Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a jackass (UPDATED)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be in Havana this week for the Club Dictator love-in, but don't be surprised if he makes a sidetrip to the Cuban Interior Ministry to trade notes on how to repress a free press.

Ahmadinejad earned some bones as a press censor this week when his government shut down four publications, including a major reformist newspaper caled Shargh.

Among the newspaper's apparent transgressions, according to state-run television, was the publication of a cartoon "depicting a donkey with a halo around its head, braying at a puzzled looking knight on a chessboard," according to one account.

The story further explains:

The reference was unmistakably to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's brag that he was surrounded by a halo as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly last year.

Few were surprised by Monday's ban on Iran's leading reformist newspaper Shargh (East), which has for some time been boldly voicing dissatisfaction with the outcome of last year's elections that brought President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Ahmadinejad's tenure has marked a turning point in press freedom, described by the Society to Defend Freedom of Press as "one of the darkest periods in Iranian history of journalism," in a statement released last week.

It sure takes some moxy to be offended by a cartoon when you sponsored something like this.

Maybe Ahmadinejad just is bucking to keep his spot on this ignominious list — Predators of Press Freedom.

Hell, maybe he and some of his cohorts can get together for a group picture this week in Havana.

UPDATED, 8:19 a.m., Sept. 14, 2006

Apparently, Ahmadinejad thinks a renewed "dialogue" can resolve differences with the West over Iran's nuclear program.

Malkin offers a way Ahmadinejad can show good faith: Reopen Shargh.