From: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Subject: Re: Mojahedin Attacks
Reply-To: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:21:00 GMT

In article <1992Apr16.021212.6778@watserv1.waterloo.edu>,
arash@sunee.waterloo.edu (Arash Jahangir) writes:
> In article <1992Apr15.185352.14449@ncsu.edu> hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU
(Brad Hernlem) writes:
> >
> >Don't these people have any relatives in Iran? 
> 
> Most likely not.  These people have most likely been arrested by the regime
> before.  When they arrest you in Iran for serious political reasons,
they also
> torture you enough to reveal the locations of all your friends and family 
> members.  They then go to arrest those people and ask them for the
locations of
> their friends and relatives and so on.  This means that if your brother has
> become a political prinsoner, you are going to recieve regular visits from
> the "pAsdAr" "Brothers" regularly.  Hence in all likelihood you will
leave the
> country.

While I can appreciate the desire for revenge in those who believe that
they or their relatives have been unjustly treated, attacks on embassies
and government facilities hurts those in Iran as well as those that are
believed to be the targets of the revenge. I read in a recent Newsweek
that some Iranian here in the U.S. is promoting a massive seige on mail,
phone, fax, and similar facilities in Iran by swamping them with bogus
messages. There was no association with the Mojahedin mentioned in the
article but there is a similarity with the embassy attacks in that all
of this sort of behaviour has an affect on those living in Iran and
those who need or wish to contact friends or relatives in Iran. This is
no way to secure support from inside Iran and revenge is not a
sufficient reason to wage a war, in my opinion. 
 
> >How can they excuse this
> >kind of behaviour?
> 
> I never aprove of senseless violance.  But I think considering the amount of
> suffering that an average opposition member receives from the government in
> Iran, the MKO's  insane actions are understandable (not to be confused with
> excuseable).
> 
> >How does beating ambassadors and representatives and
> >destroying records and property further their goals?
> 
> This is yet another example of how MKOs indirectly help the regime.  By their
> behavior in this case, they have portrayed the regime's advocates (and not 
> just the MKO's alone) as violant and senseless people.  They have somewhat
> told the world that perhaps the regime should use an iron hand since its 
> oppostion is a very unreasonable one.  We all know that this is not true.
> But you can be rest assured that the regime will use such event to their 
> full extent in their propaganda.
> 
> 
> Regards,
>  Arash
> 
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> If you want to destroy something, do not attack it.  Rather defend it badly.
> 							Dr. Ali Shari'aty
> 
> I maintain that the current regime in Iran has done an astonishingly good job
> in "badly" defending Iran and Islam.
> 
> *****************************************************************************

Brad Hernlem