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International-UN-NGOs
Israeli NGO targets Columbia over Ahmadinejad visit
2011-09-21
Shurat HaDin sends letter to NYC University warning that inviting Iranian president to banquet would be illegal; Columbia denies invitation exists.
"He's just gonna show up -- nuthin' we'll be able to do about it. Honest!"
Shurat HaDin -- Israel Law Center plans to initiate legal action against Columbia University in New York for its dinner event with Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad on Wednesday.

"Hosting Ahmadinejad at a banquet is not merely morally repulsive: It is illegal and will expose Columbia University and its officers to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to American citizens and others victimized by Iranian- sponsored terrorism," the Tel Aviv-based NGO wrote to the university's President Lee Bollinger last week.
A neat warning shot across the bow...
The three-page letter was written by attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Shurat HaDin's director, and the organization's American counsel, Robert J. Tolchin.

Copies of the letter were sent to US Attorney-General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, FBI Deputy Director Sean M. Joyce and FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry.

"Iran is officially designated under US law as a state-sponsor of terrorism, as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and as a perpetrator of human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
 abuses.

Ahmadinejad is Iran's chief executive and personally directs Iran's terrorist and nuclear proliferation activities and human rights abuse," Darshan-Leitner and Tolchin wrote.

Columbia's student newspaper The Spectator reported earlier this month that Ahmadinejad plans to dine with members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association. The council's vice president, student Tim Chan, said in the Spectator, "Everyone was really enthusiastic," and "they're thrilled to have this opportunity."

Chan told the paper there were no concerns from CIRCA's members about meeting with Iran's president.

Writing on the popular US news and blog website Pajamas Media, the site's CEO, novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon, said, "After having once hosted Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, they are doing so again -- and this time they are giving the misogynistic, homophobic, Holocaust denying religious fanatic a banquet! The progressive intellectuals of Morningside Heights [the neighborhood where Columbia is located] evidently have a special place in their hearts for state sponsors of terrorism who murder and torture their own citizens with impunity."

Alana Goodman, a blogger for Commentary Magazine, first reported on Shurat HaDin's possible lawsuit. She noted that "Shurat HaDin  is the same organization that used targeted lawsuits to block the Gazoo flotilla in July, so it has a history of success with high-profile cases."

Columbia's Spectator reported on Friday that "The university has issued a statement denying any involvement in the dinner," and adding that the news stories "fundamentally misstate the university's role in this unconfirmed possible encounter. Simply put, there never was one. In fact, at no time has there ever been any university event planned or considered involving the president of Iran, nor has there ever been any plan for a dinner involving the Iranian president and President Bollinger."

Though Bollinger criticized the Iranian president as a "petty and cruel dictator" at a debate with him at Columbia in 2007, he was roundly criticized in the media for providing an Ivy League university stage to a major human rights violator.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Columbia U Professors Bow And Scrape Before Nutjob
2008-01-08
An academic delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties plans to visit Tehran to officially apologize to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

The delegation plans to express regret for the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger directed at Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency correspondent in New York reported.

Since the incident, the deans and professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy, and Islamic studies have criticized Bollinger’s behavior toward Ahmadinejad.

A member of the delegation, who requested anonymity, said the main goal of the visit is to meet the Iranian president and officially apologize to him.

“The delegation has also prepared its itinerary,” he noted.

He went on to say that the delegation also plans to visit Iranian universities in various cities and to hold talks with professors and students, and may even sign memoranda of understanding with some universities. He also said the delegation is interested in visiting seminaries and the shrine city of Qom.

However, Bollinger has warned the delegation that their trip to Iran should be a private visit and should not be undertaken as an official visit endorsed by the university.

Bollinger has so far refused to meet the Mehr News Agency correspondent to explain his disrespectful behavior toward Ahmadinejad when introducing him to the students and professors at Columbia.
Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
New York Police Hunt for Suspects in 2 Noose Incidents in 1 Week
2007-10-14
Police were grappling Friday with two separate incidents of someone stringing up nooses in public places — one at Columbia University and another outside a ground zero post office damaged in the Sept. 11 attacks. New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said there were no suspects in either incident, which both occurred this week on opposite ends of Manhattan.

