Official thread. C-Span scheduled to broadcast Ahmadinejad's speech at 1:30PM EST.

[flpoljunkie]

It's evidently running late.

[flpoljunkie]

1. President of Columbia University now speaking.

[halobeam]

2. which cspan...do you have a link?

[rodeodance]

9. cspan 1

[durrrty libby]

18. Ahmadinejad yapping on MSNBC

This guy is nuts. God I loathe religious loons

[flpoljunkie]

24. Religious fanaticism poisons. One thing Christopher Hitchens has gotten right.

[rodeodance]

3. hey, they just went to Columbia U. Secret Service says no flash camers, no

cell phones. If you leave you may not get back in.

[wndycty]

4. How weird is it that the Secret Service is protecting him. . .

. . .very surreal.

[flpoljunkie]

32. They protect all heads of state when they come to this country.

[rodeodance]

5. can you put OFFICIAl thread in your subject line pleae.

[rodeodance]

6. REC

[rodeodance]

7. k

[rodeodance]

8. Speaker talking of jailing and retention of Iranians. "petty and cruel dictator"--right to his face

[madrchsod]

15. he`s a puppet

he was selected to run and win the election. the iranian people are fed up with him and the direction their country has taken........wait a minute, now where have i heard about this same thing before....

[flpoljunkie]

23. Quite a lengthy dodge on the need for more research on the Holocaust to avoid saying it happened.

[rodeodance]

10. asking A. to allow Columbia fac. or students to speak in Iraq.

[BeyondGeography]

11. Re. holocaust denial:

"You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."

[flpoljunkie]

12. Has moved to C-Span 3 as House is now in session.

[BeyondGeography]

13. Why is Iran fighting a proxy war in Iraq? Um, what the hell are WE doing in Iraq?

There's a question he won't have any trouble with...the others were very strong, though.

[BeyondGeography]

14. Ahmadinejad: "Wah, I am insulted."

I fear this is going nowhere...great theater though.

[flpoljunkie]

16. Check out CNN! Not an introduction, a frontal assault by Columbia president. I agree.

I don't remember the man's name, a Middle Eastern expert, speaking to the CNN reporters, but he said the same thing Juan Cole said about our making Ahmadinejab public enemy #1.

[BeyondGeography]

17. Depressing...all Gerges was trying to do was say Bollinger's "introduction"

will be seen as an insult in Iran, so the hairdos jump all over Gerges (what do you mean a "frontal assault"?)...Another failed "attempt" at intelligent political discussion in this country.

[flpoljunkie]

19. Ahmadinejad speaking at length about the price Palestinians have paid for 60 years. Perhaps the hate

for Israel for the occupation of Israel is the root of his utterly and inane questioning of whether the Holocaust happened.

[BeyondGeography]

21. "They were minding their own business in 1944..."

This is how the issue is discussed in the ME, whether we like it or not. Americans talk about baseball trivia, Muslims talk about the injustices behind the creation of Israel.

And so it goes.

[polichick]

20. As a former Columbia University student, I'm disappointed in...

...the president's opening words ~ talk about propaganda! I agree with Ahmadinejad that it was disrespectful, both to him and to the audience.

[flpoljunkie]

22. The US itself encouraged Iran to develop nuclear energy several decades ago.

[polichick]

28. Yeah, US propaganda knows no bounds...

How can we believe US officials about this guy? I always say extremism is extremism, whether ours or theirs ~ same goes for propaganda.

[flpoljunkie]

31. Yes, our hands are so unclean in the Middle East.

[polichick]

33. I've been listening to Norah O'Donnell on MSNBC...

Everything she says is propaganda ~ she just cut off someone who stood up to her right-wing rhetoric.

She has repeated over and over what Mitch McConnell said about handing "a megalomaniac a microphone and a stage upon which to use it."

Even Pat Buchanan told her that's ridiculous.

[BeyondGeography]

25. He is positively dense on the holocaust

comparing the need for "further research" on the matter to the work that continues to be done in science and physics...that just gives people an excuse to throw out whatever sensible things he says and label him a crackpot.

Oops: We do not have homosexuals in our country! There's another headline.

[flpoljunkie]

26. I do think he has pretty much flubbed any opportunity to help himself here.

No homosexuals? His religious fanaticism is showing.

[flpoljunkie]

27. Altho he did say this..."Given that the Holocaust is a present reality of our time...

Given that the Holocaust is a present reality of our time, a history that occurred, why is there not sufficient research that can approach the topic from different perspectives?

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/protests-at-columbia-over-iran-leaders-speech/index.html?hp

[BeyondGeography]

29. Fine...but comparing it to a technical exercise like physics?

Also, what is he really getting at? He appears to be moving away from outright denial, but he's playing to the worst instincts of global anti-Semitism by continuing to infer that there are huge knowledge gaps in this area.

[flpoljunkie]

30. What can I say? The man is am Islamic fundamentalist kook who did himself no good today.