Stone links Bush and Iran’s leader

Rebuffed in his quest to make a documentary film about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, director Oliver Stone shot back with his own criticism, likening the Iranian head of state to his arch-nemesis, George W. Bush.

Hollywood maverick Stone had requested access to Ahmadinejad to make a movie about the controversial leader. But an advisor to the president told media in recent days that despite Stone’s reputation as a critic of U.S. policy, he was still an American and part of the “Great Satan.”

“I’ve been called a lot of things, but never a ‘Great Satan,’ ” Stone said in a statement issued late Monday. “I wish the Iranian people well and I only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours,” he said.

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Borzou Daragahi