Dan Kovalik - The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran

Copyright 2018 by Dan Kovalik

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Michael Short

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-3934-5

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3935-2

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to the people of Iran, with love and solidarity.

Human beings are all members of one body.

They are created from the same essence.

When one member is in pain,

The others cannot rest.

If you do not care about the pain of others,

You are not worthy of being called a human.

Sadi, Thirteenth Century Persian Poet.

(Quote inscribed over entrance of United Nations building in NYC)*

*Phil Wilyato, In Defense of Iran .

If youre not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

Malcolm X

I VISITED IRAN FOR THE FIRST time in July of 2017. Indeed, quite ironically, I was in Iran for the Fourth of July. And, while there were no fireworks on that day to commemorate US Independence Day, I assure the reader that I felt absolutely no antipathy from the Iranian people, despite my being a citizen of the nation which has been referred to by some Iranians as the Great Satan. Rather, as Im sure nearly every American tourist in Iran can tell you, the Iranians have a special affection for Americans, and when strangers on the street found out I was from the United States, they would invariably smile, welcome me to their country, show off their English if they were able to speak it, and enthusiastically pose for a photo-op.

Like most people in the world, the people of Iran quite readily, and maturely, distinguish individual Americans from their governmenta government which many Iranians do have a problem with, and for very good reason.

Iran is actually a quite modern country with many Western influences. Many people I met spoke some English, some quite fluently, and most signs were in both Farsi and English. And, while nearly every woman wore some type of head coveringa legal requirement in Iran, though enforcement of the requirement has been relaxed by the police in Tehran as of latevery few wear a burka which covers their face.

Instead, most women (some of the most beautiful I have seen anywhere) wear light, colorful silk scarves around their heads, while wearing very modern clothes otherwise, including, for example, blue jeans and high heels. Actually, I found it quite amusing that nearly no women wore head coverings at all on the flight from Frankfurt, Germany, but when the pilot announced our initial descent into Tehran, nearly all the women put on their scarves in unison.

I think it is quite fair to say that women indeed fare better in Iran than in nearly any other country in the Middle East, and in many ways better than before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Thus, literacy for women is now over 80 percent while it was around 25 percent in 1970; 90 percent of women are enrolled in school, which is free for all even through university; while about one-third of university students were women before 1979, now women make up a strong majority (65 to 70 percent) of university students; and women participate in every field of economic and social life, including sports, film, police, medicine, science, business, and entertainment.

Women actually do better in Iran than in the United States in a few key waysfor example, they are legally entitled to ninety days maternity leave at two-thirds pay, a measure which the United States does not have and indeed has opposed vigorously, most notably by refusing to ratify international human rights instruments which require this, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It must be noted that the United States and Iran share the distinction of being among the few countries which are not parties to CEDAW, the others being Palau, The Holy See, Somalia, Sudan, and Tonga.

Iranian women have an entitlement to employer-provided child care centers whereas, again, they have no such right in the United States.

Some other fun facts are that Iran is one of the only countries in the world that requires couples to take a class on modern contraception before being issued a marriage license. Iran also has the only state-sponsored condom factory in the Middle Eastthe Keyhan Bod plantwhich produces seventy million condoms a year in various colors and flavors.

Meanwhile, the one big downside for me, a guy who enjoys a glass or two of red wine in the evening, is that alcohol is illegal in Iran. And so, while the airport and hotel we stayed at (the former Tehran Hyatt) had bars, they did not serve alcohol; only juice, coffee, and tea.

In addition, the airport, hotel, and nearly every building we visited were adorned with giant framed photos of both the infamous Ayatollah Khomeini, who I was taught to hate and fear as a child, and the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who certainly has a softer, kinder look than his predecessor. I desperately wanted to take a selfie in front of these pictures, but, for fear of offending someone, I never did.

I have read that, notwithstanding Irans dry law, many Iranians have a private stock of liquor, and that Iranians indeed compete very well with other nations, Russia included, for alcohol consumption. I sat next to a German petro-engineer on the plane to Tehran. He told me that he often comes to Iran for work, and that he has gotten to know some Iranians very well. He explained how he was at an Iranian familys home one evening for dinner, and they asked him how he liked their food. He responded, It is wonderful, but I am from Germany; it would go down much better with a glass of beer. And then, from seemingly out of nowhere, bottles of Heineken and other spirits appeared on the table. Apparently, this is a typical happening, but not knowing anyone very well in Iran, I did not have such an experience.

Even stone cold sober, however, I loved Iran. The people are friendly and famously hospitable. Indeed, I was almost embarrassed by the hospitality. My hosts, from the University of Tehran which had invited several of us from the States to speak there, were constantly making sure that we had enough to eat and drink, and that we always had a place to rest, even in the middle of the day. The Iranians that accompanied us would often disappear themselves in the early afternoon, and we later learned that they were going to the nearest prayer roomnot to pray, however, but to sleep on the floor.