Dear Mr. Harris,
I had the opportunity to read your article in the Ottawa Citizen and had a few comments that I felt I should share with you.
I certainly agree with almost everything you said regarding the brutality of the Islamic Regime and its danger towards the Iranian People as well as the global community as a whole. However I strongly oppose a military attack even on the nuclear sites for a number of reasons. As you may very well know most of these nuclear sites are underground and in heavily populated areas and a military attack would only cause the death of many civilians, with no guarantee that these facilities may have been destroyed.
Second In your article you only spoke about the negative effect a military action in Iran would have on the West (ie the suicide bombings) but you failed to mention the effect it would have on the Iranian people. After the 8 year war with Iraq our countrys infrastructure was destroyed and we lost close to 1 million people, I strongly believe I speak for most Iranians when I say we do not need another war.
Further I have no doubt that the IRI would welcome a military attack since it would only serve to increase its popularity and at the same time create hatred towards the west, which is exactly what they want. Right now there is a very strong pro-democratic movement going on in Iran (although we do not hear about it much in the west) and that is the only viable solution to the dangers of the Islamic Regime.
I was dissapointed to see you did not mention anything regarding the strong anti regime movement inside Iran and focused only on a military invasion, which in the long term will not only have terrible consequences for Iranians but for the West as well.
As someone who is directly in touch with student and human rights activists in Iran I can assure you that Iranian people want change, and they are risking their very lives trying to achieve it. They need the support of Western Governments in order to accomplish this hard task, not a military invasion.
I find it troubling that Canada allows for many high ranked IRI officials to come to Canada and invest millions of dollars, and then they talk about a military attack on Iran. Why not atleast try helping the democratic movement in Iran first, by stopping to support the IRI officials, and if that does not work, then move towards a more drastic option?
Those are just a few thoughts I had which I wanted to share.
All the best
Dear Mr. David HARRIS:
I read your article for making “The case for bombing Iran ”. I found no valid evidence in your argument to drop bombs in Iran in order to destroy nuclear facilities in Iran . As a matter of fact, this pre-emptive action against the Islamic Republic of Iran {IRI} would become beneficial for the Mullahs in Iran and detrimental for the West.
All nuclear facilities, in Iran, are built under grounds, and located in highly populated areas; such as; city of Esfehon, and this city has 2500 years of history with outstanding historical artifacts, and countless historical sceneries. For example, in 17 century Safavid Kings ruled Iran Zamin from city of Esfehon , and this Monarchy Dynasty contributed to Iran Zamin’s Arts. Thus, a pre-emptive military strike would claim innocent people’s life, plus environmental degradation would be part of it, and Iran and Iranian people would lose their love one, plus they would lose their ancestors’ heirlooms. Consequently, there is no absolute assurance that pre-emptive or air strike would be fruitful.
In case of under ground explosion, soil would become radioactive, and farmers would not be able to continue their work. Moreover, next Iranian generation will be born deform. Thus, the West is given reason for Iranian people to support the IRI to built nuclear facilities in Iran because now the nuclear facilities are taboo, and when it is taboo, there is an urge to have nuclear facilities.
Pre-emptive military strike against Iran is absolutely wrong because according to recent historical fact, on summer of 2006, Israel attacked at Lebanon to save Israeli soldiers from hands of Hezbollah. Consequently, Hezbollah became a national hero in the region, and Shiite and Sunni sects amalgamated for their common cause.
Once, West launches pre-emptive military strike against Iran, and after dust settles, the clerics in Iran will rely on the sixth pillar of Islam which is Jihad and will unite Iranian people to wage holy war against the West because, in this case, the West was an aggressor against Iran, and Iran was the victim of the West’s colonization, and is not allowing Iran to flourish technologically. The theology state in Iran is spreading propaganda that “peaceful” nuclear technology is Iran’s legal right, and no one can stop Iran from reaching to its final goal. According to Khameine it is written with red line to have nuclear facilities.
