• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Stephen Zunes, Middle East Editor for Foreign Policy in Focus

Amid protests yesterday afternoon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the campus of Colombia University. Being introduced by university president Lee Bollinger as a leader who has behaved liked a “petty and cruel dictator,” Ahmadinejad spoke to various issues. In his address he defended his nation’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology while denouncing the abuse of Palestinian peoples. The Iranian President visit to New York this week for the United Nation’s General Assembly has garnered much media attention. Much of the focus surrounding Ahmadinejad’s visit centered on his request to visit ground zero as well as his speaking engagement yesterday at Colombia University. The Iranian president’s request to visit ground zero was ultimately not honored as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that doing so would have been a “travesty.” John Leinun of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows said of Ahmadinejad’s request that “if he really wanted to go lay a wreath, let him lay a wreath. I would object to him, as we’ve objected to any political figure, using it for a political statement.