Despite entire US media objections, negative propagation and hue and cry in recent days over IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scheduled address at Colombia University, he gave his lecture and answered students questions here on Monday afternoon.
On second day of his entry in New York, and amid standing ovation of the audience that had attended the hall where the Iranian President was to give his lecture as of early hours of the day, Ahmadinejad said that Iran is not going to attack any country in the world.
Before President Ahamadinejad’s address, Colombia University Chancellor in a brief address told the audience that they would have the chance to hear Iran’s stands as the Iranian President would put them forth.
[…]
The audience on repeated occasion applauded Ahmadinejad when he touched on international crises.
More from this equally legitimate source; – “Columbia University promised a full investigation into charges of police brutality after today’s reported Tasering of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had come to the Ivy League school to give the annual Adolph Hitler Memorial Peace and Tolerance Lecture.”
For all the fawning over Bollinger’s introductory remarks, Al Jazeera and Time are both giving Ahmadinejad the win;
It’s an faculty lunch speech dispatched against a man accustomed to command the secret police, rockets, EFPs, sophisticated propaganda and disinformation cells. Bollinger was game, but not only is he not in the same ring, he doesn’t even know where the fight is scheduled to take place. If this is what our intellectual leaders think is effective resistance against the Islamic Revolution then we are in serious trouble.
Notice there was no mention of audience laughter when he said there were no homosexuals in Iran.
Wouldn’t you know the very first posting would mention homosexuals. Nothing at all self-centered there.
Ahamadinejad’s comments skirted around his views on Israel’s future, which is the key issue. What happens there, happens to all of us.
There are no homosexuals in Iran – in the same way that there are no flies in my house.
Moonbats are strange indeed. If a conservative even questions one aspect of gay marriage, he/she is labelled a bigot/fascist. Yet, the tinpot retard can order the flogging and execution of homos at will, and nary a peep from the leftards.
If a conservative asks that abortion not be funded from his tax dollars, the femi-nazis go berzerk. Yet, the Muslim Madman can order the flogging and execution of women for any form of birth control, and again, nary a word from the leftard trolls.
Once again, the idiots on the left are blowing the top of my skull off with their sheer stupidity. Alby, Iberia and the rest, you guys are just plain f@#%ed!
Part of the speech I watched, Ahmedinajad claimed that Iraninan women were the most liberated in the world.
Since I know no Iranian women, I could not verify the verascity of that statement.
First I found it absolutely bizarre that this university allowed this mad man to speak. Then, to hear the introduction was a weird. Setup, I don’t know, buckle under the public outcry, more like it. No gays in Iran, that made me laugh. Probably, they are executed…….Ahmedinajad is a dangerous man.
Mission accomplised —– with the help of our beloved western media.
“…after today’s reported Tasering of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…”
I just copyrighted the text of a new T-Shirt:
“Don’t TAZ me, Mo”
I’m gonna be rich!!!
there are no homosexuals in Iran, just as there are no Mandelas in Iraq.
Hi Kate
Personally I would give this guy every opportunity to speak wherever he wanted. Give him enough rope and he’ll hang himself. What does everyone else think? If he starts ranting, that’s good. There are some who think that the U.S., Canadian, and Israeli governments, among others, are twisting this guy’s words and even lying about them. Apparently Juan Cole is one, although I’ve never read his thoughts on the issue. I have though,seen certain comments on a “progressive” websit based out of Canada.
Sorry – forgot the “e” on the spelling of website.
Why are people getting upset about letting him speak? Free speech is truly antithetical to his beliefs. If it cannot be demonstrated that the propagation of his rhetoric poses an immediate and quantifiable risk to individuals or groups within
society, combating the distribution of his values is best left to civil society. Hurt feelings and high emotions are not a quantifiable risk. Legally inhibiting those who inject perceivably vile and intolerant ideas into the social discourse offers an unnecessary degree of legitimacy to the claims of idiots like this, while often granting them a greater degree of publicity than they would have ever been able to garner if left unabated. The natural reflexes to these offensive utterances offer assurances that a poetic justice will ultimately prevail in the wake of hate mongers seeking to infiltrate public opinion with their views. In essence, let them illustrate their flaws. Ridiculous rhetoric from the Iranian president must be refuted through opposition within society, not state imposed muzzles. To invoke the latter presents a threat to the dissemination of ideas. Dissenters must not fear the repercussions of airing unpopular beliefs
as the nature of democratic institutions hinges on this principle. We all stand to lose when we use the state to decide what thoughts can and cannot be challenged by the people. I don’t care if were Adolph Hitler. We are better than people like these two despots because of our values. Freedom of speech is a paramount freedom that has added to our quality of life. We can’t decide to silence others when it appears to be popular and convenient.