The theology state in Iran has countless mouthpieces in influential places and most of the mouthpieces are working at universities; such as, Dr. Shirin EBADI, who is working at McGill University and is working for cause of the theology state in Iran . How the West is planning to stop the mouthpieces of the IRI as they are roaming from one lecture to another lecture and showing heartbreaking pictures that how bombs have killed innocent babies? Thus, the threat is not just the suicide entity in the West, the threat begins when the West allowed the mouthpieces to enter in the West and the West begins to enter in the Trojan Horse Era by making backroom deals with the IRI. At the same time, the West allowed killers come to their soils. Thus, the West is doom by its own miscalculation.
The West is playing on two grounds, from one hand is trying to make sweet financial gains, at the same time; it is trying to hold on the IRI in the region so the neighboring nations of the IRI to purchase deadly arsenal from the West. Perhaps, now the West has realized that the IRI is very close to fulfill its fanatic vision of destroying the West, and it is about time to do something about it.
Pragmatic solution:
There is no need to launch military strike against the theology state in Iran . The IRI does not have consent of Iranian people to govern them, and Iranian people are defying the theology state in Iran whenever they can. It is now time for the West to assist Iranian people by peaceful means to topple this illegitimate theology state in Iran . For example, the West renders tools to the Iranian outside of Iran to isolate the IRI in the West. For example, there are elements of the IRI in the West, and such a person is Hossien Derakhshan who is residing in TO ON, who is holding conference at University of Toronto for the mouthpieces of the IRI. Toss him out of Canada , what is holding Canada back from ensuring safety of Canadians? It is time to be firm.
Last week, several killers of the IRI were given permission to come to Canada and to give speech at University of Waterloo on matter of Islam and Christianity. Prior of their arrival to Canada , I asked PMO not to allow any of them to come to Canada . However, Canada ignored my adviced. The IRI entity came to Canada and Iranian-Canadian engaged in peaceful demonstration and did not allow the IRI entity to continue their speech. When Canada is allowing such activities to take place, Canada is sending a message to everyone that it means it is OK for the IRI to violate human rights in Iran . Thus, the West needs to send a clear message to the IRI that it is not OK to violate human rights in Iran . And no major media outlets cover the above event. It was big news because Toronto Police Service and Fire Fighters were involved too.
All in all, Iran’s history shows that Iran had many up and down during course of history, and this theology state in Iran will be eradicate sometimes in close future, it is imperative that this theology state to be remove with intention of building Iran because at the end of the day once there is an absent of theology state in Iran, how the West is planning to work with Iranian people? Because the West is going to work with Iranian people; such as, economical trade or environmental issues and so on…
There is no short-cut to this Pandora box, only deep thinking which will result to progressive result and outcome would be beneficial for everyone.
I wish best for everyone.
Thank you,
The case for bombing Iran
The U.S. and its allies face terrible consequences from a military attack on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nuclear facilities, but the alternative is worse
David Harris
Ottawa Citizen Special
Monday, June 04, 2007
CREDIT: The Associated Press
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic fixations make the country's nuclear capacity, including Bushehr nuclear power plant, a risk to the existence of Canada and the entire world.
When the United States strikes Iran -- as it will -- the result will be a disaster, but a disaster that cannot be avoided.
Today, Iran's radical Islamist military, security and intelligence machine reflects the extremism of its history and entrenched masters. It has made Iran an engine of global instability and menace. For Iran today is on the verge of grasping the nuclear club, even as it remains an ungovernable influence in the international community.
Iran's extremist and uncontrollable nature has been well defined through action.
Start with reports of early post-revolutionary Iran. Massacres of Baha'is and other minorities. Razor-blade removal of lipsticked lips. Thumbtacks affixing veils to reluctant women. Adolescent gays hanged from construction cranes. Human waves of nine-year-olds attacking Iraqi forces.
The performance abroad has been as shocking.
For years, Iranian dissidents around the world have been hunted down and butchered by joint teams from Iran's foreign intelligence service and the country's other virulent creation, Hezbollah. By the late 1990s, German prosecutors stated that the highest Iranian officials authorized assassinations abroad through a "Committee for Special Affairs."
