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Rice to Ask for $75M for Democracy in Iran

 
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:10 am    Post subject: Rice to Ask for $75M for Democracy in Iran Reply with quote

Rice to Ask for $75M for Democracy in Iran


By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
10 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060215/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rice_12

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is asking Congress for $75 million in an emergency spending bill to support U.S. efforts to build democracy in Iran, Bush administration officials said Wednesday.

The money, to be included in a supplemental 2006 budget request the White House is expected to send to Congress as early as this week, will be used for radio and satellite television broadcasting and for programs to help Iranians study abroad, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because Rice had not yet announced the request.

"The United States wishes to reach out to the Iranian people and support their desire to realize their own freedom and to secure their own democratic and human rights. The Iranian people should know that the United States fully supports their aspirations for a freer, better future," Rice was expected to say based on remarks prepared for delivery before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Over the past two years the State Department has invested more than $4 million in "projects that empower Iranian citizens in their call for political and economic liberty, freedom of speech, and respect for human rights" and in the current budget year will invest at least $10 million in such efforts, according to Rice's remarks.

The $75 million is in addition to that money, which Congress already has approved.

Rice is expected to tell Senators that the United States is working with non-governmental organizations to develop a support network for "Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists" while paying for programs that train labor activists and help protect them from the "radical regime" in Tehran.

The United States has not had diplomatic ties with Iran since the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and maintains broad economic sanctions against the Islamic regime.

"Through its aggressive and confrontational behavior, Iran is increasingly isolating itself from the international community," Rice said in her prepared text.

An Iranian official said Tuesday that his country has resumed small-scale enrichment of uranium, putting that nation on a path that others fear could be a step toward producing fuel for an atomic bomb. The U.S. and many European countries are maneuvering to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council in hopes of pressuring Tehran into backing away from its nuclear program.

Sen. Richard Lugar (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind., the chairman of the panel, said in prepared remarks that Iran's "intransigence in the face of growing international opposition points to a diplomatic showdown. We should not underestimate the impact of an Iranian government possessing nuclear weapons."

In addition to Iran, senators were expected to pepper Rice with questions on a host of international issues, many of which have arisen since she last appeared before Congress in October. Those include an impending takeover of the Palestinian government by Hamas, an Islamic group that won a decisive majority in Palestinian legislative elections last month.

"We will continue to insist that the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace," Rice is expected to say.

On Tuesday, United States and Israeli officials denied reports that they were plotting ways to topple the militant group's incoming government unless it renounces its violent ideology and recognizes Israel's right to exist.

Also on the agenda during the hearing was the political and economic situation in Iraq.

In Iraq, the fledgling democracy's leading Shiite bloc has chosen Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to serve another term and lead the country's new government. The U.S. wants al-Jaafari to form a national unity government with Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, hoping that will rein in the violence that has raged since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003.

Although lawmakers acknowledge progress politically in Iraq, some express frustration over what they say is the administration's lack of adequate action on repairing Iraq's oil production infrastructure and fully restoring its water and electrical power.

Rice was to appear before the committee on Tuesday, but the session was postponed a day because of Senate floor votes.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:28 pm    Post subject: Rice Outlines White House Approach on Iran Reply with quote

Rice Outlines White House Approach on Iran
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
22 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060215/ap_on_go_co/rice_22



WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will "walk a fine line" in seeking punitive international sanctions against Iran's Islamic government over its disputed nuclear program, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.


The Bush administration's top diplomat detailed a two-track approach to Iran — concerted international pressure to deter Tehran from building a bomb, and a newly robust attempt to seed democratic change inside the country with $75 million for broadcasts and aid to dissidents.

Even so, Rice got a mixed reception from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She ran into tough questions from lawmakers of both parties about Iran, Iraq, the Palestinians and other issues, but also won praise for accomplishments including a new alliance of world opinion against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"I don't see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better. I think things are getting worse. I think they're getting worse in Iraq. I think they're getting worse in Iran," said Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb. He was also pessimistic about the implications of the militant group Hamas' victory in Palestinian elections last month.

On Iraq, the panel's top Democrat countered Rice's optimism about political unity among Iraq's squabbling ethnic groups.

"I'm not hopeful," Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., told Rice. "The policy seems not to be succeeding."

Rice gave the most detailed glimpse to date of U.S. options and objectives on Iran, now that the U.N. Security Council is set to consider the case against its nuclear effort. She called the country the single greatest challenge faced by the United States, because of its alleged nuclear ambitions and role as a terrorist patron state.

Under questioning from both Democratic and Republican senators frustrated with Bush administration policies in Middle East trouble spots, Rice acknowledged that the nations trying to keep Iran from building a bomb had divergent views over what to do next.

"It's not easy. There is not a common view on when or how sanctions ought to be taken," Rice said, "but the Iranian regime is giving the world a very good set of reasons to take serious measures."

Rice said the United States is examining the ramifications of "the full range of potential sanctions" the Security Council could levy, but signaled that any initial steps will be small.

