Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Diminishing Glory

Veiling our ineptitude in the legacy of Cyrus the Great, cowardice abounds, we abandon Iran in her moment of need and justify our action on the basis of the Islamic regime’s despotism. How cynical that under the watchful contribution of Cyrus to the world, the replica on which he inscribed free worship for his subjects, considered to be the world’s first universal declaration of human rights kept at the United Nations, Iran’s enemies had the audacity to degrade her children under the name of universal law; A law upheld by Iran and violated by UN members.

And how sad it is that while claiming to be proud of our history, those who humiliated us were applauded by inspiring leaders[1]. Claiming to be Cyrus’ heirs, those who wish to step into his shoes, commend the decision of the UN; equating the punishment of Iranians to the chastisement or the capitulation of the Islamic regime. How misplaced this Iranian pride and punishment is. The cultural heritage of the Zoroastrians is the belief in their spiritual and cultural superiority. Compromise with the outside world was considered a weakness (Ziemke p.87[i]). In fact, according to Stack[ii], the history of Cyrus the Great is so embedded in most Iranians that we still think of ourselves as a superpower. How can the former Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, and the terrorist cult leader, Maryam Rajavi, be ignorant of the psyche of the very people they hope to lead?

History has shown economic sanctions and political reprimands are ineffective in preventing nuclear technology; North Korea and Iraq are two cases in point. Even an Israeli air strike against the Iraqi Osirak nuclear plant in 1981 did not curb their ambitions. Given the determination of countries to reach their goal, one must therefore weigh the consequences of isolation and sanctions.

A serious concern is that although the Chernobyl power plant tragedy reinforced the need for international cooperation, politics continue to dominate the arena of decision making. To piece-meal a nuclear plant is an accident waiting to happen. Those who encourage sanctions and applaud them, are blinded by ambition and do not have the interest of Iranians at heart.

What must be of particular concern to any Iranian with a sense of patriotism is the reality of Iran’s exhaustible fossil fuels. Due to an increase in demand and decrease in supply, Iran will find itself wanting for its energy needs in the next decade [iii]. Had the leaders who praised the sanctions spent less time pursuing their ambitions and more time studying Iran’s national interest, they would realize that Iran is in a dire situation and that it must search for alternative fuel supplies regardless of the government. The NPT ensures Iran’s inalienable right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology. It is the guarantee of the Iranians for the future.

And finally, the imposition of sanctions meant that the US administration was successful in intimidating the ‘world body’ into taking away the right of the Iranian people and violating international law- again. The sanctions were not a judgment on the Islamic regime – the resolution meant denying Iran her sovereignty –with the full knowledge that sanctions would be ineffective, with the next chapter in this game being military action.

The method used to destroy Iran, as known in the neo-con circle, will be “Total War”. "A total war strategy does not have to include the intentional targeting of civilians, but the sparing of civilian lives cannot be its first priority … The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another people group.” [iv]

Many of the total war and creative destruction crowd get their ideas across to the public through an agency called Benador Associates, which arranges their TV appearances and speaking engagements, and helps to place their articles in newspapers. Ms. Benador, the founder of Benador Associates, along with Senator Liberman is busy promoting Reza Pahlavi[v]. The Infamous Max Boot, a Benador associate has endorsed using the MEK to cause havoc and mayhem in Iran. Boot is not alone in promoting his idea. The Iran Policy Group (IPC) is advocating the use of terror group fighters from the Mujaheden-e Khalq (MEK/MKO) “as intelligence agents and urged the consideration of military options to spark an uprising in Iran,”[vi].

Ahmadinejad is not blameless, this is certain. But one must realize that the West has always wanted to have Iran back as a client state. For the past 27 years, the role of presidency in Iran has always been ineffective. It was the West that chose to give Ahmadinejad a rope to hang himself with, and with it, the Iranian people. We must cut the rope that is about to hang the people.

If Iranians wish to claim their past glory, they owe it to future generations to defend their country today. Let them be as proud of their history as we have been. Sanctions and war will only hurt the nameless and the blameless; those who are too poor to escape the savagery of ambition and greed. Let us not betray the future, nor bury the underprivileged; but recognize the enemy and work together to save our country.

