国际英语新闻：Iranian president defends 9/11 remarks

"They say they want to use a carrot-and-stick policy," he said. "They admit they want to use a stick on us. It's an insult, a backward and retarded phrase."

But after taking his last question, Ahmadinejad launched into a little farewell to reporters saying how much he respected them and their quest for the truth but understood how their efforts could be thwarted by editors, especially those of "corporate media" and declared U.S. media no longer had credibility in the world.

That was at the end of his elaborately staged press encounter Friday and a hectic round of interviews he gave to both domestic and international media while in New York the last few days.