Replies

The following is a interesting bit of correspondence between Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi (daughter of film maker in prison in Iran) and Gary Sick (Formerly of the Jimmy Carter Administration).

From Banafsheh:

ALL OF A SUDDEN, this guy who was instrumental in installing my father's jailors in place CARES about my father's fate...YEAH RIGHT...Looks like this pushy old man has either been a teacher OR a student of the Stalinist fairy tale writing school. The sad part is that he doesn't even know that EVERYONE is reading the e-mails being sent around by his silly little oil-grubbing group.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary G Sick"
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 2:34 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Gary Sick on Iran

It is a mystery to me why, if you are so anguished by what some members write in G2K, that you go to such lengths to sneak a peek.

Your father deserves all the sympathy and support that the outside world can muster. Not only has he been cruelly imprisoned and persecuted, but he must also realize that, in the name of defending him, his daughter has adopted the very same methods of hatred, intolerance and conviction of
infallibility that motivated those who put him in prison.

Gary Sick

On Sat, 28 Feb 2004, Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi wrote:
Mr. Sick,

Seriously, who do you think these fabulous REFORMISTS you're apologizing for, really are? Wasn't Khatami the PR guy for Hezbollah? Give us a break with the rhetoric already...We're hip to this game. What makes you think you
can think or decide the fate of Iran? Who died and left you in charge of the destiny of my country? Your actions border on undignified, Sir. You were supposed to be a statesman...how have you now ended up as the architect of
doom for a nation who does not want you "gaming" on it? Doesn't the loathe that Iranians feel for you make you feel bad? Aren't you embarassed that you are thought of and described the world over by a great number of pretty smart people, as an arrogant pseudo-puppet master? Sorry to be so blunt and possibly even rude (I was brought up to be very polite to my elders but also to speak the painful truth as I see it) about this but you're getting up there in years now...why don't you relax and let younger folks who are less burdoned by deep seated and calcified dogma run the show? Today's world requires flexible and horizontal thinking and insight; your generation has for the most part, proven itself to be a vertical-minded stick-in-the-mud.

In the words of the great Winston Churchill: "if you're not a communist when you're in your twenties, you have no heart; if you're not a capitalist when you're in your forties, you have no brain!" Now THOSE are words to live by!

Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary G Sick" <ggs2@columbia.edu
To: "gulf2000 list" <
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 1:14 PM
Subject: Details Matter
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 08:55:41 +0000

Forgetting the details in any realm of life is the task of philosophical totalitarianism and epistemological totalitarianism that are the political totalitarianism's family members. We are no Gods and cannot look at history and life like him, although Gods, as presented in theology, has general and detailed knowledge of the world at the same time- he is supposed to be omniscient. For totalitarians the suffering of "a" human being does not matter, because they look at history as God looks at it in a long shot; this is the most dangerous perspective for politicians and political analysts. We are supposed to have close-up and long shots at the same time, though difficult.

Saying that there is no difference between the folks who are leaving the Majlis and the folks who are arriving, or calling the ex-military appointed MPs of the Seventh parliament as reformist is totally based on a totalitarian epistemology. Supposedly the both groups have been similar in the 1980's, but reformists did not kill Zahra Kazemi, authoritarians did; reformists did not attack university dorms, authoritarians did; reformists did not stabbed Frouhars' bodies 15 and 9 times, authoritarians did; reformists are pro-life (love + happiness + choice) and authoritarians are pro death. Some of the reformists jumped over the U.S. embassy walls but they did not kill 250 Iranians political activists and intellectuals in a few years; most of the reformists were revolutionaries in their 20's but they are now involved in a non-violent civil rights movement.

Reformists have very awful records in fighting against authoritarians but this does not mean that Mafia goons are efficient in feeding the people, creating jobs, attracting foreign investment, defending the realm and dealing with neighbors. Authoritarians have been the main obstacles for these tasks. The authoritarian policies and actions have never been able to do the sorts of things any country has to do. In Khomeini's term, "they cannot run a bakery." When Rafsanjani left the office, the country had more than 30 billion dollars debt, and now the reformist administration has 10 billion dollars in his deposit box. Iranian authoritarians are heroes of deficit.

