Ahmadinejad: The Status Quo Cannot Keep

In an Exclusive Interview with Katie Couric, Ahmadinejad Speaks Out on Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

(CBS)  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down for an exclusive interview with CBS News Anchor Katie Couric hours before his planned address to the United Nations Wednesday. Ahmadinejad spoke on a wide range of issues, including his crackdown on election protesters and the future of Iran's nuclear program.


Katie Couric: In early October, high ranking member from the Obama administration, along with the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany will meet with members of your government. I understand you're now saying your nuclear program is on the table. What changed your mind?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: We have not actually changed our mind. Our nuclear program will be pursued in accordance to international law.

Couric: The International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr. President, has complained that they have not been given full access to all your facilities. A recent report leaked from the IAEA says you have quote "sufficient information to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device." Yet you continue to refute this. Why?

Ahmadinejad: Based on the last official report by the agency, issued in September, it was said that Iran had not deviated from its peaceful nuclear path. There are countries that have 10,000 nuclear warheads. Don't you believe that those are the ones that need to be inspected, instead of the countries that don't have them?

This is the Iranian President's first trip to New York since his controversial victory in last June's elections. Critics claim the election wasn't only fraudulent but voters supporting the opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, were threatened and intimidated.

Couric: During and after the presidential election, Mr. President, thousands of opposition supporters and journalists were arrested, badly beaten and tortured. Arrested, badly beaten and tortured. One woman - 27 year old Neda as you know, was shot to death while protesting. Her death was captured on a cell phone camera. Here is a shot of that cell phone picture which I'm sure you've seen.

Admadinejad: Correct.

Couric: What would you say to her family?

Ahmadinejad: We are - very sorry that one of our fellow citizens has been killed. As a victim of an - agitation of circumstance. An agitation that was carried out with the support of some American politicians, the voice of America, and the BBC.

Couric: Do you really think so little of your citizens that they can be manipulated and brainwashed by Americans and the UK?

Ahmadinejad: No. That is not what I'm saying. But I do say that some agitations from outside were there. I mean, there are plenty of documents pointing to that. Regrettably, one of our citizens lost her life--

The president then produced a photograph of an Egyptian woman - Marwa el-Sherbini - who was brutally murdered inside a German courtroom while taking part in a trial over the right to wear a hijab - or headscarf. He suggested that the western media - who turned Neda into a martyr - ignored Marwa's story.

Ahmadinejad: American politicians do not want American people to see what goes on around the world.

Couric: Mr. President, three months after the protests, hundreds remain jailed and continue to be tortured for their dissenting political views. Doesn't this overt abuse of human rights discredit you within the international community?

Ahmadinejad: There were certain officials that violated the law, and the judiciary is looking into it. And they will be punished. Anyone who violates the law should be punished. It doesn't matter who it is.

Since Ahmadinejad took office four years ago, he has built a reputation as a provocateur - slinging most of his fiery rhetoric at Iran's biggest foe: Israel.

Couric: You have consistently denied the Holocaust happened. You have called it a lie. And I'm just curious, I have some photos - dead bodies from a German concentration camp taken by the associated press. Mr. President is this photo fabricated, is this photo a lie?

Ahmadinejad: There are many historical events, similar historical events. Why is this one in particular so important to you?

Couric: Because you're denying it happened.

Ahmadinejad: But in World War II, 60 million people were killed. Why are we just focusing on this special group alone?

We're sorry for all the 60 million people that lost their lives, equally. All of them were human beings. And it doesn't matter whether they were Christians or Jews or Buddhists or Muslims. They were killed. So, we're sorry for everyone.

Watch Part 1 of the interview:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Watch Part 2 of the interview

Watch CBS Videos Online

[louie615]

WOW Katies eyes are blinking like strobe lights!! She was really hardcore (ha-ha). Why would you even dignify this idiot with an interview?This is more of Obama's rhetoric of " establishing dialogue" with terrorists!
Forget Republican & Democrat. Just be a Patriot! We cannot and should not compromise what made this country great. Ask the WWII vets . They are the last living remenants of what has made this nation what we are. That is: Christian values. That includes ALL religions be permitted to practice their religon as they wish (in peace). YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH ENDS WHERE YOU PREACH HATERED TOWARDS THIS NATION OR OTHER PEACEFUL RELIGIONS!

