Stephen’s post on Ahmadinejad’s desire to tour Ground Zero prompted me to search the NY Times archives, now free to all, to find this gem on how people like the President of Iran should be treated by the City of New York:

President Fidel Castro has gone back to Cuba after his clamorous trip to New York City, but Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani seized one more opportunity yesterday to denounce him and wrap himself in the spirited adulation of Mr. Castro’s critics in exile. About 250 Cuban-Americans, joined by other Hispanic supporters, poured into City Hall to praise Mr. Giuliani for his pointed criticisms of Mr. Castro, who was visiting last week to take part in festivities for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. “Mayor Giuliani for President!” one woman shouted as the Mayor appeared before a clapping, chanting, flag-wagging crowd packed into the old Board of Estimate Chamber. The Mayor, who was sharply rebuked by Clinton Administration officials and others for ejecting Yasir Arafat from a celebratory concert at Lincoln Center Monday night, received only praise for his snubbing of Mr. Castro — who, Mr. Giuliani repeated whenever he could, was unwelcome at any of the city’s events for the United Nations celebration. A beaming Mr. Giuliani, who received strong support from the city’s significant bloc of conservative Hispanic voters in the last election, yesterday received a Cuban flag, a statue of the Virgin Mary and an invitation to the annual dinner of the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami on Nov. 18. (He has not yet accepted.) “Your statement of support for the cause of free and democratic Cuba and your denunciation of Castro for what he is, a murdering dictator, sent a clear message throughout the world that the Cuban people are not abandoned in their struggle,” said Remberto J. Perez, reading a letter of praise from the foundation’s directors at a separate news conference in the Blue Room at City Hall. Mr. Giuliani, embracing the mayoral tradition of having a foreign policy for the City of New York, said that the United States “should, whenever it can, be on the side of freedom and democracy and should always be willing to make that point.”