"In Iran, anger and dismay over Ahmadinejad's reception at Columbia" by Nasser Karimi/Associated Press September 26, 2007
TEHRAN - Iranians expressed dismay yesterday 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 visit could bolster the hard-line leader at a time of high tensions with Washington.
[Sort of the opposite of what we wanted, huh?
Why does Amurka fuck up every time under George W?]
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.
[I told you it was a bad thing, reader! More than dumbfuck Amurkns know!]
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'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 grocery store customer at who had watched state television's 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."
[I LOVE the Iranians!!!
And I never, ever want my country bombing them, ever!
And sorry about the past, too, Iranians!]
"Iran’s Media Assail President’s Treatment" by NAZILA FATHI
TEHRAN, Sept. 25 — Iranian state television on Tuesday sharply criticized the way President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been treated during his Columbia University talk and asserted that he had triumphed over his adversarial hosts, whom it described as Zionist Jews.
[Well, he is RIGHT, even as the Times buries the hatchet in his head!
And WTF? Iranians have TV?
I thought they just ate dirt, wife-whipped, drank blood, and plotted, planned and lurked?
WTF?]
Commentary, interviews and video broadcast in Iran of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia on Monday depicted a resolute leader who overcame an ambush of personal insults to present his views on topics like the Holocaust, Israel, the Palestinians and nuclear weapons, views that were described as having been well received by the audience.
“In the end, who was the winner?” asked one television commentator, leaving the answer to a quote from John R. Bolton, a former American ambassador to the United Nations and an outspoken Iran critic, who said Mr. Ahmadinejad was the “big winner” for being able to talk at the university.
[Agreed!]
The evening news showed scenes of the large crowd that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s talk had drawn inside and outside the university. “Mr. Ahmadinejad was the center of the world news for the past few days,” said the reporter.
“Some media even called on students to boycott the speech,” the reporter added, saying that instead Mr. Ahmadinejad got a warm welcome.
The program repeated scenes that showed the audience cheering Mr. Ahmadinejad, suggesting that a lot of the audience was made up of his supporters. “I saw even Jewish students who walked out of the talk saying Mr. Ahmadinejad was very convincing,” a woman wearing a head scarf told the program in English.
It also pointed out that the president of Columbia, Lee C. Bollinger, had made insulting remarks, without elaborating on them.
[Right, it is the Iranian media that filters and omits shit.
Anybody down there take a gander at the shit rag you guys put out?
Pffffffttttt!!!]
Mr. Bollinger had said that Mr. Ahmadinejad exhibited “all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” and that he was “brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.”
The television broadcasts also showed video of the audience booing Mr. Ahmadinejad when he said there were no homosexuals in Iran. It added that a protest was orchestrated by a Zionist lobby that had brought schoolchildren.
[They showed Ahmadinejad getting booed on television in Iran?
Don't see that on AmeriKan TV when it is Bush!
Probably right, too!]
Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards, denounced on the state-run news channel the inhospitable treatment of Mr. Ahmadinejad. “He is the president of a country,” he said. “It is shocking that a country that claims to be civilized treats him that way.”
In an interview with the Aftab Web site, Ali Ahmadi, a member of Parliament, also spoke harshly about Mr. Ahmadinejad’s treatment, and criticized those in the Iranian government who had advised him to appear at the university.
“New York is the headquarters of Zionist Jews, and they have control over Columbia University,” he said. “It seems that our diplomacy apparatus had not given complete information to the president.”
[Man, those Persians are so gosh-darned smart!
So much more so than stoo-pid, stinkfuck Amurkns!]
Even Iranian Jews were offended!
"Thursday, September 27, 2007 Heads of Iran's Jewish community 'outraged by the disrespect' shown to the Iranian president during Columbia visit
Jewish community in Iran slams US protest against Ahmadinejad's visit by Dudi Cohen
The Jewish community in Iran published a statement Wednesday, slamming the disrespect shown to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by human rights and freedom activists on his recent visit to the United States.
The Iranian president visited the US earlier this week, where he attended a forum at Columbia University and addressed the United Nation's General Assembly.
"Mr President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," said Columbia President Lee Bollinger to loud applause, as he invited Ahmadinejad to take the stage.
"The constant disrespect and disturbance demonstrated (during Ahmadinejad's speech at Colombia) prove once more that those claiming to be peace loving people have no real grasp of the concept," said the statement.
Published by the Iranian news agency IRNA, the statement also said that the Jewish community in Iran was "outraged by that kind of behavior".
The Jewish community in Iran spans some 25,000 people, who are considered loyal to the country's radical Islamist regime's anti-Zionist policies; but many believe the community's loyalty is merely a means of survival.
The statement was signed by Morris Mottaned, the Jewish delegate to the Iranian parliament and by the heads of the Iranian Jewish communities.
Iranian officials crowned Ahmadinejad's visit to the US a success, saying that "the president was able to convey Iran's message of peace to the world
"Welcome to the US, Mr. Ahmadinejad
Columbia University junior Tiara Francis was on the mark when she took her school's president to task for insulting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Iranian president's appearance on campus ("Fiery give and take for Iran's president," Page A1, Sept. 25). Indeed, as Francis said, Lee Bollinger's tirade against the invited speaker did not make the guest look bad; it made the university look bad.
The Iranian president, after all, did not barge into the university; he was asked to come. A time-honored rule on such occasions is to stay away from mean-spirited and disparaging introductory remarks about a guest, no matter how loathsome his views, and leave any heated exchanges to the later question-and-answer session.
Bollinger, in a reprehensible departure from that norm, called the guest, to his face, a "petty and cruel dictator" and a man lacking intellectual honesty. By doing so, Bollinger sullied the university's reputation as well as America's.
The crafty Ahmadinejad stayed above such boorishness and gently reminded the hosts about a breach of protocol on intellectual discourse. With friends like Bollinger, does the United States need enemies in Iran?
Vipan Chandra
Attleboro (Boston Globe September 27, 2007)."
As an American citizen, I would also like to send my regrets, apologies, and respects to Mr. Ahmadinejad and the Iranian people for the despicable treatment they were accorded during his visit.
I would also like to thank them for being patient, understanding, and kind!
