Don’t miss HONOR KILLING, Ken’s new thriller on Iran, radical Islam,
and the war on terror. For more information, see
https://kentimmerman.com/honor-killing.html
+++
What was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinking? Apparently the
former Democrat believed that escorting Iran’s Hitler-wannabe
president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the site of the September 11
memorial at Ground Zero would generate a terrific photo op.
“Here I am with world leaders,” that type of thing.
After all, Bloomberg has already made his appearance at the “World
Leaders Forum” at Columbia University, so he was in the zone. And last
year, U.S. News & World Report crowned him as one of America’s
“best leaders.”
But within hours of the announcement by New York City Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Wednesday that the city was “in
discussions” with the Secret Service to escort the Mighty Midget of
Tehran to Ground Zero, Bloomberg’s office issued a hasty retraction.
No way, nada, not going to happen, they said. Kelly had spoken based on
“outdated information.”
Actually, what happened was that someone told the Mayor that the Tweed
Hall switchboard had been paralyzed by calls from outraged citizens who
were responding to appeals from talk radio hosts, bloggers, Jewish
organizations, and human rights groups. Feeling the political heat,
Bloomberg backed down.
So much for this man’s presidential aspirations.
Bloomberg, of course, is not the only U.S. politician who thinks
there’s an audience for cozying up to dictators. We’ve already seen
Dennis of Damascus and Tehran Tom. And let’s not forget Nancy Pelosi’s
journey on the road to Damascus, just in time for Passover and Easter.
If Bloomberg still clings to that outdated notion of political
accountability, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger does not.
He has maintained the speaking invitation for the boy president at
Columbia’s World Forum – cleverly scheduled to coincide with a protest
organized by major Jewish organizations at UN Plaza. (Guess where the
press will go? If you guessed, to cover the Jews, guess again).
Bollinger actually had the chutzpah to tell Columbia undergrads that
Ahmadinejad’s visit would be “a celebration of the university and its
values,” according to notes taken at a rowdy meeting with student
groups on Thursday afternoon.
The students soon discovered that the invitation to Iran’s Hitler
wannabe had been convoyed by Richard Bulliet, a former board member of
the American-Iranian Council, once the foremost promoter of Tehran’s
viewpoint in Washington (now overtaken by NIAC, of course).
Also instrumental in promoting a “dialogue” with Tehran’s murderous
regime is Gary Sick, the former deputy National Security Council
advisor to Jimmy Carter who so gloriously managed the 1979-1981 hostage
crisis.
Sick’s “Gulf 2000” Project, created in the early 1990s and fueled by
Exxon-Mobil, George Soros and the Ford Foundation, among others,
focused from the start on “engaging” Tehran. When Rafsanjani was
president, Sick and his crowd promoted Rafsanjani as the great turbaned
hope who would make Iran safe for U.S. business.
Gary Sick conceals his lobbying activity behind a cloak of cuteness,
claiming that access to his website, emails, and electronic library “is
limited to scholars and analysts with a professional interest in and
association with the Persian Gulf region.” Critics and hostile
reporters, stay away.
When Khatami took over in 1997, Sick began working with Hossein
Alikhani, an Iranian businessman who spent time in a U.S. prison on
felony charges after pleading guilty to violating anti-terrorist
sanctions.
With Alikhani’s support, Sick founded the “Center for World Dailogue”
in 1999 to promote rapprochement (read: business) between the United
States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Grateful for these efforts, a Tehran court signaled last year that it
planned to award Alkhani the deed to the U.S. embassy in Tehran,
supposedly to compensate him for damages he suffered at the hands of
the Great Satan.
And among the apologists for the regime in Tehran, let’s not forget
Washington, DC Episcopal bishop John Bryson Chane, who is planning to
grovel to Qom on October 7 to meet with former president Khatami to
discuss “theology.”
Bishop Chane disgraced himself last year by inviting Khatami to the
National Cathedral and seems to believe that radical Shiite Islamic
fundamentalism is just like Christianity, at least the kind practiced
by Orthodox Anglicans or evangelical Christians.
In an interview with the Washington Times yesterday, the Freedom
Center’s David Horowitz called Ahmadinejad’s visit to his alma mater “a
disgrace.”
So what can Americans do?
• If you live in New York, join the street protests
Ahmadinejad addresses Columbia at 1:30 pm on Monday, but the media is
gearing up for a rip-roaring street protest centered around 116th and
Broadway. The mainline American Jewish groups will be gathering at UN
plaza at 12:30 pm on Monday. Take your pick.
• Restrict Ahmadinejad’s visa.
Congress can pass special legislation next week to restrict the travel
of Iranian government leaders the next time they come to the United
Nations. The current rules restrict Iranian government representatives
to a 25-mile radius of New York City, without specific prior approval.
