The abuse of human rights by the Iranian regime is well documented and has been accepted as fact by most people. But at an informal hearing today in the Rayburn House office building where Iranian human rights figures will gather to give testimony about the horrible rights record of the mullahs, the moderator of the event turns out to be an apologist for the theocrats in Tehran: Trita Parsi has been very active in creating a pro-regime lobby to oppose U.S. sanctions on Iran. He has also criticized the Bush administration for its half-hearted attempt to provide funding for pro-democracy activists inside Iran. But he has never joined the front lines of the struggle on behalf of human rights in Iran. On the contrary, by arguing that the United States and the West should cut a deal with the Tehran regime, he has been denounced by pro-democracy activist Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi – the daughter of long-time jailed journalist Siamak Pourzand - as “un-Iranian.” ...(Read Full Post)