That is a tacit acknowledgment that the Bush administration would probably lose support from Iranian allies Russia and China, and perhaps other nations, if it sought tougher action now.

There is little stomach among Security Council members for broad economic sanctions like those imposed on Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Many countries are concerned that those measures could take a greater toll on ordinary citizens than on their government, and might backfire by prompting Tehran to retaliate by boosting its oil prices.

"We want to look at the effect on the international community as a whole of any actions that we take, economies and the like," she said. "I think you will see us trying to walk a fine line in what actions we take."

The United States has long sought Security Council review for Iran, which claims its nuclear program is intended only to produce electricity. The United States and European allies contend Iran is bent on acquiring technology that could be used to build a bomb.

The Security Council could take up the Iran issue as soon as March.

Rice also asked Congress for another $75 million this year to build democracy in Iran, money that would go to dissidents and scholars as well as to fund Farsi language radio and satellite television programming in the mold of the old Radio Free Europe.

"The United States wishes to reach out to the Iranian people and support their desire to realize their own freedom and to secure their own democratic and human rights. The Iranian people should know that the United States fully supports their aspirations for a freer, better future," Rice said.

A State Department official later refused to say whether the money is intended to help an eventual overthrow of the mullah-led government. Official U.S. policy seeks only to change Iran's behavior. The official spoke to a roomful of reporters but insisted on anonymity.

The money comes on top of $10 million already approved by Congress for similar projects this year. Together the sums would represent greater U.S. involvement than has been publicly identified before.

Rice also provided new detail about the future of U.S. aid to the Palestinians under Hamas, which the State Department lists as a terrorist group. Rice said the United States, which for years has provided aid to help the Palestinian people but very little directly to the Palestinian government, would not turn its back on such humanitarian programs as immunizing children against disease.

"But no money will go to that government," Rice said under questioning by Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record), R-Va.

"I don't want a penny of taxpayer money going to Hamas," Allen told Rice.

"Neither do I," she replied.

Rice reiterated that message later Wednesday in a private meeting with eight Jewish leaders she invited to the State Department to discuss Hamas and Iran.
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:20 am    Post subject: U.S. to promote change in Iran Reply with quote

U.S. to promote change in Iran
By Steven R. Weisman The New York Times

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/16/news/rice.php

WASHINGTON The Bush administration, frustrated by Iranian defiance on its nuclear program, has proposed spending $85 million to promote political change inside Iran by subsidizing dissident groups, unions, student fellowships and television and radio broadcasts.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, announcing a request for the money at a Senate hearing, said Wednesday that the administration had also worked out a way to circumvent U.S. law barring financial relations with Iran to allow some money to go directly to groups promoting change inside the country.

"We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people," Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists."

Senior State Department officials said that they did not intend to publicize recipients of the financing, for fear that they could be jailed or even killed.

The scope of the administration's effort goes well beyond the numbers. Until now, the United States has been cautious about supporting dissident groups, fearful that Iranians, even those sympathetic to the West, might view these efforts as an echo of past U.S. meddling in Iran's internal affairs.

Though no one uses "regime change" to describe the ultimate U.S. goal, that term has been used by conservatives in Congress who have in the last few years pressed for aid to Iranian dissidents, in much the same way that Congress voted funds for Iraqi dissidents in the 1990s.

Rice said the State Department was requesting $75 million to promote democracy in Iran, which she said would be added to $10 million already appropriated for that purpose. The total is an increase from $3.5 million that was appropriated the previous year.

Until recently, the administration has been cautious about embracing the "regime change" approach, but some conservatives at the Defense Department and Vice President Dick Cheney's office are known to be resigned to a nuclear-armed Iran and to argue that the best way to address that problem is by opening Iran to democracy and reform.

U.S. officials, asking not to be identified while discussing internal administration deliberations, said the election last year of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose actions and statements have alarmed the West, had strengthened the hand of those who want to promote internal change in Iran.

Rice's announcement is considered certain to anger Iranian leaders, who have long cited the U.S. support for a coup in 1953 as an example of its designs on Iran. But although U.S. officials say any efforts to bring about internal change in Iran could take years, or even decades, they cite the example of U.S. support for such groups in Poland in the 1980s, and for reformers who brought about change more recently in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

The administration's limited attempts to channel money to human rights groups, labor unions and political organizations in Iran have not achieved much success so far, and many experts fear that future efforts could go to the wrong people or backfire on them if the financing becomes public.

The administration will try to upgrade U.S. broadcasts into Iran through the Voice of America, which already broadcasts a few hours a week, and Radio Farda, a U.S.-sponsored station that consists mostly of music.

U.S. officials say the administration needs to be careful not to align itself with people in the Iranian diaspora who have political agendas that are unpopular in Iran. Among these are monarchists who support the family of the late shah of Iran, and elements allied with the People's Mujahedeen, an Iraqi-based Iranian exile organization that was linked with Saddam Hussein.