That 25-mile radius, of course, makes it easy for Ahmadinejad or his
successor to visit Columbia, Ground Zero, or to meet and greet with
Iranian regime supporters in the New York metropolitan area. This
should and can be stopped immediately. Iran’s leaders should be
restricted to the UN building, the Iranian consulate in New York, and
their hotel. Period.
As I peer into my crystal ball, I can discern just a handful of members
of the Party of Surrender (plus Libertarian Ron Paul) who would oppose
such restrictions, once the phone calls start flooding their offices.
• Demand reciprocity from Iran.
If Iranian leaders can come to the United States and make public
statements (which they will do at the UN, even under the above
proposal), then Congress should demand similar access so that a senior
U.S. government official can address the Iranian Majles, Tehran
University, or similar gatherings.
Imagine the panic of Iran’s senior leaders (okay, and the Secret
Service) if the President or Vice-President were allowed to speak at
Tehran University to deliver America’s message of freedom and
self-determination. A high-risk proposal – but one worth considering.
• Demand that the UN enforce genocide convention
Congressmen Steven Rothman (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced House
Concurrent Resolution 21 on Jan. 9, 2007, calling on the UN Security
Council to charge Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the UN Charter
because of his calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. This
wise legislation has 103 cosponsors and is being supported by the
Zionist Organization of America, among others.
• Sue Columbia University
The Coalition for Jewish Concerns (AMCHA) is considering legal action
against Columbia University to challenge the university’s refusal to
allow outside demonstrators to attend the Ahmadinejad speech.
As AMCHA national president Rabbi Avi Weiss wrote, “This limitation on
non-University affiliated persons is particularly inappropriate here
where the speaker and his considerable entourage is not affiliated with
Columbia University.”
• Alumni boycott
Although Columbia depends mainly on its huge endowment and on big
alumni donors, nevertheless a grass roots alumni boycott of the
university could have an impact. Stay tuned, as I hear that alumni
groups across the country are mulling action on this front.
• Congressional ban on federal grants
“If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which
to speak… we would certainly invite him,” the Dean of Columbia’s School
of International and Public Affairs, John H, Coatsworth, told FoxNews.
Is this merely an expression of Columbia’s respect for the 1st
amendment? No way. Columbia seems to likes proponents of genocide –
past and present - but won’t allow Minuteman leader Jim Gilchrest onto
campus to talk about securing our borders, or Columbia alum David
Horowitz to address academic freedom.
Congress should examine the conditions for federal grants to the
University, and consider suspending all grants to Columbia programs
that openly defy the United States Constitution.
• Sign the petition
Brigitte Gabriel’s American Congress for Truth has launched an on-line
petition to stop Ahmadinejad from speaking at Columbia, and plans to
forward the names of signatories (more than 8,000 as of Sunday
afternoon) to Columbia president Lee Bolinger.
• Send the lawyers
My favorite (okay, barring a non-stop flight to Gitmo) would be to
serve the boy president with a subpoena as a material witness in the
billion dollar lawsuit brought against the Islamic Republic of Iran by
former U.S. diplomats held hostage in Tehran from 1979-1981.
As I reported at the time of Ahmadinejad’s first visit to New York two
years ago, several former hostages have positively identified the boy
president as their most vicious interrogator during their 444 ordeal.
Former assistant air attaché David Roeder described in
excruciating detail Ahmadinejad’s tactics in a June 2005 interview with
the German newsweekly Der Spiegel.
“[Ahmadinejad] was present at at least a third of my personal
interrogations, which took place nightly for a little over a month
early on in the hostage-taking situation,” Roeder said. “He seemed to
be calling the shots, but from the background. The interrogators would
ask a question and it would then be translated from Farsi into English
by a woman interpreter.”
Most chilling was the very personal nature of the threat Ahmadinejad
used in an effort to “break” Roeder.
“Because I was not cooperating, they threatened that they were going to
kidnap my handicapped son and send various pieces of him -- fingers and
toes is what they mentioned -- to my wife if I didn't start
cooperating. You don't forget somebody who is involved in something
like that.”
No, you don’t forget somebody who is involved in something like that.
But in its infinite wisdom, the State Department last year intervened
to block efforts by attorneys for the 52 hostages and their families
from seeking damages from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
These days, of course, Ahmadinejad doesn’t make individual threats such
as those he made to Roeder. Today he merely threatens to “destroy
America” and to “wipe Israel off the map.”
At Columbia, of course, that passes for free speech.
Just don’t hold up a “Support the Troops” banner – or Columbia’s dean
might call security.
Kenneth R. Timmerman was nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize along
with John Bolton for his work on Iran. He is Executive Director of the
Foundation for Democracy in Iran, and author of Countdown to Crisis:
the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran (Crown Forum: 2005).
Kenneth R. Timmerman was nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize along
with John Bolton for his work on Iran. He is Executive Director of the
Foundation for Democracy in Iran, and author of Countdown to Crisis:
the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran (Crown Forum: 2005). Original:
--
