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Senator Coburn's Letter to US President on VOA & Radio F

 
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Joined: 01 Feb 2005
Posts: 158
Location: USA

PostPosted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:51 pm    Post subject: Senator Coburn's Letter to US President on VOA & Radio F Reply with quote

Ba dorood:

Following Amirabbas Fakhravar's testimony at Us Senate in July 2006 where Senator Coburn Co-chairs, he has written a letter to President Bush on how these two medias are sun by US critics instead of broadcasting US foreign policies!!!

Setareh Derakhshesh is in hot water!!! She deserves it in my opinion. I hope this means an end to have the so-called reformists pollute the airwaves.

I recommend that you all send a thank you e-mail to him at http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorCoburn.Home
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Dr. Coburn's letter to President: U.S. International Broadcasting "harming American interests rather than helping"


Dr. Coburn sent a letter to the President regarding Voice of America (VOA) Persian Service, U.S. broadcasting to Iran. Referencing the English transcript of VOA coverage of the President's State of the Union address, Dr. Coburn illustrates how VOA failed to provide Iranians a clear and effective presentation of U.S. foreign policy but provided another platform for its critics. In a July 2006 hearing on U.S. Iran policy chaired by Dr. Coburn, a leading Iranian student leader who had recently escaped imprisonment in Iran testified that U.S. broadcasts do more to undermine U.S. interests than help it. As Dr. Coburn investigated the content of U.S. international broadcasting, he found evidence that broadcasts to Iran give a significant amount of airtime to guests and content that undermine U.S. policy, often even supporting the propaganda of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In the letter, Dr. Coburn references similar problems in other broadcasting services and urges the President to pursue management and accountability reforms at the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Linnk Source: http://coburn.senate.gov/ffm/index.cfm?FuseAction=OversightAction.Home&ContentRecord_id=a71d948c-802a-23ad-419e-8813bc4fedb4
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From: "sosiran97" <> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: Undisclosed-Recipient@,
Subject: VOA and Radio Farda harming US interests and that of Iranian people
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:08:37 -0800
Dear friends,

Please distribute the following about VOA and Radio Farda. Indeed another excellent piece by Mr. Timmerman. I also would like to bring to your attention the 2 highlighted sections at the bottom of Mr. Timmerman's article about Mr. Nakhai and Abbas Milani. As you may already be aware that Abbas Milani, along with Gary Sick, Mohammad Hossein Adeli, Islamic Republic’s ambassador to the U.K. and others just attended a mullah-broker Conference in Rome on Feb 9 & 10.

By Nakhai, if Mr. Timmerman is really referring to Behrad Nakhai, the information below may be of value to him and our readers:

Behrad Nakhai is not only an Advisory Board Member of CASMII, per CASMII’s website, he apparently is an Iranian nuclear engineer who worked as a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and is currently conducting Nuclear Safety Analysis. His writings have been featured at Open Democracy.



Now, please note the page before the last in the attached document and read about some information related to Behrad Nakhai, such as: his emails dissemination related to “Holly Koran Hadith”, “Islam in America Conference”, “Canada moving toward enforcing Islamic law”, “Israel: The Threat within”, “..solidarity with Palestinian people, and against Israeli occupation”, “Number of Female University Students Rising Dramatically in Iran”, “FBI Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies”, and many more such as possibly calling Van Gogh, an indecent human being.



Do you think America should even allow Mr. Nakhai to work as a research scientist at American National Laboratory conducting any kind of nuclear studies?

Do you think your hard-earned tax money is being spent wisely by VOA interviewing such individual with such lopsided political agenda which appears to be very much in support of the mullahs?



We may not be able to stop BBC, CNN or the likes of Amanpour from their pro-mullah news reporting, however, we must expose VOA and Radio Farda as loud as we can. The latter two broadcasting entities are suppose to protect American interests while we pay their salaries with our tax money and to help bring democracy to Iran not side with a regime that is the enemy of America. We must also not allow such entities to help the mullahs and their lobbyists holding the people of Iran hostage anymore.



Siavash

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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/2/13/154601.shtml?s=sr

Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Sen. Tom Coburn: Voice of America Harming U.S. Interests in Iran

Kenneth R. Timmerman

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn has released a pair of bombshell reports on U.S. government broadcasting to Iran, writing to President George W. Bush that the broadcasts "undermine U.S. policy on Iran, often even supporting the propaganda of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Last year, the administration asked Congress for an additional $50 million to fund Persian-language broadcasts by the Voice of America television and Radio Farda (Tomorrow), which is jointly managed by VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

But the government's interagency Iran Steering Group found in a report released by Coburn that neither network has been effective at representing the views of the U.S. government, a mission defined in VOA's charter, let alone at promoting democracy.