WASHINGTON The Bush administration, frustrated by Iranian defiance on its nuclear program, has proposed spending $85 million to promote political change inside Iran by subsidizing dissident groups, unions, student fellowships and television and radio broadcasts.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, announcing a request for the money at a Senate hearing, said Wednesday that the administration had also worked out a way to circumvent U.S. law barring financial relations with Iran to allow some money to go directly to groups promoting change inside the country.

"We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people," Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists."

Senior State Department officials said that they did not intend to publicize recipients of the financing, for fear that they could be jailed or even killed.

The scope of the administration's effort goes well beyond the numbers. Until now, the United States has been cautious about supporting dissident groups, fearful that Iranians, even those sympathetic to the West, might view these efforts as an echo of past U.S. meddling in Iran's internal affairs.

Though no one uses "regime change" to describe the ultimate U.S. goal, that term has been used by conservatives in Congress who have in the last few years pressed for aid to Iranian dissidents, in much the same way that Congress voted funds for Iraqi dissidents in the 1990s.

Rice said the State Department was requesting $75 million to promote democracy in Iran, which she said would be added to $10 million already appropriated for that purpose. The total is an increase from $3.5 million that was appropriated the previous year.

Until recently, the administration has been cautious about embracing the "regime change" approach, but some conservatives at the Defense Department and Vice President Dick Cheney's office are known to be resigned to a nuclear-armed Iran and to argue that the best way to address that problem is by opening Iran to democracy and reform.

U.S. officials, asking not to be identified while discussing internal administration deliberations, said the election last year of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose actions and statements have alarmed the West, had strengthened the hand of those who want to promote internal change in Iran.

Rice's announcement is considered certain to anger Iranian leaders, who have long cited the U.S. support for a coup in 1953 as an example of its designs on Iran. But although U.S. officials say any efforts to bring about internal change in Iran could take years, or even decades, they cite the example of U.S. support for such groups in Poland in the 1980s, and for reformers who brought about change more recently in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

The administration's limited attempts to channel money to human rights groups, labor unions and political organizations in Iran have not achieved much success so far, and many experts fear that future efforts could go to the wrong people or backfire on them if the financing becomes public.

The administration will try to upgrade U.S. broadcasts into Iran through the Voice of America, which already broadcasts a few hours a week, and Radio Farda, a U.S.-sponsored station that consists mostly of music.

U.S. officials say the administration needs to be careful not to align itself with people in the Iranian diaspora who have political agendas that are unpopular in Iran. Among these are monarchists who support the family of the late shah of Iran, and elements allied with the People's Mujahedeen, an Iraqi-based Iranian exile organization that was linked with Saddam Hussein.

WASHINGTON The Bush administration, frustrated by Iranian defiance on its nuclear program, has proposed spending $85 million to promote political change inside Iran by subsidizing dissident groups, unions, student fellowships and television and radio broadcasts.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, announcing a request for the money at a Senate hearing, said Wednesday that the administration had also worked out a way to circumvent U.S. law barring financial relations with Iran to allow some money to go directly to groups promoting change inside the country.

"We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people," Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists."

Senior State Department officials said that they did not intend to publicize recipients of the financing, for fear that they could be jailed or even killed.

The scope of the administration's effort goes well beyond the numbers. Until now, the United States has been cautious about supporting dissident groups, fearful that Iranians, even those sympathetic to the West, might view these efforts as an echo of past U.S. meddling in Iran's internal affairs.

Though no one uses "regime change" to describe the ultimate U.S. goal, that term has been used by conservatives in Congress who have in the last few years pressed for aid to Iranian dissidents, in much the same way that Congress voted funds for Iraqi dissidents in the 1990s.

Rice said the State Department was requesting $75 million to promote democracy in Iran, which she said would be added to $10 million already appropriated for that purpose. The total is an increase from $3.5 million that was appropriated the previous year.

Until recently, the administration has been cautious about embracing the "regime change" approach, but some conservatives at the Defense Department and Vice President Dick Cheney's office are known to be resigned to a nuclear-armed Iran and to argue that the best way to address that problem is by opening Iran to democracy and reform.

U.S. officials, asking not to be identified while discussing internal administration deliberations, said the election last year of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose actions and statements have alarmed the West, had strengthened the hand of those who want to promote internal change in Iran.

Rice's announcement is considered certain to anger Iranian leaders, who have long cited the U.S. support for a coup in 1953 as an example of its designs on Iran. But although U.S. officials say any efforts to bring about internal change in Iran could take years, or even decades, they cite the example of U.S. support for such groups in Poland in the 1980s, and for reformers who brought about change more recently in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

The administration's limited attempts to channel money to human rights groups, labor unions and political organizations in Iran have not achieved much success so far, and many experts fear that future efforts could go to the wrong people or backfire on them if the financing becomes public.

The administration will try to upgrade U.S. broadcasts into Iran through the Voice of America, which already broadcasts a few hours a week, and Radio Farda, a U.S.-sponsored station that consists mostly of music.

