It is reprehensible that those running the country tell the Iranian people, many of them living without the basic necessities of life, that they do not have enough money to support the country, yet hold offshore bank accounts with hundreds of millions of dollars. Such actions fundamentally violate the basic Islamic principles of social justice and charity to the poor, which leaders that derive their authority from Islam are duty-bound to observe.

Let us not forget that before Iranians took to the street demanding “where is my vote,” they rallied for candidates that promised social and economic justice. A way forward with dignity and promise for the Iranian people. In this spirit, we join the Iranian people in their fight for their economic and social rights by denouncing those that by their actions deny them realizing their full human potential, and hence freedom in all its possibility.

- Ed Hale, singer/songwriter and PeacewithIran.com co-founder

Foreign Bank Accounts of Prominent Iranian Leaders

Ali Khamenei

Sparkasse Bank (Frankfurt/Germany) Acct.# 234075617: DM 112.1 Million
Corner Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct. # 217824: US$ 97 Million
Banque Cantonale (Lausanne/CH) Acct. # 71713: US$ 73.2 Million

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rasfandjani

Union Bank Suisse (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 223870390: SF 532.5 Million
Societe Generale ( Zurich/CH) Acct.# 30064183: DM 477.2 Million
Sparkasse (Ciborg/Germany) Acct. # 2957132: DM 238.2 Million

Mohammad Ali Tasskhiri

Societe Generale (Geneve/Ch) Acct.# 500032654: DM 280.7 Million
Midland Bank (London/UK) Acct.# 832-150270: BP 12.2 Million
Dressdner bank (Dusserdolf/Germany) Acct.# 8354783: DM 48.3 Million

Mohammad Golpayegani

Credit Bank Suisse (Geneve/CH) Acct.# CEO7680: SF 85.7 Million

Bijan Namdar Zangene

Union Bank Suisse (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 314380320: US$ 141.7 Million

Habibollah Asgar Aladi

Corner Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct. # 3983BHK: US$ 180 Millions

Ahmad Jannati

Midland Bank (London/UK) Acct.# 92114016: BP 54.2 Million

Abdollah Nategh Nouri

Union Banque Suisse (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 2102120321ND: USD 123.9 Million
Deutsh bank (Hamburg/Germany) Acct.# 03223486: DM 64.1 Million

Mohsen Rafighdoost

Union Banque Suisse (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 2183130687: USD 122.7 Million

Mohsen Hashemi Bahremani

Deutsh bank (Munchen 3/Germany) Acct.# 1732736: DM 370.7 Million
Credit Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 928530FC: USD 178.2 Million

Abbas Vaez-Tabassi

Corner Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct.# FAH7272: SF 97.2 Million
Sparkasse (Hamburg/Germany) Acct #. DFH72251660: USD 216.7 Million

Hossein Shariatmadari

Midland Bank (London/UK) Acct.# 34414011: BP 37.8 Million

Mohsen Rezai

Union Banque Suisse (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 442760430: USD 78.2 Million
Credit Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct.# FAH7967: SF 52.7 Million

Massood Movahedian

Commerz Bank (Koln/Germany) Acct.# 3528817: DM 287.8 Million

Kamal Kharrazi

Corner Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct.# AMF4567: USD 18.2 Million

Ali-Reza Mo-ayeri

Societe Generale (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 50024814: USD12.6 Million

Hossein Kordi

Corner Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct.#14710025: USD 14.7 Million

Abbas-Ali Forooghi

Corner Bank (Geneve/CH) Acct.# 12930034: USD 10.7 Million

Part I of III

As United States 2008 presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama bickered over how they would “handle the Iran threat” in their first debate on Friday night, citing erroneous facts and competing with one another on who would hold out the longest from engaging in diplomatic talks with Iran, a small group of one-hundred and fifty American citizens representing fifty of the country’s most prominent peace and human rights groups were busy talking to the world’s media about the two-hour private meeting they held with the Iranian President two days prior.

The meeting – which was not revealed to the media until the next day to assure the safety and security for those in attendance – took place on Wednesday September 24 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City during the 63rd annual United Nations General Assembly Meeting. The goal of the meeting was “to introduce President Ahmadinejad to the peace community in the United States and to illustrate how this sector of civil society works to oppose war and the use of violence to resolve differences,” said the meeting’s facilitator, Mark Johnson, Executive Director of the global Fellowship of Reconciliation, the world’s oldest peace organization.

In an exhilarating live experiment in civilian diplomacy in action, the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel was transformed into a veritable who’s who of some of the most outspoken and prominent members of America’s peace, anti-war, and human rights organizations, including Medea Benjamin of A Global Exchange, Jodie Evans of Code Pink and Women for Peace, Brian Becker of the ANSWER Coalition, yours truly representing PeaceWithIran.com, and Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice. There were also representatives from Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Mennonites, the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, American Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, among many others. American citizens flew in from almost all fifty states to hold the private meeting with President Ahmadinejad in an effort to begin the process of what many consider long overdue open dialogues with Iran regarding how our two nations can work peaceably together to secure more peaceful relations with one another.

The issues raised during the two-hour plus talk, many considered vital for the future security of both the United States and Iranian citizenry, revolved around how the countries can begin putting aside their mutual distrust of one another in order to move forward in peaceful negotiations; both the US and the Iranian government’s recent crackdown on human rights, freedom of assembly, and dissidents; the current US occupation of Iraq; Iran’s controversially viewed policy toward Israel; their treatment of women and other minorities; the difficulty on both sides of obtaining visas to visit either country. Of course the big issue of the moment, will Iran accept a compromise on its nuclear fuel enrichment program, was also addressed.

Ahmadinejad was joined by his Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, and Iran UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee. After already participating in two full days of talks with leaders from all over the globe, the Iranian President seemed tired, but he spoke eloquently, near poetically, and many of the points he made and the answers he gave to our questions were illuminating and insightful. In response to Iran’s nuclear energy program – a subject that the United States government continues to demonize in unsubstantiated propaganda to the American media though it has the support of one-hundred and eighteen other UN nation-states around the planet – Ahmadinejad reasserted for the umpteenth time that Iran has allowed more IAEA inspections of their nuclear facilities than any other country in the world to date, and that they discontinued pursuing nuclear weapons in 2005. A fact that has been confirmed and reconfirmed by all thirteen US Intelligence Agencies including the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA countless times over the last three years.

