"Unfriendly treatment"? Oh, please

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, under fire for inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak as part of the World Leaders Forum, promised to ask "tough questions" and he delivered.  The skeptic in me believes he did so to appease critics of the invitation, including state and city lawmakers:

As the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , prepares to address Columbia University today amid a storm of student protest, state and city lawmakers say they are considering withholding public funds from the school to protest its decision to invite the leader to campus.

In an interview with The New York Sun, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia's insistence on allowing the Iranian president to speak at its World Leaders Forum, would consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance to the school.

Lawmakers warned about other consequences for Columbia and its president, Lee Bollinger, who has resisted campus and public pressure to cancel Mr. Ahmadinejad's appearance today, arguing that Columbia's commitment to scholarship requires the school to directly confront offensive ideas.

"There are issues that Columbia may have before us that obviously this cavalier attitude would be something that people would recall," Mr. Silver said. "Obviously, there's some degree of capital support that has been provided to Columbia in the past. These are things people might take a different view of … knowing that this is that kind of an institution."

I guess that added to the outrage expressed by many of the students and alumni got Mr. Bollinger's attention.  At any rate, he pulled no punches.  Fox News:

Columbia President Lee Bollinger opened the program with a blistering introduction in which he lambasted Ahmadinejad for calling for the annihilation of Israel, denying the Holocaust and supporting the execution of children, and told the leader of Iran that he resembled "a petty and cruel dictator."

Bollinger levied repeated criticisms against Ahmadinejad, calling on him to answer a series of challenges about his leadership, blasting his views about the "myth" of the Holocaust as being "absurd," and saying that he doubted he "will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions."

"You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad about the leader's Holocaust denial. "Will you cease this outrage?"

After sitting through the blistering introduction by Lee Bollinger — in which he was lambasted for calling for the annihilation of Israel, denying the Holocaust and supporting the execution of children — Ahmadinejad said it was insulting to be spoken about that way.

"At the outset, I want to complain a bit about the person who read this political statement made against me," Ahmadinejad said. "In Iran, we don't think it's necessary to come in before the speech has already begun with a series of complaints ... It was an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here."

He said Bollinger's speech was full of "insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully," and accused Bollinger of offering "unfriendly treatment" under the influence of the U.S. press and politicians.

Unfriendly treatment.  Can't handle the truth, Mr. Ahmadinejad?  At least you're still alive.  The victims of your murderous regime are not so lucky. 

Bollinger might have redeemed himself somewhat but he should never have allowed Ahmadinejad on campus in the first place. 

Michelle Malkin has the picture of the day:

"Absolute moral authority."

Comments

[linda]

I saw him on 60 mins and his constant smile was so offensive! He said he doesn't lie--that's a lie! I guess his wittle feelings were hurt by the questions he didn't want to answer!

[linda]

Wow! Everyone should read the article you referenced! And the big squirrel should watch out for those little espionage squirrels!

[mad_cow]

The little egomaniac isn't used to being challenged. I missed the 60 Minutes interview, maybe I can find it on You Tube.

I read on Michelle Malkin's site that the U.S. delegation walked out when the little nutjob got up to speak. That made me smile :)