Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Beneath the bluster—Iranian patrol boats reportedly playing chicken with U.S. warships; President Bush’s statements about “containing” Iran—there’s a significant shift under way in the relationship between Iran and the United States. And nearly everyone is missing it.  read more »

"Under Governor Spitzer's plan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could have skipped out on his visa and gotten a New York license."

That's what Republican congressional candidate Richard Wager of upstate New York said in a public statement just now. His goal is to get the freshman Democrat in the area, Kirsten Gillibrand, to comment on Eliot Spitzer's proposal, which may not be so popular in Republican-heavy areas like Gillibrand's district.

I emailed Gillibrand's spokeswoman for a response and got a phone call half a second later. "The congress woman is not for illegal immigrants getting New York State licenses," Gillibrand spokeswoman Rachel McEneny said.

UPDATE: Wager's press release is after the jump.  read more »

Contrary to conventional American wisdom, Mr. Ahmadinejad is not the powerful player in Iran that he’s cracked up to be.  read more »

This week's visit by Ahmadinejad raises a more serious problem that has long confounded American policymakers: How to cope with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s real masters, the corrupt regime of mullahs who determine both foreign and domestic policy in Iran.  read more »

In an interview just now with Brian Lehrer, Barack Obama was asked once again to square his position that he would not have invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, with his oft-stated assertion that he would meet with him if elected president.

Obama answered by saying that his job as president would be to "look after the interests of the United States and on critical issues like the stabilizing of Iraq, Iran is going to have something to say about that."

He also criticized the New York media for giving Ahmadinejad too much attention. (The Daily News on Monday ran a headline that said "The Evil Has Landed," followed today with "The Evil Weasel.")

"We probably make a mistake when we give him as much attention as the New York press gave him over the last couple of days," said Obama, adding that the "rantings" of Ahmadinejad probably don't deserve all that coverage. "The way to approach petty tyrants is not to inflate them ," Obama said.

It all came out alright in the end. After days of tabloid fury and protests on-and-off campus about the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia University, the event itself was an unexpected success.

That outcome had much less to do with the remarks of the Iranian leader than with the contribution of Columbia president Lee Bollinger.

Mr. Bollinger introduced Mr. Ahmadinejad by both excoriating him and defending the right of the university to invite him to speak.  read more »

The atmosphere was somewhere between that of a political protest and a carnival on the Columbia campus as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech drew closer.

Opponents and supporters of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s right to speak stood check by jowl on the steps of Columbia’s library as they waited for his scheduled 1:30 address, as a crowd of several hundred Columbia students gathered before a large truck-mounted video screen.

An NYPD helicopter hovered overhead.

Eitan Ben David, wearing a Hillel t-shirt bearing the Edmund Burke quote, “All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” said, “We should be marginalizing him, we should be isolating him.”  read more »

Barack Obama said today that while he believed Columbia University had a right to invite Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak, he would not have done so.

Speaking at the announcement of his endorsement by the city's correction officer benevolent association in midtown, he said, "One of the values we believe in is the value of academic freedom."

He added, "I probably would not have invited him to speak. He has got other forums available to him."

Obama said that did not change his position on negotiating with the Iranian leader if he were elected President.

"Nothing has changed with my belief," Obama said, citing John F. Kennedy's statement that "we should never fear to negotiate."

Obama has taken heat from Hillary Clinton for that position, which she said revealed his inexperience.

And about the Columbia speech, Hillary told Wolf Blitzer on CNN, "If I were a president of the university, I would not have invited him. He's a Holocaust denier. He's a supporter of terrorism. But I also respect the right in our country to make different decisions."

Obama said there was no reason to fear the "rantings" of Ahmadinejad, which he characterized as "odious" because "the answer to those lies is for us to promote the truth."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told a reporter for The New York Sun that Columbia University could be jeopardizing consideration for state money in the future with its insistence on inviting Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak today despite wide protest.  read more »

At a press conference yesterday in Lower Manhattan, Michael Bloomberg was asked what the protocol would be if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "decides on his own to go to Ground Zero." The mayor brushed the question aside, saying that he doesn't answer hypotheticals.

In this clip from that press conference, another reporter tries asking the same question, explaining that it's not a hypothetical question, but rather, a question of protocol.

To that, Bloomberg said, “We do not expect him to go down to the World Trade Center site. We don’t think for logistical reasons and security reasons the World Trade Center site can be visited by people who have come this year.” He went on to say Ahmadinejad’s visit would be “totally inappropriate.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad is now precisely where he wants to be: center stage, as the high-profile object of American anger.  read more »

Here is Councilman Charles Barron, who once invited Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, to City Hall, saying another controversial leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, should be allowed to visit Ground Zero.

"If anybody wants to mourn that, let them do it," said Barron.

It was only a matter of time before Rudy Giuliani weighed in on Iranaian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad potentially visiting Ground Zero. As mayor, Giuliani, of course, kicked Yasir Arafat out of a Lincoln Center concert in 1995, a move criticized by the White House. Giuliani clearly doesn't approve of the Bloomberg administration's reported negotiations to escort the Iranian leader to the site during his visit to New York next week.

Here's his statement

"Under no circumstances should the NYPD or any other American authority assist President Ahmadinejad in visiting Ground Zero. This is a man who has made threats against America and Israel, is harboring Bin Laden's son and other al-Qaeda leaders, is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. Assisting Ahmadinejad in touring Ground Zero - hallowed ground for all Americans - is outrageous."