Video: Seven minutes of nothing with Ahmadinejad; Video: Pelosi “chilled”
posted at 11:35 am on July 28, 2008 by Allahpundit
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A snippet from his photo op with Brian Williams, the rest of which will air tonight on NBC’s evening news. Funnier than anything Ahmadinejad says is Williams’s breathless hype about Iran supposedly having adopted “a new stance, ready for further engagement.” Hey, Brian? They’ve been pushing “further engagement” for six years. The whole point of their strategy is to buy time. The closest this comes to an actual scoop is the Q&A at 3:38, when Ahmadinejad hints that if the west and Iran can reach some sort of agreement on points in common between their two proposals, then they can proceed to meaningful discussions about points in contention, namely, suspending enrichment. To see what that would mean in practice, revisit the Times’s story from last week about western diplomats literally laughing at the position paper Iran presented them with. Quote:
In its paper, Iran focused only on negotiating a “comprehensive agreement” for the rewards. The paper also said current international sanctions against Iran would be discontinued. The Iranian nuclear issue will no longer be dealt with by the Security Council or the 35-country governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Only the atomic energy agency itself can deal with the subject, the paper said.
Lift the sanctions, defang the already mostly defanged Security Council, and then, maybe, they’ll be willing to talk about suspending enrichment via a whole new round of negotiations that “would take a minimum of several years,” according to one European diplomat familiar with the plan. Mind you, since this “offer” was extended, Ahmadinejad himself has said that they won’t retreat one iota from their nuclear rights and Iran’s vice president has hinted they might stop cooperating with the IAEA — which, per the blockquote, is already the only entity they’ll even consider cooperating with. So much for a “new stance.”
Update: Via Bill Amos, she’s “chilled” by his laughter while talking about processing nuclear materials but it’s, um, still a great opportunity to negotiate.
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ahmadinajad is waiting for the west to say the magic words:
we submit
right4life on July 28, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Beautiful still shot on the main page.
Valiant on July 28, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Brian Williams is almost as useful an idiot, as Barack Obama.
The real question is, how did Williams find Ahmadinejad colon, as he was embedded in Ahmadinejad’s rectum for what, a couple of hours?
NoDonkey on July 28, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Brain Williams…just a tool.
right2bright on July 28, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Does Willimas also have Iranian citizenship?
jukin on July 28, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Best Opportunity for Bill O’Reilly to rip Brian Williams & NBC. But, how could he do that having his own network allied with NBC (Hulu.com)?
Atleast, he could send someone running after someone @ NBC, while hoding a Red Carpet for Obama.
Anita on July 28, 2008 at 11:50 AM
I guess with all the business GE does with Iran, this was an easy interview for NBC to get…
worthless network
jp on July 28, 2008 at 11:52 AM
I believe Christian Amanpour is. She is an Iranian.
Anita on July 28, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Nice screencap! Looks like Amadinejad smells a camel fart. Well, he may actually like that smell.
carbon_footprint on July 28, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Don’t you see that negotiations never, ever fail? People just give up on them too soon. If only there was a new kind of politician on the horizon who understood this. If only there was someone who was loved by everyone around the world. Someone who was willing to talk and keep talking until the next round of negotiations yield a breakthrough leading to another round of negotiations. That would be the right way to deal with this. It wouldn’t accomplish jack squat, but think how good we’d feel about ourselves, and isn’t that what’s really important?
trubble on July 28, 2008 at 11:55 AM
Fixed.
MrScribbler on July 28, 2008 at 11:57 AM
I can’t get over the fact that NBC has the hubris to call this an “exclusive” when there really wasn’t anything about the interview to even merit air time let alone declarations that they have an exclusive.
That being said, I think both candidates have given woefully inadequate answers to questions about Iran. McCain just launches into his pro-Israel rant and Obama just launches into his we need to spend more time talking to terrorist organizations riff.
highhopes on July 28, 2008 at 11:57 AM
O’Reily has used GE as a way to attack NBC without giving the nuts at MSNBC the satisfaction…so this could be intersting on his show
jp on July 28, 2008 at 12:01 PM
You’re right. Let’s set up an ad hoc committee to establish the criteria to pick the commission responsible for establishing guidelines to choose the site of a plenary assembly to discuss how to go about finding these new politicians. ;-0
Seriously, anything that involves the UN, rogue nation-states, and diplomatic action is doomed to failure from the beginning. Iran is going to get nukes and there isn’t any diplomatic organization or initiative that is going to change this fact. That’s why the candidates need to be forced to give real answers to questions about Iran instead of the campaign fluff or the ever popular (and my favorite) “I can’t tell you until I’m elected.”
