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Regime Change, How?

Remember a few days ago I warned about attempts to patch up relations between the Bush people and MKO? Not that the feud was anything but superficial. After all, MKO's biggest supporter in Washington has been the current Attorney General Ashcroft. But there is still this public opinion thing about cozying up to a group you declared "terrorist" to worry about and that needs some "massaging" by the spin masters who are already hard at work.

Placing op-ed pieces and letters to editors of major and local newspapers has always been one of the ways MKO has managed to push their agenda and they are at it again.

One such item recently appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune. The full text is only available for sale on-line, but you can read a very incomplete section here.

I just finished writing a reply to it and since I am not certain it will get published, you can read it here:

Regime Change, How?
by; Pedram Moallemian

On May 30th, San Diego Union-Tribune, in its sincere effort to provide a voice to those normally excluded by the main stream media and offer a prospective on Middle Eastern affairs by a member of that community, fell victim to a propaganda machine known internationally for fabrication of information and pushing a very narrow and questionable agenda. Furthermore, the space provided by the Tribune, was specifically used to promote a group linked to international terrorism and currently on both State Department as well as European Union’s list of “terrorist organizations”.

In an op-ed piece titled “Iranian people want regime change”, Massoud Taheri, director of the "Society of Iranian-American Scholars and Professionals-San Diego” –more on that group later- mixed some facts with an overdose of fiction to portray a violent image of Iranian people’s desires, in their struggle to bring democracy and justice to their homeland and end the tyranny of a theocratic government.

The general premise of the article in describing how a large majority of Iranians want “regime change” is indisputably bona fide. What is at question is how to get there, who will do it and what will replace it. Taheri presents some dubious facts such as Iran’s WMD’s “including a nuclear bomb” and concludes that the best way for us to achieve peace and freedom in the region is to support People’s Mojahedin, a group most western governments consider a terrorist organization.

He applauds Reps. Susan Davis and Bob Filner for endorsing the organization as a “legitimate resistance (movement)” and believes that “some quarters in the Bush administration” are ready to “remove the terror tag against the Mojahedin”.

Taheri repeatedly refers to “mullah’s” (clergy) regime or even “turbaned tyrants”. I will not use such language, as I do not believe the issue at hand is the difficulty people of Iran have with the clothes their rulers wear, be it a traditional clergy outfit or a suit and tie, but what policies those rulers follow and how committed they are to freedom and democracy. In a liberated and independent Iran of tomorrow, there will be room for mullahs and turban wearers, along with all other sectors of the population to participate in the political and social process and maybe even get elected, if that is a reflection of people’s desires.

Now for some facts; I looked unsuccessfully for “Society of Iranian-American Scholars and Professionals – San Diego” and found no phone listing, street address, web site or other forms of communication. How could other Iranian-American Scholars and Professionals join it, I wondered. It turns out the “society” is yet another front name for People’s Mojahedin organization and does not exist outside imaginations of a close circuit of similar minded “revolutionaries”. The organization also uses other fictitious names such as “Iranian-American Lawyers' Association” and “Moslem Iranian Student Society” to lobby congress, raise funds or as in this case, write op-ed pieces for western media.

“Iranian National Council of Resistance” (NCR) which has a fashionable “coalition” added to its name by Taheri, is far from a “broad spectrum of Iranian political parties and individuals” as claimed by him. In fact, over the last two decades, the “council” has lost more members than gained to the point that over 200 Mojahedin members and supporters were “appointed” in 1987 to maintain an image of a “parliament in exile”. Aside from those, the rest of the membership is as follows: Organization of Iranian People’s Fadaian Guerilla’s with 3 active members, Association to Defend Iran’s Independence and Democracy (DAD), Towhidi Merchants Guild, Committed Professors of Iran’s Universities and Schools of Higher Education, each with one member. So in short, the council is a “coalition” of 200+ Mojahedin members and supporters, along with 6 of their friends. In other words, NCR and its “National Liberation Army of Iran” are yet other names for People’s Mojahedin.

Mojahedin were always proud of their “terrorist” activities. That is up to early 90’s when “the tag” became much more of a burden and not an asset anymore. Suddenly they claimed others had assassinated the American military attaches in Iran in the early 70’s, although only a few short months ago they were bragging about doing it. Some of the explosions that killed current regime’s top officials were labeled as work of the same government and yet mortar attacks on office buildings in a very crowded downtown Tehran are claimed as legitimate “resistance” strategies.

As I look at my handy dictionary, terrorism is defined as; the systematic use of violence as a means to intimidate or coerce societies or governments. Even forgetting assassinations and other hostile tactics, the mortar attacks alone should qualify the group as a “terrorist” organization.

Now let’s get to what Iranian people really want. After years of struggle and organizing a number of uprisings and three revolutions in the 20th century alone, Iranians are still denied their ultimate goal of freedom, justice and independence. What they have learned in this tumultuous process is that violence and social upheaval only results in more destruction and instability.

As such, the new generation of Iranians has chosen a new path, the path of peaceful resistance and a deliberate movement towards establishment of democratic ideas and institutions that can build a long-lasting and enduring political system. This system will be based on principals of individual and social freedoms, separation of religion and government, self governance and the rule of law.

In that front they have and will refuse these basic factors:

• Direct or indirect interference by any foreign governments, including efforts by the current U.S. administration in forcing a “regime change”
• Return of monarchy, a system rejected twice by Iranians.
• Violent and immature overthrow of the regime, as championed by Mojahedin.
• An attempt to re-sell the current regime under the guise of “reform” or by groups advocating such tactics.

Any group or individual committed to these basic principals is welcomed by the Iranian people to join their struggle in bringing democracy to their homeland.

Posted by Pedram at June 11, 2003 11:40 PM