Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does not have many friends, especially not in Iran. But in the distant United States, he appears to have quite a fan club. Take professors Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, whose class Ahmadinejad recently granted an interview. Or consider the recent televised dinner party for Iranian-Americans hosted by Ahmadinejad during his latest visit to the U.N. General Assembly.
In the midst of the nauseating duplicity of the dinner party, the footage provides one source of consolation: Their desperate need for dinner guests willing to be interviewed on state-controlled television forced the Islamic Republic to compromise its clandestine supporters, who are no longer able to claim “independence.”
Speaking of independence, Hillary Mann Leverett’s students showed greater integrity than their professor. Following the interview with Ahmadinejad, one of them said it’s scary “when politicians keep repeating things until they believe it themselves.” This is also true of the Islamic Republic’s useful idiots and fellow travelers.