I’m not talking about laying out battle plans but the candidates have been talking in generalities that are meaningless. McCain goes into a defense of Israel which is great for support among Jews but says nothing about what happens when Iran launches a nuke over Tel Aviv. Likewise, Obama rambles on about needing to get all the sides talking but never gets around to talking about what military commitment he’d put forth if (when really) Iran starts threatening geopolitical stability in the region.
highhopes on July 28, 2008 at 12:09 PM
since so many in the west see Obama as the messiah, I wonder if ahmadinajad will see Obama as the MAHDI?
right4life on July 28, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Is that Sean Penn?
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 28, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Bohica!
Static on July 28, 2008 at 12:14 PM
NBC still believe that Iraq is in Civil War.
Anita on July 28, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Ahmadinajad wouldn’t have lasted three seconds if it had been Tim Russert asking the questions. It’s time like this that I seriously miss that guy!
pilamaye on July 28, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Post 911 Russert or post Iraq Russert?
Anita on July 28, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Caption contest!
“Eh. What’s a few million Jooooooos among friends? There will still be enough Yids left in the world to make Hamantashen.”
/sarc
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 28, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Ahmadinejad expects the US to honor the treaty it signed by allowing Iran to enrich uranium? Doesn’t he know anything about US history? Since when does the US honor treaties?
dave742 on July 28, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Nothing will entice me enough to watch Pelosi “on Iran, economy”.
Is it like the commercial “This is the brains on drugs.”
Sir Napsalot on July 28, 2008 at 1:27 PM
I hope Iran has a nuke aimed at Pelosi’s ass.
Mark Levin – “Nancy “stretch” Pelosi is a stupid person.”
marklmail on July 28, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Uh-oh, battle of the minty pantsuits.
Some low-level wardrobe drone at NBC is gettin’ the boot.
Rhinoboy on July 28, 2008 at 1:34 PM
Hening on July 28, 2008 at 1:37 PM
I shudder to think at the prospect of Pelosi getting hot. It’s too ugly to consider.
What difference does it make what this unqualified, incompetent dingbat says about anything? She has to run all of this by dozens of people before she can say or do anything, so what difference does it make?
NoDonkey on July 28, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Somnambulant Fool
Entelechy on July 28, 2008 at 1:49 PM
So, according to Pelosi, it’s like everything else, BUSH’S FAULT! What an idiot. No wonder Congress has approval rating of 9. Moron!
Torch on July 28, 2008 at 2:08 PM
It’s Bush’s economy. Bush also caused Katrina. Bush caused the tsunami. Bush started the fires. Bush created the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, Three-Mile Island, WWII, Lyme disease, toxic shock syndrome and psoriasis. Now, about my new book…
whitetop on July 28, 2008 at 2:19 PM
Combine her IQ with Reid’s and maybe the total breaks 100. What a moron.
David in ATL on July 28, 2008 at 2:35 PM
Oh yeah, one more thing about her book….what could she have possibly written about that was: 1) true; and, 2) worth bragging about?
David in ATL on July 28, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Matching pantsuits…matching shoes…
God, I just sounded gay.
Hey, speaking of gay, how does Pelosi feel about Iran executing homosexuals? Woo-hoo! Ask your constituents, Nancy!
Black Adam on July 28, 2008 at 2:41 PM
“how does Pelosi feel about Iran executing homosexuals?”
Bush’s fault.
Besides, here they can’t get married, which is worse than hanging them from lamp posts in Tehran.
NoDonkey on July 28, 2008 at 2:51 PM
Iran’s not going to nuke Tel Aviv; it has bigger and better plans. The Iranian economy reeks, corruption is rampant, unemployment is astronomical, and most of the population is dependent on state welfare. Oil money that’s not stolen by the politically-connected is being poured into development of “the bomb” — and when she gets it, it will be cover for marching into one of her neighbors’ oil fields while threatening anyone who opposes her with nuclear annihilation.Meanwhile, to make sure everyone gets the picture of how bad, deranged and nutso they are, their President does his job of continually threatening to annihilate Israel, just for the fun of it.
This is just the warmup for the main act.
And the West, with endless negotiations and meaningless resolutions, is giving them all the time they need. When it comes to prolonging that process, Obama’s their best bet.
Nichevo on July 28, 2008 at 2:54 PM
Pelosi
“chilled”clueless.ThePrez on July 28, 2008 at 4:18 PM
Iran’s got oil, What they need is gasoline.
davidk on July 28, 2008 at 6:33 PM
Why isn’t BO the one chatting with AkMyDumbJihad?
jgapinoy on July 28, 2008 at 9:20 PM
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