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Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requested to visit Ground Zero during an upcoming trip to New York. That request was rejected Wednesday. But a source tells Eyewitness News that the decision may not stop him.

A law enforcement source says the Iranian mission to the United Nations has informed the Secret Service that the Iranian president intends to visit Ground Zero Monday at 10 a.m.

The source says regardless of the NYPD's rejection of the request for a Ground Zero tour, Iran's president and his entourage will be accompanied by a Secret Service protective detail, a detail provided to all heads of state when they visit the United States.

 

As the head of a state sponsor of terror who is supplying weapons and expertise to kill and wound Americans in Iraq, which has supplied Hezbollah with the rockets used to wage indiscriminate war against the civilians of Israel last year, and which has a long record of organizing and directing bloody terrorist assaults across the globe including the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.   

"God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime," Ahmadinejad proclaimed about Israel in June. In 2005, he claimed that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."  This is the urging of genocide, a violation of all the law of nations.

Ahmadinejad should of course be prevented from going anywhere near the site and accomplishing his propaganda purposes.  Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have both blasted the idea in the blunt language that it deserves.

Giuliani:

Under no circumstances should the NYPD or any other American authority assist President Ahmadinejad in visiting Ground Zero. This is a man who has made threats against America and Israel, is harboring Bin Laden’s son and other al-Qaeda leaders, is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. Assisting Ahmadinejad in touring Ground Zero – hallowed ground for all Americans – is outrageous."

Romney:

"Ahmadinejad's shockingly audacious request should be met with a vehement no. It's inconceivable that any consideration would be given to the idea of entertaining the leader of a state sponsor of terror at Ground Zero. This would deeply offend the sensibilities of Americans from all corners of our nation. Instead of entertaining Ahmadinejad, we should be indicting him."

A caller to yesterday's show suggested a massive bit of civil disobedience to block the streets around the area, perhaps led by city fire, police and Port Authority personnel, though of course the safety of the people they serve would come first.  The idea of allowing freedom of the city to this fanatic who leads a rogue regime in the search for nukes and  on so many other terrorist enterprizes is disgusting and Mayor Bloomberg and the president need to coordinate a firm response that bluntly communicates that we will not be bullied here or abroad.

UPDATE: Powerline informs us that Columbia University has invited the fanatic to its campus.  Perhaps the university will extend invitations to the families of Americans killed by the highly lethal IEDs Iran has manufacture and smuggled into the county, or even some of the soldiers and Marines wounded by them.  Survivors of those killed in the 1983 barracks bombing or of the 1994 attack in Buenos Aires?

Less than two weeks ago, a U.S. District Court awarded the survivors of the 1983 barracks bombing $2.65 billion dollars in damages.  The president of Columbia, Lee Bollinger, is an accomplished legal scholar so he knows the significance of this judgment  --Iran has been found by our justice system to be responsible for  those killings, and we have the testimony of our senior military officials that they are killing our troops in Iran today.  Inviting this scoundrel is beyond disgusting but underscores the complete vacuity of Columbia's leadership.

Here is Judge Lamberth's ruling from September 9.  Here are the names of the Iranians indicted by Argentine prosecutors.  Here is just one of scores of articles reporting on Iran's attacks against our troops in Iraq.

It is as though Oxford had invited Hitler to speak in 1938. 

To help Columbia understand what it is doing, I invite President Bollinger to carefully read Judge Lamberth's September opinion and its detailed litany of the mayhem and death Iran visited on our servicemen and their families in 1983.  Judge Lamberth's conclusion is particularly relevant to the Board of Trustees of Columbia, ultimately responsible for allowing this travesty to unfold: 

This Court is sadly aware that there is little it can do to heal the physical wounds and emotional scars suffered by the servicemen in this case and their family members. Though the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon occurred nearly twenty four years ago from this date, it is clear from the testimony presented to this Court and the special masters that the intense suffering experienced on that day has had a tragically lasting effect on the plaintiffs who have brought this action. The fact that almost 1000 individuals sought redress in this action confirms the sheer number of individuals whose lives were forever altered as a result of this senseless attack on these courageous servicemen.

Indeed, at a time like this and an era such as ours, it is important to acknowledge the selfless courage that these–and all–servicemen demonstrated by choosing to take action and make this world a safer and better place in which to live. The fact that the servicemen in this action made the ultimate sacrifice to pursue such a noble cause only serves to further establish the legacy of these courageous individuals in the annals of history.

Not to be forgotten is the courage demonstrated by the family members who have come forth in bringing this claim. These individuals, whose hearts and souls were forever broken on October 23, 1983, have waited patiently for nearly a quarter of a century for justice to be done, and to be made whole again. And though this Court can neither bring back the husbands, sons, fathers and brothers who were lost in this heinous display of violence, nor undo the tragic events of that day, the law offers a meager attempt to make the surviving family members whole, through seeking monetary damages against those who perpetrated this heinous attack. The Court hopes that this extremely sizeable judgment will serve to aid in the healing process for these plaintiffs, and simultaneously sound an alarm to the defendants that their unlawful attacks on our citizens will not be tolerated.

The alarm the judge hoped to have sounded has clearly not been heard in the halls of Columbia University, which by its invitation honors the official representative of the terrorist state that has caused so much evil.