U.S. officials say the administration needs to be careful not to align itself with people in the Iranian diaspora who have political agendas that are unpopular in Iran. Among these are monarchists who support the family of the late shah of Iran, and elements allied with the People's Mujahedeen, an Iraqi-based Iranian exile organization that was linked with Saddam Hussein.

WASHINGTON The Bush administration, frustrated by Iranian defiance on its nuclear program, has proposed spending $85 million to promote political change inside Iran by subsidizing dissident groups, unions, student fellowships and television and radio broadcasts.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, announcing a request for the money at a Senate hearing, said Wednesday that the administration had also worked out a way to circumvent U.S. law barring financial relations with Iran to allow some money to go directly to groups promoting change inside the country.

"We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people," Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists."

Senior State Department officials said that they did not intend to publicize recipients of the financing, for fear that they could be jailed or even killed.

The scope of the administration's effort goes well beyond the numbers. Until now, the United States has been cautious about supporting dissident groups, fearful that Iranians, even those sympathetic to the West, might view these efforts as an echo of past U.S. meddling in Iran's internal affairs.

Though no one uses "regime change" to describe the ultimate U.S. goal, that term has been used by conservatives in Congress who have in the last few years pressed for aid to Iranian dissidents, in much the same way that Congress voted funds for Iraqi dissidents in the 1990s.

Rice said the State Department was requesting $75 million to promote democracy in Iran, which she said would be added to $10 million already appropriated for that purpose. The total is an increase from $3.5 million that was appropriated the previous year.

Until recently, the administration has been cautious about embracing the "regime change" approach, but some
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:27 pm    Post subject: Rice calls Iran "central banker of terrorism" Reply with quote

Rice calls Iran "central banker of terrorism"
2 hours, 16 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060216/pl_afp/usiranattacksnuclear_060216160051

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed the US diplomatic attack against Iran, calling Tehran the "central banker" for global terrorism and accusing it of working with Syria to destabilize the Middle East.


Testifying before a Senate committee for the second straight day, Rice again sought to focus world attention on what she called an Iranian threat that goes beyond fears over its suspected nuclear weapons program.

"It's not just Iran's nuclear program but also their support for terrorism around the world. They are, in effect, the central banker for terrorism," she told the Senate Budget Committee.

Rice claimed success in having Iran referred to the UN Security Council for its nuclear activities but she said, "We will not be able to address the Iranian nuclear program and problem in a vacuum.

"Perhaps one of the biggest challenges we face is the policy of the Iranian regime, which is a policy of destabilization of the world's most volatile and vulnerable region" she said, referring to the Middle East.

"It is Iran's regional policies that really are concerning as we watch them, with their sidekick Syria, destabilizing places like Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and, indeed, even in southern Iraq."

The United States has accused Iran of supporting militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as Iraqi insurgents and Palestinian movements such as Hamas that are opposed to peace with Israel.

Rice also reiterated US assertions that the autocratic clerical regime in Tehran was stomping on the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.

A day earlier, appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she announced the US administration would ask Congress for another 75 million dollars to boost democratic reforms in Iran.

Most of the new money would go to fund around-the-clock Farsi television and radio broadcasts into Iran, with the rest destined for efforts to promote civil society groups, student exchanges, Internet access and other programs.
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reaching Out to the People of Iran Reply with quote

Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 15, 2006



Reaching Out to the People of Iran
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/61268.htm

As the Secretary noted in her February 15 Senate testimony, we will work with our friends and allies on a range of measures to reach out to the Iranian people and support their calls for freedom. These will include:

Empowering Iranian Civil Society: The Administration will spend at least $10 million in FY06 funds to support the cause of freedom in Iran this year. These funds will be used to support political dissidents, labor union leaders and human rights activists. We will also work with NGOs to help build networks of support inside and outside Iran.


FY06 Supplemental Request: The Administration will request an additional $75 million in its FY06 supplemental request to support:


Broadcasting to the Iranian People: With $50 million we will significantly increase our television broadcasting ability, establishing a 24 hour/7 days a week broadcast in Farsi into Iran. We will also work to improve our radio transmission capability and tap into satellite technology for both radio and TV transmission into Iran.


Promoting Iranian Democracy: An additional $15 million will foster participation in the political process and support efforts to expand internet access as a tool for civic organization. Working with NGOs and through organizations such as the International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute and National Endowment for Democracy we will support civic education and work to help organize Iranian labor unions and political organizations.


Scholarships and Fellowships: We will also expand our outreach to young Iranians with $5 million for Iranian student education and international visitors programs designed to build bridges between the people of our two nations.


Enhancing Communication: We will support internet and other efforts to reach the Iranian public with $5 million in funding for public diplomacy. We will also support the development of independent Farsi television and radio.
Enabling Action: To enable U.S. and other NGOs to undertake these activities for the Iranian people, inside and outside Iran, the Departments of State and Treasury are working together to secure Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) licenses so that we can make grants to these organizations. New licensing procedures will allow us to move quickly and effectively to support democracy efforts in Iran. We will be announcing more details about the new licensing procedures by the end of this week.
This is just a beginning. As these initial efforts begin to bear fruit, we will build on them to create new opportunities to expand our support for the Iranian people.


