State security for the former Iranian president?
By adamg - 9/6/06 - 8:38 am
Yes - Last thing we need is for him to get run over by a Masshole in Harvard Sq.
34% (25 votes)
No - Let him get run over by a Masshole in Harvard Sq.
62% (46 votes)
Dunno
4% (3 votes)
Total votes: 74
Comments
Romney's right, for once
I see no need to provide him any more or less security than any other speaker at the Kennedy School forum. He is no longer an elected official, and therefore is Nobody Special anymore.
Oy
This is just silly, people. Romney is grandstanding to make his presidential run.
The job of the police is to maintain public order, including the protection of people in danger. This includes to the protection of high-profile people, loved and hated, as well as low-profile despicable people. Heck, the Boston PD protected the group of neo-Nazis that staged a demonstration outside the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill this past January around MLK Day. (If you didn't hear about that, see http://worcester.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/2113.php .) It does not mean that the state supports theose being protected.
I'm no fan of Khatami, though frankly, I'd take him over Ahmedinijad in a minute, and I wonder to what extent he worked to reduce the evils of which Romney accuses him. (It's important to remember that Iran is not run directly by its head of state the way that the US is--ultimate power rests with religious authorities. I wonder if Romney knows that.)
And Ron, I honestly think that your comment--that he isn't a head of state and thus shouldn't get protection--is overly simplistic. Former heads of state often get protection. In the US, the Secret service guards former presidents, presidential candidates--lots of folks they consider possible targets for assassination. In this case, the State Department has now asked the Boston PD to protect Khatami, and they've agreed. I doubt that they did this because the Secretary of State likes him a lot, but because they saw a risk and didn't want an international incident.
As a representative of a
As a representative of a regime that sponsored the group that, before 9-11/Al Qaeda, was responsible for the most American deaths by terrorism, and the regime that supplies munitions used against Americans in Iraq; wouldn't it be a shame if something happened to him while he was over here?
It would be a shame
Let "something else" happen on another country's soil. We don't need to give the Islamists any more reasons to be pissed at the US or at Boston. Lynch had it right: get him in, get him out.