Iran’s Mullahs pull wool over the eyes of the world, while the Iranian people struggle for freedom

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is on a well-publicized tour to France, trying to convince the world that a deal with the European Union will permit the mullahs to retain their nuclear program, simply for a promise not to develop nuclear weapons.

Photo opportunities with French President Jacques Chiraq show handshakes and smiling faces. Khatami in his black turban, expensive mullah robes, with his precisely trimmed beard and neat thin-rim eyeglasses looked quite the respectable diplomat, ready to address UNESCO, to be followed by a diplomatic stop-off in Rome to attend the pope's funeral. Iran flooded the news wires with optimistic reports that a deal with the European Union would set a new framework, reinterpreting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for years to come.

The point is simple. If Iran really renounces or deplores terrorism, then let's hear Khatami call for Hezbollah to disband. If Iran does not intend to pursue nuclear weapons, then let's see the mullahs follow the path of South Africa. Destroy the massive centrifuge farms and the heavy water plant, whose only real purpose is to produce weapons- grade uranium and plutonium. If Iran does not intend to launch a nuclear attack on Israel, then get rid of the Shahab-3 missiles and return to the United Nations the 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles the mullahs bought on the black market from the Ukraine.

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What's going on? First the pro-mullah lobby worldwide is spending millions to pump out positive spin. In the fine print, Khatami insists Iran has a right to enrich uranium, part of an assumed entitlement as a nation to pursue the complete nuclear fuel cycle. What's wrong with this? Why not allow Iran to have a few centrifuges in operation, maybe 50 – some, but not enough to produce enriched uranium for bombs?

That's the rub. If Iran is permitted to have a few centrifuges going, that's exactly the kind of loophole that's big enough to drive an ayatollah through. Can the world's surveillance satellites determine precisely if the number of centrifuges in operation are 50, or 55? How about 5,000? We can almost hear the lying mullahs explaining to the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors, "Oh, you mean those centrifuges? We thought you knew we had those, too. Those are the other 50 we are permitted to have."

Khatami even had the gall (or maybe that should be that "Gaul") to tell the world that he lamented there was so much terror in the world. Maybe Khatami should explain the preamble of Iran's constitution. The preamble calls for an expansion of the Islamic revolution throughout the world, a virtual declaration of war against the United States and Israel. Has the world forgotten that Iran created and funds Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terror organization that pays the families of suicide bombers to send their loved ones to homicidal death in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?

The point is simple. If Iran renounces or deplores terrorism, then let's hear Khatemi call for Hezbollah to disband. If Iran does not intend to pursue nuclear weapons, then let's see the mullahs follow the path of South Africa. Destroy the massive centrifuge farms and the heavy water plant, whose only real purpose is to produce weapons- grade uranium and plutonium. If Iran does not intend to launch a nuclear attack on Israel, then get rid of the Shahab-3 missiles and return to the United Nations the 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles the mullahs bought on the black market from the Ukraine.

Khatemi's trip to France and Italy would be a joke, except the world's liberal press is playing it all up, as if the mullahs were a legitimate government. If the mullahs have their way, they will rewrite the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to justify the supposed right of any and every nation to pursue the full nuclear fuel cycle, all the way to one step short of making a bomb. Doesn't anyone remember that the NPT was written to prevent nuclear proliferation, not to set the conditions where some 100 or more countries might have the ability to produce a nuclear weapon?

Iran wants to be given the green light to go one "screw's turn short" of making a bomb. The mullahs probably will convince the European Union that this makes sense. Why not? The mullahs have some $200 million a day in oil profits to put into public relations and their extensive nuclear technology industries. The French have never been adverse to being in business with the mullahs, no matter how many sanctions the United States opposes.

The only hope that the mullahs will fail rests with President Bush. He will have to hold firm to his determination that nations which induce fear in their own populations cannot be trusted. The only reason the mullahs continue to talk about being attacked is that the president continues to insist that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The military option, as the president has reminded the world, has not been taken off the table.

