How US Can Solve Iran's Nuke Issue
Sam Ghandchi
http://www.ghandchi.com/743-iran-us-nuke-eng.htm
If you are looking for the same diatribes that have been written about nuclear issue with Iran in the last 30 years which have not really made a dent, please do not read further. Otherwise, this is a very straight forward statement about what US is doing to Iran versus what it can do to resolve this issue.
United States during the last thirty years has tried either to use all the back doors to talk to Islamic Republic or has tried to execute various plan B projects using some obedient opposition groups with the Iranian monarchists and Reza Pahlavi at the top. Individuals such as Michael Ledeen and Kenneth Timmerman have been instrumental in the king-making efforts with such symbols of dictatorship, trying to sell them as Iran's "democratic" opposition. Any individuals from real democratic opposition of Iran who worked with these people lost their own credibility.
Some Israeli advisers have called for using news agencies such as VOA for US plan B efforts and thus have caused the loss of credibility of such organizations that have commitment to their audience to offer balanced uncensored news, exercising and promoting American values of democracy and not to become instruments of US government- the very thing which they criticize about media in countries like China, North Korea and Islamic Republic of Iran.
For example the new editor of VOA, Mr. Kaveh Basmenji and his supervisor for VOA Persian web have caused a drastic drop of newsworthy material in the VOA Persian broadcasts. Of course, this is not surprising as Mr. Basmenji at one time reporting about most important events of the decade at BBC had completely "forgotten" about Iran's Green Movement of 2009 (1).
The VOA charter is different from the charter of Radio Israel, and working for VOA is not the same as working for Israeli foreign ministry. Iranians hate CIA to decide for them what to see or watch and like to get all the news and make up their own mind. News should be a product of journalistic environment and not a center with intelligence watching over one's shoulder, something the US yes-men cannot create. The thing that we criticize about Islamic Republic when big brother interferes in the news selections and their media end up with censorship.
Democracy cannot be built in an environment when people would be scared by intelligence supervision. If such policies were going to work, there would be no need for VOA in the first place. And Mr. Ledeen should have been successful when for years he tried to make Reza Pahlavi the king of Iran and isolate democratic voices of Iran tired of continuation of 1953 coup policies.
These policies are a total failure because they neglect the Iranian people and their aspirations for independent thought. This is not a cliché. Just remember when US Congress looked at former Czechoslovakia's situation, they looked for an independent-minded leader like Vaclav Havel to invite, but when US government looks for an Iranian to talk to, they think of Reza Pahlavi who is paid by CIA, or they invite journalists who only say what they like to hear. In short, the US officials have been looking for Iranian yes-men the same way the British looked for people of such character in Iran during their time of influence. Talking to Iranians, the U.S. government should see that Iranian people today only go for mutual respect and independence and this is exactly why the ones US has picked to talk to, have no credibility among Iranians.
What can US do? United States needs to first break the wall that separated the two nations in the 1953 coup. Again this is not a cliché. It means all the management at US agencies that deal with Iran and Iranians, starting with VOA, should make sure to have the kind of people in charge, who look for equal and unbiased approach to Iranians and not discriminate against people on the basis of political thought which is so central to Iranian life today. In other words to talk to Iranians who are not yes-men and are even critical of them. The current managers such as Kaveh Basmenji and his deputies are part of the problem and not the solution. These are not the kind of people that can help the US relation with Iranians. They would be best to work at Radio Israel and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Next thing the US should do is to clearly speak to Iranian people not just by Norouz greetings. US should cut thru the chase and say what it really wants to do to remedy the errors it made when it did the CIA coup of 1953, and when it helped the Shah and Savak rule of terror for 25 years, and when in the last 30 years it has helped Reza Pahlavi and not the real Iranian democratic opposition, those of Iranian descent who want a similar democratic republic for their country of origin as there is in the U.S. Iranians talk to their relatives back in Iran and this is how the credibility of US government words is checked. It is not just apologizing about 1953 coup but it is about apologizing for continuing the same policies towards Iranians for 30 years after the 1979 revolution, trying to make US puppets to represent Iranians and creating fake opposition councils. This is not about Islamic Republic, this is about respecting Iranian people and considering them as equal not as servants.
Look at the time of Soviet Union. The communists in Iran were surprised why despite all Soviet propaganda at Radio Moscow, people did not want the communists. Because people knew more about what the reality of communism than the Iranian communists. How? They knew from their relatives who were truck drivers going thru those Eastern Bloc countries seeing the misery. People knew by hearing from relatives who had moved to those Eastern Bloc countries. The same is true about Iranians today. They trust more the words of their relatives who live in the U.S. and when they hear that US is still making a puppet and is trying to do king-making for Iran, they lose trust. When they hear about discriminations in favor of monarchists in American government offices, they will not trust the words US says about supporting human rights. Human rights is about deeds and not words, otherwise Islamic Republic says all kinds of words about justice and freedom. People can see the honest action and treatment of mutual respect feeling equal..
