“How ignorant does Iran’s Khamenei think the people of Iran are?

I want to share an experience I had while working in Teheran for The Boeing Company, training Imperial Iranian Air Force personnel on how to maintain the Boeing 747 aircraft. I’ve also included a copy of a letter I sent Saturday to over 60 friends on my “Stand-Up for America” distribution list.

I hope you will not be offended, but will understand the good feelings I have toward the people of Iran, and my concern for their continued safety, and opportunity to once again become a great and prosperous people and nation.

The following experience occurred sometime in the fall of 1978: My Iranian crew had just completed a major inspection on one of their 747’s. We were waiting for approval to move the aircraft from the hangar to its assigned parking space on the flight-line. As we talked, my direct trainee, Homofar (A military rank between enlisted and officer which identified having a high-school education.) Gharalee said to me, “Mr. Beers, the Shah is an evil man.” I asked him, “What makes you say that?” He replied, “Because he spanks little children.” I said, “Where are you hearing that? He replied, “They broadcast it from the Mosque during prayer.”

I said to him, “I can tell from your rank, you have a high-school education. Does your father have a high-school education?” His reply was, “No, he only went through maybe the 8th grade.” I then asked, “Does your mother have a high-school education?” His reply was, “No, she didn’t even go to school.”

So I asked him, “Gharalee, who do you have to thank that you have a high-school education, Khomeni or The Shah?” He didn’t understand and gave me a blank stare. So, I proceeded to tell him the story of The Shah addressed in the email I sent out shown below.

I then asked, “Do you have brothers and sisters?” He replied, “Yes.” I asked, “Are your brothers in school?” His reply was, “Yes.” I asked, “What about your sisters, are they in school?” He then stated, “Of course.” .Afterward, I again then asked him, “Who do you have to thank that you have a high-school education, and that your brothers and sisters are in school today, Khomeni or the Shah?”

His eyes went wide, and he exclaimed, “Mr. Beers, maybe we are making a big mistake!” There was an older Iranian Warrant Officer standing nearby who had been listening, and he spoke up with tears running down his face, “Mr. Beers, when I was a little boy, the people of Iran loved the Shah. He used to play with us in the streets. When it snowed, he would ski down Phalavi Blvd, and his driver would tow him and the kids back up the hill so they could again ski or sled back down the hill.

Unfortunately, by late 1978 The Boeing Company decided to allow the families to leave, and when I came back to the United States to secure a home for them to live in, I was never able to make it back in. In January 1979 Boeing decided to pull everyone out. The rest is history.

The following is the email I just sent out to my friends on Saturday, June 20, 2009 11:49 PM:

Subject: How “ignorant” does Iran’s Khamenei think the people of Iran are? The news from Iran (Iran‘s Khomeini: Election Over, No More Protests!) brought back strong memories of my experience of living and working with the Iranian people in 1976 through 1978.

When I first arrived in Teheran, Iran in Nov 1976, the Iranian people enjoyed a literacy level they had not had at any time since before the 5th century when they were a powerful and educated people. After the 5th Century, for the most part, only religious leaders and feudal land lords were educated, until the British and United States governments helped Reza Phalavi regain the government seat in 1963. I understand, he initially refused to be “crowned” as “Shah of Iran” because he did not feel “he was worthy,” and with a 94% illiteracy rate, the people of Iran were not ready, so he decided to do a “White Revolution” to change that. According to “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Revolution the White Revolution consisted of 19 elements that were introduced over a period of 15 years, with the first 6 introduced in 1963 and put to a national referendum on January 26, 1963. The following 19 elements sound very much “for the people of Iran” and not those of an autocratic despotic dictator:

1. Land Reforms Program and Abolishing “Feudalism”: The government bought the land from the feudal land lords at a fair price and sold it to the peasants at 30% below the market value, with the loan being payable over 25 years at very low interest rates. This made it possible for 1.5 million peasant families, who had once been little more than slaves, to own the lands that they had been cultivating all their lives. Given that average size of a peasant family was 5, land reforms program brought freedom to approximately 9 million people, or 40% of Iran’s population.
2. Nationalization of Forests and Pasturelands: Introduced many measures, not only to protect the national resources and stop the destruction of forests and pasturelands, but also to further develop and cultivate them. More than 9 million trees were planted in 26 regions, creating 70,000 acres (280 km²) of “green belts” around cities and on the borders of the major highways.
3. Privatization of the Government Owned Enterprises, manufacturing plants and factories by selling their shares to the public and the old feudal lords, thus creating a whole new class of factory owners who could now help to industrialize the country.
4. Profit Sharing for industrial workers in private sector enterprises, giving the factory workers and employees 20% share of the net profits of the places where they worked and securing bonuses based on higher productivity or reductions in costs.
5. Extending the Right to Vote to Women, who had no voice and were suppressed by Islamic traditions. This measure was widely criticized by the clergy.
6. Formation of the Literacy Corps, so that those who had a high school diploma and were required to serve their country as soldiers could do so in fighting illiteracy in the villages. In 1963 aprox. 2/3 of the population was illiterate, with 1/3 found mainly in the capital city of Tehran.
7. Formation of the Health Corps to extend public health care throughout the villages and rural regions of Iran. In 3 years, almost 4,500 medical groups were trained; nearly 10 million cases were treated by the Corps.
8. Formation of the Reconstruction and Development Corps to teach the villagers the modern methods and techniques of farming and keeping livestock. Agricultural production between 1964 and 1970 increased by 80% in tonnage and 67% in value.

