Hit job on Obama by winger Iranian immigrants

This June 7 editorial on the (mostly) English language Iranian.comcaught my eye.

Iranian neocons go after Obama

It deeply saddens me that two women from my native country of Iran have chosen to degrade feminism. Under the misconception that their gender will shield their hatred and deception, Manda Zand-Ervin & Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi hope that even with flawed logic they can dissuade you from seeking dialogue with Iran.

What Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrichwas talking about was a May 24 piece on Pejamas Media, where the two women in question, calling themselves "human rights activists", had heavily attacked Obama for the idea of an unconditional dialogue with Iran and made unfounded assertions like this:

Iranians believe that the only country who has the moral authority and is able to support them is the United States of America.

and this:

Senator, since 1979 the Mullahs of Iran have killed upwards of one million Iranians, not to mention the nearly one million sacrificed to the 8-year-long Iran/Iraq war. And what the Iranian people have withstood in terms of outrageous human rights violations is shocking; public hangings, stoning, flogging, cutting off limbs, tongues and plucking out eyeballs are an everyday occurrence across Iran. All are meant to strike fear of the ruling Mullahs into people’s hearts.

Since you began talking about unconditionally dialoguing with the Islamic regime of Iran, you too have struck absolute fear in the hearts of the Iranian people, both inside and outside Iran. The few Iranian-Americans who support you are well-intentioned individuals who have been swept up in the excitement and fervor of your campaign. But we can wholeheartedly assure you that your comments have landslide opposition within the much greater Iranian heart both inside and outside Iran.

A few things immediately jump out after reading this. First, the arguments are damn near exactly what the Bush-McCain camp is pumping out in media talking points.

Second, as anyone who has lived for any length of time in Florida can tell you, some vocal, well-established segment of immigrants are rabid right-wingers. They can be completely brainwashed, uninformed and un-objective about their own country of origin, let alone what's in the best interest of the United States. I am specifically talking about the Cuban-American right and their retarded 45-year insistance on hurting their own countrymen, while giving the Castro dictatorship demonstrably valid reasons to justify staying in power. The policy is quite illogical and has not performed at all. Only deep hatred and inability to grasp reality continues to fuel it, but unfortunately there really is plenty of both in South Florida. It is only in the year 2009 that we can hope to finally start working back this rediculous policy.

This Iran issue is now threatening to be another Cuba. Just like Cuban-Americans a small vocal, but powerful minority can be described as rejectionist. They want to oppose any kind of "recognition" of the target government come hell or high water. From everything I read, I see very little call for military invasion of Iran as the Chalabi clan did for Iraq, but that's probably because they would easily marginalize themselves completely if they advocated this in the fact of the monumental failure in Iraq. But they seem to be doing everything else to make peace impossible -- not unlike what BushCo was doing in 2002 and 2003. In this they have many points in common with the neocons and the crazies: pro-war, anti Islam, dogmatic belief in their own propaganda, under the illusion that they really "speak" for a whole nation, etc.

Now they have Obama in their sights, attacking the man for having the guts to call into question a proven failed and dangerous Iran policy.

Anyway, my suspicions were confirmed when after a little googling, I found out who the "human rights activists" really are. Are you ready for this?

Anybody remember the Islamofascism awareness week? You know that David Horowitz-concocted week designed to create a fascist atmosphere to attack and harrass muslim students in America's Colleges last Fall? You know, the one that featured such objective "speakers" as Horowitz and Anne Coulter and pimped mercilessly by Malkin?

During the week, most of Horowitz pre-printed campaign material featured a fake photoof an Iranian woman seemingly getting burried alive, as "evidence" of islamofascist crimes. Well, it turned out the photo was a still from a movie. And the actress is safe and sound pursuing a career in Holland. After Keith Olbermann made the IFAW organizers the "worst person in the world" for such obvious deception, even LGF had to admit it was an embarrassing lie. Once discovered and exposed, however, Horowitz briefly tried to deflect the blame by exposing an email revealing where he had gotten the photo from. The Iranian author of the email not only vouched for its authenticity but also wrote a fantastic story about how it was "smuggled" out of Iran. All of which proved to be lies.

Who was the supplier of the fake photo for Horowitz? Who told Horowitz it was a real scene of "islamic" stoning? Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, the same "human rights activist" now attacking Obama for daring to hold dialogue with Iran.

Unfortunately Horowitz took down the evidence exposing Zand-Bonazzi's name. But not before Sadly No! captured it here. In the first picture, you can clearly read the name of the said liar.

Thanks to Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich for her exposure. I sincerely hope the Obama foreign policy team is paying close attention to these things.