Apparently Ahmadinejad was on 60 Minutes once more. The interview will be aired on Sunday. But a part of it was published already:
PELLEY: Mr. President, do you intend to press your request to visit the World Trade Center site?
AHMADINEJAD: Well, it was included in my program. If we have the time and the conditions are conducive, I will try to do that.
PELLEY: But the New York Police Department and others do not appear to want you there. Do you intend to go there anyway?
AHMADINEJAD: Well, over there, local officials need to make the necessary coordinations. If they can’t do that, I won’t insist.
PELLEY: Sir, what were you thinking? The World Trade Center site is the most sensitive place in the American heart, and you must have known that visiting there would be insulting to many, many Americans.
AHMADINEJAD: Why should it be insulting?
PELLEY: But the American people, sir, believe that your country is a terrorist nation, exporting terrorism in the world. You must have known that visiting the World Trade Center site would infuriate many Americans.
AHMADINEJAD: Well, I’m amazed. How can you speak for the whole of the American nation?
PELLEY: Well, the American nation–
AHMADINEJAD: You are representing a media and you’re a reporter. The American nation is made up of 300 million people. There are different points of view over there.
(Link by Kamangir)
Something tells me that this 60min interview won’t be very different from the last one: A lot of disrespect and condescension, yet none of the many critical questions that could have been posed. It’s doesn’t require much research to find a subject about which Ahmadinejad could be asked such a question. One need only look at one of the many Iranian blogs (including those of exiled Iranians) – many of which are written in the English language – to find topics for an interview actually worth watching.
But if all you’re going to do with such a chance is to ask your interviewee whether he’s an evil mastermind, please let me conduct the interview instead.
And if you’re going to ask the man who has been accused – wrongly - for years of wanting to “wipe Israel off the map” which solution to the conflict he would propose and when he lays out his idea you simply edit it out, that’s plain irresponsible.
And yes, Mr. Wallace, the slashy part where you smiled and stared at him for several seconds and then said: “You’re an interesting guy, aren’t you?” was funny – in a what-the-hell-is-he-doing way – but don’t you think you could have used the time better?
About the part of the new interview that is quoted above I can only say that so far that it doesn’t evoke any high hopes in me that it’s going to be any better. “The World Trade Center site is the most sensitive place in the American heart” – yes, of course, Muslims pray towards Mecca, Americans pray towards Ground Zero. Maybe George Bush would like Americans to make this induced trauma the center of their lives but I find it highly unlikely that the majority of Americans are falling for it. The mainstream media so often manufactures consent where there is none and Ahmadinejad is completely justified in pointing that out at the end of this paragraph.
Of course, only an American could really tell us whether “the World Trade Center site is the most sensitive place in the American heart” and whether “the American people” believe that Iran “is a terrorist nation, exporting terrorism in the world” but to me this sounds like a kind of blackmail. “Be traumatised by 911! Believe that Iran is evil! Otherwise you’re not an American!” These are the views of Bush and his crew and it’s their strategy to put a (c) behind words like “America” or “Patriot”. 911 is the state religion. Iran is the enemy (the “Big Satan” if you will)
Perhaps neither security nor hurt feelings is not the true reason why Ahmadinejad won’t be able to visit Ground Zero.
