Ahmadinejad: Talk of war is 'propaganda'

Iran's firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that talk of war against his country was "propaganda" and reiterated that it had every right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.

At the start of a hugely controversial visit to the United States, the alleged "Holocaust denier" who has been accused of backing terrorism vied to reach out to a skeptical US press and public.

After taking questions via video link at the National Press Club in Washington, Ahmadinejad was addressing students at New York's Columbia University, where vocal protests dogged the Iranian leader.

Forced to defend his invitation to Ahmadinejad, Columbia president Lee Bollinger did not mince his words as he attacked the Iranian leader, sitting alongside him, over the Holocaust and Israel's right to exist.

Inviting Ahmadinejad to speak at one of America's leading centers of learning "is consistent with the idea that one should know thine enemy ... to confront with the mind of evil," Bollinger said in his opening speech.

Ahmadinejad, however, used his public stages to insist that the Islamic republic wanted peace and security in line with the teachings of God.

"We think that talk of war is a propaganda tool. Why is there a need for a war?" he told the Washington press club, speaking from New York where he was to address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad said Iran was working with UN nuclear inspectors "and our activities are legal and for peaceful purposes."

France has taken an increasingly strong line in the dispute over Iran's uranium enrichment program, which the United States and its allies fear is an effort to build an atomic bomb.

The UN Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran. Two include sanctions because of Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Speaking at the UN, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was ready to help any country that wants to have civilian nuclear power.

"It is the best response to those who, in violation of all the treaties, want to arm themselves with nuclear weapons," he said, as the UN Security Council debates new sanctions over Iran's atomic program.

Asked about Iraq, Ahmadinejad again denied Iran was providing advanced weapons to Shiite extremists to use against US troops.

"We think, in fact, the (US) military should seek an answer to its defeat in Iraq elsewhere," he said, insisting Tehran wanted a stable Iraq on its border.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for the destruction of Israel and downplayed the Holocaust, said he was open to meeting survivors of the devastating Nazi pogrom against the Jews.

"But let us remember then where did the Holocaust happen to begin with? It happened in Europe. And given that, why is it that the Palestinian people should be displaced?" he said.

But outside Columbia, 100 protestors gathered to vent their fury that Ahmadinejad had been given a venue to speak out.

"Stop Ahmadinejad, the Hitler of Iran," chanted one protester, Mordechi Levy of the Jewish Defense Organization, calling for alumni to boycott the university.
The New York Post headlined its story of Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia "Madman Guest of Dishonor," after earlier crying "Evil has Landed."

The tabloid press led a public outcry over a request by Ahmadinejad to visit the Ground Zero site of New York's World Trade Center, whose twin towers were felled in the September 11 attacks of 2001.

His desired visit to what many Americans view as hallowed ground was nixed by New York police for security reasons, but in any case it would have been a "travesty," according to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"I think this is somebody who is the president of a country that is probably the greatest sponsor of state-sponsored terrorism, someone who is a Holocaust denier, someone who has talked about wiping other countries off the map," she told the CNBC television network.

Iranian opposition exiles and Jewish groups joined in Tuesday's protest at Columbia, waving pre-Islamic revolution Iranian flags and banners depicting Ahmadinejad as a swastika -- the symbol of the Nazis.

But ahead of his UN speech, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency: "We need to take advantage of such opportunities to present the positions of the Iranian people as they (the Americans) are very keen to hear them."



http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070924183027.tyj469bj&show_article=1


And an interesting comment from DailyKos:


Bollinger's Diatribe
by Thomas C


Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 11:36:47 AM PDT


As an American, I was stunned and embarrassed by Bollinger's harangue of Ahmedinejad. It was a craven and cowardly capitulation to political pressures, and unworthy of the academic institution that Bollinger represents. I know who and what Ahmedinejad is, but I also know that he was at Columbia at Columbia's invitation. Bollinger's speech was less a challenge to Ahmedinejad than it was an ambush, and it dishonered all of us as Americans.


Thomas C's diary :: ::


Bollinger could have challenged Ahmedinejad's many hyperbolic and absurd statements in a manner that was not abusive and insulting. He chose instead to curry favor with those who are intent on demonizing Iran and plunging the U.S. into another illegal and immoral war.


Bollinger's behavior was inappropriate. It presented to the world the face of an ugly and bullying America. I am utterly humiliated that Bollinger should have behaved this way.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/24/143116/861