IN THE NAME OF RELIGION

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was interviewed this week by 60 minute reporter, Scott Pelly. To say that it introduced a deeper decline in objective journalism would be an understatement and it was dissapointing to me to witness this level of subjectivity on the part of 60 minutes, a source I still respected until tonight. Mr. Pelly told the Iranian president that he (Ahmadinejad) owed American president George W. Bush for having killed Saddam Hussein and accused Ahmadinejad of having American blood on his hands for recently helping in the supply of weapons to Iraq.

Mr. Pelly? Are we speaking about the same president? The one who went to war with Iraq over oil and in the process spilled the blood of his own people, young American boys and girls who naively and faithfully fought in the name of 9/11 victims, both countries armed with American weapons?

I do not mean by these words to proclaim Ahmadinejad's innocence, and certainly not Saddam's, but to imply Bush's hands are not bloodied by too many deaths is painfully absurd. My incensement is directed at those trusted at seeking the truth, to report facts and letting the people determine their significance. This reporter was so slanted by his own beliefs as to have the Iranian president ask him if he was an American politician, or a reporter?

"Tell me one thing you admire about president Bush," continued Scott Pelly.

Taken off guard, Ahmadinejad responded with a quizzical look, a pause...

"Don't you admire anything about president Bush?"

I truly felt for the man sitting across from this reporter. Can any intelligent American be so blind to the world's view of his country's crimes?

His hesitation dissipated, Ahmadinejad simply returned the question to the American, asking: "What trait do you admire about your president?"

Pelly: "Well...He's a religious man."

Interview archived at: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3290029n