Inside the ‘Axis of Evil’

The reality of Iran is very different from the media myth.

by Eric Richardson

AFTER FOURTEEN SLEEPLESS HOURS in an airplane, I shuffled tiredly past the duty-free stand with its display cases of perfumes and watches, cigarettes and candies. Its listless cashier watched as the crowd jockeyed for position behind one of the half dozen Customs line-ups that were forming. Her eyes met mine briefly, but it was the piercing gaze of the photographs above the duty-free stand which caught my attention. Images of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and his successor Ayatollah Khamenei, would be omnipresent during my stay in the Islamic Republic of Iran — and it is telling that one of my most vivid memories of this oft-maligned state would be my first encounter with their stare.

The story of how a National Vanguard writer found himself standing in Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport begins on January 29, 2002, when President George W. Bush raised hypocrisy to new heights during his now-infamous State of the Union Address. Wearing his trademark schoolboy smirk, George Bush introduced the world to the “Axis of Evil,” an illogical construct designed to provide convenient targets, both for the hatred of the masses and for a military ill-suited to confronting nebulous organizations like al-Qaeda.[1]

The invention of the “Axis of Evil” was a logical extension of his brazen lie of four months before, which blamed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 neither on Washington’s subservience to Israel, nor on the American military presence in Saudi Arabia, but rather on a claimed irrational hatred on the part of the terrorists and their backers for “our freedoms.” [2]

Thinking men and women saw through this transparent explanation immediately, and recognized the “war on terrorism” for what it really was: yet another offensive to further Israel’s interests in the Middle East and replace once-sovereign nations with subservient puppet regimes.

It is an unfortunate fact, however, that thinking men and women are a minority in our society, and I quickly found myself embroiled in debates with the usual cast of jingoistic lemmings. “Saddam Hussein wants to take over the world! He’s the next Hitler!” one of my colleagues parroted. “In Iran they stone women to death for revealing their ankles!” said another. When I responded to their ignorance with careful research and measured words, I was faced with disbelief and suspicion. On one occasion, a woman closed the conversation with the rhetorical question, “How do you know? Have you been there?” Having delivered her coup de grâce, she smugly walked away in triumph, secure in the belief that her world, with its comfortable and non-threatening boundaries, had been defended.

Unbeknownst to my smug acquaintance, I accepted her question as a challenge, and decided at that moment to embark upon a journey into the “Axis of Evil,” to defy the censors of the controlled media, and to experience firsthand the people and the politics of Iran.[3]

Arrival

Jet lag always weighs heavy on me, and the morning after my arrival in Iran was no exception. My day began with a rude introduction to the ‘fine art’ of dodging traffic, both on and off the sidewalk. Shadowing locals as they crossed chaotic intersections, devoid of crosswalks or overpasses, I cautiously made my way to the nearest newspaper stand. Besides providing a harrowing experience for Western tourists, twelve-million-strong Tehran produces stifling smog, which obliterates all but fleeting glimpses of the Alborz Mountains towering over the city. Safely back in my hotel, I read the Tehran Times [4] , listened to the resident songbirds, and calmed my nerves over a strong cup of tea.

Despite the claim that English has become the new lingua franca, I discovered that only a small minority of the population could speak English fluently. Luckily, I had arranged to be met in Tehran by an interpreter, who, during my stay in Iran not only acted as my guide and helped me to navigate through the local bureaucracy, but also proved quite willing to discuss what in North America would have been taboo topics: Zionism and Jewish media control.

‘We Are Not Arabs!’

“So, how does it feel to be in the ‘Axis of Evil’?” I looked up to see the smiling face of a barrel-chested Tehrani who, having spotted my newspaper, was eager to engage me in conversation. “Are you an American?” he quickly asked, giving me no time to respond to his first question. “I have wanted to speak with an American and ask him about this so-called ‘axis’ for a long time.” Confused at having been linked to distant North Korea, and troubled at having been tied to their old foe Iraq, Iranians were fascinated by this topic and returned to it again and again. The “Axis of Evil” is an exclusive club. Not only must one be accused of pursuing “weapons of mass destruction,” and supporting ‘terrorist’ organizations, but the applicant must also be a vocal and long-standing opponent of American foreign policy; Israel, Washington’s “gallant little ally in the Middle East,” need not apply.

