Scott Pelley interviews Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 60 Minutes: part one, part two. The entire interview is very much worth reading, but I quote some highlights below.

On Iran’s alleged support of anti-American jihadists in Iraq:

PELLEY: Mr. President, American men and women are being killed by your weapons in Iraq. You know this.

AHMADINEJAD: No, no, no.

PELLEY: Why are those weapons there?

AHMADINEJAD: Who’s saying that?

PELLEY: The American Army has captured Iranian missiles in Iraq. The critical elements of the explosively formed penetrator bombs that are killing so many people are coming from Iran. There’s no doubt about that anymore. The denials are no longer credible, sir.

AHMADINEJAD: Very good. If I may.

AHMADINEJAD: Are you an American politician? Am I to look at you as an American politician or a reporter? This is what the American officials are claiming. Well, we don’t need to arrest many people to prove that Americans are occupying Iraq or produce fabricated documents. If you go to the streets of Baghdad, you will see American helicopters and tanks and Humvees, so on and so forth. So the Iraqi people are just defending themselves. I think the way out for the American official from this problem that it has created for itself shouldn’t be in accusing Iraq, Iran, rather. You need to understand the realities of the region and also respect the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people, like other people, want to have security, want to have peace, want to be free. When they see that soldiers come into their houses, they react. So if the American government does accept this reality, this truth, everything will changes. If they accuse us 1,000 times, the truth will not change. They need to accept the truth and also the wishes of the Iraqi people. That is a way out of this deadlock.

On Iran’s alleged nuclear-weapons program:

PELLEY: You can show the world today that you are not pursuing a bomb. All you have to do is give the order. Open your nuclear facilities. Let the United Nations inspectors in there today and prove that there is no bomb program. Why not take that course?

AHMADEINEJAD: I think that you are a little bit behind the day’s news. You might have been away on an assignment. I don’t know.

PELLEY: I’m familiar with the day’s news.

AHMADEINEJAD: The reports say that we have been complying. And they are inspecting all of our sites every day. What more am I supposed to do?

(And there’s a great passage just after this about the hypocrisy and stupidity of all the nations that actually have nuclear weapons stockpiles that Pelley just ignores. It probably didn’t occur to him that Ahmadinejad was talking about the United States there.)

On President President Bush and religion:

PELLEY: What trait do you admire in President Bush?

AHMADINEJAD: Again, I have a very frank tone. I think that President Bush needs to correct his ways.

PELLEY: What do you admire about him?

AHMADINEJAD: He should respect the American people.

PELLEY: Is there anything? Any trait?

AHMADINEJAD: As an American citizen, tell me what trait do you admire?

PELLEY: Well, Mr. Bush is, without question, a very religious man, for example, as you are. I wonder if there’s anything that you’ve seen in President Bush that you admire.

AHMADINEJAD: Well, is Mr. Bush a religious man?

PELLEY: Very much so. As you are.

AHMADINEJAD: What religion, please tell me, tells you as a follower of that religion to occupy another country and kill its people? Please tell me. Does Christianity tell its followers to do that? Judaism, for that matter? Islam, for that matter? What prophet tells you to send 160,000 troops to another country, kill men, women, and children? You just can’t wear your religion on your sleeve or just go to church. You should be truthfully religious. Religion tells us all that you should respect the property, the life of different people. Respect human rights. Love your fellow man. And once you hear that a person has been killed, you should be saddened. You shouldn’t sit in a room, a dark room, and hatch plots. And because of your plots, many thousands of people are killed. Having said that, we respect the American people. And because of our respect for the American people, we respectfully talk with President Bush. We have a respectful tone. But having said that, I don’t think that that is a good definition of religion. Religion is love for your fellow man, brotherhood, telling the truth.

PELLEY: I take it you can’t think of anything you like about President Bush.

AHMADINEJAD: Well, I’m not familiar with the gentleman’s private life. Maybe in his private life he is very kind or a determined man. I’m not aware of that. I base my judgment on what I see in his public life. Having said that, I think that President Bush can behave much better. There were golden opportunities for President Bush. He should have used them better.

On which country is more isolated and hated in the world today, Iran or the United States:

PELLEY: I asked President Bush what he would say to you if he were sitting in this chair. And he told me, quote, speaking to you, that you’ve made terrible choices for your people. You’ve isolated your nation. You’ve taken a nation of proud and honorable people and made your country the pariah of the world. These are President Bush’s words to you. What’s your reply to the president?

