When Parsi lies, a seat at the table
Dec 10th, 2009http://comments.americanthinker.com/read/42323/495838.html
By Hassan Daioleslam
Purporting to represent the Iranian-American community, Trita Parti has gained access to the corridors of power in Washington. In September 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited a group of “Iran experts” to a dinner to discuss the upcoming nuclear negotiations with Iran and other issues. The seven guests whose names have been revealed by the press all advocate, with minor variations, a specific policy towards Iran. Among the guests was Trita Parsi, the president of National Iranian American Council (NIAC). Evidently, he advised the White House to share the Middle East with the Iranian regime.
Parsi’s success in Washington is partly due to the assertion by NIAC that it represents the Iranian-American community. Consequently, he has been frequently invited to brief the government on the community’s opinion.
Do NIAC and its president represent the Iranian-Americans? Through a campaign of untruth, NIAC and its supporters have been able to mislead at least the American government to believe so. NIAC’s internal documents obtained during a defamation lawsuit against me suggest that Parsi has repeatedly lied about his organization’s membership.
In his campaign to hype NIAC’s representation, Parsi was assisted by the Iranian regime, as well as by some groups in the US who preach for engagement with Iran and believe that more influence for NIAC would create a more favorable environment for their policy of co-existence with the Iranian regime.
For example, in 2006, the former head of the Iran interest section in Washington, Faramarze Fathnejad had a meeting in Tehran and expressed his support for NIAC and its president Trita Parsi. He highlighted “the importance of relations with Iranian organizations in the U.S. and specially pointed to NIAC and his young leader who is a consultant to CNN and has been very successful in his efforts.” Then, the Iranian regime’s representative claimed 20,000 members for NIAC.
The Iranian officials are not alone in hyping NIAC and Parsi’s performance. In October 2007, the organization boasted on its website a New York Times report by Roger Cohen claiming that “NIAC represents about one million Iranian-Americans.”
“Trita reviewed the membership trends: 1,034 (2005) increased to 1,307 in 2006 and 1,680 as of today – citing these figures as absolutely unacceptable”.
A good number of these members did not even pay their membership fee. As these numbers were absolutely ridiculous for an organization that claims to represent a community of one million, the solution proposed by a board member was simply to lie to the public. A few lines later in the same minutes of that meeting we read:
“Alex felt it would not be deceitful to mention NIAC as being comprised of 25,000+ members when dealing with the media and other inquiries.”
Alex Patico is the co-founder and a member of the Board of Directors of NIAC. Relatively speaking, Ahmadinejad was more accurate in representing his presidential election victory results in Iran.
Patico’s suggestion to lie to the public was in fact institutionalization of an untruth that Trita Parsi had been already offering for years. In several CVs that Parsi prepared for Amnesty International, Saban Center at Brookings Institute or Eurasia Fund, etc. he openly lied about NIAC membership. His resume (in 2005) entailed:
– Raised $450,000 and increased membership to 10,000 in less than one year
– Organized fundraisers events with members of Congress
– Raised $800,000 and increased membership to 10,000 in less than one year.
In a March 2006 meeting with Mark Silverman and William Ralph from Senator Chafee’s Office, Trita Parsi pushed the same insinuation in a very cunning and insincere presentation:
“… Mark asked us detailed questions about the survey that NIAC conducted. Trita noted that the initial survey asking what activities NIAC should be doing was sent out to 10,000 members.”
It is worth to know that less than five hundred persons responded to NIAC’s July 2009 membership survey. But, Trita Parsi and his colleagues in NIAC feel the need to be utterly cavalier with the truth. How otherwise could they get a ticket to Hilary Clinton’s dinner?
Hassan Daioleslam is an independent Iran Analyst and writer. He is well published in Farsi and English and has appeared as an expert guest in the Voice of America-TV as well as other Persian media. His website is at english.iranianlobby.com. He can be reached at: hassan.dai@yahoo.com
Dear Mr. Daie,
Thank you so much for what you are doing for Iranian (us), I was watching and listening your conversation in different Persian TV channels, I really enjoyed your honesty and integrity. God bless you and your family.