THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 175, September 21, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
IRANIAN OPPOSITION LEADER
SPEAKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST FORUM
By Joseph Puder
ALIREZA JAFARZADEH ON THE IRANIAN THREAT, IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, THE COMING
NUCLEAR CRISIS, & HOW THE U.S.A. SHOULD DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM OF IRAN: A REPORT ON JAFARZADEH'S
BRIEFING REGARDING THE IRANIAN THREAT & HIS NEW BOOK -- IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM, ITS GOAL OF IMPOSING
GLOBAL ISLAMIC RULE, & THE PROXY WAR IT IS WAGING AGAINST U.S. FORCES IN IRAQ -- THE BEST POLICY OPTION FOR
THE U.S.A. IN DEALING WITH THE IRANIAN POLITICAL REGIME -- THE FUTILITY & OUTRIGHT DANGER OF TALKS HELD
BETWEEN U.S. OFFICIALS & THEIR IRANIAN COUNTERPARTS -- WHAT THE U.S.A. SHOULD DO ABOUT THE IRANIAN
REGIME'S INFLUENCE ON IRAQI POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
FULL STORY:
Alireza Jafarzadeh, President of Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting, Inc., and spokesperson for the National
Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was the guest of the Middle East Forum at Philadelphia's Cozen O'Connor law offices
Wednesday, September 12, 2007, over lunch. Bob Guzzardi, Chairman of the Middle East Forum, introduced Jafarzadeh, who
used his visit with the Middle East Forum to promote his new book, The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the
Coming Nuclear Crisis.
The best policy option for the U.S.A., according to Jafarzadeh, is to support the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), currently listed
by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. Jafarzadeh said that all other options -- including an economic
boycott of Iran, support for minority groups within Iran, and military action -- are only ancillary to supporting MEK.
Bombing Iran, Jafarzadeh claimed, will not help and, at best, would delay the nuclear program. In focusing on Iraq,
Jafarzadeh said, "Nouri al-Maliki, the current Prime Minister, must be removed and Shiite militias disarmed." He accused
Maliki of being an agent of Iran and emphasized Iran's decisive voice in the Maliki government. He asserted that
"ministerial appointments in the Maliki government get approval from Tehran."
America's and the Free World's best hopes for Iran, he said, are with the younger generation and women. Being born into
a climate of oppression, the young people -- and women in particular -- are rebelling and demanding freedom.
Jafarzadeh stressed the futility of any talks held between U.S. officials and their Iranian counterparts. "Talks with the
Iranian officials expose the U.S. weakness and encourage Iranian aggression," Jafarzadeh asserted.
Jafarzadeh, an active Iranian dissident, became more widely recognized in 2002, when he revealed the existence of
clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran. When he originally sounded the alarm, Jafarzadeh noted:
". . . it did not seem real to many people at the time. Now
people are realizing how serious the situation is."
Jafarzadeh said that Iran is waging a proxy war against the U.S. forces in Iraq and that General David Petraeus and U.S.
Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, admitted as much in their testimony before Congress. Jafarzadeh asked rhetorically
why it took so long. Jafarzadeh charged that the Iranian regime dominated everything in Iraq and that it has delivered
improvised explosive devise (IED) bombs to Iraqis in order to kill Americans.
These bombs, according to Jafarzadeh, are built in the suburbs of Tehran and shipped to Iraq. He added that Iran is
training the militias and providing them arms and assistance to the tune of $70 million a month. Moreover, Jafarzadeh
said that Iran has 32,000 agents in Iraq and that key Iraqis in local and provincial governments take their orders from
Tehran. The same is true, he said, with regard to the Defense Ministry and Police.
Iran's goal, according to Jafarzadeh, is to establish an Islamic Shiite state in Iraq. He pointed out that immediately after
the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, three million Iranians crossed the border into Iraq to visit the holy cities of
Najaf and Karbala. He quoted a member of the Iraqi National Assembly, Jamal al-Din (a Shiite cleric), as openly claiming
that "Iran already controls the Iraqi government."
Iran's extremism, coupled with its possession of a nuclear bomb, would be "a nightmare scenario" Jafarzadeh emphasized.