The Germans went on to prove that the Islamic Republic murdered people in its notorious "Mykonos" operation in Berlin. South American investigators fix the mullahs with responsibility for a mass-casualty bombing in Argentina. And, of course, writer Salman Rushdie lives under the multimillion-dollar bounty offered by a quasi-governmental Iranian foundation.
Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, Iran's religious supremacists call for the destruction of Jews, Christians, Israel, the United States, the West. No surprise, considering founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's helpful elaboration of the "11 things which are impure" -- everything from "urine, excrement," "the sweat of the excrement-eating camel," to "dogs, pigs, (and) non-Muslim men and women."
So hatreds like anti-Semitism blend comfortably with the regime's racist threats to capture "a nice bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers" and "feed them to our fighting cocks." And this, before the recent detention of British naval service personnel.
Unfortunately, such virulence is nothing compared to the frightening nuclear implications of this regime's delusional and apocalyptic fixations. Mr. Ahmadinejad is convinced a green halo hovered above his head while he addressed the United Nations -- and that his words paralysed all delegates for the duration of his speech. He assures anyone who will listen that he is Allah's handyman.
In this spirit, Mr. Ahmadinejad writes letters to the Twelfth Imam, who is said to have inhabited a well for the past few centuries. The president believes he can bring back the long-lost imam -- the Mahdi -- by precipitating the apocalypse, something his doctrine tells him will trigger a Second Coming, and paradise. Mojtaba Samare Hashemi, Mr. Ahmadinejad's eminence grise and suitably fanatic former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps intelligence agent, helps his boss place fellow Mahdi-cultists in security, defence and other powerful positions.
All of this means that an Iranian bomb would be under control of nuclear triggermen who regards atomic annihilation as an incentive, rather than a deterrent. In short order, Canada and the rest of the world would face the mullahs' diktat.
The alternative? Nuclear catastrophe through either Shahab missiles, or warheads smuggled into our countries by sympathetic terrorists. This is why the United States and its allies have no choice but to act militarily against Iranian nuclear facilities.
But the price will be steep and long lasting.
After the attack, Iran's Hezbollah agents, its foreign-intelligence sleepers -- known in Farsi as "submarines" -- and suicide-corps infiltrators will likely go into action throughout the West. President Ahmadinejad has told us as much. The suicide corps alone is so aggressive that a commander of Iran's regular armed forces has complained about its uncontrollable nature -- if not about its ultimate aims and purpose.
With or without a nuclear warhead, the atomic program's longstanding nature means Iranians must hold vast stocks of radiological material. This is the feedstock of dirty bombs whose contamination can bar use of target zones for generations. As the clock ticks down to the inevitable airstrikes, all countries must have civil defence plans ready to do what they can against the radiological threat -- and chemical and biological ones, too.
Political leadership, security intelligence and our armed forces must be aggressive in preparing our defence. Pressure must be put on Germany, Russia and other of Iran's commercial, technological and military suppliers to embargo the atomic ayatollahs. Russia's shameless exports of anti-defence missiles to the mullahs, and similar behaviour by China, must draw economic penalties.
At a time when Iran is installing sleeper agents and combatants abroad, only those Iranians demonstrably fleeing the regime can be allowed to enter Canada.
Above all, citizens of the west must be realistic. Retribution inflicted upon us by Mr. Ahmadinejad and other Islamic extremists -- including disruptive oil prices -- must not cause us to buy enemy propagandists' continuing attempts to divide us from the United States and other allies. We must steadfastly recognize that the cost of attacks on Iran is the price we must pay to forestall the advent of a new form of slavery -- and many millions of nuclear dead, besides.
David Harris is a lawyer, senior fellow for national security at the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) and former Canadian Security Intelligence Service chief of strategic planning. He is counsel to the CCD, which is intervening in the Air India Inquiry.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
For additional information, please contact:
David Harris
Senior Fellow for National Security, Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD)
Legal Counsel for CCD as intervenor at Iacobucci Commission of Inquiry
Legal Counsel for CCD as intervenor at Air India Inquiry
613-233-1220
I had the opportunity to read your article in the Ottawa Citizen and had a few comments that I felt I should share with you.
