Current Events

"War is hell,"

So is living under the Islamic Republic for most Iranians. Something you rarely care to mention, Iraj Khan.

"War is hell,"

so said the U.S. Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta regarding the massacre of villagers by an American soldier in Afghanistan: 

"War is hell, these kind of events and incidents are going to take place. They've taken place in any war. They're terrible events. This is not the first of those events, and they probably won't be the last."

//news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/panetta-afghanistan-massacre-war-hell-suspect-could-face-155428165.html

Also, a new poll regarding U.S. and Iran was published today:

"Three of Four American Oppose Israeli Strike on Iran"

//www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-13/three-of-four-american-oppose-israeli-strike-on-iran

Sustained saturation and making it costly for IR to imprison, or

execute anyone in Iran.

Both of these 'concepts" are fairly simple and self-explanatory.

Sustained saturation, simply means that we use every venue available tous to raise the issue of political prisoners in Iran. From commerical non-political venues like this one here, to all community based organizations , to ....

Making imprisonment costly for IR depends on how much attention they see is getting paid to these matters, and believe it or not there has been many instances in case of labor activists, and others that due to the interantional pressure IR has had to give in. 

At the cost of sounding like a broken record (and this is the last time I'm going to mention this to you today) NIAC could and should do a heck of a lot more than it is currently doing. Cheers 

OK Siamak - how to be effective in protecting Iranian Prisoners?

OK, Siamak.  Now, let me tell you how I think the Iranian prisoners should be protected:

1. Get rid of the IRI.

But, short of #1, here are a couple you may want to think about.

2. Daily focus on ALL prisoners in Iran, NOT one at a time and then move on to the next ones.  Shadi Sadr has said that the focus should especially be on the ones who are the forgotten ones, without lawyers to represent them, since the wrath of the IRI comes down hard on these prisoners.  Further, as long as the IRI knows that there are groups/voices out there that have an eye on these (ALL) prisoners, less chance to abuse.  You may have noticed that the incidences of mass executions without notice have increased in Mash'had, Kermanshah and other cities where there is less focus.

3. Documentation of prison abuses and unjust sentences in centers like

or in Shadi Sadr, the Boroumand sisters or Shirin Ebadi's organizations.  Folks have noted that the torturers or other officials put on hoods now in order not to be recognized and recorded in these centers.

4. ? you can add your own here,

but please do not ask me about something with pre-designated answers. Not IC nor NIAC nor other organizations are effective in protecting prisoners in Iran.  All we can do is, TOGETHER, to document and scream bloody murder everyday to raise awareness.

MM jan the result is already in:

One venue (the commercial, non-political one) has a daily focus, and the other ("political" one) does not. You do the math.

Mehrdad jaan, though appearences could be misleading, rest assure I have daily input on that column.

As immodest as it might sound, after three decades of working for political prisoners in Iran, it becomes very facile to determine who's doing real work, and who's just pretending. IC is, NIAC isn't.

P.S. The bulk of support work for political prisoners in Iran in the past three decades has been done, by former Iranian political prisoners themselves,  most of them based in Europe, Canada, and Australia.

Parsi

Siamak: Regarding "Prisoners of the day"...

As passionately as you write, one would hope you will join and support this “Prisoner of the day” that you seemingly care so much.

  Additionally, you could write to NIAC or your favorite group to encourage more exposure about the political prisoners in US and elsewhere, unless of course you believe criticizing alone and fence sitting is a better way to accomplish such exposures.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad

Siamak

I gave my comparison without saying which one was better or worse.  Now, give me concrete examples and with results. 

Of course, I did mention "prisoner of the day" blog and the lack of interest here on IC on such matters, based on the # of comments/visits to the blogs.

Further, if you think IC is doing a good job, then just ask other organizations to join hands instead of calling them names.

Dr Ala,

The naysayers are hard at work to shout down Mr Parsi's message of 'Diplomacy Not War' with Iran.

The naysayers can't accept this simple fact:

You can't quiet down voices for peace, be it here in the United States, Iran, Israel or on IC.

Just imagine, Mr Parsi has been invited to Jon Stewart's show twice to speak his mind. On the subject of 'war or peace with Iran' he is representing the %97 Iranian Americans who agree with his position on this subject. 

It tells me the Jewish American Jon Stewart aslo, wants to hear and promote voices who speak of resolving the present dire situation diplomatically. 

More than 37 U.S. congressmen/women have signed a letter to president Obama to choose negotiations with Iran over war. 

