Musings of a former chicken

fred

thanks for the link. there's a wealth of information on the site.  they were even able to squeeze in a bit of "shahnameh khani" in the meeting instead of a sermon by larijani.

Fred and Hamsade Ghadimi

Looking at the list of attendees, it's clear that it's the usual suspects. I'll repeat what I said before:

"Despite all the talk from the usual quarters about this representing some sort of an opening towards dialogue, blah, blah, the Iranian expats who attended this conference appear to have largely been those who already view the IRI as a heroic independent beacon of resistance to the Great Satan and its Little Satan accomplices. I don't think many minds were meant to be changed; it was just the IRI's president preaching to his West-residing choir and putting on another show..." 

Regards. 

Amir 1973

It seems, as you had guessed, our friend Pourzal the head of  American branch of CASMII lobby was in the thick of it. He is the "coordinator" of the "workshop" which I have provided the link to in this blog and also one of the speakers in the link I provided to Hamsadeh.

The interesting thing about the "workshop(s)" link is at the bottom of it, it says so the participants could exchange their views freely media is not allowed.

BTW, number of other CASMII members from England and America along with friends from:

 American Iranian Friendship Committee (Comrade Ardeshir-Khan Ommani's outfit)

//www.iranaifc.com/

 The Fellowship of Reconciliation( Leila Kahnoom's work place)

//forusa.org/blog/leila-zand

Were there to do:

//www.edalatkhahi.ir/007214.shtml

//registration.iranianshouse.ir/registerCong/viewPlanDetail.aspx?id=13

//www.tehrooz.com/1389/5/24/TehranEmrooz/348/Page/5/?NewsID=41537

Nothing but  lovely people caring about people.  

hamsade ghadimi

"do you have the agenda for the rest of the conference? "

//congress.iranianshouse.ir/

Ozr Movajjah

Sorry. Forgot for a moment there you may not have developed farsi-receiving / translating electrodes/sensors yet in your system.

your Ozr is Mvajjah= You are from around here. Not an outta towner. We know who you are and We just let you be.

Regards.

a Rejectee of the majority of whatever you just said.

Strange

Javad aghah

Using this opportunity to settle personal scores agains JJ? You know Calling people prostitues is actually good when it serves a valid and rightful purpose.

Sargord

Your ozr is  movajah. Carry on brother.

Genuine Iranian patriots!

Genuine Iranian patriots! Good for them.

Anti-Iran cheerleaders like Fred never have a good day. Why? Many years ago they were rejected by the overwhelming masses of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for which they will never ever psychologically recover.

New low for Iranian.com

This is a new low for Iranian.com (Jahanshah Javid).

Fred and Co. have used this media to accuse others and call them prostitutes.

Iranian.com is going down the tube every day.

amir73, fred

amir, the sessions provided in the link in this blog include the following topics and participants:

session 1: nuclear disarmament, politicization of iran's nuclear case, israel's nuclear arms, iran's declaration, iran's foreign policy, u.s. foreign policy in middle east, propoganda of western media

participants: paul ingram, british american security information council, george galloway, iranian participants--> rostam pourzal, casmii, nader bagherzadeh, uc irvine professor, shirian shafaie, soas school of london, elah rostami-povey, soas school of london

session 2: [very revealing topic] what can be done outside of the country regarding the conflict between iran and the west

participants: phillip wilayto, virginia defender, iranian participants --> leila zand, iran program at fellowship of reconciliation, soraya sepahpour-ulrich, casmii (i.com contributor), shirin saeidi, university of cambridge (i.com contributor), abbas khani, fribourg university

fred, do you have the agenda for the rest of the conference?

Yousef

Besides Galloway, there are a number of other such folks in the West (I'm not referring to those whom I have lovingly labelled the "West-residing IRI Groupies"; I mean Westerners). They include the likes of Ramsey Clark (who has a soft spot for Saddam and Milosevic--among others):

//www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/06/21/clark

"refrain from criticising while the country is under threat"

So here is the agenda of this "conference", for those still in doubt!

