Video: Don’t Let Ahmadinejad off the Hook in New York

(19 September 2011) As Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in New York, four New Yorkers who closely follow developments in Iran talk about why the Iranian people expect the media and UN dignitaries to focus primarily on holding Ahmadinejad accountable for Iran’s human rights crisis during their meetings with him.

Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran is joined by Professor Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University, Bitta Mostofi, a lawyer and human rights activist, and David Fine. Fine, an undergraduate student at Columbia and managing editor in chief of its newspaper, The Current, argues why Columbia students invited to dine with Ahmadinejad should not be “thrilled” and refuse him the occasion for self-aggrandizement.