Rare Academic Outreach Falls Victim To Poisoned U.S./Iran Relations

"I'm really sorry that this trip is canceled," one of the students said on condition of anonymity because he feared the reaction from hard-liners. "This was really an opportunity that I could learn a lot and bring it back to Iran." The overseas study plan began to fall apart when its sponsor — a U.S. nonprofit organization partially funded by the State Department — told three students that no American university had accepted them, said English professor Mohammad Marandi, the Virginia-born co-founder of what he described as the Islamic republic's first and only American Studies program. Marandi described the three as highly qualified and said many believed they were rebuffed because they are vocal critics of American foreign policy. The trip's sponsor, the New York-based Institute of International Education, refused to comment on any aspect of the Iranian students' trip, e-mailing a generic statement on the program and not responding to further questions. Other institute officials also did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Meanwhile, the three students' supporters became irate, suggesting the overseas trip was part of a broader U.S. attempt to undermine the Iranian system. A conservative Iranian political Web site accused the U.S of "intending to use university students as its political tools." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/17/africa/ME-GEN-Iran-Studying-America.php

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