Much like you, I was excited to see an organization established several years ago to voice the concerns of Iranian Americans. I assumed some wealthy immigrants from our community decided to chip in and help establish a force to support our interests. After all so many other minorities have similar national organizations … it seemed a good move now that our numbers have grown in the United States. We truly have been victims of discrimination, and do need to have greater participation in public forums.
But recently, I have begun to suspect the motives of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). My suspicions were finally tipped when I received an email this past week, informing me that 80% of the Iranian-Americans they had communicated with, wanted NO CHANGE IN THE REGIME IN IRAN. This was in response to the US house's recent bill making regime change in Iran, the official policy of the United States.
This email, came on the back of another recent communication from NIAC, informing me that Iranian-Americans were against an invasion of Iran … which has been suggested in some circles.
Frankly, with much of my immediate family still in Iran, I really don't relish the prospect of anyone bombing Tehran or any other major urban center. Maybe many people here and in Iran are probably in the same boat. But, regime change, that's a different. Everyone wants regime change – but without bloodshed (if possible).
NO ONE I have ever met – and I am talking about literally thousands of Iranians since the revolution – wants this Islamic fascism or theocracy to continue. NIAC's most recent email – have established deep suspicions of their motives. It's a flat out lie, maybe a damn lie, hiding inside the body of a bullshit statistic. NIAC's statement, under the headline “Four out of five Iranian-Americans oppose H.R. 282 / S. 333” says:
“Of the 504 letters sent from April 6th to 18th by Iranian Americans nationwide to their respective House Representatives and Senators, 82.5 percent opposed H.R. 282 / S. 333, while 17.5 percent expressed support for the bill sponsored by Rep. Ilena Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA).”
… my ass. It makes my blood boil.
It is a well-known fact that the Mullahs are illegally spending over $80 Million dollars a year inside the United States trying to influence US foreign policy. It would be a shrewd move on their part if they somehow funded a body like NIAC that pretends to speak on behalf of the Iranian community in the US.
NIAC sets up meetings with representatives and senators – continuously implying that they represent us, Iranian-Americans. Buying influence in our name. Its unclear to me, who selected these bullshit artists (NIAC's leadership)? Who is funding them? And how they came to exist in the first place?
It is also well known that the United States and especially the Republicans have maintained surrogate relationships with the mullahs. Ever since the October 1980, when they traded with the Mullahs to hold the hostages and humiliate Jimmy Carter; up to recent arrangements to cut into Afghanistan with Iranian financed “Northern Alliance”, the US administration has come out and publicly denounced the Mullahs but privately maintained dealings with them.
Now, suddenly there is a bill on the table that would limit this hypocrisy and two-faced behavior. Suddenly any act that counters this bill could immediately be cause for legal action, and criminal violation of federal law.
This bill has to be welcomed by Iranian- Americans or Iranians in general. It is good policy for the US, and regime change would be good for Iran. Win-Win on both sides. How can it make sense for the US to support and engage with a bunch of shady theocrats, whose supreme leader is an opium addict, who are all getting rich by monopolizing Iran's basic industries, who have closed down hundreds of newspapers, who have abused human rights, who have stolen Iran's democracy? The mullah's regime has no legitimacy.
Only, a puppet organization like NIAC would dare defend the mullahs from extinction.
Some in the United States government (maybe the House of Representatives) may have finally realized that double standards and duplicity can no longer be the basis of US government policy and actions. In this age of the Internet, and massive information exchange – nothing can be kept hidden for any serious time frame. The world has become smarter, more connected and less easily deceived.
These same representatives, may have also realized that no-one and no group has gone out and created more hatred against the United States, more effectively than the US government itself. America's greatest enemy has been America itself.
They supported Mossadegh's downfall only to apologize 20 years later. They supported the Taliban only to invade Afghanistan a few years ago. They supported the Shah's downfall and supported the rise of Iran's Islamic regime, to regret it now.
Perhaps some of these representatives also understand that the greatest incentive to Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists from Morocco to Malaysia is the continued wealth and success of Iran's Islamic Leadership. They realize that the most effective tool to eliminate terrorism would be eliminating Iran's Islamic radicals and fascists.
Consistency of policy and actions with basic American values will increasingly be the norm going forward. No one should oppose that. It is a great step towards a sustainable and long-term oriented US foreign policy.
And once this bill passes the Senate, lets make a pledge as an Iranian-American community to bring to surface any US action that counters this law. With the Internet, and Iranian.com as our tool, we can disseminate any information very quickly … and I (for one) will take the onus of contacting the US Department of Homeland Security and be tenacious enough as a citizen, to make sure they prosecute any violators of this law.
For now perhaps, we should have NIAC's funding and leadership investigated. It is in fact a violation of US law for any organization to be active in the United States (outside of the Iranian Interests Section of the Embassy of Pakistan) with funding from the Islamic Republic of Iran trying to influence US foreign policy, in favor of the Mullahs.
NIAC would do better to use their resources to hire lawyers to sue the US government for selling calibration equipment and intermediates for chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, that led to massive killings and casualties from chemical agents. We keep learning more about this as more of Saddam's documents become public.
Or perhaps use their resources to sue some of the key players that are still active in the US government who were involved in dealings with the Mullahs, in violation of US law, to keep the US embassy hostages from getting freed, to humiliate Jimmy Carter and steal the US presidential elections. Protecting democracy in the United States is important for Iranian-Americans too!!
Perhaps, in the process of taking these legal actions, the average American might understand that Iranians have been victims of a big domestic scam!! And maybe, anti-Iranian-American discrimination will diminish.
Supporting the regime in Iran is the wrong move for NIAC. The wrong move. And in this age of communication, it will not take long for NIAC's true colors to show up.
