Iranian embassy in Ottawa recruiting expats

[Moonlight Graham]

This was the top headline on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper yesterday:

Absent diplomatic relations with the United States, Iran is using its embassy in Canada to recruit ethnic Iranians to “be of service” to Tehran — causing U.S. terrorism experts to warn of a possible attack from north of the border.

The mobilization effort is taking place under the guise of the embassy’s cultural outreach program, and Iranian-Canadians opposed to the regime in Tehran say the Islamic republic’s intentions are revealed in an interview that Hamid Mohammadi, Iran’s cultural affairs counsellor attached to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, gave in Farsi to an Iran-based website directed at Iranian expatriates in Canada.

Estimating the Iranian population in Canada to be 500,000, Mohammadi describes them as having “characteristics” that “set them apart” from other immigrants. He says recent Iranian immigrants have “decisively preserved strong attachments and bonds to their homeland,” while the “younger second generation” is already “working in influential government positions.”

Mohammadi urges all Iranian-Canadians to aspire to “occupy high-level key positions” and “resist being melted into the dominant Canadian culture.”

Most ominously, he maps out how his country intends to lure current and future Iranians in Canada into helping Iran: “By 2031, the total immigrant population of Canada will increase by 64%, and the number of Iranians will increase due to birthrate,” Mohammadi recounts for the website Iranians Residing Abroad (found at iranyad.ir).

...

But now terror experts from south of the border are raising the alarm.

“Definitely there is recruitment — they want Iranians with Canadian passports, Iranians with U.S. passports,” said Steven Emerson, executive director of the authoritative Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, and executive producer of the upcoming documentary Jihad in America 2: The Grand Deception.

“Canada is not of the highest rank among the enemies of Iran, and so it is more likely this (cultural program exists) for possible recruitment for use in the United States — anything from intelligence gathering, to being an intermediary in the recruitment of others, or to actually carrying out an attack.”

What do you think of this? Obviously the Iranian embassy should be closely monitored and I'm sure is by CSIS. It seems like it would be easy to infiltrate the embassy since there's apparently many Iranian-Canadians strongly opposed to the current regime in Iran. Should the embassy even be closed?

I wouldn't go as far as to close it, but I think it should be stripped of all but essential diplomats and be rid of ridiculous "cultural programs" like this that threaten Canadian and US security.

[Canuckistani]

This was the top headline on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper yesterday:

What do you think of this? Obviously the Iranian embassy should be closely monitored and I'm sure is by CSIS. It seems like it would be easy to infiltrate the embassy since there's apparently many Iranian-Canadians strongly opposed to the current regime in Iran. Should the embassy even be closed?

I wouldn't go as far as to close it, but I think it should be stripped of all but essential diplomats and be rid of ridiculous "cultural programs" like this that threaten Canadian and US security.

I probably agree. But all embassies do this stuff, don't they? China certainly does, including with their Confucius Institutes. What's so special about the Iranians? Are they really that much more of a threat than other countries/

[Moonbox]

China isn't likely to support terrorist attacks against the West. We don't need an embassy in Iran. We don't do any business with them and they're a rogue state with nothing but violent rhetoric and fanaticism to offer us. Regardless, most Iranians in Canada want nothing to do with the government back home. They came here for a reason.

[GostHacked]

I probably agree. But all embassies do this stuff, don't they? China certainly does, including with their Confucius Institutes. What's so special about the Iranians? Are they really that much more of a threat than other countries/

China went the extra step too of launching an international English spoken news station. Now there is some propaganda for you too.

[Tilter]

I probably agree. But all embassies do this stuff, don't they? China certainly does, including with their Confucius Institutes. What's so special about the Iranians? Are they really that much more of a threat than other countries/

And as we all know the Arabic are very peaceful people

[g_bambino]

And as we all know the Arabic are very peaceful people

Given that it's Arabs, not "the Arabic", and Iranians are mostly Persian, it's a little difficult to take your comment on the violent tendencies of "the Arabic" as worthwhile.

[ed.: +]

Edited July 11, 2012 by g_bambino

[cybercoma]

And as we all know the Arabic are very peaceful people