust for their own selfish reasons.

How? Beyond simply mouthing the same tired old refrain from the lips of imams and the left, can you please lucidly describe HOW the Jews have been using the holocaust for their selfish reasons?

Orikinla:

The questions that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked on the 9/11 terrorist attacks were quite rational.

lol this is silly!! Would the South African president be welcome to Nigeria to ask disparaging questions about the Nigerian civil war?
Did 9/11 occur in Tehran? Why is Ahmedinejad so interested in it?

Orikinla:

We should not show uncourteous behaviour to any, however they may differ from us in beliefs and politics.

Tell that to Ahmedinejad when next he refers to the US as the great satan and the ayatollah chants "death to America". I detest hypocrites!

How good a "host" was Iran to the recently detained Iranian-American professors detained on trumped up charges?

Orikinla:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has a more commendable academic record than Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a brilliant engineering professor before he became the President of Iran.
Ahmadinejad was right that Bollinger's inappropriate introduction was "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here."

This is nonsense! You keep hammering on the rudeness of Bollinger's comments, however NONE of you has come out to tell us that Bollinger LIED in his comments! Was he telling the truth or not?

When a man says that one of the world's most documented cases of genocide is a myth, is that not an insult to information, knowledge and the memory of the more than 6 million victims?

Orikinla:

"There were insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully," Ahmadinejad said.
He said Holocaust apologists have been using it in defence of the Jewish persecution of the Palestinians. And I agree with him.

You agree with him on what basis? How are the Jews "persecuting" the palestinians? The same "persecuted" palestinians who have so far lobbed over 1500 rockets at northern Isreali towns in less than 2 yrs? Would Nigeria be considered as persecuting Cameroon if it took action against government sponsored terrorists who spent their time firing rockets at PortHarcourt?

Is it the same Isreal that the palestinians were struggling desperately to enter when Hamas took over Gaza? The same Isreal that is 20% Arab? If Isreal was persecuting the Arabs, why arent those 20% crying to get out of Isreal? Why are millions more falling over themselves to enter?

Orikinla:

The Jews are among the worst racists on earth.

The same unproven leftist crap! Orikinla just lost every ounce of my respect.

Orikinla:

"When you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," Lee Bollinger ranted aloud to impress the Zionist Pharisees among other apologists in America.
Yes, the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history, because of the perpetuation of the persecution complex of the Jews and the hypocrisy of their imperialistic allies. They pretend to be ignorant of the holocaust of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The worst holocaust in history is not Lee Bollinger’s so called most documented event in human history, but the Holocaust of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They want us to forget that over 12 million Africans were taken as hostages from 45 tribes of the whole continent of Africa and over 8 million Africans were killed during the darkest period in human history.

hmmm it might be interesting to note that despite the transatlantic trade, we dont have Europeans and Arabs lobbing rockets at us all day!

Orikinla:

My conclusion on the impropriety of University of Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger during the hyped visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is already made by one of the protesters in New York, who said:
"We refuse to choose between Islamic fundamentalism and American imperialism."

A very silly, ill-researched write-up that exposes the immature mind of the writer. Bollinger has a right to freedom of speech, all of a sudden he is being accused of American imperialism. Until people like you clearly point out the percieved LIES in Bollinger's comments, i continue to percieve you all as hypocrites of the highest order and a clear waste of space.

ziddy:

Lee Bollinger is just another tyrant like Ahmedinejad. Only difference between them was that one was on his home-turf while the other was in unfamiliar territory. What kind of a man initiates that kind of session just so he can score cheap points and play to the gallery?

Bollinger has nothing to gain by having Ahmedinejad to his college, infact he faced tremendous pressure to cancel the invite. Rather it is Ahmedinejad who wanted to use the opportunity as a photo-op and a platform to score cheap political points with the American people. Thankfully Bollinger was not prepared to give him his 5 minutes of fame.

Ahmadinejad is entitle to his opinion and views, American press has been destroying this guy for years. How many people have been killed senselessly with this war on terror?

Why are they not going after Bush? How many more have to be killed before we call for action. leave this guy alone please, let he speak what he believes

Mamajama:

Ahmadinejad is entitle to his opinion and views, American press has been destroying this guy for years. How many people have been killed senselessly with this war on terror?

Why are they not going after Bush? How many more have to be killed before we call for action. leave this guy alone please, let he speak what he believes

If Bush had called for the destruction of Isreal, hypocrites like you would have been up in arms!

davidylan when BUSH called for the devastation and destruction of innocent life's in IRAQ what did punk like you say?