At Columbia, detectives were still reviewing 56 hours of security camera images captured by seven security cameras in and around the building where the noose was discovered early Tuesday morning hanging from the doorknob of a black professor's office, Browne said.

In the second case, a noose was discovered Thursday dangling from a lamppost near the lower Manhattan post office. Building managers removed the noose, which was later turned over to the NYPD's hate crimes unit for investigation, police said. "At this point, there was no target that was evident or any motive," U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman Al Weissman said Friday morning. He said no postal workers had reported any threats or other problems. The post office at 90 Church St. was closed for nearly three years after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which left the 15-story building contaminated with asbestos, mercury and debris from the fallen twin towers.

Students, faculty and administrators at Columbia have denounced the attack on professor Madonna Constantine, 44, a professor of education and psychology who has written extensively about race. Police were testing the 4-foot-long piece of twine for DNA evidence and interviewing students and faculty. Among those questioned was another Teachers College professor, Suniya S. Luthar, who had feuded with Constantine; police said she was not considered a suspect.

Meanwhile, police were called to the Ivy League campus again Thursday to probe another troubling discovery — a caricature of a yarmulke-wearing man and a swastika found on a university bathroom stall door. The hate crime unit was investigating the black-ink drawing, but police said there was no reason to believe the two incidents were linked.

University President Lee Bollinger said the sketch was promptly removed, adding that he was reluctant to call attention to such drawings because he did not want to "broadcast, in any way, the message they attempt to send or empower those behind them."

Nooses, charged with symbolism of lynchings in the Old South, have appeared in recent incidents around the country. Three white students hung nooses from a big oak tree outside a high school last year in Jena, La., fueling racial tensions. More recently, nooses have been found at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., and the Hempstead Police Department's locker room on Long Island.
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Home Front: Culture Wars
Columbia U. decries hangman's noose found on black professor's door
2007-10-11
Columbia University planned a town hall meeting Wednesday for faculty and students to discuss the discovery of a hangman's noose on a black professor's office door, an incident which the university's president described as an assault on the entire university.
Oh, who could have done this terrible thing?
Police are investigating the incident, which was discovered Tuesday night, as a hate crime.
Couldn't have been lefties in a setup like has happened so many times before.
The noose, an echo of other recent incidents involving the symbol reviled by many for its association with the lynchings of the Old South, was hung up on the door of a professor at the university's Teacher's College. "This is an assault on African Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us. I know I speak on behalf of every member of our communities in condemning this horrible action," Columbia President Lee Bollinger said Tuesday.
And it couldn't possibly have been the "victim" or his friends, as has in fact happened enough times before to be tiresome.
Columbia did not immediately say which professor was targeted, but she was identified in the local media as Madonna Constantine, a professor of psychology and education and author of a book entitled "Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings."
Nope. It was prob'ly fascists, operating on Karl Rove's orders.
Link


Home Front: Politix
Brave dissenters in Iran . . . and wannabees here at home
2007-10-09
James Taranto, "Best of the Web," Wall Street Journal
(Boldface emphasis added.)

"To chants of 'death to the dictator,' hundreds of Iranian students have mounted a vociferous protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," London's Telegraph reports:

. . .

The Los Angeles Times, which puts the number of anti-Ahmadinejad protesters at "about 50," notes that some of them cited his recent visit to New York:

"You, Mr. Ahmadinejad, claimed at Columbia University that there is freedom of speech in Iran's universities," one student said over a megaphone. "Then why are three students still in jail?"

This vindicates those of us who criticized Columbia president Lee Bollinger for allowing Ahmadinejad to be invited, at least if you assume that criticism spurred Bollinger to be tougher on Ahmadinejad than he otherwise would have been.

The L.A. Times says pro-Ahmadinejad demonstrators matched the opponents' turnout--which is rather remarkable. After all, it takes no courage to take to the streets in favor of an authoritarian regime.

