Posted on 03/10/2007 8:01:23 AM PST by nuconvert
Are Farsi-language Broadcasts Helping?
Washington Times
Editorials/Op-Ed
(excerpt)
In his position as ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Government Information, Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, has made it his mission to reform what he views as a largely dysfunctional system of broadcasting to Iran. In a letter to President Bush last month, Mr. Coburn made a powerful case that Radio Farda, which broadcasts music and other entertainment programs to Iran, and the Voice of America's Farsi-language service "may actually be harming American interests rather than helping."
As chairman of the subcommittee ..., Mr. Coburn held a hearing on the Iranian nuclear question, in which lawmakers heard testimony from Amirabbas Fakhravar, an Iranian dissident who wants the United States to publicly support regime change in his country. (excerpt) Mr. Fakhravar told the subcommittee in July that Radio Farda and VOA "are presently giving more assistance to the regime than to the dissident movement" in Iran by touting fraudulent efforts to institute reforms within the Islamist regime. Subsequent complaints from native Farsi speakers who monitor U.S. broadcasts to Iran and a report commissioned by the State Department and National Security Council mirrored Mr. Fakhravar's testimony.
(excerpt)
All of this is particularly tragic in view of the fact that the Iranian government would appear to be quite vulnerable to the kinds of pressures that U.S. radio broadcasts,... could help generate. Public-opinion polls taken in recent years suggest that an overwhelming majority of Iranians admire the United States and/or want to bring down the Islamist regime (excerpt) As Mr. Coburn wrote ...: "Our international broadcasting needs serious management and accountability reforms. Given the international challenges and threats to our national security, I believe it is vital that this important public diplomacy does not undermine your role as our lead diplomat.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Our tax dollars are funding VOA and it's disgusting that they don't broadcast a pro-USA message ALL the time
bookmark...thanks for bringing this problem to light.
Hooray Senator Coburn! There are men left in Washington? Who'da thunk it?
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