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 n March
13, a number of U.S. senators, policymakers, and professors gathered
at a conference dedicated to criticizing George Bush's policy toward
Iran. The annual American Iranian Council gala is subsidized by
a dozen oil companies, and sponsored by those same universities
— Columbia and Georgetown — whose faculty so prominently
dismissed the threat posed by Islamist terror right up to the moment
the first jetliner slammed into the World Trade Center.
The conference
chided the Bush administration for setting back the cause of reform
in Iran by labeling the Iranian government part of the "Axis
of Evil." Indeed, conference honoree Sen. Chuck Hagel (R.,
Ne.) insisted on CNBC's Hardball last month that Bush's speech
"made it more difficult for [Iranian President Muhammad] Khatami
and the reformist forces in Iran."
But who exactly
is Khatami? Upon his election, the New York Times declared
that the new president was "dedicated to relaxing or eliminating…political
and religious repression." Columbia University professor Gary
Sick called Khatami "a reformer with an outspoken commitment
to civil society, social justice, the rule of law and expanded freedom."
Los Angeles Times staff writer Robin Wright continues to
label Khatami "the country's leading reformer."
Only one problem
exists. Khatami is neither a reformer nor a democrat. It is true
that Khatami beat three other candidates to win the presidency in
1997. But he emerged to victory only after the mullahs disqualified
234 other challengers whom they felt too reformist or too liberal.
Khatami has not retracted his 1980 writings in the Iranian daily
Keyhan in which he insisted that government was only for the clergy.
Many commentators
base Khatami's reformist label upon his decade-long tenure as Minister
of Islamic Guidance and Culture. While serving as the country's
chief censor, Khatami did allow a number of books and magazines
to come to print. But he was also directly responsible for the censorship
of more than 600 other books — not exactly the work of a true
reformist.
Does Khatami
respect human rights? According to the recently published memoirs
of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, once the number-two man
in the Islamic Republic, in 1988, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini
ordered a purge of political prisoners. More than 3,000 were killed
in the space of a week. As a member of the ruling council, Khatami
had advance knowledge of the executions, but did nothing to counter
the slaughter. Tellingly, Montazeri's memoirs are not available
in Iran. Under Khatami's presidency, they remain censored.
While the Western
press and many academics continue blindly to label Khatami a reformist,
freedoms have actually declined in Iran under his administration.
Khatami has failed to fulfill any campaign promises. Under Khatami,
more than 50 newspapers have been banned. Rather than legalize satellite
dishes, Khatami's government continues the ban and confiscate them.
Last November, the Iranian government banned private Internet service
providers. Unlimited freedom of communication remains dangerous
for a regime that still tightly controls the media. In 1999, police
and government-funded vigilantes attacked a University of Tehran
dormitory, killing a number of unarmed students. No vigilantes have
been charged with murder, yet scores of students remain in prison.
Indeed, while Senators Hagel, Biden, and Torrecelli call for renewed
dialogue with Iran, 600,000 Iranians languish in some of the worst
prison conditions in the world.
It is no accident
that the Iranian people are not simply pro-Western, but overwhelmingly
pro-American. After all, while the United States has stood on principle,
the European Union has for a decade engaged in dialogue with Iran.
The results? Dissidents assassinated in Vienna and Berlin, truck
bombings in Saudi Arabia, intellectuals and writers murdered in
Tehran, Christians and Bahais killed because of their religion.
Perhaps the 13 Jews imprisoned in 2000 should count themselves fortunate.
Dialogue has a decade-long record of failure, unless support for
Hamas and Hizbullah are signs of success.
It should not
come as a surprise that reformist students last December heckled
their president during a University of Tehran appearance, chanting,
"Khatami, Khatami, Honesty, Honesty," and "Enough
slogans! Why no action?" Iranians recognize that Khatami has
been a fraud, striving not for real reform, but rather for diplomatic
space to carry on business as usual. It is curious that America's
so-called experts would urge Washington to engage with an increasingly
unpopular regime.
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