It's a reminder, too, of just what phonies and blowhards our American "dissenters" are. They know it takes no courage to oppose a democratic government that holds freedom of speech sacrosanct. So they spin lurid fantasies of authoritarianism in order to convince themselves of their own bravery.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Islamic Bigotry: The Slaughter of 4,000 Gays
2007-10-02
By Robert Spencer

And from a WSJ article on the same topic today:
The Democratic Party's presidential hopefuls spent a fair bit of time Wednesday night debating what to do about Iran, without once mentioning Ahmadinejad's peculiar world view. These are the same debaters who in August went before a gay audience to denounce Bush administration policies as "demeaning" and "degrading" toward gays. In the Nation -- a magazine that excoriated Ronald Reagan upon his passing for his "inaction and bigotry against gays" -- editor Katrina vanden Heuvel has nothing to say about the subject either. Instead, she devotes her latest column to denouncing last week's symbolic Senate vote to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization.

In the Guardian, another crusading voice from the left on gay rights, foreign-affairs columnist Martin Woollacott lambastes Columbia's president Lee Bollinger for his "mean-spirited" remarks to the Iranian president, which he takes as an indication that "it is still difficult to suggest that Iran has arguments and interests worth considering on their merits." But again, no mention of Mr. Ahmadinejad's attitude toward gays, much less its "merits." And on "progressive" Web sites like Democratic Underground, there are earnest debates about exactly what Mr. Ahmadinejad meant by the word "like," as if he were merely making an academic cultural comparison rather than denying the existence of an entire category of his own citizens.
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Home Front: WoT
Ahmadinejad is our enemy, too
2007-09-26
James Taranto, "Best of the Web," The Wall Street Journal

Ed Koch makes an excellent point about Columbia president Lee Bollinger's "dialogue" with Iran's titular president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

I am . . . distressed that the heart of Bollinger's objections related to Israel and Ahmadinejad's call for its destruction. Of course, that is important, especially to Jews and certainly to me, and to the world as well. But I would have preferred a question on Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of the United States. Bollinger could have said, "with respect to the U.S., shortly after your election in October 2005, you called for a global jihad aimed at destroying the U.S., saying 'Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?' You went on to say, 'You should know that this slogan can certainly be achieved.' " Bollinger, a Jew himself, gave Ahmadinejad ammunition to be used among Islamic supporters that the battle at Columbia was primarily a battle between Islam and the Jews, and Ahmadinejad had bravely stood up to the mocking of the Jewish Bollinger.

This implicates not just "Islamic supporters" and the battle "at Columbia." Consider this report by the Associated Press's Anne Flaherty:

Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his army a terrorist group.

The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers' long-standing nervousness about Tehran's intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel--a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

Has the Associated Press adopted a policy of regarding the arguably anti-Semitic and indisputably controversial anti-Israel views of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer as factual?

It is true enough that Iran poses a more immediate threat to Israel than to the U.S. But the effort to marginalize concern about Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons as the narrow worry of the "pro-Israeli lobby" is troubling on several levels.

Even putting aside humanitarian considerations, does anyone seriously believe that it would serve U.S. interests, or indeed that it would not be anything less than a devastating blow against them, if a hostile and fanatical power succeeded in incinerating an American ally?

Even putting aside Israel, does anyone seriously believe that possession of nuclear weapons would not make Iran a bigger threat to U.S. interests in the region, or that an arms race between Iran and Arab states serve America's interests?

And returning to humanitarian considerations, what does it tell us about America's political, intellectual and journalistic culture that some would dismiss the threat of a new Holocaust as the narrow concern of a political pressure group?
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad lauded in Iran for "Lion's Den" visit
2007-09-27
TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have faced ridicule in the United States by suggesting there were no homosexuals in Iran, but he won praise at home on Wednesday for taking his country's case to "the Lion's Den".
Right on cue!
Generally, politicians and media in the Islamic Republic — even some who have previously criticised the president — described Ahmadinejad's visit to New York as a triumph and denounced the university president who called him "a petty and cruel dictator".
Gee, didn't see that coming.
But one pro-reform newspaper said that, although the president told his U.S. audience he respected academics, that was not always how it seemed at home.
Especially when he disagrees with the subject.
Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West, travelled to the United States at a time of escalating tension between the two foes over Tehran's nuclear ambitions and the war in Iraq.

