« Friedmanization | Bush's retirement plan for terrorists »
September 17, 2005

Death to America celebration evicted

By

My favorite hotel chain, Marriott, has done the right thing, canceling the booking of an Iranian group celebrating the revolution and "Death to America Day." Dr. Zin, of Regime Change Iran reports:

The Marriott corporation has just announce that it had canceled an event to celebrate the Islamic victory against America.

The event, billing itself as: "Twenty Sixth Anniversary of the glorious victory of the Islamic Revolution and Death to America Day", was scheduled for tomorrow.

I reported last Tuesday, the Iranian government had booked the use of the Bethesda Marritott. The opposition to the event was lead by Dr. Iman Foroutan, executive director of SOSiran.com and ActivistChat.com.

Our combined efforts apparently generated a firestorm of letters, phone calls and faxes to the Marriott corporate office.

As a result, the Washington Post is now reporting that the Marriott canceled the event saying:John Wolf, a Marriott spokesman, said yesterday that the hotel canceled the event after realizing it is illegal to do business with Iran. He said Marriott officials will "be taking steps" to prevent similar bookings in the future.

Announcement of the event raised an outcry from Iranian opponents of the country's regime who live in the United States. They organized a campaign calling on Marriott to cancel.

"For them to come celebrate the anniversary of their glorious revolution in the United States is just wrong," said Iman Foroutan, director of the Iran of Tomorrow Movement, an American—based organization working to oust Iran's fundamentalist regime. "If they allowed this, I would not be surprised if al Qaeda celebrated their next anniversary in the heart of New York."

In a letter sent this week to Marriott officials and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Foroutan cited an order from then—President Bill Clinton designating Iran as "an extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy" of the United States. The letter went on to say that it is illegal for Iran to do business within the borders of the United States.

Hugh Hewitt's point that corporations cannot ignore the blogosphere appears to be once again vindicated.

Nice work, Dr. Zin.

Thomas Lifson  2 5 05