Propaganda Battle Lost

In spite of Columbia President Lee Bollinger’s excellent preamble to Monday’s Columbia speech/Q&A by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it seems that Islamist Propaganda was the victor yesterday. From the Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA):

Despite entire US media objections, negative propagation and hue and cry in recent days over IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled address at Colombia University, he gave his lecture and answered students questions here on Monday afternoon.

On second day of his entry in New York, and amid standing ovation of the audience that had attended the hall where the Iranian President was to give his lecture as of early hours of the day, Ahmadinejad said that Iran is not going to attack any country in the world.

Before President Ahamadinejad's address, Colombia University Chancellor in a brief address told the audience that they would have the chance to hear Iran's stands as the Iranian President would put them forth.

He said that the Iranians are a peace loving nation, they hate war, and all types of aggression. [SNIP]

The audience on repeated occasion [sic] applauded Ahmadinejad when he touched on international crises.

As mentioned before, Ahmadinejad used the proposed visit to Ground Zero to front as the confused, offended head-of state and the resulting outcry against the visit allowed him to appropriate the moral high ground against the “incomprehensibly rude” Americans. What he could not have counted on was Columbia’s invitation. This gave his government’s press the opportunity to whitewash the nature of the visit and to further elevate the “(Islamist) street cred” of the Holocaust Denier and Supplier of Weapons which kill and maim our troops in Iraq.

Nice going, Columbia.

(Thanks to Protein Wisdom)