Romney radio ad targets Ahmadinejad visit

Mitt Romney continues to make political hay out of the visit to New York by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, now airing a radio ad highlighting Romney's long record of opposing visits by Iranian leaders to the United States.

"On the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Harvard University invited former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Boston," says the announcer in the ad, which begins running in Iowa and South Carolina today, and then in Florida later this week.

"The same Mohammad Khatami who has supported the terrorist group Hezbollah, advocates destruction of Israel and stood by while Jews and Christians were persecuted. The Iranian wanted VIP treatment at taxpayer expense.

"But Governor Mitt Romney said, 'No.' Governor Romney called the invitation a 'disgrace' and refused to grant Khatami a police escort.

"Now another Iranian President is visiting America, coming to New York, and Governor Mitt Romney is leading the opposition."

Romney's press shop also announced today that Romney sent a letter to protesters at today's National Rally to End the Threat across the street from the United Nations, where Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly tomorrow.

"At Israel's Herzliya Conference in January, I called for the world's leaders to speak three truths: Iran's dangerous actions must be stopped, they can be stopped and they will be stopped," he wrote in the letter.

"If the principles of the UN's founders and the harsh lessons from past genocide have any meaning, our leaders must act now to confront the Iranian regime's terrorist, genocidal and nuclear ambitions. Failure to act now would diminish the legacy of those who fought and died in World War II and of all victims of genocide and terror."

A story by Sasha Issenberg in today's Globe shows how the presidential candidates in both parties are using Ahmadinejad's visit as a "test case for their differing approaches to dealing with hostile nations."