UPDATE: This event has been postponed till February. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Is a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities possible as a result of the dramatically increasing and unstable relationship among Iran, Israel and the U.S.? What does this mean for them, for us, for the rest of the world? Two outstanding speakers will address this complex issue at Seattle’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral on Friday, December 2nd at 7:30PM.
USC Chemical Engineering Prof. Muhammad Sahimi, who has written extensively on Iranian politics and that country’s nuclear program will join Richard Silverstein, writer of the progressive political blog, Tikun Olam for this discussion of these critical and complex issues. These will include the current program of covert black ops like the Iranian missile base explosion last week, cyberwarfare in the form of Stuxnet, economic sanctions and whether they can work, and whether Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. If so, what can/should the world do about it, if anything?
The evening will also include film clips from PBS and KUOW travel guru Rick Steves’ program,“Iran: Yesterday and Today.”
Sahimi is an active journalist having written for Payvand, Antiwar.com and the Huffington Post. He has been a regular columnist for PBS Frontline’s Tehran Bureau since 2008, and has written also for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard International Review and The Progressive.
Silverstein was recently featured in a front page NY Times story about his involvement with FBI whistleblower Shamai Leibowitz, who leaked secret U.S. transcripts documenting the aggressive intervention of Israeli diplomats into U.S. politics in order to create a hostile, anti-Iran climate. Silverstein is currently a regular contributor to Truthout and has also contributed to Comment is Free and Al Jazeera English.
The event is sponsored by Sabeel Puget Sound, the Cathedral’s Mideast Focus Ministry and American Friends Service Committee. Admission to the event is by donation. If you cannot attend but would like to help defray costs, please click the Paypal button in the sidebar. Tax-deductible donations may be made by special arrangement with SABEEL. Contact me for further information. Join the Facebook event page or invite others in the Pacific NW who might attend.
Problem with SAHIMI is that he’s bought into the
‘GREEN MOVEDMENT’ myth when there is in fact no evidence there was any election fraud in Ahmadinejads reelection.
There is no “problem” with Prof. Sahimi and the Green Movement is an honorable reformist alternative to the mullah regime. In fact, there is considerable evidence there was fraud in that election. Whether the level of fraud was enough to throw the election or whether Ahmadinejad would’ve won regardless is an open question.
I can already imagine you’ll be visited by some GlenBeckishterics this evening who’ll try to parasit the debate (if the’yre in top form, maybe they’ll even try to stop people entering the cathedral, woonoz with these nuts).
You should already tell firemen from the neibhourhood they’ll probably get phone calls about some imaginery fire 🙂
“Israel’s blind march to catastrophe”
As Netanyahu and Barak lie awake dreaming of their place in history as the saviours of the world, the Israeli public have suddenly come to appreciate that they are likely to sustain the major casualties in a catastrophic conflict started by two aging ex-soldiers. The proposed strike against Iran will be at the expense of probably thousands of civilian lives in Tel Aviv, Haifa and other conurbations that would be lost to Iranian long-range missiles fired in retaliation to such a cataclysmic political and military misjudgement.
As soon as Israel’s German-made, Dolphin Class, attack submarines fire their cruise missiles from hidden positions off the Strait of Hormuz, aimed at Iranian development sites, Iran will implement its retaliation strategy which will aim to turn Israeli cities into fireballs. By then it will be too late for the UN, the US or the EU to act. The die will have been cast and the Middle East will be on fire.
As congress wonders what they could have done to prevent such extensive damage to not only Israel, but to global oil supplies and the world economy – it might well reflect on its disastrous policy to have allowed the Israel lobby to control its foreign policy agenda over the past two decades that has built a tiny state in the Middle East, run by a belligerent right-wing coalition, into the largest repository of arms, both nuclear and otherwise, per capita, in the entire world. A nuclear time-bomb waiting to explode in the face of the international community, that could set back global peace and trade by between 10 and 20 years.
There can be no adequate answer to this inevitable catastrophe.
I noticed the event was canceled.
“…The primary presenter, Muhammed Sahimi, University of Southern California professor in petroleum engineering with an extensive background on Iranian politics, particularly their nuclear program, has had to cancel his appearance for personal and family reasons…”
I’m very sorry to hear this — I hope that Mr Sahimi &/or St. Mark’s Episcopal cathedral had also not been pressured to cancel the event for some other reason? St. Mark’s Episcopal cathedral says it “hopes” to reschedule the event.
It was indeed a scheduling conflict involving Prof. Sahimi. We will host another program on the Arab Spring in Feb & Iran will become part of that.