Untitled Document
As the Bush administration confronts the Tehran government over its
suspected nuclear weapons program and accusations that it supports terrorism,
a newly created office of Iranian affairs in the State Department is poring
over applications for a rapidly expanding program to change the political process
inside Iran.
The project, which will spend $7 million in the current fiscal year, would
become many times larger next year if Congress approves a broad request for
$85 million that the Bush administration has requested for scholarships, exchange
programs, radio and television broadcasts and other activities aimed at shaking
up Iran's political system.
The effort, overseen by Elizabeth Cheney, a deputy assistant secretary
of state who is a daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has been denounced
by Iran's leaders as meddling in their internal affairs.
It comes at a time of escalating confrontation between Iran and the United
States over Iran's nuclear program, exacerbated by reports, which the administration
has played down, that military contingency plans are being reviewed as well.
While the United States has marshaled international support for diplomatic
pressure on Iran, some Asian and European allies have expressed misgivings about
other avenues of pressure, which are seen as aimed at undermining the government
in Tehran.
One Asian diplomat said the effort was reminiscent of the subsidies the United
States provided to Iraqi exile groups in the 1990's. "They don't call it
'regime change,' but that is obviously what it is," he said. But he had
to be promised anonymity before he would discuss it, not wanting to create a
public rift between his country and the United States on a significant matter
of foreign policy.
To find people to promote change in Iran, the State Department has opened a
competition for grant applications. A Web site announcement says that applicants
"must outline activities linked to reform and demonstrate how the proposed
approach would achieve sustainable impact in Iran."
A State Department official said that numerous applications had come in and
that the department would have little trouble spending the $25 million in the
next year. But he acknowledged that various groups were squabbling over how
best to promote reform and who would be most effective in doing so.
"Iran is governed by an unelected clerical elite not accountable to the
people," the official said, speaking anonymously under ground rules imposed
by the department. "But despite considerable personal risk, we are seeing
some activists willing to step forward."
The biggest problem for the applicants is the amount of risk they might incur.
There have been reports in Iran of advocates of change being arrested after
having met with American officials at conferences, though some experts charge
that Iran has exaggerated those reports in order to discourage contacts with
the West.
Other experts said that some of the people who were stepping forward might
not be the best ones to get the money.
"It sounds good to fund civil society groups, but not when you don't know
who the groups are," said Vali R. Nasr, an Iranian-born professor of national
affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. "No real group
wants a direct affiliation with the United States. It will just get them into
trouble with the government."
Administration officials said a few top American officials had been traveling
the country, particularly to Los Angeles, to meet with Iranian exile organizations,
many of them supporters of the monarchy of Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown
in 1979. Some of the Los Angeles groups operate satellite radio and television
stations that beam programs into Iran.
But State Department officials said they were not likely to enlist groups associated
with the monarchy because, in their view, they do not seem to have much support
in Iran.
Lorne W. Craner, president of the International Republican Institute, a foundation
linked to the Republican Party, said, "There are plenty of people out there
who have a checkered past who you would not want to work with."
The institute, which receives money from Congress and grants from the State
Department, has in the last couple of years linked up with groups and individuals
in Iran and offered them training at places outside the country. The groups
cannot be identified for fear of their safety, he said.
State Department officials and various advocates for change consulted by the
department said that for now the money would probably be concentrated on groups
seeking to document human rights abuses and promote women's and labor rights,
rather than groups seeking direct political change.
Recipients of such financing in the past said that in order to operate they
had to avoid the perception that they are tools of "regime change."
"The administration has consulted many Iranians just to find out who to
talk to," said Roya Boroumand, co-director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand
Foundation, which seeks to document human rights abuses inside Iran. "We
try not to be in touch with too many people inside Iran because we know it could
be fatal."
The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, a new group based in New Haven,
has received $1 million from the State Department and could receive more, officials
said. But leaders of the group emphasize that while they have contacts with
people in Iran, it is not for the purpose of overthrowing the government.
"We are pro-human rights, but we are not directly seeking regime change,"
said Maura Johnson, the center's executive director. "That's not our agenda.
When you look at many other countries, improved human rights can occur without
regime change, through reforms and stronger institutions."