Why the White House persists in attempting to publicly frame Iran’s nuclear energy program as “a threat to American security” remains a mystery. As does why the US government continues to refuse to speak with or enter into diplomatic talks with Iran while other countries such as Iraq, Japan, Italy, China, Pakistan, and Russia are now jumping at it. Bear in mind that Iran currently sits on the second largest oil deposit on the planet. He told us that US President George W. Bush missed a historic opportunity when he didn’t respond to the Iran President’s 2006 letter inviting him to talk, an opportunity that could have begun a reconciliation of the two countries’ 28 year cold war of silence. As an American citizen I couldn’t help but feel a sense of bitterness and regret — as if we were indeed a winning team but could still lose the game because we simply suffer from having a bad captain.

Ahmadinejad also commented about how the United States, the UK, France and Canada supported, cooperated with, and even gave nuclear technology information to the pre-1979 regime ruled by the US-installed dictator, the Shah of Iran but now “When there were no elections in Iran, they wanted us to be a nuclear power. As soon as there were elections, they didn’t want us to be a nuclear power.” The room roared with laughter at the obvious irony. As a passionately patriotic American – granted, more of the ideals we talk rather than the missteps our government often walks, especially with our foreign policy over the last fifty years – I felt proud knowing that this might be the first time an Iranian government leader was in a room with living breathing American’s who actually understood and fought for America’s promise and potential of real democracy and liberty for all, rather than feeling bullied, threatened, and manipulated as many smaller countries feel in their dealings with the United States government today.

I was reminded of the shock I felt when I first learned just a few short months ago that in 1950 Iran had their first democratic revolution and in 1953 the CIA and the UK, under Operation Ajax, orchestrated a coup d’etat and ousted Iran’s new democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddeq sending him into exile and installed a puppet regime that they could control easily in the form of The Shah so both countries could reap giant profits from Iran’s enormous oil supply while that country’s people struggled in poverty and fell behind the rest of the world in technology, social services, and infrastructure for thirty more years. I also contemplated how as children we are taught to honor, respect, and celebrate our own American Revolution while at the same time being advised that we should disrespect, fear, and dishonor the Iranian people’s own Democratic Revolution.

But as important as that little bit of history is for all Americans to have knowledge of, that’s in the past and here we were, twenty-eight years later, American citizens no longer able to bear the archaic bullheaded imperialist system that refuses to practice in real life what it preaches to its children in school, taking matters into our own hands and sitting down in the first ever diplomatic talks with the relatively new democratically-elected Iranian government to help begin to build a bridge of shared values and mutual agreements: mainly, that “we must work together to form a wave of citizens who are dedicated to world peace for all citizens of the world and of all nations.”

Echoing what we heard countless times by many leading government officials when I visited Iran in March of this year, Ahmadinejad told us that Iran is politically and religiously opposed to nuclear weapons, adding: “The time for nuclear weapons has come to an end. Those who want to build a new generation of nuclear bombs are politically backward, period. Those days are over.” Again the room erupted into applause. “Did nuclear weapons help the United States in their Vietnam War? Did they help the former Soviet Union in the Cold War? Are they helping your country in the Iraq War?” Silence in the room. Perhaps it was the fact that Ahmadinejad was fasting for weeks straight due to the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Perhaps he has just matured over the years. But his mannerisms were cool, his demeanor was calm, and the tone of his answers poetic and philosophical. He then posed the question “Doesn’t it seem odd that we are being economically sanctioned, our people strangled literally to death, and at the same time publicly threatened and attacked almost daily for attempting to harness nuclear energy for our rapidly growing economy with no intention of building nuclear weapons, by the United States who has over 10,000 functional nuclear warheads aimed at half the world? Doesn’t this seem odd and illogical?” Again, more applause.

I was speechless. Perhaps this was a first for me too. The first time that I had heard a high ranking government official, a head of State no less, speaking not only insightfully with moral and ethical undertones, but speaking truths that many of us think to ourselves privately but are afraid to utter aloud for fear of being labeled “unpatriotic” or “treasonous.” Having grown up in America in the latter half of the 20th century I was jaded from one too many politico speeches filled with nothing but empty rhetoric and flip flopping. But Iran is in a different position now than they’ve been in thousand’s of years and different than even we American citizens are. They are quickly gaining allies and support and mammoth deals with countries all over the world. They do not share the same fears that even we here at home face of being attacked for speaking their truth. They are a rapidly growing new country of strong proud people with a seven-thousand year long history, a sovereign nation who are free to say what they wish, economic sanctions and near-constant threats of military strikes be damned. All I could do was transcribe the contents of the meeting as quickly as my illegible handwriting would allow. Something told me that what I was witnessing and listening to was important to share with as many people as I could over the coming weeks and months.

This is not to say that those of us in attendance were able to agree with everything that the conservative Muslim President said during our meeting. There was plenty to take umbrage with and in fact just downright vehemently disagree with. This I will cover in Part II, along with a summary of the dialogue surrounding some of the other issues mentioned earlier in this article. But in the name of peace, which was the reason for the meeting in the first place, perhaps it best to end Part I with Ahmadinejad’s closing remarks to illustrate why many left that room that night inspired by the potential hinted at that there is power in our civil society and in non-violent civilian diplomacy to effect change in the world and to lift up democratic societies despite challenges and obstacles.

“My friends we need to create a wave of all world citizens of all backgrounds and all walks of life to create more peace in the world. We need to practice our values of our various religions and gather ourselves together to work at the pace of light itself to keep up with the pace of the world. Carrying out this mission has certain requirements based on justice and respect for all nations. If we don’t like something for ourselves, then we should not want it for other nations. Yes? What I am saying here is not complicated. These are clear-cut ideas that we need simply to put into practice.”

It is too bad that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama could have been in attendance at this historic meeting. Perhaps the contents of their debate on Friday regarding the country of Iran would have appeared more well informed and enlightened. (Both candidates mistakenly referred to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as “the Republican Guard”) If the United States is going to pull out of the numerous crises both here and abroad that it currently faces, it is going to take real change on many levels – the kind of change hyped and promoted by at least one of this election year’s presidential candidates. And one of those changes absolutely essential to our survival, let alone our thriving in the 21st century is going to be a more open door diplomatic policy towards communication with other countries that we may not see eye to eye on in all matters. But we have to start somewhere for real reconciliation to start taking place.

Ed Hale
September 27th, 2008

Sister Ellen Francis from the Episcopal Order of St. Helena’s Convent in Augusta, Georgia has officially begun a weekly “fast for peace” in regards to Iran and the United States and Israel. Sister Ellen Francis is an American who has traveled the world for peace and human rights activism for many years. She had the privilege of living in Iran for ten years and since then has made many more trips there for civilian diplomatic reasons. I had the honor of going on one such trip with Sister Ellen Francis in March of this year. As one can read from my own personal blogs about the trip, it was a once in a lifetime experience that I will not soon forget. Not only did I gain tremendously as a person from the trip culturally, I believe we made amazing progress as a group in our collected goal of fostering more peace and harmony between the people of the United States and Iran.

