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Vol. 13 No. 30…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…Ju1y 25, 2010

Venue for an Artist

The Spider and the Fly

By Mary Howitt (1799-1888)

"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly;

"'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you may spy.

The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,

And I have many curious things to show when you are there."

"Oh no, no," said the little fly; "to ask me is in vain,

For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

"I'm sure you must be weary, dear, with soaring up so high.

Will you rest upon my little bed?" said the spider to the fly.

"There are pretty curtains drawn around; the sheets are fine and thin,

And if you like to rest a while, I'll snugly tuck you in!"

"Oh no, no," said the little fly, "for I've often heard it said,

They never, never wake again who sleep upon your bed!"

Said the cunning spider to the fly: "Dear friend, what can I do

To prove the warm affection I've always felt for you?

I have within my pantry good store of all that's nice;

I'm sure you're very welcome - will you please to take a slice?"

"Oh no, no," said the little fly; "kind sir, that cannot be:

I've heard what's in your pantry, and I do not wish to see!"

"Sweet creature!" said the spider, "You're witty and you're wise;

How handsome are your gauzy wings; how brilliant are your eyes!

I have a little looking-glass upon my parlor shelf;

If you'd step in one moment, dear, you shall behold yourself."

"I thank you, gentle sir," she said, "for what you're pleased to say,

And, bidding you good morning now, I'll call another day."

The spider turned him round about, and went into his den,

For well he knew the silly fly would soon come back again:

So he wove a subtle web in a little corner sly,

And set his table ready to dine upon the fly;

Then came out to his door again and merrily did sing:

"Come hither, hither, pretty fly, with pearl and silver wing;

Your robes are green and purple; there's a crest upon your head;

Your eyes are like diamond bright, but mine are dull as lead!"

Alas, alas! how very soon this silly little fly,

Hearing his wily, flattering words, came flitting by;

With buzzing wings she hung aloft, then near and nearer grew,

Thinking only of her brilliant eyes and green and purple hue,

Thinking only of her crested head.

Poor, foolish thing! at last

Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her fast;

He dragged her up his winding stair, into the dismal den

Within his little parlor - but she ne'er came out again!

And now, dear little children, who may this story read,

To idle, silly flattering words I pray you ne'er give heed;

Unto an evil counselor close heart and ear and eye,

And take a lesson from this tale of the spider and the fly.

About Me: An English poet and author, Howitt was born Mary Botham at Coleford, in Gloucestershire. Educated at home and read widely, she commenced writing verses at a very early age. Together with her husband, William, Howitt wrote over 180 books.

Bit of History

Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh (1882-1967)

Mohammed Mossadegh was born in 1882 in Tehran to an Ashtian Bakhtiari finance minister, Mirza Hideyatu'llah Khan (d.1892) and a Qajar princess, Shahzadi Malika Taj Khanum (1858-1933). By his mother's elder sister, Mossadegh was the nephew of Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar. When his father died in 1892, his uncle was appointed the tax collector of the Khorasan province and was bestowed with the title of Mossadegh-os-Saltaneh by Nasser al-Din Shah.

In 1901, Mossadegh married Zahra Khanum (1879-1965), a granddaughter of Nasser al-Din Shah through her mother. The couple had five children, two sons (Ahmad and Ghulam Hussein) and three daughters (Mansura, Zia Ashraf and Khadija).

Mossadegh received no formal education in Iran. He left Iran in March 1909 to take courses at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques before pursuing a Doctorate in Law from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Mossadegh also taught at the University of Tehran at the start of WWI before beginning his long political career.

Mossadegh started his career in Iranian politics with the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. At age 24, he was elected from Isfahan to the newly inaugurated Persian Parliament, the Majlis of Iran. In 1920, after being self-exiled to Switzerland in protest at the Anglo-Persian Treaty of 1919, he was invited by the new Persian Prime Minister, Hassan Pirnia (Moshir-ed-Dowleh), to become his Minister of Justice. However, en route to Tehran, he was asked by the people of Shiraz to become Governor of the Fars Province. He was later appointed Finance Minister, in the government of Ahmad Qavam (Qavam os-Saltaneh) in 1921, and then Foreign Minister in the government of Moshir-ed-Dowleh in June 1923. He then became Governor of the Azerbaijan Province. In 1923, he was re-elected to the Majlis and voted against the selection of the Prime Minister Reza Khan as the new Shah of Persia.

