[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 142 (Monday, September 24, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11967-S11968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               MAHMUD AHMADI-NEJAD'S UNITED STATES VISIT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise to discuss Iranian President 
Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad's visit to New York. The ostensible purpose of this

[[Page S11968]]

visit is to address the United Nations General Assembly, but Ahmadi-
Nejad will have accomplished much more than that by the time he leaves. 
By opening its gates to this man's hateful ideology, Columbia 
University is allowing him to take full advantage of a golden 
opportunity to spread it and giving it a level of deference it, 
frankly, does not deserve.
  It is one thing for a foreign leader, even one as disreputable as 
Ahmadi-Nejad, to visit the U.N. and remain confined to the grounds of 
the U.N. As a head of state, he is legally entitled to visit the United 
Nations. It is quite another to give a man who has referred to the 
United States as the ``Great Satan'' and who denies the Holocaust a 
coveted platform from which to speak.
  Let's consider for a minute what Iran has said and done during his 
Presidency. Iran actively supports militias that undermine the rule of 
law and export weapons that are killing our U.S. soldiers and marines 
in Iraq. Iran is actively pursuing a nuclear program that puts it on a 
path toward possessing nuclear weapons. Iran is a state sponsor of 
terror. Iran supports proxies that are undercutting attempts to bring 
peace, reconciliation, and democracy to Lebanon. Ahmadi-Nejad has 
called for Israel, one of America's closest allies, to be wiped off the 
map. Iran supports proxies in Syria and Gaza that are actively 
trying to goad Israel into war and undercutting the efforts to 
facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Ahmadi-Nejad has 
denied that the Holocaust ever took place, calling it a myth. He even 
hosted a convention of Holocaust deniers.

  It is hard to imagine any nation on earth that threatens U.S. 
interests and those of its allies much more than Iran. It is equally 
hard to imagine any greater American university of generations past 
inviting a world leader to its campus who supported groups that kill 
U.S. soldiers and marines. Think of the irony: Columbia University, 
home of the core curriculum that prizes an in-depth understanding of 
Western civilization and the free exchange of ideas, is bringing to its 
campus a state sponsor of terror. A school that rejected the ROTC in 
2005 on the grounds that the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy 
discriminated against gays now welcomes a man whose government 
reportedly executes them.
  Whether Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad should be speaking at Columbia should not 
be the subject of a philosophical debate. He already rejected that 
debate by leading a regime which has chosen terrorism over reason and 
open dialog. Under Ahmadi-Nejad, the Iranian regime trains, funds, and 
exports terror. Defense Department sources tell us that explosively 
formed penetrators, the most lethal form of improvised explosive 
devices used against our forces in Iraq, are being manufactured in 
Iran.
  I was heartened to see some common sense was injected into the 
Iranian leader's visit when the New York City Police Department denied 
his request to visit Ground Zero and lay a wreath. Looking at Ahmadi-
Nejad's record on terror, one wonders whether the wreath was meant to 
honor the victims of the World Trade Center attacks or its 
perpetrators.
  I support the administration's approach to the Iranian nuclear 
program. Active diplomacy and ratcheting up international sanctions 
are, at this point, the best path forward. That said, diplomacy is only 
as effective as the credibility and potential force backing it up. The 
President, as Commander in Chief, is correct to preserve a broad 
spectrum of policy options in confronting the Iranian threat.
  Some groups on the left, such as MoveOn.org, believe we should take 
military options off the table, then negotiate. Such an approach might 
make sense to the zealots on the far left, but it will not help us in 
our efforts to slow Iran's nuclear program. Why would Iran take us 
seriously if we negotiate with all carrots and no sticks? Why would 
they take us seriously when their hateful screeds against us and our 
allies are met with an invitation to join polite society's lecture 
circuit?
  I will close by saying that I strongly support free speech. Free 
speech is a hallmark of democracy, a right not afforded by Ahmadi-Nejad 
to his own people. There is a world of difference between not 
preventing Ahmadi-Nejad from speaking and handing a megalomaniac a 
megaphone and a stage to use it.
  I yield the floor.

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