Michael Ledeen, one of the more radical advocates for forged documents regarding yellowcake purchases pre-emptive war bogus intel from expatriates a "muscular" Middle East policy, continues to make his presence felt.
Laura Rozen at American Progress:
Unchastened by the catastrophe of the Iraq war... Iran hawks have organized new efforts to promote U.S. support for regime change in Tehran.
Among the latest efforts is the creation earlier this month of the Iran Enterprise Institute, a privately funded nonprofit drawing... inspiration and moral support from leading figures associated with the American Enterprise Institute.... directed by a newly arrived Iranian dissident ... championed by AEI fellow and former Pentagon advisor Richard Perle.
Amir Abbas Fakhravar, 31, served time in Iran’s notorious Evin prison before arriving in Washington in May, with Perle’s help. Fakhravar... now seeks Washington’s backing to lead an organization that would unite Iranian student dissidents.... Some other Iranian activists and journalists say Fakhravar and his supporters exaggerate his importance as a dissident leader in Iran. "Student circles and journalistic circles don’t recognize him as a student leader,” says Najmeh Bozorgmehr, the Financial Times’ Tehran correspondent ...
Check out these creeps malcontents curveballs carpetbaggers chalabi starter kits reputable citizens:
... among those in attendance were Fakhravar; Reza Pahlavi, son of the ousted shah of Iran; former Reagan era official and AEI scholar Michael Ledeen; a Dallas-based Iranian rug dealer who has funded anti-Tehran dissidents; and several other young Iranian oppositionists. According to sources, the group’s initial funding will come primarily from Iranian exiles. Perle’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry to his office about the new group.
as ever, money will be liberally supplied courtesy of you, me and other middle class taxpayers, and somehow routed back to Republican campaign committees .
The incorporation of the Iran Enterprise Institute, which is now seeking office space in Washington, D.C., comes as the State Department is finalizing decisions on what individuals and organizations will receive some of the $75 million in U.S. government funds set aside to promote democracy in Iran.
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Here is a hidden pearl:
Even as the grant decisions are being made, U.S. government sources indicate that democracy promotion in the Middle East, including Iran, has diminshed as a foreign policy priority in the Bush administration, for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that U.S. policymakers are humbled by their experience trying to cope with the situation in Iraq. They have also been forced to turn to autocratic regimes for help in isolating Iran, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon. “[The administration] has gotten a large dose of realism,” one U.S. official told the Prospect. “You saw [that] with the Secretary of State Rice’s last visit to the region -- the idea to create a group of like-minded states to work together on a variety of issues, to oppose Iranian subversion. Democracy and democratic reform are still there. But it’s much less salient and much less prominent.”
Yet another rationale for Iraq has disappeared into the fog of Bush's addled imagination. Hopefully Helen Thomas will ask him about it....
