Why would two of the most liberal human rights groups in the US be defending Mohammed Khatami, former president of Iran, on his “We’re really nice guys” tour of the US?
Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney refused to provide State Police security protection for Khatami’s recent lecture at Harvard and was roundly criticized by liberals for what they saw as a conservative move in an early presidential campaign bid. In fact, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, claim that to say that Khatami was responsible for abuses that occurred during his regime is an over-exaggeration. Instead, they claim that only Khatami’s opponents were responsible. Funny, how they give a pass to the man in charge of a dictatorial regime. Romney’s spokesman says the buck stops with Khatami:
``Presidents should not be allowed to divorce themselves from the policies of their own country,” he said. ``He was president during the largest crackdown on the Iranian media since the beginning of the Iranian revolution. He was president when Iranian Jews were sent to prison on charges of espionage. He was president when thousands of university students were arrested after the 1999 student rioting.”
Meanwhile, the WebElves have documented Iran’s actions under Khatami’s leadership:
- Mr. Khatami is still part of the Iranian ruling elite
- In the mid-80s he coordinated the creation of Hezb’allah as an Iranian terrorist proxy-force
- He presided over Iran’s development of nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons technology, and long-range ballistic missiles to deliver them
- In March 2001, Khatami traveled to Moscow. While there, he sealed a $7 billion deal to purchase advanced arms and military equipment from Russia– paid for by oil revenues, and in the face of poverty at home in Iran
- He presided over the pursuit of chemical and biological weapons
- Doubts remain whether Khatami was ever a true reformer, or whether he was just engaged in a carefully choreographed public relations campaign
- the Khatami doctrine appeared to be ‘speak softly, while Iran builds a big stick.’
- He signed the death warrants for two gay teens who were executed in public in Iran
- During his leadership, there were 680 public hangings, 13 stonings, 41 Iranian dissidents murdered outside Iran by Iranian operatives
- He is raising funds for sharia-loving, terror-enabling CAIR-USA, on his 2006 American tour
They also provide a link to a Google search for explicit images of people who have been tortured in Iran. So why do American liberals give a pass to Muslim radicals, especially when those Muslim radicals are known for oppressing, torturing, and killing the American left’s favorite groups, including feminists and homosexuals? I don’t get it.
Technorati Tags:Iran, Khatami, liberalism, Massachusetts, Romney
The Harvard schedule would bear weight if this were an isolated case, but here I’m mainly looking at major liberal groups like the ACLU, Amnesty, and HRC who often look the other way at totalitarian excess by certain Muslim and Communist countries.