Where is the weapon of mass distruction? why are all the people in his cabinet retiring? I hate this crucify the bad guy crap American journalist are playing. Play the game fair please. we can protect one lier and prosecute one outs spoken guy. level the playing field.

Was Ahmadinejad ever accused of killing innocent people? all we can only judge him by his comments

Mamajama:

davidylan when BUSH called for the devastation and destruction of innocent life's in IRAQ what did punk like you say?

You like to make plenty of noise, please provide a link where Bush cLEARLY called for devastation and destruction of life and infrastructure in Iraq. Only then will you not sound like a fool.

Mamajama:

Where is the weapon of mass distruction? why are all the people in his cabinet retiring? I hate this crucify the bad guy crap American journalist are playing. Play the game fair please. we can protect one lier and prosecute one outs spoken guy. level the playing field.

Infact American journalists have not been playing fair, they have been heavily biased against Bush. A guy who openly supports/sponsors terrorism - hezbollah, actively calls for the destruction of Isreal, refers to the US as the Great Satan, spends his fridays prayers chanting "Death to America" is indeed a bad guy.

Wake me up when Bush starts calling for the destruction of Iran.

Mamajama:

Was Ahmadinejad ever accused of killing innocent people? all we can only judge him by his comments

lol since it didnt make headline news on BBC or CNN, trolls like you can continue to claim ignorance of Ahmedinejad's atrocities. go to Iran and do your research first before trotting out lies and half truths. Just makes you look increasingly ignorant.

Hmmm. . .

I really don't care to argue over the character of Ahmadinejad
but certainly in his capacity as moderator of the meet, Lee Bollinger went
above board in his introductions.

I would assume that he has to maintain a semblance of impartiality, at least overtly.

ocho cinco:

Hmmm. . .

I really don't care to argue over the character of Ahmadinejad
but certainly in his capacity as moderator of the meet, Lee Bollinger went
above board in his introductions.

I would assume that he has to maintain a semblance of impartiality, at least overtly.

No Bollinger did not go overboard in his introductory remarks, no Bollinger is not compelled to maintain a semblance of partiality.
Bollinger is entitled to his freedom of speech in HIS OWN country in HIS OWN school! We cant pretend to hold Bollinger to a higher moral standard while excusing the clearly racist views of Ahmedinejad.

Ahmedinejad entertains himself declaring that Isreal should be driven to the sea and refers to the same US as the "great satan" on his own national television, why should Bollinger be compelled to respect him or his views?

davidylan:

No Bollinger did not go overboard in his introductory remarks, no Bollinger is not compelled to maintain a semblance of partiality.
Bollinger is entitled to his freedom of speech in HIS OWN country in HIS OWN school! We can't pretend to hold Bollinger to a higher moral standard while excusing the clearly racist views of Ahmedinejad.

Ahmedinejad entertains himself declaring that Isreal should be driven to the sea and refers to the same US as the "great satan" on his own national television, why should Bollinger be compelled to respect him or his views?

That Bollinger is entitled to his own opinion I dont question, but the context I contend does not give him the leeway to make such remarks.

While David you are very sure in your own mind about the nature of the Iranian regime, countless others disagree with you, and several were in that
audience yesterday, perhaps not in the majority.

Bollinger if he wanted to make his views known should have given up his moderator responsibilities and joined the audience.

It wasn't even couched in sarcasm, just a naked mini rant.

ocho cinco:

That Bollinger is entitled to his own opinion I don't question, but the context I contend does not give him the leeway to make such remarks.

perhaps "freedom of speech" now has a certain "context" where it can not be used? Bollinger was speaking in his own country, in his own school. Ahmedinejad had ample opportunities to decline what was definitely going to be a hostile reception but he chose to attend.

Lets call a spade a spade, millions of Americans are forced to watch thousands of Iranians led by the ayatollah and Ahmedinejad chant "death to America" after every friday prayers. A good million are yet still forced to watch Ahmedinejad call America the great satan and contemplate a world without Isreal and the USA.

Do you then expect them to roll out the red carpet and festoon him with flowers and perfume when he comes on another unwarranted visit?

ocho cinco:

While David you are very sure in your own mind about the nature of the Iranian regime, countless others disagree with you, and several were in that
audience yesterday, perhaps not in the majority.

Let's not even bother arguing this, that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and is actively seeking a nuclear weapon is only news to the ignorant.

ocho cinco:

Bollinger if he wanted to make his views known should have given up his moderator responsibilities and joined the audience.

Bollinger did not tell you he was only there as a moderator.

ocho cinco:

It wasn't even couched in sarcasm, just a naked mini rant.

and how did Ahmedinejad couch his call for the destruction of Isreal? In sarcasm?