[1] Reza Pahlavi’s comments on sanctions: http://www.rezapahlavi.org/messages/?persian

Maryam Rajavi’s comments on sanctions: http://www.maryam-rajavi.com:80/content/view/450/67/

[i] Ziemke, Caroline, Cambridge. The MIT Press: 2000

[ii] Stack, Megan. K. “Iranians see right to nuclear program as matter of national pride”. Los Angeles Times. 12 Dec. 2004

[iii] http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0603903104v1

[iv] http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,901982,00.html

[v] http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,901982,00.html

[vi] http://www.niacouncil.org/pressreleases/press481.asp

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, Payvand News, December 29, 2006

January 5, 2007 0 comments

USA

Movers and Shakers of U.S. Foreign Policy

The Milken Institute is situated in the heart of Santa Monica, Southern California. This ‘publicly supported independent economic think tank’ which has received a landmark multi-year grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles to help the ‘independent’ research of Milken realize its goal of establishing Israel as one of the top 10 countries in terms of quality of life and GDP per capita[i], was hosting author and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations Max Boot on November 9th. He was launching his new book "War Made New: Technology, Warfare and the Course of History – 1500 to Today". My interest in attending was to hear his strategy on Iran.

Max Boot was introduced as one of the top 500 most influential people in the making of US foreign policy, it came as a jolt to hear him redefine America’s national interest and find myself having to re-learn the definition of ‘enemy’. What was alarming was that with the exception of a couple of gifted Iranian friends, the crowd did not find his remarks contentious.

The mesmerized audience was happy to accept that an ‘enemy’ was anyone who fought back when his/her country was invaded. Using 21st century terminology ‘Jihadist’, he was referring to the 1859 invasion of Sudan by the British and the ease with which the crazy ‘jihadist Mahdi’ and his followers were gunned down without any fear of repercussion that the enemy, the terrorist Sudanese, would follow the good guys who had gone to Sudan to invade the country, back to England. Of course, these days with open borders this posed a problem. The same theory applied to the Algiers, according to Max, it was so easy back then to kill the ‘enemy’ without fear of ‘enemy Jihadists’ retaliating. I was left with a clear picture of an enemy – one who resisted occupation of his/her country.

Max Boot was talking about Iraq, but I believe he had Israel at heart and he was moving on to Iran.

Obviously he was pleased with the sectarian violence and the civil war in Iraq. Having admitted that he was totally oblivious of the Iranian culture, he was endorsing using the terrorist group Mojahedeen-e-Khalg (MEK) currently being trained in Iraq to break up Iran in a similar fashion in order to weaken the central government. He proudly shared his knowledge that Iran was only 51% Persian and the remainder 49% despised being under the Persian dominance. A bold statement for a man who pleads ignorance about Iranian culture! Grinning ear to ear, he had come up with the magic solution to stop Iran’s nuclear program and prevent it from giving weapons to the insurgents in Iraq.

Having sat through his talk and a host of irrelevant questions, finally the microphone found its way to me.

I told him that maybe the book had prevented him from keeping current, but according to BBC on line[ii], the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction auditor has reported that KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton is arming the insurgents and not Iran. More than 14,000 weapons supplied by Halliburton destined for the Iraqi government found their way to the insurgent groups after Pentagon lost track of them!

The look of impatience and annoyance crept to his cheeky face; he was anticipating more insolence from my corner..

I reminded him that America had lost over 3000 lives fighting a ‘war on terror’, it had spent over $3 trillion dollars (I did not even mention the poor Iraqis), and here he was suggesting that we co-opt a group listed on the State Department’s foreign terrorist organization (FTO), when in fact we had been down that road in the past when we helped arm the Mujahedeen and train Osama ben Ladin. The consequences of that little venture came back to haunt us on 9/11. Why would he even contemplate putting America’s credibility on line, and make the possibility of another 9/11 feasible.

I was also curious to know why he defined the ‘jihadist, terrorist enemy’ as someone who wanted to defend his country – I was confused on that one. I wandered if Islam was a factor – even in 1859.

I suppose I should not have asked such a dumb question from such a smart man. After all, he is in Washington and I am in Salt Lake City. His beautifully articulated response, as if rehearsed often times before, was that the fascist Stalin was an ally of the US during World War II, so even if ‘we detest the MEK, we should use them to forward our national interest’.

