A royal smackdown

As you may well know, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in NYC to deliver a speech at the United Nations (spit). He was also invited to speak at Columbia University as part of their Columbia University World Leaders Forum. The President of Columbia University -- Doctor Lee C. Bollinger -- got a lot of grief for allowing this terrorist supporter and despot to speak at a major University but I don't think that anyone was prepared for Dr. Bollinger's opening introduction. The full transcript is here: President Lee C. Bollinger's Introductory Remarks at SIPA-World Leaders Forum with President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- Sept. 24, 2007 Here are a few bon mots:

Lastly, in universities, we have a deep and almost single-minded commitment to pursue the truth. We do not have access to the levers of power. We cannot make war or peace. We can only make minds. And to do this we must have the most full freedom of inquiry.

Let me now turn to Mr. Ahmadinejad.

And turn to him he does...

The arrest and imprisonment of these Iranian Americans for no good reason is not only unjustified, it runs completely counter to the very values that allow today�s speaker to even appear on this campus.

But at least they are alive.

According to Amnesty International, 210 people have been executed in Iran so far this year � 21 of them on the morning of September 5th alone. This annual total includes at least two children � further proof, as Human Rights Watch puts it, that Iran leads the world in executing minors.

There is more.

Oh indeed there is...

We at this university have not been shy to protest and challenge the failures of our own government to live by these values; and we won�t be shy in criticizing yours.

Let�s, then, be clear at the beginning, Mr. President you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.

And so I ask you:

Why have women, members of the Baha�i faith, homosexuals and so many of our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?

Why in a letter last week to the Secretary General of the UN did Akbar Gangi, Iran�s leading political dissident, and over 300 public intellectuals, writers and Nobel Laureates express such grave concern that your inflamed dispute with the West is distracting the world�s attention from the intolerable conditions your regime has created within Iran? In particular, the use of the Press Law to ban writers for criticizing the ruling system.

Why are you so afraid of Iranian citizens expressing their opinions for change?

And more:

In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as a �fabricated� �legend.� One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers.

For the illiterate and ignorant, this is dangerous propaganda. When you come to a place like this, this makes you, quite simply, ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.

You should know that Columbia is a world center of Jewish studies and now, in partnership with the YIVO Institute, of Holocaust studies. Since the 1930s, we�ve provided an intellectual home for countless Holocaust refugees and survivors and their children and grandchildren. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history. Because of this, and for many other reasons, your absurd comments about the �debate� over the Holocaust both defy historical truth and make all of us who continue to fear humanity�s capacity for evil shudder at this closure of memory, which is always virtue�s first line of defense.

Will you cease this outrage?

There is just too much stuff to even begin to excerpt. Destruction of Israel, Proxy war in Iraq, Support for organized terrorism, Nuclear development. Dr. Bollinger closes with these words:

Let me close with this comment. Frankly, and in all candor, Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions. But your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mindset that characterizes so much of what you say and do. Fortunately, I am told by experts on your country, that this only further undermines your position in Iran with all the many good-hearted, intelligent citizens there. A year ago, I am reliably told, your preposterous and belligerent statements in this country (as in your meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations) so embarrassed sensible Iranian citizens that this led to your party�s defeat in the December mayoral elections. May this do that and more.

I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for. I only wish I could do better.

Wow! Just Wow!