Iranian Pres puts on his Tin Hat and matching Dinner Jacket

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**del'Vhar**

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68M55W20100924

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS | Thu Sep 23, 2010 8:43pm EDT

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the United Nations on Thursday most people believe the U.S. government was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, prompting the U.S. and European delegations to leave the hall in protest.

Addressing the General Assembly, he said it was mostly U.S. government officials and statesmen who believed al Qaeda Islamist militants carried out the suicide hijacking attacks that brought down New York's World Trade Center -- less than 4 miles from where the Iranian president was speaking.

Another theory, he said, was "that some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime." Ahmadinejad usually refers to Israel as the "Zionist regime."

"The majority of the American people as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view," Ahmadinejad told the 192-nation assembly, calling on the United Nations to establish "an independent fact-finding group" to look into the events of September 11.

As in past years, the U.S. delegation walked out during Ahmadinejad's speech. It was joined by all 27 European Union delegations and several other countries.

Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said Ahmadinejad chose "to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable."

White House spokesman Bill Burton said President Barack Obama thought the comments "utterly outrageous and offensive -- especially in the city where the 9/11 attacks occurred."

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the remarks were "outrageous and unacceptable."

'COVERED UP'

Ahmadinejad said some evidence that could support alternative theories had been "covered up" -- passports located in the rubble and a video of an unknown individual who had been "involved in oil deals with some American officials."

As he had in past years, the Iranian president used the General Assembly podium to attack Iran's other archfoe, Israel, and to defend the right of his country to a nuclear program that Western powers fear is aimed at developing arms.

"This regime (Israel), which enjoys the absolute support of some Western countries, regularly threatens the countries in the region and continues publicly announced assassination of Palestinian figures and others, while Palestinian defenders ... are labeled as terrorists and anti-Semites," he said.

"All values, even the freedom of expression, in Europe and the United States are being sacrificed at the altar of Zionism," Ahmadinejad said.

The Iranian president previously raised doubts about the Holocaust of the Jews in World War Two and said Israel had no right to exist.

Tehran has been hit with four rounds of U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt its nuclear enrichment program. Obama earlier told the assembly the door to diplomacy was still open for Iran, but it needed to prove its atomic program is peaceful, as it says it is.

On Wednesday, foreign ministers from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany said they hoped for a negotiated solution to the standoff with Tehran.

Ahmadinejad criticized the Security Council for imposing sanctions on his country, saying the penalties were "destroying the remaining credibility" of the 15-nation body.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)

**Khornholio**

Re: 9/11

Gulf of Tonkin
USS Liberty
Pearl Harbor
JFK

Maybe he should've worn his rose coloured glasses to make everyone happy.

**Andrew1975**

I don't get this guy. What is his end game. I mean GWB was one thing....this guy is ridiculous in his absurdity, or absurd in his ridiculosity. I just don't get what he hopes to accomplish with this line of craziness. Yeah ok, there are some loonies in the US that believe such things, but they are wackos. My favorite is people who think that the WTC were rigged with det cord......Yeah I'm sure that happened, no body saw the guys installing hundreds of miles of det cord throughout both buildings. NO, NO, NO it's just cable television and cad-9 wire really.

So stupid.

**avantgarde**

I see the US delegate still hasn't figured out that when Ahmadinejad is speaking the best solution is to not attend and leave an audio recorder. Or better yet borrow notes from one of the Asian delegates later.

**Emperors Faithful**

To be fair, it's not like he made it up on the spot. This rumour has been circulating since the begining and has had a swathe of people backing it up. He just exaggerated exactly how many people bought into it.

Still...
"One in 4 Americans and the Iranian President believe that the government was behind 9/11. Are you saying that one fourth of America AND the Iranian President is slowed?"

**sebster**

Compared to his holocaust denial, this is actually pretty lucid.

**del'Vhar**

sebster wrote:Compared to his holocaust denial, this is actually pretty lucid.

Wow, I didn't realise he was one of those; it makes sense though I guess.

