The headline “Bush Invites Iranian President to New York” that appeared recently on one Web site after President Bush announced that it’s likely Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be allowed into America to address the United Nations will dishearten Akbar Ganji and other freedom fighters in Iran.

The president told reporters: “We have an agreement with the United Nations to allow people to come to meet and I suspect he will be there to meet at the United Nations.” As long as Mr. Bush accepts the existence of the United Nations filled with repressive states, and accepts the existence of such a United Nations on American soil – which he does – he has little choice but to allow the leader of a repressive terrorist-sponsoring state into America.

That doesn’t mean New York has to welcome him as well. Mayor Giuliani famously kicked Arafat out of a concert at Lincoln Center celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations because he didn’t want an unrepentant terrorist enjoying his city. Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership will be judged against that standard. If he can write to restaurants telling them how to make French fries, he can certainly write to hotels, restaurants, and cafes, letting them know to be on the lookout for this thug and to post “terrorists not welcome” signs and asking them to call Commissioner Kelly if the Iranian shows up. It would be an appropriate greeting for the mullah’s representative – forcing him to sleep on the couches at Turtle Bay. That would lift the spirits of Iran’s freedom fighters.

Note to Commissioner Kelly: When Theodore Roosevelt was police commissioner and he was forced by diplomatic protocol to provide security for the German anti-Semite Hermann Ahlwardt, visiting the city, Roosevelt assigned the bigot an all-Jewish security detail. Just to make a point – one that would be worth remaking should New York’s finest be asked to pitch in on security for the bigot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.