Hitle- I'm mean Ahmadinajad's Speech at Columbia University

A minute by minute account:

Liveblogging Ahmadinejad's Columbia University Speech

3:06. "Best of luck to all of you," he says, wrapping things up, to robust applause, a few boos. He seems pretty tired but happy with his performance. Wonder where he's going to lunch. Michael's? Elaine's?

3:04. Ahmadinejad agrees to an earlier request from President Bollinger, and invites Columbia students and faculty to visit Iran and meet with Iranian academics and students. Considering the spate of jailings of Iranian-American scholars, you've really got to pity the parent who's faced with that release form.

3:02. Now here's a problem for the White House: China and Russia are sympathetic to Ahmadinejad's argument that the U.S. shouldn't get to decide who gets to join the nuclear club.

2:59. Here's a problem for all you Democratic presidential contenders: Ahmadinejad basically shares your criticism of President Bush's policy on Iran.

2:55. Ahmadinejad claims that the IAEA "has verified" that Iran's nuclear program is being used for peaceful purposes. Actually, they're still trying to prove you're not, which is the assumption of the U.S., Britain, France, etc. He just called nations pursuing nuclear weapons "backward, retarded." Oh, the field day "The Daily Show" will have if he's ever forced to eat those words.

2:52. We know that Iran is funneling arms, cash and fighters into Iraq. We know that they are backers of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. Can they do those things and still be a "peace-loving nation," Mr. President? All this peace and love talk is making him sound like Dennis Kucinich. A fascist, anti-semitic, possibly nuclear-armed Dennis Kucinich.

2:50. "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country." Ladies and gentlemen, the first indisputably crazy thing he's said all day.

2:43. Ahmadinejad., who has a PhD in "transportation engineering and planning from the Science and Technology University," according to his official bio, draws on advancements in science and technology as a basis for his jury's-not-out position on the Holocaust. There are two legs to his position, though, and one at least is pretty widely shared in his part of the world: The Palestinians had nothing to do with World War II.

2:41. Why does your nation support terrorism? "We're a cultured nation, we don't need to resort to terrorism," he says, smiling.

2:37. We're onto the Q&A. Asked about his position on Israel, Ahmadinejad says, "We are friends of the Jewish people," and goes on for a bit about "loving" all nations and peoples. The questioner asks him to state whether he advocates the destruction of Israel, yes or no. Ahmadinejad gets a little touchy, sort of (that smile again), and asks why his answer doesn't count as an answer. Medium applause.

2:33. He states in closing that his is a peace-loving nation that wants to extend its hand in friendship to all other nations. There's lots of applause at first, and it's quickly followed by boos. Very loud boos.

2:28. Ahmadinejad's just finished railing about the decades of Western exploitation and adventurism in the Middle East. That's pretty undeniable. On the Holocaust: Why are scholars "who want to approach the question from a different perspective" thrown into jail, he wants to know. That is the case in Germany, at least, where denying the Holocaust is a crime. Also: not a bad, dare we say it, question to ask.

On Israel: The Holocaust happened in Germany, why should the Palestinians have to suffer for it? Now that it's Washington's policy to help the Palestinians establish statehood, we're wondering how helpful -- truly helpful -- Iran has been in that endeavor.

2:19. If you watched Ahmadinejad's "60 Minutes" interview, you'd have seen how he threw the abuses at Abu Ghraib, the infinite-seeming detention of foreigners at Guantanamo, and the NSA's super-secret surveillance program back at his interviewer. This is what John McCain, Lindsey Graham and others mean when they say violating the Geneva Conventions in the war on terror undermines America's ability to challenge rogue nations. When someone like Ahmadinejad illustrates this point, that's got to sting someone, somewhere.

He is pretty clearly talking about the U.S. now, when he talks about nations that misuse power and knowledge to "try to control all in the name of combating insecurity and terrorism." He continues, "They do not respect the privacy of their people, they tap telephone calls and try to control their people... by using precise scientific methods and planning, they begin their onslaught on the domestic cultures of nations." Try asking whether they agree with that last part before the U.N. General Assembly, and see how many hands shoot up.

2:14. Ahmadinejad is quoting verses on the origins of knowledge from the Quran, and names a range of prophets from the Judeo-Christian tradition as well as from Islam as those who "delivered humans from ignorance, negligence, superstitions, unethical behavior and corrupted ways of thinking with respect to knowledge."

2:07. Bollinger closed his speech to rousing applause, which made us wonder why the audience is even here. The clappers don't speak for everyone.

Ahmadinejad: "In Iran, we actually respect our speakers. We don't think it's necessary before the speech is even given to come in with a series of claims---"

[Loads of applause]

"--to attempt in a so-called manner to provide vaccination of some sort to our students and faculty. The text read by the gentleman here was an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here. In a university environment, we must allow people to speak their mind, to allow everyone to talk, so that the truth is revealed by all."

We get why Bollinger introduced Ahmadinejad the way he did, but it's a little inconsistent with his defense of having Ahmadinejad there in the first place.

2:03. We were starting to wonder why Bollinger invited Ahmadinejad in the first place, but he's explained it: "Frankly and in all candor, Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions. But your avoiding them will have meaning for us."

1:58. Bollinger just spanked his guest hard for questioning whether the Holocaust happened. "You are either brazenly provocative or stunningly uneducated," he says, to loud applause. Bollinger challenges Ahmadinejad to stand by this position. Sort of weird, after that diatribe about academic and intellectual freedom, but necessary in this forum. Also: We will inevitably misspell Ahmadinejad's name at some point in this liveblog. We'll fix later, promise.

1:56. "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator." Wow. Bollinger came under fire big time for inviting Ahmadinejad to speak, and he certainly isn't making it easy for the Iranian ruler with this introduction. It's probably more the case that he's going the extra mile because of the controversy. Wonder if Ahmadinejad knew this was coming.

1:52. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger is introducing the featured speaker, first with some words about academic freedom and freedom of speech, then with some words about recently jailed Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari and others. One is still jailed in Iran; Bollinger announces the university has extended a visiting faculty invitation to him.

1:48. Welcome to The Gate's liveblog of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University. The audience was thanked for its civility -- in other words, please don't make a ruckus. Attendees won't be allowed to get up and ask the Iranian president questions; instead, they may write down one question on an index card and pass them down to be collected by ushers. Two student leaders seated at a desk near a stage will choose among and ask the questions, in a Q&A to follow Ahmadinejad's half-hour speech.