Death to
America
celebration
evicted
My favorite
hotel chain,
Marriott,
has done the
right thing,
canceling
the booking
of an
Iranian
group
celebrating
the
revolution
and "Death
to America
Day." Dr.
Zin, of
Regime
Change Iran
reports:
The Marriott
corporation
has just
announce
that it had
canceled an
event to
celebrate
the Islamic
victory
against
America.
The event,
billing
itself as:
"Twenty
Sixth
Anniversary
of the
glorious
victory of
the Islamic
Revolution
and Death to
America
Day", was
scheduled
for
tomorrow.
I reported
last
Tuesday, the
Iranian
government
had booked
the use of
the Bethesda
Marritott.
The
opposition
to the event
was lead by
Dr. Iman
Foroutan,
executive
director of
SOSiran.com
and
ActivistChat.com.
Our combined
efforts
apparently
generated a
firestorm of
letters,
phone calls
and faxes to
the Marriott
corporate
office.
As a result,
the
Washington
Post is now
reporting
that the
Marriott
canceled the
event
saying:John
Wolf, a
Marriott
spokesman,
said
yesterday
that the
hotel
canceled the
event after
realizing it
is illegal
to do
business
with Iran.
He said
Marriott
officials
will "be
taking
steps" to
prevent
similar
bookings in
the future.
Announcement
of the event
raised an
outcry from
Iranian
opponents of
the
country's
regime who
live in the
United
States. They
organized a
campaign
calling on
Marriott to
cancel.
"For them to
come
celebrate
the
anniversary
of their
glorious
revolution
in the
United
States is
just wrong,"
said Iman
Foroutan,
director of
the Iran of
Tomorrow
Movement, an
American-based
organization
working to
oust Iran's
fundamentalist
regime. "If
they allowed
this, I
would not be
surprised if
al Qaeda
celebrated
their next
anniversary
in the heart
of New
York."
In a letter
sent this
week to
Marriott
officials
and Homeland
Security
Secretary
Tom Ridge,
Foroutan
cited an
order from
then-President
Bill Clinton
designating
Iran as "an
extraordinary
threat to
the national
security,
foreign
policy and
economy" of
the United
States. The
letter went
on to say
that it is
illegal for
Iran to do
business
within the
borders of
the United
States.
Hugh
Hewitt's
point that
corporations
cannot
ignore the
blogosphere
appears to
be once
again
vindicated.
Nice work,
Dr. Zin.
Thomas
Lifson 2 5
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