For people who care about human rights and suffering of the Iranian people, any gain of the foot-boys of Iranian mafia is " sort of as if the end of the world is arriving." I invite people who are sitting in the position of God in the U.S. to go to Iran - with an eternal regime that is not in danger of imminent fall - and live under the auspices of Iranian mafia for a while to experience nightly curfews, to be attacked by the police for having satellite dishes and receivers at home, to be tried for writing an article or saying something, and to be beaten by the vice police for wearing short-sleeve shirts in Summer. I don't know when
this regime will collapse - no one can predict in an unpredictable situation created by this regime- but we are not be shameful of the hope that we have for Iranian people who deserve more than this.

The authoritarian regime in Iran cannot be an effective regime; Mohammad Reza Shah, and Rafsanjani are two good examples of this failure. In Iran, political development and democratization comes first. Rafsanjani had the same slogans for economic development when he revised the constitution and got the power in 1989: bread and not democracy. The dream for bread did not come true. Rafsanjani talked about making Kouhgilouyeh another Switzerland, and now Haddad-e `Adel talks about "Islamic Japan." For Iranians, left or right, these are jokes (ideology), not utopia.

"The reform process will probably accelerate now that the so-called "hardliners" are in charge of the Majlis," if we define "reform" as more violation of human, civil and constitutional rights of Iranian people.

They closed two newspapers and the headquarter of Participation Front Party before the end of counting ballots; We have seen these kinds of reforms for a quarter of a century by Iranian authoritarians.

The "new reforms" will include:

-more filtering of websites,

-more pressures on NGOs,

-more torture and solitary confinements for activists,

-more censorship of books and movies,

-more killings of non-conformists by people who want to enforce the shari`ah law and clean the society,

-more selling the public companies to authoritarians with almost free prices that was called privatization in Rafsanjani's administration,

-more luxury (Khamenei bought a private airplane from Brunei with a price of 130 million dollars and the seller is disappeared; the government has arrested the Iranian dealer who has got 6 million dollars as his percentage),

-more embezzlement and corruption,

-more dams with leakage,

-more openings of buildings that were opened several times by the officials and so on.

Iran In Touch With Al-Qaeda Terror Network: US Envoy

Feb 129 2004
Indolink, US News

Islamabad, Feb. 29 (NNN): Iran is in contact with Al-Qaeda terror network, US State Department’s ambassador-at-large J Cofer Black has alleged.

He has demanded that Iran must expel or extradite all members of the network to the countries of their origin.

In an exclusive interview with Geo TV, Black said that US intelligence agencies are aware of the presence of some senior al-Qaeda leaders in Iran who are dangerous. He said that "these al-Qaeda operators are not only a threat to the US but they are also a threat to Pakistan".

Black appreciated the role of Pakistan in the war against terrorism and said that "two-thirds of al-Qaeda has been neutralised and more than 3,500 supporters have been arrested all over the world after 9/11".

He was not sure that Osama bin Laden would be captured alive but he said one thing with full confidence: "We will capture him very soon, if he does not surrender, then I don’t know what will happen?"

Black categorically denied the report of Radio Tehran that Osama was captured in South Waziristan. He said that the radio made the same claim last year, which was not true.

Black served for 28 years in the CIA but he was not ready to answer some questions related to intelligence. He neither confirmed nor contradicted the recent secret visit of CIA chief George Tenet to Pakistan. He was not ready to comment on a reported meeting between Tenet and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan in Islamabad but he said that Dr Qadeer is definitely providing vital information about proliferation.

Responding to a question, Black confirmed that coalition troops in Afghanistan are preparing for a major "hunt Osama operation" but he refused to comment on the reports that Osama’s deputy Dr Ayman al-Zawahri was spotted by US spy planes recently in the Waziristan region. Black also spoke on the threat of nuclear terrorism.

http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=022804102334