As one can clearly see from this website and so many others, there are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who are taking pro-active steps of action to not only assure that a few ignorant people who happen to currently work for us (think “government employees”) don’t needlessly attack the people of Iran militarily, but are also working to actually create and foster more peace and harmony between our two countries – which is at the end of the day what everyone says they want. Right?

Even the worst of them, the absolute most treacherous, murderous, and caniving monsters in the world today – (think Bush Jr. and Sr., Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Limbaugh, Rove, the Clintons, many of the current “Ayatollahs” serving in the government of Iran, et al. – for more detailed information on the history of some of these heinous names, start your research by studying the Project for a New American Century here), claim that they are “working towards peace.” The problem is that it is hard sometimes to see the logic of a few people’s methods – such as bombing other countries as just one example or sponsoring terrorist acts as another. But at the very least we can agree that “peace and harmony between our countries” is what everyone “claims” to want.

Sometimes it is more obvious when someone’s actions are more aligned with “working towards peace.” The work of groups such as The ANSWER Coalition or UFPJ or Amnesty International or Star’s Edge are all good examples of this. They actually walk the talk. Many more organizations exist and can be found on the TuneInTurnOnHelpOut.org website. Many examples can be found in groups that are even smaller all over the world… sometimes just the actions of ONE.

One such example comes in the form of a beautiful person by the name of Sister Ellen Francis who has begun a weekly “fast for peace with Iran campaign.” I am inspired, moved, and challenged by Sister Ellen Francis’ bold commitment. More information can be found on her own personal blog and in the letter she sent in this week re-printed below. If you want to join her please feel free to visit her blog and email her. And let us know here at PeaceWithIran.com if you also plan on participating.

As always, keep those articles, blog posts, lecture and event notices, activism updates, and other interesting items pouring in – and most importantly keep up the real world actions for peace. Everyday. Do something.

Sincerely,
The Raconteur

Dear Ed,
I’ve started the fast, and am feeling really good. I’ve posted a notice on my blog (ellenfrancis.blogspot.com), and also some advice about fasting. I think that the prayer is the most important part, and that people could join in just doing that, or fasting from one type of food, or partial fasting for part of the time. Maybe on another day, too — Wednesday is the best day for me since it’s our “day off” here in this convent.

Just think of all the people in the world for whom fasting isn’t an option but a WAY OF LIFE.

Isn’t it great that The Call Iran Project in Washington went so well? Carah Ong posted a notice about it on the Fellowship Of Reconciliation Iran listserve.

So let me know if you’d like to join in some way, and I’d be really happy for the publicity through the PeaceWithIran website. The more the merrier, and the more powerful we will be! I’m going to write an article for the Episcopal Peace Fellowship newsletter and maybe for our newsletter too. A few people have left comments on my blog.

Yours in Peace,
Sister Ellen Francis

Already starting to change colors right before our eyes? Well one isn’t quite sure yet. But how utterly and typically “political” this most recent stunt has made Obama appear. He failed to have either the knowledge or the courage – right now we aren’t sure which – to remind the crowd that Iran is legally entitled under international law to be working on researching nuclear energy under the Nuclear Proliferation Act – they currently have approximately one-hundred and twenty-thousand citizens employed and working at various plants around their country in this program – nor did he mention that they were given authorization from and originally purchased their nuclear energy knowledge and many materials to do so from the United States as far back as the Eisenhower administration.

How on earth can this man be talking about more sanctions against Iran and trying to stop them from enriching uranium when it is absolutely none of his business is the question that is begged to be answered here.

And also, even more questionable, is how can a man who clearly owes his rise to power to the peace-card carrying doves of the left already be making right-wing hawkish threats against a country who are clearly only growing in strength and power and in political unions all over the globe every year as the United States continues to grow weaker and less threatening to a world who is waking up to some obvious cracks in the once-great nation’s armor? Windbag rhetorical threats are the last thing any candidate needs to be showing us as we continue to interview the applicants for the job. We’ve already had plenty of that from the last assholes that we hired to fill the position.

Either 1, Barack is just kowtowing to AIPAC to win Jewish votes (which means he lacks integrity by not just being honest with how he really feels), or 2, he is ignorant about how ignorant it is for him to be making such statements that it is somehow the US Government’s right to try to stop another country from harnessing nuclear energy, or 3, he is just ignorant as to how arrogant and erroneous it is for one country to attempt to stop another country from harnessing nuclear energy for the betterment of their own people — especially when all American Intelligence reports clearly show that they STOPPED working on nuclear WEAPONS research 4 years ago.

So which is it?

I have said from the beginning and I will say it again here: I lean neither left nor right but straight down the middle – I am a member of the “human being” party. You might have heard of it. It means that I care not to be placed in a box and slapped on the back with any labels but purely and simply care about all human beings on planet earth. Period. I’m too old now to believe that either party gives a shit about what they promise, nor has the power to do anything about it, before they get into office. What I am concerned with is how humane that particular job applicant appears to be. After all, the most important aspect of his job is in essence to secure another few years of our survival as a species – in this case collected under the banner of the United States. If we were in France, it would be under the banner of France. Etc ad nauseum.

Again, lest we forget the endless replies I have already given to the thousands of comments on YouTube and various other social networking sites around the world over the years accusing me of not being a “proud enough American,” one could have just as easily barraged me with such accusations during Hitler’s Germany, during Napoleon’s France, during Great Britain’s brutal fight against “colonial” India, during Nero’s Rome, or even during America’s attempted occupation of Vietnam. People still even do it today under Bush’s America, which is to say the least just plain sad.

But again for the record I will state that “nationalistic pride” is something I gave up, or grew out of, long, long ago — as far back as my teenage years. It only took a few years of studying history to realize that it was a useless, short-sighted, and often dangerous stance. Instead, I pledge allegiance to the united state of HUMANITY. And to the safety and security of every human being on the planet today and tomorrow.

Regarding our current dilemma as to which of the two men we should hire in the short term for what in the most ideal case should be a very noble position – that being the president of our beloved company, or country, however you want to look at it, as always we are faced with the same tough issues. Neither of them we know well enough. And no single human being should be expected to fill that role perfectly. Over the last 200 years we have clearly been shown this fact, if nothing else.

