I've been quiet for a while, but my father's trial has been delayed, and I have to say...

Even Hadi Ghaemi, even the questionable spokespersons for NIAC, I mean even the Iranian opposition, as it is called, both within Iran and in exile, agree that a military strike should not be considered as an option to solve the human rights crisis in Iran. Iranians all say it will rally even members of the opposition in Iran behind the IRI, just when that decrepit regime most needs it. Okay.

But if not a military strike, then what? Not U.S., nor NATO, nor Israel will ever launch an attack on Iran based entirely on humanitarian concerns anyway, but if we want to solve the continuing human rights crisis in Iran, isn't it obvious we need regime change? Who, on any side, would ever argue that there is any other way to insure human rights than to have a different regime, which implies a completely different kind of regime, one that would not, or could not, commit such atrocities?

So we would need regime change. But if Iranians don't want an Iraq situation (infrastructure destroyed, slowly borrowed back from multinational war profiteering corporations; brain drain, because of fled white-collar-class citizenry; devastating loss of what remains of ancient cultural sites and artifacts, depleted uranium shells everywhere...) and Iranians don't want the mojahedin given carte blanche, to make strategic terror strikes or whatever those crazy cultists would be useful for; and so far and with the East's collusion and endless loopholes, the layering on of sanctions has only scathed the country's entrenched economic powerhouses; and as the IRI very clearly and very logically does not respond to hypocritical UN finger-wagging—just as they do not respond to the international community's hypocritical nuclear standards—nor generally to Amnesty International's letter campaigns, and they go on executing more people than any government but China's; and voices from all sides including the Iranian opposition's seem to agree that an attack will not work for the same reason diplomacy doesn't, because of a criminal history that has well earned distrust of the West, distrust from both the regime and from the democratic-minded Iranian people; and if the U.S. will simply not act decisively to cut off Iranian oil exports to the common market, which would end the IRI's life faster than you could say "economically motivated revolution," because of yet another entrenched and insoluble factor in our foreign policy—our consumption of oil for domestic power requirements that could easily be fulfilled by wind and solar alone (a restructuring toward which we should have begun in 1973, during the first Iranian oil crisis, when our citizens were shooting each other over spots at gas pumps), indeed because of the same U.S. resource thievery—and Americans' cultural acceptance of our corporations' deciding influence in our foreign policy—of which the entire Middle East accuses us... Ah, there's the answer.

[NOTE: the U.S. uses twice as much oil as it produces. Our transportation, home electricity, and half our heating needs could be powered by harnessing just two windy states' wind energy, an incentive plan for equipping buildings with geothermal auxiliary systems, and a stimulus "Manhattan Project"-type program to rapidly deploy solar panels on the roofs in major cities. For more, unbiased information on just how capable we already are of making replacing the power generated by the imported half of our oil consumption, research for yourself. Real information is available everywhere.]

Well then, let's solve the humanitarian problem, avoid a militarized response to invasion—a galvanizing of the Iranian population against yet another foreign incursion, avoid loss of cultural artifacts and economic infrastructure, rid Iran of its non-inclusive and incompetent government, and give ourselves a swift kick in the ass toward building the new energy infrastructure we have needed for almost four decades, by cutting off the oil.

That's right. Take navel control of the Persian Gulf. Enforce an embargo. Choke the bastards where it matters while reclaiming our lost moral high ground. It worked to overthrow the Shah, to make damned near the entire country go on strike in 1979, and it will work again, if we just dare to address what got us in this mess in the first place.

