He must be clueless.
Despite his best efforts to obtain nukes, kill U.S. troops, aid terrorists, deny the Holocaust and wipe Israel off the map, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed disbelief yesterday that Americans could object to his presence at Ground Zero.
“Why should it be insulting?” he asked in an interview taped yesterday with “60 Minutes” that will air Sunday.
He said he was “amazed” at the near-universal outrage over his request to visit the hallowed site where more than 2,700 people were murdered at the hands of terrorists on 9/11.
Arizona Sen. and Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Ahmadinejad should be “physically restrained if necessary” to keep him away from the World Trade Center site.
“We are not going to have that kind of desecration of what is sacred ground,” said McCain. “Obviously, it is a propaganda ploy.”
The State Department has issued Ahmadinejad a C-2 visa, the most restrictive possible, that will limit his movement to a 25-mile radius from Columbus Circle when he comes here to address the United Nations next week. Only North Korean leaders currently get such restrictive visas, the department said.
At one point in the “60 Minutes” interview, reporter Scott Pelley pressed the bearded blowhard on his lack of sensitivity, saying, “But the American people, sir, believe that your country is a terrorist nation, exporting terrorism in the world. You must have known that visiting the World Trade Center site would infuriate many Americans.”
To that Ahmadinejad said, “Well, I’m amazed.”
Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was the pilot on Flight 77 that terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, said of the Axis of Evil leader: “This is a head of a country that is currently killing our men and women in Iraq. He’s sending ordnance, technology and intelligence. They killed 170 [U.S. troops] at last count, maybe more. I consider him a war criminal.
“Whether you are for or against the war in Iraq, he is killing our guys,” she added.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Iran has provided “lethal” support to anti-coalition terrorists. That aid includes the deadly EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, that can pierce armored vehicles.
Mayor Bloomberg was adamant yesterday that Ahmadinejad won’t make a Ground Zero visit.
“Given that Iran has been accused of sponsoring terrorism around the world, it would be totally inappropriate for somebody who, particularly this guy, who has expressed views I personally find abhorrent,” Bloomberg said.
And Police Commissioner Ray Kelly made it clear that Ahmadinejad wasn’t welcome and hinted that it’s for the pint-sized president’s own good that he stay away.
“We are concerned about President Ahmadinejad’s safety and the safety of others who may be attracted,” Kelly said.
Ahmadinejad, who tolerates no dissent at home, hinted that he “won’t insist” officials allow him to lay a wreath in the World Trade Center pit, a request that the leader had already been told was an impossibility.
Rep. Vito Fossella (R-B’klyn/S.I.) suggested the State Department look at legal avenues to deny Ahmadinejad that privilege.
“Keep this maniac out of New York,” he said. “Ahmadinejad had only one motivation for wanting to tour Ground Zero – to mock the nearly 3,000 Americans who were killed.”
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive Sunday and must leave Tuesday after addressing the U.N. General Assembly. He and his entourage will benefit – at taxpayer expense – from round-the-clock Secret Service and NYPD security details. Still, a Ground Zero showdown is possible.
“The Secret Service cannot prevent a president or prime minister from going to anywhere in the New York City area where the public has access,” said Secret Service spokesman Michael Seremetis.
The Port Authority, which controls the Ground Zero site, decided along with the NYPD and Secret Service on Sept. 6 that a trip into the pit was out of the question. The PA conceded it may not have the legal authority to prevent him from visiting the observation area.
“Can he walk on the sidewalk? For sure, our police aren’t going to arrest anyone for walking on a sidewalk,” said a PA source.
That was fine with Maria Sosa, 48, an operations engineer on the Ground Zero rebuilding effort.
“I’d like to hook him to the crane and dangle him over the site,” she said.
cbennett@nypost.com