Kerry: "Ahmadinejad...permitted the freedom...he denies to his own people, the right of free speech"

[ProSense]

09/25/2007

Kerry Statement on Ahmadinejad Visit

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator John Kerry made the following statement today about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United States and his address at Columbia University.


“Today Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was permitted the freedom that he denies to his own people, the right of free speech. I hope the Iranian people welcome him home with tough questions about why he believes he should enjoy liberties his own people do not share,” said Kerry.


“I'm proud of the Columbia students and faculty today who reminded the world that this man engages in the cruelest forms of oppression to strengthen his brutal regime.


“Calls for 'research' and 'study' don't change the fact that this man is a Holocaust denier who trades in anti-Semitism. It is long past time for the world to renounce this bigoted revisionist history, and important for everyone to remember that this demagogue fronts the world's largest state sponsor of terror, aids and abets the killing of American soldiers in Iraq, and is illegally pursuing a nuclear bomb."

You can cherish free speech, criticize Ahmadinejad and not support war with Iran. Ahmadinejad is a demagogue, and denouncing him doesn't mean acceptance of Bush's disastrous policies.