Any tin pot dictator, from Saddam to khomeini and khamenei and his vazir, ahmadinezhad, once completely and openly rejected by it's people, would seek a "threat" (external and/or internal) to deflect the attention from it's own wrong doings and further unite the people behind himself.

divaneh

the link provided in the blog provides the agenda (at least for one day) for some of the participants.  it's solely focused on sanctions and nuclear power.  this is a workshop on how to voice iri's claims to the world and how to circumvent the sanctions.  it is unlikely there was any human rights roundtable.  i know that you are giving them the benefit of doubt but the whole thing stinks.  they probably had a workshop on how to deal with interviews and foreign media when they get back to their duty stations in the free world.

reader1's comment was the most revealing: "until external threat to iri is not eliminated, the ex-pats should support iri, i mean the people of iran." this seems to be their main talking point. the question is what iri is doing to diminish the external threat?  bellicose posturing with the world sure doesn't help. remember the "mameh ro looloo bord" line which was met with great applause. 

divaneh

Could it not be that some of them have gone with the real good intention of influencing the IRI and try to change its policies?

Even if we take that very charitable interpretation, it would mean that they are naive in the extreme. Do you really think some Iranian expats attending a conference can effect any major change in the IRI's policies?

Despite all the talk from the usual quarters about this representing some sort of an opening towards dialogue, blah, blah, the Iranian expats who attended this conference appear to have largely been those who already view the IRI as a heroic independent beacon of resistance to the Great Satan and its Little Satan accomplices. I don't think many minds were meant to be changed; it was just the IRI's president preaching to his West-residing choir and putting on another show (like the IRI's "space program", photoshopped missile launches, etc). Regards.

Was it for money?

I think we are judging these women (as well as men) too fast. Could it not be that some of them have gone with the real good intention of influencing the IRI and try to change its policies? We have some very good interviewers in IC. Perhaps one of them should interview these women and then we can make a more informed judgement. 

so until then, we should

so until then, we should show our support for those who're killing, torturing and raping our people?  until when? until israel no longer exists?  until all of the western countries become muslim and heed to the vf?  gimme a break humble guy.

hamsade ghadimi: I am with ...

مردم عوام 
but if i were you I would  leave the fight until the external threat is over. 

reader1

ریدر، منظورت همبستگی‌ با مردم خواص هست؟

//iranvajahan.net/english/pictures/en.20061016..5.jpg

یا همبستگی‌ با مردم عوام؟

//mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/kasama_iran_election_uprising_photo_3.jpg

Confused Haji

“It could well be that some used the occasion to show their

solidarity with Iranian people at a time when the country is under real threat.”

Confused Haji with nonsensical line of reasoning is confused about everything. 

If only you had replaced ...

...  the nonsense attribute  of  “Islamic Rapist Republic” with just IRR, it'd have been one of your better and relatively measured  blog.  I doubt very much whether all of those woman attendee  were  in IRR pay roll. It could well be that some used the occasion to  show their
solidarity with Iranian people at a time when the country is under real
threat.  I share your dislike of IRR but would rather refrain from criticising
while the country is under  threat. 

a broad from abroad

i also find it even more reprehensible for a woman to be abetting this misogynist regime.  it explains every unexplainable situation: a shahi becoming islamist, a communist becoming capitalist, ...  the self-centered satisfaction-maximizing nature of human beings can trump all ideologies.

these people should be outed loudly and clearly.

Yeah, but what trumps all

is personal gain and the illusion of grandeur.

Another question to ask would be why anyone - I mean anyone - who does not sleep with these cockroaches would even think of such alliance - real or perceived?

____________

IRAN FIRST

____________

They are selling themselves to IRR/IRI

for money.  Most these women are in academia and they fund their program with the money from IRI/IRR.  They donot care about their sisters in the hands of IRR.