The president spoke at Columbia University on Monday and on Tuesday addressed the U.N. General Assembly, where he told world leaders the issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions was "closed" and that military threats and sanctions had failed.

"By fearlessly and courageously riding in an armored car with heavy US and Iranian security walking into the 'Lion's Den' ... he is sure to become even more of a hero in the Arab-Muslim street than before," the daily Iran News wrote.

Iran denies U.S. accusations it is seeking atomic bombs, saying it wants to generate electricity. It also rejects accusations it is violating human rights and muzzling critics.

Around 200 lawmakers hailed Ahmadinejad's "historical and memorable" stay in New York, saying in a statement his "courageous" speech on Monday had made Muslims happy while angering Iran's enemies like Israel, the Mehr News Agency said.

Others condemned the way Ahmadinejad was treated at Columbia University, where he criticised Israel and the United States and provoked laughter and jeers by saying Iran had no homosexuals.
They're either dead or hiding or being ignored.
Homosexuality is a crime punishable by death in Iran.
See?
Introducing Ahmadinejad, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said he acted like a dictator and his Holocaust denials showed he was "brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated".

One Iranian MP described Bollinger's remarks as insulting.
Don't confuse insulting with the pain that can come along with the truth.
The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi- Shahroudi, who has in the past criticised Ahmadinejad, said he had defied hostile "plotters" to deliver his speech.

But the reformist newspaper, Aftab-e Yazd, contrasted his comments in New York on how Iran respects its academics with the way some of them were being treated in the country.
Like the American academics you respectfully arrested for no reason recently?
The daily referred to a harshly worded response by some officials to an open letter in June signed by 57 economists criticising the government's economic and foreign policies.

"No doubt, Ahmadinejad's logic and composure in the face of the Columbia University head's disgracing remarks is a cause of pride for all Iranians," it wrote. "However, history will remember this behaviour only if ... he can prove that he trusts all academics and in all affairs."
Logic? Must mean something different if Farsi. And "composure" can come when you don't have your armed support mechanism around you.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad wraps up US visit with broadside against Washington
2007-09-26
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad wraps up his third visit to the United States Wednesday after using his platform at the United Nations to downplay Tehran's nuclear ambitions and attack Washington. The Iranian president's visit and notably his appearance at a top US university on Monday had sparked outrage among US politicians and the Jewish community over his outspoken comments on Israel and downplaying the Holocaust.

Despite being derided as a "petty and cruel dictator" while appearing at Columbia University, the Iranian leader used his visit to try to calm the international community over the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions. "We do not believe in nuclear weapons. Period. It goes against the whole grain of humanity," he said at Columbia on Monday, where a small group of demonstrators gathered to protest his appearance.

Ahmadinejad used his address to world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly Tuesday to say Iran considered the controversy over its nuclear program closed and to launch a broad attack on arch foe the United States. In a wide-ranging speech, Ahmadinejad accused Washington of arrogance and human rights abuses, speaking at the same spot where US President George W. Bush had earlier spoken of the primacy of human rights and freedom.
Not very guest-like, is he? That violates my cultural norms. I am deeply offended. As deeply offended as Iranians are for the US being a bad host.
In his 40-minute speech, the Iranian leader went on to accuse Washington of human rights abuses in its "war on terror," with allusions to CIA programs of rendition and detention in camps such as Guantanamo Bay. "Unfortunately human rights are being extensively violated by certain powers, especially by those who pretend to be their exclusive advocates," Ahmadinejad said, without mentioning the United States by name.