Go to Congress and get approval for it, this act of war (so that we don't violate our own Constitution again, as we are with Libya), based on the genuine addressing of a severe and otherwise unstoppable humanitarian crisis and of a mounting threat to our national security; take up our despicable allies in Saudi Arabia on their offer to make up the slack with their multiple millions barrels-per-day of currently withheld production; tell the perpetual thorn-in-our-side Israeli right-wing to forget an air strike and just help us patrol the waters; sell it to our Obama-phobic idiot class and their asinine representatives in Congress as a crusade, a crusade for human decency, and as a manly assertion of our right to defend ourselves against looming threat to our way of life (instead as a badly, badly needed reorientation toward energy sustainability and environmental sanity). They'll love it. Finally, harness all the urgency the giant PR campaign against Iran's nuclear program has generated to impel immediate action, to catch the IRI off guard.

Once even the Basiji and the rural poor in Iran revolt, for sheer economic necessity, Iran will turn toward democracy. That is what we want, right? Surely our national ethic has not been replaced by the contradicting mission of its most amoral "citizens," mere legal structures literally designed only to exploit, without regard for its effect on our national character, our standing in the world, or our long-term interests; to force, perpetuate, and then profit from needless conflicts; to undermine our future, trap us in such a sticky web of contradicting interests that we cannot, for all our might and wealth, act when we most need to act. Such unaccountable, un-imprisonable "citizens" could never be allowed to determine our foreign policy. Nay. In fact, our ethic, our mission, our only hope for other nations is that they may enjoy the fairness and freedom we do, that we are so willing to fight for. We've always just wanted democracy for these inexplicably troubled Middle Eastern nations, right?

Well, Iranians will find their way to it, once we stop feeding the wolves that watch over them. They have learned (and even once, long ago, proved) that the only system that has any hope of including all its citizens, of respecting all its traditions, and of securing them against violations of their human rights, is democracy. Maybe they'll even show us how to keep corporate corruption out of it.

NOTE: By the way, if you approve, please "Like" my new Facebook page:

New public profile page: Turaj (no last name)

Father's trial set for June 1st

This is the only news I can share. Kourosh Zaim's trial is finally set for June 1st. They may delay it again, of course, I don't know the charges they will use in the trial, but he has a long list that has grown since 2007, including conspiring and now spying. I can't say anymore.

SF to NY

I just got back from D.C. and meeting incredible Iranians there.

I'll be flying to NY this weekend to speak at the emergency rally before the United Nations vote on Monday.

The UN will be voting on whether to send a team to investigate human rights abuses in Iran (there is rumor that there have been some.)

I'll be texting my updates probably, to my Facebook profile page: facebook.com search for just my first name: turaj

SF to NY

I just got back from D.C. and meeting incredible Iranians there.
I'll be flying to NY this weekend to speak at the emergency rally before the United Nations vote on Monday.
The UN will be voting on whether to send a team to investigate human rights abuses in Iran (there is rumor that there have been some.)
I'll be updating by text probably, to my Facebook profile page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Turaj/177854652255246

Kourosh Zaim has been released from Evin Prison (again)

My dad was just released from a month of solitary confinement and allowed to go to his home in Tehran. Thank you to Shirin Ebadi, Hadi Ghaemi, Bijan Mehr, and the 150 other activists, officers, and human rights lawyers who signed the open letter to the UN, and thank you to Voice of America for the coverage of the letter.

Now let's get Nasrin, Shiva, and everyone else free.

Open Letter to the UN Council on Human Rights

We got about 150 known activists, academics, and human rights attorneys to sign a letter to the United Nations, requesting their help in getting my father, human rights activist Kourosh Zaim, released from Evin Prison. Here is the English version of the letter:

http://www.jminews.com/news/en/?mi=13&ni=210

The UN recently announced it would send a special envoy to Iran to investigate human rights abuses. It's true the Islamic regime may not allow any such person into the country, but after trying for so long to get the UN to live up to its role and send an investigator in 2009, the change of policy is encouraging.

Sign of the times

This is what I'm talking about. We really have entered the era of political cyber warfare. With basic Iranian technological knowhow and the help of Chinese software, the IRI will continue its advances: in externally directed jamming attacks, social media infiltration, and methods of suppressing communication from and between protestors.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/22/voice-america-defaced-iranian-hackers/