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Way back when I worked as a columnist for The New York Sun, (2007) I kept getting a call from a mysterious man who insisted on meeting me in person.
He told me I was referred by a writer who writes for the New York Times and that he wanted to give me an important story. I checked out the writer who confirmed that she felt the Sun would be a better fit --- in other words, this was not something the Times would be interested in but she thought it was worth exploring.
Actually the truth was the NY Times wasn't interested in any story that deviated from its liberal mantra.
Iranian dissidents were known to despise Jimmy Carter, a Democrat president the liberal media had supported.
It turned out the gentleman was indeed an Iranian dissident and he wanted me to know what was going on in Iran because no one in the media wanted to publicize it.
Frankly, I was fascinated by what I learned and wrote a column titled "The Persian Renaissance":
"There are, in fact, two Irans, and the lesser known one to most Americans is undergoing a renaissance that the ruling Iranian mullahs fear the most.
"If the Persians are awakened to their identity as children of Cyrus the Great, who wrote mankind's first charter of human rights, these oppressive regimes will topple domino-style. Besides Iran, the Persian heritage is embedded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and were it to be rekindled, a revolution unheard of in scope could occur."
The Persian Renaissance, known as Anjomane Padeshahi Iran, was spearheaded by a charismatic leader, Dr. Froud Fouladvand. He tried to offer Iranian people the reason to fight by awakening their semi-dormant national identity, an identity that was overshadowed by radical Islam. He is believed to have been captured and executed by the Islamic government in Iran.
When I asked my new friend what he thought the US should do to help, he said that aside from technical help and the Internet, we should let Iranians handle the mullahs.
When President Bush was in office, it was apparent that he chose that surreptitious course and it was rumored that the US and Israel were behind the Stuxnet computer virus that set back the Iranian nuclear program. That policy changed in 2009 when Barack Obama took office and gave a speech to Iran that infuriated many Iranians abroad.
I asked Babak Iran (my dissident friend) if the Farsi subtitles of Obama's speech in March to Iran were accurate. He assured me that while the translation was accurate, the message itself had infuriated the Iranian people who are not in league with the mullahs who wish to destroy their Persian heritage. I had his permission to provide my readers with his reaction:
"I can tell you that Iranians are infuriated with the message, as am I. Iranians do not think that the Islamic regime of Iran is their government. They look at it as an occupying army of Muslim killers determined to destroy what Muhammad and his killers could not do for 1400 years. The mullahs have done all they can to prevent people from celebrating the norooz and a dozen other celebrations such as Charshanbeh soori (the fire festival) for the last 30 years. They hate and try to destroy the Iranian culture, like they did in all other previously known Muslim countries. But the more they try to stop the many celebrations in Iran the more the people resist.
"Alicia, Islamic Tazi Mullahs want nothing more than the destruction of Iranian culture. To call the mullahs leaders of Iran is an insult to Iranians and their culture. The term Islamic and republic are not compatible -- for Islam gets its authority from Allah and Sharia law and the republic from the people.
"To say 'Iranian election' like the western media does is an intellectual crime against the Iranian people. The prerequisite of an election is the freedom for people to choose their candidates and not a handful of fascistic Mullahs.
"Any negotiations with Tazi Mullahs occupying Iran, is an attempt to further defraud the great people of Iran -and the people know it. Obama, should have directed his message to the people rather than legitimizing the Mullahs by calling them leaders."
Here it is 2018 and I just visited the only website that my friend said hasn't been hijacked by the mullahs. It is iransara.info and I clicked on the sidebar that read Iran on fire, which displayed horrific pictures of protesters beaten and slain. I could not determine if these are current or past photos from the 2009 green revolution.
I have tried in vain to contact Babak Iran but so far he hasn't responded to my emails. I hope he is safe.
Why are these uprising and brave protests occurring now? Is it because the Persian anti-mullah Iranians know that they have support in the Trump administration?
I still can't figure out why on earth President Obama bent over backwards to secure an Iranian deal that didn't benefit this country at all.
Nor have I ever understood why he felt the need to pay Iran 400 million in cash under a highly suspect transaction supposedly at the same time four Americans were released from Iranian custody.
I was under the impression that the United States didn't pay ransoms but add this to a number of other broken principles by the previous administration.
President Trump has indicated that he may withdraw from any deal his predecessor made with the mullahs and that is a clear sign to the beautiful Iranian people that hope is in the cards for them once again.
The restoration of the Persian Empire in Iran would truly be monumental and a renaissance that was doomed by Obama should be welcomed and endorsed by the Trump administration.