It may sound "hokey" but America used to be a melting pot. What has happened? Life was simpler 50 years ago because people belived in this country. They were the immigrants and the children of immigrants who believed that this is truly the land of oportunity. How could we have strayed so far from that path?

How can we confuse "freedom of speech" with the Neo-Nazi or Whabbi Islamic Radical who preaches hatred and death upon the same counrty who's police officers took an oath to defend such idiots with their lives to preach their rhetoric?!
Why? 5o yrs ago if such a madman would preach in this manner he'd been tossed out this country!
Due to this country's "political correctness" it will culminate (if we don't change) in it's demise. I have hope that Americans will not be blinded by ANY political party, but remember to be AMERICANS first!
".... ONE NATION INDIVISABLE...WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL"

I would also like to thank our current men and women in uniform. With our current rules of engagement...GOD HELP THEM!

[oyvaywego]

What a remarkably handsome man! And he is so totally abreast of the issues, both in his country and abroad. I was impressed after reading the article. Every now and then the truth comes through on these severely managed networks. Americans, as, President Ahmadinejad, pointed out are not given the truth or a world picture in the reporting of the news. Some of us remember, the balance of power episodes between Kruchev and Richard Nixon. There must be a balance of power between ideologies. As, President Ahmahdinejad, stated, others have thousands of nuclear warheads. Why then is his country being identified as a possible threat, when Israel has the Nuclear bomb. Is she entitled to the bomb and no one else? That does not sit very well with thinking people. Also, to intrude into the affairs of another nation, opens us up to our crowded prinsons and the thousands of minorities, blacks and whites who are innocent, but lack financial means of clearing themselves. Thousands. I am the Messenger. I was arrested in Columbiana Alabama for saying something the mayor, Alan Lowe(a Jew) said was harassment. Even today he sends police cars to follow me. In front of and in back of my vehicle. What is that? Why is President Ahmadinejad wrong to want to protect his country with a balance of power? Right here in our own country, we see what unbalanced power produces. It produces, monsters.

[WilliamCDaugherty]

Katie, your performance in interviewing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was terrible. From putting words in his mouth, to making yourself look like a fool by accusing him of denying the Holocaust without submitting proof of those claims of denial, only to have him reply so sensibly to the COMPLETE horror of WWII. Nearly as many non-Jews were killed as Jews. Yet comparatively, we never hear about them. There was an ethnic component to the motive behind the killing of them as well. Is the spilling of Jewish blood more offensive to you? Do these other victims not deserve to be remembered equally? Why is it almost always only the Jews we hear about in the Nazi death camps? Weren't the other 5 MILLION victims lives worth anything? They WERE human as well. Visit www.holocaustforgotten.com/ and find out more. The site has been developed by a Jewish woman because she was so distressed by the ignorance!
Also, you probably know that in most areas of the U.S. "Incitement to riot" is a criminal offense. We are to suppose "brainwashing" is nonetheless no defense to rioting. I thought journalists were supposed to be objective. So obviously putting words in his mouth only made you look weak and desperate. We have had enough problems thanks to the media acting as lap dogs to the government line prior to the Iraq war, if those in your profession are to be of any service to the public, you are going to have to embrace objectivity. As long as you are a professional journalist, please learn to leave your personal biases aside.

Finally, these is the case of Marwa Al-Sherbini. Despite watching 1-2 hours of news a day, I hadn't heard of her until Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought her up. She was stabbed 18 times inside a courtroom in Germany. When her husband tried to help her, the attacker stabbed him 3 times and then the court security decided the husband was the problem, and shot him in the leg. According to CNN, he ended up intensive care in the hospital of Dresden University.

This is just the kind of situation that personal biases, a lack of objectivity, cultural imperialism, and the shameful prejudice it all breeds, is guaranteed to bring about. Please stop adding to the problem.
Thank you,
William Colin Daugherty
Edmonds, Washington, USA

[cweinbl]

Whenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize the Holocaust, or to those who support genocide we send a critical message to the world. We know from captured German war records that millions of innocent Jews were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany - most in gas chambers. Despite this knowledge, Holocaust deniers like Ahmadinejad ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet. Holocaust books and films help to tell the true story of the Shoah, combating anti-Semitic historical revision. And, they protect vulnerable future generations from making the same mistakes.