Now to solve the nuclear issue, once this fake gateway of Iranian monarchists and yes-men is brought down, the U.S. will be able to see what real Iran's democratic opposition wants and working together, the solution arrived will be able to gain the support of Iranian people inside Iran. Using Radio Farda (RFL/RE) to tell Iranian people that they have selected Reza Pahlavi as the person of the year for 2011 (2), only creates more mistrust among Iranian people towards the U.S. as it is an insult to Iranians' intelligence; they will say the U.S. is doing the same things it did at the time of 1953 CIA coup and 25 years after that in Iran when trying to push its own choice as Iranians' choice.
Two weeks ago I wrote an article entitled "Mr. Obama Please Tear Down this Wall," (3) I still believe that is what the U.S. needs to do to make any change in the relation of the US and Iranian people. Supporting human rights in Iran starts with having honesty with Iranian people and not trying to make Reza Pahlavi a leader for Iranians which he is not. Mr. Pahlavi does not represent Iran's democratic opposition (4) and hundreds of interviews on VOA, RFE/RL, Deutsche Welle, and BBC will not do the job. Iranian people do not want CIA to select their leader.
Islamic Republic has been able to show the nuclear issue to Iranian people as equivalent to nationalization of oil at the time of Mossadegh because US policy towards Iranian people and democratic opposition has not changed. Otherwise, Iranian people would not view the nuclear as an issue of independence and would consider it just like many other world class issues like pollution and global warming that would be addressed from a global perspective and not thru a narrow nationalistic keyhole.
Sam Ghandchi, Editor/Publisher
IRANSCOPE
http://www.iranscope.com
January 19, 2013
Footnotes:
1. http://my.gooya.com/%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C/3102-%D8%A2%D9%84%D8%B2%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%AF%DB%8C-%DB%8C%D8%A7-%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%88%DB%8C%21.html
2. http://www.rferl.org/content/farda_audience_late_shah_pahlavi_son_iran_person_of_year/24523974.html
4. http://www.ghandchi.com/741-reza-pahlavi-not-democratic-alternative-eng.htm
Sam Ghandchi
http://www.ghandchi.com/743-iran-us-nuke-eng.htm
If you are looking for the same diatribes that have been written about nuclear issue with Iran in the last 30 years which have not really made a dent, please do not read further. Otherwise, this is a very straight forward statement about what US is doing to Iran versus what it can do to resolve this issue.
United States during the last thirty years has tried either to use all the back doors to talk to Islamic Republic or has tried to execute various plan B projects using some obedient opposition groups with the Iranian monarchists and Reza Pahlavi at the top. Individuals such as Michael Ledeen and Kenneth Timmerman have been instrumental in the king-making efforts with such symbols of dictatorship, trying to sell them as Iran's "democratic" opposition. Any individuals from real democratic opposition of Iran who worked with these people lost their own credibility.
Some Israeli advisers have called for using news agencies such as VOA for US plan B efforts and thus have caused the loss of credibility of such organizations that have commitment to their audience to offer balanced uncensored news, exercising and promoting American values of democracy and not to become instruments of US government- the very thing which they criticize about media in countries like China, North Korea and Islamic Republic of Iran.
For example the new editor of VOA, Mr. Kaveh Basmenji and his supervisor for VOA Persian web have caused a drastic drop of newsworthy material in the VOA Persian broadcasts. Of course, this is not surprising as Mr. Basmenji at one time reporting about most important events of the decade at BBC had completely "forgotten" about Iran's Green Movement of 2009 (1).
The VOA charter is different from the charter of Radio Israel, and working for VOA is not the same as working for Israeli foreign ministry. Iranians hate CIA to decide for them what to see or watch and like to get all the news and make up their own mind. News should be a product of journalistic environment and not a center with intelligence watching over one's shoulder, something the US yes-men cannot create. The thing that we criticize about Islamic Republic when big brother interferes in the news selections and their media end up with censorship.
Democracy cannot be built in an environment when people would be scared by intelligence supervision. If such policies were going to work, there would be no need for VOA in the first place. And Mr. Ledeen should have been successful when for years he tried to make Reza Pahlavi the king of Iran and isolate democratic voices of Iran tired of continuation of 1953 coup policies.
