'Mr. President, You Exhibit All The Signs Of A Petty And Cruel Dictator'

I would like to begin by thanking dean John Coatsworthand professor Richard Bulliet for their work in organizing this eventand for their commitment to the role of the School of Internationaland Public Affairs and its role in training future leaders in worldaffairs. If today proves anything it will be that there is an enormousamount of work ahead for all of us. This is just one of many events onIran that will run throughout this academic year, all to help usbetter understand this critical and complex nation in today'sgeopolitics.

Before speaking directly to the current president of Iran, I have afew critically important points to emphasize.

First, since 2003, the World Leaders Forum has advanced Columbia'slong-standing tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate,especially on global issues. It should never be thought that merely tolisten to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of thoseideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas or ournaiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas. It is acritical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor thedishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To holdotherwise would make vigorous debate impossible.

Second, to those who believe that this event never should havehappened, that it is inappropriate for the university to conduct suchan event, I want to say that I understand your perspective and respectit as reasonable. The scope of free speech and academic freedom shoulditself always be open to further debate. As one of the more famousquotations about free speech goes, it is "an experiment, as all lifeis an experiment." I want to say, however, as forcefully as I can,that this is the right thing to do and, indeed, it is required byexisting norms of free speech, the American university and Columbiaitself.

Third, to those among us who experience hurt and pain as a result ofthis day, I say on behalf of all of us we are sorry and wish to dowhat we can to alleviate it.

Fourth, to be clear on another matter -- this event has nothingwhatsoever to do with any "rights" of the speaker but only with ourrights to listen and speak. We do it for ourselves.

We do it in the great tradition of openness that has defined thisnation for many decades now. We need to understand the world we livein, neither neglecting its glories nor shrinking from its threats anddangers. It is consistent with the idea that one should know thineenemies, to have the intellectual and emotional courage to confrontthe mind of evil and to prepare ourselves to act with the righttemperament. In the moment, the arguments for free speech will neverseem to match the power of the arguments against, but what we mustremember is that this is precisely because free speech asks us toexercise extraordinary self-restraint against the very natural butoften counterproductive impulses that lead us to retreat fromengagement with ideas we dislike and fear. In this lies the genius ofthe American idea of free speech.

Lastly, in universities, we have a deep and almost single-mindedcommitment to pursue the truth. We do not have access to the levers ofpower. We cannot make war or peace. We can only make minds. And to dothis we must have the most full freedom of inquiry.

Let me now turn to Mr. Ahmadinejad.

Brutal crackdown on scholars, journalists and human rights advocates

Over the last two weeks, your government has released Dr. HalehEsfandiari and Parnaz Axima; and just two days ago Kian Tajbakhsh, agraduate of Columbia with a Ph.D. in urban planning. While ourcommunity is relieved to learn of his release on bail, Dr. Tajbakhshremains in Teheran, under house arrest, and he still does not knowwhether he will be charged with a crime or allowed to leave thecountry. Let me say this for the record, I call on the president todayto ensure that Kian Tajbaksh will be free to travel out of Iran as hewishes. Let me also report today that we are extending an offer to Dr.Tajbaksh to join our faculty as a visiting professor in urban planninghere at his alma mater, in our Graduate School of Architecture,Planning and Preservation. And we hope he will be able to join us nextsemester.

The arrest and imprisonment of these Iranian Americans for no goodreason is not only unjustified, it runs completely counter to the veryvalues that allow today's speaker to even appear on this campus.

But at least they are alive.

According to Amnesty International, 210 people have been executed inIran so far this year -- 21 of them on the morning of Sept. 5 alone.This annual total includes at least two children -- further proof, asHuman Rights Watch puts it, that Iran leads the world in executingminors.

There is more.

Iran hanged up to 30 people this past July and August during a widelyreported suppression of efforts to establish a more open, democraticsociety in Iran. Many of these executions were carried out in publicview, a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights, to which Iran is a party.

These executions and others have coincided with a wider crackdown onstudent activists and academics accused of trying to foment aso-called "soft revolution." This has included jailing and forcedretirements of scholars. As Dr. Esfandiari said in a broadcastinterview since her release, she was held in solitary confinement for105 days because the government "believes that the United States ...is planning a Velvet Revolution" in Iran.

In this very room last year we learned something about VelvetRevolutions from Vaclav Havel. And we will likely hear the same fromour World Leaders Forum speaker this evening -- President MichelleBachelet Jeria of Chile. Both of their extraordinary stories remind usthat there are not enough prisons to prevent an entire society thatwants its freedom from achieving it.

We at this university have not been shy to protest and challenge thefailures of our own government to live by these values; and we won'tbe shy in criticizing yours.

Let's, then, be clear at the beginning, Mr. President, you exhibit allthe signs of a petty and cruel dictator.

And so I ask you:

Why have women, members of the Baha'i faith, homosexuals and so manyof our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in yourcountry?