In 1941 Reza Shah Pahlavi abdicated in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and by 1944 Mossadegh was once again elected to parliament. This time he took the lead of Jebhe Melli (National Front of Iran), an organization he founded with nineteen others to establish democracy and end the foreign presence in Iranian politics, especially by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's (AIOC) operations in Iran.

In 1951, Mossadegh was overwhelmingly elected by deputies of the Majles [Iranian parliament] as Prime Minister. To pursue the goals of independence, democracy and improve the lot of his people, Dr. Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP - British Petroleum), thus putting an end to outright looting of the country's main natural resource by the British. Due to his worldwide popularity, defiance of Britain, and fight for democracy, Mossadegh was named as Time Magazine's 1951 Man of the Year.

Mossadegh's decision to nationalize Iranian oil resulted in a confrontation with the British colonial power and US government. Together, they plotted to remove Mossadegh. In August 1953, a CIA plan, Operation Ajax, was put into place to overthrow Mossadegh's government, the most democratic and popular government in Iranian history. On August 19, 1953, Mossadegh was arrested and tried as a traitor in a military tribunal. Imprisoned for three years, he remained "under house arrest at his estate" until he died in March 1967. (Sources: www.wsu.edu, www.internews.org, and http://en.wikipedia.org )

Hair Pulling Over Iran

By John Burl Smith

Middle East policy, especially the question regarding "what to do about Iran," is causing serious hair pulling in both the United States and Israel. Questions, such as "What is the relationship between US policy towards Iran and Arab-Israeli peacemaking,” are cloaked in terms of linkage to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas' first face-to-face with President Barack Obama in Washington on May 28 created consternation in Tel-Aviv when Mr. Obama spoke of ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by saying "time is of the essence."

This raised the question of linkage between Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy and Washington's Iran policy. Pres. Obama caused serious conniptions in Israel when he said to the press on May 18, 2010, "To the extent that we can make peace ... between the Palestinians and the Israelis, then I actually think it strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with a potential Iranian threat."

Scrambling with his hair a mess to kill speculation of linkage, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defiantly said, "There isn't a policy linkage, and that's what I hear the President saying, and that's what I'm saying too." Obama wants to prioritize progress in terms of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, which he hopes will help win Arab support in case a tougher confrontation against Iran is needed down the road. Whereas, Netanyahu wants to prioritize taking tough action against Iran to remove the threat he sees Iran posing to the whole Middle East which he believes will ease peacemaking with Israel's neighbors.

Netanyahu reiterated his desire to back up tough talk with direct military intervention by destroying Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons that Israel alleges the Tehran government is building. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose hair is usually impeccable, emerged in a frenzy to defend the US' approach of prioritizing Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. Clinton grumpily spelled out the Obama administration's view that in order to resume peace talks, the Israeli government needs to stop all construction activity in the West Bank settlements, in line with commitments Israel made under the 2002 "Road Map." Mussed and in a tizzy, a steely-eyed government spokesman recapitulated Netanyahu's refusal to comply by saying on May 27 that although Netanyahu plans to dismantle some small settlement "outposts" within the older and larger West Bank settlements, "normal activity will continue."

Understanding the nature of the hair pulling going on over what seems to be a side issue in a world faced with a major economic crisis on both continents requires one to put Iran center stage. The driving force here is The Plan for a New American Century (PNAC) put forth in the 1990s by America's power elite. The "Grand Plan" was to control and to monopolize global oil and nuclear energy resources. For as the Emperor said in the movie Dune, "He who controls the spice, controls the universe." However, in this case the spice is oil. The spear point of the "Grand Plan" is the invasion of energy rich countries to directly control their resources, and to create subservient governments that will exploit their own people as cheap labor to harvest energy for the US.

The attacks of 911 were necessary requirements for the Bush administration to wage a "global war against terror" which served as the cover for American hegemony. President Bush borrowed Mussolini's fascist motto of "If you are not with me, you are against me" and turned it to say "You are either with us or with the terrorist" to terrorize weaker nations into accepting American expansions. This mimics Adolf Hitler's tactics leading to war in Europe.

