When mass demonstrations against the Iranian regime erupted in the summer of 2009, the Obama administration found itself facing a totally unexpected problem. President Obama had gone to great lengths to try to strike a bargain with the regime, and had ignored the internal opposition. Now he suddenly needed a crash course on the regime’s domestic challengers, and possibly to try helping them.
The president had come to office promising to establish good relations with the Islamic Republic, but no progress had (or has) been made. Moreover, there was mounting public evidence of the Iranian role in both Iraq and Afghanistan, ranging from the provision of explosives and components of the murderous IEDs (the so-called “roadside bombs”), to training terrorists (who subsequently killed Americans) inside Iran, to supporting and housing al-Qaeda members, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, to sending officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary Guards Corps onto the battlefield (several hundred were in American military detention camps in Iraq).
The president was personally committed to reaching an accord with the leaders of the Iranian regime, and he had pursued this goal with considerable energy, both through traditional diplomatic channels, and more informal discussions. Over time, the Swiss Foreign Ministry (which, in the absence of formal relations between Iran and the United States, has long served as the official middleman), the sultan of Oman, Iraqi President Talabani, and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan have carried messages, suggested actions, and arranged tactical agreements (such as the release of the American hikers held hostage in Iran starting in July 2009).
American-Iranian relations have always involved a mix of semi-official meetings and secret middlemen, and the Obama administration was no exception. Some “informal” and unannounced conversations took place (to the annoyance of the other participants) on the sidelines of several meetings between Iranians and the group of EU countries and the United States, dealing with the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Others were conducted by the so-called “Track 2” teams of American and foreign policy wonks and former government officials, on the one side, and similar Iranians on the other. These were confirmed by some of the participants, who insist on anonymity, but an American participant stressed that the Obama administration knew in advance of the meetings, and was briefed in considerable detail on the substance of the talks. Nonetheless, when queried by Sara Carter of the Examiner — who writes today about her own long investigation of these questions — the White House would not confirm knowledge of the Track 2 meetings, even though the existence of the Track 2 channel has been known for years.
There are also reports of a meeting as recently as last November in Turkey, involving a State Department official. This, too, was officially denied.
Devoted as he was to reaching an agreement with Tehran, the president did not authorize any contacts with the leading component of the Iranian opposition, the so-called Green Movement, whose candidate for the presidency, Mir Hossein Mousavi, almost certainly won the elections of June 2009. Throughout the eruptions of the summer and early fall, Mousavi and the other top leaders of the Greens received no communication from the U.S. government.
This was undoubtedly due to two factors:
–if such contacts were discovered by the regime, it would have made any deal with Tehran much more difficult;
–the U.S. intelligence community did not believe there was any serious possibility of regime change in Iran. Top analysts told the policy makers that the regime was strong and stable, and any street demonstrations or labor protests would be ineffective, and short-lived.
This assessment proved erroneous — as would similar evaluations in subsequent uprisings in Arab countries — and as the demonstrations continued to roil the streets of Iran’s major cities, the administration was forced to at least consider the possibility of reaching out to the Iranian opposition. They accordingly contacted “experts” in Europe and the United States for help.
They decided to try to secretly contact the Greens, and I have learned from persons with first-hand knowledge of the events that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received help from an old friend and Senate colleague, Senator Chuck Schumer. The New York senator knew a person — a distinguished Iranian-American with no history of political involvement, and with a reputation for impeccable honesty and morality — who had a way to contact the Green leaders.
According to a person familiar with the details of the process, Schumer’s acquaintance was asked to pass two questions to the Green leaders on behalf of the administration: The Greens were given to understand that the questions came from the secretary of state. The questions were: “What should we do? What should we NOT do?”
They were good questions, and they were passed through at least two persons, both known to me, one in the United States, the other in Europe. The person in Europe is well known and admired by the Greens, who now faced a very delicate problem. It was one of Obama’s problems in reverse: if any exchange between the Greens and the administration leaked out, the consequences might be very grave. On the other hand, it would not do to ignore such questions from such a source.
The reply is in the form of a lengthy memorandum, dated November 30, 2009.
You can read it here.
As you will see, it was written very carefully. It is unsigned, and there is no hint of the author’s (or authors’) identity (I have good reason to believe that several people worked on it). Instead of answering the two questions directly, the memo presents a snapshot of Iran under a theocratic tyranny, which is described in very harsh terms (“It is as if the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ were to be reestablished in the West,” and, later on, “the regime is a brutal, apocalyptic theocratic dictatorship that tries to survive by means of suppression of its own people, military force, theft of national resources and economic stealth”). The memo says that the regime cannot change; like all totalitarian regimes it cannot be reformed. But the memo insists that the forces for change within Iran are strong and well led.
Laughable to believe that the Party that brought Khomeini to power and swapped spit with Suha Arafat has the slightest interest in ‘the general welfare’.
Obama’s foreign policy has been disastrous.
But wait, he killed bin Laden.
Dear Sir! You mean that Mr. president Obama is the great hero in your sight!? No Sir, NO, you entirely wrong…the TRUE HEROES is (Mr. President George W. Bush’s Admin) but NOT these coward accomplices…Mr. Obama has never uttered in his honeyed speeches a term “war on terrorism”, he has done nothing for fighting terrorism. I hope that you and your great hero “Mr. Obama” do NOT trading on the account of the heroic work of the US Army and also on the great ideas by those brave guys who have started the war on terrorism. right!?
Please, let’s try to get away from the idea that…”Obama killed bin Laden”.
It’s probably more accurate to say that Obama was presented with a workable plan drawn up by experienced professionals, and when Obama was asked for his approval to “go ahead with this” he nodded and gave his approval.
Obama gets no credit from me for much of anything in the way of original thinking…..other than how to snooker more votes for the issue du jour, or how to apply ChicagopatronstyleBS [one word effect intended] to the perceived needs of a moment.
guys…I think he was being sarcastic.
Thank you Ruth.
Sarcasm is often hard to catch without a clear /tag.
Dear Mike, please accept my apologies. I just thought that you are belong to the crowd of accomplices. nice to meet you on this terrific forum (The Freedom Forum).
I wonder where those billions of dollars fleeing Iran are going to?
Letting Iran pay the Party for protection also means a few thousand soldiers won’t be voting Republican! (The dead only vote Democrat)
This was the payoff for victory in Iraq. Iran saw freedom next door and decided they desired it very much themselves.
This was the time to take down Iran. Take out the Revolutionary Guard, so they cannot suppress the rebellion. And why not? They are recognized officially as a terrorist organization which was training and supporting insurgents in Iraq, thus killing our troops. We had every reason to take them out. The Army was sympathetic to the uprising. The regime would likely have toppled in short order.
The prize for victory in Iraq was to be the fall of Iran. Obama threw it all away. “But the experts say….” Eff them.
“If an expert says it can’t be done, get another expert.” – David Ben-Gurion
Obama’s failure of properly dealing with Iran, Egypt, the Mid East, Honduras, Venezuela, Great Britain, Israel, China, etc. will effect us for much longer than the failure of his energy and economic policies.
I don’t know, the damage from his spending and “quantitative easing” will be huge. An inflationary bubble of historic proportion is coming, we are seeing the beginning in gas and food prices already and the recovery hasn’t even started. When interest rates rise we are going to see some interesting times.
Rancher –
I think Obama’s domestic policies can be overturned quick enough w/a new POTUS or blocked by Congress. However, IMHO, I think the foreign policies are long-term.
For example, working against our allies creates a bad impression that takes a very long time to reverse — such as Saudi Arabia turning to China for nuclear weapons because of Obama’s disastrous decision to tell Mubarak to step down immediately. And cutting the # of carriers in the Navy weakens us enormously not only because they take so long to build, but because we’re now going to concentrate on the Pacific and not the Atlantic [We should be doing both]. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard are all over Venezuela — not good for us, especially if Venezuela gets a nuclear weapon from Iran that is capable of hitting us by missile, etc.
BTW — The Mike answering Winston is not me. Someone else must be named Mike.
Why do you think it is failure? No one wants to consider the elephant in the living room – things that are happening have the APPROVAL, albeit tacit, of this administration. Maybe he is not doing what the “experts” think he should do because he wants to do something else. You cannot view Obama through the typical prism.
The truth is, most things with this WH are supposed to turn out teh way they have. Do you think no one in the Admin knew the Muslim Brotherhood would win elections after Mubarak was forced out? That something similar will happen in Libya? Analyzing this president requires one to consider ALL possibilities, especially the ones that seem most outlandish.
I have always been skeptical about “rebels” who only offer lip service to the West about rebelling against a regime. Sometimes, they are willing to say they want to rebel, but when the chips are down and a little “skin” is required to be thrown into the game, they suddenly vanish. That’s what happened when we supported those pro-west people before the second Gulf War in Iraq (Ahmad Chalabi’s name comes to mind). We supported them and planned on installing them in the Iraqi government, only to find out that they were incompetant and corrupt. Why should we be more optimistic about the “Green” leaders in Iran?
Worse, what if we are being “played” by Iranian intelligence? You could have some Iranian intelligence operatives claiming to be Greens, only to take our money and our weapons so that they don’t go into the hands of the actual rebels in Iran. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time an intelligence organization lied and took advantage of the west. The Communists did the same thing to the British MI-6 right after the revolution. Felix Dzerzhinsky did the same thing when he set up an organization called “The Trust,” where the organization claimed to be anti-communist when, in fact, it was a front for the KGB. The Front ended up claiming the life of one of MI-6′s best spies, Sidney Reilly. So be warned. Not everything in overthrowing a country is always as it seems.
The only people I WOULD trust in Iran are the actual rebels. The people who, on a regular basis, assasinate Iranian officials (or scientists), blow up gas pipelines, and blow up government buildings. These are people with real skin in the game, people who are to be believed. Remember, you can SAY anything you want to the CIA, but it’s a lot different if you are actually taking an active role in overthrowing a government. And I’m not seeing a lot of that from the Greens right now. If there is a fully armed army of Greens actively fighting the mullahs, then those people should be fully supported. But for people only to SAY that they support the west, I’d be suspicious of them. And you should be too.
Let’s thank all the Silver ponytailed Prof’s who are raising the next crop of American leaders.
Obama is the postmodern poster boy. Until the marxists professing the work of Fritz Fanon and Edward Said
are removed the game is over.
Obama the preppy third world wannabe and poseur.
Michael Ledeen – After I read your column, my only reaction was: And why should I be surprised? (After all his is a dog bites man story.) This is an Administration that is at once naive and incompetent. Look at the situation with Israel. Israel faces an existential threat from Iran (after Hitler, when someone says I’m going to kill Jews, believe them) – yet the Administration will do nothing and has the chutzpah to try dissuade Israel from doing what it has to do. This Administration has made a shambles of foreign policy, both to the detriment of the United States and to its allies.
my eye! Obama and his Administration are the every opposite, they want to take America down, and are succeeding in that goal, admirably in fact, if one shares their aims.
But they wouldn’t be achieving such stellar results without the help of those like you, Jack in Silver Spring, who persist in thinking them naive and incompetent.
But then again, maybe it doesn’t matter, Jack. I get the feeling that if you ever came to understand without a doubt that their acts are both deliberate and malicious, you’d be aghast, but quiet as a mouse about it.
Thank you for this very informative article! I had no idea of the greater historical and cultural context of the Green Movement. It’s unfortunate that it was never discussed in most media. One can hope that the situation is salvageable if Obama is voted out of office.
“It’s unfortunate that it was never discussed in most media.” You’re too funny Andrew. The media would have to get up off their knees first.
Thank you!
That the memorandum is dated Nov. 30th gives an indication of how long it took Obama to consent to even tentative gathering of information.
After the racial-issues dust settles, (after we’ve have another, and successful, black President), the historians are not going to be terribly kind to the legacy of the Obama Administration. I wouldn’t be suprised to see the quip “Present of the United States” enter the historical record.
“when queried by Sara Carter of the Examiner — who writes today about her own long investigation of these questions — the White House denied knowledge of the Track 2 meetings”
Are we reading the same story? The Examiner piece you link says:
“White House officials contacted by The Washington Examiner would not confirm or deny meetings with Iranian officials in Sweden or elsewhere…”
got any more nits to pick?
Ms. Rolf, what did you expect them to say? What a very naïve comment! If you have stayed focused on Iran and read the things that IRANIANS or Iran experts (the real ones, not the one that appear on Fareed Zakaria or Charlie Rose, etc.) you would have realized that your ‘concern’ is…well, best described by me the Iranian, as pretentious and shallow.
“…the regime was strong and stable…”
That’s what everybody thought about Putin last December!!
Check back for an update on Sunday March 4, 2012!!
Amazing – even HIS OWN PEOPLE think he is a disaster. The American People agree – they think he is a disaster as well…….
Michael, thanks again for another thoughtful piece.
How do you feel about the US enforcing a gasoline embargo on Iran? Would that be a productive step and what blowback would you expect from such a move?
Mr Ledeen, if you want a good summary of Obama ‘s ” grand srtategy ” look at G.
Friedman ” the state of the world: explainig Obama’s strategy ” published today on http://www.stratfor.com. You will reade between the lines the word coward, irresponsible, blind, inefficient, incompetent, +at leas+t a dozen times. +What you will not read between the lines is the word ” mole “. Actually G.Friedman tries to lipstick Obama as someone constrained by economic weakness and the past errors of GW Bush to adopt such a low profile, coward-fugitive policy.But the cruel reality also proven by your article is that Obama is not only passively looking at the USA ‘s influence crumbling, since he plays an active part to sink the western world and sink any allies the western world had in the mideast.G.friedman is also trying to sell its readers the grandiose canard that Iran is seeking a balance of power with Israel and that a future equilibrium of nuclear terror could be reached .Actually G.Friedman by speaking for its master’s voice , has clearly stated that Obama has abandonned Israel, and your article has clearly stated that Obama prefers to see the iranian theocracy thrives against the green movement democratic uprising. I have only two words for that combined behaviour :the job of a mole,of a shipwrecker.
Phillipe — I agree w/you. Mole is the perfect word. As, I’ve said before:
Maybe Obama isn’t a Muslim, but he’s certainly acting like one.
Maybe Obama isn’t a Marxist, but he’s certainly acting like one.
Maybe Obama is an American, but he’s certainly not acting like one.
#5 Mike
Michael I would very much like your opinion of the following article. The writer has a unique perspective. Thanks. MBY
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11315#.T00El5jaYy4
Hi Menahem, I read the article you mentionned and I totally agree.Try to glance at the G.Friedman analysis on http://www.stratfor.com published today , that I mentionned and how they ( the CIA and stratfor.com ) tries to paint Obama as someone who had no choice but to surrender to the stream of events shaking the mideast; as if Obama was passive when actually he is shipwrecking the mideast and trying to sink the western world.The radical mole BHO is putting our lives in danger all over the place.
I would also like very much to hear what Michael has to say about it
Obama’s failure to get in front of the Iranian vote fraud protest, at least spiritually, says a lot about where he’s coming from and what he is and where he’s going. As with so many of his many bad policy decisions, such as his calls on Iran, they aren’t so much the result of a failure of judgment as it is a deliberate intent to harm the US.
The dirty little secret is that many Democrats in and out of Congress know this and are living in abject fear of what is likely to happen in November. I hope the Republican National Committee has the collective good sense to list every one of Obama’s most egregious economic and foreign policy decisions in its political ads this fall and help make their nightmares come true.
Our Community Organizer In-Chief, aka George Soros’s Sockpuppet.
Michael,
Thank you for providing further detail on the Administrations obvious abandonment of the forces of freedom in Iran. Had we acted, there is a very good chance that the Mullahs would have been tossed from power.The fact that the mullahs are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans via terrorism provided ample grounds for supporting the Greens. Obama somehow believed that he could make friends. His arrogance is only exceeded by his foolishness.
Obama is a peculiar creature. His Marxist training makes him antithetic to freedom yet attracted to theocracy. This is demonstrated by his reaction to the “Arab Spring” revolts where he supported the removal of autocrats in favor of the installation of theocrats of Islamic background. Islam’s socialistic tenants make it attractive to Marxists. Obama’s Muslim upbringing filters his allegiances. I don’t personally think he is an Islamist now, but I believe his actions show he is a sympathizer.
Whatever the background, the bottom line is that Obama decided to side with the Mullahs. When Iran detonates the bomb or Israel attacks and starts a war with Iran that will inevitably involve the US and the west,(after Iranian attacks on the US and its allies provoke a response) it will be exclusively Obama’s doing.
The spring of 2009 is a rough equivalent to the Sudetenland in 1938. Germany was allowed it’s aggresssion, as Iran was as well. The results lead to war. Mr Nobel Peace prize will have the blood directly on his hands. The Iranian people are going to pay a terrible price for this malfeasance.
Elections have consequences, folks.
“So far, he has done just that, and thereby become an accomplice to evil.”
Best line in the whole piece. There’s simply no getting around who and what this man is.
Wow, this is just jaw-droppingly perverse. I knew the administration’s “Smart Power” diplomacy was incompetent, but this shows it to be dangerously incompetent.
dangerously competent.
“continue on the track of wishful thinking”
Hope.
Hell of a policy.
It’s hard to put into words how appalling this is.
“obama is out to get us”
This administration has directly and/or indirectly helped the muslim brotherhood to conquer nearly all of North Africa: as marxists, they like to see “anti-imperialistic” regimes multiply. There is no reason why they would help a democratic and pro-Western movement in Iran.
The scandal revealed by this article is huge, but it is the inevitable consequence of the ideology that explains all the moves of this administration: for the marxists, like for the mad mullahs, America IS the great satan, whose might they want to destroy.
I think we have not yet fully understood, or accepted, that this is the simple truth.
The response basically said that any attempt to reach accommodation with the regime is doomed to failure. But it didn’t say what the West _should_ do.
And even if legitimate representatives of the Greens did have advice for us, I’m sure it would be bad policy for our government to admit to acting on such advice. If our government _were_ acting on the Greens’ advice, I would hope the Obama administration would have the sense to deny doing so and to keep all such actions secret. I would also hope that any Republicans privy to knowledge of such activities would have the sense of responsibility to help the Administration in this regard.
So, either the Obama administration is doing nothing, or they are doing what they should do but success has not yet arrived. We, the general public, have no way of knowing.
An amazing display of incompetence by the 0 administration. All the more reason for the Israelis to keep silent about any strike on Iran they may be contemplating.
display of competence, you mean. obama’s out to harm america, haven’t you noticed?
The “protest” movements in Iran are approximately as credible as “Occupy Wall Street” here in the USA.
It’s retarded to think our government can somehow put those idiots in power. Maybe we should just mind our own business instead?
Its not just Obama, he’s certainly bad, no doubt about that. None of our “leaders” have taken any really concrete steps to address the issues with Iran.
Why would a supporter of the Iranian regime want some channel to talk with that regime’s opposition?
To a certain type of activist politician, a sworn enemy of America is someone to cherish. I’m sure the likes of Bill Ayers and the Rev. Wright would agree.
If Iran was a lesser threat, it would get less of his support.
must read: http://obamasgarden.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/answers/
let me posit a theory that is opposite of “incompetent, naive, and weak”: this administration WANTS the very outcomes you are seeing. Obama’s not “ignoring” the opposition; he simply favors the mullahs. Consider his efforts re: Egypt and Libya – one country is about to have a Muslim Brotherhood-led govt (you think that may be why the military is hanging on to power?), and the other is headed toward sharia-based law.
The mistake we make is in viewing this president through the same lens as the others. He’s nothing like the others. His background and upbringing are totally different. When he said ‘transformational change’, he meant it; too many people inferred that to mean something good. They were fooled. Where we are is a planned outcome.
have been saying this for a very long time already. welcome aboard, alex, there’s hope for us yet.
Exactly!, who is fooled by any of the weak, naive terms. Nothing could be further from the truth, this is malicious, calculated and long-in-the-works. Anyone who spent time in a liberal arts college/enviornment can attest to the fact that these bastards have been at it for years. I wish the candidates (c’mon, they have to know what’s up!) would start working out of the box, shouting down the press, “going there” etc. but I ain’t holding my breath
So, it’s weird that the anonymous document is supposedly a response to two questions: What should the USA do, and what should the USA not do? The document doesn’t actually answer either question. On the other hand, the focus on Azeri contributions suggests that this is a legitimate anonymous document from the Green Movement – I can’t imagine anyone but a very cunning faker putting that sort of spin and perspective in such a document.
With respect, Mr Ledeen, this sentence seems to be contradictory:
…”The New York senator knew a person — a distinguished Iranian-American with no history of political involvement, and with a reputation for impeccable honesty and morality — who had a way to contact the Green leaders.”
Not to be too snarky, he’d – that person- have to be involved to have a way to contact the Greens.
It seems that this whole Asian Islamic problem of ours has of necessity to be viewed from inside an endless corridor of foggy, shifting mirrors focused at different angles.
How can we certain of any of those interlocking things, seething and whirling about out there? Credibility must be impossible to pin down.
Add to this Hillary and B.Hussein Obama.
Scary. Scary. This is why I keep suggesting encirclement and containment, while drilling here at home…exploiting our known reservoirs.
We simply cannot effect lasting changes in that sick environment of Islam. Forget it.
i don’t see your point. indeed this person is apolitical, but he knows people who are very involved. that’s a commonplace.
Obama is guided by the phrase “What would Jimmy Carter do” (WWJCD). Since the gospel of WWJCD is the more hostile a regime is to the US, the more authentic it is, there is no reason why Obama would support the Greens. Look for a peace agreement to be signed between Obama and Khamenei sometime after 2012, after Obama has accepted funds from his Jewish Democratic donors, and pledging that relations with Israel have never been stronger.
Michael, I think that Mr. Obama’s administration is the most sympathetic admin to tyrants and to radical Islamic groups after Mr. Carter’s admin. Mr Obama does not deserves more than a simple office between the offices of the world’s largest criminal organization “aka U.N”. So, every American, who would support him is a traitor to the great principles and values of the Great America!
“Obama Admits He Is a Muslim”
Some rumors never die.
Many people still think FDR knew the Japanese were about to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941 and did nothing to forestall the onslaught in order to get an excuse to enter World War II on the side England.
Many people still think Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t act alone in the assassination of JFK in 1963 anymore than they think Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald in a Dallas police station without some assistance.
Many people still think the World Trade Center towers couldn’t have collapsed in 2001 solely because two fuel-laden airliners crashed into them.
And, many people still believe President Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim despite his oft-repeated contentions he is not.
We may never learn the full truth about FDR or JFK or the WTC and, if Obama and the mainstream media have their way, we may never learn whether the president is an adherent to the Islamic faith even though there is far more substance to that rumor than to previous conspiracies.
Much of that evidence is in the public domain but rarely has it been collected in a single source, a 10-minute video produced and directed by FeeltheChangeMedia.com titled “Obama Admits He Is a Muslim.” Reportedly, Sean Hannity has wanted to play it on air but has been pressured by the Obama administration into not doing so.
A collection of numerous clips from the last four years, the video features the president’s own words which, . . .
(Read more and see the video at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=15215.)
Dear Michael, please do NOT worry about such sort of people…(You are in my eyes a GREAT SCHOOL of politeness and and honesty.) Mr. Alireza should be ashamed that he is still enslaved by a handful of wicked Clerics. For a long time, on your wonderful forum, I have realized that Mr. Alireza is one of the followers of the bloody regime in Tehran…so, dear Michael, I think that their apologies are worthless, because they are a very good at lie and deception…there are a good proverb “I think arabic”, says “the murderer who cries his victim, or he kills the victim and walks in his funeral”, so, this proverb totally fits the nature of these wicked people.
Mr. Alireza, Do you see the daily atrocities by your Siamese twin in Damascus against its own people? What you do think about?! Do you still count on these criminals?!
Mr. Alireza, WE WANT FREEDOM…WE DO NOT WANT THEM…WE DO NOT WANT MINDS LIKE YOURS. I in person I CALL the USA and its close powerful allies in the West to clean the face of the earth from evil regimes and off their followers of thugs…It’s time to crush them!!!
you just called me a liar, alireza. that’s unacceptable. try an apology.
i’ll try it one more time. comments are not available to those of you who feel inclined to call me a liar. the document is real. and i have always opposed military attack against Iran. apologies are always welcome.
Michael, You are not a liar. Obviously however, you did not mind accepting the lies of your Iranian contacts that the “memorandam” reflected the Green Movement leaders’ views and desires. Contacts with Iranians for such a long time might have convinced you of the justification of taqiyyah, ‘pious’ lies.
you have no idea what i know about that document or how i know it. sensible people remain silent on subjects about which they know nothing.
also, i don’t like trickery. decide if you’re abu or alireza and stick to it. sheesh.