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Copyright 2003 U.P.1.
United Press International
April 8, 2003 Tuesday
HEAOLJ;NE: Senator asks $50M to aid Iran dissidents
-'
BVLINE: By MARK BENJAMIN AND ELI LAKE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, AprilS (UPI)
BODY:
A leading member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to introduce legislation Wednesday authorizing $50
million a year to aid democratic activists inside Iran seeking a peaceful end to that country's regime. .
A copy of an amendment to be offered by Sen. Sam Brownback, R,:,Kansas, obtained by ~nited Press International, says,
lilt shall be the policy of the United States to support efforts to achieve democratic reform inside I~ari, including support
for the thousands of protesteJ1> who have expressed a desire for the government to, hold a referendum vote that could
permit Iran to move toward a secular, democratic government that resp.ects human ,rights and dC?es not seek to possess
weapons of mass destruction.n
The senator plans to attach the legislation to a bill authorizing next year's foreign assistance budget for the State
Department. .' •
Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Senate Foreign Relations Com'mittee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Lugar suppo~
efforts to establish a friendly democracy in Iran. It is unclear if Lugar supports the.proposal.
"There is an opportunity in,Iran to make some differences and take advantage of dramatic demographic shifts hi the
country," Fisher said.
A spokeswoman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee told UPI her organization supports the amendment.
The move comes at a critical moment in U.S. relations with the Islamic world. President Bush in his 2002 State of the
Union address identified Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as- part of an "axis of evil!'
As the United States moves to mop up r~sistance in Baghdad, the Bush administration is hoping to confront ~he twin
challenges of Installing a new government there ~nd convlnclng,the Islamic wo~rld the invasion of Iraq does not signal a
new e'ra of American occupation In the region. .
I:-ast month, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld threatened to treat Iranian proxies that moved. Into Iraq as ~nemy
corr-bataQts in pperati~n, Iraqi Freedom. ,On March 24, U.S. intelligence issued a report detailing minutes of the Islamic
RepUblic's National Security Council where the leaderShip of the country decided on a strategy to send in irregular
fighting units to five large Iraqi cities.
In Iranian local elections earlier this year, few Persians took to the polls, with voter turnout in the single'digits. Iranian
stude'nts, union workers and intellectuals have intermittently over the past year taken to the streets in the capital and
large cities demanding a political referendum on the current regime.
While Iranians are allowed to vote for the president, they may not elect the country's supreme leader who'oversees
Iran's militC!ry and'security services and appoints religious clerics as judges for the courts.
Under Brownback's proposed legislation, the State ,Department would allocate $~O million annually to an Iran
Democra~foundati9tl. T~ p_u.rpose of the fo~ndati~n ~s t~ support "pr~·democracy broadcasting to Iran,II such as the
satellite television and radio stations b~sed irf~os Angeles'that many Iranians watch and~listen to already;~suppor:t:
training for the"If~uiian;;Americ~ncommunity to,reach out to:Iranian dissidents; and fund h~m~n rights ~,I}~ ~iVii soc!eo/