OscailtIran Tribunal: ‘Impossible to continue support’<strong>Norman Paech, a prominent member of the German left party, Die Linke, has joined others in withdrawing his support for the Iran Tribunal after approaches from supporters of Hands Off the People of Iran, reports Tina Becker. This is an edited version of an article recently published on the website of the German magazine Hintergrund1
The Iran Tribunal continues to divide the Iranian left. Yassamine Mather’s articles in the Weekly Worker have been hotly debated in Iran, across Europe and the United States. Since she started to expose the links of the organisers to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a number of organisations and individuals have withdrawn their support. Other groups and parties have split over the issue.
It is therefore timely to take a closer look at the tribunal, its gestation, its corruption - and the fallout from Hopi’s scathing criticism.</strong>
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2012-10-05T17:19:23+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=102546http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifGood article thanks..http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2925262012-10-05T17:19:23+00:00serfGood article!
Great to see HOPI making serious efforts to disassociate themselv...Good article!<br />
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Great to see HOPI making serious efforts to disassociate themselves from these cunning NED / CIA policy wonks. <br />
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All credit to Yassamine for publishing her criticisms.<br />
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More analysis of NED and related organisations in this excellent indymedia feature and included links:<br />
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<a href="http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102162" title="http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102162">http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102162</a><br />
from the HOPI articlehttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926112012-10-11T12:58:59+00:00JoeMcThe sort of Iranian “left” that HOPI supports is one that is divided over whethe...The sort of Iranian “left” that HOPI supports is one that is divided over whether or not to cooperate with a tribunal set up by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) i.e. the CIA . In the report above we see HOPI's leader Y Mather admitting her past association and support for this CIA-funded tribunal and the fact that she has given evidence to it .<br />
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The HOPI article from Tina Baeker is an attempt to justify all this and put it in the past . HOPI now feels that it is "impossible to continue support’ for the CIA-inspired front . Serf is suitably impressed yet again : "Great to see HOPI making serious efforts to disassociate themselves from these cunning NED / CIA policy wonks." And isn't it great to see Serf helping HOPI's credibility and disassociation attempts !<br />
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After” looking closer” at the Iran Tribunal , Y Mather "soon" uncovered what would have been obvious to anybody who had seen such 2005 NYT articles as the one linked below that Payam Akhavan was fronting for the CIA. See <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E6D71039F93AA35752C0A9639C8B63" title="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E6D71039F93AA35752C0A9639C8B63">http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E6D7...C8B63</a> <br />
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The Iran expert of thirty years Y Mather didn’t cop any of this though and testified for Payam Akhavan’s CIA Tribunal. She was so “taken aback” and “shocked” when she uncovered the truth that she ”exposed” Payam Akhavan for what he was - seven years later ! <br />
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How could anyone co-operate with the CIA \ NED in the first place?http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926132012-10-11T13:42:44+00:00An Draighneán DonnI'm afraid that this story, once more, highlights the mental rot among large sec...I'm afraid that this story, once more, highlights the mental rot among large sections of the so-called "Left" in Europe and America. It was that mental rot that led large sections of the Left supporting Nato lynch mobs hanging Black people in Libya, and now sees them supporting US backed sectarian murder gangs in Syria.your approach is not constructive...http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926142012-10-11T14:14:31+00:00serfwhen somebody or some organisation finally realises that it was duped or in erro...when somebody or some organisation finally realises that it was duped or in error, rather than putting the boot in, isn't it better to encourage the new thinking?<br />
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The point of my post is to encourage further rejection of NED and such organisations by people currently involved in HOPI and reward such behaviour.<br />
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By attacking them and putting the boot in when they concede a point and lose face, are you not just discouraging such organisations from doing so in the future and making them circle the wagons instead of trying to co-opt a possible future ally against imperialism?<br />
