By Michael Ledeen

Source:

September 27, 2010

Thanks to Hillary Leverett, the Yale prof and female member of the well known Flynt and Hillary Iran appeasement team. She set it up, and–according to the account–neither she nor any of her students seemed to notice that Iran kills Americans most every day.

Leverett said she thinks students took away from the meeting in New York that Ahmadinejad is “not a crazy, irrational leader,” and whether students agree with him or not, he has a strategy for Iran. She added that she also hopes students understand “that it will take a lot more from the U.S. if we want to have a real policy of engagement.”

Not all the students were charmed.

Ahmadinejad also spoke about his vision for an approach to international relations governed by justice and righteousness, said Osman Haneef GRD ’11, another member of the class.

“In some sense, justice in the international system sounds great, but not the kind of justice he is looking for,” he said.

More good news: the females in the group didn’t cover their heads. Have a look:

Yale should advertise this sort of thing: “for a mere 40-50 thousand dollars a year, your kids can meet the worst people in the world, guided by professors who think it’s mainly our fault.”

He was certainly a busy fellow in New York.  Banafsheh passed ^[1] on.  He met with a hundred

leaders and representatives of anti-war, labor, alternative media and Iranian and Palestinian solidarity organizations. Among the participants were Sarah Martin, ^[2], Margaret Sarfehjooy, board member of the Minneapolis-based Women Against Military Madness, former attorney general Ramsey Clark, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Sara Flounders from the International Action Center, Brian Becker of the ANSWER coalition, Ramona Africa of the Free Mumia Coalition and Amiri Baraka, poet and activist.

No doubt Ron Radosh will deconstruct this list, but at first blush it seems to be the Old Left plus whatever form of fanaticism Ramsey Clark represents, and they proclaimed themselves well satisfied with their conversation.  Ahmadinejad agreed with everything they said, and then called for common action against the warmongers in America.

Perhaps the most striking statement from a participant points to Ahmadinejad’s ambitious agenda:  to organize Americans on behalf of Iran.

Margaret Sarfehjooy reported, “I think the meeting was important because we had the opportunity to meet with so many dedicated grassroots activists from all over the country and share our hopes for peace and justice with the Iranian people through their president and his wife.”

As if the “dedicated grassroots activists” would not otherwise have had the chance to meet…maybe the Iranians even covered the activists’ expenses?

I wonder who else was brought to New York in order to coordinate action with Tehran…