Now that Ahmadinejad is here...

... what can Americans do? (excerpted from Hitler’s Muslim Nephew Comes to New York):

• If you live in New York, join the street protests

Ahmadinejad addresses Columbia at 1:30 pm on Monday, but the media is gearing up for a rip-roaring street protest centered around 116th and Broadway. The mainline American Jewish groups will be gathering at UN plaza at 12:30 pm on Monday. Take your pick.

• Restrict Ahmadinejad’s visa.

Congress can pass special legislation next week to restrict the travel of Iranian government leaders the next time they come to the United Nations. The current rules restrict Iranian government representatives to a 25-mile radius of New York City, without specific prior approval.

That 25-mile radius, of course, makes it easy for Ahmadinejad or his successor to visit Columbia, Ground Zero, or to meet and greet with Iranian regime supporters in the New York metropolitan area. This should and can be stopped immediately. Iran’s leaders should be restricted to the UN building, the Iranian consulate in New York, and their hotel. Period.

As I peer into my crystal ball, I can discern just a handful of members of the Party of Surrender (plus Libertarian Ron Paul) who would oppose such restrictions, once the phone calls start flooding their offices.

• Demand reciprocity from Iran.

If Iranian leaders can come to the United States and make public statements (which they will do at the UN, even under the above proposal), then Congress should demand similar access so that a senior U.S. government official can address the Iranian Majles, Tehran University, or similar gatherings.

Imagine the panic of Iran’s senior leaders (okay, and the Secret Service) if the President or Vice-President were allowed to speak at Tehran University to deliver America’s message of freedom and self-determination. A high-risk proposal – but one worth considering.

• Demand that the UN enforce genocide convention

Congressmen Steven Rothman (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 21 on Jan. 9, 2007, calling on the UN Security Council to charge Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the UN Charter because of his calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. This wise legislation has 103 cosponsors and is being supported by the Zionist Organization of America, among others.

• Sue Columbia University

The Coalition for Jewish Concerns (AMCHA) is considering legal action against Columbia University to challenge the university’s refusal to allow outside demonstrators to attend the Ahmadinejad speech.
As AMCHA national president Rabbi Avi Weiss wrote, “This limitation on non-University affiliated persons is particularly inappropriate here where the speaker and his considerable entourage is not affiliated with Columbia University.”

• Alumni boycott

Although Columbia depends mainly on its huge endowment and on big alumni donors, nevertheless a grass roots alumni boycott of the university could have an impact. Stay tuned, as I hear that alumni groups across the country are mulling action on this front.

• Congressional ban on federal grants

“If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak… we would certainly invite him,” the Dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, John H, Coatsworth, told FoxNews.
Is this merely an expression of Columbia’s respect for the 1st amendment? No way. Columbia seems to likes proponents of genocide – past and present - but won’t allow Minuteman leader Jim Gilchrest onto campus to talk about securing our borders, or Columbia alum David Horowitz to address academic freedom.
Congress should examine the conditions for federal grants to the University, and consider suspending all grants to Columbia programs that openly defy the United States Constitution.

• Sign the petition

Brigitte Gabriel’s American Congress for Truth has launched an on-line petition to stop Ahmadinejad from speaking at Columbia, and plans to forward the names of signatories (more than 8,000 as of Sunday afternoon) to Columbia president Lee Bolinger.

• Send the lawyers

My favorite (okay, barring a non-stop flight to Gitmo) would be to serve the boy president with a subpoena as a material witness in the billion dollar lawsuit brought against the Islamic Republic of Iran by former U.S. diplomats held hostage in Tehran from 1979-1981.

As I reported at the time of Ahmadinejad’s first visit to New York two years ago, several former hostages have positively identified the boy president as their most vicious interrogator during their 444 ordeal.

Former assistant air attaché David Roeder described in excruciating detail Ahmadinejad’s tactics in a June 2005 interview with the German newsweekly Der Spiegel.

“[Ahmadinejad] was present at at least a third of my personal interrogations, which took place nightly for a little over a month early on in the hostage-taking situation,” Roeder said. “He seemed to be calling the shots, but from the background. The interrogators would ask a question and it would then be translated from Farsi into English by a woman interpreter.”

Most chilling was the very personal nature of the threat Ahmadinejad used in an effort to “break” Roeder.

“Because I was not cooperating, they threatened that they were going to kidnap my handicapped son and send various pieces of him -- fingers and toes is what they mentioned -- to my wife if I didn't start cooperating. You don't forget somebody who is involved in something like that.”