I was just researching the issue, and realized something that’s just unbelievable…Timmerman and Diaoleslam are straight-up creating lies about the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and Parsi (its president)…as an international affairs student, I wrote a paper on them once…and when I was looking for information about Parsi on the web, I came across not one site linking Parsi or his organization to the regime in Tehran (from what it looks like to me, he’s really against it)…But I did some research on Diaoleslam…a colleague of Timmerman (both writers tried to defame Parsi in their respective articles)…and turns out this guy (Diaoleslam) is a member of a terrorist group named MEK, and that this group is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations…What the hell? How are these guys pointing the finger at NIAC? Parsi and NIAC are pretty much the only voice of reason and peace among all the crazies…They seem to me like they represent the voice of ordinary Iranian Americans who don’t want to see their neighbors and friends in America die in war (Iraq, anybody???), and at the same time they don’t want their family members killed in Iran…But Timmerman and Diaoleslam, in their articles…seem to be the extremists, advocating for war. Crazy. BTW…here’s a link I found to NIAC’s response: http://www.niacouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=744&Itemid=59
You claim you wrote a paper on these fellows once, as if it's been awhile since you've been in school. What a load of bullsheiss. Why would you have written a single paper about Timmerman AND Diaoleslam before this point in time? That is, unless you were still in school when you posted this?
That's possible. You write like you are just copying something someone gave you, like a good little student who has been assigned the job of copying something over and over until you can remember it without having to think about it.
Let me guess. You're doing an internship with Fenton Communications and posting their talking points on rightwing websites was one of your first assignments? For those who don't know Fenton is the company that came up with the alar scare years ago, and a number of other scares which cost Americans jobs and subjected us to ever increasing regulation and only made lawyers fat.
Or maybe, since you clearly don't know what you're doing with regard to criticism of Timmerman as "extremist," you are of Middle Eastern descent and work for NAIT or the Hamas-loving terrorist front group CAIR? This is probably more likely. The only people I've ever heard describe Timmerman as an "extremist" are people who are hostile to Israel or who like to martyr kids for their agenda.
As to your apparently unfounded claims they are MEK- here is their response:
...One of the key goals of the new Iranian-American lobby recommended by Parsi and Namazi was - surprise-surprise - to convince Iranian-Americans that sanctions on Iran were "counterproductive." They have worked relentlessly ever since to win converts to their cause, from former Rep. Bob Ney, the convicted felon from Ohio, to Rep. Dennis Kucinic, a Democrat presidential contender.
Daioleslam unearthed damning information on Trita Parsi cohort Siamak Namazi and exposed the role his Atieh companies in Tehran have played in brokering international investment in Iran's oil and gas industry.
NIAC responded with a statement on their website, accusing Daioleslam of being "a Marxist Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO) supporter."
(That, by the way, probably qualifies as slander, given that the MEK is on the U.S. list of International Terrorist Organizations, making membership a crime. Daioleslam eventually put out a statement denying any connection or sympathy with the MEK, noting that the only "proof" offered by NIAC was the fact that one of his articles was picked up by an MEK website.)
Rather than address the points raised by Daioleslam (and in an earlier article, by me), NIAC created straw man arguments, accusing the two of us of advocating for war with Iran.
The Voice of America's Persian Service took interest, and sought to organize a face-to-face debate between Hassan Daioleslam and Trita Parsi. Daioleslam accepted the challenge, but Parsi never responded, despite repeated invitations sent to him by VOA producers by phone and by email. The show eventually aired in June without Parsi. By all accounts, it was a devastating blow to the pro-Tehran lobby.
------------"Intimidation Campaign" by (NIAC) Iran Mullahs' Lobby in US Persian Journal ^ | 8/26/07 | Persian Journal