2006/192


Released on February 15, 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:45 pm    Post subject: Rice says it will be tough to get UN sanctions against Iran Reply with quote

Rice says it will be tough to get UN sanctions against Iran

7 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060216/pl_afp/usiranattacksnuclear_060216213341

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conceded it would take tough diplomacy to agree UN nuclear sanctions on Iran and suggested worried countries take their own action.


Rice made her comments in a day of congressional testimony where she also called Tehran the "central banker" for global terrorism and a partner with Syria in destabilizing the Middle East.

The chief US diplomat claimed a major success in reporting the dispute over Iran's nuclear activities to the Security Council, which has the power to slap sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

But she added, "I do not underestimate the challenge that we have in getting robust actions, should Iran continue to defy the international community when we go into the Security Council."

"There are many different interests that will be represented there, by many different countries, and we will have to work very hard to get robust measures," Rice told the House International Relations Committee.

The United States faced opposition from Russia and China, two of Iran's major trading partners, which have a veto on the 15-member Security Council.

Looking at a possible impasse in the world body, US officials have been speaking of the possibility of countries using their own economic leverage to rein the Iranians in. Rice was more explicit Thursday.

"If you do not get everyone to agree, there may be some measures that like-minded states can take that will still have a significant effect on the Iranian economy," she told the legislators.

The United States says it has exhausted its own sanctions against Iran after cutting diplomatic relations and virtually all economic ties since the seizure of US hostages in Tehran in 1979.

Four days before leaving on a trip to the Gulf for talks on Iran and other issues, Rice also sought to focus world attention on what she called a threat that goes beyond Tehran's suspected bid to build a nuclear bomb.

"It's not just Iran's nuclear program but also their support for terrorism around the world. They are, in effect, the central banker for terrorism," she told the Senate Budget Committee.

She also said that one of the biggest challenges in the Middle East was the Iranian regime's "policy of destabilization of the world's most volatile and vulnerable region."

"It is Iran's regional policies that really are concerning as we watch them, with their sidekick Syria, destabilizing places like Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and, indeed, even in southern Iraq."

The United States has accused Iran of supporting militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as Iraqi insurgents and Palestinian movements such as Hamas that are opposed to peace with Israel.

Rice's testimony came a day after she and other US officials signaled Washington's intention to launch a broadened diplomatic offensive against Iran calling it a "strategic challenge" to the world.

She said she would travel to Egypt and the Gulf next week for talks with the Arab allies on how to contain a regime she says is bent on "political subversion, terrorism, and support for violent Islamist extremism."

Washington hoped to put the spotlight on Tehran at a meeting of senior envoys from the Group of Eight industrial powers in Moscow next week, and plans were in the works for a NATO session specifically on Iran, officials said.

Iran was also expected to top the agenda when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov makes his first visit to Washington as Moscow's top envoy on March 6 and 7.

As its contribution to ratcheting up the pressure on Iran, the US House of Representatives voted 404-4 Thursday to approve a resolution condemning Iran for resuming its nuclear activities.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, pursued its own diplomatic maneuverings Thursday to counter the American diplomatic onslaught.

Iranian parliament speaker Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel started a two-day visit to Cuba, proclaiming that Tehran was "facing imperialism in the front lines" and needed the Marxist-ruled island's continued support.

Rice also reiterated Thursday the US assertion that the autocratic clerical regime in Tehran was stomping on the democratic aspirations of its people.

On Wednesday, she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the US administration would ask Congress for 75 million dollars to campaign for democratic reforms in Iran, mostly through around-the-clock television and radio broadcasts.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:44 pm    Post subject: Bush enters debate on freedom in Iran Reply with quote

Bush enters debate on freedom in Iran
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: March 30 2006 19:09 | Last updated: March 30 2006 20:05
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/364cda0e-c016-11da-939f-0000779e2340.html

In choosing Freedom House as the venue for a foreign policy address this week, President George W. Bush has stepped into an intense debate among democracy activists in the US and Iran over how US dollars should be used to carry out the administration’s policy of promoting freedom in the Islamic republic.

Few in the Washington audience on Wednesday realised that Freedom House, an independent institution founded over 60 years ago by Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady, is one of several organisations selected by the State Department to receive funding for clandestine activities inside Iran.


Peter Ackerman, chairman of the board of trustees, who introduced Mr Bush, is also the founder of a separate organisation that promotes non-violent, civic disobedience as a form of resistance to repressive regimes. His International Centre for Non-Violent Conflict has organised discreet “workshops” in the Gulf emirate of Dubai to teach Iranians the lessons learned from east European movements.


A separate organisation, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre based in New Haven, Connecticut, has also received US funding and organised a Dubai “workshop” for Iranians last year that was not made public.


