Liveblogging with Ahmadinejad at Columbia U.

World Leader Forum has been overloaded with hits and visitors trying to view Ahmadinejad's speech. I had found an alternatate site to get more info. Please refresh the posting for further updates:

Here is the first info:

Here’s how things will go down. Bollinger will speak for ten minutes, then a bell will ring. Next, Ahmadinejad will speak for thirty minutes. Again, a bell will ring. Finally, Dean Coatsworth of SIPA will ask questions from the audience.

Update: CNN will also be carrying a live feed of his speech, so tune in and see if you can see it

Update 2:

He’s [Dean] on stage and Dean Coatsworth is about to begin. Once again, everyone is being reminded to stay in their seats. They’re serious about that. Now, we’re being asked to note where the nearest exit is. Once you leave, you can’t get back. The Rules of University Conduct are being cited now. The main point - do not interrupt, and remain seated

He’s happy for “extraordinary opportunity” to engage in debate and continue to “dialogue” in the next few week. He’s asking the audience to fulfill their “responsibility” to offer questions and engage the President.

Update3:

Lee Bollinger has stepped up to the stage to rapturous applause. Bulliet and SIPA are also getting woots. If today proves anything, Bollinger said “it will prove that there are many events ahead of us.” he said. The University will continue to engage in debate with Iran.
Now, he’s talking about the importance of engaging debate . “We do not honor the dishonorable when we open our public forum to them,” he said. He goes on to say that this is the right thing to do. He also said that this event has nothing to do with the rights of the speaker. Instead, he said, “we do it for ourselves … in the great tradition of openness that has defined our nation.”
Finally, an eloquent defense of free speech. “In the moment, the arugments for free speech will never match the power of those against.” And of Universities - “we can only make minds and to do this we must have access to the full range of inquiry.”

His first point is about the freedom of scholars and journalists in Iran. “I call on the President today to ensure that Kian will be free to travel out of Iran as he wishes,” Bollinger said, before extending a faculty position to Kian, the Iranian scholar with a doctorate at Columbia who is under house arrest in Tehran.
Bollinger is hitting the point home, citing statistics about the relatively high number of scholars, children and journalists jailed.

Update4:

“Mr President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” Bollinger.

Update5:

Bollinger is grilling Ahmadinejad on the rights of free speech, Holocaust, and Isreal . He asks Ahmadinejad - why are you so afraid of Iranian citizens expressing their needs for change? Bollinger then proposed that Bollinger lead a delegation of Columbia professors to Iran to address University’s about free speech.

He then moved on to the denial of the Holocaust. Denial, Bollinger said, of the most documented event in human history “makes you ridiculous … you’re either brazenly provactive or completely uneducated.”

Bollinger then moved on to Israel. He said that with 800 collegagues in Israel, destruction of Israel is a personal offense. “Do you plan on wiping us out too?”

He then asked the President why he funds terrorism, why he is waging a proxy war against the United States in Iraq, and why he will not suspend Iran’s uranium enrichment program, even as sanctions are hurting innocent people.

He finished “I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these question … I expect you to exibit the fanatical mindset.” He finished by saying that he hopes Ahmadinejad is removed from power.

President Ahmedinejad is now up. New Thread.