Firstly, I want to again write about Love and Licenses, playing at 45 Bleecker Street Theatre, New York, NY on January 6 at 8 pm! I know I am a hound, but I really believe in this production, and I would like to see it a success! Contact me at florenced2000 at gmail dot com for discounted tickets and to let me know if you are coming. We can have a Netizen party after the production!
Now onto the reason I am writing this post. I have been disturbed, for quite some time, about Trita Parsi. I have covered him and his connection to J Street, the Iranian regime, and Obama, numerous times. Just check out post one and two, for starters.
Trita Parsi is linked to both J Street and Obama. As I have previously shown, he spoke at J Street’s “Annual Gala.” In addition, NIAC, the organization Parsi is the president of (and which is considered a lobbying arm of the Iranian regime – which I documented in the two above articles), has a board member, John Limbert, who now is the “chief negotiator” with Iran, in Obama’s State Department. I also just found this well-researched article, in the Washington Times, which gives a background on the NIAC, and the extent to which it is a lobbying group of the Iranian regime. It is a must-read about the power-politics behind Trita Parsi and NIAC’s backroom diplomacy. It seems they actually modeled themselves after the very AIPAC they condemn!
Now that I have refreshed your recollection of what Parsi and NIAC is about, I have a new whopper for you, courtesy of Planet Iran, and which I previously missed somehow.
Please read the whole article. Here is an excerpt.
Mr. Parsi, head of NIAC, stated that the policy of engagement was meant to further cooperation between the U.S. and Iran and further human rights as well as resolve the nuclear issue. Mr. Parsi specifically addressed the nuclear issue and claimed that there is a bright line between nuclear use of energy for civilian use and the issue of nuclear weapons. In addition, he asserted that the policy of the Obama administration to engage with Iran, even though it has failed for the past 8 weeks, needs more time.
When a student in the class pressured Mr. Parsi to explain this approach, she stated the following: “When it comes to the nuclear issue, there is not a bright line between nuclear weapons and civilian nuclear use. These two issues are parallel as the fissile waste gained from peaceful nuclear sites can be used to make a dirty bomb. Additionally, the steps to enrich uranium from which it is able to be used for civilian use to that which can be used for weapons is very small. So given that the civilian use of nuclear weapons grants a de facto eventual use of military capabilities, we (as in the United States and the International community) don’t have the luxury of time. In addition, Iran has been behaving in a North Korea style of agreeing to certain conditions and then later retreating, threatening to remove themselves from the NPT while buying the time needed to go ahead and eventually create a nuclear weapon anyway. So, the policy of engagement with the regime is a futile one given Iran’s present actions and past dealings. Essentially, the U.S. and the World doesn’t have the luxury of time when dealing with Iran and is risking delegitimizing the freedom movement in Iran by engaging with Ahmadeinjad, whom the people of Iran count as illegitimate. The Green Movement for democracy has spoken out against Ahmadenijad and by the United States engaging with the Iranian regime, it is legitimizing the government in power in complete disregard of the will of the Iranian people while gaining nothing in regards to the nuclear issue. The Iranian people themselves called out to Obama in the November 4thdemonstrations when they said “Obama ya ba mah ya ba una” <Obama either you’re with us or against us>. It is a failing policy that will gain nothing for the U.S. in terms of the nuclear issue and will only end up hurting the Iranian people and Green Movement.”
Then here is the juicy part:
At this point, the student noted that there will be a panel in which Mr. Akbar Atri [Delectable note: Atri is a true Iranian freedom fighter] himself will be speaking on a panel at Georgetown on Sunday and if Mr. Parsi would like to defend his position, which is in complete opposition to that of those who lead the Green Movement, that Mr. Parsi was more than welcome to come put his position forward. Mr. Parsi said he would be unable to attend and had no further comment on the issue.
In other words, Parsi essentially conceded that he is wrong!
The Iranian regime lobbyist cannot even defend what he is paid to defend!
This is all very important background, in light of Speranza’s coverage of the Iranian protests ongoing. It appears Iran is exploding again, and journalist Heather Robinson reports that Iran could go nuclear within a few weeks. Read this yourself.
Iraqi parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi is warning that Iran is much closer to attaining nuclear capability than most sources, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the US State Department, believe. In fact, he predicts the Iranians could have a nuclear capability – and may announce that they have it – as soon as next month.
“We are receiving information which says Iran is so close to producing an atom bomb,” Alusi said in an interview earlier this month, the latest in a series of interviews conducted since September. “All the international community, they don’t realize how close [the Iranians] are to the goal… The Iranians will surprise us one day [soon] and say, ‘We have it.'”
Conclusion: time is of the essence, and “sanctions,” which Obama (and J Street) have tried to block until recently, will thus have no effect. They will be too little, too late.
Obama just today issued a “statement” that “strongly condemned” the brutality ongoing in Iran. But this is far too little and far too late.
It certainly appears that the Trita Parsis and J Streets of the world have won, even as they cannot support their arguments in public. They have succeeded at inculcating themselves inside the Obama administration (including the “Antisemitism Czar” who is a J Street stoogie), and pushing back any serious talk of sanctions until it is too late. And now, the Iranian people are dying in the streets and no longer believe the USA supports them.
Assuming Heather Robinson’s source is right, Iran will be nuclear in a few months, as the USA dithers.
It is very dispiriting to live in these troubling times, but alas, I have not given up all hope. I still believe that a long-term change in culture is possible, and our only hope. And that is why I am so actively promoting Love and Licenses.
Tags: Iran, J Street, NIAC, Planet Iran, Trita Parsi