I risked broaching the first allegation, that Iran was pursuing “weapons of mass destruction,” with an Iranian Air Force officer who I met en route to Esfahân. He hesitantly replied that although the Iranian military was very large and was capable of defending its borders from aggressors, that its equipment was largely antiquated by Western standards. As a helicopter pilot, he gestured towards his own first-generation Huey Cobra gunship, and pointedly asked, “If we cannot afford new helicopters, how do you think that we could purchase nuclear missiles?”

There is more truth to the second allegation, that Iran supports ‘terrorist’ organizations, so long as you accept Washington’s definition of ‘terrorist.’ Hezbollah is widely regarded as a terrorist organization in the West, despite its standing in Lebanon as a recognized political party and its operation of schools, hospitals and other charities within that war-torn country. Iran came to the aid of Hezbollah [5] during its prolonged guerilla war, which ended with the withdrawal of the misnamed Israeli Defense Force from southern Lebanon in 2000. The support provided to Hezbollah is openly acknowledged in Iran, and is justified due to religious affinity (Hezbollah, like Iran, is Shiite Muslim), sympathy for the Lebanese people, and a desire to strike a blow against Zionist repression.

Although Iranians confidently spoke of their support for Hezbollah in its struggle for national liberation, they were careful to distance themselves from those that would export ‘terrorism’ to the West. Specifically, the Iranians that I spoke with agreed that the events of September 11 were a terrible tragedy, just as it is a tragedy whenever innocents are killed. However, they also recognized the hypocrisy which rewards with arms and funding the high-tech terrorism of the Israeli Defense Force, yet condemns as criminals those who respond to Israeli aggression with the more primitive means at their disposal.

While allegations of nuclear proliferation and terrorism may have dire consequences in the future, the suggestion that Iran is in some way connected with the Iraqi regime in these forbidden pursuits was more often the topic of conversation, producing strong denials from bewildered Iranians.

In Iran, one cannot escape images of the war with Iraq; and Iranians far too young to have experienced the bloody 1980-1988 conflict firsthand are reminded of it daily, most dramatically by the prominent murals dedicated to Iran’s war dead, which line avenues and tower over intersections. With memories of the war still fresh in the Iranian psyche, being accused of conspiring with Baghdad, no matter how indirectly, is seen as insulting and further evidence of America’s ignorance of the region.

During one conversation, which drifted uncontrollably towards the implied Iraqi connection, an incredulous shopkeeper asked, “Don’t you Americans realize that we are not Arabs?”

Indo-European Heritage

The Aryan migration into the Iranian plateau, between the end of the second and the beginning of the first millennium B.C., left an undeniable stamp on Iran. While racial ties to Europe have been frayed by innumerable migrations through Iran over time, the Persians are proud of their distant Aryan origins and insulted by Westerners who would mistake them for their Arab or Turkic neighbors.[6]

Reminders of the might of the Persian Empire, which at its height in 500 B.C. stretched from the Indus River in the East through to Libya and Greece in the West, are found everywhere. Dwarfed by the colossal ruins at Persepolis [7], I tried to imagine how the complex must have looked over twenty-three centuries earlier. I later climbed up to the hillside tomb of Artaxerxes III, which, carved out of solid rock, stands as a silent sentry above Persepolis. Alone, except for the lizards which scrambled hastily from my path, I thought of a young David Duke, who in 1971 [8] traveled through another once-Aryan nation, India. Struck by the beauty of the old temples which dot the subcontinent, he made the decision “not to be depressed by the ugliness and the decay,” but to “resurrect in [his] imagination the once beautiful, magnificent empire of India.” I wondered how many other travelers had stood in similar awe overlooking Persepolis, before the Pyramids at Cairo, or like Duke at an ancient and crumbling temple to a Vedic deity — and saw morbidly into a future in which others may stand in similar wonderment before the ruins of our misguided civilization.

