MaryamJoon

OPEN LETTER & QUESTIONS REGARDING PAAIA’s SANCTIONS REPORT:

Dear PAAIA, its Advisory and Executive Board, Ms. Afsaneh Mirfendereski (a/k/a Hafez4Beginners) and Mr. Babak Hoghooghi, esq. (“whose expertise and time were instrumental in the development” of PAAIA’s 2012 sanctions report):

The following questions are respectfully tendered for your responses.

PREFACE: 

The following questions posed to you are particularly serious questions that bear upon your conduct and the trustworthiness of the organization calling itself the 'Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans' (PAAIA).  The following question, mostly in straightforward “yes” or “no” format, request you to answer questions in relation to PAAIA’s recent 2012 sanctions report concerning Iran and Iranians. 

The questions are in numbered format to allow clear and frank responses in a corresponding numbered format that will enable the Iranian community to have responsive information it deserves by comparing the questions with your responses. The final numbered question allows you to state whatever information you wish to use to supplement and explain your responses to the numbered paragraphs, so that you a space to add anything else you may wish to.

In the spirit of democratic commentary, all persons are free to write comments under this Internet posting, however, it is your responses to the questions that are germane.  Although comments by individuals cannot reasonably be considered to be representative of eighty million Iranians, they are welcome in that such commentary often adds to debate and deliberation. 

Given the serious nature of the questions, the times of crisis for the Iranian community, the representative nature of PAAIA’s activities, the straightforward nature in which the questions are asked, and universally accepted principle that silence and evasion by community organizations are indicative of misbehavior and a lack of trustworthiness, it is incumbent upon you to appropriately respond.  

Iran is sovereign nation, with a long history and proud history.  Community organizations, particularly those interacting with foreign governments have traditionally been viewed with suspicion by the Iranian people, and to those with even a bare inkling of history, it is for good reason. 

Thank you for taking the time to address the following questions:

QUESTION 1:  Please state the names of the individuals that wrote, or contributed to preparing the contents of, PAAIA’s sanctions report.   

RESPONSE 1:

QUESTION 2:  Did PAAIA’s board and executive leadership vote to publish the sanctions report, and if not, by whom was that decision taken?

RESPONSE 2:

QUESTION 3:  Isn’t it true that the report states that its purpose is as follows:  ‘“The purpose of this report is to provide an … analysis of current sanctions, … their overall impact on Iran, and the impact on the Iranian American community’?

RESPONSE 3:

QUESTION 4:  Isn’t it true that PAAIA’s report make references to the effect of sanctions on “steel and carbon fiber” materials relating to Iran’s nuclear program?

RESPONSE 4:

QUESTION 5:  Isn’t it true that PAAIA’s report states, “The broader impact of sanctions can be seen in a host of other areas ranging from the challenges in developing nuclear weapons….”?

RESPONSE 5:

QUESTION 6:  Isn’t it true that the Iranian community, including those that joined PAAIA, were given no advance notice that PAAIA would be issuing reports that include references to Iran’s nuclear program?  (If you dispute this please make a copy of the written notice(s) available.)

RESPONSE 6:

QUESTION 7:  Isn’t it true that PAAIA’s report includes a citation to a group called “United Against a Nuclear Iran” whose leadership includes James Woolsey (an ex-CIA director, lobbyist for Israel, and participant in the film Iranium, a film widely condemned by the Iranian community as Iranophobic) and whose membership further includes Meir Dagan (former leader of Mossad / Israeli secret service)?

RESPONSE 7:

QUESTION 8:  Isn’t it true that PAAIA’s report make references to Iran’s “sponsorship of terrorism” and “the Iranian government’s harsh crack-down on protesters”?

RESPONSE 8:

QUESTION 9:  Isn’t it true that out of PAAIA’s 30-page-long report, only 1 page has a section called “IMPACT OF SANCTIONS ON IRANIAN AMERICANS”?

RESPONSE 9:

QUESTION 10:  Isn’t it true that PAAIA has a board member whose biography states, “Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Mr. Ebrahimi’s entire assets were confiscated by the new Government in Iran and he moved permanently to the United States”?

RESPONSE 10:

QUESTION 11:  Isn’t it true that PAAIA’s report also speaks of “alleged” acts of discrimination and profiling in the United States against Iranians when in fact there are numerous concrete examples of such incidents starting in or about 1979 up until the present date, including data from court cases that terminated in the favor of Iranians that were discriminated against?

RESPONSE 11:

QUESTION 12: Isn’t it true that this video at this link shows instances of the U.S. and Israel organizing terror activity against Iran that PAAIA has said nothing about?

RESPONSE 12:

QUESTION 13: Isn’t it true that this video shows Ken Timmerman, a high-profile Israeli lobbyist and congressional candidate, stating that Iranians are trying to spread ‘Satanism’ in the United States and that Iranians want to explode a nuclear weapon because ‘they think it will take them to paradise’ and PAAIA has said nothing about that though it repeatedly has been called to its attention?  

RESPONSE 13:

QUESTION 14: Isn’t it true that the report at this link by Reuters and Haaretz quotes the spiritual leader to Israeli leaders Netanyahu and Peres, who explicitly says that Israel should annihilate Iran, and PAAIA has said nothing about that though it repeatedly has been called to its attention?  

RESPONSE 14:

QUESTION 15: Isn’t it true that the video at this link, which is an interview with a 40 year veteran of the Bahai faith and Bahai assembly leader, explicitly admits that the Bahai faith is used by Israel and the US as a propaganda “bludgeon” against Iran, and that video interview has been called to PAAIA’s attention and it has said nothing about that?

RESPONSE 15:

QUESTION 16:  Please state whether at the White House’s July 18, 2012 so-called “Roundtable With Iranian Community Leaders,” PAAIA raised any of the concerns indicated by the questions above, the responses given by US government officials, and whether PAAIA took a position on the issues of U.S. sanctions and a U.S. or Israeli military attack against Iran, and what those positions were. 

RESPONSE 16:

QUESTION 17: What steps, if any, has PAAIA taken to vet its leadership and Board to determine if said individuals have (or at any time in the past have had) ties to: (a) a non-Iranian government by way of employment; (b) a non-Iranian lobby group; (c) a religious organization headquartered outside of Iran; or (d) a militant group such as the MEK? 

RESPONSE 17:

QUESTION 18: Please state whatever information you wish to supplement and explain your responses to the numbered questions above. 

RESPONSE 18:

Note:  The questions submitted are by kind permission of Dr. R.B. Noruzi, who does not work for any government; publicly has taken the clear and unambiguous position that groups like MEK and the Israeli Lobby have acted in clear transgression of the rights of the majority of Iranians; and who has similar concerns about other Diaspora Iranian groups including (without limitation) NIAC, ICC, and Ken Timmerman’s PDMI.  The questions are substantive, stand on their own merit, and are typical of questions members of the Iranian community have demanded answers to.  The graphic is by Maryam.