At least with Senator John McCain we know he is a patriotic man. We also know that he is not entirely partisan. And we know who he is and what he stands for. He is clearly an honest man who tells us what he really believes. In the case of Iran, Mr. McCain suffers from both maladies number 2 and number 3 above. Both ignorance and arrogance. A little something called “too much nationalistic pride and jingoism” and not enough knowledge (or wisdom gained) from studying history – not quite yet realizing that number one, the USA has only been a world super-power for a few short 60 years at best, and number two, that we are very close to losing this dubious title because the rest of the world has caught up to and are well ahead of us economically, the American dollar doesn’t carry much leverage anymore, threatening to blow someone up with a nuclear weapon as a means of frightening them into submission (which used to be the USA’s big “ace in the hole” for the last fifty years) has flown out the window since we now have NINE countries with nuclear weapons including China and Russia, and the US military is stretched so thin that it is obvious that Iran isn’t even frightened of the US government anymore since they continue to fund groups fighting directly against us such as Hezbollah.

The question that we should all be asking ourselves at this point is when are we going to hire someone to sit in that coveted chair (remember WE the people HIRE the president – he is nothing – absolutely nothing – but our EMPLOYEE) who is smart enough to realize that the days of stomping around the earth like giant idiot-minded dinosaurs threatening other countries to “do what they’re told” are OVER?

Obama? McCain? It all sounds the same to me if they are going to keep on making ignorant and arrogant threats against other nation-states around the world and poking their noses around where they don’t belong. What we need is an applicant for this JOB that we are offering who is smart enough and understands history well enough to realize that it is DIPLOMACY not THREATS that we need in the case of Iran, and in regards to many other countries around the world at this tenuous time in our nation’s history.

As for the historical significance of Obama being the first black person to ever come this far in the race to be president of the United States, let us celebrate it surely as it is indeed a major winning event in our history and in our efforts on behalf of civil rights through the years; but once we get the celebrating out of our systems let us not forget that what we were fighting for in regards to civil rights all these years was to see BEYOND color. So the fact that Barack Obama happens to be a man of color is a non-issue now. That part of the play is over. The applause has died down and we should get back to our seats and prepare for Act II. Let us now move beyond that issue and see who the man really is. Just as we will need to do with Senator McCain.

Obama can be black, brown, white, yellow, red, or even purple as far as I’m concerned and it matters not. (He actually appears to be more of a “tan” if you ask me.) What matters is what’s on the inside. Lest we forget this important fact, all we need to do is look to our fellow brothers and sisters in Africa to see plenty of black men who have failed miserably as “presidents” just as we have seen plenty of white and yellow ones do the same through the years.

Hope? Sure. I’ve got hope. I’ve got hope that one day we will meet a man, or a woman, who wants this job and actually walks their talk and doesn’t just talk it. I’ve got hope that one day a man such as Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela or even a woman such as Mother Theresa or Oprah will walk in one day and say something like “about that job application I noticed in the paper the other day…. you know, I might be interested if the price was right…” That person, if one exists at all in this day and age, is not going to THREATEN – as Obama did the other day at his speech before AIPAC – but they are going to ENLIGHTEN.

That person, should they exist…. They are going to be above threatening. Above imperialism. Above bullying. Above “spin.” Above kowtowing and above lobbying. They are even, dare I say, going to be above “God and country” — and instead be joyously and wholeheartedly on the side of Humanity itself and nothing more nor less. For in the end, we are human beings knowingly or unknowingly disguising ourselves beneath various different masks of religions and nationalities.

What we need to do now is begin to slowly and cautiously pull down our masks and reveal what is really underneath – human faces. Gorgeous and beautiful living breathing human faces of all different colors and ethnicities. If we are going to bring religion into this matter at all, and time has already told that it is a place where it simply does not belong, but if we are, then let us pray that one day this person will grace us with their humble presence at the doorsteps of our office and say “hey, maybe I’ll give it a whirl if you’ll have me.” And for THIS I will pray everyday. THIS is my hope.

The last two months have indeed been insane with almost more work post-trip than the trip itself. A lot of interviews and articles and yes even the obligatory appearance on Muslim TV — (which was quite “candid cameraish I must say).

My official presentation about the trip in New York City will be this coming Sunday. I pasted the details below for you in case you have the time to come – and are interested in this subject. It was quite the experience and we learned a lot. More than anything, we were brought there specifically by the Iranian government to bring back a message to the American people…

So that is why we do these interviews and presentations. It isn’t necessarily a “perfect message.” But it is a real message – as opposed to what we hear on the news here in the States… which is just ‘the White House said…” So, that will be the aim of the presentation. To show some pictures, tell some stories, and answer as many questions as possible about the subject.

The presentation will be filmed (so dress sharp). By the way, since I have you all on the line at once: Our show Transcendent Television got picked up by Warner Home Video for distribution!!! No, we’re not on traditional TV… YET, but this was a real surprise blast of forward momentum out of nowhere that was very welcomed. If you want to see the first DVD they are going to officially release you can see it here because there are segments still on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AE689FEEAE0C2E66 It is the “Going to Ghana” series I made last year.

Many of your beautiful faces I have not seen in a long time… I know we’ve all been over the top busy. Such is life in New York. It has been a crazy year or more for many of us. But I would love to see you! If not Sunday, then hopefully soon.

(For you rockers in the bunch, it does begin at 12:45. I know that’s early, so if you don’t show, don’t sweat it. I TOTALLY understand. J)

Hope all is well with all of you and would love to see you there.

Ed Hale

Below is the description of the Presentation:

Ed Hale will give a talk about his recent Peace Delegation trip to Iran entitled “The Value of a Single Human Being”

Sunday June 1st starting at 12:45 PM at Christ Church 60th St. and Park Avenue New York, NY

Mark your calendars for Sunday June 1st 2008! Ed Hale who just recently returned from a 15 day peace delegation to the country of Iran with 13 other Americans will be giving a presentation in New York this sunday about his experience. The trip was sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Iranian government. The 14 delegates held formal meetings with leading government officials and religious leaders including former president Mohammad Khatami and three reigning Ayatollahs to discuss how to improve US/Iran relations and foster more peace and harmony between our countries. Ed will share his experience with us, as well as present a slideshow of photos from the trip and also answer questions about this increasingly important issue. He also brought back some delicious samples of traditional Iranian food, tea, and candy to share with the group.

Letter From Iran – by ROBERT DREYFUSS
This article appeared in the May 19, 2008 edition of The Nation.

