Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Ahmadinejad lectures at Columbia University

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posted by Juan Cole @ 9/25/2007 02:35:00 AM

12 Comments:

At 9:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

YouTube also has the whole event.

 
At 10:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aren't Hamid Karzai AND Nouri al-Maliki ALSO in New York for the General Assembly meeting? No one seems to be paying any attention to those two leaders. I'd be VERY interested in seeing both of them face question and answer sessions about the current states of their countries. But no one seems to care.

- Inkan1969

 
At 12:06 PM, Blogger Al S. Eslami said...

Quoted from FARS News Agency:

Seven chancellors and presidents of Iranian universities and research centers, in a letter addressed to their counterpart in the US Colombia University, denounced Lee Bollinger's insulting words against the Iranian nation and president and invited him to provide responses for 10 questions of the Iranian academicians and intellectuals.

The following is the full text of the letter.

Mr. Lee Bollinger
Columbia University President

We, the professors and heads of universities and research institutions in Tehran , hereby announce our displeasure and protest at your impolite remarks prior to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent speech at Columbia University.

We would like to inform you that President Ahmadinejad was elected directly by the Iranian people through an enthusiastic two-round poll in which almost all of the country's political parties and groups participated. To assess the quality and nature of these elections you may refer to US news reports on the poll dated June 2005.

Your insult, in a scholarly atmosphere, to the president of a country with a population of 72 million and a recorded history of 7,000 years of civilization and culture is deeply shameful.

Your comments, filled with hate and disgust, may well have been influenced by extreme pressure from the media, but it is regrettable that media policy-makers can determine the stance a university president adopts in his speech.

Your remarks about our country included unsubstantiated accusations that were the product of guesswork as well as media propaganda. Some of your claims result from misunderstandings that can be clarified through dialogue and further research.

During his speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad answered a number of your questions and those of students. We are prepared to answer any remaining questions in a scientific, open and direct debate.

You asked the president approximately ten questions. Allow us to ask you ten of our own questions in the hope that your response will help clear the atmosphere of misunderstanding and distrust between our two countries and reveal the truth.

1- Why did the US media put you under so much pressure to prevent Mr. Ahmadinejad from delivering his speech at Columbia University? And why have American TV networks been broadcasting hours of news reports insulting our president while refusing to allow him the opportunity to respond? Is this not against the principle of freedom of speech?

2- Why, in 1953, did the US administration overthrow the Iran's national government under Dr Mohammad Mosaddegh and go on to support the Shah's dictatorship?

3- Why did the US support the blood-thirsty dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iraqi-imposed war on Iran, considering his reckless use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers defending their land and even against his own people?

4- Why is the US putting pressure on the government elected by the majority of Palestinians in Gaza instead of officially recognizing it? And why does it oppose Iran 's proposal to resolve the 60-year-old Palestinian issue through a general referendum?

5- Why has the US military failed to find Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden even with all its advanced equipment? How do you justify the old friendship between the Bush and Bin Laden families and their cooperation on oil deals? How can you justify the Bush administration's efforts to disrupt investigations concerning the September 11 attacks?

6- Why does the US administration support the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) despite the fact that the group has officially and openly accepted the responsibility for numerous deadly bombings and massacres in Iran and Iraq? Why does the US refuse to allow Iran 's current government to act against the MKO's main base in Iraq?

7- Was the US invasion of Iraq based on international consensus and did international institutions support it? What was the real purpose behind the invasion which has claimed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives? Where are the weapons of mass destruction that the US claimed were being stockpiled in Iraq?

8- Why do America's closest allies in the Middle East come from extremely undemocratic governments with absolutist monarchical regimes?

9- Why did the US oppose the plan for a Middle East free of unconventional weapons in the recent session of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors despite the fact the move won the support of all members other than Israel?

10- Why is the US displeased with Iran's agreement with the IAEA and why does it openly oppose any progress in talks between Iran and the agency to resolve the nuclear issue under international law?

Finally, we would like to express our readiness to invite you and other scientific delegations to our country. A trip to Iran would allow you and your colleagues to speak directly with Iranians from all walks of life including intellectuals and university scholars. You could then assess the realities of Iranian society without media censorship before making judgments about the Iranian nation and government.

You can be assured that Iranians are very polite and hospitable toward their guests.