The plan of the USA Government is to make the minds of their citizens one tracked. You can imagine where a referee has already written a player's name for a red card even before the match began.


All the same, Ahmedinejad is entirely to blame. He requested for this treated. No guarantees were given to him. He had always known that the American society was being brainwashed but even he did not expect that it had gotten to such a level that even common due respect cannot be afforded to a guest and scores are announced even prior to the start of whistle.

It is that bad. Thank God he now has a clear picture of whom he is dealing with. He thinks he can appeal to the intellect of the American people, he doesn't know that they have already bought him a coffin.

He'd take his arse back to Iran and think of a more aggressive means of communicating with the USA. They don't understand dialogue. They only require one side of the story to make up their minds.

davidylan chill dude, we know about IRAQ and their alleged adventures. were this not the same media that help propagate a war against IRAQ?

What is the difference between BUSH the world police and Ahmadinejad ?

Why do you think most Islamic nation hate USA today? You can't judge people based on senseless allegation, we all know they said IRAQ had Mobile WMD homes, and we are yet to find a single WMD. please. We are tired of all this lies.

mamajama,
can u listen to urself? ahmadinejad is entitle to his opinion so only him has the right to say his mind and americans are not entitle to their opinions.
no matter how bad the americans are, it is only in the usa that principal critics can be allowed to address a crowd.
among other countries of the world, no critic can address a group in the open in iran so what is the basis for comparism here.
let us be reasonable here,how on earth can the president call someone else rude when he has done what no other president has done in the world.
for a man ( president ) to call for the wipe out of another country is unheard of. it is obvious that the man is doubting holucost as well as 9/11.
his questions on 9/11 indicates that he knows what others do not know about the incident.
well, it is good that the whole world is going mad because the french president is the key player now in the war against iran's nuclear intentions.

@Mamajama

not to forget that the USA Government showed the whole world that their satellites were following the WMDs as they were being transported from one site to the other.

After Collin Powell showed the images at the United Nations, the whole world believed except Al Baradei, France and myself.

Thank God the very day Collin Powell showed those images, Al Baradei challenged him that if it be the case that the USA intelligence was watching these WMDs being ferried all over the place, then there is absolutely no need for war as these satellites can now be used to direct the IAEA to where the weapons can be found.

The French Government questioned why American satellites positioned almost same as French satellites would pic up images of WMDs while the French satellites did not. Some people said the American satellites were of higher resolution quality. At least now we know better.

The annoying thing right now is that the same idiots who believe all the Bush lies then, it's the same exact club of morons who are believing him now. You can't old dogs new tricks.

I personally sent a message to CNN regarding the forgery of the images and it was read despite editing several parts.

@Mamajama

not to forget that the USA Government showed the whole world that their satellites were following the WMDs as they were being transported from one site to the other.

After Collin Powell showed the images at the United Nations, the whole world believed except Al Baradei, France and myself.

Thank God the very day Collin Powell showed those images, Al Baradei challenged him that if it be the case that the USA intelligence was watching these WMDs being ferried all over the place, then there is absolutely no need for war as these satellites can now be used to direct the IAEA to where the weapons can be found.

The French Government questioned why American satellites positioned almost same as French satellites would pic up images of WMDs while the French satellites did not. Some people said the American satellites were of higher resolution quality. At least now we know better.

The annoying thing right now is that the same idiots who believe all the Bush lies then, it's the same exact club of morons who are believing him now. You can't old dogs new tricks.

I personally sent a message to CNN regarding the forgery of the images and it was read despite editing several parts.

ChidiChris brought up an interesting question that no one bothered to ask. . . we all cry freedom of speech, would George Bush have been welcome to make a speech in an Iranian university?

denex:

The plan of the USA Government is to make the minds of their citizens one tracked. You can imagine where a referee has already written a player's name for a red card even before the match began.

and this is coming from someone who has never been to the US. Absurd reasoning

denex:

All the same, Ahmedinejad is entirely to blame. He requested for this treated. No guarantees were given to him. He had always known that the American society was being brainwashed but even he did not expect that it had gotten to such a level that even common due respect cannot be afforded to a guest and scores are announced even prior to the start of whistle.

The Americans must have been brain washed to "assume" that ahmedinejad called them the great satan. And oh who are those who constantly yell "death to America"? Just one more symptom of American brainwashing too?

denex:

He'd take his arse back to Iran and think of a more aggressive means of communicating with the USA. They don't understand dialogue. They only require one side of the story to make up their minds.