AHMADINEJAD: Well, President Bush is free to think as he pleases and to say what he pleases. I don’t oppose the freedom of speech. I believe in freedom of speech. President Bush is free to say what he pleases. But these would not change the truth. So that President Bush knows the Iranian people are dearly loved today. We can very well put this to the test to find out who has become isolated. Again, maybe one of my friends could go to another country and a friend of President Bush could go to the same country, find out which one of us is isolated. You’re free to choose any country you like. I don’t think that President Bush has said these things. Rather, I prefer to think that this is your impression of what the president has said.

On Iran’s alleged nuclear-weapons program again, plus U.S. politics:

PELLEY: President Bush has pledged that you will not be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon and will use military force if necessary.

AHMADEINEJAD: I think Mr. Bush, if he wants his party to win the next election, there are cheaper ways and ways to go about this. I can very well give him a few ideas so that the people vote for him. He should respect the American people. They should not bug the telephone conversations of their citizens. They should not kill the sons and daughters of the American nation. They should not squander the taxpayers’ money and give them to weapons companies. And also help the people, the victims of Katrina. People will vote for them if they do these things. But if they insist on what they are saying right now, this will not help them. Again, nobody can hurt the Iranian people. And history tells us that the people who have been less than kind to the Iranian people, they have lost out. What I’m saying, I am being very sincere here. I’m a Muslim. I cannot tell a lie. I am supposed to tell the truth. What I’m saying is that President Bush’s conduct in Iraq is wrong. And his wrong conduct is behind his party losing the previous elections. This is very clear. The American people are very much dismayed with the behavior and the conduct of the present administration. They are not dismayed with Iran. In fact, the two nations are very close to one another. An example of that would be the letter sent to me by an American scholar a few days ago.

PELLEY: You mentioned telling the truth as a Muslim, and as you know so much better than I do, Verse 42 of the second sura: “The truth shall not be obscured by falsehood, and those who know the truth must tell it.” But when I ask you a question as direct as “Will you pledge not to test a nuclear weapon?” you you dance all around the question. You never say “yes.” You never say “no.”

Note that Pelley’s last claim there is a blatant lie. Ahmadinejad clearly said several times in this very interview that Iran has no plan to build and test a nuclear weapon. He clearly said several times that Iran is not supplying weapons to fighters in Iraq. Well, I suppose Pelley is correct that Ahmadinejad never says simply “yes” or “no,” because Pelley badgers him constantly to answer his accusations with a simple “yes” or “no” and Ahmadinejad ignores these requests except to complain that Pelley keeps interrupting him. In fact, I suppose Pelley isn’t lying at all: being an American journalist, he’s not familiar with politicians who are capable of sustaining a coherent train of thought for more than one and a half sentences. He’s probably no longer capable of paying attention to any statement longer than a sound bite.

At any rate, it’s like Pelley planned out the whole interview beforehand, including all of Ahmadinejad’s answers, and the interview that occurs in reality is like a bad improv show, with Pelley playing the asshole who constantly negates the other actors. Oh, I forgot to quote the part about Israel and Palestine, but it’s a good part too. Pelley asks him five times in a row whether he would recognize Israel if they reach a two-state solution with the Palestinians, and Ahmadinejad keeps trying to explain that he just wants the Palestinian people to have a say and it’s not up to him whether they decide on a two-state solution or whatever. Five times in a fucking row. Pelley acts like its unreasonable of Ahmadinejad not to pontificate on how the Palestinian people ought to govern themselves —- but again, I suppose he just doesn’t know what to do with a politician who doesn’t what to play Big Brother to the rest of the world.

Ahmadinejad may be a hypocrite about religion and peace, and for all I know he may be lying about Iran’s nonexistent nuclear-weapons program and support for terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere. He’s less impressive in some parts of the interview, as when he dodges a question about the 1979 hostage crisis. But his criticisms of American foreign policy and President Bush are clearly right. And at any rate, as he points out, the United States simply has no moral high ground in these matters from which to accuse Iran. And what Ahmadenijad clearly isn’t is a mouth-frothing Jew-hater terrorist hellbent on blowing up Israel. And what he clearly is is a hell of a lot more thoughtful and intelligent than morons like Pelley, Bush, and everybody else in the American political and media establishment.

Meanwhile, Congress votes overwhelmingly to denounce Iranian president. Democrat Tom Lantos, who proposed the bill, had this to say:

Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick. It is my hope that they will take the carrot. But today, we are putting the stick in place.

This is how we in America make peace with the nations of the world: we treat them like horses, give them treats or beat them with big sticks. What’s the “big carrot,” anyway? That we won’t drop cluster bombs on Tehran? And all they have to do is stop doing what they insist they’re already not doing.

By the way, did you know the AP is part of the vast anti-Semitic conspiracy??? Check this out: “It reflected lawmakers’ long-standing nervousness about Tehran’s intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel —- a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.”