SHONDEH: American University Presidents Visit Iran

h/t Omri

10/23/2008 AAU LEADERS PLAN VISIT TO IRANIAN UNIVERSITIES

Six presidents of U.S. research universities will visit Iranian universities in November on a trip organized by the Association of American Universities (AAU).

AAU President Robert M. Berdahl, who will accompany the delegation, said the trip is in response to an invitation by the president of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, which will host the visit. The group will visit Tehran University and several other Iranian universities, as well.

The visit complements a series of exchange visits by U.S. scientists to Iran under the sponsorship of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Under the National Academies’ program, Iranian scientists and engineers have also visited U.S. universities and participated in meetings structured around specific topics of mutual scientific interest.

The university presidents traveling to Iran are

• Jared Cohon, Carnegie Mellon University;
• David Leebron, Rice University;
• J. Bernard Machen, University of Florida;
• C. D. Mote, Jr., University of Maryland, College Park;
• David Skorton, Cornell University; and
• Larry Vanderhoef, University of California, Davis.

A number of the presidents were asked to join the trip because they or their institutions have been involved in previous scientific and other exchanges with Iran.

The Lounsbery Foundation, which also has provided assistance for the National Academies’ scientific exchanges, will pay most of the group’s travel expenses.

In addition to meetings with academic leaders and with other higher education officials, the group will meet with faculty in engineering and science. At Sharif University, Iran’s premier science and technology university, they will hold an open forum with students.

“Prior to the Iranian revolution in 1979, a very high percentage of the faculty at Iranian universities was educated in the United States; since that time, and especially since 9/11, that number has declined dramatically,” said Berdahl. “We believe it is important to maintain and renew academic ties between our two countries as a means of laying the groundwork for greater understanding and rebuilding what was once a very healthy collaboration in science and higher education.”

What's not to understand ?

FURTHER SHONDEH:

Regarding the visit to Iran, Mote said he has received mainly positive feedback, including a letter of support from Abe Foxman, the president of the Anti-Defamation League.

So, you might well be wondering, what's the ADL up to these days anyway?

Washington, DC, November 24, 2008 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today joined with a coalition of seven national civil rights organizations to denounce the recent wave of hate crimes against Hispanics and other minorities, including the brutal murder of Marcelo Lucero, a Suffolk County, Long Island man of Ecuadoran descent.

We can only only imagine how many Liberal American Jewish dollars it took to come up with this full report:

Immigrants Targeted

.... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which previously has documented how extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis have exploited the immigration issue to advance their own agenda, has become increasingly concerned about the virulent anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric employed by a handful of groups and coalitions that have positioned themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America.

I hope you're getting the message here. While innocent young Jews are being hunted down to the ends of the earth -like, say, apartments in Mumbai India- to be killed by murderous jihadniks, and the incoming American president assembles an anti-Israel, pro-engagement-with-Iran foreign policy "team" -- your friendly neighborhood ADL is worried about Latinos living illegally in America.

No illusions allowed: We are hated and unprotected. We are bereft of leadership. No one gives a damn.

Comments

[scp]

"'. . . since that time, and especially since 9/11, that number has declined dramatically,' said Berdahl. 'We believe it is important to maintain and renew academic ties between our two countries as a means of laying the groundwork for greater understanding and rebuilding what was once a very healthy collaboration in science and higher education . . .'" Oh dear God how stupid can these people be?? . . . assuming that it is actually stupidity, and not sedition.

[scp]

". . . The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which previously has documented how extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis have exploited . . ." Yeah, all 72 of them. But let's just assume that the quote-unquote "ADL" is not engaged in sedition anyway.