This is a great article.

HH
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Al-Taqiyya is Alive and Well in Geneva  

www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=2271

20 Jul 2008
[This article was originally published in CANADA FREE PRESS, 20 Jul 08]

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

The so-called “fizzling” of the talks in Geneva between the United States and Iran, Saturday, was not unexpected by any expert estimation. Which makes one wonder why the U.S., the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, and Russia), and Germany were willing to sit down with the Persian state in the first place.

According to the AP, Iran “stonewalled” the six world powers “on their call to freeze uranium enrichment. In response, the six gave Iran two weeks to respond to their demand, setting the stage for a new round of UN sanctions.”

Could anyone possibly believe that Iran’s agreeing to meet with the six nations followed by its rejection of their demand to halt its nuclear development was anything other than a deceptive buying-of-time in its race to join the nuclear club before Israel (with or without U.S. support) launches airstrikes against its nuclear facilities in the narrowing window of opportunity before the as-yet unknown political environment following U.S. elections in November?

This is not rocket science (pardon the pun), but the Iranians are afraid of being attacked by Israel, and – though they’ll never express it publicly – they are deathly afraid of war with the U.S. This doesn’t mean Iran is not dangerous or irrational. They are both.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has frequently threatened to wipe Israel off the map. He recently told the Japanese prime minister that "influential nations should get ready for a world minus the U.S." He has threatened to shut off the flow of Persian Gulf oil at the Strait of Hormuz. And earlier this month, someone gave the order to test-launch a handful of Shahab missiles (There was, however, a lighter side for the rest of us when Iran photo-shopped a launched-missile into a photograph that actually failed to leave the pad.).

Threats and missile-rattling aside, Ahmadinejad and his bosses – the mullahs who hate us just as much as he does – know that time is not on their side. They know despite their threats, they cannot afford to shut down the flow of oil, the absolute lifeblood of their economy. They also know that big-consumers of Iranian oil like China, cannot afford to let Iran stop the flow. Iran also knows that as soon as it has acquired a nuclear weapon, it will have a newfound leverage, which will completely change regional dynamics. Iran simply needs more time, and it wants the bomb.

As the Geneva talks were barely underway, Keyvan Imani, the Iranian ambassador to Switzerland, reportedly said, “Any kind of suspension or freeze [of uranium enrichment] is out of the question,” and "Suspension — there is no chance for that."

Yet chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili says, "Iran is calling on the Western powers to resume the dialogue."

Why? And why the two different Iranian approaches – a refusal to compromise, yet a desire to continue talking? It’s all part of the grand deception. It is – as I previously said – a buying of time. And the purchase is accomplished through a Shiia Islamic principle, al-taqiyya (literally, "Concealing or disguising one's beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies at a time of eminent danger, whether now or later in time, to save oneself from physical and/or mental injury."): Basically, Islam’s justification for lying and deceiving one’s enemies.

“Islamic spokesmen commonly use taqiyya as a form of 'outwitting'. The matter under discussion is not to be debated or discussed; rather the opponent is to 'outwitted' through taqiyya, by diversion of the subject and obfuscation… ,” writes Warner MacKenzie in Islam Watch.

It is a difficult concept for Westerners – primarily Jews and Christians, who view lying as a sin and who believe a man is only as good as his word – to get their heads around. Consequently, the concept gives Shiia Islamists an edge in any form of negotiating over Westerners who may be unconsciously more inclined to put at least a minimum level of trust into a promise, a warm smile, and a handshake.

Americans, who have an ideological aversion to war (despite the courage we have to defend ourselves and others), are always looking for the peaceful way out even when we have the upper-hand militarily: Hence, the talks. But we must also realize that al-taqiyya is still alive and well. And it reared its head in an obvious way in Geneva.

--- W. Thomas Smith Jr. – a former U.S. Marine rifle-squad leader and counterterrorism instructor – is a journalist, author, and military analyst whose work has appeared in the New York Post, USA TODAY, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, CBS News, and many others. Smith writes about military/defense issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans, on the West Bank, in Iraq and Lebanon. Visit him online at uswriter.com.