I certainly agree with almost everything you said regarding the brutality of the Islamic Regime and its danger towards the Iranian People as well as the global community as a whole. However I strongly oppose a military attack even on the nuclear sites for a number of reasons. As you may very well know most of these nuclear sites are underground and in heavily populated areas and a military attack would only cause the death of many civilians, with no guarantee that these facilities may have been destroyed.
Second In your article you only spoke about the negative effect a military action in Iran would have on the West (ie the suicide bombings) but you failed to mention the effect it would have on the Iranian people. After the 8 year war with Iraq our countrys infrastructure was destroyed and we lost close to 1 million people, I strongly believe I speak for most Iranians when I say we do not need another war.
Further I have no doubt that the IRI would welcome a military attack since it would only serve to increase its popularity and at the same time create hatred towards the west, which is exactly what they want. Right now there is a very strong pro-democratic movement going on in Iran (although we do not hear about it much in the west) and that is the only viable solution to the dangers of the Islamic Regime.
I was dissapointed to see you did not mention anything regarding the strong anti regime movement inside Iran and focused only on a military invasion, which in the long term will not only have terrible consequences for Iranians but for the West as well.
As someone who is directly in touch with student and human rights activists in Iran I can assure you that Iranian people want change, and they are risking their very lives trying to achieve it. They need the support of Western Governments in order to accomplish this hard task, not a military invasion.
I find it troubling that Canada allows for many high ranked IRI officials to come to Canada and invest millions of dollars, and then they talk about a military attack on Iran. Why not atleast try helping the democratic movement in Iran first, by stopping to support the IRI officials, and if that does not work, then move towards a more drastic option?
Those are just a few thoughts I had which I wanted to share.
All the best
Dear Mr. David HARRIS:
I read your article for making “The case for bombing Iran ”. I found no valid evidence in your argument to drop bombs in Iran in order to destroy nuclear facilities in Iran . As a matter of fact, this pre-emptive action against the Islamic Republic of Iran {IRI} would become beneficial for the Mullahs in Iran and detrimental for the West.
All nuclear facilities, in Iran, are built under grounds, and located in highly populated areas; such as; city of Esfehon, and this city has 2500 years of history with outstanding historical artifacts, and countless historical sceneries. For example, in 17 century Safavid Kings ruled Iran Zamin from city of Esfehon , and this Monarchy Dynasty contributed to Iran Zamin’s Arts. Thus, a pre-emptive military strike would claim innocent people’s life, plus environmental degradation would be part of it, and Iran and Iranian people would lose their love one, plus they would lose their ancestors’ heirlooms. Consequently, there is no absolute assurance that pre-emptive or air strike would be fruitful.
In case of under ground explosion, soil would become radioactive, and farmers would not be able to continue their work. Moreover, next Iranian generation will be born deform. Thus, the West is given reason for Iranian people to support the IRI to built nuclear facilities in Iran because now the nuclear facilities are taboo, and when it is taboo, there is an urge to have nuclear facilities.
Pre-emptive military strike against Iran is absolutely wrong because according to recent historical fact, on summer of 2006, Israel attacked at Lebanon to save Israeli soldiers from hands of Hezbollah. Consequently, Hezbollah became a national hero in the region, and Shiite and Sunni sects amalgamated for their common cause.
Once, West launches pre-emptive military strike against Iran, and after dust settles, the clerics in Iran will rely on the sixth pillar of Islam which is Jihad and will unite Iranian people to wage holy war against the West because, in this case, the West was an aggressor against Iran, and Iran was the victim of the West’s colonization, and is not allowing Iran to flourish technologically. The theology state in Iran is spreading propaganda that “peaceful” nuclear technology is Iran’s legal right, and no one can stop Iran from reaching to its final goal. According to Khameine it is written with red line to have nuclear facilities.