In an open letter to Tehran's leaders, an opposition group called The 70 Million People of Iran, has declared the ruling mullahs will no longer have power over the country as of June 16, and has called on world powers not to honor any contracts with the government after that date.

The letter from the group inside Iran was distributed by Iran of Tomorrow Movement, a U.S.-based organization working toward a free Iran.

We, the 70 million people of Iran, hereby joyfully and unequivocally declare that your time has come to an end, and we demand that you submit to the will of the Iranian people and peacefully surrender the power to its rightful owners, the people of Iran, immediately," states the letter. "We no longer consider you our legitimate government and hereby warn all foreign governments that all transactions and contracts signed with this government after June 16, 2005, will be null and void."

The letter goes on to described the "indescribable horrors" the Iranian people have suffered under the current Muslim regime since 1979:

"We were ravaged by a needless and brutal war; had our cities bombed, our livelihoods destroyed and generations of our budding youth slaughtered at your command. In addition to these human casualties, you have wrongly aligned us with thugs, terrorists and international outlaws who detest freedom and democracy."

Continues the letter: "No longer will we stand idly by. The end of one of the most bloody, brutal and totalitarian regimes is OVER. You can choose your own destiny. We will give you what you never gave us, a chance to flee. Either you leave peacefully or you will face our wrath and judgment."

The letter goes on to describe what its writer promises will occur if the mullahs don't flee the country by June 16.

"Your own meaningless and rigged elections will be your undoing," the letter states. "You have until the 16th of June, 2005, to return power to the people and forever leave our beloved Iran. Should you be so unwise to stay, on the 17th day of June, the Election Day, we shall prepare for your demise as we stay at home, once again, to declare our solidarity. Beginning on June 18 and every day thereafter, we shall strike like a furious flood to cleanse our nation from your filthy existence. We will come out in our millions to demolish your entirety with our will. We shall start national strikes, interrupt communication and transportation networks, seize the capital, government buildings and the banks and if you have been so foolish to stay behind, you will experience our rage. Retribution will be swift for those who stay behind and stand in our way."

On June 10, the letter says, all Iranians will begin a protest by staying at home in the evenings and turning out their lights from 6 p.m. until midnight, thus converting "the cities into ghost towns." States the letter: "We have asked all governments of the world to support us by issuing formal declarations on the 10th of June. The world will endorse us fully; they will support those who fight against evil. All nations will abandon your dead regime and recognize that the future belongs to us, the true owners of the great nation of Iran."

The writer then explains that the Iran of Tomorrow Movement will organize the election of a secular interim government by exiled Iranians that will be "ready to assume all governmental functions by June 10, 2005."

A second letter is addressed to world leaders, including President Bush, and asks for support of the freedom movement:

"We, the 70 million people of Iran, request your declaration to denounce the Islamic Republic as the legitimate government of Iran on the 10th of June. On this historic day, we the Iranian people will place our seal on a promise of this general uprising which will go down in history as a confrontation between good and evil."

According to the blog Regime Change Iran, the Iran of Tomorrow Movement is affiliated with the recently organized Iranian Opposition Council. Leaders of The Iran of Tomorrow Movement will reportedly gather in Washington, D.C., next month and many of the Iranian Opposition Council coalition members are expected to join them. The Bush administration continues to pressure Tehran over its alleged plans to develop nuclear weapons, while the regime continues to declare its right to develop nuclear technology for what it says are peaceful purposes.

Jerome Corsi, author of "Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians," says he sees a "confrontation" with Iran this year if Tehran fails to take specific action to dismantle its centrifuges, heavy-water plant and missiles that can deliver nuclear warheads.

Corsi agrees with the intent of the resistance letter, but says he isn't familiar with the group that generated it. "The mullahs need to get out of town," he told WND. "They're an illegitimate regime that has been oppressing the Iranian people, and it's time for them to go."

"I'm in support of what the letter is calling for," Corsi said. Corsi says he's spearheading an Iran Freedom Walk beginning May 15 at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and ending in Washington, D.C. He invites all who support peaceful change in Iran to join him and members of an organization he helped form, the Iran Freedom Foundation

Story Credits: Iran Freedom Foundation