While I was familiar with the Indo-European lineage of the Persians, and with their historical accomplishments, I was surprised by how many of today’s Persians, especially in Tehran, have retained the fair skin and features of their Aryan ancestors. A small minority of the Persians, in fact, would have no difficulty passing physically for Europeans.[9] This was in contrast to the admittedly small number of Iranians that I had met in North America, whose dark complexions and alien features had not suggested any kinship with our race.

The reality of Aryan features within the swarthy crowd was exemplified by an encounter I had outside of the German Embassy. Passing the embassy on my way to exchange currency at a nearby bank, I noticed a man staring intently at a street map, his light brown hair and blue eyes providing contrast to the surrounding crowd. As he was still staring at his map upon my return, I approached him and asked him if he was lost. He looked up from the map, incomprehension written across his face. My attempt at “Sprechen Sie Deutsches?” provoked a similar response. “Ferengi?” he inquired, using the now-familiar term for “Westerner.”[10] With the impasse broken, I came to the embarrassing realization that I had come to the assistance, not of a tourist, but of a local in whose blood a strong trace of the West still flowed.

C.I.A. Coup, Oppression

No other event better symbolizes the gulf between the United States and Iran than the storming of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, an event that has become a defining symbol of the Islamic Revolution — an Alamo in reverse, if you will. Through American eyes, the attack and the ensuing hostage crisis was a blight on the nation’s honor and a time for strong talk and yellow ribbons. Through Iranian eyes, however, the storming of the embassy was a triumph, and a preventative measure against a repeat of the events of 1953, when the C.I.A. orchestrated a coup to overthrow Iran’s legitimate government and return the Shah to power. The Iranians are a proud people with a long memory. The role of the United States in propping up the Shah’s repressive regime, in 1953 and in the years leading up to the Islamic Revolution, is still fresh in the minds of many Iranians, as is the now-ironic support given to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. These old wounds, coupled with recent ‘saber-rattling’ from Washington, have created a climate of mistrust, which benefits neither nation.

Ultimately, however, the sentiment that I heard most was that “We have nothing against the American people, only their government.” The Iranian government has on occasion publicly recognized this distinction between the American people and a government not acting in the best interests of its citizens. One dramatic example of this recognition occurred when Iran’s former secular leader, President Rafsanjani, commented on the 1993 massacre of 74 men, women, and children in Waco, Texas, by stating, “If they do that to their own citizens, just think of what they would do to us.”

Zionists: Remove Them

Already convinced that the American media were purposely distorting news about their country and the Islamic Revolution for their own nefarious purposes, Iranians were not surprised to learn that media manipulation and Jewish control of the media go hand-in-hand in North America. They were, however, somewhat taken aback by the scope of this control and the extent to which it is entrenched.

Iranians might be ignorant of the subtleties of media control, and the importance of the media within a Western democracy, but their ignorance is trivial compared to the widespread ignorance of Zionism found in North America. There is nothing abstract or distant about Zionism in the Middle East. I found Iranians more understanding of the subtleties of repression in the West than most Americans, which is to be expected given their exposure to overt Zionism in the region.

While exploring through the old sector of Yazd, a desert city famous for its surviving Zoroastrian community and religious sites, a man drove past me on an ancient moped.[11] He glanced at my unfamiliar Western garb as I glanced at the equally unfamiliar clerical clothing of a Mullah that he was wearing. As the bike came to an abrupt stop a moment later, I heard the now familiar, “Where are you from?” After exchanging pleasantries, the conversation turned to why I had chosen to visit Iran, rather than tourist-friendly Turkey or the sun-drenched beaches of Goa. I explained to him that I was an opponent of U.S. foreign policy, and that I had wished to experience the real Iran, not the villainized Iran presented to North Americans on their television screens. “Do you think that the Jews will drag the Middle East into yet another war?” I asked. “I have nothing against the Jews as a people,” he replied. “With a few exceptions, Jews and Muslims have coexisted peacefully with each other for centuries in Iran.[12] However, peace will not arrive in the Middle East until all the Zionists are removed from power, be they in Tel Aviv or Washington.”