//www.niacouncil.org/site/DocServer/Ellison-Jones_Iran_Letter__Final_.pdf?docID=1321&JServSessionIdr004=vmuq7aafz2.app332b 

MM, IC does more for political prisoners in Iran, than NIAC

has ever done in its existence. That's a simple conclusion anyone with knowledge of both venues will reach.

Question one could ask is: How is it that a commercial website, that has only  in the past few months begun to have a daily column on political prisoners in Iran, does so much more than an entire 'national' political organization with so many claims of representing this and that.

The answer is simple too: a daily focus.

IC has a daily focus on political prisoners,

NIAC has never had, doesn't have, and will never have such a daily focus on political prisoners in Iran, because its real focus and mission is simply something compeletly different: lobbying for the Oil mafia in its dealing with IR.

You could fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.

P.S. There are more than just two regulars @ Prisoner of the Day.

NIAC (קַיִן) spelled backward is CAIN!

".....In the Bible, Cain and Abel (Hebrew: הֶבֶל ,קַיִן‎‎ Qayin, Hevel)[1] are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur'an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam (Arabic: إبني آدم).

Cain is described as a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel as a shepherd. Genesis 4:2
Cain is portrayed as sinful, committing the first murder by killing his
brother, after God rejected his offerings of produce but accepted
Abel's sacrifice "from the firstborn of his flock and from their fats".Genesis 4:1,3 Thus, Cain was the first human born, and Abel the first to die...."

Let us see what you have done for Iran and Iranians.

NIAC bad, You and AIPAC good.

Almost 150 comments, mostly negative about NIAC.  NIAC is NOT about AIPAC as several members (bogus members) mentioned.  How can one compare an organization with 2-3 employees with AIPAC which has more than 200 full time employees?

There are members (again many bogus ones) who spend enormous amount of time here at IC criticizing or belittling NIAC or other known members.  If they spend a fraction of their time in creating their own organization(s) to do what they are preaching, they might be more effective. 

Trita Parsi has been attacked by calling him all sorts of names here ....  his looks, how he dresses, his nationality, and whether this is his real name.  JJ, Bahmani, and I have known him since 1996 when IC started. 

Doost daaram pas hastam, your questions are not hard to answer.  The hard part is that many IC members such as yourself have no decency and integrity to stand up for what they believe in.  For the reasons you and others are hiding, you are questioning “real” people?!  No wonder Iran has not changed and will not change unless its people become accountable, responsible, and have integrity. 

Trita Parsi split from IIC to start NIAC.  Compete against him rather than belittling him in every sentence.  There is a saying roughly translated… if a tree has no fruit, no one will throw stone at it.  So all these stones and profanity thrown at NIAC demonstrate that they are doing some things positive. 

To answer the critiques: NIAC does not have $400,000,000 budget that AIPAC has to be as effective.  How can few employees of NIAC do ALL the work that you expected them to do?

Keep track of your time at IC, with this time you should do what you expect others to do for you.  You will be surprised too.  Let us see what you have done for Iran and Iranians.

NIAC = IRI lobby promoting doing business with the regime

The founders of NIAC and its Rahbar-for-Life are Iranian-Americans. Their own documents show that the real purpose of the organization was to facilitate business with the IRI (which explains the presence of a number of people from Atieh Bahar, a Tehran-based consulting firm, in the organization). Moreover, its Rahbar-for-Life acted as a liaison between the IRI's former UN envoy and members of Congress. The Rahbar and his organization's official party line has been to espouse a Grand Bargain aka "engagement" with the IRI (translation: let's do business with the mullahs). 

Siamak

Comparing NIAC and IC are like comparing apples and oranges.  My answer was on your second comment, but here are the differences, in my opinion.  And, then you can tell me what IC has done.

1. NIAC is an Iranian-American organization whereas IC is more international. While IC is a mish-mash of all kinds of "stuff", NIAC is focused more on Iranian-American issues of interest.

2. While NIAC can go in and talk to the White House staff, the Capital Hill, etc, influencing the US government, we on the other hand, here on IC, all we do is pound on the podium and poo-poo the other Iranian organizations.  This is something that I have coined the IC pissing contest (your way is bad) and the IC spitting contest (my way is better).