Iran has come under two waves of international sanctions for its nuclear program, which Ahmadinejad insists is only for energy production. He has repeatedly insisted the Islamic republic has no need of nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, the international community has taken scant consolation from his comments and is expected to push for a third round of UN sanctions.

Ahmadinejad used his speeches to the National Press Club in Washington and Columbia University on Monday to say Iran had no need for nuclear weapons and to downplay talk that Iran and the United States are on the path to war. "I think the politicians who are after atomic bombs or are testing them, making them, politically, they are backward, retarded," he added. "We think that talk of war is a propaganda tool. Why is there a need for a war?"

But he suffered the rare indignity of a public dressing down at the university. Booed and strongly challenged on his views on the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad seemed to take the criticisms in his stride but complained of "unfriendly treatment" at the hands of the New York university.

Before he even spoke, Ahmadinejad was forced to sit through 10 minutes of broadsides from university president Lee Bollinger, who had been heavily criticized by Jewish groups and US politicians for inviting the Iranian leader.

"Mr President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad, accusing him of brutal crackdowns notably on the country's academics and homosexuals and for stifling dissent. "Why are you so afraid of Iranian citizens expressing their opinions for change?" he asked, challenging the leader of the Islamic republic to explain his comments downplaying the Holocaust.

"When you come to a place like this, this makes you quite simply ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," he said.

Ahmadinejad accused Bollinger of a "wave of insults and allegations" while largely avoiding any direct answers to Bollinger's challenges.

After initially seeming a little flustered, Ahmadinejad grew more relaxed as he got into his stride to accuse the United States of trying to block Iran's legitimate desire to achieve scientific progress in its atomic program.

Smiling and occasionally laughing as he talked of Iran's culture and outlook on the world, Ahmadinejad drew the biggest jeers from students for stating that homosexuality did not exist in the Islamic republic. "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," he said to a chorus of howls, laughter and boos. "In Iran we don't have this phenomenon, I don't know who told you this."

Ahmadinejad was due to fly to Bolivia on Wednesday and to later visit fellow firebrand and US pariah, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranians decry harsh words for president
2007-09-26
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranians expressed dismay Tuesday at the tough reception given to their president in New York, saying his host was rude and only fueled the image of the United States as a bully.

The scenes at Monday's question-and-answer session at Columbia University and the outpouring of venom toward President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by protesters during his U.S. visit could bolster the hard-line leader at a time of high tensions with Washington.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger's statement — including telling Ahmadinejad that he resembles a "petty and cruel dictator" — offended Iranians on many levels, not least that of simple hospitality. In traditions of the region, a host should be polite to a guest, no matter what he thinks of him.

The chancellors of seven Iranian universities issued a letter to Bollinger saying his "insult, in a scholarly atmosphere, to the president of a country with ... a recorded history of 7,000 years of civilization and culture is deeply shameful."

They invited Bollinger to Iran, adding, "You can be assured that Iranians are very polite and hospitable toward their guests."

Ahmadinejad, at the United Nations in New York Tuesday to address the General Assembly, was asked about his reaction to the confrontation at Columbia.

"I think the meeting at the university was sufficiently loud enough to speak for itself. I'm an academic myself," he said in Farsi, which was translated by the U.N. "I think the authorities and officials of the university should practice a little more listening to other points of view and listen to things they don't like to hear."

Ahmadinejad's popularity at home has been suffering, with many Iranians blaming him for failing to fix the faltering economy and for heightening the confrontation with the West with his inflammatory rhetoric.

But in the eyes of many Iranian critics and supporters alike, Ahmadinejad looked like the victim. He complained about Bollinger's "insults" and "unfriendly treatment" but kept a measured tone throughout the discussion.

"Our president appeared as a gentleman. He remained polite against those who could not remain polite," said Ahmad Masoudi, a customer at a grocery store who had watched state TV's recorded version of the event, including Bollinger's remarks. Iranian Farsi channels did not air the event live.

Another customer in the store, Rasoul Qaresi, said Bollinger showed that even Americans "in a cultural position act like cowboys and nothing more."