Part of the "Grand Plan," which deals with the Arab World (Middle East) and Southeast Asia, was given to the Bush/Cheney administration for execution. The invasions and destructions of Afghanistan and Iraq are just the beginning. Iran, Syria, and Lebanon are next. Controlling Iran is very important to the American administration. Iran sits on a lake of oil and has large deposits of uranium that, when mined and refined, could make Iran a super global power. Controlling Iran leads to the containment of China (America's greatest competitor), who depends heavily on Iranian oil to satisfy its growing hunger for energy. Geographically Iran is the shortest and most economical route for Kazakhstan's oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south with all the oil-tanker traffic.

The Bush/Cheney administration started its overt aggression against Iran immediately after the 9-11 attacks, hence the "axis of evil" sponsoring "terrorist" groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas line. However, in reality Hezbollah and Hamas are defending themselves against Israeli aggression. After the American invasion of Iraq the American administration accused Iran of instigating a civil war in Iraq by supporting Shiites against Sunnis and providing terrorists access to enter Iraq, along with building a nuclear bomb.

Astute observers point to the similar arguments that were made a decade ago -- by Netanyahu and his ilk -- Saddam Hussein supported Palestinian and other hardline Arabs fighting Israel. Back then, supporters of Netanyahu's Likud Party argued that, "the road to peace in Jerusalem led through Baghdad." Along with Bush's claims that Saddam Hussein had WMD and Condoleezza Rice's "the next smoking gun may be a mushroom cloud" claim buttressed the arguments that justified the invasion of Iraq. All proved to be lies.

Rather than weakening Arab resistance to Israel, Palestinians only got stronger -- to the point that Hamas won the election in 2006. The arguments made by the Israeli hardliners are very similar today, according to Arab-affairs experts who say, "Except now it is Iran that is blamed for Palestinian militancy, not Iraq. But in fact, the main cause of Palestinian militancy all along has been Israel's actions, and those are what need to change."

The real hair pulling question is, "Why should the world assist the US in another Middle East War, when all it will gain is providing the Americans with an opportunity to ride rough-shod over the rest of the world, like the cowboys they are?"

Politics Y2K10

More Iranian Sanctions

In June, Congress overwhelmingly passed tough new sanctions against Iran. The Senate and House quickly approved the bill which targets Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the nation's imports of gas and other refined energy products. The Senate vote was 99-0. The House vote was 408-8.

Contending this was "a path chosen by the Iranian government that for years has defied U.N. resolutions and forged ahead with its nuclear programs while supporting terrorist groups and suppressing the Iranian people," on July 1, in an East Room ceremony, President Barack Obama signed the new sanctions into law. In signing the measure, Mr. Obama insisted the door to diplomacy remained open. The new sanctions are intended to show Iran that its actions have consequences.

Billed as the "toughest sanctions against Iran ever passed by the United States Congress," President Obama expressed hopes that the new unilateral sanctions, combined with those approved last month in the UN Security Council that target the Revolutionary Guard, ballistic missiles and nuclear-related investments, will prove more effective than previous efforts in halting Iran's activities that could lead to nuclear weapons development. According to Mr. Obama, "There should be no doubt. The United States and the international community are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."

The new round of sanctions expands the scope of the 1996 Iran Sanctions Act by penalizing foreign companies that assist Iran's energy sector. It bans U.S. banks from dealing with foreign banks doing business with the Revolutionary Guard or aiding Iran's nuclear program. Foreign companies are banned from receiving US government procurement contracts if they provide Iran with technology used to restrict the free flow of information. The law also provides a legal framework for US states, local governments and other investors to divest their portfolios of foreign companies involved in Iran's energy sector.

For more information on the bill, H.R. 2194, see http://thomas.loc.gov.

Hood Notes

Iranian Cure for the Delta's Blues (Excerpts)

By Joel K. Bourne Jr.

Baptist Town, with its tumbledown clapboard shacks on the wrong side of the tracks in Greenwood, Miss., seems an unlikely spot for any kind of revolution, especially one inspired by the Islamic Republic of Iran. But soon, that Mississippi neighborhood and others like it in the Deep South may see some startling changes.

While political leaders in the United States and Iran are practicing boisterous brinkmanship over nuclear proliferation, a small group of health care professionals from both countries are quietly working together to practice a new type of medicine, beginning in Mississippi, a state that has been mired at the bottom of nearly every health index for decades. Their primary focus is the storied Mississippi Delta. The flat, hot, rural landscape that gave birth to the blues--the quintessential American art form that put suffering to song--now suffers a host of health woes, with some of the highest rates of diabetes, obesity, hypertension and infant mortality in the nation.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent over the last decade to improve residents' health there, the disparities between the Delta and the rest of the state have only widened.