Across the street from the sprawling shrine to Fatima al-Masumeh,
the revered sister of Imam Reza, the eighth Shiite imam, a group of
campaign workers on a rooftop are busy unfurling wall-sized election
posters for a conservative candidate in Iran’s March parliamentary
election. We’re in downtown Qom, a city of 1 million about 100 miles
southwest of Tehran. Qom is Iran’s religious capital, the wellspring
for a host of fundamentalist clerics who’ve ruled Iran since 1979,
and it is an eerie place. Unlike some other cities in Iran, where
urban professionals, merchants and the middle class try to push back
against onerous restrictions on freedom of expression and women’s
dress, there’s little evidence of that in Qom. Women are cloaked
head to toe in black garments, and turbaned mullahs on motorbikes
are a common sight.

Under a brilliant blue sky, mourners are lining up to enter the
shrine and pay their respects to Fatima, whose remains are entombed
inside an Oz-like green-mirrored vault. Among the mourners, in
formation behind a green banner, are a phalanx of grim-faced,
muscled militiamen, members of the Basij corps, wearing black T-
shirts and black headbands. The Basij is an estimated million-strong
volunteer paramilitary force that serves as an adjunct to the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and in 2005 the Basijis voted en
bloc to help elect hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president.

I’m standing in the inner courtyard of the shrine, a vast public
space surrounded by vaulted enclaves, towering minarets and
spectacular entrance halls bedecked in blue, green and gold tiles.
With me is Muhammad Legenhausen, 55, a New York-born, ex-Catholic
professor of philosophy who converted to Shiism, changed his name
from Gary and moved to Iran in the 1980s. Legenhausen tells me he
teaches philosophy at four universities and institutions in Qom. At
the powerful Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute, he also
serves as an aide to Ayatollah M.T. Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely seen
as the chief backer of President Ahmadinejad and who has even been
mentioned as a possible successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as
Iran’s next Supreme Leader.

It’s true, says Legenhausen, that Mesbah-Yazdi was the power behind
Ahmadinejad’s 2005 candidacy. “He was concerned that the reformers
had opened things up too far,” Legenhausen says, with an odd twinkle
in his eye, in his distinct New York-accented English. “On that, he
agrees with Ahmadinejad 100 percent.” But how, I ask, can you work
for someone who supports a conference to deny the Jewish Holocaust?
“Oh, that!” he says. “When we heard about that, Mesbah-Yazdi and I
just rolled our eyes. That was all Ahmadinejad’s doing. We said to
each other, ‘What can you do?’” He shrugs, as if to imply that this
was just Ahmadinejad being Ahmadinejad.

To understand where the power in Iran lies–and where the money goes-
- it’s enough to glance at the gleaming new headquarters of the Dar
al-Hadith Research Institute in Qom. Astride one of the main
approaches to the city, the Dar al-Hadith, which translates roughly
into “house of Islamic traditions,” is an imposing orange-yellow
edifice with blue and green decorative tiles under a yellow tiled
dome. It stands in sharp contrast to the dilapidated buildings that
crowd the downtowns of many Iranian cities. Inside the Dar, a
bustling staff of clerics and researchers, working in modernistic
surroundings and aided by computers and a vast library, spend their
time assembling and reassembling the medieval opinions of Muslim
scholars, compiling them into compendiums that are published in
Farsi, Urdu and Arabic.It’s a labor of love.

In a large, well-appointed conference room, the head of Dar al-
Hadith holds forth for visitors. He’s an impressive man,
nicknamed “the scary ayatollah.” Slim and balding, with a gray-
flecked beard, Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri wears rimless
glasses with thick lenses under a white turban. In the early ’80s he
was one of Iran’s first ministers of intelligence, a post in which
he developed a reputation for brutal acts of repression and summary
executions. Today he is the head of a major shrine foundation in
Tehran and a member of the Assembly of Experts, which selects the
Supreme Leader. Surrounded by a dozen staffers, including six
mullahs, he says without irony, “Islam is the religion of logic,
ethics and justice.”

One of his jobs in Iran is to oversee the hajj, the pilgrimage to
Mecca that is the duty of all devout Muslims. Under his supervision
Iranians visit not only Mecca but Najaf and Karbala, the Shiite holy
cities in Iraq. He is frank about Iranian support for the Baghdad
regime. “You must be aware that the government in Iraq is a
government supported by us,” he says. Given that tens of thousands
of Iranian pilgrims visit Iraq each month, in a migration overseen
by a former intelligence minister, it’s not unlikely that some of
them, at least, are on official business.

Reyshahri makes his exit, but later, over a lunch of kabobs, yogurt
and rice, I find myself engaged in a vigorous political discussion
with one of his aides, a mullah named Mohammad Mahdavi. Portly and
grandfatherly, with a white turban, Mahdavi is a well-connected
senior cleric, a hojatolislam (a rank below ayatollah), who not long
ago turned down a job as deputy foreign minister. How, I ask, can
Reyshahri talk about justice when the regime sends the Guard onto
the campus of Tehran University to throw protesting students out of
the dormitory windows to their death? When assassins are sent to
hack liberal politicians like Darioush Forouhar and his wife to
death in their beds? “There are conspiracies,” he says,
unfazed. “There are spies. So, of course, sometimes we have to take
strong measures against the protesters.” He justifies such actions
by citing reports that the United States is trying to break up Iran,
to provoke separatist movements in Kurdistan, Baluchistan and the
oil-rich Arab province of Khuzestan in southwest Iran, though the
evidence of such covert US activity is mixed at best.

I ask Mahdavi why the regime doesn’t allow reformists, secular
parties or the left to organize and run for office freely. “People
who go into Parliament must swear allegiance to the Constitution,
and that requires that they support Islam. They do not. If they say
they do, they are lying. Should we send liars to Parliament?” We
send liars to Congress all the time, I reply, and he laughs,
adding, “For myself, I would allow all of them to run. Why not? If
they ran, well–” He wipes his palms together. You mean they
wouldn’t get any votes? “Exactly,” he replies. “But you must
understand. Our people are very religious. If we did that, there
would be big protests by the people. They would ask, ‘Why are you
letting these people run?’”

Ahmadinejad’<wbr>s election was the first step by Iran’s hard-line clergy
to uproot the reform movement in Iran. The other shoe dropped on
March 14, when hard-liners consolidated their control in
parliamentary elections, ensuring the ultraconservatives near-total
control of all three branches of government: the presidency, the
judiciary (which is controlled directly by the Supreme Leader) and
the Parliament. From the start, the election was rigged in favor of
the right. Two thousand candidates were disqualified from running.
Liberal and secular parties, and those who don’t accept the premise
of a clergy-run Islamic Republic, have been banned outright for
years. Harsh restrictions were placed on those who did run. And
candidates who managed to get approval got the nod so late that they
were unable to gain any traction.

