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Good lord. Our worst instincts about the political reasons behind Ahmedinejad’s trip to Ground Zero have just been confirmed, straight from the horse’s, er, mouth. MEMRI (via LGF):

So I decided to visit there this year to pay my respect to the casualties and convey my sympathy to the families. I also wanted to raise several questions and express my views. I wanted to say that in my opinion, this incident is the result of the mismanagement of the world, and the result of the inhuman management of the world. Why did such an incident take place? We need to get to the root causes. We don’t want them to turn this incident, in 20 years’ time, into another false idol like the Holocaust, which they would use as a pretext to kill peoples, and prevent anybody from opening this [Pandora's] box and examining what really happened in this incident. They might turn 9/11 into something sacred, and whoever does not accept it would be considered an infidel, whereas whoever accepts it would have to accept all the ensuing crimes. In any event, we must express our views. I believe that this way, we would have formed cordial relations with the American people, and cold have opened this issue up for discussion. Well, this is exactly what they want to prevent.

Ghastly. He’s got a little Holocaust denial, a little implied Israel bashing, a little LIHOP Trutherism, critiques of militant American foreign policy, a little bland generic lefty “root causes” rhetoric…hey, has Ron Paul picked a running mate yet?

Actually, sorry, Dr. Paul: A-jad isn’t looking for work; he’s busy firming up his position at home. Not long ago the ascension of crook Hashemi Rafsanjani to the Council of Experts suggested that “moderates” were gaining ascendancy in the Islamic Republic. But now (possibly as a reaction to the Israeli strike on Syria?) the “moderate” leading Iran’s nuclear negotiation just got fired:

John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Mr. Larijani’s resignation was “a clear victory for Ahmadinejad” and shows that “the leadership is determined to continue with the nuclear program.” Mr. Bolton, who served as the Bush administration’s point man on the Iran nuclear issue before becoming U.N. ambassador, said the conflict between Mr. Larijani and Mr. Ahmadinejad is “part of the larger struggle for power after (Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei dies.”

UPDATE: Allahpundit had this earlier…