I wrote Jacob?s Courage to promote Holocaust education. This coming of age love story presents accurate scenes and situations of Jews in ghettos and concentration camps, with particular attention to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. As a Holocaust researcher, I am keenly aware of the real numbers of the Jewish genicide. Virtually every professional historian will stake their career upon the veracity of Holocaust facts. Yet, a world that continues to allow genocide requires such ethical remediation. Holocaust books and movies carry that message globally, in an age when the world needs to learn that genocide is unacceptable. We must fight people like Ahmadinejad by showing the world that religious, racial, ethnic and gender persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny's only hope.

Despite anti-Semites like Ahmadinejad, the spirit of freedom from persecution will survive. Despite open hatred of Jews in the Middle East and elsewhere, this 3,000 year-old religion will survive. Despite the worst behavior of all humankind - apathy, the spirit of liberty and democracy will survive. Ahmadinejad is only a raving hater. He too shall pass.

It has been more than 2,000 years since the destruction of the temples in ancient Israel. During that time millions of Jews have been slaughtered by Greeks, Romans, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust. Despite the indignity of historical perspective, Jews continue to exist. They worship the same God, recite the same prayers, observe the same holidays and perform the same rites and rituals as their courageous ancient ancestors did. This astonishing chronicle of survival may be one of the greatest legends of human history.

Despite civilization?s persistent attempts to destroy Jews, this tiny, persistent religion has found a way to survive, prosper and contribute to the cultures of countless societies. Always persecuted, never destroyed; the Jewish people march on through history, unabated, undeterred and ever grateful for the influence of their ancestors.


Charles Weinblatt
Author, "Jacob's Courage"
http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/

[nasadawg]

The bottom line to all of this is Israel. They need to **** or get off the pot. We need to get out of AF and IQ and go to Palestine. Map the maps and get/give them their country. That is the main reason the whole Arab world is pissed at US!! Every problem we have with radical groups and governments starts with our relationship with Israel. Iran doesn't want to destroy us. They support their fellow Muslim's looking for a life. We have kissed Israel a$$ to long.

[factsearcher]

This looney is the perfect example of an insane superiority complex with a dwarf statue.
You all know he is lying to his teeth. The lunatic has something to hide...yes...nuclear capabilities..thats it!
Also, his ultimate plan to destroy democracy and the west is expanded by including his allies in Latin America...very close to us... whom by the way are hiding something too...yes...Iran's fluids.
So, dont get into the religious extremism of what he's saying....which is also very lunatic...he want to convert us all to his ideological craziness...another Hitler in the making!
With that resume..... trust me...we dont want him to possess anything too explosive!!!

[acupuncturegirl]

These "green" protesters are the same trumped-up protesters who support a man many believe was involved in blowing up American troops in the USS Cole attack. AMERICAN TROOPS, got that all you Zionists? Or perhaps, as expected, not really caring...

Ahmadinejad gave a respectful, hopeful, accurate, kind, perceptive speech at the UN, in which he showed true leadership and caring for humanity. If Ronald Reagan had given that speech, word for word, it would have been praised. All I heard Obama do was talk about how much greater we are now since Bush. All about him. And it is not even true.

The "delegation" of Foreign Secretary David Miliband is a pissant, powerless, depraved, Zionist, worthless fake of a group who, if you read the news today, does not represent Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States AT ALL...

Why does this stupid interview have a narrator? Apparently Mr. Ahmadinejad was quite convincing just speaking the truth without the "editorial help" that Couric apparently badly needed.

[Oregon_State_OSU]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells so many lies its so much fun to watch him on TV. He is very entertaining just like Sarah Palin they both bend and twist the truth and dish out white lies just fun to watch Jokers like these two on TV and in the News

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the election and everybody knows that. He is the Laughing Stock of the United Nations and nobody respects him at all.