Mr Ackerman, who is very wealthy from an earlier career as a financier, says he does not accept government money. Questioned by the FT, Freedom House confirmed it had received funding from the State Department for activities in Iran. It declined to give details but said it was not involved in Mr Ackerman’s work in Dubai.



Big powers fail to agree next move on Iran
Click here


Freedom House also disclosed that it received $100,000 from Mr Ackerman last year and a further $100,000 from his organisation.


In a research study, with Mr Ackerman acting as chief adviser, Freedom House sets out its conclusions: “Far more often than is generally understood, the change agent is broad-based, non-violent civic resistance – which employs tactics such as boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes and civil disobedience to de-legitimate authoritarian rulers and erode their sources of support, including the loyalty of their armed defenders.”


Some academics, activists and those involved in the growing US business of spreading freedom and democracy are alarmed that such semi-covert activities risk damaging the public and transparent work of other organisations, and will backfire inside Iran.


“The danger is that this is a move towards covert political warfare that will completely stymie the whole idea of democracy building. This kind of activity endangers nearly 20 years of democracy promotion,” commented Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, a UK founding governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.


“Getting crowds on the streets to overthrow regimes can backfire badly,” he said. He and other academics reject the notion that the east European experience can be applied to Iran.


There is concern in Europe too. Diplomats say the Bush administration’s request this year for $85m in pro-democracy funding – and its refusal to hold talks with Iran – will be seen as tantamount to a policy of “regime change”. They say this risks undermining efforts – continuing with a Berlin meeting of foreign ministers on Thursday – to resolve the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme.


The State Department told the FT it would not disclose recipients of funding for pro-democracy activities inside Iran because lives would be placed in danger. This was also true for funding in Cuba, Iraq, Syria and other repressive regimes, an official said. Some members of Congress are informed, however. While the activities are not made public they do not amount to “covert action” which requires a specific presidential directive.


Mehrangiz Kar, a prominent Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, has issued an impassioned plea to Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, to drop her funding plans.


The money would tarnish Iranian human rights organisations, turn them into businesses, stoke corruption and play into the hands of the security forces, she said, suggesting the US channel funds through international organisations like the United Nations and the World Bank.


Several Iranians were recently detained briefly for attending the workshops that are believed to have begun a year ago, according to friends and relatives.


“Dubai is crawling with Iranian intelligence,” commented Ray Takeyh, analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, criticising State Department plans to transform the US diplomatic mission in Dubai into a listening post on Iran.


“Every Gucci-wearing Iranian exile without a day-job is for democracy now,” he added.


Michael Ledeen, analyst at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, rejects criticism of Mr Ackerman’s efforts. Mr Ledeen told Congress that it was hard to find a revolution in history, including America’s, that did not have an outside base of support.
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:22 pm    Post subject: Re: Bush enters debate on freedom in Iran Reply with quote

cyrus wrote:
Bush enters debate on freedom in Iran
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: March 30 2006 19:09 | Last updated: March 30 2006 20:05
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/364cda0e-c016-11da-939f-0000779e2340.html

In choosing Freedom House as the venue for a foreign policy address this week, President George W. Bush has stepped into an intense debate among democracy activists in the US and Iran over how US dollars should be used to carry out the administration’s policy of promoting freedom in the Islamic republic.

Few in the Washington audience on Wednesday realised that Freedom House, an independent institution founded over 60 years ago by Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady, is one of several organisations selected by the State Department to receive funding for clandestine activities inside Iran.


Peter Ackerman, chairman of the board of trustees, who introduced Mr Bush, is also the founder of a separate organisation that promotes non-violent, civic disobedience as a form of resistance to repressive regimes. His International Centre for Non-Violent Conflict has organised discreet “workshops” in the Gulf emirate of Dubai to teach Iranians the lessons learned from east European movements.


A separate organisation, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre based in New Haven, Connecticut, has also received US funding and organised a Dubai “workshop” for Iranians last year that was not made public.


Mr Ackerman, who is very wealthy from an earlier career as a financier, says he does not accept government money. Questioned by the FT, Freedom House confirmed it had received funding from the State Department for activities in Iran. It declined to give details but said it was not involved in Mr Ackerman’s work in Dubai.



Big powers fail to agree next move on Iran
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Freedom House also disclosed that it received $100,000 from Mr Ackerman last year and a further $100,000 from his organisation.


In a research study, with Mr Ackerman acting as chief adviser, Freedom House sets out its conclusions: “Far more often than is generally understood, the change agent is broad-based, non-violent civic resistance – which employs tactics such as boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes and civil disobedience to de-legitimate authoritarian rulers and erode their sources of support, including the loyalty of their armed defenders.”


Some academics, activists and those involved in the growing US business of spreading freedom and democracy are alarmed that such semi-covert activities risk damaging the public and transparent work of other organisations, and will backfire inside Iran.


“The danger is that this is a move towards covert political warfare that will completely stymie the whole idea of democracy building. This kind of activity endangers nearly 20 years of democracy promotion,” commented Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, a UK founding governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.