"Neither station is a primary source of news for Iranians," the Steering Group report found.

The report found that Radio Farda, whose mission is to be a "surrogate radio" similar to the Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Poland during the Solidarity movement, "rarely takes a stance that could risk antagonizing the Islamic Republic."

The radio's "normal coverage of views inside Iran seems to vary between sympathetic and neutral with respect to the regime," the report added. Before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took over as Iran's president in August 2005, Radio Farda was known derisively inside Iran as "Radio Khatami," after Ahmadinejad's predecessor, the much-touted "moderate" Mohammad Khatami.

Rather than present original reporting from sources inside Iran, "the majority of the news read on Radio Farda is actually from the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the official news agency of the Iranian regime," the report states. "Residents of Iran do not need to turn to Radio Farda to receive IRNA news. This is probably one reason why Iranians do not turn to Radio Farda as a source of fresh news."

The situation at the Voice of America, which is seeking to expand into a 24/7 television network, is arguably worse.

VOA's Persian service rarely invites U.S. government officials to debate or even explain U.S. policy. But it has given ample air-time to top Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon, and to anti-American advocates, the report found.

Oversight of the Persian language broadcasts paid for by U.S. taxpayers has been complicated "because there are no English transcripts of our international broadcasting," Coburn wrote.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors commissioned a translation of VOA's presentation of the President's 2007 State of the Union address at Coburn's request. The results showed that VOA "failed to provide Iranians a clear and effective presentation of our foreign policy but provided another platform for its critics," Coburn said.

One of the two guests invited by VOA to comment on the speech was Dr. Mansour Farhang, a former Islamic Republic of Iran ambassador. Farhang dismissed the speech as "a baseless statement" and opined that U.S. policy in Iraq had "no connection to reality."

Apparently agreeing with these views, the VOA moderator, Setareh Derakhshesh, added that most Americans opposed the president's policies, including the proposed troop surge. "There is no poll cited or any other basis for the statement, but it is presented as fact," Coburn noted.

Dr. Farhang claimed that Bush had rejected the "wise diplomatic solution" to Iraq, which involved direct negotiations with Iran, and was expanding the war in order to "not lose international clout." Farhang also claimed the U.S. was to blame for the increased violence and instability in Iraq. "The only other guest, Hormuz Hekmat, who we are told was supposed to be the balance to Dr. Farhang, when asked, said he agreed with Farhang," Coburn added.

The Iran Steering Group report found that while VOA Persian TV "often invites guests who defend the Islamic Republic's version of issues, it consistently fails to maintain a balance by inviting informed guests who represent another perspective on the same issue."

In one April 18, 2006, program devoted to Iran's nuclear program, for example, VOA News invited two nuclear "experts." One of them was a Mr. Nakhai.

"VOA News did not describe his academic and/or professional affiliations. As it turns out, Mr. Nakhai was an adviser to the Iranian regime and a defender of its nuclear policy," the report found.

Another show, broadcast on April 14, 2006, was devoted to U.S. policy toward Iran, inviting guests who were almost uniformly critical of the administration.

Perhaps the most stunning comments were made by Hoover Institution scholar Abbas Milani, who recently has been called to testify in Congress as an "expert" on the pro-democracy movement in Iran by Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In a segment devoted to Iranian human rights abuses, Milani was asked how can a country that violates human rights be a defender of international human rights?

"I think that what you are saying is 100% correct, that is why the U.S. is in a problematic position because of this," Milani replied. "An America that has the Guantanamo Bay jail in it, an America in which minorities, blacks, have suffered from legal deprivations, without a doubt has international issues with regards to this. . . ."
The VOA host thanked Milani for his answer. Of course, the country I was referring to as the violator of human rights which cannot be a defender of international human rights was the Islamic Republic of Iran," he added.

Much of the anti-American rhetoric at both networks stem result from personnel decisions made by station managers in Washington, D.C. and Prague, the Iran Steering Group report found.

In Washington, the Voice of America West and South Asia division that overseas the Persian service is managed by Sheila Ganji, an Iranian-American who is widely criticized by VOA employees for her management style and decisions.

To her credit, the report found that she had hired professional young producers from MSNBC who had given VOA's flagship "News & Views" program a new look, but found that none of them spoke Farsi or had an understanding of Iranian culture.

But Ms. Ganji was also faulted for having shut down VOA's highly-regarded shortwave radio program, replacing it with simulcast broadcasts of television programs.

"People have phoned me to ask why we shut down the radio," said a well-known VOA radio host, who spoke to NewsMax on condition we protect his identity. "We were allowing Iranians to express themselves freely on air, something they don't have inside Iran. Now that has been shut down."

After 27 years on air, the VOA's Persian radio broadcasts went off the air on July 23, 2006.

