DELEGATES

Iranian Delegate Touts McCain's Tough Stance

Washington State Delegate Hopes to Rally Convention Goers To Support Open Immigration

by Gregg Sangillo

Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008


John McCain has been a staunch critic of Iran for its sponsorship of sectarian violence in Iraq, its reported nuclear weapons program, and the radical ideology of its controversial president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Although critics accuse McCain of saber-rattling, plenty of Republican delegates applaud his hard line -- and none more enthusiastically than Hossein Khorram, a native of Iran who is a delegate from Washington state.

Khorram grew up in Tehran. After the overthrow of the shah in 1979, his father's property was confiscated and the family fled to the United States. The experience has made him a staunch opponent of the current Iranian regime. "When the Islamic regime took over, we really got to see what these guys really look like. They're vicious. Their goal is not peace and prosperity. What they intend is world domination; they want everybody to be Muslim," Khorram says. "I've seen it with my own eyes."

Khorram, a practicing Muslim, is active in Iranian dissident politics in this country, serving as vice president of the Seattle chapter of the Constitutionalist Party of Iran. Does he support a military attack on his homeland? "We don't promote military action up front, but that should be on the table," Khorram says. "Nonetheless, we should support the dissidents."

While Khorram's views on foreign policy are consistent with GOP orthodoxy, his advocacy for open immigration, based on his experience of fleeing an oppressive regime, has plenty of detractors. McCain's support for the 2006 comprehensive immigration bill initially made him anathema to the party's conservative base, and McCain has attempted to reassure social conservatives by emphasizing tougher border enforcement.

Khorram, a self-employed property developer, hopes to make his opinions known during the convention. "A lot of the people who are involved in the Republican Party platform are not necessarily business people. A lot of them are people who maybe have a little more time on their hands," he says. "If the business people are given a fair representation and opportunity, they've always shown and will continue to show that immigration is for the best of this nation."

The United States is home to plenty of Iranian exiles like Khorram, but there really is no organized movement of Iranian-Americans for regime change, says Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran expert at Syracuse University. "There have been a lot of Ahmed Chalabi wannabes, but no one has been able to really build an opposition movement in the U.S." says Boroujerdi, referring to the former Iraqi exile. "The cleavages between the disparate groups run too deep."

He cites apolitical second-generation Iranians and what he calls "royalists" who left the country decades ago. Royalists "frequently have a pretty nostalgic view of Iran and may not necessarily know as much about what is going on in Iran today." Boroujerdi says that Iranian-Americans are a mostly affluent group who earn incomes comparable to Indian-Americans -- part of the so-called brain drain that brings highly skilled workers from other countries to the U.S.

Khorram, 47, who lives in Bellevue, Wash., was formerly a partner in his family's oriental rug business. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Khorram family has contributed $35,610 to state and national Republican candidates since 2001; Hossein Khorram has donated $21, 000.

He believes that the GOP can offer the American dream to voters everywhere. "I didn't even know the language when I arrived," he says. "And I came a long way to be a multimillionaire. So why can't everybody else?"

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