I see Ahmadinejad is at it again, this time engaging in Holocaust denial. I think that the comment (like Ahmadinejad's own lunacy) is so self-apparently vile that I'm not going to spend much time denouncing this Hitler wannabe's latest forays into the obscene, but I do think that it's important to remember something.

Ahmadinejad's insanity aside, it is important to remember that he is not the real power in Iran. He may be the president and has a lot of power and publicity, but he still has to answer to the people who matter in the Supreme National Security Council, the Expediency Council, the Council of Guardians, and so on. Most of the people in these positions are the exact same people who were in power under the "moderate" Khatami presidency. So while Ahmadinejad is certainly doing a wonderful job of exposing the nuttier trappings of the Islamic Republic to the rest of the world (and doing wonders for US diplomacy in doing so), I don't think that there is any reason to be particularly surprised that his type of sentiments should be held by a senior Iranian official. They've always been there, especially amongst the IRGC hardliners that Ahmadinejad embodies, they're just being a lot more public about it now.