U.S. says inquiry showed Iran’s new president is a “terrorist”

Iran Focus: London, Sep. 01 – Iranians in the United States reacted with evident joy to news that an inquiry by the U.S. State Department established that Iran’s new hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a “terrorist”. The American television channel ABC News reported on Wednesday that the State Department had issued a legal finding showing that Ahmadinejad was ineligible for a U.S. visa because of section 212(a)3(b) of the Immigration and Naturalisation Act, which says anyone with terrorist ties cannot be granted a visa. Iran Focus

London, Sep. 01 – Iranians in the United States reacted with evident joy to news that an inquiry by the U.S. State Department established that Iran’s new hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a “terrorist”.

The American television channel ABC News reported on Wednesday that the State Department had issued a legal finding showing that Ahmadinejad was ineligible for a U.S. visa because of section 212(a)3(b) of the Immigration and Naturalisation Act, which says anyone with terrorist ties cannot be granted a visa.

State Department officials told ABC News that the Iranian president would nevertheless be granted a visa to attend the opening ceremonies of United Nations General Assembly in New York.

U.S. officials decided to waive section 212, so that Ahmadinejad could be provided with a limited visa to attend the UN General Assembly, due to begin on September 12.

A senior State Department official told ABC News that the waiver would be granted because of the limited nature of his visit. Ahmadinejad will not be allowed to travel more than 25 miles beyond U.N. headquarters in New York City.

Prior to Iran’s presidential elections in June, Iran Focus broke the news of Ahmadinejad’s terrorist ties in a detailed biography. In addition to his role in the 1979 hostage crisis in which 52 American embassy staff members were held captive for 444 days, Ahmadinejad has also been implicated in the assassination of a Kurdish dissident in Vienna in 1989. He is believed to have been in the hit squad that coordinated and carried out the attack.

According to reliable accounts revealed by Iran Focus, Ahmadinejad has been involved in other terrorist operations carried out by the Iranian regime abroad and led firing squads that executed hundreds of political prisoners in Tehran’s Evin Prison in the 1980s.

News of Ahmadinejad’s trip to the U.S. has been met with resentment from many in the Iranian-American community in North America, who are organising a major demonstration against his presence in New York.

A new group has also been formed to protest Ahmadinejad’s entry onto U.S. soil in mid-September. The New York Committee Against Ahmadinejad has already gained the support of a number of U.S. lawmakers and dignitaries.

“I believe the victims of all terrorist acts should join together and raise their voices against the presence of Ahmadinejad at UN General Assembly in NY”, New York Congressman Ed Towns said, voicing his support for the committee.

“Jews, Baha’is and Christians who are in Iran live in constant fear of abuse and arrest…I stand in solidarity with the peaceful gathering that will take place in on September 14”, said another committee supporter, the Brooklyn chaplain Anthony Ercolano.

Ali Nainee, a young New Yorker who represents the Big Apple’s Iranian-Americans on the committee, said his dissident father was killed in a terrorist attack by the Iranian government’s agents.

“There is simply no ground to continue the fallacy of ‘constructive dialogue’ with the mullahs’ regime, especially with Ahmadinejad as the new president”, Nainee said.