Columbia Invites/Disinvites Ahmadinejad

Our institutions of higher learning are always looking for anti-American dictators to stop in and speak, and a dean at Columbia decided to invite Iranian madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to share his wisdom with the young skulls full of mush. The president of the university, however, had other ideas and canceled:

Overruling a prominent dean, the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, yesterday withdrew an invitation to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The dean of Columbia's school of international and public affairs, Lisa Anderson, had independently invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at the World Leader's Forum, a year-long program that aims to unite "renowned intellectuals and cultural icons from many nations to examine global challenges and explore cultural perspectives."

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Mr. Bollinger said he canceled Mr. Ahmadinejad's invitation because he couldn't be certain it would "reflect the academic values that are the hallmark of a University event such as our World Leaders Forum." He told Ms. Anderson that Mr. Ahmadinejad could speak at the school of international and public affairs, just not as a part of the university-wide leader's forum.

Ms. Anderson's assistant cited an inability to arrange for proper security as the reason for the cancellation.

I'm not really buying the security argument. My guess is the president was worried about the blowback from Jewish donors over Ahmadinejad's blatant anti-Semitism. I think the president decided not to buy that kind of trouble.