Columbia to host Ahmadinejad

Columbia University will host one of the world's most controversial leaders today when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a much-anticipated speech there this afternoon.

Ahmadinejad's visit has stirred controversy on the Columbia campus and attracted national attention. In New York for today's meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, the leader has been criticized by the U.S. government for funding and arming Iraqi insurgents as well as other terrorist groups in the Middle East.

Since his election in 2005, Ahmadinejad has made inflammatory remarks advocating the destruction of Israel and dismissing the Holocaust as a myth. He has also been accused of actively obstructing U.N. efforts to assess Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Despite widespread criticism, Columbia officials have defended their decision to provide the Iranian president with a platform. Columbia president Lee Bollinger issued a statement saying that his university is "committed to confronting ideas" and outlining several conditions that Ahmadinejad agreed to before accepting the invitation.

The Iranian president must spend equal time speaking and answering audience questions, and Bollinger will introduce the speech "with a series of sharp challenges to the president" on issues ranging from his denial of the Holocaust to the Iranian government's imprisonment of journalists and scholars, the statement said.

Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) is sponsoring the event, and SIPA dean John Coatsworth said in an interview with Fox News that anyone would be welcome to speak at Columbia, even the man responsible for the Holocaust that Ahmadinejad denies.

"If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak, he would have plenty of platforms to speak in the United States," Coatsworth said. "If he were willing to engage in a debate and discussion, to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly run it."

Bollinger also described the event as an exercise in free speech. "I would also like to invoke a major theme in the development of freedom of speech as a central value in our society," the statement said. "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 naivete about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas."

On Thursday, Columbia administrators and student leaders met with Bollinger to express concerns about the speech. Key points of discussion at the meeting included adequate room for protests and rallies, fears about legitimizing Ahmadinejad's views by offering him a platform and the level of student involvement, the Columbia Spectator reported.

Politicians around the nation harshly criticized Columbia for the event. "A man who is directing the maiming and killing of American troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is running for president, said in a statement.

Ahmadinejad had also asked for permission to visit the former World Trade Center site, where thousands of Americans died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. His request was swiftly denied and condemned by New York City officials. "The idea of Ahmadinejad as an honored guest anywhere in our city is offensive to all New Yorkers," city council speaker Christine Quinn said in a statement.