And ahmedinejad understands dialogue?  The same "dialogue" he employs when dealing with homosexuals and young girls convicted of crimes against chastity? The same "dialogue" ahmedinejad shows to university lecturers in Tehran? the same dialogue he advocates when he contemplates a world without the USA and calls for the destruction of Isreal? This Denex guy needs to go back to psychotherapy sessions. Your IQ is too low.

Mamajama:

davidylan chill dude, we know about IRAQ and their alleged adventures. were this not the same media that help propagate a war against IRAQ?

Iraq! Iraq! Iraq! One would think the people of Darfur where nothing but flies. Since there is no US to blame there we all keep the silence of the hypocrite.
Where was your "love" for the Iraqis whe Saddam was butchering them with chemical weapons?

Mamajama:

Why do you think most Islamic nation hate USA today? You can't judge people based on senseless allegation, we all know they said IRAQ had Mobile WMD homes, and we are yet to find a single WMD. please. We are tired of all this lies.

They hate Isreal, France, England, Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Sudan, Australia, Uganda . . . islamic nations thrive on hate. All these pretence that they now hate the US because of Iraq is nothing but deciet!
Iraq did not start until 2003 yet the islamic world was hating the US as far back as 2001. Tell us something new, we are tired of the same old propaganda.

You seem so hung up about the "lies" of WMDs in Iraq. Are you this concerned about your neighbours in Darfur and Congo? Arent you tired of the lies about the carnage in the Niger Delta?

@davidylan, the professional debunker previously known as PTH

you statement that Islam thrives on violence clearly exposes you. I advise you to find out the country that has aggressed the most against other nations and check its national religion then you may be a bit enlightened.

And I want to ask you if you are not among those that were fooled by the lies of the Bush Regime with various fancy CGI of WMD being relocated all over Iraq both in video and pictures. Were you not among those that were conned?

davidylan, you have no IQ.

Denex, much of your points about America's faults are quite valid
but forced to choose sides between an American juggernaut and
a bunch of pestilent fanatics, I would rather veer towards that juggernaut
despite its faults.

ocho cinco:

Denex, much of your points about America's faults are quite valid
but forced to choose sides between an American juggernaut and
a bunch of pestilent fanatics, I would rather veer towards that juggernaut
despite its faults.

Denex is a Muslim. . . group think is particularly acute with people of that religion.

mofe_obo_o:

he can only do that in America - the so called land of the free where everybody still stay surpressed and does the whim of the so called President.

He can't say that to him in the middle east - he wont leave the place alive - white boy.

Does that not say much for those who whine about freedom of speech? Ahmedinejad can come to the US and accuse its leaders of genocide, refer to the holocaust as a myth and question the events of 9/11. Can George Bush go to a Tehran university and insult the ayatollah?

denex:

@davidylan, the professional debunker previously known as PTH

you statement that Islam thrives on violence clearly exposes you. I advise you to find out the country that has aggressed the most against other nations and check its national religion then you may be a bit enlightened.

You're nothing but an empty barrel making so much noise. Mention just ONE of those countries i previously outlined and tell me one that has not fallen victim to the "peaceful" nature of islam? As usual rather than engage what's left of your grey matter in rational thinking you quickly look for another avenue to blame the US.

denex:

And I want to ask you if you are not among those that were fooled by the lies of the Bush Regime with various fancy CGI of WMD being relocated all over Iraq both in video and pictures. Were you not among those that were conned?

You keep crying about WMD in Iraq that is thousands of miles away from you, i have only two questions for you hypocrite;

1. how loudly have you been crying on behalf of your brothers in Darfur who have lost far far more than the Iraqis?

2. Where was your "sympathy" when Saddam was gassing his own people?

I-man:

Denex is a Muslim. . . group think is particularly acute with people of that religion.

But come to think of it, the bush administration leading up to the war

is a classic 'group think' study.

@Davidylan

Even you a rabid pro-american must admit that the Iraq war was a faulty decision.
and has been an unmitigated disaster.

America has lost as many lives as it lost on Sept 11, and is billions of dollars out
of pocket to boot,

Worse, Iraq has become a killing field, worse than when Saddam was in power.

That militants have become a scourge of the populace in Iraq is also directly linked
to a high handed and conceited military strategy.

ocho cinco:

But come to think of it, the bush administration leading up to the war

is a classic 'group think' study.

Its one thing for people working within a particular Govt to tend towards particular viewpoints.It is quite another for people of a particular religion. . . .to tend towards one viewpoint on most issues in the Middle East.

Some Christians are pro-Palestine,some are not.Some were in favour of the Iraq war,some were not.No such diversity exists within the "Umma".You can pre-guess an opinion here on NL from a Muslim once it concerns the Middle East.

