Good Cop --- Bad Cop?

Not Ready for My Burqua ^ | 09/06/08

[happymom]

We've seen this act before.

On the one hand, we have current Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatening to wipe Israel and the United States off the face of the map. He warns that those wanting good relations with Iran will have to "Bow down before the greatness of the Iranian nation and surrender. If you don't accept to do this, the Iranian nation will force you to surrender and bow down."

But wait. We shouldn't take such whackjob rhetoric too seriously, according to former president Mohammed Khatami.

"The practical policy of the Islamic republic has never been to eliminate or wipe Israel off the map. And I don't believe that this policy has changed with the change of president," he said.

Riiiight.

Khatami, who is kicking off his two-week tour of the United States, seems to be everything that Ahmadinejad is not --- serene, not frothing at the mouth, with a quiet, academic air about him, the longed-for reformer. He is scheduled to speak at Harvard University this Friday on "Ethics of Tolerance in the Age of Violence." On Sept. 7, he will address an audience at Washington's National Cathedral on "The Dialogue of Civilizations."

"Great news! Great news! The deadly confrontation between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran is about to become history. The dove of peace is here in the person of the Smiling Mullah Khatami. Just look at his serene face with and ever-present reassuring smile. It makes you forget all your troubles, doesn’t it?" writes Iranian-American activist Amil Imani.

"During this turbaned fascist’s watch," Imani cites numerous incidents in which Khatami imprisoned and tortured dissident students . "Shamelessly, during the 9 July of 1999 students demonstration, for instance, this man called the Tehran university students “A bunch of hooligans,” while his storm-trooper hooligans, with police support, brutally attacked students in their dormitories throwing some students out of the windows of the dorm’s third floor. Now, he is welcomed at Harvard University to lecture its “hooligans” and faculty on practicing tolerance," Imani writes.

Imani details other human rights abuses by Khatami's regime, including the rape of women prisoners under the guise of marriage, before their execution. "A prison mullah performed the forced marriage ceremony to make it conform to the Islamic ethos," he writes.

Khatami also proceeded with work on Iran's nuclear weapons program, persecuted religious minorities, and supported terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and the Mahdi Army which is currently operating in Iraq.

These were some of the crimes cited by Massachussets governor Mitt Romney who Tuesday forbade state officials from providing any support for the Khatami visit to Harvard, including security and police escorts. In his declaration, Romney cited:

* During the period of time he was in office, from 1997 to 2005, Khatami presided over Iran’s secret nuclear program. Currently, the Iranian Government under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is snubbing the international community’s request to cease nuclear weapons production.

* In the recent conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border, Khatami described the terrorist group Hezbollah as a “shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world.”

* Khatami has endorsed Ahmadinejad’s call for the annihilation of Israel.

* During Khatami’s presidency, Iran refused to hand over the Iranian intelligence officials who were responsible for the attack on the Khobar Towers that killed 19 U.S. military personnel.

* In his own country, Khatami oversaw the torture and murder of Iranian students, journalists, and others who spoke out for freedom and democracy. Khatami relaxed freedom of speech laws giving democracy reformers a false sense of security only to engage in one of the largest crackdowns in the country’s history.

* In Khatami’s Iran, there was no religious tolerance. According to the U.S. Office of International Religious Freedom, Iran was one of the worst offenders of religious persecutions. Minorities, such as Evangelicals, Jews, Catholics and others, have suffered.

While Amadinejad longs for the return of the Mahdi, or 12th Imam, with an itchy trigger finger on a soon-to-be (if not already) nuclear button, the West longs for the appearence of an equally elusive, if not mythical, figure: the Iranian moderate. Mitt Romney's not falling for it.

“Khatami pretends to be a moderate, but he is not. My hope is that the United States will find and work with real voices of moderation inside Iran. But we will never make progress in the region if we deal with wolves in sheep’s clothing,” the governor said. We can only hope that other Americans are as perceptive.

[happymom]

This is an new article I wrote for my blog. Let me know what you think. Thanks.