View source for Ahmadinegate

'''Ahmadinegate''' (also known as '''Speakergate 2012''') refers to a general kerfuffle surrounding everyone's favorite campus character, [[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]], and everyone's favorite student group, the [[Columbia University College Republicans]] in [[2012]].

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the current President of Iran. Invitations for him to speak at the university during the annual autumn [[World Leaders Forum]] ignited controversy (and possibly the [[Lisa Anderson|resignation of a dean]]) in both [[2006]] and [[2007]]; a private dinner invitation the president extended to [[CIRCA]] renewed the uproar in [[2011]]. Ahmadinejad once again was the center of the campus dialogue as a conspiracy within the Columbia University College Republicans (CUCR) drew in both [[Bwog]] and ''[[Spectator]]''. This event ended in the resignation of both the conspirators, William Prasifka CC ’12, President, and David Pazko CC ’12, Director of Finance, from the CUCR Board. 

== The Events ==
=== Spectator Breaks the News, Bwog Challenges ===
On [[February 26]], [[2012]] Spectator Senior Staff Writer Yasmin Gagne, after two weeks of research, published an article titled ''CUCR members plan to invite Ahmadinejad to campus'' based on - what turned out to be unendorsed the the whole CUCR board  - a CUCR Draft invitation to Ahmadinejad<ref>http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/02/26/college-republicans-look-invite-ahmadinejad-campus</ref>. Bwog, also receiving the same documents but assuming they where false, published an article challenging Spectator and publishing the raw draft sent to Bwog<ref>http://bwog.com/2012/02/27/ahmadinejad-not-invited-to-campus-bwog-confirms/</ref>. Bwog commenters quickly started accusing the Spec of wrong doing due to the improbable nature of the tip.  Then everyone from CUCR started to deny that it was happening (partly because it wasn't actually happening).<ref>http://bwog.com/2012/02/28/former-cucr-president-casts-even-more-doubt-on-ahmadinejad-invitation/</ref>

=== CUCR Sorts it Out, Everyone Apologizes ===
On March 1, Bwog published a story helping to clarify the situation, claiming that Prasifka and Pazko had made the whole thing up, and "leaked" it to Spectator.<ref>http://bwog.com/2012/03/01/we-know-what-cucr-did-last-week/</ref>.  Bwog apologized to Spec and announced that Prasifka and Pazko had stepped down at the request of the CUCR board.<ref>http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/03/01/two-cucr-board-members-resign-after-circumventing-board</ref>

== External Links ==
*[http://bwog.com/2012/03/01/we-know-what-cucr-did-last-week/ A nice summary of events from Bwog]

== References ==
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[[Category:Scandals]]