Tell Iran's Mullahs: The Jig Is Up
By Reza Bayegan
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 7, 2003
Time and again the mullahs have proved themselves to be masters of press manipulation. Khomeini’s success would have been unthinkable without the international media first surrendering its power to the political wizardry of the grand Ayatollah. In the early days of the revolution up and coming foreign journalists were scrambling over each other to lend an assisting hand to the Islamic fanatics in chastising and incriminating the ancien regime. The provocative and irresponsible comments of some of these journalists exacerbated the already perilous situation of political prisoners held by the revolutionaries.
Ironically the press freedom that played a decisive role in bringing the Ayatollah to power was amongst the first of the victims of the revolution. Aware of the enormous power of the media in shaping political events, the clerical dictatorship took measures to control it in such a way that it would not divert from serving the fundamentalist agenda. Radio and television soon became the monopoly of the state. Newspapers were shut down and the only political voice allowed an expression was that in praise of the regime. Today the Islamic Republic well deserves the title of 'the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East' given to it by the international organization ‘Reporters Without Borders’.
After the collapse of Saddam Hussein, the mullahs found a new opportunity to put their disinformation machine to work and use it for waging a war they know so well how to win. They have employed the full force of their fundamentalist propaganda network to sabotage the consolidation of democracy in Iraq. They have recognized that there is a direct link between their own survival and the defeat of the allied mission in their neighboring country.
The chief instrument of their campaign is Al-Alam (The World) television channel, which broadcasts hourly bulletins in Arabic into Iraq from a station in Tehran. It portrays the Americans and the British as occupiers, and the Iraqis as the victims of their aggression. Pictures of dead or injured Iraqis are shown lying in the streets in such a manner to pique the pride and stir the national sentiment of the viewers. Together with the pro-fundamentalist Iraqi newspapers that get their cues from Tehran, Al-Alam injects a daily dose of hatred into the hearts and minds of citizens whose chronic lack of liberty and political experience has turned them into easy prey in the masterful hands of the brainwashers of the Islamic Republic. The mullahs are too clever to be seen shooting at the Americans themselves. Instead they preach to the Iraqis a kind of violent and xenophobic Islam that if not confronted will continue to cost allied lives and the eventual defeat of their political undertaking.
Another powerful front that the Islamic Republic uses to subvert the cause of peace and democracy in Iraq is the mosque. The underlying message of the pro-Iranian clergy mounting the pulpit of the Shiite mosques can be summed up in one sentence: It is the religious duty of every Iraqi Moslem to defeat 'the foreign aggressors'.
At the bottom of all this relentless propaganda war is the fact that the American presence in Iraq has put the Iranian dictators backs to the wall. The establishment of a moderate pro-Western democracy in a predominantly Shiite country next door is nothing short of a death sentence for an unpopular regime that has failed miserably to deliver on its promises of liberalization and reform.
We have to also remember that the city of Najaf in Iraq is the spiritual capital of the Shiites, being the site of one of the most prestigious religious seminaries and the burial place of the founder of the Shiite faith, Ali. Ayatollah Khomeini spent fifteen years in Najaf before coming to Iran to lead the Islamic revolution. With the removal of Saddam Hussein whose iron fist rule subordinated religious faith to the party loyalty, the spiritual borderline between the two Shiite countries has more or less evaporated. For the mullahs who disparage nationalism and instead emphasize the idea of Ommat (the oneness of the Islamic community) Najaf, Karbala and Baghdad are as much their territory as are Qom and Tehran. Article 11 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that "all Muslims are one Ommat and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran shall be under obligation to lay its general policy on the basis of coalition and unity of Muslim nations and strive perpetually to achieve political, economic and cultural unity of the Muslim world". What the idea of unity of the Muslim world means to the regime in Tehran is a solidarity against Israel and the rest of the Western civilization. To brook the formation of a government in Baghdad, which is friendly to Washington and Tel Aviv, will be an anathema to such an ideal.
Thomas L. Friedman in an article published in The Herald Tribune (23.06.2003) is quite right in saying that "to help build a progressive, pluralistic state in Iraq" is President Bush’s strongest card. Turning Iraq into a showcase for democracy, will demonstrate that Middle Eastern soil is not inimical to the cultivation of peace and freedom. Mr. Friedman errs however in suggesting that the mullahs are going to sit still and let this dream come true.
It is complete naiveté to think that we can isolate the Iraqi malady and cure it without moving at the same time to heal the larger political and religious anatomy it belongs to.