1. Formation of the Houses of Equity where 5 village elders would be elected by the villagers, for a period of 3 years, to act as arbitrators in order to help settle minor offences and disputes. By 1977 there were 10,358 Houses of Equity serving over 10 million people living in over 19,000 villages across the country.
2. Nationalization of all Water Resources, introduction of projects and policies in order to conserve and benefit from Iran’s limited water resources. Many dams were constructed and five more were under construction in 1978. It was as a result of these measures that the area of land under irrigation increased from 2 million acres (8,000 km²), in 1968, to 5.6 million in 1977.
3. Urban and Rural Modernization and Reconstruction with the help of the Reconstruction and Development Corps. Building of public baths, schools and libraries; installing water pumps and power generators for running water and electricity.
4. Didactic Reforms that improved the quality of education by diversifying the curriculum in order to adapt to the necessities of life in the modern world.
5. Workers’ Right to Own Shares in the Industrial Complexes where they worked by turning Industrial units, with 5 years history and over, into public companies, where up to 99% of the shares in the state-owned enterprises and 49% of the shares of the private companies would be offered for sale to the workers of the establishment at first and then to the general public.
6. Price Stabilization and campaign against unreasonable profiteering (1975). Owners of factories and large chain stores were heavily fined, with some being imprisoned and other’s licenses being revoked. Sanctions were imposed on multi-national foreign companies and tons of merchandise stored for speculative purposes were confiscated and sold to consumers at fixed prices.
7. Free and Compulsory Education and a daily free meal for all children from kindergarten to 14 years of age. In 1978, 25% of Iranians were enrolled in public schools alone. In that same year there were 185,000 students of both sexes studying in Iran’s universities. In addition to the above there were over 100,000 students pursuing their studies abroad, of which 50,000 were enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States.
8. Free Food for Needy Mothers and for all newborn babies up to the age of two.
9. Introduction of Social Security and National Insurance for all Iranians. National Insurance system provided for up to 100% of the wages during retirement.
10. Stable and Reasonable Cost of Renting or Buying of Residential Properties (1977). Controls were placed on land prices and various forms of land speculation.
11. Introduction of Measures to Fight against Corruption within the bureaucracy. Imperial Inspection Commission was founded, consisting of representatives from administrative bodies and people of proven integrity.

Sounds like a fair and ambitious plan to help the Iranian people again become a great nation. As you can imagine, the “Land Reforms Program” the “Extending the Right to Vote to Women” and the “Formation of the Literacy Corps” were not not well received by the Supreme Religious Leader and the Mullahs who preferred to keep the people poor and uneducated so they would be easier to control. As a result of implementing these reforms however, I was told, that by 1978, the literacy level of the Iranian people had improved to around 64%. It was pretty clear that Iran in 1976 and 1977 was well on it’s way to once again becoming a great nation.

All that changed with the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter as President of the United States. On New Year’s Eve, December 31st 1977, I witnessed Jimmy Carter on Iranian National TV, with his arm around the Shah, telling the world “how much he admired the Shah,” and explaining how in November he asked Roslyn where she would like to spend New Years Eve, and she had said “with our good friends, the Shah and Shahbanu of Iran.”

Unfortunately, Jimmy Carter was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” as before he left Iran, he convinced the Shah that he needed to “show compassion” for the imprisoned Teheran University dissident students and others who had plotted against the government, by releasing them, along with allowing the Ayatollah Khomeini to return from exile. He also informed the Shah, that the government of The United States would no longer back up his government against the dissidents and clergy.

When the dissidents were released in the spring of 1978, they once again, with communist activist support, began to riot, as they saw their release as “weakness” on the part of the government. In August of 1978 the Shah was shot at close range by a trusted son of a military officer who died in a helicopter crash in a storm. We flew two 747’s, one carrying the Shah to a hospital in France for emergency life- saving surgery. Upon his return in late August, the Shah appeared weak and gaunt when he again appeared on National TV.

In early September 1978, we were put on curfew from 6 PM to 6 AM as the rioting in the streets increased – Not due to “anti-American sentiment” as reported by the press, but due to “religious disputes” between Shiite, Sunni and Bahai factions in Islam. The communist activists figured by joining the “radical religious furor” they would be able to overthrow the government of the Shah, and once they succeeded, could easily overpower the “weak” religious elements and take over the government. History proved they underestimated these radical religious groups.

It is sad commentary, the people of Iran were duped by their own religious leaders who took away their freedom and opportunity in 1978 and since, to again be a great nation. Do they have the courage today to stand up and fight for freedom? Are democratic nations willing to stand with them to defend the rights of Iranian people to choose freedom and pursue liberty and happiness? Or, is our nation led by another Jimmy Carter who wants to “appease” everyone, and will stand by while autocratic despotic Iranian “political” and “religious” leaders give orders to execute those who “dare” to rise against them?

The only thing we as a nation have to apologize to the world for is not standing up in defense of truth and right, when called upon to do so.

I would hope each of us has the courage to stand up in defense of truth and right, and not allow the subversive efforts of those who conspire to take away our freedoms to succeed. YOU can make a difference! Do not be deceived by “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who work to defeat The Constitution of The United States. It is up to each one of us to be vigilant, so we do not wind up wondering “what happened” to our freedom to live, prosper, and Worship Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Thanks for your listening ear. Now, make sure your voices and votes count.