Keep Your Eyes On the Prize: Protest US Aggression

Keep Your Eyes On the Prize:
Protest US Aggression

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/07/keep-your-eyes-on-the-prize-protest-us-aggression/

by Ron Jacobs
July 13th, 2009

Should the US antiwar movement be attending rallies sponsored by the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) claiming to support the
opposition movement in Iran? According to the group Stop War on Iran,
this is exactly what United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and other
antiwar groups are doing. If so, are they really supporting the
leftist and progressive elements of that opposition or are they
naively providing cover for those in the United States power elites
who would love to see a regime friendly to Washington ruling in
Tehran? Recently, UFPJ urged its members to attend rallies called by
a group that goes by the name of United for Iran on July 25, 2009.
While I believe the intentions of the antiwar organizations calling
on folks to join these protests come from a genuine desire to see an
end to the Tehran government's repression, the fact that some of the
Iranian dissident groups in Iran and in exile take their money and
guidance from the NED and other US-propaganda operations compromises
the antiwar groups' position.

An even closer connection to the NED funds is that of the apparent US
organizer of the United for Iran rallies, Hadi Ghaemi. Mr. Ghaemi is
is the director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in
Iran. This group is a project of the Dutch Foundation for Human
Security in the Middle East. More important as regards his NED
connection is Ghaemi's role as a former board member of the National
Iranian American Council, which has received over a quarter million
dollars in NED grants. While this is not an indictment of the desire
for greater freedoms in Iran expressed by Ghaemi and his
organization, one would think these connections would give pause to a
US antiwar group whose leadership knows only too well the role groups
funded by the NED and other US special funds played in the period
leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The last time I wrote a piece regarding the NED, some readers wrote
me asking what was wrong with this organization. To answer them, I
quoted former CIA agent Philip Agee, who certainly knew a good deal
about the true nature of Washington's concern for democracy in
nations it considers enemies. "In November 1983," said Agee.
"Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy and gave it an
initial $18.8 million for building civil society abroad during the
fiscal year ending September 30, 1984…Whereas the CIA had previously
funneled money through a complex network of `conduits,' the NED would
now become a `mega-conduit' for getting U.S. government money to the
same array of non-governmental organizations that the CIA had been
funding secretly…. There is really nothing private about it, and all
its money comes from the Congress. " NED and similar organizations
are not interested in democracy as much as they are interested in
maintaining and expanding US imperialism.

In addition to the NED funds are $20 million in USAID funds provided
under George Bush to fund Iranian dissidents that meet Washington's
criteria. Despite the belief by many US citizens that USAID is a
government organization designed to help locals in other countries,
it has served as a front for CIA activities from Laos to Venezuela
and is part of the effort to rebuild Fallujah into a
tightly-controlled hamlet after the US military destroyed the Iraqi
city in 2004. Now, United for Iran may be free of any NED or CIA
taint. There may be no connection between any of its members and the
Congressionally-approved funds that Mr. Obama talked about a few
weeks ago. However, given the long term desire of the US government
to destroy the Iranian revolution and insure the installment of a
regime friendly to Washington back in Tehran should be more than
enough to give US antiwar groups pause.

The recent protests in Iran were a hopeful sign. Indeed, many groups
across the political spectrum considered them to be monumental in
their impact. While their actual impact is yet to be determined, the
fact that the original protests seemed to have been mostly
spontaneous and without the taint of foreign meddling proved that the
Iranian people continue to believe in their political power. As most
readers know, later protests were blocked and attacked by the police
and other groups. However, if one reads some commentators, they might
come away assuming that this repression was unusual and specific to
the theocrats in Iran. Such an assumption is naturally untrue. In
fact, while I watched the coverage on CNN and the internet, I was
reminded me of the police response to the protests in Seattle in 1999
against the WTO. Pictures from those protests certainly rivaled those
coming out of Iran in terms of police violence. For a more recent
example, one need only look at the total repression of the antiwar
protests in Minneapolis during the Republican Party convention in
2008. Participants in those protests came back telling stories of
police beatings of protesters, preventive detention, and a police
presence so intimidating that many protesters decided to stay home.
The only thing missing were the shootings.

It is appropriate that the US antiwar movement should be concerned
about the repression of protests in Iran. However, the bottom line is
that the antiwar movement in the United States should be focusing on
demanding that the government in Washington end the wars it is
currently waging. Equally important is opposing threats of war
against Iran from Washington and Tel Aviv. By helping to organize
protests against the repressive actions of the Iranian government
instead of focusing on ending the wars of Washington, UFPJ and other
antiwar supporters of the United for Iran rallies are not only
minimizing the aggression of Washington, they are tacitly providing
cover for that aggression.
--

Ron Jacobs is the author of The Way The Wind Blew: A History of the
Weather Underground. His most recent novel Short Order Frame Up is
published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: rjacobs3625@charter.net.

.