“Getting crowds on the streets to overthrow regimes can backfire badly,” he said. He and other academics reject the notion that the east European experience can be applied to Iran.


There is concern in Europe too. Diplomats say the Bush administration’s request this year for $85m in pro-democracy funding – and its refusal to hold talks with Iran – will be seen as tantamount to a policy of “regime change”. They say this risks undermining efforts – continuing with a Berlin meeting of foreign ministers on Thursday – to resolve the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme.


The State Department told the FT it would not disclose recipients of funding for pro-democracy activities inside Iran because lives would be placed in danger. This was also true for funding in Cuba, Iraq, Syria and other repressive regimes, an official said. Some members of Congress are informed, however. While the activities are not made public they do not amount to “covert action” which requires a specific presidential directive.


Mehrangiz Kar, a prominent Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, has issued an impassioned plea to Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, to drop her funding plans (of Iranian opposition group).

The money would tarnish Iranian human rights organisations, turn them into businesses, stoke corruption and play into the hands of the security forces, she said, suggesting the US channel funds through international organisations like the United Nations and the World Bank
.


Several Iranians were recently detained briefly for attending the workshops that are believed to have begun a year ago, according to friends and relatives.


“Dubai is crawling with Iranian intelligence,” commented Ray Takeyh, analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, criticising State Department plans to transform the US diplomatic mission in Dubai into a listening post on Iran.


“Every Gucci-wearing Iranian exile without a day-job is for democracy now,” he added.


Michael Ledeen, analyst at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, rejects criticism of Mr Ackerman’s efforts. Mr Ledeen told Congress that it was hard to find a revolution in history, including America’s, that did not have an outside base of support.


If these two, Khahare Zainab (Mehrangis Kar) & her co-hort Amirahmadi, are not the two biggest contemporary traitors, I can't think of anyone esle as bad as these two, outside of Iran. I wonder what the return (kick back, commision) is from the ragheads to them?.
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Joined: 03 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
“The danger is that this is a move towards covert political warfare that will completely stymie the whole idea of democracy building. This kind of activity endangers nearly 20 years of democracy promotion,” commented Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, a UK founding governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.


“Getting crowds on the streets to overthrow regimes can backfire badly,” he said. He and other academics reject the notion that the east European experience can be applied to Iran.



Comment: It's one thing to ignore history, but a completely different animal to re-write it.

Europe would not be democratic today, nor would freedom's progress over the years have been possible without the kind of support the Bush administration is asking from Congress today, for Iranian civil society and "reformers" as Bush puts it.

One should well note that in this semantic context, that the word "reformer" is not a reference to the sham reformers you folks in the opposition are so familiar with, but is in reference to proponents of democratic aspirations for the future of Iran.
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Posts: 4993

PostPosted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 11:32 am    Post subject: Mr. Reza Bahrlouh From VOA Reply with quote

Mr. Reza Bahrlouh From VOA Open Discussion Forum With Activist Ramin Etebar, MD and Human Rights Activist Eleha Hix Regarding Freedom and
Dr. Rice Plan $75M Support for Democracy in Iran


http://www.voanews.com/persian/roundtable.cfm


احمدرضا بهارلو


ميزگردی با شما اولين برنامه تلويزيونی فارسی صدای آمريکا است که از هيجدهم اکتبر ۱۹۹۶ کار خود را آغاز کرد. در اين برنامه که ميعادگاهيست هفتگی با شما در سراسر جهان، مسائل و رويدادهای روز ايران و جهان مورد گفتگو قرار ميگيرد و شما نيز می توانيد از طريق تلفن و يا ايميل بطور زنده در اين ميزگرد شرکت کنيد


۷ آوريل، هيکس، اعتبار - سرعت کم
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 4:32 pm    Post subject: The State Department’s Dead Parrot Reply with quote

The State Department’s Dead Parrot
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 20, 2006

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22127
In the Monty Python skit, a man brings a parrot back to the store where he purchased him half an hour earlier, complaining that the parrot is dead.

The shop owner insists it must be resting, but the man says he discovered that the only reason that parrot was sitting up at all was because it had been nailed to the perch in its cage.

Like the shop owner, the State Department is promoting a long-dead policy of supporting “moderates” in Tehran, under the guise of promoting “reform” and “change.”

Not only is State making a monumental mistake: it has fallen for one of the oldest tricks of Iran’s clerical elite.

Over the past three years, President Bush has accumulated a tremendous capital of goodwill with the Iranian people because of his outspoken support for their struggle for freedom.

The president has made clear in private meetings with Iranian exiles that his public statements were not mere rhetoric. He really meant it when he called Iran part of an “axis of evil” in his 2002 State of the Union speech.

He meant every word he uttered after the regime disqualified some 2,400 candidates for parliamentary elections in February 2004 and he said, “The United States supports the Iranian people’s aspiration to live in freedom, enjoy their God-given rights, and determine their own destiny.”

