Last Tuesday (November 14), an Iranian-American student on UCLA's Westwood campus was stunned by taser after he had allegedly refused to provide his ID card to the campus police or voluntarily leave the library where he was studying, according to the UCLA Police Department. The student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad of Los Angeles, 23, had been "randomly" identified by the police for a "routine" safety check at the Powell Library after 11 pm according to an "established" university policy. A cell phone video camera captured the police abuse and the video was broadcasted on TV news and the Internet. This "incident" rightly outraged the Iranian-American community throughout the country.

By Hooshang Amirahmadi

Middle East Institute's Sixtieth Anniversary Conference
Washington, DC, November 13, 2006

Good Afternoon!

Let me began by thanking Dr. John Limbert for his kind introduction. I am equally grateful to the Middle East Institute and its Acting President Ambassador David Mack for their invitation! I congratulate and salute the MEI for sixty years of uninterrupted and distinguished service to the American and Middle Eastern peoples and governments to better understand each other and for developing closer amity and more productive relationships. For the benefit of time, I will present a shorter version of my arguments, making the longer version available in print [the present version].