Saturday, August 14, 2010

Letter from One of the Participants in the Pro-Ahmadienjad Conference

This letter has been received from one of the participants in the pro-Ahmadinejad propaganda circus which was named 'The Great Conference of Iranians Abroad'.

'I am an experienced doctor currently residing in Germany who took part in the conference you wrote about and was unwillingly used for the propaganda purposes of this administration. I just wanted to tell you about some aspects of this conference which until now have not been reported.

1- The conference was supposed to be a two day conference only and even then one day only was allocated for the conference, the first day was supposed to have been for rest and settling in. As soon as we arrived however, they told us they were extending the conference to three days.

2- When we arrived in the airport we were kept behind for five hours. They told us this is because they wanted to issue us with proper conference photo IDs, but after they scanned our passports and all the waiting, we were issued with very ordinary passes with no photos and just our basic details. I will explain later why they did this.

3- No one had told us Ahamdinejad would turn up in the conference. We were told we would be divided up into working groups based on our expertise and there will be work shops which will be participated by the country's relevant universities. Needless to say that none of these workshops happened and we were surprised when Ahmadinejad turned up.

4- More than 700 people had been invited but if you look at the pictures you will see many empty chairs. This is because something around 250 people left the conference room when Ahmadinejad appeared. More left when they heard Ahmadinejad's speech and on the second day of the conference, some even left their hotels and went and stayed with their families.

5- From the minute we got to our hotels, an argument broke out between Foreign Ministry staff and those working for the presidential office. At the end the argument intensified so much so that the Foreign Ministry staff decided to leave altogether and were replaced by more from the president's office.

6- Both the FM staff and those from the president's office were continuously asking the conference guests how they could apply for a scholarship and go abroad to study. These questions became so repetitive that on the second day one of the conference guests screamed back and said 'why do you think we are university scholarship agents?'

7- None of us managed to make the slightest contact with any of the universities. In fact any such attempt was blocked by security staff.

8- Just before the opening ceremony, we saw a large batch of conference cards brought into the conference room and handed out to people who looked nothing like academics nor had they come from outside Iran. None of the guests in any of the three hotels ever saw them staying in the hotels either. This was why Foreign Minister staff had been arguing with staff from the president's office. The Foreign Ministry office staff wanted to issue photo id conference cards and only let the invited guests from outside Iran into the conference but the presidential office staff had plans to mix in their own stooges and stage manage the propaganda exercise.

9- That person you mentioned in your post about kneeling down in front of Ahmadinejad, was one of those who was not from abroad and was planted in. He was their own stooge and it seemed they had rehearsed this stomach wrenching scene many times before. It was all planned, he knew exactly which way to go and when and where to kneel in front of Ahmadienjad.

10- Lastly let me tell you about the AIC president, Hooshang Amirahmadi, who was in Tehran at the time too. I was in the same hotel with him. I walked up to him when I saw him and exchanged greetings.
I asked him if he will be speaking at the conference? He said no I am not even coming to the conference, it is not expedient and will be controversial if I do. I then asked jokingly, have you brought a message from Obama? He said curtly 'No.' I said 'So are you carrying a message from here to Obama?' his reply was a long drawn 'we will see'

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Azarmehr,
Shoma ham baale? Hooshang Amirahmadi is a member of the Board of Directors of AIC, NOT NIAC!
http://www.american-iranian.org/
Please, IRIB and False News are enough!

Azarmehr said...

@anon

I am sorry. You are right about Hooshang Amirahmadi. I will correct it and my apologies from getting NIAC mixed up with AIC.

Waybec said...

Thanks for sharing the letter Potkin. If true I think it further paints the desperation and duplicitous methods this increasingly fractious regime now has to resort to. Explosion of the people or an implosion from within? Either way the fuse burns ever closer towards the evil black powder keg!

Anonymous said...

I attended the conference as well. My reasons were from curiousity to hear Ahmadinejad and Mottaki speak up close and an opportunity to meet some folks in think tanks while I was there. I spent only the mornings at the official functions for two days and then moved off to do my own thing.

I cannot verify all the things the gentleman posts in his article, but I can most assuredly say, that as one of the people sitting in the main hall during Ahmadinejad's speech (I needed access to the translation devices at the tables), there was not a single chair empty and people were standing up against the walls where doorways were located.

I am honestly quite surprised at the reaction to this conference on the blogosphere. I am deeply suspicious that the New York Times has seen fit to publish a piece about this event. It would not be honest to paint participants with one brush - everyone participated for their own reasons, because we all come from such diverse professional backgrounds.

Let's not act like sheep here. The Iranian government may have had their own reasons for convening this event, but those were not at all apparent to me when I received my invitation. As I was already in the region, I thought it would be a good opportunity since I have not been to Tehran in many years.

Many other governments pay the entire cost for press junkets and business trips. Have you any idea how many reporters/analysts are taken into Iraq and Afghanistan by the US government each year? This is common practice, and I think it is about time the Iranian government took control of its narrative. What you dismiss as "propaganda" is in fact what all governments should and do practice out of necessity to deliver coherent messages to their populations and abroad.

Let's not be naive here. And for God's sakes, stop slandering your fellow countrymen, many of whom probably voted for the opposition. Thank you very much, but I would rather see Iran though my own eyes and not that of the New York Times or the State Department...or the Knesset.

You folks should be ashamed for stifling the attempts of many Iranians at the conference - some who did not even speak Farsi anymore - in their quest for genuine first-hand knowledge and analysis of the situation there.

While I voted against Ahmadinejad in the last elections, I can tell you I was surprised during my frequent tax-cab conversations, that while these guys criticised the hell out of everybody, they genuinely seemed to have some trust and even affection for Ahmadinejad.

Never would have known that if I had not seen it first-hand. Thank you, but I will continue to get my info from reading a variety of sources and talking to a wide array of people. As should all of you.

Anonymous said...

I attended the conference as well. My reasons were from curiousity to hear Ahmadinejad and Mottaki speak up close and an opportunity to meet some folks in think tanks while I was there.

I cannot verify all the things the gentleman posts in his article, but I can most assuredly say, that as one of the people sitting in the main hall during Ahmadinejad's speech (I needed access to the translation devices at the tables), there was not a single chair empty and people were standing up against the walls where doorways were located.

Nadir said...

@anon

I don't know how old you are but have you not heard there is no such a thing as Free Lunch? Next time you want to 'find out' about Iran go at your own expense so you wouldn't be expected to applaud and cheer for Ahmadienad and Moshaei and make a fool of yourself with the rest of the sycophants there.

Look how pathetic you are, you can not even say who you are. You want to deny your true reasons why you participated in this circus [i.e. free lunch] and now you deny your identity.

BTW, its a known fact that many secret police agents in Iran pose as taxi drivers and gather information on what the mood of the populations is, so don't commend yourself too much on your 'fact finding' mission.