Columbia University’s president yesterday blasted Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as “a petty and cruel dictator” – before the demented despot railed about 9/11 conspiracies, openly challenged the Holocaust, and bizarrely stated, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals.”
A grim-faced Ahmadinejad sweated out intense grilling from university President Lee Bollinger and hordes of others in the audience who demanded answers from him on his dangerous rants.
“You exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Bollinger said to cheers from the 800-plus people packed into the auditorium. “I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for.”
The educator accused Ahmadinejad of having a “fanatical mindset” and lacking the “intellectual courage” to answer the questions before him.
The pint-sized Persian president responded by whining that he was “insulted” during his hourlong appearance at the Ivy League institution, which has weathered a firestorm of protest over giving the Axis of Evil leader a platform to propagandize.
After Bollinger’s fusillade, all Ahmadinejad could do was invoke a passage from the Koran and steal a line from Rodney Dangerfield.
In an answer that many in the auditorium cheered, Ahmadinejad claimed Bollinger showed no “respect” and called his remarks an “insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here.”
He kicked off his speech with rambling and confusing remarks that attempted to weave together biblical Adam’s conversation with an angel, modern man’s pursuit of science, the development of nuclear weapons, the Holocaust and the Palestinian refugee problem.
He continued his m.o. of dodging straight answers on his country’s long-standing support of terrorism, nukes and aim to annihilate Israel.
The Iranian leader denied that he wants nuclear weapons.
“Let me tell a joke here,” he said. “The politicians who are after atomic bombs – politically, they are retarded.”
Asked about his country’s role in exporting terrorism, Ahmadinejad replied, “We are cultured nation. We don’t need to resort to terrorism. We’ve been victims of terrorism ourselves.”
Tehran has been linked to both support for Iraqi terrorists as well as Hezbollah.
Bollinger also faced down Ahmadinejad for his December 2005 description of the Holocaust as “a fabricated legend, pointing out that The Iranian leader had held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers.
The college president told Ahmadinejad that insisting the Holocaust was a myth might fool the illiterate and the ignorant.
But, Bollinger added, “when you come to a place like this, it makes you simply ridiculous. The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history.”
Ahmadinejad backtracked slightly, saying, “Granted this [the Holocaust] happened, [but] what does this have to do with the Palestinian people?”
But he fell back to form with a weird comparison of the Holocaust to physics, where long-held beliefs have been revised after advanced study.
Moderator John Coatsworth, acting dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, asked what Ahmadinejad would say if he were to visit Ground Zero. The Iranian president responded with a series of bizarre, rambling questions:
“What caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved, who was really involved and put it all together?”
The despot’s mere presence at the school infuriated some families of 9/11 victims.
“To give him a platform at this prestigious school that my son attended and that we paid a lot of money to go there made me puke,” said Tom Acquaviva, whose 29-year-old son, Paul, a Columbia Law grad, was killed on 9/11.
“I don’t know what was served by it. What did we learn by it?”
One thing that America learned is that Ahmadinejad thinks his government treats women and religious minorities exceptionally well, and would treat gays that way, too – if Iran had any.
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that like in your country,” he said. “In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told your that we have this.”
From there, the reality-challenged leader described the draconian oppression of woman in his country as a show of respect.
“They are exempt from many responsibilities. Many of the legal responsibilities rest on the shoulders of men in our society because of the respect culturally given to women,” he said.
When asked about Israel, Ahmadinejad refused to distance himself from his previous call to wipe it off the map.
Instead, he got the another round of cheers when he called for “free referendum” by Palestinians to decide the fate of Israel.
Rajiv Lalla, a 19-year-old student studying Arabic and economics, pointed out, “He said in Iran that he wants Israel wiped out, and now he says he’s for democracy. Of course, people are going to clap.” President Bush told Fox News before the event, “The problem is, Ahmadinejad uses these platforms to advance his agenda, which I suspect in this case . . . He doesn’t want America to know his true intentions.”
Students who watched the event alternately described Ahmadinejad as brilliant and buffoonish.
“It was interesting to hear his point of view, except for the part when he denied the existence of homosexuals in Iran. Even he laughed when he said it, and everyone in the audience laughed, too,” said Nathan Williams, a grad student at the School of International and Public Affairs.
Before closing for the day, Ahmadinejad got one last round of applause – this time by inviting students and faculty to visit any Iranian university of their choice for further dialogue.
“He was able to get sympathy by the audience. He was able to connect with the audience,” said Fergus Scully, 19.
Some students seemed more annoyed at Bollinger.
“Part of the reason [Ahmadinejad didn’t answer our questions directly was because of the way he was introduced,” griped Stacey Wood, a 26-year-old grad student at the international-affairs school.
But senior Eitan Bendavid, 24, said Bollinger “wasn’t tough enough. He was really weak, and he didn’t engage [Ahmadinejad] forcefully.”
Today, Ahmadinejad will address the U.N. General Assembly and then fly to Venezuela for a tete-a-tete with that country’s strongman, fellow America-hater Hugo Chavez.
cbennett@nypost.com