3. One of the BEST things IC has done for the Iranian prisoners is the blog "Prisoner of the Day".  Unfortunately, the folks on IC don't give a $h!t, based on the # of comments and reads on the prisoner blogs and instead concentrate on their usual pissing and spitting contests.  The only two regular commentors on this daily glog are Roozbeh and Mehrdad, but others like me take note of the blog and spread them outside the confines of IC and post them in multiple other sites.

What we can do is to turn the "Prisoner of the Day" blog into an electronic writing campaign, but JJ is not interested in doing so, although he will sign if the campaign is posted here from the outside.  You can write NIAC to do something or ...... ???

HOWEVER, you cannot, in one hand, poo-poo NIAC as an agent of this and that and on the other hand, accuse NIAC of not doing enough for .....  Make up your mind. 

MM, I asked you for a simple comparison between IC and NIAC

and the amount of work these two distictly different entities do about Political Prisoners in Iran.

The former is a commercial site, with no pretensions of representing any one in particular, or being the spoksperson for any one group, yet it has a daily coverage of all Political Prisoners in Iran.

The latter while it claims to be a "leadership" body (without anyone electing them to that post) does some work on Political Prisoners as it see's fit,within their over all agenda: lobbying for Oil comapnies.

What's wrong with this picture?

P.S. We'v e been working on Iranian political prisoners with groups all over Europe and elsewhere for the past three decades. None of those self-elected "leaders" that you mention, deserve such a title since the only ones they represent are themselves and their ever shrinking supporters. Pretty much like NIAC itself. 

Khod goeiy o khod khandi, ajab shakhs honarmandi!

Nice Interview

Nice Interview 

Siamak

If you look into the NIAC site, there are plenty of bulletins, letters, conferences where the prisoners in Iran and/or human rights were focused on (as well as articles in newspapers).  See, e.g.,

NIAC and Amnesty International held a joint conference on Capitol Hill titled "Human Rights in Iran and U.S. Policy Options

Twice a year, NIAC holds a major policy conference on Capitol Hill to examine the most significant and timely issues facing the US and Iran.

2010: NIAC Conference Highlights Demand for Human Rights of Iranian People. 

2010: Congressional Testimony of Trita Parsi on Human Rights in Iran. 

NIAC Calls on Iranian Government to Respect Rights of Iranian People
NIAC Memo: We Must Not Ignore Human Rights in Iran
NIAC Condemns Iranian Executions
NIAC Urges Iranian Government to Abandon the Path of Violence and Oppression
NIAC Applauds Shift Toward Targeted Sanctions
Senate, UN Resolutions Condemn Rights Abuses in Iran
NIAC Strongly Condemns Violence against Iranian Protesters during Ashura
The Stand With the Iranian People Act
NIAC Lauds Introduction of Bills Helping the Iranian People
Obama Should End Silence on Human Rights Abuses in Iran
NIAC Joins Campaign to Make Neda Time Magazine's "Person of the Year"
NIAC Welcomes Senate Passage of Iran Human Rights Resolution
Human Rights and the Battle for Iran
NIAC Condemns Prison Sentence for Iranian American Scholar
NIAC Condemns Executions, Recent Human Rights Violations in Iran
NIAC Welcomes US-Iran Talks and the Inclusion of Human Rights
Iranian Scholars Urge US to Address Iran's Human Rights Violations
NIAC Urges for Human Rights to be Included in Diplomacy with Iran
Will the Focus at the UN Be on Ahmadinejad's Human Rights Abuses?
NIAC Condemns 'Show Trials' and Campaign of Repression in Iran
NIAC Calls for the Release of Kian Tajbakhsh, an End to Political Detentions and Abuse
NIAC calls on Iranian Government to end political detentions and violence against protesters
NIAC Welcomes Obama's Strong Condemnation of Violence by Iran's Government

NIAC condemns post-election violence 
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etc. 

NIAC supports democracy in Iran, with an emphasis on the implementation of human rights as the first step towards whatever the Iranian people choose as the form of government.

For more on human rights and prisoners, see the NIAC site and search like I did. 

Again, I do not claim that NIAC covers all the prisoners or that is their sole mission, but if you want them to focus on any particular ones, please write and get an answer.

Further, there are other "leaders' of the community in the US as well, Mr. Pahlavi to name one.  The other "leader" where you got your references from, Hassan Dai, also claim to be one. Have you asked Hassan Dai / MEK or the Monarchists, etc. to do similarly?

If you do not like any of these leaders, please form an advocacy group of your own regarding the Iranian-American affairs and I may choose to support you as well.

Thank you.

