Posted on 09/07/2006 4:25:15 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher
The Bush administration repeatedly warned that Iran would face serious consequences if it defied international demands to shut down its nuclear weapons program. So what did it do when Tehran blew off the Security Council’s Aug. 31 deadline to stop enriching uranium? It promptly issued a visa authorizing one of Iran’s leading theocrats, former president Mohammad Khatami, to embark on a propaganda tour of the United States. It is the first such visa issued to an Iranian president since 1979, when Islamist radicals loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini seized the US embassy in Tehran and held American diplomats hostage for nearly 15 months.
That'll show 'em.
When it comes to Iran, this administration has been consistent only in its inconsistency. Time and again it has condemned the Tehran regime for its sponsorship of Islamist terror, its domestic repression, and its violent rhetoric. And time and again it has failed to back up those condemnations with action. In September 2001, when President Bush warned that "any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime," the mullahs might have thought they had reason to be afraid. Today they know better.
This schizophrenia is perfectly captured in the State Department's inane explanation for the decision allowing Khatami to enter the United States:
"We recognize that former President Khatami headed a regime that is a leading sponsor of terrorism (and) human rights abuses, and presided over Iran’s secret nuclear program which is now the focus of possible UN action. After careful deliberation, however, we determined that issuing Mr. Khatami a limited visa, and allowing Mr. Khatami to present his views directly to the American people, will demonstrate to Iran that the United States upholds its commitment to freedom and democracy." Got that? It's up to us to convince Iran that we really are free and democratic. And how? By letting one of Tehran's senior propagandists barnstorm across America. Only in Foggy Bottom could people get paid to concoct such arguments.
And so, five years after the terror attacks that claimed 3,000 lives and plunged the United States into a global war against Islamist radicals, the former president of the world’s oldest and most dangerous Islamist dictatorship is on a multi-city US speaking tour. It began with appearances in Chicago and New York; on Thursday Khatami is scheduled to speak at the National Cathedral in Washington. Next Sunday, on the eve of 9/11, he will deliver an address at Harvard University. His topic: "Ethics of Tolerance in the Age of Violence."
When he became president in 1997, Khatami was reputed to be a moderate democratic reformer. If he had lived up to that reputation, his arrival in America might well be worth celebrating. True, his style was not as incendiary as that of his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But he was just as committed to Khomeini's radical revolution and its goal of worldwide Islamist rule. If there is one thing Khatami's presidency made clear, it is that the man was no moderate.
His election as president came only after religious authorities disqualified 234 potential competitors they considered too liberal. In his own writings, Khatami has insisted that "only those who have attended religious seminaries should have a voice in government." Separation of church and state? Not for this theocrat.
And he is no more opposed to terrorism than he is to theocracy. As minister of culture and Islamic guidance in the 1980s, Khatami oversaw the creation of Hezbollah, the deadly terrorist group that would kill more Americans prior to 9/11 than any other terrorist organization on earth. During the recent war in Lebanon, he hailed Hezbollah as "a shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims." Throughout Khatami's term of office, the US State Department identified Iran as the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism. It was on his watch that President Bush named Iran a part of the "Axis of Evil."
In 1998, Khatami's intelligence agents brutally murdered Darioush Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh, two well-known leaders of Iran's liberal opposition. The following year, government thugs attacked student dissidents at Tehran University. Several students were killed. Hundreds were arrested and tortured.
Many Iranians had hoped that Khatami's accession to office would mean more freedom of speech and of the press. But he presided over the shutting down of at least 85 newspapers and the prosecution of numerous journalists. Reporters Without Borders called Iran under Khatami "the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East." It was a prison as well for Iran's religious minorities, all of which were severely persecuted. In a letter protesting the National Cathedral’s invitation to Khatami, the chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Felice Gaer, notes that during Khatami’s tenure “Jews, Christians, Sunni and Sufi Muslims, Baha’is, dissident Shia Muslims, and others . . . faced systematic harassment, discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even execution based on their religious beliefs.”
Khatami's visa is a win for the mullahs, but a slap in the face to the people of Iran. What a blunder by the Bush administration. What a disgrace.
Blame President Bush for what the Liberal Harvard University did, which was to invite this nutcase to speak. Yeah, that real fair!!! Perhaps there is intel in who and what this terrorist talks to and does while he is here.
LLS
I hope there are protests everywhere -- especially the National Cathedral -- or is it now the National Mosque? This all such a disgrace.
By the time this theocrat leaves the country, Bush will be blamed for the takeover of our embassy in 1979, the failed rescue attempt in the desert as well as every terrorist attack since the early 90's.
The Times will gladly report it, and Reid & Pelosi will try to sell it. And there will be morons who will believe it.
10-15 thousand Iranians protested this bastard when he visited Germany... and Boston is giving him the red-carpet.
Wasn't there supposed to be FREEP of the Iranian bastard at National Cathedral?
I haven't seen anything on that...
If there is blame to be assigned, it should be assigned to Nicholas Burns at State (former Kerry-campaign advisor HIRED by Condi Rice), who approved the visa for this mullah-despot, and to Condi Rice herself, who failed to override the poor judgment of Burns.
So where does the buck stop folks? On Condi Rice's desk, or on the desk of President Bush?
"But he was just as committed to Khomeini's radical revolution and its goal of worldwide Islamist rule. If there is one thing Khatami's presidency made clear, it is that the man was no moderate."
Some guy was on FOX Dayside show yesterday defending Harvard's invite of the "moderate" Khatami. I wanted to shove this article down his throat.
It's today, I think.
There's also a press conference this morning at 9am eastern at the Nat'l Press Club, against Khatami, being held by Iranians for democracy.
Hmmmm. Should I use my free phone call, or ask the audience? I'll go with: eliminate half the multiple choice!
On Condi Rice's desk, or
on the desk of President Bush?
Thanks. I hope the press conference is on C-Span.
I kinda doubt they'll air it live, but I hope they show it later on.
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