These policies are a total failure because they neglect the Iranian people and their aspirations for independent thought. This is not a cliché. Just remember when US Congress looked at former Czechoslovakia's situation, they looked for an independent-minded leader like Vaclav Havel to invite, but when US government looks for an Iranian to talk to, they think of Reza Pahlavi who is paid by CIA, or they invite journalists who only say what they like to hear. In short, the US officials have been looking for Iranian yes-men the same way the British looked for people of such character in Iran during their time of influence. Talking to Iranians, the U.S. government should see that Iranian people today only go for mutual respect and independence and this is exactly why the ones US has picked to talk to, have no credibility among Iranians.
What can US do? United States needs to first break the wall that separated the two nations in the 1953 coup. Again this is not a cliché. It means all the management at US agencies that deal with Iran and Iranians, starting with VOA, should make sure to have the kind of people in charge, who look for equal and unbiased approach to Iranians and not discriminate against people on the basis of political thought which is so central to Iranian life today. In other words to talk to Iranians who are not yes-men and are even critical of them. The current managers such as Kaveh Basmenji and his deputies are part of the problem and not the solution. These are not the kind of people that can help the US relation with Iranians. They would be best to work at Radio Israel and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Next thing the US should do is to clearly speak to Iranian people not just by Norouz greetings. US should cut thru the chase and say what it really wants to do to remedy the errors it made when it did the CIA coup of 1953, and when it helped the Shah and Savak rule of terror for 25 years, and when in the last 30 years it has helped Reza Pahlavi and not the real Iranian democratic opposition, those of Iranian descent who want a similar democratic republic for their country of origin as there is in the U.S. Iranians talk to their relatives back in Iran and this is how the credibility of US government words is checked. It is not just apologizing about 1953 coup but it is about apologizing for continuing the same policies towards Iranians for 30 years after the 1979 revolution, trying to make US puppets to represent Iranians and creating fake opposition councils. This is not about Islamic Republic, this is about respecting Iranian people and considering them as equal not as servants.
Look at the time of Soviet Union. The communists in Iran were surprised why despite all Soviet propaganda at Radio Moscow, people did not want the communists. Because people knew more about what the reality of communism than the Iranian communists. How? They knew from their relatives who were truck drivers going thru those Eastern Bloc countries seeing the misery. People knew by hearing from relatives who had moved to those Eastern Bloc countries. The same is true about Iranians today. They trust more the words of their relatives who live in the U.S. and when they hear that US is still making a puppet and is trying to do king-making for Iran, they lose trust. When they hear about discriminations in favor of monarchists in American government offices, they will not trust the words US says about supporting human rights. Human rights is about deeds and not words, otherwise Islamic Republic says all kinds of words about justice and freedom. People can see the honest action and treatment of mutual respect feeling equal..
Now to solve the nuclear issue, once this fake gateway of Iranian monarchists and yes-men is brought down, the U.S. will be able to see what real Iran's democratic opposition wants and working together, the solution arrived will be able to gain the support of Iranian people inside Iran. Using Radio Farda (RFL/RE) to tell Iranian people that they have selected Reza Pahlavi as the person of the year for 2011 (2), only creates more mistrust among Iranian people towards the U.S. as it is an insult to Iranians' intelligence; they will say the U.S. is doing the same things it did at the time of 1953 CIA coup and 25 years after that in Iran when trying to push its own choice as Iranians' choice.
Two weeks ago I wrote an article entitled "Mr. Obama Please Tear Down this Wall," (3) I still believe that is what the U.S. needs to do to make any change in the relation of the US and Iranian people. Supporting human rights in Iran starts with having honesty with Iranian people and not trying to make Reza Pahlavi a leader for Iranians which he is not. Mr. Pahlavi does not represent Iran's democratic opposition (4) and hundreds of interviews on VOA, RFE/RL, Deutsche Welle, and BBC will not do the job. Iranian people do not want CIA to select their leader.
Islamic Republic has been able to show the nuclear issue to Iranian people as equivalent to nationalization of oil at the time of Mossadegh because US policy towards Iranian people and democratic opposition has not changed. Otherwise, Iranian people would not view the nuclear as an issue of independence and would consider it just like many other world class issues like pollution and global warming that would be addressed from a global perspective and not thru a narrow nationalistic keyhole.
Sam Ghandchi, Editor/Publisher
IRANSCOPE
http://www.iranscope.com
January 19, 2013
Footnotes:
1. http://my.gooya.com/%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C/3102-%D8%A2%D9%84%D8%B2%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%AF%DB%8C-%DB%8C%D8%A7-%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%88%DB%8C%21.html
2. http://www.rferl.org/content/farda_audience_late_shah_pahlavi_son_iran_person_of_year/24523974.html
4. http://www.ghandchi.com/741-reza-pahlavi-not-democratic-alternative-eng.htm
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