Do our political prisoners in Iran,also deserve advocacy as well

What is this dichotomy between being anti-intervention, and advocating for human rights in Iran?

The reason why,

advocating for diplomacy and not war

as it was reported today:

"Western forces shot dead 16 civilians including nine children in southern Kandahar province on Sunday, Afghan officials said, in a rampage that witnesses said was carried out by American soldiers who were laughing and appeared drunk.

One Afghan father who said his children were killed in the shooting spree accused soldiers of later burning the bodies.

Witnesses told Reuters they saw a group of U.S. soldiers arrive at their village in Kandahar's Panjwayi district at around 2 am, enter homes and open fire." //www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/us-afghanistan-civilians-idUSBRE82A02V20120311 

On the self appointed "community" leaders in the US

Once you think about the origins, and the real motivations behind NIAC it really borders on the absurd, how they have inserted themselves as the "leaders" or the "spokespersons" of "Iranian-American" community!!!

For one, no one has elected them to such position.

Two, their main occupation, besides lobbying for Oil companies, seems to be "anti-intervention".

Three, Human Rights in Iran, (the burning issue of the day, as we all witness the daily injustices in Iran)  is practically held as a fig leaf, to dismiss any criticism of one-sidedness on part of NIAC.

Could anyone have a "leadership" body as compromised and as corrupt as this? Probably not.

I haven't read this whole discussion, but...

I did read Framarz's "NIACie" profile and, even though he might be generalizing somewhat, as generalizations go it's pretty much spot on.

Unquestionably there is an internal conflict in the minds of many Iranians who live outside Iran, particularly in the US and Europe, in that although they dislike the Mollahs, they despise the West/US and Israel even more.

This internal conflict manifests itself in the inevitable contradictory behaviour of these folks, often with them ending up defending the Islamic Republic just so that they can condemn and bash the West/US and Israel.

And what exacerbates this internal conflict and contradictory (bordering on hypocritical) behaviour is the inescapable fact that almost all of such people have CHOSEN to live in the West, and enjoy the freedom, opportunities and the standard of living of the countries that they hold in such ideological contempt.

(disclaimer: I'm not suggesting ALL NIAC supporters are like that.)

Faramarz ...that was entertaining...

Where do you get these stuff from?  Is it a traditional dance these people do? They were serious but it was really funny ...  

I am wondering who the guy with the stick was ? Circling and flogging?  Ayatollah Admin ,Perhaps  ....  lol

Soosan Khanoom

Here is a video of me, uncle G.R. and the rest of the anti-NIACies practicing to dance at your wedding party!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Wij-bmjJg&feature...

Sorry Faramarz - but as a profiler, you suck worse than vaccum!

I was called in by my American wife for dinner - wrong

I have the highest degree in my field - right

Nothing to do with Rahbar and his nocheh(s) - right

Busch - no thanks, but unfortunately he was a better choice than the 3-faced Bore. 

Ahmadinejad, Khatami, Mousavi and Gheyreh - never had a positive opinion of those who got selected by the SN before voting in elections.  Besides, some have their own skeletons in 88 massacures to answer to.

Let's see - as a Turk, I am stubborn ok, but not as much as my wife, and where we live, rednecks are a distance away.  Furthermore, I am definitely not as stubborn as the NIAC-birthers, as Mehrdad would say, and If i find bona fide evidence that TP is an IRI agent, I will be the first to go to DC and kick his a$$.

What sayeth thee, NIAC-birther?

Iraj Khan

This poor guy has being put under microscope inch by inch  .. who knows may be that observation literally is a case .. lol

You mean, the Holy Cat!

Faramarz told you, we are of the cat family!

dear GR

For the sake of the holly Cow stop that imagination ...

lol  

SK:

Can you imagine how sexy a hairy Iranian guy would look in purple underpants? To match the hair, though, they have to be the right shade.

Soosan khanoom,

with all due respect,

I have to repeat one of the comments here

from the Naysayers, here it is:

"he'll (meaning Mr Parsi) never  have the testicles"

Not only they attacked and defeated Mr Parsi for his advocacy of 'diplomacy instead of war' but also they are attacking him on the Testicles Front.

Mr Parsi expresses himself on the world media and representing us the %97 Iranian Americans who are against any kind of war with Iran (according to the latest poll). 

The questions one should ask is:

1. What Are They Doing For Iranian Americans who are living under the shadow of a war with Iran? 

2. What kind of effect a war would have on Iranians living inside and outside Iran? 

lol ...

Purple underpants