Others thought Bollinger's words were unseemly for an academic setting. Tehran nurse Mahmoud Rouhi said the president was treated "like a suspect."

"I don't know why he stayed there and didn't leave," Rouhi said.

In their letter, the university chancellors asked Bollinger to provide responses to 10 questions ranging from: "Why did the U.S. support the bloodthirsty dictator Saddam Hussein" during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, to "Why has the U.S. military failed to find al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, even with all its advanced equipment?"

Ahmadinejad, visiting New York to speak at the U.N. General Assembly, has been greeted by thousands of protesters, many of them from pro-Israeli groups angered by his previous comments calling for the end of Israel and casting doubt on the Holocaust.

At the Columbia speech, Ahmadinejad fell into the same sort of rhetoric, questioning the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks and defending the right to doubt the Holocaust.

Columbia University faced criticism for hosting Ahmadinejad, and Bollinger had sought to fend off calls for a cancellation of the event by promising to take a tough line with the Iranian president.

Iran's state-run radio said Bollinger's comments were "full of insult, which was mostly Zionists' propaganda against Iran."

Ahmadinejad's visit comes at a time of high tensions between Iran and the U.S. The Bush administration has painted Ahmadinejad as a top enemy of the United States, accusing Tehran of providing weapons that have killed U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran denies the accusations and has stepped up warnings in recent weeks that it would retaliate against Israel and U.S. bases in the region if it comes under attack.

Some critics of Ahmadinejad in Iran warn that U.S. demonizing of the Iranian president has only strengthened his hand and boosted his falling political fortunes.

They make the point that under Iran's complex governing system, the presidency has far less power than the post of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds final say in state decisions. Ahmadinejad, they say, keeps influence through his image as standing up to the world's superpower.

The harsh words at Columbia "worked in favor of Ahmadinejad, who in the eye of ordinary people was seen as wronged," said Ahmad Bakhshayesh, a professor of politics in Tehran's Allameh University.

"The protests by Israel supporters against Ahmadinejad outside the university also helped him to appear as a hero for people of the Middle East," he said.

Ahmadinejad's international allies have also taken his side. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is expecting a visit from Ahmadinejad this week, said he spoke by phone with the Iranian leader on Monday after what he called the "ambush" at Columbia.

"I congratulate him, in the name of the Venezuelan people, before a new aggression of the U.S. empire," Chavez said.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
10 more reasons Mahmoud shouldn't have been invited
2007-09-25
H/T Jules Crittenden.com
The fall-out begins and Mahmoud is getting his response. His university folks standing up for him

Iranian University Chancellors Ask Bollinger 10 Questions

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Seven chancellors and presidents of Iranian universities and research centers, in a letter addressed to their counterpart in the US Colombia University, denounced Lee Bollinger's insulting words against the Iranian nation and president and invited him to provide responses for 10 questions of the Iranian academicians and intellectuals.


The following is the full text of the letter.

Mr. Lee Bollinger
Columbia University President

We, the professors and heads of universities and research institutions in Tehran , hereby announce our displeasure and protest at your impolite remarks prior to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent speech at Columbia University.

We would like to inform you that President Ahmadinejad was elected directly by the Iranian people through an enthusiastic two-round poll in which almost all of the country's political parties and groups participated. To assess the quality and nature of these elections you may refer to US news reports on the poll dated June 2005.

Your insult, in a scholarly atmosphere, to the president of a country with a population of 72 million and a recorded history of 7,000 years of civilization and culture is deeply shameful.

Your comments, filled with hate and disgust, may well have been influenced by extreme pressure from the media, but it is regrettable that media policy-makers can determine the stance a university president adopts in his speech.

Your remarks about our country included unsubstantiated accusations that were the product of guesswork as well as media propaganda. Some of your claims result from misunderstandings that can be clarified through dialogue and further research.

During his speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad answered a number of your questions and those of students. We are prepared to answer any remaining questions in a scientific, open and direct debate.

