Mohammad Parvin is the head

Mohammad Parvin is the head of a group called Mission for Establishing Human Rights in Iran. Here he describes how leading U.S. scholars turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in Iran in order to preserve access to Iranian visas. The worst, according to Parvin, is Gary Sick, famous for his October surprise conspiracy theory in the early Reagan years. Sick serves on the board of the American Iranian Council, an outfit funded largely by oil companies that calls for unconditional restoration of diplomatic and business relations between the U.S. and the Iranian dictatorship. Prominent journalists have made the same sort of corrupt bargain as the professors, says Parvin. For example, he notes that Robin Wright of the Los Angeles Times, who “parrots official rhetoric labeling Khatemi the leading reformist in Iran, has unfettered access,” while the few who report critically from Teheren are expelled.