The theology state in Iran has countless mouthpieces in influential places and most of the mouthpieces are working at universities; such as, Dr. Shirin EBADI, who is working at McGill University and is working for cause of the theology state in Iran . How the West is planning to stop the mouthpieces of the IRI as they are roaming from one lecture to another lecture and showing heartbreaking pictures that how bombs have killed innocent babies? Thus, the threat is not just the suicide entity in the West, the threat begins when the West allowed the mouthpieces to enter in the West and the West begins to enter in the Trojan Horse Era by making backroom deals with the IRI. At the same time, the West allowed killers come to their soils. Thus, the West is doom by its own miscalculation.
The West is playing on two grounds, from one hand is trying to make sweet financial gains, at the same time; it is trying to hold on the IRI in the region so the neighboring nations of the IRI to purchase deadly arsenal from the West. Perhaps, now the West has realized that the IRI is very close to fulfill its fanatic vision of destroying the West, and it is about time to do something about it.
Pragmatic solution:
There is no need to launch military strike against the theology state in Iran . The IRI does not have consent of Iranian people to govern them, and Iranian people are defying the theology state in Iran whenever they can. It is now time for the West to assist Iranian people by peaceful means to topple this illegitimate theology state in Iran . For example, the West renders tools to the Iranian outside of Iran to isolate the IRI in the West. For example, there are elements of the IRI in the West, and such a person is Hossien Derakhshan who is residing in TO ON, who is holding conference at University of Toronto for the mouthpieces of the IRI. Toss him out of Canada , what is holding Canada back from ensuring safety of Canadians? It is time to be firm.
Last week, several killers of the IRI were given permission to come to Canada and to give speech at University of Waterloo on matter of Islam and Christianity. Prior of their arrival to Canada , I asked PMO not to allow any of them to come to Canada . However, Canada ignored my adviced. The IRI entity came to Canada and Iranian-Canadian engaged in peaceful demonstration and did not allow the IRI entity to continue their speech. When Canada is allowing such activities to take place, Canada is sending a message to everyone that it means it is OK for the IRI to violate human rights in Iran . Thus, the West needs to send a clear message to the IRI that it is not OK to violate human rights in Iran . And no major media outlets cover the above event. It was big news because Toronto Police Service and Fire Fighters were involved too.
All in all, Iran’s history shows that Iran had many up and down during course of history, and this theology state in Iran will be eradicate sometimes in close future, it is imperative that this theology state to be remove with intention of building Iran because at the end of the day once there is an absent of theology state in Iran, how the West is planning to work with Iranian people? Because the West is going to work with Iranian people; such as, economical trade or environmental issues and so on…
There is no short-cut to this Pandora box, only deep thinking which will result to progressive result and outcome would be beneficial for everyone.
I wish best for everyone.
Thank you,
The case for bombing Iran
The U.S. and its allies face terrible consequences from a military attack on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nuclear facilities, but the alternative is worse
David Harris
Ottawa Citizen Special
Monday, June 04, 2007
CREDIT: The Associated Press
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic fixations make the country's nuclear capacity, including Bushehr nuclear power plant, a risk to the existence of Canada and the entire world.
When the United States strikes Iran -- as it will -- the result will be a disaster, but a disaster that cannot be avoided.
Today, Iran's radical Islamist military, security and intelligence machine reflects the extremism of its history and entrenched masters. It has made Iran an engine of global instability and menace. For Iran today is on the verge of grasping the nuclear club, even as it remains an ungovernable influence in the international community.
Iran's extremist and uncontrollable nature has been well defined through action.
Start with reports of early post-revolutionary Iran. Massacres of Baha'is and other minorities. Razor-blade removal of lipsticked lips. Thumbtacks affixing veils to reluctant women. Adolescent gays hanged from construction cranes. Human waves of nine-year-olds attacking Iraqi forces.
The performance abroad has been as shocking.
For years, Iranian dissidents around the world have been hunted down and butchered by joint teams from Iran's foreign intelligence service and the country's other virulent creation, Hezbollah. By the late 1990s, German prosecutors stated that the highest Iranian officials authorized assassinations abroad through a "Committee for Special Affairs."
