Iran Leader Denied on WTC Wreath Request

NEW YORK (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked permission to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site when he comes to New York City next week, but the request was denied, a police official said Wednesday.

Ahmadinejad, who is arriving Sunday to address the United Nations' General Assembly, had asked this month for permission to visit the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

The request to enter the fenced-in site was rejected because of ongoing construction there, Browne said.

"Requests for the Iranian president to visit the immediate area would also be opposed by the NYPD on security grounds," Browne said.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters Wednesday that the United States would not support Iran's attempt to use the site for a "photo op."

"Iran can demonstrate its seriousness about concern with regard to terrorism by taking concrete actions," such as dropping support for Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and suspending their uranium enrichment program, Khalilzad said.

Browne said Ahmadinejad had asked permission from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, U.S. Secret Service and police department. The police and the Secret Service provide security to visiting heads of state.

The Port Authority, which owns the trade center site and is the only agency that could grant him permission to go inside, said it never received such a request, contradicting the police statement.

"We have not been asked to accommodate the president of Iran," Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said.

It wasn't clear whether Ahmadinejad wanted to descend to the base of the trade center site, where the twin towers once stood, or lay a wreath on a public sidewalk outside the site.

Telephone calls to the Iranian Mission to the United Nations were not immediately returned.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said a visit to ground zero "is a matter for the city of New York, but it seems more than odd that the president of a country that is a state sponsor of terror would visit ground zero."

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations since Washington cut its ties with Tehran after Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. The Bush administration has accused Iran of arming Shiite Muslim militants in Iraq and seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

In a television appearance earlier this week, Ahmadinejad said his country wanted peace and friendship with the United States, as tensions continued to mount between the two countries.

Typical Damn AP Distortion and Misinformation??!!!

All day others reporting this said nothing about a wreath; it was just a request to visit Ground Zero.

Suddenly, when his visit is turned down, AP seems to invent that it was to be a wreath laying ceremony. Trying to drum up 'feel good' attitute toward Ahmadinajad and 'nasty neo-conservative warmonger' feelings against those that made the decision to keep him out of hallowed ground.

Anybody see a wreath mentioned before the news broke that his visit request was refused? Let me know. I'm betting my hunch is right!

I am not looking forward to war with Iran. I believe a confrontation between the United States and Iran is inevitable but not necessarily open warfare. At the moment, the IRGC are killing our people, and we are killing theirs, (in Iraq) but things could get much worse. Indeed, I hope diplomacy doesn't fail and the United States never has to destroy Iran. I think part of the problem is that casual observers tend to think U.S. capacity to destroy Iran automatically make the United States the aggressor. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Islamic Republic of Iran has dedicated much of its identity to anti-Americanism. Official Iranian animosity towards American policy and democracy is blatant.

This move, like many before it, is intended to drive a wedge between the American people and our government, as if we did not consciously elect our officials and they did not represent us. As if our officials hung American dissenters in the streets of Washington DC. Tehran's foreign policy says more about Tehran that is says about the United States.

This picture to the left is of Ahmadinejad. Behind Ahmadinejad is an image of an hour glass where the U.S. is represented as broken and our ally Israel about to break. We cannot forget this picture or what he penned to our President:

"Liberalism and Western style democracy have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity. Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems." --- Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad to the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush

I will never forget nor forgive these words, written by a man who consciously strives to see the American way of life come to an end. Unless he says the syntactically precise opposite of what he wrote to president Bush when he visits the United Nations, ends support for terrorism and ends his nuclear weapons program, I don't see how there can be political reconciliation between our two nations

I have sent the following EMail to

Laura Ingraham
Sean Hannity
Hugh Hewitt
Dennis Miller
and
Giuliani’s Campaign

“I was wondering about the visit Iranian dictator, and nut case Ahmadnejad wanted to make to ground zero. In my mind such a visit, owing to his statements, is an affront to decency and most offensive. What folks in New York could do is - protest - surround the site, and deny him any access... I see on Drudge where he insists on going. Well if I were a New Yorker I might just do what I could to stop him from setting foot on, in a National sense, sacred ground.... A memorial site that such garbage as Ahmadnejad shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near...”

Anyone else like this?

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