Khatami's visit revealed groups with neo-conservative ties

Khatami's presence in the US has exposed some of the "pro-democracy" groups that have recently surfaced in large numbers.

While the State department is clearly departing from its hard line regime change approach and has started to facilitate more contacts with Iranians, regardless of their attitudes towards the Bush administration, the reaction from these groups is interesting.

One, is the Iran Freedom Concert, a Harvard based student project with support from such organizations as American Islamic Congress (AIC), Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance (HAMSA) and Boroumand Foundation.

They started with a concert hailed by the National Review Online, to raise awareness about human rights violations in Iran. Their main supporter, American Islamic Congress (AIC), has been a vocal supporter of the Iraq invasion whose director, Zainab al-Suwaij, once had been quoted saying: “The real question is not whether to liberate Iraq, but why we have not done so already,” according to a review of the concert published in a Harvard student newspaper.

Their Iranian star was Akbar Atri, a former student activist from Tehran who was brought to the U.S. with the help of Ramin Ahmadi who runs another human rights group named "Iran Human Rights Documentation Center", directly funded by the U.S. State Department. He also appeared on a discussion panel at the U.S. senate to help a Republican senator sell his "Iran Freedom and Support Act" bill to the congress with the ultimate goal of regime change in Iran through non-military actions.

Obviously, no wonder why the the AEI has brought all these people to attack this decision too.

The interesting observation here is the way these groups, once aligned and supported by the State Department, have now started to publicly dismiss the decision by the same State Department to grant a visa to Khatami.