Sheesh, I thought it was the left who advocated the use of the state to prevent what people say.
Kate
Any thoughts on the upcoming civic elections? How about Calgary? Would you ever endorse a candidate?
Personally, I do not care what the madman says. What bothers me are the trained seals, up on their hind legs, clapping at anything the idiot says. Yet, he would have any of the said trained seals executed in a heartbeat for being infidels. LEFTARD IDIOTS!
“Sheesh, I thought it was the left who advocated the use of the state to prevent what people say.
Posted by: steve at September 25, 2007 3:33 AM ”
Uhhuh. So why does Columbia prohibit the ROTC program and recruiters? There is no intolerance in the left,unless it is against what they want to say. So how come they haven’t invited the Pope to speak a few words? Or a few Jews?
Some people are just plain stupid and need to have very simple parallels drawn for them.
It is not about free speech or democracy. It is about handing ammunition to a murderous thug. Nothing wrong with guns and bullets. It’s just that certain people should not have them…
…because we know exactly what they will do with them.
The master calculator came and spoke. Showed himself to be a politician like any other, perhaps less scripted and said dumb things.
He made his goals to get out his talking points, Israel is the source of the problem (his points not mine)
Undercut his own credibility with the statements on gays, women and failure to rule out attacks on Israel.
All in all he blew his bolt, not much changed and he lost credibility. Those who are suceptible to his message will always be that way.
I heard from some more liberal friends of mine, they still want to say he was misquoted/misinterpreted before. Still enemy of my enemy…..amazing.
A bit off topic but go to Instapundit and have a read on this.WEB2.DOH.A possible Canadian gem.The two posts above that are also interesting.The Bush one might not be for those suffering from B.D.S.
I would be less annoyed at Columbia letting this thug/sponsor of terror speak, if they didn’t ban the ROTC from campus. Apparently, the US armesd forces are a bigger threat to the students safety than the islamo-fascists.
Wonder if he’ll be invited to speak at Concordia U where the Middle East bloc of students prevented Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking?
Seems too bad to come to North America for just one appearance to spread the word to all his fans living here in peace and safety while our men and women are fighting the people they’re supplying.
He’s probably winging his way home to check on the progress of his nuke power, laughing his silly head off.
And thanks to the superior intellects and wonderful highbrow morality of the Columbia Board, the enemy is handed another propaganda victory on a silver platter.
Way to go boys.
Incidentally, have you noticed the “shock” and “outrage” in the MSM as the Al Jazeera crowd cut and paste this mockery of free speech into an A-man tour de force? They just hate it when somebody pulls their crap on THEM.
There are no homosexuals in Iran. He has killed them all.
Letting the little Jihadi speak was the smartest thing we could have done…after making a jike of himself and his theocracy in public we see him draw out the most repugnant or dyslexic news sources in our country….those engaged in journaistic fawning over this theocratic dictator have been identified and we now can fully denounce their credibility and judgement.
I don’t see your point, wlmr. ‘We’?? can now denounce their credibility and judgment? So what? We’ve denounced the credibility and judgment of a lot of people and organizations already – and it doesn’t make a whit of difference. To them or to us. That includes MoveOn.org.
I maintain that the agenda of Ahmandinejad’s speaking at both the UN and Columbia, was for propaganda purposes to set up Iran as, publicly, non-aggressive and a potential victim who will and must, protect itself against the West.
That is, Iran’s agenda is to provoke the West to attack it. It will then act, as if in retaliation. The propaganda is to instill in the minds of both the West and the ME, that Iran has not attacked, has no desire to attack. And if anything happens – it will be the fault of the West, in particular the US – and other countries must come to the defense of Iran.
Iran’s agenda is to control the ME. It currently is operating a hidden war; it is behind the insurgency in Iraq. If Iran weren’t there, the sectarian fighting would die down; Iran is maintaining it. Iran is arming Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah. What it wants – is to control the ME. It can’t openly attack these states, but, it can weaken them, arm its allies, and try to arrange a situation where it will appear that it has been attacked – by them and/or the US. Then, it can move into open warfare – against those ‘allies of the US’ – and these include the Arab states (Iraq, SA, Egypt, Lebanon).
How to deal with this at the moment? State this agenda publicly. Accuse him of a hidden agenda, hidden only verbally but evident in Iran’s actions of arming terrorism in the ME.