Under the present circumstances it is not a question of whether President Bush should go to war against the Islamic Republic or not. The war is on, and it has been on for a long time albeit unilaterally. The question is whether the United States can afford to continue not defending itself and its allies against a sly enemy who will soon acquire nuclear capability. Any policy of appeasement towards the clerical regime is totally senseless and suicidal. Like all accomplished terrorists the mullahs can smell fear from thousands of miles away. Nothing makes them bolder and adds to their aggression more than a feeling that the other side is short of resolve to take them on.
On Wednesday President Bush challenged the militants who kill and injure the American soldiers in Iraq by saying "There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there," "My answer is 'bring them on'. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation." Although sounding tough, President Bush's words betray a perplexity about the origin and nature of the hostility directed towards the Americans. Is it not evident to everyone by now who is behind the attacks? At this point in time there is only one strong and courageous message that the United States President can send: 'The jig is up'. It should be dispatched to nowhere else but the clerical regime in Tehran.
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=8766Talking the talk to Tehran
In Washington and Los Angeles, Iranian exiles are stirring the pot by satellite
US News and World Report
Nation & World 7/14/03
By Bay Fang
Off a street of strip malls in Reseda, Calif., tucked behind an Arby's, a burly Iranian-American talk-show host named Shahram Homayoun sits at a desk, before a camera, and tries to foment revolution. But instead of guests joining him on the peach-wallpapered set that resembles a suburban living room, Homayoun has only a phone and fax machine, and he works like a switchboard operator. As the camera rolls and the phone lights up, he punches a button and answers with a brusque hello in Farsi, "Balle." There is a pause, a click, then a distant voice on the line. The caller is from Tehran Pars, a suburb of Tehran. The hard-line clerics in the government have just erected a tower in his neighborhood, he says, and it's transmitting microwaves to jam the satellite signal: "I don't know what to do." Homayoun listens, thanks the man, then takes another call. "Balle." The caller plunges ahead. "I am an electrical engineer from Tehran," he says, then refers to the first caller, proposing a solution. "Let me tell my friend what to do."
On the other side of the country--the United States, that is--Reza Pahlavi sits in a black SUV, driving in circles around official Washington. He has a speaker in the middle of the dashboard connected to his cellphone, and he, too, is fielding calls from Iran. The son of the ex-shah instructs his driver not to stop, for fear of an assassination attempt by Iran's ruling Islamic regime. So round and round he goes, as an earnest voice emanates from the speaker. "A group of plainclothes thugs on motorbikes . . . came into one dorm and locked the doors from the inside. The girls sleep in full outdoor dress, because they're afraid of being raped," says a Tehran University student. He pauses. "We need help from the world. We're fighting here, and they're beating us with sticks and knives. Sir, what else can we do?" Pahlavi wipes his forehead and says, "Your voice is heard all over the world. Make sure you act as a team, mixing men and women so the women are not alone. And don't worry, I will be with you soon."
Actually, "soon" could be quite a while. Iran, bordered by Iraq on one side and Afghanistan on the other, has been ruled since 1979 by a group of hard-line Islamic clerics. Led by Ayatollah Khomeini, they were swept to power by a popular revolution, forcing the corrupt American-backed shah to flee the country. Today, the rhetoric of revolution is a bit different: People under 30, who make up 70 percent of the population, are demonstrating for democracy and a referendum on the Islamic republic. They call themselves the Burnt Generation and say they are tired of living under repressive rule. They last took to the streets en masse in 1999. That ended abruptly on July 9 of that year, when plainclothes vigilantes broke into university dormitories, beating students with metal bars as they slept and throwing them out of windows. One student was killed. The anniversary of that crackdown arrives this week, and since June 10, students have been taking to the streets in the largest protests in four years. The nervous regime ended classes early at universities, banned public gatherings, and announced the arrests of more than 4,000 protesters. But they didn't count on the demonstrators' powerful new ally: the community of about 1.2 million Iranian exiles in the United States, most of whom fled after 1979 and who remain ardently antiregime. Satellite TV and radio stations that have sprung up recently in the Los Angeles area let the students spread messages instantly all over Iran and broadcast their voices worldwide. Pahlavi, the son of the overthrown shah, raises money and tries to build international public support from a secret base in suburban Maryland. Inside Iran, the movement has loosely organized cells but no leaders who can function freely; many of the 1999 organizers are still in jail. But with the help of their overseas allies, the student protesters hope to mark this week's anniversary with their biggest splash yet and ratchet up pressure on the hard-line regime.