The problem with focusing everything on TV is that few Iranians have satellite dishes that allow them to watch foreign networks, because they are "expensive, risky, and cannot be easily hidden," the VOA radio host said.

The regime regularly cracks down on satellite owners, sending teams of intelligence operatives and police house to house in Tehran and other major cities to confiscate the dishes and fine their owners. Similar problems don't exist with radio.

VOA broadcasters have faulted former Broadcasting Board of Governors member Norman Pattiz, a major Clinton donor and the owner of Westwood One media in Los Angeles, for transforming Radio Farda from a news station into a music station.

In 2002, Pattiz told the New Yorker that "it was MTV that brought down the Berlin Wall," and argued that Britney Spears could bring down the mullahs in Tehran.

Later that year, "Ken Tomlinson, then the board's new chairman, approvingly quoted his son as saying Spears's music ‘represents the sounds of freedom.' It seems that the board transformed the ‘war of ideas' into the battle of the bands," former VOA chairman, Robert Reilly, wrote in the Washington Post last week.

The director of Radio Farda programming in Prague, Joyce Davis, came in for strong criticism in the Iran Steering Group report for her "sympathetic view of Islamic fundamentalists."

The report noted that she asked Radio Farda staff "to broadcast times of fast-breaking during Ramadan, which is hardly necessary for anyone living in Iran."

It also revealed that Davis hired broadcasters "whose most recent journalistic experience was in IRNA or the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB."

Iranian exiles familiar with how the radios and the Iranian intelligence ministry works, expressed the fear that many of these former Iranian government journalists were "plants" sent by the regime.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors did not return repeated phone calls requesting comment for this story.
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE

----- Original Message -----

From: B
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 9:24 AM
Subject: Exposing one of the Mullahs' greedy brokers working in Italy

Hello All,

A Libyan fellow, residing in Italy , by the name of Karim Mezran (first from the left in above photo) continues to receive funding from what appears to be the Islamic Republic in order to hold conferences, in promoting Islamo-fascists. He launders the reputation of some of the most nefarious individuals in this game. He basically advises Europeans who simply do not want to divest from their dirty deals with the Mullah and think that they can somehow outsmart them ultimately, what they want to hear.



On February 9th and 10th Mr. Mezran who is holding another conference?one of many many paid for by the money of the Iranian people. The conference is about striking a GRAND BARGAIN with the Mullahs and it is being held by the Globe Research, with support of the City Council of Rome and in cooperation with the University of Rome?s Faculty of Economics AND the University of Durham, England, Center of Iranian Study which hosted Khatami the days after Khatami received his award from St. Andrews. The name of the conference is: IRAN?S EMERGING ROLE: An Assessment of Iran?s Regional & International Policy and it will be held at Rome?s Capitol Hill, Musei Capitolini.



The contact info for this event is:



Via G. Severano, 35

0016 Roma , Italy

Telephone: 39/06/4543-8778

Fax: 39/06/4543-8637

E-mail: info@globeresearch.it



Mr. Mezran?s own e-mail address however is: k.mezran@centrostudiamericani.org



Here is a list of some of the individuals attending this conference:



1. Afshin Molavi , Iranian-American journalist (afshinmol@aol.com)

2. Bill Samii, Iranian-American journalist

3. Karim Sajadpour, International Crisis Group?s Iran analyst. He is an Iranian spin doctor who acts like a secularist but has spoken time and time again in favor of the U.S. normalizing relations with the Islamic Republic (ksadj@yahoo.com)

4. Mohammad Hossein Adeli, Islamic Republic?s ambassador to the U.K.

5. Abbass Milani, Stanford University, Hoover Institute research fellow who cannot stop speaking out of the both sides of his mouth (Amilani@aol.com)

6. Gary Sick, Columbia University, Gulf 2000, NSA staffer under Ford, Carter & Reagan, The October Surprise conspiracy theorist (ggs2@columbia.edu)

7. Flynt Levrett, New America Foundation, ex-CIA analyst, Middle East director of NSC, who in his paper for the Century Foundation advacates total engagement with the Islamic Republic

There are many more individuals who will be attending the conference but there are too many to name and the Globe Research has conveniently decided NOT to put the info about the conference on line.

Mr. Mezran enjoys great popularity among those businessmen, politicians, media members and industrialists for whom he facilitates an air of legitimacy in dealing with the bloodthirsty tyrants controlling Iran . He has the protection of many crooked characters AND he is a master of lies and deceit.

I would like to ask that all of you send Karim Mezran and his Globe Research group an e-mail to let them know that you know of their activities on behalf of the Islamic Republic and as someone who is concerned about the intentions of the regime you will not stop scrutinizing their efforts. Let?s expose the greedy brokers of tyranny, Mr. Karim Mezran and his Mafiosi to their faces.
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