Iranian leader brings hostility

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in New York today enveloped in controversy, mostly of his own making.

His request to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site was denied and condemned by Sept. 11 family members and politicians.

Protests against his Columbia University appearance are planned at the university and more are expected at the United Nations by demonstrators angry at his questioning of the Holocaust and declarations that Israel will cease to exist.

And, a day before flying to New York to speak directly to the American people, Ahmadinejad struck a confrontational tone Saturday with a parade of fighter jets and missiles and tough warnings for the United States to stay out of the Mideast.

Some of the missile trucks were painted with the slogans "Down with the U.S." and "Down with Israel." The parade also featured unmanned aerial surveillance drones, torpedoes, and tanks.

Adding to those strains, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani demanded the immediate release of an Iranian official detained Thursday by U.S. forces in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

The U.S. military said the unidentified Iranian was a member of the Quds force -- an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards accused of arming and training Shiite militias in Iraq.

Five Iranians said to be linked to the Quds force were arrested in the Kurdish city of Irbil and remain in U.S. custody.