[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[stefania]

A Vote for Kerry Is a Vote for the Enemy

Behind Liberal Lines
October 19, 2004
Sara Townsley
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/19/41747eb05b946?in_archive=1

In an interview published Oct. 10, John Kerry compared fighting terrorism to fighting prostitution and illegal gambling, calling it a "nuisance." In the same piece, Richard Holbrooke, Kerry's likely pick for Secretary of State, opined that "we're not in a war on terror, in the literal sense. The war on terror is like saying 'the war on poverty.' It's just a metaphor." Can't you see the headlines? "Truck Nuisance Explodes, Metaphorically Killing 28." Let's hope the nuisance doesn't form a coalition with the metaphor, or it might become an allegory.
Consider the nuclear nuisance. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is reported to have recently told his top advisors, "we must have two bombs ready to go in January or you are not Muslims." With Russian help, construction of a nuclear reactor was just completed in Iran last week. Chances are extremely high that Iran will arm terrorists with nuclear weapons, or install them on nuclear-capable missiles. Kerry's solution? "Call their bluff" by giving the mullahs uranium, to see if they really wanted it only for peaceful purposes -- and sanction them if it turns out they wanted it for, uh, something else. Clinton armed North Korea in exactly this fashion, and Kerry thinks it's a good idea to try it again. Is he just recklessly naïve?

Among Kerry's top fund-raisers are three Iranian-American cheerleaders for the Islamic Republic of Iran. One is Hassan Nemazee, a shady figure who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Kerry and other Democrats. He has also been on the boards of at least two groups that lobby Congress on behalf of Tehran. In March, Nemazee filed a defamation lawsuit against the largest U.S. organization promoting democracy in Iran. The Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran has blasted Nemazee for "seeking to legitimize the tyrannical Islamic Republic regime," and criticized Kerry for his desire to broker an arrangement with the ayatollahs. Nemazee seeks $10 million in punitive damages for these "slurs," and just the cost of defending themselves could bankrupt and silence the group.

A friend of Nemazee's, Faraj Aalaei, has raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the Kerry campaign. Aalaei's wife, Susan Akbarpour, has also raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Kerry. Akbarpour recently launched a trade association, whose goal is to see that Iran suffers no consequences for sponsoring terrorism or brutalizing its own citizens. Thus, Kerry, an ideological shill for tyrannies in the past, is predictably on the take from apologists for the terror and oppression of the Iranian regime. For the record, Iranian money also goes to Hamas, Hizballah, and terrorist groups killing our soldiers in Iraq. That's right, the Boston Strangler wants to command the troops his policies and associates are helping to kill.

Then, there's Kerry's 2002 endorsement of the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB). They're building the largest mosque in the northeastern U.S., at a cost of $22 million. Just one little problem: Three ISB officials are terrorists. Abdurahman Alamoudi, a key terrorist financier, was just sentenced to 23 years in prison, for, among other things, transferring at least $330,000 to al-Qaida and Hamas. Also, the current ISB chairman, Osama Kandil, served with Alamoudi as a director of Al-Taibah International Aid Association, a conduit for terrorist financing. Another ISB director is Yusef Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric who encourages Muslims to kill U.S. civilians in Iraq, and advocates the conquering of the U.S. and Europe. Literally, not metaphorically.

On Saturday, a Kerry campaign rally in Florida was hosted in coordination with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Its website looks benign enough, but CAIR officials have defended suicide bombers, funneled money to Hamas, and at least five of its leaders have been deported, indicted, or convicted on terrorism charges. The chief of the FBI's counterterrorism section has said that "CAIR, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups. CAIR is but one of a new generation of groups in the United States that hide under a veneer of 'civil rights' or 'academic' status, but in fact are tethered to a platform that supports terrorism." Apparently, Kerry's okay with that.

In addition, other security measures Kerry mentioned during the debates indicate that he is either ignorant or incompetent. First, he insinuated that Bush is doing nothing to secure Russian nuclear materials. But in the last year, the Department of Energy's Global Threat Reduction Initiative has helped to repatriate 106 pounds of highly enriched Russian uranium from Romania, Bulgaria, Libya, and Uzbekistan. Furthermore, Kerry wants to halt the development of one of our own critical weapons systems: bunker-busting tactical nuclear weapons. These can destroy underground facilities, and they produce no fallout, minimizing civilian casualties. His determination to shut down this program aids proliferation by hampering our ability to destroy illicit weapons facilities. Finally, there is the matter of "rebuilding alliances." At the end of September, NATO agreed to triple its support in Iraq, in particular to run a training center for Iraqi forces. But both the French and German governments have said they won't send troops to Iraq, regardless of who wins the election. So much for Plan A. And according to the campaign website, Plan B appears to be . . . pretty much what Bush is already doing. Except Bush often thanks our troops and our allies for their hard, nasty work.

The Flipper has been consistent about one thing. For almost 40 years, he has presumed the good intentions of our enemies while assuming the worst about our own, and acted on this in ways that badly undermine our security. Perhaps this is tolerable coming from private citizens, even during wartime. But it's unconscionable coming from public officials, and from the Commander-in-Chief, it's tantamount to national suicide.

Sara Townsley is a graduate student in BMCB. She can be contacted at set28@cornell.edu. Behind Liberal Lines appears Tuesdays.
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