Not surprisingly, under such conditions many Iranians are not
enthusiastic about voting. Although in 2008 overall turnout was 60
percent, in Tehran it was far lower, just 30 percent, and in runoff
elections only 26 percent showed up. Many who did go to the polls
went only because the regime stamps Iranians’ ID cards when they
vote, and those who fail to vote can find it impossible to be hired
as, say, teachers or other state employees. From dozens of
discussions with ordinary Iranians–in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and
Kashan–it is clear that most Iranians are disenchanted with the
clerical regime.

First, though, a word about talking with Iranians. I’ve come to Iran
as a journalist, part of a small delegation from the Fellowship of
Reconciliation, an interfaith peace organization founded in 1914.
The delegation is hosted by the Center for Interreligious Dialogue,
an Iranian government organization whose staff says that it
is “linked to the office of the Supreme Leader.” When I engage
Iranians by myself, whether through random encounters or in
prearranged meetings, people want to talk. When they find out I’m an
American, they tell their stories with enthusiasm. But whenever I’m
accompanied by a minder, in the form of an official from the Center
for Interreligious Dialogue, an oppressive chill descends and people
clam up.

In almost every conversation, Iranians’ attitudes toward the regime
of the mullahs range from sullen tolerance to bitter hostility. In
the Tehran bazaar, two young men who sell carpets want to talk
politics. “Do you know the mullahs?” one asks. “We hate them. They
are stupid.” And they both laugh. In Shiraz, the historic and
beautiful city of poets in the south, I have dinner with four women
and three men, ranging in age from 20 to 40. Mehri, one of the
women, is a dentist in her late 30s. Earlier that day, we’d met at
Persepolis, where the breathtaking ruins of the palaces of Darius,
Xerxes and Cyrus the Great lie sparkling in the intense sunlight,
and I’d invited her and her friends for dinner. “We had such hopes
for [the previous reformist president, Mohammad] Khatami,” says
Mehri. “But you see what happened. The regime killed everything. Now
we don’t know what is better to do: do we vote for the reformers,
even though we know they can’t do anything? Or do we stay home and
not vote at all?”

On a hiking trail in the snow-covered mountains north of Tehran,
Hirad, a young notary public, complains about how hard it is to get
a job and–in a complaint I hear repeatedly–how hard it is to meet
women in the face of severe harassment by the morality olice. “This
regime is terrible,” he says. Suddenly he notices the bearded man in
a blue blazer who’s been assigned to accompany our group this
morning. The two men shake hands and exchange greetings, and then
Hirad and I walk quickly away. He glances over his shoulder. With
contempt, he spits on the ground. “Fucking beard!” he says, lashing
out at the symbol of loyalty to the Islamic Republic.

A few days later I have a chance to ask a top Iranian official about
public disenchantment with the regime. M. Hossein Saffar-Haramdi,
minister of culture and Islamic guidance, has an easy manner and a
ready grin, and looks like a carbon copy of Ahmadinejad: wiry, with
a short, neatly trimmed beard. It’s his job to enforce Islamic
discipline on the media, the arts and other forms of public
expression. “The solution to the problems of the world,” he says
earnestly, “is to move closer to religion.” A layman and former
deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Saffar-Haramdi served
for ten years as chief of the guard’s political bureau. Asked why he
forcibly closes newspapers, he is defiant. “Any press activity that
would disturb the fabric of society or create some sort of
disruption, the law must be applied,” he says. “The press is free,
as long as it does not start insulting political personalities and
religious beliefs.”

Unlike the frown-faced, fire-and-brimstone mullahs cast in the mold
of the scowling Ayatollah Khomeini, Mohammad Khatami seems gentle
and avuncular, and when he was elected president in 1997 he embodied
the hopes of Iranians who longed for a thaw in Iran’s frozen
politics. But he ran afoul of the hard-liners, including Khamenei,
the Guardian Council and the courts, and his efforts at reform were
stymied. Conservatives like Mesbah-Yazdi, along with the
Revolutionary Guard and the Basij, mobilized against him, and in
three successive elections–parliamentary elections in 2004, the
presidential election in 2005 (won by Ahmadinejad) and the March
parliamentary election–the Islamic rightists won big.

Today, sitting in a high-ceilinged room at the International Center
for Dialogue Among Civilizations, which he founded in 1999, Khatami
appears relaxed and confident. He’s sitting cross-legged in a black
turban and black robe, sporting penny loafers, wearing a turquoise
ring. I ask him to reflect on his eight years as president, about
what went wrong and where to go from here, and he laughs. “That
answer calls for a two- or three-hour meeting!” he says. He makes it
clear that despite everything, he is either unwilling or unable to
challenge the regime directly. “We are reformists,” he ays. “Reform
takes place within the system, not against the system. Once you go
outside the system, then it is a revolution you seek.” He is willing
to work for incremental gains. “The path we have chosen is the right
path,” he says. “I am not pessimistic.”

Khatami hopes for better relations with the United States, but he
leaves no doubt that the Bush Administration destroyed any
possibility of rapprochement. “During my tenure, many steps were
taken to eradicate misunderstandings. I believe the Clinton
Administration did not object to these efforts. But I am sorry to
say that certain forces were opposed. When Bush came into power,
everything was turned upside down. When the Iran of the Khatami era
is branded as the axis of evil, despite the fact that Iran’s
cooperation was the most important factor in America’s success in
Afghanistan [in 2001], these misunderstandings become more powerful.”
A few seats away, nodding in agreement, is Sadegh Kharazi, the
former deputy foreign minister who is now an aide to Khatami. Five
years ago, Kharazi helped write a secret offer to cooperate with the
Bush Administration on a broad range of issues, from Israel and
terrorism to Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, but the offer was
rebuffed.

The campus of Iran’s foreign ministry, stately and tree-lined, is an
oasis amid the noisy, traffic-clogged streets of Tehran. Inside, I
meet Ali Akbar Rezaie, the director of the section of the ministry
that deals with the United States. “We don’t have relations with
your government, but ironically we are the busiest department in the
ministry,” he says. Rezaie oversees a staff of ten people, including
six who specialize in American affairs, and he works closely with
the ministry’s in-house think tank, the Institute for Political and
International Studies. I ask Rezaie about Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei’s recent comment that he could envision a time when Iran
and the United States renew ties. Rezaie says that among Iran’s
political elite, a debate is raging about whether and how to seek
better relations with the United States. “The significance of
[Khamenei's] statement is that at a high level the debate is a live
one, and it’s very important. It’s not ideological, and it’s not
based on imperatives from the top.”

