9/11 Words by Iran Leader Lead to U.S. Walkout at U.N.

U.S.: Ahmadinejad ‘delusional’ for citing those who believe U.S. was behind attacks

Video

U.S. walks out on Ahmadinejad speech (NBC Nightly News, Sept. 23, 2010) — At a U.N. meeting of world leaders Thursday, representatives from the United States and Britain walked out of the General Assembly chamber over remarks made by the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. NBC’s Brian Williams reports. (00:28)

Reuters and The Associated Press via MSNBC.com
September 23, 2010

UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. and several European delegations walked out of the U.N. speech of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday after he said most people believe the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks in order to assure Israel’s survival.

In his speech to the annual General Assembly, Ahmadinejad said it was mostly U.S. government officials who believed a terrorist group was behind the suicide hijacking attacks that brought down New York’s World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon.

Another theory, he said, was “that some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime” — his way of characterizing Israel.

“The majority of the American people as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view,” Ahmadinejad told the 192-nation assembly.

The U.S. and some European delegations left shortly after Ahmadinejad made the remarks.

The U.S. delegation issued this statement in response: “Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people, Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable.”

Full story

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10/3/10 Update

Ahmadinejad Calls for U.S. Leaders to be ‘Buried’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, waves to the media after he awarded Iran’s highest national medal to his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad, in a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010. (Photo credit: Vahid Salemi / AP)

By Ali Akbar Dareini

October 3, 2010

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president Sunday called for U.S. leaders to be “buried” in response to what he says are American threats of military attack against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is known for brash rhetoric in addressing the West, but in a speech Sunday he went a step further using a deeply offensive insult in response to U.S. statements that the military option against Iran is still on the table.

“May the undertaker bury you, your table and your body, which has soiled the world,” he said using language in Iran reserved for hated enemies. …

Ahmadinejad’s remarks come in sharp contrast to ones he made to Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel in August in which he offered the U.S. Iran’s friendship.

In Sunday’s speech, Ahmadinejad also questioned once more who was behind the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. and said they gave Washington a pretext for seeking to dominate the region and plunder its oil wealth. …

Ahmadinejad often resorts to provocative statements to lash out enemies. He has already compared the power of Iran’s enemies to a “mosquito,” saying Iran deals with the West over its nuclear activities from a position of power and he has likened the United States to a “farm animal trapped in a quagmire” in Afghanistan. …

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The Personality Profile of Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D.
Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics
June 2009

Video profile

Mystical populist (NBC News Web Extra) — Watch an in-depth profile of the Iranian president: firebrand, soccer fan, and true believer in Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution. Produced by Baruch Ben-Chorin. (11:01)

Abstract

A remote psychological assessment of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was conducted from 2005 to 2009, mining open-source data in the public domain. Information concerning Ahmadinejad was collected from media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Ahmadinejad’s primary personality patterns were found to be Distrusting/suspicious (paranoid) and Ambitious/exploitative (narcissistic), with secondary Dominant/controlling (sadistic) and Dauntless/dissenting (antisocial) patterns. In addition, the personality profile contained subsidiary Aggrieved/unpresuming and Contentious/resolute features.

The amalgam of Distrusting (paranoid) and Ambitious (narcissistic) patterns in Ahmadinejad’s profile suggests the presence of a syndrome that Theodore Millon has labeled the fanatical paranoid — a personality composite that overlaps substantially with the construct of “malignant narcissism” described in modern reformulations of psychoanalytic theory.

Characteristically, these personalities harbor intricate fantasies, make extravagant claims, fabricate stories to enhance their self-worth, and endow themselves with illusory powers. In their own minds, they are inspired leaders, talented geniuses, holy saints, or demigods, perceiving themselves as righteous saviors standing up to the evils of the universe. Behaviorally, these personalities present as smug, arrogant and expansive, with an air of contempt toward others. In the face if adversity, delusions of grandeur constitute their chief coping mechanism.

The major political implication of the study is the inference that Ahmadinejad is relatively impervious to influence by diplomatic or economic means and not conflict averse, which heightens the risk that he would be psychologically inclined to use military force with minimal provocation to counter perceived threats to regime survival.

Appendix: Paranoid Personality Subtypes

Technical References

Immelman, A. (1999). Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria manual (2nd ed.). Unpublished manuscript, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn.

Immelman, A. (2003). Personality in political psychology. In I. B. Weiner (Series Ed.), T. Millon & M. J. Lerner (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of Psychology: Vol. 5. Personality and Social Psychology (pp. 599-625). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Immelman, A. (2005). Political psychology and personality. In S. Strack (Ed.), Handbook of Personology and Psychopathology (pp. 198-225). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Immelman, A., & Steinberg, B. S. (Compilers) (1999). Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (2nd ed.). Unpublished research scale, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn.

Millon, T. (with Davis, R. D.). (1996). Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV and Beyond (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Millon, T., & Davis, R. D. (2000). Personality Disorders in Modern Life. New York: Wiley.

(Note: Originally published on this site June 11, 2009)

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Other studies in political paranoia on this site

The Real Trouble with Michele Bachmann (July 21, 2010)

Newscom/ZumaWire

Robert Mugabe Personality Profile (Dec. 19, 2008)

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Other psychological profiles on this site

Kim Jong-Il Personality Profile (May 31, 2009)

Ayman al-Zawahiri Personality Profile (June 3, 2009)

Osama bin Laden Personality Profile (Dec. 6, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — September 23, 2009

Chuck Hagel Speaks in Minnesota

Sen. Chuck Hagel and Aubrey Immelman

One year ago today, I reported that former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Distinguished Professor in the Practice of National Governance at Georgetown University, would deliver the Third Annual Eugene McCarthy Lecture on September 23, 2009 at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — September 23, 2008

After the Primary Election: Day 14

Two years ago today, on the 14th day after losing my 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in line with my focus on national security, I reported on security incidents and U.S. military deaths in Iraq, a bombing in Afghanistan, and violence in Pakistan.

An Iraqi mother weeps over the body of her dead 3-year-old daughter outside the morgue in the city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on Sept. 22, 2008. (Photo credit: Stringer / AFP / Getty Images)