I am not a history scholar, but I had read that the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 prompted the United States to see the Soviet Union as an embattled country being overrun by fascist forces, and this attitude was further reinforced in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. They joined forces to fight their enemies in spite of difference in ideology. The MEK terrorist group who have killed Americans are the enemy, not only in the context of having taken American lives, but in the broader sense of America’s ‘war on terror’.

He also said the mistake we made in Afghanistan was to leave too quickly. Puzzled, I thought does he intend for the US to go into Iran after the MEK and stay there – colonize or what? I never got the microphone back to ask these disturbing questions, nor did he explain what he meant about ‘jihadist, terrorist enemy’ – I suppose if America sent the MEK to Iran and nationalist Iranians fought them, which every single Iranian would, man, woman, child, young and old, they would all be labeled ‘jihadist, terrorists’ – what an irony to call a nationalist a terrorist for fighting terrorists!

Max Boot confidently announced that ‘it is in our national interest’ to disintegrate Iran and start a war using the MEK. He is not without influence. In the forum at the Milken Institute, attended by rich folks ready to write checks in praise of his clever ideas and ideals, an audience of 99% Jewry, whose national interest was Max referring to?

He did speak of America’s failure in the Iraq war, but did it serve Israel? With the disintegration of the threat from Iraq, over 650,000 dead Iraqis, the United States illegal invasion, its use of torture, the violation of the Geneva Conventions, and the world’s focus on the war there, more than any other time Israel seems to have a carte blanche to massacre its neighbors and expand its illegal occupation of Gaza.

Having convinced America to attack and destroy Iraq, ‘independent’ institutions that serve Israel’s interests, are now persuading the White House to destroy Iran, with no regard for the country that has stood staunchly behind Israel – America itself. America has repeatedly put its moral credibility and its national interest on line for Israel, thanks to Milken and similar think tanks, persuaded by influential people like Max Boot. And the people of Middle East pay the price.

Without a doubt, in the very near future, Americans will wake up with a jolt and realize that they have paid the heftiest price of all. Their White House can no longer make a decision without Israel’s blessing. They will recognize that gone with the lives of their sons and daughters, is their reputation, and they have become a nation both morally and fiscally bankrupt only to enable the growth of an unstoppable fiend in the Middle East. Armed with nuclear weapons backed by American policy makers, the ugly face of this fiend may well turn on the US if the next veto is denied, or if peace in the Middle East is chosen over another bloody and senseless war. That will be the real Armageddon.

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[i] http://www.milkeninstitute.org/research/research.taf?cat=israel

[ii] http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6114132.stm

By: Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich – Payvand’s Iran News – 11/15/06

November 16, 2006 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK, The West and Iran

The relationship between the Mojahedeen-e Khaleg (MEK), the West and Iran is a curious one. A fatal attraction that provokes images of a decadent man who must indulge himself in his particular habits in a house of ill-repute; the MEK being the house, with the West maintaining a destructive relationship for the sole purpose of tormenting Iran and Iranians.

For years now I have shuddered every time a Western country has made contact with the MEK; whether it was their spokesperson Jafarzadeh, or with Maryam Rajavi, or some other low-life. Anxiety would fill every conscious hour of my day and even creep into my resting hours and torment me to think that Congress was working on taking these traitors off their Foreign Terrorist Organization list. How could Maryam Rajavi be allowed to live comfortably in a Paris suburb, this woman who is the leader of a terrorist cult? Further, how can she be free to walk into the European parliament, meet with (some) British MPs and be embraced by Belgium Senators?

The West claims to have high moral values and for the past three years, it has been engaged in a ‘war on terror’. America has employed extraordinary means to fight ‘terrorists’, yet when Ahmadinejad delivered his first speech to the United Nations, the US, in spite of its declared values and its proclaimed war on terror, issued visas to the MEK terrorist cult to ensure they would protest Ahmadinejad’s arrival in New York (1) – The ‘house was visited, the US was gratified, Iran tormented’. This has been a pattern for some time. Who knows when it started.

And so the West has become addicted to these visits to the MEK. I say the West but in reality, I am confident that it is ordained by the US. As Iran’s behavior becomes more intransigent, the MEK seem to become more popular, and Maryam Rajavi sees a crown on her head instead of a headscarf. So as Iran keeps adding centrifuges, more and more senators will visit the MEK wanna-be-queen. Embassy doors will be flung open to her and she will no doubt accumulate a great deal of frequent flyer miles.