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You must admit the actions of NED are deliberately underhand and stealthy and perhaps not everybody is as attuned to their machinations as yourselves. A lack of awareness of NED in the past is not necessarily malicious on the part of HOPI members and others similarly vulnerable to such cynical co-option attempts. <br />
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I think your actions are the blinkered ones not mine. I have worked to unmask NED and the work of Gene Sharp etc at every opportunity. <br />
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Yassamine Mather is a useful ally with a wide following and her strong widely publicised attacks on NED should be welcomed.<br />
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Nobody is sweeping past mistakes under the carpet. But alienating potentially useful allies against imperialism for the sake of a short term "I told you so" moment is also unwise. We need everyone we can get.<br />
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I am often suspicious when people encourage division and foment sectarianism among those who are mostly on the same page. Apparently all three of us differ little on this matter. So how come you are still highlighting small differences rather than building alliances?Ms Mather and Payam Akhavan’s Tribunalhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926202012-10-12T02:41:12+00:00JoeMcHOPI has finally conceded some point according to Serf , without saying what the...HOPI has finally conceded some point according to Serf , without saying what the point was .I assume it must be the fact that the group has finally conceded to either having been duped or in error for the past seven years - blissfully unaware that the NED is funded by the CIA or that Payam Akhavan’s Tribunal to which Mather gave evidence was being funded by the NED. <br />
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Serf is “often suspicious” of the likes of me apparently , but finds it entirely possible to believe that a left-wing Tehran-born expert on Iran didn’t know until June of this year that the anti-Iranian tribunal run by her fellow Iranian exile ,Payam Akhavan , was being funded by the CIA . The two exiles left Iran in the same year , both are academics , both are fluent english speakers , both are very capable at networking and both are billed as “leading opponents of the Iranian regime” . Payam Akhavan insists that the result of Iran’s 2009 election was “rigged” in favour of President Ahmadinejad , and so does Mather . Both give the same reason for saying that they oppose any attack on Iran i.e. “because this would strengthen the hands of fanatics ruling the country.” <br />
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NED must be very underhand and stealthy indeed if it somehow prevented Ms Mather from reading newspapers and knowing what Payam Akhavan’s tribunal was all about . Unless Ms Mather is incredibly stupid, that is. But , if she is that stupid why would anybody see any group she leads as a “possible future ally against imperialism”? If Yassamine Mather isn’t stupid , what on earth could she be up to ?<br />
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Why assume premeditation. Perhaps she was just Naivehttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926212012-10-12T11:01:42+00:00serfIronically you chastise me for assuming nefarious motives where you say there ar...Ironically you chastise me for assuming nefarious motives where you say there are none. Yet you happily do so for others including Mather and the moderators on this site<br />
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I'm sure It did not say in the newspaper that NED were behind the green revolution. Even if it did, this could easily be seen as the regime just making excuses.<br />
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It is perhaps not as obvious to most people as it is to us with the benefit of hindsight that NED were involved or what NED actually were. It is also possible that Mather was blinded by her treatment by the regime and too focussed on that at the time and maybe she did not sctutinise her fellow travellers enough. Thats often how it is when in the throes of running a movement. Whatever the reason, it is simplistic to say she was either corrupt or stupid not to see. What's wrong with just Naive? Being smart does not preclude naivete or idealism. It's usually hard won experience, age and growing awareness and wisdom that tempers that.<br />
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Mather is more experienced and somewhat older and wiser now which might explain her deeper understanding of what is really going on and her subsequent attacks on NED.<br />
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Personally I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt somewhat and let some past errors of judgement go if she continues to come out strongly against NED and their ilk.suspicionshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926572012-10-13T19:46:19+00:00JoeMcGiven all the propaganda , distortion, and outright lies from the media and all ...Given all the propaganda , distortion, and outright lies from the media and all the games played by intelligence services to pit people against each other , people have a right –a duty even - to be suspicious of what anybody writes here . My concern in my last comment was not with Serf’s suspicions about myself , but with his lack of suspicion when it comes to Y Mather , who Serf likes to describe as a “respected activist”.<br />
