Democracy vs Republic in Iran (part II)
Reader comment on item: Radical Islam as Its Own Antidote[, Argues Reuel Gerecht]

Submitted by Tom Martin (United States), Jun 23, 2005 at 11:18

Confronted with hundreds of Iranian youth studying in the United States, the Ayatollah's regime sought to exploit this an asset for international terrorism, to send a message to the United States, that the forces of Hizbollah could easily confront the "Great Satan" of the West. They assigned a master political overseer to the United States, in the form of an exchange Iranian professor of Sociology, assigned to University of Akron, Ohio. Arriving with his wife and two small children which he immediately enrolled in private Catholic schools, this professor immediately took control of the entire Iranian student and professor exchange program, and became the Ayatollah's political representative in the United States, barking orders to the hapless Iranian diplomats assigned to the then new Iranian Interest Section of the Algerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and whipping the various exchange professors into order. This was about 1982.

This new education czar came to the attention of the FBI, who began monitoring his activities, as he turned the entire program into a massive collection of sleeping terrorist cells, comprised of selected students, and coordinated by a network of professors, spread over the entire Continental United States. The first glimmer of his activities erupted as one of the coordinating professor-cell-leaders, in Seattle, Washington, instructed his selected student-cell members, to carry out a terror-strike on a target associated with the former Shah's regime. As it happened, the Shah's family in exile had arranged for a rally of the Shah's supporters, to be held in an aging Motion Picture Theatre in Seattle, Washington. Members of the Shah's family would be present, as would be the Shah's favorite operatic soprano.

Learning of this scheduled event, the terrorist cell leader professor instructed his students to carry out an attack on the theatre, to include chaining the doors of the theatre shut during the rally, pouring kerosene around the perimeter of the theatre, and setting it afire. Wishing to prevent any such activity, the FBI quietly let it be known to the monitored cell, that their plans were known. Local police and fire authorities were alerted, but the planned attack had been neutralized. The super-leader in Ohio was furious that the plan had been forged without his direct order -- in effect, going off half-cocked. His plans were larger.

The super-leader had put out more insidious plans, aimed at the then impending International Olympic events at Los Angeles and Texas. FBI agents became aware of two ultra-light aircraft being constructed in the garages of professor cell-leaders in those two locations -- to be used at the direction of the super-leader. Both were located, and their builders cautioned not to let them out of their garages until well after the Olympics were over. Just before the Olympics opened, the FBI sat down with the super-leader and laid out their copy of his blue prints and organizational chart. He quietly packed up his family and returned to Iran. There were no anti-terrorist laws then that would have permitted his arrest. But what was important was that the student program, like the proverbial iceberg, went right along as though nothing had happened.

The result, of course, is that there are two generations of Iranian citizens who have been exposed to the highest extant example of freedom, a student in a university or college in the United States. Their minds have been exposed to the concept of human freedom, and all the ramifications of a free republic -- an orderly system of laws overseen by publically elected representatives -- and a society in which free expression is permitted and even encouraged. And where the President pronounces that the national defense policy is not only to defend the peace against the trheats of terrorists and tyrants, but to encourage free and open societies on every continent.

The seeds of liberty and freedom have been planted and fertilized in the minds of those two generations of Iranians, and we are watching the results, as the grass grows up around the waists, elbows and ears of the self-consuming oppressors of a radical power regime. Before long, the grass will grow higher, then subside, leaving no trace of those that would deny the wave of freedom that has been building for generations. The shattered regime of Saddam Hussein stands as an example of what happens when freedom is given a wedge and a start. Suddenly, the impossible, the unthinkable, is reality.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.