You asked the president approximately ten questions. Allow us to ask you ten of our own questions in the hope that your response will help clear the atmosphere of misunderstanding and distrust between our two countries and reveal the truth.

1- Why did the US media put you under so much pressure to prevent Mr. Ahmadinejad from delivering his speech at Columbia University? And why have American TV networks been broadcasting hours of news reports insulting our president while refusing to allow him the opportunity to respond? Is this not against the principle of freedom of speech?

2- Why, in 1953, did the US administration overthrow the Iran's national government under Dr Mohammad Mosaddegh and go on to support the Shah's dictatorship?

3- Why did the US support the blood-thirsty dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iraqi-imposed war on Iran, considering his reckless use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers defending their land and even against his own people?

4- Why is the US putting pressure on the government elected by the majority of Palestinians in Gaza instead of officially recognizing it? And why does it oppose Iran 's proposal to resolve the 60-year-old Palestinian issue through a general referendum?

5- Why has the US military failed to find Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden even with all its advanced equipment? How do you justify the old friendship between the Bush and Bin Laden families and their cooperation on oil deals? How can you justify the Bush administration's efforts to disrupt investigations concerning the September 11 attacks?

6- Why does the US administration support the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) despite the fact that the group has officially and openly accepted the responsibility for numerous deadly bombings and massacres in Iran and Iraq? Why does the US refuse to allow Iran 's current government to act against the MKO's main base in Iraq?

7- Was the US invasion of Iraq based on international consensus and did international institutions support it? What was the real purpose behind the invasion which has claimed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives? Where are the weapons of mass destruction that the US claimed were being stockpiled in Iraq?

8- Why do America's closest allies in the Middle East come from extremely undemocratic governments with absolutist monarchical regimes?

9- Why did the US oppose the plan for a Middle East free of unconventional weapons in the recent session of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors despite the fact the move won the support of all members other than Israel?

10- Why is the US displeased with Iran's agreement with the IAEA and why does it openly oppose any progress in talks between Iran and the agency to resolve the nuclear issue under international law?

Finally, we would like to express our readiness to invite you and other scientific delegations to our country. A trip to Iran would allow you and your colleagues to speak directly with Iranians from all walks of life including intellectuals and university scholars. You could then assess the realities of Iranian society without media censorship before making judgments about the Iranian nation and government.

You can be assured that Iranians are very polite and hospitable toward their guests.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian leader 'petty, cruel dictator,' school president says
2007-09-25
Columbia University President Lee Bollinger ripped a new bunghole for excoriated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, going through a long list of documented actions and remarks by the firebrand Iranian leader and his government. "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said to applause from many of the 600 people in the room for a speech from the Iranian leader.

Bollinger cited the Iranian government's "brutal crackdown" on dissidents, public executions, executions of minors and other actions. And he assailed Ahmadinejad's "denying" of the Holocaust as "ridiculous" and "dangerous propaganda." He called the Iranian leader either brazenly provocative "or astonishingly uneducated."

"The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," he said.
I'm more than a little surprised that Dr. Bollinger went after Short Round like this. Glenn Reynolds wondered why anyone would want to listen to Dinner Plate: "what value does his insight into world politics bring?" I'm not sure if Dr. Bollinger really is offended by the little man, whether he planned to use the opportunity to demonstrate that Tiny has no ideology worth considering, or if he came to realize what a terrible black eye this was for Columbia and thus was simply doing damage control. But -- as a start -- this was a strong rebuke to the midget and the Mad Mullahs™.

One of the things our best leaders have demonstrated, from our Founders to Ronnie Reagan, is that you have to confront evil. You have to point at it, call it what it is, and stand firm when others around you want to compromise, to 'understand', to turn away. I wouldn't put Dr. Bollinger in the company of august American heroes, but I'm pleased he stood his ground and made clear to Short Round that the current system of governance in Iran is evil. Just wish he'd used the word.
He said he doubted Ahmadinejad would show the intellectual courage to answer the questions before him. Ahmadinejad responded quickly. "We don't think it's necessary before the speech is given to come in with some series of claims," the Iranian leader said. He said Bollinger's comments included "insults" and false claims, and flew in the face of an environment that's supposed to let people speak their minds.