Why in a letter last week to the secretary general of the U.N. didAkbar Gangi, Iran's leading political dissident, and over 300 publicintellectuals, writers and Nobel Laureates express such grave concernthat your inflamed dispute with the West is distracting the world'sattention from the intolerable conditions your regime has createdwithin Iran? In particular, the use of the Press Law to ban writersfor criticizing the ruling system.

Why are you so afraid of Iranian citizens expressing their opinions for change?

In our country, you are interviewed by our press and asked to speakhere today. And while my colleague at the Law School Michael Dorfspoke to Radio Free Europe [sic, Voice of America] viewers in Iran ashort while ago on the tenets of freedom of speech in this country, Ipropose going further than that. Let me lead a delegation of studentsand faculty from Columbia to address your university about freespeech, with the same freedom we afford you today? Will you do that?

Denial of the Holocaust

In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described theHolocaust as a "fabricated" "legend." One year later, you held atwo-day conference of Holocaust deniers.

For the illiterate and ignorant, this is dangerous propaganda. Whenyou come to a place like this, this makes you, quite simply,ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishinglyuneducated.

You should know that Columbia is a world center of Jewish studies andnow, in partnership with the YIVO Institute, of Holocaust studies.Since the 1930s, we've provided an intellectual home for countlessHolocaust refugees and survivors and their children and grandchildren.The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in humanhistory. Because of this, and for many other reasons, your absurdcomments about the "debate" over the Holocaust both defy historicaltruth and make all of us who continue to fear humanity's capacity forevil shudder at this closure of memory, which is always virtue's firstline of defense.

Will you cease this outrage?

Destruction of Israel

Twelve days ago, you said that the state of Israel "cannot continueits life." This echoed a number of inflammatory statements you havedelivered in the last two years, including in October 2005 when yousaid that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Columbia has over 800 alumni currently living in Israel. As aninstitution we have deep ties with our colleagues there. I personallyhave spoken out in the most forceful terms against proposals toboycott Israeli scholars and universities, saying that such boycottsmight as well include Columbia. More than 400 college and universitypresidents in this country have joined in that statement. My question,then, is: Do you plan on wiping us off the map, too?

Funding Terrorism

According to reports by the Council on Foreign Relations, it's welldocumented that Iran is a state sponsor of terror that funds suchviolent groups as the Lebanese Hezbollah, which Iran helped organizein the 1980s, the Palestinian Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

While your predecessor government was instrumental in providing theU.S. with intelligence and base support in its 2001 campaign againstthe Taliban in Afghanistan, your government is now underminingAmerican troops in Iraq by funding, arming and providing safe transitto insurgent leaders like Muqtada al-Sadr and his forces.

There are a number of reports that also link your government withSyria's efforts to destabalize the fledgling Lebanese governmentthrough violence and political assassination.

My question is this: Why do you support well-documented terroristorganizations that continue to strike at peace and democracy in theMiddle East, destroying lives and civil society in the region?

Proxy war against US troops in Iraq

In a briefing before the National Press Club earlier this month,General David Petraeus reported that arms supplies from Iran,including 240 mm rockets and explosively formed projectiles, arecontributing to "a sophistication of attacks that would by no means bepossible without Iranian support."

A number of Columbia graduates and current students are among thebrave members of our military who are serving or have served in Iraqand Afghanistan. They, like other Americans with sons, daughters,fathers, husbands and wives serving in combat, rightly see yourgovernment as the enemy.

Can you tell them and us why Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq byarming Shi'a militia targeting and killing U.S. troops?

Finally, Iran's nuclear program and international sanctions

This week the United Nations Security Council is contemplatingexpanding sanctions for a third time because of your government'srefusal to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. You continue todefy this world body by claiming a right to develop peaceful nuclearpower, but this hardly withstands scrutiny when you continue to issuemilitary threats to neighbors. Last week, French President Sarkozymade clear his lost patience with your stall tactics; and even Russiaand China have shown concern.

Why does your country continue to refuse to adhere to internationalstandards for nuclear weapons verification in defiance of agreementsthat you have made with the U.N. nuclear agency? And why have youchosen to make the people of your country vulnerable to the effects ofinternational economic sanctions and threaten to engulf the world withnuclear annihilation?

Let me close with this comment. Frankly, and in all candor, Mr.President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage toanswer these questions. But your avoiding them will in itself bemeaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mind-setthat characterizes so much of what you say and do. Fortunately, I amtold by experts on your country, that this only further underminesyour position in Iran with all the many goodhearted, intelligentcitizens there. A year ago, I am reliably told, your preposterous andbelligerent statements in this country (as in your meeting at theCouncil on Foreign Relations) so embarrassed sensible Iranian citizensthat this led to your party's defeat in the December mayoralelections. May this do that and more.

I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today Ifeel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to expressthe revulsion at what you stand for. I only wish I could do better.