[hungry1968-16]

by Questionews September 24, 2009 10:15 AM EDT
Iran wants the Palestinians to have the land the Israel is currently sitting on. Iran / Ahmadinejad (IMHO)would like to give Israel the choice leaving or getting nuked if they don't leave. Israel has no intention of leaving. So for Iran, nuking Israel is looking inevitable.
I wish the Palestinians luck in inhabiting their new glow in the dark piece of property if Iran decides to "assist" them.






What a bizarre comment!!

The land is ideologically CRITICAL to jews, christians, AND islamics alike.

Do you REALLY think they would nuke some of the holiest places in their religion?

[bubbadubba]

How can you tell if someone hates Jews?
They love Ahmadinejad and his ridiculous lies.
I have no use for people who hate Jews.
I don't support the zionist Israeli government's policy of stealing land from the Palestinians by force, but I definitely don't hate Jews as a group of people because many of them want peace with Palestine.
Do you people that hate Jews and worship Ahmadinejad so much realize how dumb you look to everyone else?

[Questionews]

Iran wants the Palestinians to have the land the Israel is currently sitting on. Iran / Ahmadinejad (IMHO)would like to give Israel the choice leaving or getting nuked if they don't leave. Israel has no intention of leaving. So for Iran, nuking Israel is looking inevitable.
I wish the Palestinians luck in inhabiting their new glow in the dark piece of property if Iran decides to "assist" them.

[bubbadubba]

There is something about Ahmadinejad and I cannot look at or listen to that guy without wanting to hurl chunks.
When he pops up on TV I instantly change the channel or turn the TV off.
Maybe it's those fake sickening smiles, the illogical fantasy statements, his refusal to give a direct answer to any question, the evil in his eyes and the way he squints and rapid blinks when them when he lies, or just that he is about the ugliest man on the planet. Maybe it's a combination of all three but I'm telling you that guy makes me want to barf and I consider myself relatively barf proof.
Am I afraid of Ahmadinejad? Are you joking? I have never been afraid of lying idiots and fools. LOL

[akinos2009]

Of third world countries. 123 wanted to hold their convention in Iran, in doing so show their solidarity with Iran and sympathy to the vicious discrimination they are going through. Muslim countries will side with Iran as well as Russia and China with their bilateral trade and political ties. It is the West that has set up this Anti-Iranian campaign. NATO Europe and North America. A region also named as Atlantia. Also there is Chavez, who recently visited Tehran. Iran is not really isolated as the U.S. tries to portray when they walked out of the U>N> General Assembly yesterday

[pickaguitar1]

Couric: You have consistently denied the Holocaust happened. You have called it a lie. And I'm just curious, I have some photos - dead bodies from a German concentration camp taken by the associated press. Mr. President is this photo fabricated, is this photo a lie?

Ahmadinejad: There are many historical events, similar historical events. Why is this one in particular so important to you?

Couric: Because you're denying it happened.

Ahmadinejad: But in World War II, 60 million people were killed. Why are we just focusing on this special group alone?

We're sorry for all the 60 million people that lost their lives, equally. All of them were human beings. And it doesn't matter whether they were Christians or Jews or Buddhists or Muslims. They were killed. So, we're sorry for everyone.




HE MAKES YET ANOTHER GOOD POINT!

[damnedrelign]

ACHMADINEJAD'S SPEECHES AND WORDS ARE ALL PURPOSED TO DECEIVE, WHILE
IRAN'S APOCALYPTIC NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM CONTINUES FULL-SPEED AHEAD

It is permitted within Islam - especially within Islamofascist thinking, such as the current Iranian regime's thinking - to lie to and deceive non-Moslems or 'infidels' for the purpose of 'end results' that is conveniently interpreted as holy, religious duty, and 'for Allah.'

For example, check the definition of the word 'hudna' or temporary truce, which generally means:
DECEPTIVE TRUCE, or truce until one can suddenly attack the enemy after one has recovered to a position of strength.

THE CURRENT RELIGIOUSLY-WARPED, IRANIAN ISLAMOFASCIST REGIME CANNOT BE TRUSTED AT ALL!

It is imperative that the Free Western World take out Iran's nuclear capability without further delay, and BEFORE Iran procures nuclear
weapons!