But the United States is sending conflicting and contradictory
signals, he says, combining bellicose rhetoric and a push for
sanctions against Iran with less hostile actions, such as the
December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which said Iran had
halted its nuclear weapons program nearly five years ago. “It’s
confusing for many of us here,” he says. “We don’t see honesty from
the US side. They are just looking to diminish our power, our role,
our influence in the region.” Whether the United States seeks a
rapprochement with Iran or continues to be hostile, America’s goal
of hegemony in the Persian Gulf will not alter. “It doesn’t matter
if you have cooperation or confrontation. In both ways they are
trying to diminish us. Confront us or embrace us, it’s the same
goal.”

Over at the think tank, Dr. Sayed Kazem Sajjadpour is worried.
They’re watching the US election campaign carefully, he says, and
they’re worried that the White House might escalate tensions with
Iran in order to create a climate of confrontation that could
benefit John McCain. “We’re concerned that the United States will be
harsh against Iran in order to facilitate votes for the Republican
candidate, who will seek to profit over tension with Iran,” he
says. “The Republicans are likely to use the issue of Iran to divert
attention from other problems.”

Robert Dreyfuss, a Nation contributing editor, is the author of
Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist
Islam (Metropolitan).

Lynda Howland of Pittsford traveled to Iran recently as part of the Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation along with singer/songwriter Ed Hale of the rock group Transcendence, Larry Beinhart of the Wag the Dog movie and Fog Facts book, and foreign affairs journalist Robert Dreyfuss.

The roots of distrust between the US and Iran were sown by several twentieth-century events. In 1953, the US overthrew the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, putting an end to their fledgling democracy. The US installed the Shah, supporting his brutal regime for 25 more years. In 1979, the Islamic Revolution overthrew the Shah, and students took hostages in the US Embassy. In 1980 Iraq invaded Iran, and the US sold chemical materials to Iraq, which were used to kill tens of thousands of Iranians. In 1998, the US shot down an Iran Air commercial flight, killing 290. Deep resentments and suspicions remain on both sides.

In 2003, Iran presented an offer (through the Swiss Embassy) to President Bush for comprehensive negotiations on all issues, including recognition of Israel, support of Hamas and Hezbollah, and Iran’s nuclear program. Bush did not give Iran the courtesy of a reply, and reprimanded the Swiss for delivering the offer. Bush continues to rebuff other Iranian offers for negotiations. Even after acknowledging the significance of Iran’s help in overthrowing the Taliban in Afghanistan, Bush made his Axis of Evil speech.

We negotiated with Libya and North Korea. Why not Iran? Because Iran is the last stumbling block to US control of the Middle East. As US economic power wanes and its “moral” leadership is severely compromised, it is relying on military power to “protect American interests” around the world. Control of Middle East resources is essential to this goal. What means are we willing to use to achieve this goal? As we “conveniently” blame Iran for Iraqi resistance to US occupation a US fleet is stationed in the Persian Gulf, prepared to unleash the terror of nuclear weapons on Iran, a non-nuclear nation that has no history of invading other countries. US special-operations teams are waging a covert war within Iran to destabilize it. Would we tolerate such actions against us?

I recently traveled to Iran with a Fellowship of Reconciliation peace delegation. We met with religious and governmental leaders, including ex-president Khatami. Their messages were similar: “If there are to be constructive negotiations, the “demonizing” on both sides must end, and the US must treat Iran as an equal partner and respect its sovereignty. Sanctions, threats of attack and regime change, and intimidation are the tools the US has used in its dealings with Iran. These do not constitute “negotiations.” They are condescending, and meant to humiliate and bring Iran to its knees.”

The hostile rhetoric of the US has a very negative impact on the reform movement within Iran, alienating even Iranians who oppose their government, and hardening the position of conservatives. The arrogance shown by the US administration can only incite more violence and extremism throughout the Middle East. Iran views nuclear power as a symbol of independence and progress. Their present peaceful nuclear program is legal, and neither the National Intelligence Estimate nor the United Nation’s IAEA has found evidence that Iran intends to begin a nuclear weapons program. Still, the world is justified in being concerned about Iran and other nations developing nuclear weapons. Likewise, we should be concerned about the existing nuclear weapons of nine other countries, including Israel and the US (the only country to use nuclear weapons). Five additional countries are enriching uranium. As we passed the Natanz nuclear power plant, guarded by a few anti-aircraft guns, I thought about the carpet maker, the geology teacher, the seven insightful young Iranian professionals with whom we shared a vibrant conversation, the smiling school children who surrounded us wherever we went in nearby Esfahan. If the US bombs Natanz, they could all die.

Their lives depend on Americans opposing an attack on Iran and supporting a peaceful negotiated solution to our differences. Iran is no match for a nation that spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined. As our government attempts to increase our fear of Iran with misleading rhetoric, and make it into our next enemy, we must protest the buildup to the destruction of yet another country.

A personal message from Ed Hale

Thank you for visiting www.peacewithiran.com. Your presence here is welcomed and appreciated. I want to caveat by saying that though “war is imminent” or “military strikes are imminent” may be an idea or thought or belief that many are carrying around today in regards to the United States and Iran and even Israel, I do not personally hold this thought or idea or belief myself.

Yes I certainly see the news being released everyday about the various issues, and I recognize that parties on all sides feel very passionate about these issues; whether it is the threat of a “nuclear Iran” on one side, or a ”bullying America” on the other side, or a “fearful and hostile Israel” on yet another side. I also certainly understand the potential dangers that all three countries pose against the others and truly against all living beings on the planet today. But I believe that what we think about, what we give energy to, is what we create. We have seen it time and time again. As soon as a country starts beating its war drum, it is only a matter of time until it decides it’s time to “go to war.” Regardless of the loss of life, liberty, respect in the world community, or the burden it places upon the rest of the world. Throughout human history, there has always been one country or another “ready to attack” another country.

The truth of the matter is that this is bound to continue until mass human consciousness changes to the point of what might be called “critical mass” in a way that these people who see “war” as the only answer for “peace” simply no longer exist. In time this will be our reality. It might take our total annihilation and extinction and subsequent reincarnation in yet another form for this to happen, but let us hope not. Let us hope that those of us who see “peaceful means” as the only means available to us to achieve “peace” win this historical battle of wits that is being played out on the world stage.

