Updated 10:55 Eastern: WABC reports Ahmadinejad will visit Ground Zero 10 a.m. Monday(see below)

Updated 6:30 a.m. Eastern, 9/20/2007: (see below)

Mark read from this report:

An advance team for the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asked earlier this month that he be allowed to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site during the opening of the United Nations General Assembly next week, but the request was denied, New York City police officials said today. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly caused considerable confusion earlier today when he suggested that the request was still pending. In fact, police officials said later, the request — made at a meeting that included the Secret Service and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — was denied for reasons of security and safety. They added that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s aides had asked that he be allowed into the pit, where construction is taking place. Also today, the president of Columbia University, Lee C. Bollinger, announced that Mr. Ahmadinejad would speak at the university on Monday. Mr. Ahmadinejad is expected to arrive in New York late Sunday, address the United Nations sometime on Monday, and leave the city Wednesday morning, according to police officials.

Mark then fired for effect:

Debra Burlingame spoke with Mark about Iran’s support of terrorism, to include their allowing many of the 9/11 hijackers pass through Iran while they were planning the 9/11 attacks. In addition, she talked about the investment, by proxy, of billions of dollars being made by American retirement funds into Iran and how that money is being used to kill our troops in Iraq:

Mark then lectured Columbia University President Bollinger about our 1st Amendment:

The callers into the show and Mark were strongly opposed to Ahmadinejad being allowed anywhere near our sacred ground, Ground Zero:

Update 10:55 Eastern: Michelle Malkin writes that, “Despite the NYPD’s rejection, the Iranian nutjob still plans to visit Ground Zero. And he’ll have Secret Service protection! WABC reports”:

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requested to visit Ground Zero during an upcoming trip to New York. That request was rejected Wednesday. But a source tells Eyewitness News that the decision may not stop him. A law enforcement source says the Iranian mission to the United Nations has informed the Secret Service that the Iranian president intends to visit Ground Zero Monday at 10 a.m. The source says regardless of the NYPD’s rejection of the request for a Ground Zero tour, Iran’s president and his entourage will be accompanied by a Secret Service protective detail, a detail provided to all heads of state when they visit the United States.

I commented on Malkin’s web site:

I’ve never been arrested yet I will be if that terrorist tries to set one foot on Ground Zero. I will stand in his way at that sacred ground and they will have to arrest me if he comes there. That is where the very same terrorists thta [sic] he and his regime supported murdered a member of my family.

I will be there. Will you join me?

Updated 6:30 a.m. Eastern, 9/20/2007: Just shove your wreath, Ahmadinejad

– End of updates –

In addition to U.S. intelligence findings that Iran supported Hezbollah’s 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, the 9/11 Commission found that Iran supported other attacks against the United States and facilitating the travel of al Qaeda terrorists:

In June 1996, an enormous truck bomb detonated in the Khobar Towers residential complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that housed U.S. Air Force personnel. Nineteen Americans were killed, and 372 were wounded. The operation was carried out principally, perhaps exclusively, by Saudi Hezbollah, an organization that had received support from the government of Iran. While the evidence of Iranian involvement is strong, there are also signs that al Qaeda played some role, as yet unknown
…
Bin Ladin seemed willing to include in the confederation terrorists from almost every corner of the Muslim world. His vision mirrored that of Sudan’s Islamist leader, Turabi, who convened a series of meetings under the label Popular Arab and Islamic Conference around the time of Bin Ladin’s arrival in that country. Delegations of violent Islamist extremists came from all the groups represented in Bin Ladin’s Islamic Army Shura. Representatives also came from organizations such as the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

Turabi sought to persuade Shiites and Sunnis to put aside their divisions and join against the common enemy. In late 1991 or 1992, discussions in Sudan between al Qaeda and Iranian operatives led to an informal agreement to cooperate in providing support-even if only training-for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States. Not long afterward, senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives.
…
As we mentioned in chapter 2, while in Sudan, senior managers in al Qaeda maintained contacts with Iran and the Iranian-supported worldwide terrorist organization Hezbollah, which is based mainly in southern Lebanon and Beirut. Al Qaeda members received advice and training from Hezbollah.

Intelligence indicates the persistence of contacts between Iranian security officials and senior al Qaeda figures after Bin Ladin’s return to Afghanistan. Khallad [Sheik Mohammed] has said that Iran made a concerted effort to strengthen relations with al Qaeda after the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, but was rebuffed because Bin Ladin did not want to alienate his supporters in Saudi Arabia. Khallad and other detainees have described the willingness of Iranian officials to facilitate the travel of al Qaeda members through Iran, on their way to and from Afghanistan. For example, Iranian border inspectors would be told not to place telltale stamps in the passports of these travelers. Such arrangements were particularly beneficial to Saudi members of al Qaeda.

Our knowledge of the international travels of the al Qaeda operatives selected for the 9/11 operation remains fragmentary. But we now have evidence suggesting that 8 to 10 of the 14 Saudi “muscle” operatives traveled into or out of Iran between October 2000 and February 2001.

And on September 11, 2007, there was this report about Iran continuing to promote 9/11 conspiracy theories:

Islamic Republic: “9/11 was an inside Job” — September 11th, 2007 — In the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the [Iranian] state-run news outlets preferred to discuss the conspiracy theories. Fars News writes “130 American Experts: 9/11 was an inside Job.” Quoting an unknown Russian “expert”, the website writes “It is not imaginable that Muslim terrorists have been able to prepare in six months”. Another state-run news source, Mehr News, quotes a 911 conspiracy website that, “The Collapse of the Towers was not because of the Crash, 9/11 could have been planned by the [U.S.] administration”. Mehr News carries the claims of the “Russian expert” as well. In another report, Fars News calls the 9/11 attacks “A Big Lie”. “In September 11, 2001, an event unfolded which was a big lie and a planned scenario for supermacy, according to the majority of experts”, Fars News writes. The rather long piece in Fars News finishes with a set of “numerical facts about the attacks”, including the connection between the 11 from 9/11 to the number of letters of Bin Ladan’s name in Persian, which is 11.

I want to know which silly *** idiots even considered for a minute letting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad anywhere near where the very same terrorists the Iranian regime supported murdered a member of my family and 3,000 others on 9/11.