THE ENTIRE WORLD'S SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON THE FREE WESTERN WORLD'S ACTION AGAINST THE CURRENT ISLAMOFASCIST IRANIAN REGIME,
AGAINST IT'S DELUSIONS OF POWER, CONQUEST, PUNISHMEN- REVENGE MINDSET,
AGAINST IT'S MILITARY BUILD-UP,
AGAINST IT'S EXPORTING OF RELIGIOUS, ISLAMOFASCIST DOMINATION AND HATE,

AND MOST OF ALL,

AGAINST IT'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM,

WHICH THESE DECEPTIVE IRANIAN ISLAMOFASCISTS CLAIM IS FOR ENERGY(now who can believe such fraudulent claim?) - WHEN IRAN IS NOT ONLY ENERGY-RICH, BUT ENERGY-WEALTHY!!!

IN SUMMARY:
THE CURRENT, RELIGIOUSLY-WARPED, EVIL IRANIAN ISLAMOFASCIST REGIME, CANNOT BE TRUSTED AT ALL, AND MUST BE DENIED ANY NUCLEAR CAPABILITY!

PREVENTION OF WORLD WAR III - WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND ALL - IS STILL ACHIEVABLE, IF SERIOUS AND THOROUGH ACTION IS TAKEN AGAINST THE CURRENT, DECEPTIVE, RELIGIOUSLY-WARPED, EVIL IRANIAN ISLAMOFASCIST REGIME BEFORE IT ACQUIRES NUCLEAR CAPABILITY !!!

[damnedrelign]

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO THINK THAT IF IRAN HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN ITS POSSESSION, IT WILL ACT AS A DETERRENT TO WAR WITH NUCLEAR EXCHANGES ?

WELL, YOU'D BETTER THINK AGAIN, AND YOU'D BETTER THINK VERY, VERY HARD!

What you fail to factor into such 'deterrent scenario', is the fact that with regard to Iran and its current, primitive-minded, religiously fanatical, EVIL, HATEFUL, Iranian Islamofascist, APOCALYPTIC leaders,
we are dealing with an irrational mentality, which applies 'holy/Godly purpose' to FORCE ISLAMIC LAW AND ISLAMIC LIFE onto the entire world.
And doing so will be achieved by precipitating the arrival of the 12th Imam, or Mahdi, or the delusional, Moslem version of the Messiah!
(To be fair, religious Christian as well as Jewish Messianic visions are also delusional, dangerous and often deadly fantasy)

No sir!
No nuclear capability in the hands of the current, primitive-minded, religiously fanatical, EVIL, HATEFUL, Iranian Islamofascist, APOCALYPTIC leaders !!!

Woe is to those who believe the current, Iranian Islamofascist regime's deceptions and rhetoric!

The only difference we can make is to buy an umbrella BEFORE the storm!
IRAN?S NUCLEAR PROGRAM MUST BE TAKEN OUT WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY, AND IF NEED BE, BY MILITARY FORCE!!!

The entire world's survival is at stake!

[pickaguitar1]

Good interview Katie!


Ahmadinejad: Based on the last official report by the agency, issued in September, it was said that Iran had not deviated from its peaceful nuclear path. There are countries that have 10,000 nuclear warheads. Don't you believe that those are the ones that need to be inspected, instead of the countries that don't have them?


HE'S MAKES A GREAT POINT!!!!!

[maiingan]

Katie, when he asked you why we should focus on "this special group" of Holocaust victims, you should not have let it stand as if it were a rhetorical question leading to his "concern" for all killed in WWII; you should have answered him, the reason is because these were neither soldiers in combat nor mere civilians in the wrong place when bombs were dropped, or crippled aircraft fell to earth. These distinctions matter in wartime as much as they do in criminal courts when the question is raised of how one person was involved in the death of another.

[k9insky]

Ahmadinejad is a moron.

[Greenlantern2]

Franly, I don't think that man hasn't a lucid perception about anything at all and I like Katie, but Mat Lauer holds the appeal and trust of us all. He's alway been the hard hitting interviewer. 65 mil contract? We'd all like that bailout back. Another great interview opportunity for CBS sinks into an almost laughable display of dim-whits as he takes control of the interview while she bickers with a head of state.