“Columbia’s choice – and ours”
It’s worth reading Caroline Glick’s column in the Jerusalem Post in full:
“THE PROBLEM with Columbia’s action, the reason that there can be no moral justification for the university’s decision, is because by inviting Ahmadinejad to campus, Columbia has made the pros and cons of genocide a legitimate subject for debate. By asking Ahmadinejad challenging questions, Bollinger has reduced the right of the Jewish people to live to a question of preferences.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411476562&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
ET, wouldn’t it be better if somebody just tossed him in a jail cell and threw away the key? Let the SOB destroy Israel from there.
The allied states of Europe and North America have more than enough mountains of evidence (including captured Iranian officers!) and more than enough dead soldiers because of these scum to do war on Iran this afternoon. Like, right after lunch the B-2s head for the ME to fly in and flatten anything that even looks like a nuclear fuel facility. It should have happened in 2003 when Iran began their “insurgency” campaign.
Come the day, it will be another short war with the mullahs and the A-man getting yanked out of a hole in the ground. Walnut meets ten pound hammer.
The reason this does not happen is that the Democrat party in the US and the NDP/Liberals/BlockQ here are depending on the likes of Columbia University board members for their votes.
I would never in a million years have thought that six years after 9/11 we would be in this position. Here we are, “debating” with Amadinejad the butcher, a guy who personally participated in the Iranian US embasy freak show of the 1970s and these days hangs gays on street corners in Tehran.
If there was ever any doubt that the Left is devoted to destroying the USA (and Europe, and Canada), its gone for sure now. The Left’s response to a nuke going off in New York City will be cheering.
He came, he spoke, they laughed at him.
The beauty of free speech.
I disagree that it is best to let Ahmadinejad speak at Columbia, or anywhere in the west, for that matter, for two reasons:
1. It gives him a world stage for recruiting and legitimizes him as a leader, rather than as a fascist monster. Rather, he should be humiliated, ostrasized and ridiculed. He should be confronted with the evil that rules Iran, such as the 10 year old age of marital consent for girls (pedophilia); the violent death penalties for adultry, homosexuality, etc.; the one million old men and children who were sent to the front as fodder, completely unequipped, and who perished in Iran’s 8 year war with Iraq; the purpose of the 12th imam; and in fact the foundational violence inherent in Islam.
2. And most importantly, he uses Islamic war tactics of taqiyya, kitman and deception. Essentially, religiously sanctioned lying to undermine the ignorant infidels in dar al harab. He expertly, yet hypocritically aligns himself with the left against Bush, capitalism, etc. appealing to the anti-Bush, anti-military, world peace and truther crowd. The problem is these people are particularly ignorant of the foundationally violent nature of Islam, it’s aspirations, it’s law, and it’s brutally savage history.
If this keeps up, we’re in for one helluva bloody reckoning, again. With no Karl the hammer in sight.
Some fallout from
The Iranian SOB’s Visit
Anyone see any coverage of the meeting held with American “Muslim Leaders” ??
Our MSM has provided a platform for the proponent of Anti-Semitism and sworn enemy of our people, nations and cultures. To what end?
“The Left’s response to a nuke going off in New York City will be cheering” The response to that cheering will most likely be a whole lot of leftist blood flowing in the streets of North America.Something for the left to consider.
homosexuals in Iran – in the same way that there are no flies.
Hmmm, homo’s and flies, never looked at it in that light.
How things change? When Jackie Kennedy entertained Nikita Khrushchev, (1961-62?) the world sat back in awe. Nikita would have made Mahoud look like Little Bo-Peep had North Americans had an insight into the political climate of 1940-1960 USSR. Yet eventually, because of diplomatic events and men and women like Jacki Kennedy, JFK, Lester B. Pearson, the doors to the Iron Curtain was cracked opened. Wake up people, this is 2007!!
“because of diplomatic events…the doors to the Iron Curtain was cracked opened”
…Johnny dear, obviously you have never been behind the Iron Curtain. I was there 8 times, in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s after these nice get togethers.
Ignorance to reality is why left airhead mentality prevails today in universities.
FYI are you old enough to remember detentes? It was another term for Russian restocking.
Are you in favour of dialog with the Taliban?
Jeezus Johnny!
The Iron Curtain was “cracked” because the incompetent and corrupt leaders of the USSR bankrupted themselves!
Ronny Reagan just pushed them over the edge by committing gazillions of bucks to SDI funding that they knew they could not hope to match.
Broke and run out of bullshit the soviets gave up… end of story.
NOT because of any posturing by liberal Democrats in the US or socialist sycophants like certain Canadian PM you may revere.