@I-man

I would suggest that there is a variation in the Christian faith
towards various contentious issues because of its loose hold on
its congregation. When the Pope ruled all that he surveyed in Catholic
Europe, a stifled singular viewpoint was par for the course.

ocho cinco:

@Davidylan

Even you a rabid pro-american must admit that the Iraq war was a faulty decision.
and has been an unmitigated disaster.

1. i'm not a rabid pro-American. I have issues on which i disagree with the general American oppinion and my friends can attest to that.

2. The Iraq war was a faulty decision - we agree. But even you, sitting on the fence, will agree that the US-led "invasion" lasted a mere 3 weeks! The reason the "war" has dragged on this long is not due to the Americans but the Iraqis, the terrorists, the militias who have cashed in on the US as an excuse to turn Iraq into a labyrinth of death and destruction.

ocho cinco:

America has lost as many lives as it lost on Sept 11, and is billions of dollars out
of pocket to boot,

Answer the question - who is doing the killing? the Americans?

ocho cinco:

Worse, Iraq has become a killing field, worse than when Saddam was in power.

Again the same question hypocrites and biased people never want to ask. Why is Iraq now a killing field? who are those bombing weddings, market places, mosques, offices, hotels? Who are those kidnapping their own citizens? Who are those raping women, planting IEDs and killing themselves in the name of allah?

Yes things are worse than when Saddam was in power but was this because there really was "peace" during Saddam's time? The Sunnis suppressed the shias by violence, the kurds suffered chemical attacks that left thousands dead. The response from the hypocrites? You guessed it - silence!

ocho cinco:

That militants have become a scourge of the populace in Iraq is also directly linked
to a high handed and conceited military strategy.

how laughably naive! Millitants are a scourge in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza, Westbank, Lebanon - is this the fault of the US military strategy too? This very silly attempts to lay the entire world's problems at the feet of the US rather than at the doorsteps of the real rogues just makes me want to hang my head in shame at the inability of people to see beyond their noses.

I would suggest that there is a variation in the Christian faith
towards various contentious issues because of its loose hold on
its congregation. When the Pope ruled all that he surveyed in Catholic
Europe, a stifled singular viewpoint was par for the course.

@ocho

That is typical of any theocracy or non-democratic society.The problem is. . . why should a free man feel the need to engage in group think on certain issues?If you have a faith that acts as a vehicle of cultural imperialism,people of that faith tend to display unflinching loyalty to the causes of the dominant culture-the Arab.

I tend to call Denex "Abd al Arab",hope my crude knowledge of Arabic is accurate, because like any "good Muslim",he merely parrots lines you will hear from any Arab.You don't have to actually listen to him,all you need is to ask a Sunni Arab his opinion and you can be certain Denex supports such an opinion.

ocho cinco:

@I-man

I would suggest that there is a variation in the Christian faith
towards various contentious issues because of its loose hold on
its congregation. When the Pope ruled all that he surveyed in Catholic
Europe, a stifled singular viewpoint was par for the course.

Foul! The variation in the christian faith is NOT as a result of its loose hold on its congregation or whatever nonsense that means. Is there a strong central hold on the muslims? Dont they have shia, sunni, wahhabi just like christians have catholics, pentecostals, methodists?

Even when the pope ruled there was still no general FORCED consensus like obtains in islam.

This your excuse above is not only untenable but unreasonable.

@Davidylan

At issue here is the Iraqi situation and American culpability in the whole mess,
not the far more complicated and longrunning sagas in Pakistan, Gaza etc.

And this mess might have been avoided if Rumsfeld had not deemed the Iraqi enerprise worthy of an
untested conceited military strategy that did not commit enough troops in the first place.
assumed that Iraqis would welcome them as liberators, did not utilise the previous Iraqi
military capability until it was too late, and probably most short sighted of all, left the borders unprotected.

@I-man

I think group think is too limited to explain the uniformity of belief amongst the Muslim faith pertaining to certain issues.
The variation in intensity of emotion amongst such a large community would render it I think academically superfluous.
I recommend a new category of 'Supra Group think'

davidylan:

Foul! The variation in the christian faith is NOT as a result of its loose hold on its congregation or whatever nonsense that means. Is there a strong central hold on the muslims? Dont they have shia, sunni, wahhabi just like christians have catholics, pentecostals, methodists?

Even when the pope ruled there was still no general FORCED consensus like obtains in islam.

This your excuse above is not only untenable but unreasonable.

Most branches of Christianity especially in the western world do not command the same
attention which the Islamic faith of whatevr branch have on their adherents who recognise themselves as such.

Abi you go disagree that one too.