Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

Listen Live

Donate

News

Iranian President Ahmadinejad Can't Go to Ground Zero, But He Will Go to Columbia

By

Jen Chung

Published Sep 20, 2007

Modified Mar 7, 2008

Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

 Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

By

Jen Chung

Published Sep 20, 2007

Modified Mar 7, 2008

Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is getting a lot of ink in our newspapers today after it was revealed that (A) he had requested a visit to Ground Zero - to lay a wreath, no less - and then shortly later that (B) the city had denied the request. Way to work fast, city agencies!

Iranian mission to the United Nations says that Ahmadinejad still wants to go to Ground Zero, but the Daily News sends him a message on today's cover and with an editorial that starts off, "No. No. No. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can not be allowed to defile Ground Zero, must be stopped from exploiting this hallowed landmark, this tragic product of a fanaticism cousin to the demons in Ahmadinejad's soul."

The NYPD explains that Ahmadinejad's request to visit Ground Zero and descend into the Pit came a month ago and that it was denied on grounds of security. The NYPD further stated that any visit to Ground Zero would be denied. In fact, the Iranian Mission met with the NYPD, Secret Service and Port Authority, which all explained that the site is a live construction zone weeks ago. But the news cycle was confused, because earlier yesterday, Police Commissioner Kelly seemed to imply that the discussions were still ongoing, only for the NYPD spokesperson to clear things up and shut down any speculation. The NY Times reminds us that though family members were eventually allowed to visit the Pit during the sixth anniversary events on September 11, no members of the public were allowed.

Politicians from both parties agreed that the Iranian leader should not be allowed to visit Ground Zero. The Sun tallied up the comments: Senator Hillary Clinton called it "unacceptable for Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who refuses to renounce and end his own country's support of terrorism, to visit the site of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation's history," while Senator Barack Obama said Ahmadinejad not should be allowed to "posture" against the "backdrop" of Ground Zero. Fred Thompson's spokesperson said it was an "insult to the memory of those who died on 9/11 at the hands of terrorists" while Mitt Romney called the request "shockingly audacious," and Giuliani felt it was "outrageous."

One New York location Ahmadinejad is being welcomed at (other than the U.N. General Assembly) is Columbia University. He will be speaking at the World Leaders Forum. Last year, Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs had to uninvite Ahmadinejad, supposedly due to security, but some suspected it was because the school has been embroiled in some Middle East controversies. Anyway, Columbis President Lee Bollinger issued this statement about this year's invitation; here's an excerpt:

In order to have such a University-wide forum, we have insisted that a number of conditions be met, first and foremost that President Ahmadinejad agree to divide his time evenly between delivering remarks and responding to audience questions. I also wanted to be sure the Iranians understood that I would myself introduce the event with a series of sharp challenges to the president on issues including:

• the Iranian president’s denial of the Holocaust;
• his public call for the destruction of the State of Israel;
• his reported support for international terrorism that targets innocent civilians and American troops;
• Iran's pursuit of nuclear ambitions in opposition to international sanction;
• his government's widely documented suppression of civil society and particularly of women's rights; and
• his government's imprisoning of journalists and scholars, including one of Columbia’s own alumni, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.

I would like to add a few comments on the principles that underlie this event. Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas—to understand the world as it is and as it might be. To fulfill this mission we must respect and defend the rights of our schools, our deans and our faculty to create programming for academic purposes. Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most or even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason.

Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar, also added, "I would also like to invoke a major theme in the development of freedom of speech as a central value in our society. It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas."

Bollinger is meeting with Columbia students today to discuss the student questions that will be asked. No word on whether security guards with Tasers will be present.

Ahmadinejad has also openly asked President Bush about the U.S. government's involvement in the September 11 attacks.

Tagged

9/11

affairs

barack obama

bush

clinton

columbia university

comments

commissioner kelly

construction

daily news

events

first amendment

Fred thompson

freedom of speech

general assembly

giuliani

government

ground zero

hillary clinton

history

international

iran

journalists

Lee Bollinger

mahmoud ahmadinejad

middle east

mitt romney

new york

news

News: NYC

ny times

nypd

obama

police

police commissioner

police commissioner kelly

port authority

president bush

Public Affairs

romney

schools

secret service

Senator Barack Obama

Senator Hillary Clinton

september 11

terrorist

the city

The NYPD

the sun

united nations

university

Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Read more

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE news

Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says

It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.

By

Liam Quigley

Published Sep 28, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. ET

New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ

The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.

By

Arya Sundaram

News

New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ

The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.

By

Arya Sundaram

A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.

By

Samantha Max

Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910

By

Michael Sol Warren

NYC nor’easter dries up after weather service reports minor flooding

By

Ramsey Khalifeh

Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .