Posted on 01/13/2018 7:34:07 AM PST by nuconvert
EXCERPT -
1.The U.S. government should publicly disclose more information about the billions of dollars the Islamic Republic has stolen from the Iranian people to funnel towards Khamenei and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the national wealth it has squandered in an attempt to export its revolution abroad. Through documentaries on satellite TV and posts on social media, this data would add credence to the Iranian people’s charges of mismanagement and deceit by those who rule in the name of God.
2.Sanctions placed on regime conglomerates and oligarchic enterprises by the Obama administration prior to the nuclear deal should be snapped back because of the regime's repression.
3. Assets of the Supreme Leader and other Iranian officials and government-owned entities should be targeted using the Global Magnitsky Act.
4. The U.S. government should work closely with social media companies to ensure that civic activists and human rights initiatives can operate freely. Our Tavaana project, focused on support to civil society, was taken down on Instagram for over 10 hours at the height of protests while Iranian state media continued to use social media platforms unfettered, including to ask users to identify peaceful protesters for arrest.
5. Protesters have been using the hashtag #banIRIB to call on the United States and the international community to ban all Iranian media. We should heed this call for a ban on the regime’s broadcasting and see its TV, radio and use of (American) social media platforms for what they are: tools for repression. It is through its state media outlets that the regime broadcasts messages of fear and intimidation, forced confessions by activists, sham trials, disinformation about protestors, lies about what is happening in Iran and around the world, and propaganda against the United States.
6.Voice of America Persian service should be resuscitated from its deplorable state. During the Obama administration, the network lost the large and loyal audience it had because popular, politically sharp programming was canceled and replaced with watered-down messaging to accompany appeasement and rapprochement with the Iranian regime. The outlet is poorly managed, with low morale among staff. If the Iranian people are to make a transition to democracy, they will need daily news and analysis from VOA that is robust and encouraging.
7. The millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds designated for programs to promote democracy and human rights in Iran should be spent on initiatives with such a focus. Under the Obama administration, the democracy program launched by President George W. Bush had its force and purpose altered with mild, apolitical programming focused more on socio-economic development, rather than democratic change.
8. The Trump administration's ban on travel to the United States by Iranians should be replaced with a program to kick out regime leaders and their families from the United States. Under the Obama administration, visas were granted to top regime leaders and their children, while visas were denied for family members of Iranian-Americans who have been proud U.S. citizens for decades. Such a move would correct the impression — promulgated happily by the Iranian regime and its echo chamber abroad to take attention away from the violence against protesters — that the U.S. government holds disdain for Iranian immigrants.
9. Women leaders in the U.S. government should express solidarity with Iranian women fighting for their most basic human rights. Bipartisan shows of support would be all the more powerful.
10. The U.S. government should work with Europe to jointly develop a target set for human rights sanctions. The United States should pressure Europe to act quickly and practically on behalf of the universal human rights norms they espouse.
Erik Prince said on Breitbart’s show last night that at least a couple hundred demonstrators have been killed.
Very sad.
pong
The problem is: EU countries and Dem party are Iran’s allies.
Trump government cannot even withdraw America from the nuclear deal.
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Yup
The nuclear deal involves cooperation from other countries to be effective.
Most of the suggestions made above don’t involve other countries.
No to neocon regime change.
You mean the same Erik Prince whose company takes millions from the al-Qaeda supporting Untied Arab Emirates government? Did he talk about that?
No, he wasn’t talking about that.
I don’t care about Iran at all. It’s not an important issue. The constant propaganda about Iran in the media is being driven by the same forces that brought us the Iraq war: Neocons, the military industrial complex, the Israel lobby, the Saudi Lobby, the corporate owned liberal media, liberal interventionists who want every country in the world to have gay marriage etc.
It has nothing to do with my interests at all.
I agree that neocons are a clear and present danger.
But a fully nuclear Iran IMO is one too.
And that’s why Iran is being inspected and monitored. Neocons want a war in and of itself. They are pulling the EXACT same set of lies they did over Iraq. Just like Iraq was contained and not a threat, Iran is not a threat today. Just like Iraq, neocons are lying by claiming Iran is somehow still building nuclear weapons, despite the massive inspection regime, when all the real evidence says no. It’s exactly like the run up to the Iraq war and the exact same people are pushing it.
If conservatives fall for another neocon war, conservatism will cease to exist as a major political tendency in the United States after that war goes bad. We saw what happened in 2006-08. A massive backlash against a war supported by most conservatives put the Democrats in power across the government and turned the whole country left. If neocons get their war with Iran, will happen again, but be much more severe.
Letting the current regime remain in control is not in our best interest and hasn’t been since Carter welcomed Khomeini.
Try educating yourself on the Iranian people.
Then read up on the dangerous expansion & worldwide influence of the Iranian regime
pong
Try reading the article.
I’m with you on the neocon/military-industrial complex itching for a war.
But the inspections and monitoring are bogus and I don’t think they are lying about Iran.
Who here is advocating war with Iran? Trump actually just extended the Obama giveaway yesterday, as I understand it.
I imagine you’re with me in not wanting them to build a huge, Saudi-led Sunni/caliphate coalition against Iran.
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