I Was Invited to Meet Ahmadinejad. Then a CIA Wife Called. |
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is suddenly back in the news. According to a recent report in The New York Times, Israeli and American officials at one point reportedly discussed the possibility of supporting him as a potential post-clerical figure in Iran, a remarkable twist given how aggressively he was once demonized in the West.
The article brought back an old memory from 2009, when I almost met the Iranian president myself.
At the time, I was serving as Associate Provost for International Programs at George Mason University and was involved in discussions with members of the Iranian delegation at the United Nations about the possibility of creating a summer Persian-language program in Iran for GMU students. The idea was academic and cultural, not political. I believed then, as I still do now, that students should study........