He meant it when he spoke to the Voice of America’s Persian service on August 17, 2004. “There is a significant diaspora here in the United States of Iranian-Americans who long for their homeland to be liberated and free. We’re working with them to send messages to their loved ones and their relatives…say[ing], ‘Listen, we hear your voice, we know you want to be free, and we stand with you in your desire to be free.’”

And he meant it again when he addressed the Iranian people during his State of the Union speech this year. “Our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran.”

Somehow, that message hasn’t made it over to Foggy Bottom.

At the State Department, where Condoleeza Rice has admirably pledged to spend $85 million this year to support the pro-freedom movement in Iran, careerists have taken over the show and are steering her in the wrong direction.

Of that $85 million, nearly $50 million has been tentatively ear-marked to expand the Voice of America and the Persian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Both radios need to improve the quality of their broadcasts and, especially, their political content, before they deserve another dime in taxpayer funding. But that is a story I will treat in depth in a future column.

The rest of the money is being spent on a variety of programs led by former Tehran regime officials, student leaders, and U.S. academics who believe the Tehran regime can be reformed, but does not need to be changed.

This is sweet music to the ears of Iran’s ruling mullahs and to Iran’s boy president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

They all want “reform.” After all, Ahmadinejad campaigned for president on a platform of “reform.” He was going to drive out corrupt mullahs, such as the “reformist” Rafsanjani, and reform Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Mohsen Sazegara was one of the founders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. He fell out with the regime in the late 1980s, published a series of reformist newspapers, and was jailed for nearly two years.

He came to the United States last year at the invitation of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and with the blessing of the Department of State.

Sazegara’s break with the regime was sincere. But since coming to the United States, he has teamed up with “reformers” such as Akbar Atri, Ali Afshari, and Ramin Ahmadi of Yale University, who have gotten the lion’s share of the “pro-freedom” moneys from the State Department.

Instead of providing seed money to a home-grown pro-democracy movement, State Department has sponsored Atri to go on a tour of U.S. college campuses, and is now talking of providing him with a radio station to broadcast his message of “reform” into Iran. They have also thrown money at Ramin Ahmadi by the million – initially, to sponsor a data base of Iranian human rights abuses (something that a number of other groups had already pulled together privately over the past decades, on shoestring funding).

It was Ahmadi who sponsored the ill-fated “non-violent training workshops” in Dubai that backfired last year, sources familiar with the program told me.

The idea of training Iranian activists in the weapons of non-violent conflict is an excellent one. But as reported by the Washington Post, the problem with the Dubai workshops was the choice of people who were selected to attend.

They were reformers, not activists seeking to grow a pro-democracy movement.

They didn’t want to change the regime in Tehran; they wanted to make it stronger, just as Iran’s reformist clerics have sought to do. When they found out that the State Department – and not Yale University - was financing the workshops, they fled back to Tehran, where they denounced the United States publicly.

Roozbeh Farahanipour was one of the leaders of the student rebellion at Tehran University in July 1999. He remembers Ali Afshari well.

“When we tried to get students to take the demonstrations from the university to the streets of Tehran, Afshari came along behind us in a truck with a sound system, shouting at the crowd to not follow us because we were against the revolution,” Farahanipour recalls.

That is one of the tricks the regime likes to play. It periodically gives leash to “reformers” and allows them to publish newspapers and speak out against regime excesses, for as long as they don’t cross the red line and demand true freedom and a change of regime.

Several authentic, grass roots movements for change in Iran do exist. One is led by Farahanipour and is called Marzeporgohar, or Iranians for a Secular Republic (http://www.marzeporgohar.org <http://www.marzeporgohar.org/> )

Another is the Iran Nation’s Party (sometimes referred to as the Iran People’s Party in the West). It was led by Darioush Forouhar until he and his wife were brutally hacked to death by regime thugs in Tehran in November 1998. The current leader is Khosrow Seif.

Yet another authentic pro-democracy group worthy of U.S. funding is the Iran Referendum Movement. Prompted initially by Sazegara’s campaign that collected 35,000 signatures on the Internet in favor of an internationally-monitored referendum on the regime, the movement now has chapters in 35 cities worldwide who sent 250 delegates to a founding convention in Brussels, Belgium, this past December.

They elected a 15-member Central Committee, who in turn selected a 7-member Executive Board. Although they have extensive networks inside Iran, they can’t seem to get the eyes and ears of the State Department.

But because the Referendum Movement is calling for an end of the Islamic Republic, the groups being funded by the State Department have all refused to have anything to do with it. The State Department’s choices are reformers, not revolutionaries.

Sazegara himself told me last year that the reform movement was “dead.” And yet, the State Department, through lack of imagination or its atavistic tendency toward blind man’s bluff, refuses to recognize it.

Like Monty Python’s dead parrot, the State Department Iran “experts” have nailed the reform movement to the perch, and keep selling it again and again, pretending that it’s alive.

But no matter how they dress it up, it’s still a dead parrot.

Or, as the Monty Python character put it, “This parrot is no more!… 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!”

Alas, not in Washington.
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