Denying the truth

Making any diplomatic progress with Iran seems impossible so long as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is president and therefore chief spokesman for Tehran's government.

His denial that the Holocaust ever happened is well known. Now he calls the Sept. 11 attacks a fabrication, a convenient excuse for the United States to begin its war on terror.

Speaking to Iran's Intelligence Ministry staff members Saturday, he said: "September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan." Iranian state TV quoted him as saying the attacks were really a "complicated intelligence scenario and act."

When he traveled to New York in 2007 for a U.N. meeting, he said that the causes and conditions that led to the 9-11 attacks need further study. He blamed the target, the United States for "mismanaging and inhumane managing of the world."

Now he questions whether the attacks really happened and disputes the death toll of about 3,000. The Iranian leader claims the United States never published the victims' names — all untrue. On the 2007 anniversary, the Associated Press points out, the names of 2,750 victims killed in New York were read aloud at a memorial service.

How can the leaders of other countries deal with a man who denies well-recorded events even happened?