The Germans went on to prove that the Islamic Republic murdered people in its notorious "Mykonos" operation in Berlin. South American investigators fix the mullahs with responsibility for a mass-casualty bombing in Argentina. And, of course, writer Salman Rushdie lives under the multimillion-dollar bounty offered by a quasi-governmental Iranian foundation.
Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, Iran's religious supremacists call for the destruction of Jews, Christians, Israel, the United States, the West. No surprise, considering founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's helpful elaboration of the "11 things which are impure" -- everything from "urine, excrement," "the sweat of the excrement-eating camel," to "dogs, pigs, (and) non-Muslim men and women."
So hatreds like anti-Semitism blend comfortably with the regime's racist threats to capture "a nice bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers" and "feed them to our fighting cocks." And this, before the recent detention of British naval service personnel.
Unfortunately, such virulence is nothing compared to the frightening nuclear implications of this regime's delusional and apocalyptic fixations. Mr. Ahmadinejad is convinced a green halo hovered above his head while he addressed the United Nations -- and that his words paralysed all delegates for the duration of his speech. He assures anyone who will listen that he is Allah's handyman.
In this spirit, Mr. Ahmadinejad writes letters to the Twelfth Imam, who is said to have inhabited a well for the past few centuries. The president believes he can bring back the long-lost imam -- the Mahdi -- by precipitating the apocalypse, something his doctrine tells him will trigger a Second Coming, and paradise. Mojtaba Samare Hashemi, Mr. Ahmadinejad's eminence grise and suitably fanatic former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps intelligence agent, helps his boss place fellow Mahdi-cultists in security, defence and other powerful positions.
All of this means that an Iranian bomb would be under control of nuclear triggermen who regards atomic annihilation as an incentive, rather than a deterrent. In short order, Canada and the rest of the world would face the mullahs' diktat.
The alternative? Nuclear catastrophe through either Shahab missiles, or warheads smuggled into our countries by sympathetic terrorists. This is why the United States and its allies have no choice but to act militarily against Iranian nuclear facilities.
But the price will be steep and long lasting.
After the attack, Iran's Hezbollah agents, its foreign-intelligence sleepers -- known in Farsi as "submarines" -- and suicide-corps infiltrators will likely go into action throughout the West. President Ahmadinejad has told us as much. The suicide corps alone is so aggressive that a commander of Iran's regular armed forces has complained about its uncontrollable nature -- if not about its ultimate aims and purpose.
With or without a nuclear warhead, the atomic program's longstanding nature means Iranians must hold vast stocks of radiological material. This is the feedstock of dirty bombs whose contamination can bar use of target zones for generations. As the clock ticks down to the inevitable airstrikes, all countries must have civil defence plans ready to do what they can against the radiological threat -- and chemical and biological ones, too.
Political leadership, security intelligence and our armed forces must be aggressive in preparing our defence. Pressure must be put on Germany, Russia and other of Iran's commercial, technological and military suppliers to embargo the atomic ayatollahs. Russia's shameless exports of anti-defence missiles to the mullahs, and similar behaviour by China, must draw economic penalties.
At a time when Iran is installing sleeper agents and combatants abroad, only those Iranians demonstrably fleeing the regime can be allowed to enter Canada.
Above all, citizens of the west must be realistic. Retribution inflicted upon us by Mr. Ahmadinejad and other Islamic extremists -- including disruptive oil prices -- must not cause us to buy enemy propagandists' continuing attempts to divide us from the United States and other allies. We must steadfastly recognize that the cost of attacks on Iran is the price we must pay to forestall the advent of a new form of slavery -- and many millions of nuclear dead, besides.
David Harris is a lawyer, senior fellow for national security at the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) and former Canadian Security Intelligence Service chief of strategic planning. He is counsel to the CCD, which is intervening in the Air India Inquiry.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
For additional information, please contact:
David Harris
Senior Fellow for National Security, Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD)
Legal Counsel for CCD as intervenor at Iacobucci Commission of Inquiry
Legal Counsel for CCD as intervenor at Air India Inquiry
613-233-1220
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