Here's more on the Alaska World Affairs Council invite to Iranian regime apologist Trita Parsi to speak:
PDMI Letter to Alaska World Affair Council on Trita Parsi Speaking EventAlaska World Affairs Council
406 G. St., Suite 207
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Dear World Affairs Council Board of Directors and Staff,
We, the undersigned, express grave concern regarding the Alaska World Affairs Council’s hosting of Trita Parsi to speak on "The Obama Administration's Iran Policy." While we appreciate the Council’s efforts to promote greater understanding of world issues by organizing various events, the Iranian- American community considers Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) an intellectually dishonest regime apologist and lobbyist that serves as the mouth piece for the mullahs. Parsi contributes to the regime’s agenda and serves the interests of those in power in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
For over three decades, various governments have used dialogue and diplomacy with the regime in Iran to no avail, starting with the administration of President Jimmy Carter, who did everything possible to assure their new regime of American friendship and in the process failed miserably. Since that time, the more world governments have tried to engage the regime’s leaders, the more belligerent, emboldened and abusive the regime has become. This has not been limited to their communication with the outside world but extended to the repression of their own people, as documented by Amnesty International.
Much of what drives Iranian politics and decision-making is a hatred of the West. The Iranian regime demonizes the U.S. as the ‘Great Satan,’ repeatedly and forcefully denies the Holocaust, pledges to wipe Israel off the map and threatens to overthrow or dominate America’s Persian Gulf allies. Moreover, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated his belief that the mission of Iran is to prepare the way for the imminent return of the ‘Hidden Imam’ messiah, whose reemergence will be preceded by a period of chaos and war. Nuclear weapons would give Iran the ability to realize this radical vision.
The Islamic regime’s apologists such as NIAC deceptively portray the Islamic government in Iran as a pragmatic and rational entity. They suggest that dialogue and diplomacy are the best way to deal with Iran. They falsely claim that sanctions are not effective and hurt ordinary Iranian people. Recently, primarily due to opposition leaders Mousavi's and Karoubi’s arrests, these apologists are attempting to shift the focus from Iran’s weapons program to what they have decided is more acceptable “Johnny-come-lately” human rights issues. They have blamed the regime’s blatant human rights violations, which have recently overtaken China's as the worst in the world, on U.S. pressure and ridiculously claimed that recognition of the IRI would improve the human rights violations in Iran.
Lobbyists such as Trita Parsi who use the pretext of easing the sanctions to help ordinary Iranians, are deceitful, and are meant to intentionally misguide the American public, Iranians-Americans and government officials. NIAC’s recent strategy of advocating human rights is merely a cover to hide its true intention which is carried out behind the scenes to ease sanctions so that big corporations can sell nuclear technology, military gear, sophisticated surveillance technologies, electronic hardware and software applications to a criminal regime which uses them to spy on, arrest, torture, rape and kill its own citizens.
Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, providing funding, training, arms, and political support to terrorist groups in the Middle East and worldwide such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda. Iranian-backed terrorist groups have killed U.S. and NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the recently uncovered Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. on American soil fits squarely into an overall pattern of warlike escalation on the part of Iran and proves that Iran will only become bolder as it becomes more powerful.
The Center for Security Policy cites NIAC as a lobby organization for the government of Iran. As a result of a lawsuit, numerous NIAC documents have surfaced that show NIAC lobbies for policies favorable to the regime in Iran. Law enforcement experts, who have reviewed some of NIAC’s emails, memos and board minutes, believe that NIAC has operated as an undeclared lobby and may be guilty of violating tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying disclosure laws.
Court documents paint a very disturbing picture of Trita Parsi. They range from defrauding the federal government, lying to members of Congress, arranging secret meetings between the US and a criminal regime, to recent revelation that Trita Parsi paid Anne Singleton to provide false testimony to U.S. Congress. NIAC has lied about its membership numbers. It claimed once that it had 33,000 members and now court documents reveal that it has less than 500 members and is not even willing to disclose them. We think the number to be even lower. As a 501c3 tax exempt organization, NIAC refuses to disclose its audit and tax reports. Many credible news organizations have expressed concern about NIAC's activities. Trita Parsi is routinely shunned from the Iranian-American community and does not even answer questions raised by the Iranian-Americans, a constituency he purports to represent.
Trita Parsi falsely purports to represent Iranian-American interests in the United States. With less than 500 members, Mr. Parsi shamelessly asserts that it represents the majority of the nearly one million Iranian-Americans in the USA. In our view, NIAC and Parsi will eventually be subjected to criminal prosecution and organizations and individuals that collaborate with NIAC will come to regret their affiliations with them. In addition, NIAC has received millions of dollars in grants-including, outrageously, from the Congressionally-funded National Endowment for Democracy, because of its false claims, which could actually have been allocated to further the interests of real Iranian-American human rights and other important causes in the U.S. and around the world. Instead this money has effectively been allocated to furthering the aims of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Currently, the Middle East is in crisis. Pro-democracy forces are springing up daily to demand basic human rights and better living conditions. It is about time that important organizations such as yours distance themselves from the regime lobbyists such as Trita Parsi and publicly align themselves with the democracy-seeking people who have suffered brutally at the hands of dictators and tyrants.
We respectfully request that you cancel this speaking event and dis-invite Mr. Parsi, the Iranian mullahs’ apologist, from this speaking event and other similar events in the future and avoid potential embarrassment.
Sincerely,
Arash Irandoost, Founder
Pro Democracy Movement of Iran
www.pdmi.org
References:
The Weekly Standard: Trita Parsi, the Iranian Regim'es Man in Washington
The Washington Times exclusive: Iran advocacy group said to skirt lobby rules
Center for Security Policy: Rise of the "Iran Lobby"
The pro-Tehran lobby and its anti-Israeli crusade
NIAC's court released Internal documents
Did NIAC defraud federal funds
NIAC and US foreign Policy toward Iran
Agents of Influence
NIAC and J Street: Lobbying and Lying
2012 Public opinion Survey of NIAC & Trita Parsi
The Undersigned
Posted by PDMI-Arash Irandoost