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Three years on from the 2009 Iran election Serf writes as if he and Y Mather were the first people in the world to notice the involvement of the CIA in the so-called Green Revolution in Iran. and that they are only able to do that now with the benefit of hindsight , and " hard won experience, age and growing awareness and wisdom" . But it isn’t the case at all that people didn't know what was going on as it was happening in Iran three short years ago . I certainly knew what was happening as did Global Research , WSWS, reporters like the Guardian’s Seamus Milne , the Iranian government and quite a few other people . I tried to post links to articles from some of these sources onto indymedia ireland at the time, but got censored by the HOPI supporting editors of the site . I protested to the editorial lists about this and was banned from those lists as a consequence . <br />
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Serf suggests that Mather’s support for the attempted overthrow of the elected government of Iran in 2009 could have been as a result of her “treatment by the regime”. I have corresponded with others on the issue of Mather’s supposed ill-treatment by the Iranian authorities . None have ever been able to offer any evidence to say that Mather had personally received any such ill-treatment .One person I corresponded with earlier this year berated me in a similar way to Serf and described Ms Mather as a “ballsy woman who has stood up to both the shah and the mullahs in her time .” When I asked this particular correspondent to supply any evidence of Mather having ever stood up to the Shah , there were no further emails from that quarter.<br />
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If Serf or anybody else is able to supply any more information about Ms Mather’s politics before the setting up of HOPI in 2005 I’d like to hear from them .In 2007, after reading Mather’s many anti-Iranian articles from the CPGB’s Weekly Worker site that were appearing regularly on indymedia ireland , I checked Mather’s name on google to find out where she was coming from politically. I didn’t find anything anywhere on the internet that this supposedly leading feminist , antiwar academic etc had written on any subject before the founding of the HOPI group other than joint papers she had written in the course of her work at Glasgow University’s Aerospace Engineering Department Interview - Yassamine Mather 05-03-12http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926602012-10-13T22:06:10+00:00JKEric Draitser of theStop Imperialism website has an in-depth conversation with Y...Eric Draitser of theStop Imperialism website has an in-depth conversation with Yassamine Mather, chair of the Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI) organization. They discuss the geopolilitical issues surrounding Iran ranging from the controversy regarding the nuclear program to Iran's relations with the West and the SCO. In addition, Eric and Yassamine examine some of the internal politics of Iran, including the competing factions of the ruling establishment and the role of the working class in that country. Also, they address some of the pressing economic concerns including inflation, the effect of sanctions, and the future of Iranian economic development.<br />
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Yassamine Mather is Co-Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory at the University of Glasgow. She is also the Chair of Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI). Some YM articles Before HOPIhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102546#comment2926622012-10-13T23:02:03+00:00JKAs it became clear over the last few months that US-UK hostilities against Iraq ...As it became clear over the last few months that US-UK hostilities against Iraq would take the form of all-out war, Iran's Islamic government defined its foreign policy as one of 'active neutrality'. May 2003<br />
<a href="http://www.redpepper.org.uk/The-last-days-of-fundamentalist/" title="http://www.redpepper.org.uk/The-last-days-of-fundamentalist/">http://www.redpepper.org.uk/The-last-days-of-fundamenta...list/</a><br />
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An Obituary of Albert Sohrabian - Veteran Iranian Labour activist 19 Sep 2004<br />
<a href="http://www.iran-bulletin.org/albert.htm" title="http://www.iran-bulletin.org/albert.htm">http://www.iran-bulletin.org/albert.htm</a><br />
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The Islamic republic and the Iranian left Critique: Journal of Socialist TheoryIssue 32-33 Dated: 28/3/2001<br />
<a href="http://www.labournet.net/events/0103/critique.html" title="http://www.labournet.net/events/0103/critique.html">http://www.labournet.net/events/0103/critique.html</a><br />
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Yassamine Mather was an editor of Critique in 2004<br />
<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03017600409469474" title="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03017600409469474">http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/030176004094...69474</a><br />
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Gender and Islamic Fundamentalism in Iran May1999<br />
<a href="http://www.iran-bulletin.org/women/yassamin.html" title="http://www.iran-bulletin.org/women/yassamin.html">http://www.iran-bulletin.org/women/yassamin.html</a><br />
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Report from 14th Annual Conference of the Iranian Women's Studies Foundation (27 - 29 June 2003)<br />
<a href="http://www.iran-bulletin.org/women/IWSF_conference.html" title="http://www.iran-bulletin.org/women/IWSF_conference.html">http://www.iran-bulletin.org/women/IWSF_conference.html</a><br />
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