Getting exposure. The strength of the protesters and their exile allies is the subject of intense debate. A senior State Department official openly questions whether the exiles' voices have much political resonance inside Iran. But there's little doubt the "pirate" broadcasts from the United States helped fuel the recent protests and have provided them a new visibility. "During the urban rioting four years ago, students took over cities for two days, but no one in the rest of the world knew about it," says 24-year-old Iman Samiizadeh, a student leader jailed in 1999 who now helps the movement from a London base. "Now we have these new communication methods at our disposal, so we can show our movement to the outside world."
And the regime, clearly, is agitated. Former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani recently warned his countrymen "not to be trapped by the evil television stations that America has established." Last week, the Bush administration added to the TV lineup, announcing that a new Persian-language Voice of America program, News and Views, would be beamed from Washington to Iran.
Back in California, Saeed Ghaem-Maghani runs a hand through what's left of his orange-tinged hair and flicks a cigarette as he bellows into the microphone in a tiny Beverly Hills studio. An old-time radio personality who was director of Radio Tehran under the shah, Maghani hosts a live call-in program every morning that is broadcast on shortwave inside Iran. "Don't pay your bills--try as much as you can to stop the regime's economy, so they can't carry on!" he is saying today. "Make a mess! Ruin the tomb of Khomeini! All the 25 years of madness, repression, depression--let it out!" Building to his crescendo, he signs off the air as he does every morning: "We are victorious . . . because we are right!"
Maghani spent three years in and out of jail in Iran and finally fled to the United States in 1990. "We connect groups--street to street. . . . We gather information about prisoners, persuade people to come out and join the fight," he says, slowly gathering steam. "It's not a normal radio program, and I'm not a normal radio DJ. I'm like Cicero in Rome, like a commander on the battlefield."
Maghani's KRSI and three political television stations have all sprung up over the past few years, operating mainly out of low-budget studios in the San Fernando Valley. While initially serving the exile Farsi-speaking community, 600,000 strong in Southern California, they support themselves through advertising, donations, and the sale of phone cards and carpets. But they have harbored not-so-hidden hopes for democracy in their homeland, and in the demonstrations over the past few weeks they finally found their calling. The stations all have similar morning call-in shows that have the potential to reach the estimated 7 million Iranians with illegal satellite dishes. They allow people in Iran to call in and have their messages rebroadcast into the country. On June 10, this was the way Iranians by the thousands were mobilized to support the small initial protests, clogging the streets with cars. The hosts all tell a story of suddenly getting calls that morning during their live shows from students saying they were being attacked for staging a protest against the privatization of universities. "They are shouting, `Freedom! Justice!' " said the woman who called into Homayoun's show, holding up her cellphone so the chants could be heard. The hosts immediately went on the air to beseech the public to take to the streets. "Those who hear me from Iran, if you are close by, please go help the students. If you need freedom," Homayoun exhorted, "now is the time!"
Morale boost. The Bush administration, for now, seems to be wavering on its policy in Iran. President Bush himself has expressed support for the democracy movement, and students in Iran say his words have given them a great morale boost. But the administration has not gone further. The Iran Freedom and Democracy Support Act introduced last month by Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California calls for sanctions on Iran and funding for pro-democracy exile media and groups. House Republicans say that Pentagon officials support the bill, but a State Department official says "the first sign of overt U.S. interference would be counterproductive."
The question remains of who would fill the political void if the movement took hold and a revolution succeeded. The best-organized, armed opposition to the Islamic regime in Iran is the Mujahe- din-e Khalq. Though once courted on Capitol Hill, it is called a cult by many and was recently deemed a terrorist group by the State Department. After a crackdown on the group by French police, members set themselves on fire.
Pahlavi is widely thought to be the only opposition figure with real pull, from the emotional resonance of his family name among the exile community. In a small studio a few blocks from the White House, Pahlavi recently prepared for a series of interviews to be broadcast via satellite uplink, through Los Angeles, into Iran. "My job right now is to lead the movement," he says. "First base is [a] referendum, which we have to reach before we get to home plate." Would he consider going back to Iran if people asked him to return as a leader? "Absolutely," he says with a smile. When a visitor expresses interest in visiting the country, he says breezily, "I'll reserve a place for you on my plane!" But that could be an idle boast; many believe Pahlavi is badly tainted, because there's still plenty of anger in Iran against his father and his iron-fisted regime.
Back in the San Fernando Valley, Homayoun finishes up his live show, gazing sternly into the camera and addressing his audience in Iran directly. "I want to tell you that you are on a stage," he says forcefully. "If you look around you, you hear the voice of bones that have been cracked by the regime in jails, from torture. I am your voice to let the world know about your sacrifices. We are putting a wake-up call in to the conscience of the world."
With Kevin Whitelaw
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/030714/usnews/14iran.htm