Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal was among a group of reporters who had the “privilege” of asking Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad some questions while enjoying a breakfast buffet. He writes an interesting account of how the meeting went and what it was like in the room. What was his final conclusion?

…but my own impression of Ahmadinejad was that he was easily the smartest guy in the room. He mocked us in a way we scarcely had the wit to recognize. We belittle him at our peril.

Let’s hope our political leaders recognize that as well.

Canada walked out of a speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at The UN today, but the US stayed. What a disgrace.

Not that we needed any more proof that the UN is an irrelevant, hypocritical, and disgraceful organization, but here’s a nice little gem:

Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest."

How can a country that gives zero rights to women be part of a commission on women’s rights? Moreover, how can this happen without so much as an objection from the US?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s because we have a pathetic president who will do anything to cozy up to our enemies. He’ll do whatever it takes not to offend the delicate sensibilities of the world’s thugs, dictators, and mass murderers.

(hat tip Hot Air)

Ahmadinejad says he doesn’t believe Americans can freely take to the streets and protest anything they feel like. He also claims Iranians have more freedom than Americans. How can you really have a rational discussion with this clown?

(hat tip Brietbart TV)

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared himself the winner of Iran’s presidential election today. However, his challenger Mirhossein Mousavi has also declared himself victorious citing voting irregularities.

Something tells me Ahmadinejad is going to win this thing — unfortunately.

-Chris Jones

Kudos to French president Nicolas Sarkozy for continuing to keep the pressure on Iran. Sarko has really been a great ally on the Iranian issue and never misses an opportunity to blast Ahmadinejad.

Earlier in the week Sarko said this in a speech:

“it is impossible for me to shake hands with someone who dared to say that Israel should be wiped off the map.”

and this:

“We can not solve this crisis without talking to Iranian leaders,” he said, but added: “I know perfectly well that the Iranian president does not represent Iran, much less the Iranian people.”

“The Iranian people are one of the greatest people of the world, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, cultured and open, but they have the misfortune to be represented today by some of their leaders.”

Both statements have allegedly outraged the Iranian government. Iran’s deputy foreign minister summoned his French counterpart to express anger of the comments. He warned that Sarko’s comments could damage the two countries’ bilateral relations.

The French president’s comments while controversial in wimpy Europe were certainly accurate and very well said. The french president along with British PM Brown deserve a lot of credit for not going all wobbly — to borrow a phrase from Lady Thatcher.

-Chris Jones

(hat tip Weasel Zippers)

A new IAEA report out today says that Iran is rapidly increasing its stockpile of uranium which could be enriched into weapons grade material at any time.

But it gets worse:

The agency says that, as of this month, Tehran had amassed 630kg of low enriched uranium hexafluoride, up from 480kg in late August. Analysts say Iran is enriching uranium at such a pace that, by early next year, it could reach break-out capacity – one step away from producing enough fissile material for a crude nuclear bomb.

“They are moving forward, they are not making diplomatic overtures, they are accumulating low enriched uranium,” said Cliff Kupchan, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy in Washington. “These guys are committed to their nuclear programme: if we didn’t know that, they just told us again.”

Obama’s first real test as president will be how he handles the Iran nuclear situation. I’m hoping he realizes that Ahmadinejad is not going to give up his weapons program just because he sits across the table from him and yuks it up.

The Iranian regime is not rational and the only thing that is going to stop them besides going to war — is continuing economic pressure from the world community. Britain, France, and our other allies have all expressed concern that Obama is going to muck things up and unilaterally meet with the dictator.

Hopefully, Obama’s campaign promises to meet without preconditions was only rhetoric — but we shall see.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the U.S. had plans to kidnap him during his recent trip to Iraq. According to him, the plan was never carried out because of “intentional” last minute changes to his schedule. As a result, the alleged plotters found out about the changes after he was already out of Iraq.

Read Ahmadinejad’s personal blog HERE

The crazed lunatic that runs Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that he’s not convinced the 9/11 attacks happened like we say they did or if the death toll was accurate.

As usual the little man had his facts wrong:

“Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names,” Ahmadinejad told Iranians in the holy city of Qom.

Obviously, Mr. Ahmadinejad failed to attend the last anniversary of the attacks where the names of 2,750 victims killed in New York were read aloud at a memorial ceremony.

-Chris Jones