Rebecca Griffin
Political Director
Peace Action West
2201 Broadway, Suite 321,
Oakland, CA 94612

Dear Mrs. Griffin,

The Iranian-American community expresses grave concern regarding the Peace Action West’s hosting of Trita Parsi to speak at “off-the-record policy and messaging webinar for congressional candidates on Iran policy. “ While we appreciate your efforts, we consider Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) an intellectually dishonest regime apologist and lobbyist that serves as the mouth piece for the mullahs.

For over three decades, various governments have used dialogue and diplomacy with the regime in Iran to no avail, starting with the administration of President Jimmy Carter, who did everything possible to assure their new regime of American friendship and in the process failed miserably. Since that time, the more world governments have tried to engage the regime’s leaders, the more belligerent, emboldened and abusive the regime has become.

Much of what drives Iranian politics and decision-making protocol is based on hatred of Israel and the West. The Iranian regime demonizes the U.S. as the ‘Great Satan,’ repeatedly and forcefully denies the Holocaust, pledges to wipe Israel off the map and threatens to overthrow or dominate America’s Persian Gulf allies. Moreover, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated his belief that the mission of Iran is to prepare the way for the imminent return of the ‘Hidden Imam’ messiah, whose reemergence will be preceded by a period of chaos and war. Nuclear weapons would give Iran the ability to realize this radical vision.

The Islamic regime’s apologists such as NIAC deceptively portray the Islamic government in Iran as a pragmatic and rational entity. They suggest that dialogue and diplomacy are the best way to deal with Iran. They falsely claim that sanctions are not effective and hurt ordinary Iranian people. They justify the regime’s blatant human rights violations, which has surpassed China, on U.S. pressure and ridiculously claimed that recognition of the IRI would improve the human rights violations in Iran.

Lobbyists such as Trita Parsi who use the pretext of easing the sanctions to help ordinary Iranians, are deceitful, and are meant to intentionally misguide the American public and government officials. NIAC’s false claim of advocating human rights is merely a cover to hide its true intention which is carried out behind the scenes to ease sanctions so that big corporations can sell nuclear technology, military gear, sophisticated surveillance technologies, electronic hardware and software applications to a criminal regime which uses them to spy on, arrest, torture, rape and kill its own citizens.

Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, providing funding, training, arms, and political support to terrorist groups in the Middle East and worldwide such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda. Iranian-backed terrorist groups have killed U.S. and NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Center for Security Policy cites NIAC as a lobby organization for the government of Iran. As a result of a lawsuit, numerous NIAC documents have surfaced that show NIAC lobbies for policies favorable to the regime in Iran. Law enforcement experts, who have reviewed some of NIAC’s emails, memos and board minutes, believe that NIAC has operated as an undeclared lobby and may be guilty of violating tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying disclosure laws.

Court documents paint a very disturbing picture of Trita Parsi. They range from defrauding the federal government, lying to members of Congress to tax fraud. NIAC has lied about its membership numbers. It claimed once that it had 33,000 members and now court documents reveal that it has less than 500 members and is not even willing to disclose them. As a 501c3 tax exempt organization, NIAC refuses to disclose its audit and tax reports. Trita Parsi is routinely shunned from the Iranian-American community and does not even answer questions raised by the Iranian-Americans, a constituency he purports to represent.

Currently, the Middle East is in crisis. Pro-democracy forces are springing up daily to demand basic human rights and better living conditions. It is about time that important organizations such as yours distance themselves from the regime lobbyists such as Trita Parsi and publicly align themselves with the democracy-seeking people who have suffered brutally at the hands of dictators and tyrants.

We respectfully request that you cancel this speaking event and dis-invite Mr. Parsi, the Iranian mullahs’ apologist, from this speaking event and other similar events in the future and avoid potential embarrassment.

Sincerely,

Dr. Arash Irandoost, Founder
Pro Democracy Movement of Iran
Walton K. Martin – Director, Iran Information project – USA
Dr. Gill Gilespie – Directior, Iran Information project – UK

Behdad Morshedi, UK

Shabnam Assadollahi, Award winner human Rights activist, Canada

Pamela Geller, Editor, Publisher Atlas Shrugs | President, SION| Executive Director, AFDI/SIOA

Amil Imani, Iran expert, author of Obama meets Ahmadinejad and Operation Persian Gulf

Roxanne Ganji, Political Activist
Mohammad T. Moslehi – Journalist and Political Activist, Washington DC
Shadi Paveh, Huamn Rights Activist
Saied Shemirani, Television Host, human rights and political activist

The Undersigned