Of course it isn’t. Who needs it, when you can get what you want without it? And when you’re feted at a major American university, and no one has the spine to stand up to you, you have every reason to believe that your path is free and clear. “Ahmadinejad Arrives in U.S., Denies Nuke Program,” by Karen Matthews for Associated Press :
NEW YORK — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York Sunday as critics protested his planned speech at Columbia University and the hardline leader denied that his country is building a nuclear weapon.
“In political relations right now, the nuclear bomb is of no use,” Ahmadinejad said in a “60 Minutes” interview airing Sunday. “If it was useful it would have prevented the downfall of the Soviet Union. If it was useful it would resolved the problem the Americans have in Iraq. The time of the bomb is passed.”
The interview with CBS reporter Scott Pelley was taped Thursday in Tehran. Ahmadinejad arrived Sunday in New York, according a spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations. He was to speak at Columbia on Monday and address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
The university defended the decision to allow Ahmadinejad to speak, arguing it was a matter of free speech, but said it would not “honor the dishonorable.”
But the protests had already started. Elected officials demonstrating at Columbia claimed the Iranian leader is trying to obtain nuclear weapons, is a Holocaust denier and rules his country with an iron fist.
“He should be arrested when he comes to Columbia University, not invited to speak for God’s sake,” said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind.
Yep.