I'd be curious how he managed to become a world leader, but I guess extreme anti-Israel views would be pretty rife among Iranian bigiwgs?

**sebster**

del'Vhar wrote:Wow, I didn't realise he was one of those; it makes sense though I guess.

I'd be curious how he managed to become a world leader, but I guess extreme anti-Israel views would be pretty rife among Iranian bigiwgs?

Yeah, he is, and it's unfortunately common in Middle Eastern politics in general.

He won office in Iran because he ran on a campaign of aggressive relations towards the US, coupled with a promise to give some of the petro-dollars to the poor. The turn out for the vote was low, and the generally screwy nature of the system allowed more favoured candidates to knock each other out before the run-off vote. Given the difference between pre-polling results and the election, it may also have been rigged.

He's a source of considerable embarressment to many Iranians, especially in Tehran. This led to a much greater level of interest in his second election, which was almost certainly rigged.

**dogma**

Well, he won me $100, so I'm not going to be too hard on him.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

sebster wrote:
He's a source of considerable embarressment to many Iranians, especially in Tehran. This led to a much greater level of interest in his second election, which was almost certainly rigged.

The pre-polling of foreign states is notoriously bad. For example, the confidence of most Iranian pre-polls was well below 60%; primarily due to poor sample framing. Compare this to the same index on Western polling at 95% (the social science norm),.

**sebster**

dogma wrote:Well, he won me $100, so I'm not going to be too hard on him.

You bet he'd be nuttier than Chavez?

**dogma**

Actually, I bet that he'd take the piss on 9/11. Lucky guess, but it was the only thing I could fathom as being worse than his qualified holocaust denial; which is really just a statement regarding the significance of the event.

**sebster**

dogma wrote:Actually, I bet that he'd take the piss on 9/11. Lucky guess, but it was the only thing I could fathom as being worse than his qualified holocaust denial; which is really just a statement regarding the significance of the event.

It was dog whistle stuff though, questioning the significance of the event sounds very different to the people pre-disposed to disbelieving it.

**dogma**

Clearly, but this seemed more explicit.

**sebster**

dogma wrote:Clearly, but this seemed more explicit.

True.

**reds8n**

Ahmadinejad said some evidence that could support alternative theories had been "covered up" -- passports located in the rubble and a video of an unknown individual who had been "involved in oil deals with some American officials."

Well, I'm convinced then ! Because, clearly, if you were about to try and commit a massively elaborate deception to fool the entire world, which depends entirely upon your actual identity being concealed, you'd take your actual passport with you...

..and people hold meetings to discuss oil !?! When did this start !?

**Sanctjud**

Really?
Like...Really-Really?
There is no [img] I can think of to describe my reaction, the double-Picard facepalm doesn't even begin...

**gorgon**

IMO, it looks like a page right out of the Kim Jong Il playbook.

Lack power in the international community? Worried about military actions against you? Want concessions? Just develop nukes (or at least threaten to) and then act bat$hit crazy.

Presto! Watch your enemies back off and rake in the concessions. IMO, the endgame is almost certainly the lifting of sanctions against Iran...something we might end up doing if he decides to rein in the nuclear program.

Besides, Ahmadinejad knows he can say whatever crazy stuff he wants and that door to diplomacy will still be open. It's all posturing and silliness, and he knows our diplomats don't actually take that stuff seriously.

**Scrabb**

Emperors Faithful wrote:To be fair, it's not like he made it up on the spot. This rumour has been circulating since the begining and has had a swathe of people backing it up. He just exaggerated exactly how many people bought into it.

Still...
"One in 4 Americans and the Iranian President believe that the government was behind 9/11. Are you saying that one fourth of America AND the Iranian President is slowed?"

You don't have to be slowed to be wrong. And that swathe of people is not a whole lot larger than the folks who think the Pres is a Muslim.

**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

Scrabb wrote:
You don't have to be slowed to be wrong. And that swathe of people is not a whole lot larger than the folks who think the Pres is a Muslim.