The letter was dated September 25, 2007, in Tehran, and was signed by the following:

Dr Hamid Latifi, President of Shahid Beheshti University

Dr Saeid Sohrabpour, President of Sharif University

Dr Alireza Rahaei, President of Amirkabir University

Mohammad-Saeid Jabal-Ameli, President of Science and Industry University

Dr Mehdi Golshani, President of Humanities and Culture Research Institute

Dr Ahmad Tavakkoli, President of Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly

The Farsi text of the letter is here:

http://isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1004814&Lang=P

Its English translation (as above) is here:

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8606300370

 
At 1:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I tell you what: they don't make Evil like they used to.

 
At 1:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It does not belong under this posting but rather informative:
An old Syrian Saying " Begger and set receiving conditions"

Israel asks U.S. foreign aid be paid in EUROS

Secretary of State Rice has acknowledged a communique from Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Levni which requests that all foreign aid payments and loans from the United States be made in Euros rather than in Dollars. Foreign Minister Levni cited the rapidly declining dollar and it's disfavor as a world currency as reasons for the request.

"In the spirit of Yom Kippur, the United States will not hold Israel to any agreements obligating them to accept Dollars as payment for their foreign aid. We will translate our obligations into Euros or whatever currency that best fits Israel's needs" Secretary Rice said in the Friday, Sept 21 announcement.

"We need to place our Israeli obligations at the top of our national priority list. Israel should not suffer any inconvenience due to currency fluctuations" said Rice before heading off to Camp David.

A similar request from Egypt was declined last week.

 
At 2:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

To SNP - The "aid in euros" story was originally posted at wakeupfromyourslumber.com as satire. Several other blogs have since picked it up, missing the "satire" and "gotcha" tags.

Of course, in today's world it's damned hard to tell satire from the awful truth, sometimes.

 
At 2:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Israel asks U.S. foreign aid be paid in EUROS"

Can you say "Onion"?

 
At 4:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The "aid in Euros" thing is a joke - but one is for real:

Israel is asking the US to provide it with nuclear material, in contravention of US obligations under the NPT and US laws, basically seeking the same benefits that the US granted to India as a bribe to secure India's vote to refer Iran to the UNSC.

The ironies abound: breaking the NPT in order to get Iran to do MORE than the NPT requires.

 
At 8:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What I don't understand is this. On this blog, Prof. Cole has made it very clear that Ahmadinejad did *not* say that Israel should be "wiped off the map;" that, in effect, no such idiom exists in Persian, and the nuance of the phrase was lost in that translation. I was convinced by Prof. Cole's argument.

Certainly Ahmadinejad must be aware by now that our understanding of this incredibly provocative line is much different (or so I understand) from his. Why, then, do you think he does not go out of his way to correct this when it is brought up to him, as it was in Bollinger's speech? Or, did he and was it not broadcast?

Are they missing the bellicose nature of that phrase, or are they happy to let us think that they want to wipe Israel off the map? They must be aware of the issue -- has there been anyone besides Cole who is making this case, especially on the Iranian side?

I would love to get your opinion, Prof. Cole.

 
At 8:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Imagine if Iranian presdient was alligned with USA and doing empire's dirty work, how fitting would it be for US media to pimp his Horacio Alger story as below


From Wikipedia

Personal life and education

Ahmadinejad, the son of a blacksmith, was born in Garmsar, near Tehran on October 28, 1956. In 1976, he took Iran's national university entrance exams (konkoor) to gain admission into Iran's top universities. His test score ranked him 132nd among over 400,000 participants that year,[19] landing him at the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) as an undergraduate student of civil engineering.

After the Iranian Revolution, he entered the Master of Science program for civil engineering in 1984. In 1989, he became a member of the Science faculty at the university where he had studied.[20] In 1997, he received his Ph.D. in transportation engineering and planning from the Science and Technology University. Even after being elected President, Ahmadinejad continued living in a simple apartment flat and eating meals brought from home, in his office. Both of these traits contributed to his widespread support amongst the poorer classes of Iran.[21]

Ahmadinejad is married with two sons and one daughter.[22] One of his sons formerly studied at the Amirkabir University of Technology.[23]

In August 2007, Ahmadinejad gave his approval for filmmaker Oliver Stone to make a biopic film on him. [24]

 
At 9:51 PM, Blogger Josie Setzler said...

I hope Professor Cole will address the damage done by Lee Bollinger's personal attack on his invited guest. I'm distressed to find that Bollinger is generally being praised for his unprofessional and insulting demeanor. Surely if he felt it would be necessary to resort to name-calling, he should have withdrawn his invitation.

 
At 7:37 AM, Blogger Don Thieme said...

What is the backstory here on the MLK, our coming invasion of Iran, and Iranian incursions across the border into Iraq?

 

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