"I've been in and out of the Delta for 40 years and nothing much has changed," says Aaron Shirley, a 77-year-old pediatrician who pioneered public health care in the Delta. "I was wringing my hands and crying about it one day when he said, 'Why don't you come to my country and learn how to do it?' And so I did."

"He" is Mohammad Shahbazi, M.D., chair of the Department of Behavioral and Environmental Health at Jackson State University, who was born in southern Iran.

Despite its reputation in America as an international pariah with an infamous human rights record--part of former President George W. Bush's "axis of evil"--Iran has won kudos from the World Health Organization for its innovative primary health care system. That system has eliminated health disparities between rural and urban populations over the last 30 years, reducing infant mortality in rural areas by tenfold.

Last year, as the United States was gearing up for its political slugfest over health care reform, Shahbazi---with the tacit approval of the National Institutes of Health and Iran's ministry of health--organized a tour of the Iranian health system for Shirley and James Miller, a health care consultant from Oxford, Miss. They met with doctors and public health officials who built the Iranian system, visited rural "health houses" and hospitals, and returned home convinced that the Iranian model could be just the cure for what ails the perpetually ailing Delta, and perhaps the nation.

"The health house system in Iran is like the German VW Beetle," says Miller, of the Oxford International Development Group. "It's simple and it works. It was developed by a country that wasn't too popular at the time, but it solved a basic transportation problem."

In Iran's health care system, remote village health houses are the first line of defense, staffed by villagers known as behvarzes. The behvarzes are trained to provide basic health services for villages of up to 1,500 people. Male behvarzes take care of sanitation, water testing and environmental projects. The women concentrate on child and maternal health, family planning, vaccinations and tracking each family's births, deaths and medical histories.

Iran, a country roughly twice the size of Texas, now has more than 17,000 health houses and more than 30,000 behvarzes who cover more than 90 percent of the rural population--about a quarter of the country's 72 million people. Recently Iran began creating health posts in city neighborhoods to perform the same functions for its growing urban population.

But it's not the health house alone that makes the system work; it's integration with more advanced care. The health house is the first stop, says Shahbazi. It is supervised by doctors at a regional health center, which takes the cases the health house can't handle. Together, the health houses and regional centers handle about 80 percent of all cases. Larger hospitals care for the patients who need treatment the regional centers can't provide. Iranians can go to whatever health facility they choose--but if patients are referred through the health house their costs are less.

Shirley hopes to transform a donated Baptist Town shack into a clean, well-lighted place--a welcoming, primary care clinic where screenings and immunizations will be free and local families will feel at ease being treated by people from their neighborhood.

Iran's health house system was established with the full support of the Iranian government, which provides inexpensive health insurance for all its citizens. But in places like Baptist Town, health insurance is a luxury most people simply can't afford. According to longtime resident Sylvester Hoover, who owns and runs the only business in Baptist Town--a convenience store and laundromat--little has changed in the former sharecropper community since blues legend Robert Johnson sat on a street corner in the 1930s singing "Hell Hound on My Trail."

Unlike the Iranians, Shirley, Shahbazi and Miller are trying to establish the Mississippi health houses on a song and a prayer, using volunteers along with donated buildings and medical supplies. So far, support for the project has come from the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation, which supports Shirley's large community clinic in Jackson. Shirley's group is applying for a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fund 10 health house pilot programs in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. And though it sounds expensive, Miller is convinced it will actually save money in the long run.

"This is one of the things that can address the cost of health care," says Miller. "Preventive care keeps people from getting sick in the first place, and [postoperative care] will save billions in readmissions. But forget the dollars, what about the human suffering? We've got to change the way we think. If you look at the health disparities for minorities in the U.S., we look like some undeveloped countries in how we treat our citizens."