Interesting how the latter portion of your post supports the opposite of what you just said

**Scrabb**

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:
Scrabb wrote:
You don't have to be slowed to be wrong. And that swathe of people is not a whole lot larger than the folks who think the Pres is a Muslim.

Interesting how the latter portion of your post supports the opposite of what you just said

I guess what I wanted to say was that a significant amount of people can be completely wrong on a subject and being COMPLETELY wrong about a few things doesn't make you an idiot.

**burning_phoneix**

del'Vhar wrote:
sebster wrote:Compared to his holocaust denial, this is actually pretty lucid.

Wow, I didn't realise he was one of those; it makes sense though I guess.

I'd be curious how he managed to become a world leader, but I guess extreme anti-Israel views would be pretty rife among Iranian bigiwgs?

People really don't give Ahmedinejad credit. He certainly says crazy things but he uses them quite cleverly. Like Nikita Kruschev, he acted flying rodent gak crazy but he needed a lot of cunning to claw his way to the top of the soviet pile. Both are quite shrewd politicians.

**Slarg232**

reds8n wrote:
Ahmadinejad said some evidence that could support alternative theories had been "covered up" -- passports located in the rubble and a video of an unknown individual who had been "involved in oil deals with some American officials."

Well, I'm convinced then ! Because, clearly, if you were about to try and commit a massively elaborate deception to fool the entire world, which depends entirely upon your actual identity being concealed, you'd take your actual passport with you...

..and people hold meetings to discuss oil !?! When did this start !?

People have done dumber things.

Sanctjud wrote:Really?
Like...Really-Really?
There is no [img] I can think of to describe my reaction, the double-Picard facepalm doesn't even begin...

Bout all I got.

**Phryxis**

Those seem to be Chinese face palmers?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBZ-95

**djones520**

Another reason why America is so great. We allow the Iranian President to come here and accuse us of perpetrating 9/11 apon ourselves. Where Iran arrests American hikers, and imprisons them for years, for no reason at all.

I say we send Imanutjob to a Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison next time he comes to the US.

**Kilkrazy**

Tin hat?

or tin foil hat?

**KingCracker**

I just want to say, I think its incredibly childish and rude to just walk out on someone speaking, no matter how ridiculous they are being. But that being said, the guy is a total quack. I think he thinks that in saying that, he can lure some Americans to his cause, but doesnt realizer that sure 1 in 4 Americans believe that, 5 in 4 Americans cant stand the guy

**Frazzled**

KingCracker wrote:I just want to say, I think its incredibly childish and rude to just walk out on someone speaking, no matter how ridiculous they are being. But that being said, the guy is a total quack. I think he thinks that in saying that, he can lure some Americans to his cause, but doesnt realizer that sure 1 in 4 Americans believe that, 5 in 4 Americans cant stand the guy

It woulod be even more rude to come to a country, just blocks from where thousands died, and say it was an inside job no?

But you're right. The appropriate response would have involved a chainsaw or just a .300 mag.

**dogma**

djones520 wrote:Another reason why America is so great. We allow the Iranian President to come here and accuse us of perpetrating 9/11 apon ourselves. Where Iran arrests American hikers, and imprisons them for years, for no reason at all.

I say we send Imanutjob to a Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison next time he comes to the US.

So you think that America is great because we allow people to express dissenting opinions, but you want to throw someone in jail because he expressed a dissenting opinion?

Why do you want to remove America's greatness?

**Scrabb**

KingCracker wrote:I just want to say, I think its incredibly childish and rude to just walk out on someone speaking, no matter how ridiculous they are being. But that being said, the guy is a total quack. I think he thinks that in saying that, he can lure some Americans to his cause, but doesnt realizer that sure 1 in 4 Americans believe that, 5 in 4 Americans cant stand the guy

I disagree. When you are so incensed by a speaker that your options are leaving and charging the pulpit the polite thing to do is to leave. Do you not think there is any possible position where the person on the pulpit doesn't deserve an audience?

**Cane**

Even this guy would be impressed: