Iranian Students Need Our Support

As a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, I want to bring to everyone's attention a recent memo that addresses the efforts by Iranian students to bring democracy to their oppressed land. With the danger of terrorism ever present, it is vitally important that movements such as this receive significant support from America.

April 22, 2005

TO: Members and Friends of the CPD and CPD-I

FROM: Peter Hannaford

SUBJECT: Iran student democracy movement

On April 14, 15 and 18 the Committee on the Present Danger was host to Akbar Atri, a leader in the Iran student democracy movement. He is a member of the central committee of Takhim Vahdat, the largest student organization in Iran. He is in the United States to seek support for the movement’s national referendum petition. The petition calls on the government of the mullahs to hold a national referendum for a new constitution, in effect, for democracy.

The CPD arranged meetings for Mr. Atri with officials at the Departments of State and Defense, the National Security Council, Freedom House, three Senatorial offices (Alexander, Kyl, Lieberman) and several members of the CPD who specialize in Iran issues. He received very positive expressions of interest wherever he went during his visit.

In his presentations, Mr. Atri makes the point that so long as the nuclear issue is the focus of all attention, the regime positions it internally as a matter of national pride. By gaining international support for the referendum, other issues rise to the same level, issues which put the regime on the defensive: support for terrorism, human rights abuses, the denial of democracy.