On the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad asked why history can't be questioned and further researched. "If the Holocaust is a reality of our time, a history that occurred, why is there not sufficient research that can approach the topic from different perspectives?" he asked.

The Iranian leader has made statements in the past suggesting that Israel be politically "wiped off the map," though he insists that can be accomplished without violence. While he would not respond with a "yes" or "no" when asked Monday if he sought the destruction of Israel, he said the status of Israel should be determined by a free election. "Let the people of Palestine freely choose what they want for their future," he said.

Asked about widely documented government abuse of women and homosexuals in his country, Ahmadinejad said, "We don't have homosexuals" in Iran. "I don't know who told you we had it," he said.

He also repeatedly said that women have freedoms in Iran and refused to comment on reports that their freedom is severely constrained.

Ahmadinejad said Iran questions "the way the world is being run and managed today." But he said Iran would hold talks with the U.S. government "under fair and just circumstances." As he ended his talk at Columbia, he invited faculty and students to visit any university they liked in Iran.

Earlier Monday, in a question-and-answer video conference with the National Press Club, Ahmadinejad said the Middle East can govern itself without interference from the United States and other Western nations. Speaking from New York to the luncheon in Washington, Ahmadinejad said Iran wanted to see "an independent powerful Iraq ... which will benefit the entire region. We are two nations interconnected. We are brothers and friends."

But he said the region didn't need U.S. help. "We oppose the way the U.S. government tries to manage the world. ... We propose more humane methods of establishing peace," he said.

He also said all the world's religions have the same common ground, "justice and friendship." The views of all religions must be respected and "we must all move hand in hand," Ahmadinejad said.

Earlier in an interview with The Associated Press, Ahmadinejad said he didn't think the United States was preparing for war against Iran. "I believe that some of the talk in this regard arises first of all from anger. Secondly, it serves the electoral purposes domestically in this country. Third, it serves as a cover for policy failures over Iraq," he told the AP.

The Iranian president said his country would not attack Israel. "Iran will not attack any country," the AP quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Despite an outcry against Ahmadinejad that included New York tabloid headlines such as "The Evil Has Landed," John Coatsworth, acting dean of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, said it is important for Americans to hear from the Iranian leader. "Iran is going to ... hold the key to peace in the Middle East. We have to deal with and negotiate with leaders like this however much we may disagree with their views," Coatsworth said on CNN's "American Morning."

Christine C. Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council, said Columbia should not be giving Ahmadinejad a platform. "All he will do on that stage ... is spew more hatred and more venom out there to the world," Quinn said.

Hamid Dabasi, a professor of Iranian studies at Columbia, called the whole forum "misguided."

Ahmadinejad also has drawn fire for his insistence that Iran will defy international demands that it halt production of enriched uranium. Iran insists it is producing nuclear fuel for civilian power plants, but Washington accuses Tehran of trying to create a nuclear weapons program.

Also, the United States says Iranian explosives and weapons are making their way to Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq's sectarian conflict and have been used against U.S. troops in the 4-year-old war. U.S. commanders say they have captured Iranian agents involved in supplying those weapons to the militias, some of which have longstanding ties to the Islamic republic.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Ahmadinejad denied U.S. accusations that Iranian weapons are being used against American troops in Iraq, saying, "Insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests."

He said U.S. officials are blaming his country for problems unleashed by the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. "American officials, wherever around the world that they encounter a problem which they fail to resolve, instead of accepting that, they prefer to accuse others," he said. "I'm very sorry that because of the wrong decisions taken by American officials, Iraqi people are being killed and also American soldiers." He added, "If they accuse us 1,000 times, the truth will not change."

Ahmadinejad landed in New York on Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly session, which opens Monday. He is set to speak Tuesday at the United Nations.
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