Hassan Dai, 18 November 2013

Since the Iranian government  publicly vowed to intensify its lobby in the US  and exploit political divisions over Iran policy, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and its president Trita Parsi have launched a large-scale campaign against US officials who favor vigilance toward Tehran’s deception. The Governmental press in Iran considers  NIAC as  the “Iran lobby” in Washington. ((Read NIAC fact book)

Therefore, Senator Mark Kirk who opposes Tehran’s agenda,  has become the target of NIAC’s hate campaign. In a speech at the Institute of Peace in 2009, Senator Kirk had rightfully called NIAC the “Iranian regime sympathizer”.

On November 13, NIAC released a statement against Senator and then, has launched an email campaign and asks the recipients to call Senator’s office to oppose what NIAC calls Senator Kirk’s “disgusting” comments about Iran. (See NIAC email at the end of this report)

Mariam Memarsadeghi, a prominent Iranian-American civil society activist and co-director of E-learning Institute Tavana, has had enough of NIAC and Parsi’s slander against those who oppose Tehran’s agenda. In her poignant letter to NIAC posted on her Face book, Memarsadeghi told NIAC: “Rather than reflecting and advancing the Iranian-American dream of a free Iran, you echo the Islamic Republic’s agenda in the US, working to discredit any voice, particularly among US policymakers, that stands with the people of Iran and firmly against their oppressors.”

Here is the text of Memarsadeghi’s letter:

“Dear Trita Parsi/NIAC, It is your email that is disgusting. Rather than inform the Iranian-American community of Senator Mark Kirk’s exemplary leadership on human rights in Iran, his tireless advocacy for the release of Iranian political prisoners, his principled stance on the right of the Iranian people to a freely elected government and the full spectrum of civil and political liberties, his courageous solidarity with the Green Movement, his assistance to political asylum seekers in the US, his record of building alliances across the aisle and between the US Congress and parliaments across the globe to advance the cause of a free Iran, and his unique and genuine willingness to always hear from Iranians and Iranian-Americans, you spew out this hatred and misinformation in the name of “peace.”

How shameful that you purport to represent the will of the Iranian-American people. This email and others like it are nothing less than a morally perverse, dishonest propaganda campaign aiming to achieve the one and only mission your so called “association” has ever had: the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and a soft, appeasing American foreign policy with regards to this regime, no matter the human rights situation.

Rather than educate the Iranian-American community, you intentionally misinform them, preying on their good hearted concern for their loved ones. Criticizing elected officials is a cherished right in the US, but your tactics resemble those of Kayhan’s Hossein Shariatmadari rather than an American civic association that democratically reflects the will of its membership and lobbies for the interests of its community. By the way, when was the last time NIAC held an election or publicly released information about its so called “membership?”

Rather than reflecting and advancing the Iranian-American dream of a free Iran, you echo the Islamic Republic’s agenda in the US, working to discredit any voice, particularly among US policymakers, that stands with the people of Iran and firmly against their oppressors.

Our Iranian-American community — not to mention the Iranian people — deserve far better.

Sincerely,
Mariam Memarsadeghi