Amadinejad visits New York

One of the most interesting events documented in Skypeland was the visit of Iranian President Ahmadinejad to New York. Several different casts focused on this visit, revealing some of Ahmadinejad's views, and organizing protests during his visit. I listened to his lecture at Columbia University live on CSPAN. It was pretty amazing.

Columbia had withdrawn some of their invitation:
http://www.nysun.com/article/40142
but he still was scheduled to speak. There were protestors outside the speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5bR9HssPE

First, the president of Columbia introduced Ahmadinejad, giving one of the most scathing inditements and lists of misdeeds of the Iranian regime and president Ahmadinejad I have ever heard. It was positively blistering. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDqOWOyRdU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjOLj7olsXM

Then Ahmadinejad launched into his own speech. He began with a prayerful wish for the quick arrival of the 12th Imam who is supposed to herald the end of the world (Ahmadinejad is supposed to want a worldwide nuclear war because this will create the end of the world at which time the prophesized 12th Imam will appear). Then, he made a number of connections between religion and science, talking like a creationist. He then began condemning the US for implementing post-9/11 security measures, using depleted uranium in Iraq, dropping the atomic bombs on Japan in World War II, and then arguing frantically for the right of Iran to develop nuclear power and possibly even nuclear weapons (although it was a bit vague). He was pretty angry about the charges leveled against him and his regime. He then launched into an impassioned attack on Israel and claimed that Israel wanted to expand its lands to extend from the land between the Nile and the Euphrates. He spoke about Holocaust denial and complained that academics are in prison in Europe for doing research about the Holocaust. He equated the Palestinian problem with Holocaust denial and said that he only wanted to find places for Palestinians to live.

He claimed that Iran has been fully inspected by the IAEA and given a clean bill of health. He said that selfish powers are trying to deny Iran its rights. He said that Iran wanted to make its own fuel since Western countries did live up to past agreements to give Iran nuclear power. He said that this was especially since Iran cannot get spare parts for its civilian aircraft because of current embargos. He claimed that Iran did not want any more than what was allowed under international law, and that Iran is a peace-loving nation.

Then the moderator read the student's questions:

*Do you want to destroy the Jewish state of Israel? He spoke about how he loved the Jews inside Iran. He then talked about how it is important to take care of the Palestinian people. He proposed a referendum for the Palestinian people. He suggested that no arms should go from the US to Israel.

The moderator asked him to be clearer about his answer, and say yes or no. Ahmadinejad, said, "This is not a free flow of information" and said he would not give the answer in the form the moderator wanted. The moderator said clearly the answer was yes, and the president basically agreed.

*Why is your government providing aid to terrorists? Ahmadinejad then tried to propose a question in return, trying to justify this action. He accused the US and Israel of terrorism.

*Why call for additional research on the Holocaust when it appears to be well-established? Ahmadinejad claimed that the principles of mathematics had recently been overturned after 800 years (huh?). He said he did not say the Holocaust did not happen, "Granted that it happened, what did it have to do with the Palestinian people?"

*Why are there fewer rights and freedoms for women? Why does Iran execute homosexuals? The president responded that women were fully free and Iran had true and proper freedom. He equated homosexuality with drug trafficking and said that it corrupted the youth, and therefore they deserved the death penalty. He claimed there were no homosexuals in Iran. He accused Americans of thinking that being a woman is a crime, and said that in Iran this is not true. He pointed out that children kiss the hands of their mothers in Iran.

*What did you hope to accomplish at Columbia today, and what would you do at the 9/11 tragedy site? Ahmadinejad said he had been invited to Columbia. He lectured Columbia for not respecting guests like himself. He said that he ran out of time last year when he wanted to visit the 9/11 site, and he said it was regrettable that some people did not now want him to visit the site. He blamed the US and said it was selfish and said that they could not lead the world with this attitude. He said that the root causes of 9/11 had to be examined and the true culprits revealed (he said this several times, suggesting that the US had attacked its own people on 9/11, or according to columnist Mike Evans, that the Jews are behind 9/11).

*Why does Iran want a nuclear program? Ahmadinejad said Iran operated under IAEA constraints and was doing it only for peaceful reasons. He claimed that Iran was not interested in nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad made a joke and said that any politician interested in nuclear weapons was "retarded".

*How do you see resolution of the points of conflict between the government of Iran and the government of the USA? Ahmadinejad claimed that only after the revolution in Iran was there freedom and democracy. He said that Iran was ready to have talks with any country in the world. He said he wanted to debate Bush in front of the United Nations. He recalled that the US had supported Iraq against Iran and Sadam had used chemical weapons against Iran. He said that it was unfair of the world to be at odds with Iran for getting rid of its dictator

Ahmadinejad then thanked the audience. He said he wished he had more time and invited everyone to come to Iran. He expressed thanks to everyone for organizing the meeting.

Here is the link to the CSPAN broadcast. Play it now with your RealPlayer:
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=Iranian%20President%20Ahmadinejad%20Speech%20at%20Columbia%20University&link=rtsp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.c%2Dspan.org%2Fproject%2Fter%2Fter092407%5Fahmadinejad2.rm%3Fmode%3Dcompact

Interestingly, as we were discussing it later in a skypecast, a young Russian Israeli claimed that Ahmadinejad had not stated that he wanted to eliminate Israel (even though he says it daily in broadcasts in Iran and has for months on end). I asked how he reached that conclusion. He said it was the "fucking pig American moderator" who put words in Ahmadinejad's mouth. I said he had not. The Russian Jew said that it was badly translated. I asked if he spoke Farsi then, and asked him to speak Farsi to an Iranian in the room. Of course he declined, since he is just that kind of person...Nothing like kissing the butt of someone who wants to kill you, right? Wow.

Addendum: A Farsi speaking cast member later translated the remarks again for us, and reported that there was no mistranslation apparent in the official translation, or the live translation of Ahmadinejad's remarks.

Addendum 2: Here is more information about the appearance of the Mahdi, or 12th Imam: http://www.wm.edu/so/monitor/spring2001/paper2.htm#_edn5