The strength of this lethal relationship with the MEK has prevailed over the Islam- phobia that is prevalent everywhere in Europe (2). Fear of Islam has manifested itself by rejecting women who choose to wear the Islamic headscarf or other form of hijab. The Islamic cover has become symbolic of a challenge to the Western democracy and secular society. And yet, due to her extraordinary position, Maryam Rajavi’s Islamic headscarf, along with her activities as a cult leader of a terrorist organization is exempt from this rejection. She is welcomed by Europeans – headscarf and all.

In their fervor to torment, they have overlooked the Iranian people. It is important to remember that in the volatile Middle East, the ‘Arab Street’, that is, the Arab public opinion and not their despotic rulers, bear a great deal of hostility towards the West, America in particular. Aside from Israel who is the only US ally because it receives $6 billion a year in aid so that it can go about its destructive business, Iranians are the only other nation in the Middle East who have some degree of amity towards the Americans. Even NATO member Turkey blames and hates America for the recent uprising of the PKK. The relationship the West has adopted with the MEK will not go down well with Iranians.

Iranians have not, and will never forget the treachery of the MEK. They are more hated than any enemy known to them. If the West, led by America, continues its song and dance with the disgraced MEK cult, whatever good will is left among the Iranian people towards the West will quickly dissipate. The West should first uphold its values before it takes it upon itself to attack another country for lacking them. Sleeping with an enemy, the terrorist leader of the MEK, will not benefit anyone.

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1. http://rescueattempt.tripod.com/id30.html

2. http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=1030

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich – payvand.com – 10/30/2006

November 2, 2006 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Bargaining with the Devil

It would seem that there is a great deal at stake for the 150 MEK supporters in Congress. Whether it is these congressional members who are providing Jafarzadeh, the MEK spokesman, with aerial photos of Iran’s nuclear facilities, or vice versa, the Bush administration is having a field day with it at the UN General Assembly.

Of course, the doctored satellite images that took America to war three years ago, proved costly. Body bags and a depleted treasury have prompted the Pentagon to revisit its preemptive nuclear doctrine. The justification would be saving lives – obliterating cities to save a thousand American lives and half a billion dollars seems reasonable. Rumsfeld is right on the ball. School children will grow up learning that Iran had to be nuked so that the Iranians would stop sponsoring terrorists that were going to harm Americans with their nukes 10 years down the line. Oil was reaching $100 a barrel. We wanted to keep Alaska clean for you all.

Sadly, the mainstream media is following suit. Regrettably, there is no free press in this society – it is simply a mouthpiece of corporations and the government. Else, why would the speaker of a terrorist cult the MEK be given a platform? And why would the facts about Iran’s nuclear program be distorted to such an extent?

Even the once reputable The Economist writes "two decades of nuclear deception” (September 10-16th, 2005). The uninformed author of this article, or the ill-intentioned writer, should be reminded that Iran was openly soliciting bids to buy reactors from different countries after Germany, under pressure from the U.S., withheld its reactors which had been duly paid for. In fact, in 1996, Iran filed a lawsuit against Germany’s Kraftwerk Union at the International Commerce Commission.

More importantly, as a signatory to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the construction of a facility, even a nuclear facility, does not have to be reported to the IAEA (Natanz is a case in point). The only stipulation is that 180 days PRIOR to introducing any nuclear material, the NPT member has to declare the existence of the facility. The construction of the Natanz facility is not a violation of the NPT as the Bush administration would have us believe, echoed by the media. The NPT does allow a member to legally build any nuclear facility, including one for uranium enrichment, so long as it is declared, and safeguarded by the IAEA, and is intended for peaceful purposes.

As for the revelations of Natanz, though Jafarzadeh would like to take credit, if treason can be given credit to; it was revealed by Seymour Hersh, the renowned journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre and the human right abuses at Abu Gharib prison (and Afghanistan), that it was indeed Israel that provided the MEK with the intelligence reports, many unfounded, regarding Iran’s nuclear sights.

The 150 congressional members have betrayed the trust of the American people by bargaining with the devil, the MEK, a terrorist cult who betrayed their own people”

October 1, 2005 0 comments

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