Wednesday, June 24, 2009

RESTORING THE HEGEMONY OF THE US ForeignPolicyJournal: "In February, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested emergency funding from Congress to the amount of $75 million, on top of a previously allocated $10 million, 'to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government', in the words of The Guardian. The money 'would be used to broadcast US radio and television programmes into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and support pro-democracy groups inside the country'. The propaganda effort would include 'extending the government-run Voice of America's Farsi service from a few hours a day to round-the-clock coverage'. In announcing the request, Rice said the U.S. 'will work to support the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom and democracy in their country'. The Christian Science Monitor reported candidly on the 'implicit goal' of the requested funds as being 'regime change from within', and similarly noted that 'The money will go toward boosting broadcasts in Farsi to Iran, support for opposition groups, and student exchanges.' In April, 2006, investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh wrote in the New Yorker magazine that 'The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack.' A source with ties to the Pentagon told Hersh that American units were operating in Iran and 'working with minority groups in Iran, including the Azeris, in the north, the Balochis, in the southeast, and the Kurds, in the northeast'. The principle goal was to 'encourage ethnic tensions' and undermine the regime. Fred Burton, a former US State Department counter-terrorism agent and author of Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent (published in 2008), also told the Telegraph that 'The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line with US efforts to supply and train Iran's ethnic minorities to destabilize the Iranian regime'. Whatever the case may be, given the record of U.S. interference in the state affairs of Iran and clear policy of regime change, it certainly seems possible, even likely, that the U.S. had a significant role to play in helping to bring about the recent turmoil in an effort to undermine the government of the Islamic Republic." Iranian: "One of the most crucial issues discussed much before and during the election campaign has been the problems with the economy of Iran and its critical components, such as high rates of unemployment and inflation, low levels of labor productivity, and handling the monetary and fiscal policies. But among all these vital parts, privatization of the state's industrial, financial, mining and infra-structural assets attract the most attention of the domestic and foreign owners of capital - this is the focal point where the political agents of social forces fight to the death. Privatization of the state assets is the greatest motive force for capturing the state power for use as a tool to shape Iran's wealth distribution and concentration of capital in the hands of a few for decades to come. While the working class, small shop keepers and family farmers are mainly concerned with the hazards and pain of unemployment, high prices of necessities of life such as food, shelter, means of transportation, health care services and educational expenses, the big landlords, owners of private banks, insurance companies and shareholders in the stock markets are busy purchasing the state-owned factories, railways and bank assets at fire-sale prices, an arrangement which had methodically been the fast track of becoming wealthy over-night at the expense of the entire nation. While Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan college students aspire to gain employment opportunities, cultural and social freedoms, the big capitalist class is networking the strategy of how to use the vigor and vital energy of the intellectuals, artists, university professors, along with the entire middle class to capture the state power, not for its own sake, but as a bridge to the national wealth, whose thousands of factories are awaiting to be auctioned soon after the election. Mir Hossein Mousavi cannot wait to be in charge of giving these establishments away to the rich Iranians. This current election and the ensuing upheaval is in essence more about who - the capitalist class or the workers - will get the lion's share of the people's assets." DavidDuke: "The great macho superpower is eager to restore its hegemony over the Iranian people, thus settling the score with the ayatollahs who overthrew American rule of Iran in 1978. That is the script. You are watching it every minute on US television." 5:44:04 PM

COLOUR REVOLUTIONS JustWorldNews: "Five years after the much-hyped, west-backed 'Orange revolution' swayed Ukraine in 2004, the leadership it brought to power continues to disintegrate. The NYT's Clifford Levy reports: Ukraine, which has suffered a roundhouse blow from the economic crisis, has had no finance minister since February. It also has no foreign minister or defense minister. The transportation minister just stepped down. The interior minister has offered to resign as well, after being accused of drunken behavior. The president and the prime minister are no longer speaking, though they were once allies and heroes of the Orange Revolution... The public appears so frustrated that the leader of the opposition, who has close ties to the Kremlin and is often portrayed as the villain of the Orange Revolution, is the early favorite to win the presidential election next January." 11:36:23 AM

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