Dear Ms. Rusta,
1. I want to thank you for your kind note. Your kind comment was significant precisely because we have had serious differences and have had many debates on this site.
2. Monarchists and melliun have had our differences, and monarchists and jomhurikhahan will have our differences in the future.
3. And we have our commonalities as well. We both strongly oppose the fundamentalist terrorist regime and struggle to send it to the garbage can of history where it truly belongs.
4. I hope that very soon, we all can live in Iran with each having his or her own ideals and groups and coexist in mutual respect in a pluralistic polity.
5. I hope our monarchist friends would save the url of my two blogs on NIAC’s relationship with the CIA. When any official, member, or supporter of NIAC criticizes the Shah or Gen. Zahedi, then you could simply refer them to my blogs, and ask them the 6 questions that I asked.
If NIAC members and supporters said that in order to accomplish NIAC’s goals, it is acceptable for NIAC official or officials to provide lecture or whatever to the CIA, then you can say, “for Gen. Zahedi to accomplish his goal, it is acceptable to have had a relationship with the CIA.”
And similarly if next year, some person has gets money from the CIA, and some of the above criticized him or her, simply tell them: “for Mr. ____ or Ms. ____ in order to accomplish their goals, it is acceptable to have a relationship with the CIA.” You could add that the fundamentalist regime is soooooooooooo genocidal that getting help from the CIA is acceptable to accomplish the goal of overthrowing the terrorist regime.
Then, it will simply come down to, “it is acceptable for my leader and my organization, and those who agree with my views to have a relationship with the CIA, but it is not acceptable for leaders of other groups or other organizations, or those who do not share my views to have a relationship with the CIA.”
Americans have a saying: “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
6. And when those who are not supporters of NIAC such as Iranian Marxists, who might criticize the Shah and Gen. Zahedi, then ask them to first read my two blog, then make their position clear on the role of Dr. Trita Parsi and NIAC (e.g., whether they support it or condemn it), and only then they could say something on the Shah’s relationship with the CIA.
Here are the url of my two blogs. Save them, they might come handy:
http://iranian.com/main/blog/masoud-kazemzadeh/questions-niac-official
Again, thank you for your kind comments.
Best,
Masoud
