A New Look

As of today, niacINsight has a new look.  We hope you like it!

This is just the beginning, though.  In a couple of days, NIAC will unveil a new and improved website over at niacouncil.org.  It’s taken months to get everything ready, but soon you will be able to access brand new resources, news and commentary, information about events and even a special section with added content for NIAC members.  Not a NIAC member yet?  Sign up quick to get all the benefits of our new website!

The truth is incontrovertible

Here at NIAC, we’ve been focusing on doing our work rather than devoting all our time to responding to the flimsy allegations made against us by Eli Lake (with the assistance of an individual we’re suing for defamation, and parroted by neoconservative bloggers).

But since BBC Persian has done an actual investigation of the allegations against NIAC and the political motivations behind them, we felt like this video is worth sharing.  (Persian, and skip ahead past the first 20 seconds)

English readers who’d like more information can find our response to Mr. Lake’s *ahem* journalism here and a point-by-point response to the many insinuations (and outright falsehoods) in his article here.

And for those unfamiliar with the quotation this post’s title is taken from–it’s one of my favorites by Winston Churchill–here it is reproduced in its entirety:

“The truth is incontrovertible.  Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.”

Abdo: “The Rise of the Iranian Dictatorship”

Geneive Abdo, Iran analyst at the Century Foundation, wrote an article in the October 7, 2009 edition of Foreign Policy about the expanding power of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran.

Abdo writes:

“The secretive paramilitary group became a dominant institution in Iran — socially, politically, militarily, and economically — during Ahmadinejad’s first term. He appointed IRGC members to positions as ambassadors, mayors, cabinet ministers, and high-ranking officials at state-run economic institutions. The IRGC returned the favor during the electoral campaign. Before the election, the chief of the IRGC, Mohammad Ali Jafari, encouraged the guards to “participate” — a not-so-subtle directive to do whatever necessary to guarantee Ahmadinejad’s re-election. They did so, both by intimidating opposition members and even, some in Iran allege, single-handedly rigging the vote.”

The newly appointed commander of the Basij paramilitary group under IRGC control is Mohammad Reza Naghdi, a senior military officer who was sanctioned by the UN for links to Iran’s ballistic missile program.  Adbo highlights his role as “a key player in organizing and financing Ansar Hezbollah, a militia that orchestrated the 1999 attack on student dormitories at Tehran University” among his other involvements with severe crackdowns on dissidents in Iran in illustrating what she refers to as the titular “Rise of the Iranian Dictatorship”.

Abdo’s views ring true with other analysts and scholars on Iran, as well as some current developments. Rasool Nafisi, professor from Strayer University, recently discussed the increasing military stronghold on Iran socially, politically, economically at a NIAC briefing on Capitol Hill as part of its US-Iran Policy program. Recently a company affiliated with the IRGC purchased a majority share of Iran’s telecommunications monopoly for nearly $8 billion. Kenneth Pollack of the Saban Center recently spoke of the silencing of more moderate opposition and reformist voices in Iran since the June election and the continuing rise of hardline elements in the Iranian government at a recent discussion on Middle East affairs.

Abdo also writes about how the militaristic expansion in Iran causing stirs on all sides of the political discourse:

“Khamenei’s appointments come amid a fierce debate inside Iran. Even conservatives are unnerved by the militarization of the state. They argue that the military’s intervention in Iranian politics is against the revolutionary ideals of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic in 1979. Khomeini established the IRGC to defend the revolution from internal threats after the fall of the shah. In 1988, he established the Basij forces on university campuses across Iran to ensure that students, long known for political dissent, would remain loyal to the republic.

Now, Khamenei has given the militias under his control unprecedented power. This will surely lead to a more restrictive society at the precise moment a broad-based opposition movement seemed to promise real change for the first time since the 1979 revolution.”

This trend has created fears of a descent into a Junta-like system in Iran.

NIAC on Twitter

NIAC is now on Twitter–check us out here: twitter.com/niacouncil.

Many thanks to our friends

I want to take a moment to say thanks to all of our loyal readers here at niacINsight.  It’s incredibly encouraging for us to see that you care about our work, so thank you. 