With that said, let us take it for granted that for the next few months or years even we will have ample opportunity to read about “war” and the “threat of war” in regards to Iran and the United States and Israel if we so choose to. There are plenty of people who find the time and enjoy searching for the latest article or report on what “so and so” said bad about “so and so” and of course in the end it is really nothing but talk leading up to more “war” – even if their intentions are good – meaning that they don’t want “war” – but in fact that is exactly what they will create. Some people have just not evolved to the level of understanding of the “mechanisms of consciousness” yet to the degree that they realize that if they spend all their time thinking and reading about it, they will indeed create it. Whether they claim to want it or not. They are creating it simply by focusing so much attention on it.

But that is not what this particular website is concerned with. Our goals with the www.peacewithiran.com website is to show an entirely different side of US/Iran relations and to the country of Iran itself, and the Iranian people. The idea is to literally ignore that pink elephant in the room that at various times is called “war” or “threats of war” or worries or concerns about nuclear energy programs or WMDs or any of that lower-mode primitive-minded nonsense. Because God knows we have plenty of people already giving plenty of energy to those ideas in today’s world.

Remember elementary school? There were always those one or two kids in each class who were the bullies, who picked fights for the slightest reason or for no reason at all, who made fun of other kids, who tried to make us laugh at the expense of others, who tried to pit one classmate against another for the sheer wicked enjoyment they got out of it. Though this isn’t elementary school anymore, it sure seems like it sometimes. Those kids have now grown up. And if we aren’t careful and vigilant to our cause – the safety and survival of our species – these grown up kids could blow us all up simply because they haven’t fully matured yet as most of us have, and also because we haven’t done enough to speak up and tell them to back the fuck down.

It’s too bad we weren’t able to do that in regards to the United States Government’s invasion of the sovereign country of Iraq. Lord knows plenty of people from all over the world tried. But no one was brave enough to really stand up and say “no.” And so in the last five years we have watched in horror over one million innocent people die. It is also equally regrettable that we have thus far been unable to stand up against the Chinese government in regards to how they are slowly but steadily killing hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people right before our eyes.

Of course, the issue of Iran is a bit more complex than Iraq or the Sudan. Both countries were radically unstable and not much of a threat nor a strong foe to begin with. But Iran is a very different matter. The people of the United States of America should feel very lucky that the Iranian people are such a strong, busy, and resilient people that up until this time they have not taken the constant beating of the American war drum by the few barbarians in Washington who do not understand the basic principles of diplomacy too seriously. Instead they choose to just continue on with their lives and hope that eventually America finds someone else to bully. For unlike Iraq or the Sudan or Tibet for that matter, Iran does have the potential to pose a serious threat as a formidable enemy if they ever felt so inclined to. Not only do they have a very proud and loyal populace since their own revolution, they also have the backing and allegiance of many other countries around the world. Luckily for all of us, they instead choose to do their best to just keep on trying to move forward with their day to day lives.

So instead of focusing on war and threats of war and who has the biggest army or the biggest guns or who said what about whom each day in the international press, those of us on the light side need to start focusing our energy on Peace and on People. After all, Iran is a country full of people. So is the United States. And in a nutshell, war isn’t good for people. Nor has it ever done much good for “peace”.

It is easy to find ourselves upset at the US Government, just as it is easy to find ourselves upset with the Iranian government or the Israeli government or the various factions within the Palestinian government. But it isn’t going to do us much good to focus on these feelings of upset. Let us instead choose to focus on Peace itself. Let us instead focus on discovering how many millions of Iranian/Americans we already have living here in the United States who still have family “back home” in beautiful Iran. Let us instead develop a curiosity for this rich and ancient and historic land once called Persia, now called Iran.

Let us instead develop a place online and in our hearts where we who care can share photos, films, books, movies, art, and music from the fascinating cultural exchange that is taking place right this very minute between our two great countries. Iranians love Americans. There is much to like about us. And they can see that. And though many don’t yet know it, Americans love many famous Iranians. Iran has contributed much to the planet in its five thousand year history. Our very own Constitution is said to be inspired by the Persian King Cyrus the Great and his drafting of what many believe to be the very first “constitution.”

PeaceWithIran.com is a story of hope. It is a place to learn and to share. The goal being to add some balance to the already nauseating clutter of war-related stories coming out from the hawks and bullies of the world – and the hapless media lapdogs who follow their every step. We made a grave mistake with Iraq. We never bothered to even look these poor people in the eye before we attacked them; because our hearts were heavy from the events of September 11th, and our minds were confused by falsified “intelligence reports” coming out of Washington. But we will not make that same mistake again.

Let us take a look at the face of Iran – since after all, Iran is a country full of 70 million faces. Our goal is that not one of them is touched, hurt, injured, attacked, maimed, deformed, put out of their homes, or killed by anyone. Just as I am sure most would agree that we have the same goal for ourselves. Let us hold it for our Iranian neighbors as well.

In the meantime, there is much to learn about this truly fascinating people and country. Take your time and look around. And if you have something to share, please feel free. This site is open to all who have something to contribute, even if it is just a photo, a comment, or a message of hope or inspiration. Most of all, share the space in your hearts that we finally acheive that seemingly ever evasive goal of peace not just in words and rhetoric but in actual practice.

Sincerely,
Ed Hale

Ed Hale encourages fans, friends, and citizens of the world who are sincerely interested in peace in the world to call the United States Congress and urge them to put an end to the White House’s fascist bullying stance currently being taken against the people of Iran. No excuses. The time is now. Goliath is going down.

Please share this as widely as possible!

Dear Friend of United for Peace and Justice,Fazio/Welch letter calling on President Bush to seek a ‘direct, unconditional, and comprehensive’ dialogue with Iran.Call the Capitol switchboard today:
202-224-3121U.S. intelligence agencies have announced their belief that Iran has no nuclear weapons program. Many in Congress, including some Republicans, have argued that the new National Intelligence Estimate should be the basis of a fundamental shift in U.S. policy toward Iran, away from military threats in favor of real diplomacy and engagement. But so far the White House has refused to change course. President Bush has said his aggressive stance toward Iran would not change as a result of the new NIE.Representatives Peter DeFazio and Peter Welch are sending a letter this week to President Bush urging that the U.S. seek a “direct, unconditional, and comprehensive” dialogue with Iran in the wake of the Iran NIE. Current signers include: Representatives Woolsey, Ellison, Kucinich, Doggett, Farr, Olver, Baldwin, Hirono, McGovern, Lee, Blumenauer, McDermott, Moran, and Wu.Help make this a stronger statement by encouraging your representative to sign this letter. Call the Capitol switchboard ASAP at 202-224-3121. The deadline for signing on to the letter is this Wednesday at noon. (If you don’t know who your representative is, click here.)Click here to read the text of the letter. Robert Naiman
Co-Convenor
UFPJ Iran Working Group