Lessons Learned

Some may question the wisdom of visiting Iran, or any non-White nation, in search of a better understanding of the world and our race’s place within it. In doing so, they might stress that the solutions to the problems facing our people must come from within, and that ultimately our own self-interest must supersede any sympathy that we may have for other oppressed peoples. While I would strongly agree with my hypothetical detractors on both of those points, I would just as strongly defend my position that a contradiction need not exist between learning from other people’s struggles and remaining true to your own people. Romania’s finest son, Corneliu Codreanu, perhaps expressed this sentiment best when he stated “There is, among all those in various parts of the world who serve their people, a kinship of sympathy, as there is such a kinship among those who labor for the destruction of peoples.”

The most important lesson that I learned during my stay in Iran was that the reality of that nation was worlds apart from the image presented to North Americans by the controlled media: Iran was overwhelmingly foreign, but it was in no way “evil.”

Coming face-to-face with this shameless lie told by the controlled media — a lie that may soon be used to justify another slaughter of non-Jews on behalf of Israel — has strengthened my determination to help break the Jewish stranglehold on the media, so that once again our people can look at themselves, and at the world around them, through unfiltered eyes.

NOTES:

1. “States like these [Iran, Iraq, North Korea], and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.” President George Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

2. “Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber — a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” President George Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, September 20, 2001.

3. I chose to visit Iran, rather than Iraq or North Korea, for a number of reasons. As a matter of practicality, Iran is easier to visit than either Iraq or North Korea. As a racialist, I was also drawn to Iran because of the Indo-European lineage of the Persians. Neither Iraq nor North Korea, with the exception of Iraq’s Indo-European-derived Kurdish minority, share an Aryan heritage with the West.

4. The Tehran Times is one of two English-language newspapers that I encountered in Iran. The Tehran Times regularly publishes articles from an anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian standpoint, and is available online at http://www.tehrantimes.com.

5. Hezbollah’s military wing continues to be active along the Israeli border and at the Shebaa Farms. Occupied in 1967, the Shebaa Farms is the last remnant of Israeli-occupied Lebanon. While the U.N. alleges that the Shebaa Farms, along with the Golan Heights, is occupied Syrian territory, both Lebanon and Syria support Lebanese sovereignty over the ten square kilometer parcel.

6. Iran is roughly 50% Persian (Indo-European), with the remainder of the population being composed of numerous Turkic, Kurdish, and Arabic minority groups. Religion, rather than race, is the unifying force in Iran, with approximately 90% of the population being Shiite Muslim. Farsi, the official language of Iran, is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. Despite the introduction of an Arabic-style script following the Islamic conquest in the seventh century A.D., Farsi continues to have much in common with the languages of Europe.

7. Persepolis, which served as the royal court of the Aryan kings of Persia, including Darius and Xerxes, was destroyed by another Aryan, Alexander the Great, in 330 B.C. The burning of Persepolis is said to have been in retaliation for the destruction of Athens by the Persians in 480 B.C.

8. David Duke, My Awakening (Covington, Louisiana: Free Speech Press, 2000), page 517.

9. My very unscientific head-count in Tehran suggested that somewhere between 5 and 10% of the population could pass for European. In other parts of Iran, this percentage was lower.

10. Most linguists believe that “ferengi,” a word used widely throughout the Middle East, derives from “Frank,” and that its use can be traced back to the Crusades, when the “Franks” would have been largely synonymous with “Westerners” to the indigenous population.

11. Zoroastrianism, which was the dominant religion of the Persian Empire before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century A.D., is one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. At Yazd’s fire temple, one of Zoroastrianism’s holiest sites, there is a painting of its founder Zarathustra, whose white skin, flowing brown beard and blue eyes were explained to me by an elderly volunteer at the temple: “You see,” he said, pointing towards the painting, “Zarathustra was the only Aryan prophet of God.”

12. One of these “exceptions” involved the arrest of thirteen Iranian Jews on charges of spying for Israel in 1999. The Iranian judiciary ignored the predictably shrill demands from organized Jewry that the defendants be released without trial, and convicted ten of the thirteen defendants in 2000 to sentences ranging from four to thirteen years.