The Republican chief executive, a potential candidate for his party's 2008 presidential nomination, said Mohammed Khatami oversaw torture and the murder of dissidents, as well as Iran's secret nuclear program, while in office from 1997 to 2005.

"State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel," Romney said in a statement.

...

— Describing the terrorist group Hezbollah, involved in the recent Israel-Lebanon border war, as a "shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world."

— Endorsing the call of the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to seek the annihilation of Israel.

— Refusing to hand over the Iranian intelligence officials who were responsible for the attack on the Khobar Towers that killed 19 U.S. military personnel.

Under reformist Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, elected in 1997, some believed Iran and Israel would work to improve relations. While at first Khatami's election did not seem to change anything—he called Israel an "illegal state" and a "parasite," [6] signs of small moderation did appear. For example, Khatami has said that Jews should be "safe in Iran" and that all religious minorities should be protected , as always has been.[7]. In January 2004, he spoke to an Israeli reporter who asked him on what grounds Iran would recognize Israel. This was believed to be the first time he had spoken publicly with an Israeli [8].

At the funeral of Pope John Paul II in April 2005, Khatami was seated close to Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Katsav said that he shook Khatami's hand and the two had a brief conversation about Iran (Katsav was born in Iran). However, Khatami denied this [9].

Said in a message to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah that “Hezbollah is like a shining sun which warms up all oppressed Muslims, especially those in Palestine and Lebanon”

I know it's fun to imagine you're that much smarter than the governor of a US State, but sometimes that's not entirely true.

EDIT: From the original Fox "News" link:


I agree with that. The stuff you linked to above makes it sound like he's your run-of-the-mill democratic candidate.

Mohammed Khatami oversaw torture and the murder of dissidents

Highlights of important crises (related to his domestic reform plans) during his presidency include:

* The serial murders of Iranian political dissidents by rogue elements in the Intelligence Ministry.

Refusing to hand over the Iranian intelligence officials who were responsible for the attack on the Khobar Towers that killed 19 U.S. military personnel.

In their [the Saudi's] only bungled attempt to support the FBI, a letter from the president intended for Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, asking for "help" on the Khobar case, was sent to the Omanis, who had direct access to Mr. Khatami. This was done without advising either the FBI or the Saudis who were exposed in the letter as providing help to the Americans. We only found out about the letter because it was misdelivered to the Spiritual Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who then publicly denounced the U.S.

— Describing the terrorist group Hezbollah, involved in the recent Israel-Lebanon border war, as a "shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world."

I'm going to ask you not to make snide remarks like this to me again, or I'm going straight to the mods.

Assuming the mods haven't already read my post and decided my remarks were not "snide".

And Iran continued to fund Hezbollah during Khatami's reign. If that's not full-fledged support, I don't know what it.

Assuming the mods haven't already read my post and decided my remarks were not "snide".

I know it's fun to imagine you're that much smarter than the governor of a US State, but sometimes that's not entirely true.

To answer your question Sree, Campus security and Cambridge Police usually handle VIPs at Harvard and MIT.

Then that's what should happen in this case.

Now for my two cents, even if this guy isn't a hate-monger, Romney may still be in the right. Khatami is going to have a ton of security, provided at our expense, by the feds.
Does the state of Massachusetts provide beefed up security for all guest speakers at Harvard? If yes, then I think that Romney's wrong here. If not, then I don't see why he should bend over backwards and break with what's been standard.
Either way, you'd think the Iranians would take care of Khatami. I know we'd never send someone into Iran without a crap load of security (and/or a platoon of Marines).

During the period of time he was in office, from 1997 to 2005, Khatami presided over Iran’s secret nuclear program.

On August 14, 2002, Alireza Jafarzadeh, a prominent Iranian dissident, revealed the existence of two unknown nuclear sites, a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz (part of which is underground) and a heavy water facility in Arak.

Though it is often claimed that Iran had "concealed" its enrichment programme from the IAEA "in violation of the NPT" until it was "caught cheating" in 2002, the fact is that Iran was not obliged to inform the Agency about those facilities at the time since according to Iran's safeguards agreement with the IAEA in force at the time, "Iran is not required to allow IAEA inspections of a new nuclear facility until six months before nuclear material is introduced into it." In fact, it was not even required to inform the IAEA of their existence until then, a point conceded by Britain at the March 2003 Board of Governors meeting. This `six months' clause was a standard part of all IAEA safeguards agreements. Nonetheless, Iran allowed intrusive inspections of the facilities by the IAEA pursuant to the Additional Protocol, and the IAEA concluded that the facilities were not related to any secret nuclear weapons programme.(Iran and the invention of a nuclear crisis by Siddharth Varadarajan, http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/09/21/st ... 231000.htm)

On November 14, 2004, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator announced a voluntary and temporary suspension of its uranium enrichment programme (enrichment is not a violation of the NPT) after pressure from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany acting on behalf of the European Union (EU) (known in this context as the EU-3). The measure was said at the time to be a confidence-building measure, to continue for some reasonable period of time, six months being mentioned as a reference. On November 24, Iran sought to amend the terms of its agreement with the EU to exclude a handful of the equipment from this deal for research work. This request was dropped four days later.

Currently, the Iranian Government under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is snubbing the international community’s request to cease nuclear weapons production.

In the recent conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border, Khatami described the terrorist group Hezbollah as a “shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world.”

Khatami has endorsed Ahmadinejad’s call for the annihilation of Israel.

During Khatami’s presidency, Iran refused to hand over the Iranian intelligence officials who were responsible for the attack on the Khobar Towers that killed 19 U.S. military personnel. In his own country, Khatami oversaw the torture and murder of Iranian students, journalists, and others who spoke out for freedom and democracy.

Khatami relaxed freedom of speech laws giving democracy reformers a false sense of security only to engage in one of the largest crackdowns in the country’s history.

In Khatami’s Iran, there was no religious tolerance. According to the U.S. Office of International Religious Freedom, Iran was one of the worst offenders of religious persecutions. Minorities, such as Evangelicals, Jews, Catholics and others, have suffered.

The central feature of the country’s Islamic republican system is rule by a "religious jurisconsult." The Supreme Leader of Islamic Republic controls the most important levers of power; he is chosen by a group of 83 religious scholars. All acts of the Majles (legislative body) must be reviewed for conformity with Islamic law and principles by the Council of Guardians, which is composed of six clerics appointed by the Supreme Leader and six Muslim jurists (legal scholars) nominated by the Head of the Judiciary and elected by parliament.

If Romney is trying to get the enviromental vote this isn't going to help.

Environmental vote? He's not counting on that, he's republican.

If you are smart, you play on both sides of the street.

It worked for Joe Lieberman.


Oh wait....

It worked for Clinton.

Romney's candidacy interests me. If he wins the GOP nomination, what will that mean for the party's traditional ties to evangelical Christianity? This thread has largely made light of the differences between Romney's faith and that of "mainstream" American Christianity, but in reality the gap is substantial.

A letter written by a group called Evangelicals For Mitt.

Looks like he has at least some support from this kind of people.

Yeah, but I guarantee that if Mitt runs he will find out how much hatred there still is in this country towards Mormons. Especially in the South where the LDS is viewed as heretical.

A letter written by a group called Evangelicals For Mitt.

Looks like he has at least some support from this kind of people.

A sideissue, but why is there nothing in this letter about his position on health care, schools, social equality, adequate taxation or foreign policy? Are these issues not a concern for these people? Or do they expect other people to worry about that stuff for them?