There was a very interesting article in the NY Observer last week by Hooman Majd, an Iranian who has lived most of his life in the US and acted as his translator at the UN. The picture he draws of Ahmadinejad is of a charismatic, intelligent, unflappable and hard-working fellow with a clear strategic vision. It is also a picture of a man with a deeply conspiratorial streak who is completely committed to an imperialist religious agenda. You should read the whole article. Here are a few excerpts organized into several categories for quick review:

– Charismatic and a rock star.. Mr. Ahmadinejad, although mobbed by a throng of well-wishers, thanked me rather graciously. “I heard from everyone you sounded great,” he said. “Thank you so much.” When he speaks to you (and maybe this is more relevant if you’re a fellow Iranian), Mr. Ahmadinejad is not only charming, but his tone is one of genuine friendliness— a remarkable ability to make you think he relates to you. Even his dress—the simply cut pale gray suit, one of three that he apparently owns, as well as the windbreaker and the inexpensive loafers (the better for slipping on and off for prayers)—seem less like political affectations and more a reflection of who he really is: a regular Muslim guy who happens to be the president of a now-powerful nation…

That evening’s dinner, for 500 loyal Iranians, was held in a grand ballroom of the Hilton. The crowd, consisting of Iranians who are fiercely nationalistic and more positively inclined to the Islamic Republic, greeted their president with prolonged applause. The national anthem played loudly over the speaker system, and to anyone who harbors suspicions that 2006 Iran is reminiscent of 1936 Germany, this event would have appeared to have some of the trappings of a Bund rally in 1930’s New York….A table behind mine was filled with men wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh. They were the most vocal in the room, with shouts of “Allah-u-akbar!”…When he finished speaking, the cheers were punctuated by repeated shouts from the men in keffiyehs jumping up and down right behind me, as they chanted over and over, “Praise [or salaam] to the Prophet Mohammad … boo-yeh Rajai aamad [we can smell a Rajai]!”

– Paranoid and conspiratorial. President Ahmadinejad…moved on to the question of Iran’s nuclear program. “If, God forbid—God forbid—we budge on this issue, they’ll next say, ‘You have to give up your chemistry departments in your universities, and your physics departments too.’ Then even the medical schools.” The president’s tone wasn’t bombastic; if anything, it was very matter-of-fact. “It’s clear that they don’t want us to progress”…“Two thousand Zionists want to rule the world. You can do it elsewhere,” he said, as if speaking directly to the mysterious 2,000, “but not in Iran. It’s impossible—it’s not doable.”

– Confident of success. “Last year,” he said, “we were under serious threats—military threats. Today, at the very worst, it’s economic threats, and even that—well, I don’t really want to say, but for those who would like to pursue them, the situation is not conducive …. Even though there are those in America who would like to put pressure on Iran, they won’t be able to. We’ve really progressed. You see, 118 countries [of the Non-Aligned Movement] have specifically supported Iran’s nuclear program. That’s eliminated the excuse that four or five countries speak for the ‘international community.’…

“Our political situation, by God’s grace, is great,” he went on. “For those who don’t want our people to progress, the situation is not good. In the Middle East, the situation for America has become very bad. Very. They thought if they attack Lebanon, their situation would get better,” he said, allowing no difference between Israel and the United States. “They gave 33 days to the Zionists to do something in Lebanon, and it didn’t happen. Same thing in Iraq; same thing in Afghanistan. It’s not that our situation has gotten worse in the last year; it’s that it’s gotten much better….

– Understands the MSM. Nuance in Persian is difficult to translate, but it can be most ¬misleading—sometimes comically so—during interviews with the American press. When Brian Williams of NBC asked about Mr. Ahmadinejad’s attire—a suit rather than his trademark windbreaker—the Iranian president replied, “Sheneedem shoma kot-shalvaree hasteen, manam kot-shalvar poosheedam”—which was translated as “ … you wear a suit, so I wore a suit.” The phrase is actually much closer to “ … you are a suit, so I wore a suit.”…[and later at a press confab]…three hot issues were covered: nuclear power, Israel and the Holocaust. Mr. Ahmadinejad didn’t seem to tire of repeating the responses he had given over and over. The participants were polite and respectful, and if they held any misgivings about breaking bread with someone seemingly reviled by a large number of their fellow New Yorkers as not only perfidious but extremely dangerous, they didn’t show it. Anderson Cooper of CNN posed the softest if not most pro-Iran question…

– Needs to be the boss. [At an exclusive meeting of success Iranian expats] There, in a large conference room, a group consisting mostly of men gathered at tables. They were academics, physicians and businessmen—all successful Iranians (mostly from New York and New Jersey) who were largely observant Muslims as well as supporters of the Islamic Republic. They gave the president a standing ovation….Another questioner…said he remembered last year’s event very well; he was seated in exactly the same place as this year. Suddenly, the president interrupted him to say that he was, in fact, seated one chair over. “Indeed,” replied the surprised and disarmed Iranian, “and mash’allah [praise Allah] for your intelligence and memory!” The president’s showing-off seemed calculated to impress that, contrary to some claims—particularly among expatriate Iranians—he was no dummy. [The story works whether Ahmadinejad was right or wrong about the seat -- ed.]

– Ladies, get your chadors. I came across Mr. Ahmadinejad’s wife, milling about in full black chador, protected by a lone female Secret Service agent. I knew that she, unlike the wives of previous Iranian dignitaries, had accompanied him on his trip. It would have been both un-Islamic and rude of me to approach her…One woman asked the president to relax the rules on hijab for women in Iran. Although wearing a scarf herself, living in the U.S. for many years has seemed to have divorced her from the reality of velayat-e-faqi, or “rule of the jurisprudent”…The president…would ignore the hijab issue entirely….After his prayers, Mr. Ahmadinejad stood at the head of a receiving line and, for two hours, said hello and shook hands with every single person in the long line—except the women, of course, who were content with an Islamic-appropriate hello and nod of the head.

Feel free to think that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a boorish clown, if you like, playing to the rabble and in over his head in the world of statecraft. But don’t bet the kids’ college fund on the proposition.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 6:20 am and is filed under General, Iran, MSM, Religion, War, art, culture, radical chic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.