The Iranian regime, he added, "believes in global Islamic rule," and a nuclear bomb would give it the leverage and "help it
to consolidate power."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pushed for this nuclear program with the backing of the Supreme Leader
and the Revolutionary Guards. The nuclear program itself is under the control of the Revolutionary Guards, who are loyal
to Ahmadinejad. The Revolutionary Guards, Jafarzadeh said, have carried out the R&D on the nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not interviewed the Revolutionary Guards on the nuclear weapons
situation, Jafarzadeh asserted, adding that the IAEA failed to inspect a number of underground facilities that the Iranian
opposition revealed to them. Jafarzadeh claimed that the Iranian nuclear program has not been slowed down and that
progress is being made with plutonium in Nantaz.
Addressing actions the U.S.A. must take, Jafarzadeh said that Washington must demand that the Iraqi government "purge
the Iranian elements." Iran, Jafarzadeh said, created such entities as the Badr Brigades and other such militias, which
should be disbanded and disarmed. "The U.S.," Jafarzadeh said, "needs to empower the more moderate voices in Iraq,
since they are a majority."
Jafarzadeh pointed out that Iranian opposition, which has been fighting the ayatollahs in Tehran and Qum for more than 27
years, has pressured the Sunni groups to stop fighting Americans and Iraqis.
"Sitting with Iranian government officials sends the wrong message to moderates in Iran and weakens their voice,"
Jafarzadeh said.
"The U.S. must be firm with Iran's agents in Iraq and with
Iran itself, and the MEK opposition group should be
supported by the U.S., instead of it being on the terrorist
list of the State Department. Saddam Hussein had
supported the MEK for over 20 years and used them
during the Iran-Iraq war. The group is heavily armed (it
took tanks and artillery left in Saddam's arsenal) and is
strong enough to confront Iranian troops.
"Iran is vulnerable internally," Jafarzadeh claimed, citing the more than 5,000 anti-government demonstrations in Iran last
year. Demonstrators burned Ahmadinejad's photo right in front of him, in spite of the mass executions faced by opposition
members since 1988.
In ending his 30-minute presentation, Jafarzadeh said:
"There is no need to invade Iran or use military action,
and the U.S. need not go on with fruitless negotiations
with the Iranians. The people of Iran are ready for change."
The U.S. banned the MEK and labeled it a terrorist organization as a gesture to Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, who
was perceived in the West as a "moderate." It is high time, Jafarzadeh said, that the U.S.A. ends its ban on the MEK and
begins supporting it openly.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Born and raised in Israel, Joseph Puder came to America to pursue his university studies, earning a Master of Arts
degree at Columbia University in International Relations and a Master's degree at Seton Hall University in
Judeo-Christian Studies. His sympathies clearly on the Right of the Western political spectrum, Puder has had a
radio show at WMCA, New York, New York, and has served as director of a number Jewish-American organizations,
including the American Jewish Congress of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the Interfaith Taskforce for America and
Israel (ITAI), and Americans for a Safe Israel. Puder's articles have appeared in The Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania), Front Page Magazine (www.frontpagemag.com), CronWatch (www.cronwatch.com),
and Orthodoxy Today (www.orthodoxytoday.org).
Alireza Jafarzadeh is President of Strategy Policy Consulting, Inc. and a foreign affairs analyst for FOX News Channel.
He served as a U.S. spokesman for the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran and his articles have been published in the
New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal,. In his new book, The Iranian Threat:
President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis (Palgrave MacMillan), Jafarzadeh brings to light Iran's latest
efforts to hide its nuclear facilities as well as the regime's covert operations inside Iraq. He traces Ahmadinejad's history of
torturing political prisoners, his pedigree as the protegé of Iran's radical mullahs, and his zealous, longstanding quest to make
Iran a nuclear power. In a briefing, Jafarzadeh addressed the Middle East Forum on September 12, 2007.
The Joseph Puder's report on Alireza Jafaradeh's analysis was originally published in The Bulletin, September 19, 2007,
and can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a
think tank which seeks to define and
promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, working for
Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote constitutional
democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly asserting U.S.
interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
September 21, 2007
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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