The Decision-Maker

by Jennifer Lazlo
Annapolis, Maryland

1. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran had not been forthcoming about the extent of its nuclear program and they refused to ratify a protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty giving inspectors greater liberty within its border. Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradi has "serious concerns" and France, England and Germany have all issued strong statements against Iran's nuclear developments. After terrorist attacks in London and Madrid; terror cells being found in Germany and other European countries as well as riots in France: now is not the time for rogue nations with terror ties to have access to weapons of mass destruction.
    
2. Iran is developing nuclear weapons in order to help them in their quest to expand and extremist ideology that represses women, stifles free speech, and wants to make Muslim teachings the law of the world. In addition to developing nuclear weapons Iran is developing long range delivery systems which can reach into the heart of Europe.
    
3. Iran's president is a radical extremist who believes he has a direct link with god. He believes in a Moslem version of an apocalypse, which requires a violent destruction of nonbelievers. Their nuclear developments and threats against Israel are steps towards their goal of creating a chain of religious events that could kill millions of people and leave Islamic extremists running the world.
    

Jennifer Laszlo has managed successful grassroots lobbying efforts for Radnor clients. She previously served as a foreign affairs legislative assistant to the U.S. Congress and has a degree in International Relations from Emory University. Her work earned her recognition as a "Point of Light" by President George H. W. Bush. She is the founder and president of Laszlo & Associates, Inc., a strategic communications and public policy company. She has worked on projects with the White House, President Clinton, Vice President Gore and dozens of U.S. Senators. For six years Laszlo published a weekly column on public policy in The Daily Record in North Carolina. She has been interviewed on "One on One with John McLaughlin," CNN, CNBC, FOX, MSNBC and C-SPAN. She has been quoted in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Economist, People and Investor's Business Daily. Laszlo also has been profiled in The Washington Post, Working Woman, and other publications.

4. Iran's President is developing nuclear weapons in order to increase his power and dominate the Middle East. While economic sanctions against Iran could have some short term impacts on Europe they are greatly outweighed by the security concerns and the fact that once Ian has nuclear weapons they could increase gas prices which could hurt at the gas pump and dramatically increase heating bills.
    
5. Iran is the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism. In addition to funding Hezbollah, Iran also funds Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and insurgent terrorists in Iraq. These terrorists are bent on destabilizing the Middle East and imposing radical Islamic laws on others. The possibility that Iran could someday provide these groups with a nuclear device is too great to be ignored.
    
6. To understand the purpose of Iran's nuclear program we need only listen to the Iranians themselves. On January 11, 2006, in a speech at Tehran University, former Iranian president Rafsanjani reiterated that Iran will not give up its nuclear program. His speech was met with chants of "Death to America." On November 26, 2005, a speech by Iranian President Ahmadenijad, in which he insisted that Iran will proceed with its nuclear program, was also accompanied by chants of "Death to America." On November 21, 2005, Iran's parliament voted for a bill supportive of Iran's nuclear program and then the parliament members joined together to again chant "Death to America." At Iran's annual military parade in September 2004 and again in September 2005, long-range ballistic missiles had draped over them banners proclaiming, "We will crush America under our feet." On October 26, 2005, Ahmadenijad stated that: "They say it is not possible to have a world without the United States . . . But you know that this is a possible goal . . ." He also stated: "God willing . . . we shall soon experience a world without the United States."
    

7. The Iranian government has a history of following through on its threats to attack the United States. The Iranian government held 52 US diplomats hostage for 444 days from 1979 to 1981. Iran also took credit for a 1983 suicide bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen. In taking credit for the attack, Mohsen Rafiqdoust, then head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said as follows: "The United States has felt the impact of our might on its ominous body, and knows that both the TNT and the ideology which in one blast sent to hell . . . officers, NCOs and soldiers at the Marine Headquarters have been provided by Iran." In June 1996 the Iranian Government was involved in the bombing of a residential complex that housed U.S. Air Force personnel. Nineteen Americans were killed, and 372 were wounded. Most recently, Iran has provided shelter to al-Qaida leaders. Estimates of the number of al-Qaida members currently being harbored by Iran range to over 300, including bin Laden's son and former security chief.
    
8. Three different sets of Iranian diplomats at the United Nations have been caught suspiciously photographing infrastructure and transportation sites in New York City. This links very closely with what terrorists did pre-9-11.
    
9. Would the Iranian government be afraid to use nuclear weapons against the United States, Europe, Israel or others? Deterrence - which is predicated on the other side's unwillingness to sustain massive casualties - worked during the Cold War because the United States and the Soviet Union both had a sense of self-preservation that caused them to fear mutual assured destruction. This is not true of Iran's leadership, whose beliefs embrace death and martyrdom. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, this same Iranian regime sent thousands of its schoolchildren - each armed only with a small plastic "key to heaven" - to their deaths in human waves across the minefields to clear a path for its adult troops. If Iran succeeds in acquiring nuclear weapons, this regime that instills hatred in and readily sacrifices its own children, that is so fundamentally hostile to the United States, seems unlikely to hesitate to bring death to the children of America through a nuclear attack.
    
10. On September 11, 2001 terrorists killed thousands of Americans when they were armed only with box cutters. The threat from a nuclear hand held device is far greater. Iran's nuclear program would provide them the means to act on their threats - either themselves or through one of their proxy terrorist groups that they support. This could lead to nuclear attacks in Israel, the United States and Europe with a loss of hundreds of thousands or perhaps even millions of lives.

I believe that much can be accomplished through the UN and economic sanctions. But the time for this is now.

Please click here to review previous issues.

copyright © 2006 Radnor Inc.