So much for isolating Iran...

Despite or perhaps because of America's fervent effort to isolate the Islamic Republic on the world stage Iran has been elected to the OPEC Presidency for the first time since the 79 revolution. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may be small (only 12 countries) but in many ways it may be just as important to the global economy as any other international institution, it's a cartel of oil exporting countries that together control about 2/3 of known reserves and roughly 1/3 of current production.

Simply being the president doesn't give Iran control over reserves or production of course there's no need for alarm, but the important thing here may be that those eleven other countries elected Iran to the post. It's term is only a year so it isn't simply Iran's turn, it's missed out on the last few. Those 11 countries chose Iran to head their meetings and control their agenda. It demonstrates both a symbolic power and a structural power and at  the least a barometer of Iran's popularity with it's fellow oil producing states. It's significant that Iran hasn't been elected to the post in 36 years and it's equally significant that that dry spell has ended now.

An Open Letter to Congressman Don Young

The following is an open letter I have written to my Congressmen Don Young. He has added his name to a piece of legislation legalizing an Iranian terrorist group. I am very cross at him for this. This was a private letter ten days ago when I sent it, but having received no reply I have chosen to make it an open one.

"Dear Congressman Young,
I'm writing to ask you to withdraw your signature from H. Res. 1431. As you probably know this legislation calls for the delisting of the People’s Mojahedin Organization or (MEK) from the State Department's terrorist list. The thing is Congressman, that the MEK is on the terrorist list for a good reason. It is an Islamist/Marxist organization (two brands of ideology not exactly known for their pro American views) that has committed numerous terrorist attacks within Iran. They have no legitimacy within Iran and are viewed almost universally as traitors to their country because they sided with Saddam Huessain in the Iran/Iraq war. We don't want to be associated with these people and even appearing to side with them undermines us and undermines Iran's democratic opposition and Green movement.

Please withdraw your name and support from this legislation. I don't want my state or my country associated with support for terrorists.

Your constituent,
The Multilateralist"

House Resolution 1431 was written by Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) and has 100 co-signatories including Don Young. If any of those are your congressional representatives feel free to write a similar letter, or even use this one with the names changed.


A detailed analysis as to why this resolution is a very bad idea can be found: here