And in fact, a number of countries have flourishing primary health care systems. Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Cuba all have such care systems, as do Spain and Portugal. Canada and the United Kingdom also have systems that cost less and provide better health outcomes than the current system in the United States. (Source: www.aarp.org)

Disgruntled feels: Hypocritical! A June article published in The New Republic authored by Senator John McCain aptly illustrates the US' hypocritical policy regarding Iran's supposed "nuclear ambitions." In it, McCain arrogantly criticizes Iran for doing what the US does best. McCain facetiously asks, "Is it any wonder that this is the same regime that spends its people's precious resources not on roads, or schools, or hospitals, or jobs that benefit all Iranians -- but on funding violent groups of foreign extremists who murder the innocent?" The US has the world's largest war budget; it has bases around the world and is currently engaged in multiple armed conflicts. It is the only nation that has actually dropped atomic bombs on urban populations. And, rather than working to end nuclear proliferation, it continues to build better bombs to maintain its technological superiority in the art of destruction. It is the height of hypocrisy to criticize another country for doing what the USA does best.

Disgruntled says: The ever tougher economic sanctions imposed against Iran are reminiscent of the harsh sanctions that weakened Iraq prior to the US invasion and occupation. According to Dr. Eric Hoskins' The Truth Behind Economic Sanctions: A Report on the Embargo of Food and Medicines to Iraq, "To date, more children have died in Iraq than the combined toll of two atomic bombs on Japan and the ethnic cleansing of former Yugoslavia. The UN's Department of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Iraq's public health services are nearing a total breakdown from a lack of basic medicines, life-saving drugs, and essential medical supplies. The lack of clean water -50 percent of all rural people have no access to potable water- and the collapse of waste water treatment facilities in most urban areas are contributing to the rapidly deteriorating state of public health." The plan for Iran is equally merciless, despite propaganda to the contrary. Like Iraq, Iran sealed its fate when it decided to discontinue trading its oil in dollars. Remember Saddam Hussein decided he wanted to be paid in euros for Iraqi oil in the UN-run oil for food program. Soon afterwards, his country was ravaged by the shock and awe of US military might. The same forces are at work to give Iran a similar object lesson. Sanctions are just the beginning.

Disgruntled wants to know: After overthrowing the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953, the US supported the brutal regime of the Shah, whose overthrow came about during the Iranian Revolution. The US Embassy in Tehran was seized and hostages were taken. Since then there has been no direct diplomatic relations between the two countries. There is obviously a long history between the US and Iran that precedes its unbridled "nuclear ambition." In comments made during a speech at the Iranian Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, where he was attending a D-8 summit, the organization of Developing Eight nations, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the U.S. "the self-proclaimed leader; and everybody should know that a self-proclaimed leadership is (a) dictatorship." With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US is considered the world's sole superpower - leader of the 'free world.' Whether or not it has become a dictator is a matter of opinion. A more salient question is, in a contest with Iran on its turf is the US the spider or the fly?

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls

Email www.zerohedge.com ...US Begins Massive Military Build Up Around Iran, Sending Up To 4 New Carrier Groups In Region...By Tyler Durden ...As if uncontrollable economic contagion was not enough for the administration, Obama is now willing to add geopolitical risk to the current extremely precarious economic and financial situation. Over at Debkafile we read that the president has decided to "boost US military strength in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf regions in the short term with an extra air and naval strike forces and 6,000 Marine and sea combatants." With just one aircraft carrier in proximity to Iran, the Nobel peace prize winner has decided to send a clear message that peace will no longer be tolerated, and has decided to increase the US aircraft carrier presence in the region...

Email www.ap.com Iranian nuclear scientist back home from US ...By Nasser Karimi and Brian Murphy... An Iranian nuclear scientist claimed Thursday that he suffered extreme mental and physical torture at the hands of U.S. interrogators after disappearing last year, adding to Tehran's allegations he was abducted by American agents. The U.S. says he was a willing defector who changed his mind and decided to board a plane home from Washington. Shahram Amiri was embraced by his family _ including his tearful 7-year-old son _ after arriving in Tehran in the latest spectacle of a puzzling series of events that left Iran and Washington with starkly different accounts. Amiri flashed a V-for-victory sign as he stepped into the terminal. Iran has portrayed the return of Amiri as a blow to American intelligence services that were desperate for inside information on Iran's nuclear program. Iran has sought maximum propaganda value _ allowing journalists to cover Amiri's return and having a top envoy from Iran's Foreign Ministry on hand to greet him. Washington described the 32-year-old Amiri as someone who reached out to U.S. officials, but have offered few other details.