Reply #18: The credibility of the US-sponsored "Iranian dissidents" is extremely low

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The CIA seems more interested in cooperating with special ops types to stir up the Baluchis and other ethnic minorities out in the provinces than in having anything to do with Iranian students in the major cities. And the groups that *are* trying to promote pro-democracy activists seem totally lame.

For example, here are a couple of entries from RightWeb discussing the execrable Cliff May's Foundation for Defense of Democracies and its association with faux-dissident and Neocon darling Akbar Atri. Frankly, the whole operation looks a lot more like a money-grubbing scam than like anything that could resonate with actual Iranian activists.

http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Foundation_for_Defense_of_Democracies

A sign of the FDD's emergence as a major player in the advocacy world occurred on March 13, 2006, when President George W. Bush delivered a speech on the "Global War on Terrorism" at an FDD-sponsored event. The president commended the FDD's work: "The foundation is making a difference across the world, and I appreciate the difference you're making. You have trained Iraqi women and Iranian students in the principles and practice of democracy, you've translated 'democracy readers' into Arabic for distribution across the broader Middle East, you've helped activists across the region organize effective political movements—so they can help bring about democratic change and ensure the survival of liberty in new democracies." . . .

An effective FDD initiative in drawing media and policymaker attention is its conference program. From 2001 to 2006, FDD sponsored or cosponsored nearly 20 conferences, mostly in Washington, DC, and Bush's March 13, 2006 speech on the war on terror highlighted FDD's rapid rise in influence. In early March 2006, FDD sponsored a panel discussion with the Iranian Students for Democracy and Human Rights at the U.S. Capitol. The topic was the state of the pro-democracy movement within Iran. In February 2006, FDD sponsored two conferences, one with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) on the subject of democracy and terrorism, and the other with the European Foundation for Democracy on the subject of "Iran, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and the Future Jihad against the West." . . .

In its Form 990 tax form for 2004, FDD indicated that Ameriquest Capital had donated $1.55 million to the foundation. The form also showed Clifford May's salary at more than $305,000 a year. In 2004, the Sarah Scaife Foundation granted FDD $125,000 for general operating expenses, and a combined $275,000 in 2005 for program and project support. In 2005 FDD had assets of close to $5.5 million, according to MediaTransparency.org.


http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Atri_Akbar

A self-styled member of the Iranian student dissident movement, Akbar Atri has, since fleeing Iran in 2005, become a favorite of the neoconservative faction in the United States, where he has vigorously promoted Iran regime-change strategies. . . .

Atri's story, including his reasons for fleeing Iran and his alleged leadership in the Iranian student movement, have been recounted in various fora, including the rightist New York Sun and Wikipedia, which featured (as of October 2007) a fawning profile of Atri that was being investigated by wiki editors for its apparent lack of neutrality. Atri's wiki entry at the time claimed: "Akbar Atri, a visionary within the Iranian student movement, has been a longtime leading proponent of global democracy and human rights standards within Iran. He is a founding member of Iranian Students for Democracy and Human Rights and former member of central committee, Takhim Vahdat, Iran's largest student democratic organization. He has been imprisoned, fined, physically abused at the hands the Iranian regime for his political activities." . . .

Some accounts of Atri's work challenge aspects of his public profile, in particular his claim to leadership of the Iranian student movement. In an article about an "Iran Freedom Concert" that was held at Harvard University in March 2006, the Harvard Crimson noted that Atri was the event's featured guest. It reported: "The main guest featured at the Iran Freedom Concert, activist Akbar Atri, strongly endorsed the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq at the event. He had already discredited himself among Iranian reformists earlier this month when he appeared before Congress as a self-appointed representative of the student movement to ask for American support for regime change in Iran. If the organizers were interested in drawing attention to Iran, perhaps they would have contacted an Iranian student organization. In fact, not a single member of the Harvard Persian Society (primarily undergraduates) or the Harvard Iranian Students Association (HISA) (primarily graduates) was asked to support the concert. Only when a translator was needed did the organizers bother to contact HISA." The Crimson article added: "The need to defend human rights in Iran is as indisputable as the regime's long record of torture and suppression of basic freedoms. ... foreign interference destroys civilian lives, institutions, and infrastructure, and provides a pretext for heightened repression. Solidarity with Iranian dissidents must be sophisticated enough to avoid manipulation by the neoconservative agenda."

In March 2006, Atri participated in a forum on Capitol Hill sponsored by the neoconservative-led Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) aimed at building support for Iran sanctions legislation promoted by Lieberman and then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) (New York Sun, March 3, 2006). Also speaking at the event was FDD's Clifford May.

I mean, Ameriquest? The gargantuan subprime mortgage lender that was also a major funder of Progress for America? Give me a break!