Get a real education!
Hey Tomax 7 and Ommag!! Re: Taliban. How far have we gotten so far! Let’s see now, they’ve hung Sadddam, Bin Laden is still loose, along with a million or so other loose cannons. There’s an old saying that originates from the Italian Mafia, Chicago, circa 1930’s. “Always keep your enemies close to you.”
From a column by Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post:
“…it would have been wrong, once he’d been invited, to ban Ahmadinejad from speaking: To do so would have granted him far more significance than he deserves and played right into his I’m-the-real-democrat-here rhetoric. Instead, the university should have demanded genuine reciprocity. If the president and dean of Columbia truly believed in an open exchange of ideas, they should have presented a debate between Ahmadinejad and an Iranian dissident or human rights activist — someone from his own culture who could argue with him in his own language — instead of allowing him to be filmed on a podium with important-looking Americans. Perhaps Columbia could even have insisted on an appropriate exchange: Ahmadinejad speaks in New York; Columbia sends a leading Western atheist — Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens or, better still, Ayaan Hirsi Ali — to Qom, the Shiite holy city, to debate the mullahs on their own ground…”
Mark
Ottawa
Given that Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens or Ayaan Hirsi Ali would be committing a serious crime in Qom if they were to debate against the mullahs, I am not sure you could persuade them to do it.
…here’s a fish, troll.
How many more 9/11’s have been averted?
…oh wait, you never did respond if you have ever been behind the Iron Curtain.
Stephen I look at free speech like you do – let people hang themselves with their own rhetoric, like Amadinejad did at Columbia U. The problem is when only their talking points get presented, without critique or counterpoint. Witness an article in MSM today where NDPer Libby Davies says Karzai’s speech was actually written by Canadian and she has documentation to prove it. Not only is she not asked for that documentation, but the reporter negligently fails to confirm the story with the government. Rafe Mair has said for years that, while our leftist radicals marched on campuses with hunger strikes and sit-ins, there was no such thing happening in say, Prague, during the Cold War. This created a one-sided impression that was inaccurate. I am for free speech and free rebuttal, warts and all.
Re: The Iron Curtain. Tomax 7 asks if I’ve ever been behind the Iron Curtain. Can’t say that I have, But then I’ve never been to Mars, yet I know that apples don’t grow there! Re: Free Speech: Shamrock, I agree. the US Constitution, and/or CDN Charter gives us that priviliege. Let’s not lose sight of that!!
Free speach is F-R-E-E. Period.
It is a powerfull, but two edged sword however.. that’s the fun part about it.
You are free to express, your ideals, your intelect, just as you are free to express your vices, and show your shortcomings.
Mr Iran whateverhis namejihad.. well he reminds me of the two hillbillies on an OLD Bugs Bunny cartoon. “Deliverance”, or Hatfield and McCoy types.
Swept up by the pied piper, beating each other over the head, in lockstep over hill and dale, trancelike they end up wallowing in a pig sty and all.
A perfect illustration of our sand jocky visitor’s situation; a mans ego, and lust for the limelight, can get the better of him.
He came, he saw, he went.But nothing accomplished, unless you count comic relief.
Bring on the next pretender/statesman wannabee, and pass the popcorn!
It’s surprising how many people miss the point on this issue. It isn’t about freedom of speech – he’s entitled to speak on any street corner he wishes. The point is whether or not a university should provide a platform and boost his status in the world.
Of course, if you’re the sort of person who thnks jackie kennedy conquered the USSR, you probably don’t have a problem with that.
Poor Jackie Kennedy had a tough enough time trying to keep track of her husband and his peccadilloes without worrying about conquering the USSR. She’d have a tough time getting support from any of the other Kennedy brothers who all had the same affliction.
actually, Ahemdick won, hands down
he came to american with the people back home upset at his policies, that were causing financial hardships in Iran, and goes back with the focus off himself and on those bad americans that slandered the “good” iranian leader
Yep, the chancellor of Columbia University sets off WWIII
I don’t beleive anyone wrote that Jackie Kennedy (or any other Kennedy) conquere the USSR. What “Johnny Jesus” refers to is most likely Khrushchev’s first visit to the USA, (1961-62?) a controvorsial move that upset some people greatly at that time. JFK was prez at the time-who else was going to entertain Khrushchev?
At the time, The USSR had enought nukes pointed at us to obliviate the planet, not to mention other offbeat behaviour that Tomax 7 obviously missed when he visited the tractor factory in Belarus.
The important point is that he (Mahmoud) was allowed to speak freely. Good or bad? Time will tell.