And a special note of thanks to our good friends Laura Rozen and Paul Kerr, who both run much more successful blogs than this one, and who have linked to these pages recently.  We are very grateful, so you should check them out as well over at The Cable and Total WonKerr.  Bookmark them, visit them daily, and comment on their posts, because they’re two of the best in the business.

Oh, and happy inauguration day!

Disgruntled Iranian Students

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Disgruntled Iranian Students“, posted with vodpod

A student at Shiraz University refused to ask  visiting speaker of parliament and former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani a question because, “I don’t accept you as the legitimate speaker or the parliament as legitimate.”

The student continued, ” I hate three things. One, I hate [President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Two, I hate him for his hypocrisy…” The video becomes a bit incomprehensible as students for and against the government start chanting, so we don’t know what the third reason is. Throughout the scene, Larijani remained quiet and calm.

Despite censorship, Iranian students were able to use Youtube to increase the visibility of their protests.

Do you know your neighbor?

Last night, NIAC held an informal meet and greet where members of the community were welcomed to come by to meet NIAC staff and ask questions and discuss any issues on their mind.  Between the hours of 7-9 pm, Iranian-American Denver residents dropped in at their own convenience to say hello and talk politics.

During the meeting I was amazed to find out that there are approximately 4,000 to 10,000 Iranians in Colorado!  The large difference in the numbers is mainly due to a lack of accurate data since the last census was taken.  The 2000 U.S. Census places the overall Iranian number far lower than what is commonly predicted and Iranians are constantly growing in numbers. Hence, speculation often tends to range from the very low to the very high.

My amazement at the discovery of the numbers in Colorado came at the fact that we don’t know we exist!  We all know about Tehrangeles and New York and some other key locations Iranian Americans have chosen to migrate to, but we’re not too sure about our own neighbors.

Regardless, I am impressed by the large numbers and the apparent vibrant community here.  The individuals that we had an opportunity to meet with are well informed and very much aware of the political environment.  All in all, our informal event was well received and well attended.  Thanks to all of those who chose to take an hour or two of their evening to join us for an informal chit chat session!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

From all of us here at NIAC, happy Independence Day!

Day 1 with NIAC

One of the great aspects of America is that we have many different cultures and identities living together in relative harmony. As a democracy, the American political institution functions best when citizens participate. The Iranian-American community may be small, but as an important minority it is our duty as US citizens to engage in American civic life. Unfortunately, the Iranian community is largely politically inactive, but non-partisan organizations like NIAC have sought to encourage the community to engage in American civic life to a greater extent.

Move forward, not back

Being an Iranian, raised in Sweden and now living in the United States, I have had the pleasure to experience the Iranian community in these two countries as well as many others. What I have discovered is a common similarity among all Iranian regardless of where we live. Even though there are of course many similarities between us, there is one in particular that has really grabbed my attention; that is our lack of involvement in the political arena.

First Day at NIAC

It is my first day interning at NIAC and I am very excited to be here. I am from Scotland and attend St Andrews University but I have been in America since last August on my junior year abroad. Studying in the U.S. has been a fantastic experience and one that has opened many doors for me, not least because of the opportunity to intern in Washington, D.C.

From these introductory remarks it is obvious that I am not Iranian American. Nevertheless, I found a placement at NIAC extremely appealing for a number of reasons. First, my major is International Relations and consequently the issues that NIAC deals with are relevant for this area of study. I hope that interning here will better my understanding of U.S. foreign policy, as well as civil society and its influence over policy making. More specifically, the issues that NIAC deals with pertain to my major and are important from an international affairs point of view. For instance, its efforts to highlight human rights abuses in Iran; I wish I could have been around when NIAC held its conference on “Human Rights in Iran and U.S. Policy Options” since I am especially interested in this topic.

Official Launch: Welcome to NIACinSight

Fellow NIAC members,

 

Welcome to NIAC’s official blog!

Over the past year, we have seen tremendous growth here in DC going from 3 full-time employees in January of 2007 to eight currently working out of our offices.  This growth and the extensive support of the community has meant that we have a lot more information we would like to share with you and a need to have more lines of communication to our members.

Through this blog, we will be able to share insights about the “behind-the-scenes” dealings in DC that go beyond the range of topics covered in our newsletter and website. Furthermore, the blog is meant to engage Iranian-Americans, as well as the broader American public, in an ongoing discussion about current issues important to our community.