T minus 2 hours until Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at Columbia University, despite building crowds of protesters who have gathered outside Columbia University.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prays during the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran on 21 September 2007. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to go to New York next week for attending the United Nations General Assembly but was denied by the US government to vUnited Nations Security Council resolution sit the site of Ground Zero. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Ahmadinejad, facing scathing headlines calling him "evil" and a "madman," stirred huge debate Monday about free speech ahead of his appearance at Columbia University.
Columbia President Lee Bollinger claims he will broach unpleasant topics with Ahmadinejad, such as human rights, Holocaust denial and Iran's disputed nuclear program.
The Iranian leader previously has called the Holocaust "a myth" and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
"It's extremely important to know who the leaders are of countries that are your adversaries. To watch them to see how they think, to see how they reason or do not reason. To see whether they're fanatical, or to see whether they are sly," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."
The New York Daily News' front page on Monday read: "THE EVIL HAS LANDED." The New York Post called Ahmadinejad the "Madman Iran Prez" and a "guest of dishonor."
Tensions are still high between Washington and Tehran over alleged nuclear weapons and secret weapons manufacturing.
"Well, you have to appreciate we don't need a nuclear bomb. We don't need that. What need do we have for a bomb?" Ahmadinejad said in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday, taped earlier in Iran. "In political relations right now, the nuclear bomb is of no use. If it was useful it would have prevented the downfall of the Soviet Union."
He also said that: "It's wrong to think that Iran and the U.S. are walking toward war. Who says so? Why should we go to war? There is no war in the offing."
Ahmadinejad stated the American people have been denied "correct information," and his visit will give them a chance to hear a different voice, the official IRNA news agency reported.
He recently told a television show that Iran wants peace and friendship with America. Since coming to power in 2005, Ahmadinejad also has sent letters to the American people criticizing President Bush's policies in the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad's request to visit ground zero was denied by city officials and condemned by New Yorkers, and politicians who said a visit to the site of the 2001 terror attacks woud be an abomination.
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