Wondered where you were. Thanks again for your updates.
Iranian Exiles Sow Change Via Satellite
Islamic Government's Foes Tap TV, Web and Phones to Encourage Protests (Excerpted article)
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2003; Page A01
LOS ANGELES -- "Good morning, Iran," says Zia Atabay, a former Iranian pop star who fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. "And good evening, America."
It is 9 a.m. in Tehran, 9 p.m. in Los Angeles. The previous evening, Iranian demonstrators roamed the streets of Tehran, shouting, "Down with the mullahs." From a makeshift television studio halfway around the world, Atabay is urging people to join the protests -- and news reports from Iran suggest the appeal is striking a chord.
"If you don't act now, the regime will be around for a long time," he shouts into the television camera, as a telephone console on his desk flickers with calls from Iran. "So join with the students to bring the regime down. If you believe in freedom and democracy, everyone must be together."
A quarter-century after an exiled Iranian ayatollah named Ruhollah Khomeini undermined the shah of Iran by flooding the country with audiotapes of his fiery sermons, a new generation of Iranian exiles is seeking to emulate his feat. Their goal is to use modern-day communications technology -- radio stations, the Internet, cell phones, and, above all, satellite television -- to bring down Khomeini's successors....
The rebellion on the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities comes at a time when the Bush administration has stepped up its criticism of the country's Islamic rulers for developing nuclear weapons and providing shelter to members of the al Qaeda terrorist network. While U.S. officials have voiced strong rhetorical support for the aspirations of the Iranian democracy movement, they deny exercising any influence over the Los Angeles-based television and radio stations, and have declined to support congressional attempts to fund their operations.
While some administration officials, particularly in the Pentagon, have argued in favor of a more active policy of undermining the Tehran government, others are skeptical of the exile groups' ability to trigger a revolution back home. They point out that the exiles lack a charismatic leader. Their most prominent spokesman is Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah, who lives in Falls Church. In the eyes of many Iranians, however, Pahlavi is tainted by the excesses of his father's rule.
None of the criticism fazes Atabay, who has sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars from his wife's plastic surgery business into National Iranian TV (NITV), and is described by friends as an Iranian mixture of Pat Boone and Jerry Springer. He has barely slept for the past two weeks, since Iranian students began staging nightly demonstrations in Tehran and other cities to demand democracy and an end to Islamic rule. His dream, he said, is to become head of Iranian state television after the fall of the mullahs.
"If the Iranian regime falls, I will have a good business," he laughed. "But if it doesn't fall in the next five months, I will go bankrupt."
According to western news reports from Tehran, the protests snowballed as the result of blanket coverage on NITV and other satellite stations. Using cell phones and telephone credit cards distributed by exiled opposition groups, demonstrators called the Los Angeles-based stations to describe the protests and appeal to their fellow Iranians to join them in the streets. The protesters have used the satellite stations to circumvent a news blackout on their activities in Iran....
One measure of the influence of the Los Angeles-based TV and radio stations has been the angry reaction of the Iranian government. Former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani used one of his Friday prayer sermons to urge Iranians "not to be trapped by the evil television networks that Americans have established."
While the mullahs may be convinced that the satellite stations are tools of the CIA, the broadcasters insist that they have not received a penny from the U.S. government. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has proposed legislation that would channel as much as $50 million to democracy activities in Iran, including TV and radio stations. But leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee oppose the amendment, and few observers expect it to pass this year.
"We need the money desperately, but until now it's just been talk and empty promises," said Fariborz Abbassi, founder of Azadi Television.
With names such as Pars, Channel One and Tapesh, the Los Angeles-based stations are shoestring operations that run as much on enthusiasm as large injections of cash. The communications revolution has made it possible to set up and run a satellite television station, dedicated to overthrowing a foreign government, for relatively small sums.
According to Atabay, the monthly budget for NITV, one of the better-funded stations, is around $140,000: $45,000 for satellite fees, $20,000 for office and studio rental, $40,000 for salaries, and the remainder for incidental expenses, such as cell phone costs. His revenue includes $25,000 in subscriptions from American viewers (Iranians with a satellite dish receive the service free), $27,000 from advertising, and $30,000 from commissions on sales of Iranian carpets.
That leaves a monthly shortfall of around $60,000, which Atabay either has to pay with his own money or raise from rich Iranian Americans eager to support the anti-Islamic street uprising back home.
Fomenting revolution in Iran was the last thing on Atabay's mind when he began NITV in March 2000 as a cultural station aimed at the Iranian American Diaspora. He only discovered six months later that his signal was capable of reaching Iran when a viewer called NITV from the central Iranian city of Isfahan. NITV soon became so popular in Iran -- with news shows, chat programs and "Saturday Night Live"-like spoofs of Iranian mullahs -- that the Iranian authorities began intermittently jamming the signal.
Back in Los Angeles, the station spawned a host of imitators eager to cater to the estimated 7 million Iranians with satellite dishes. (Since many dish owners share their signal with neighbors, the perspective audience for the satellite programs is several times larger.) The stations range in focus from hard-line anti-mullah to pop music.
"We are all part of the movement, each in his own way," said Alireza Amirghassemi, founder of TV Tapesh, which treats its viewers to a heavy diet of singers Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. "When we air a video of a girl with . . . a lot of flesh, we are showing something that is forbidden in Iran."
The most ideological of the stations is Azadi, Persian for "freedom." The son of an Iranian army general, Abbassi has decorated his office with mementos of the former shah, including a large wall tapestry. He describes the shah's son as "Iran's only hope" and broadcasts almost daily interviews with him. He said he has smuggled hundreds of cell phones and thousands of phone cards into Iran, creating a network of supporters around the country.
"You tell me what action you want inside Iran, and I can do it in two hours, with a single phone call," said Abbassi, one of whose favorite phrases is "Money talks."
A recent call-in show on Azadi featured phone interviewers with Iranian demonstrators, urging viewers to get into the streets. "If everyone comes out, the Islamic militants will go away," said a caller from Isfahan. Another caller warned the Iranian government not to use force to break up the demonstrations, "or we will be forced to defend ourselves." The host, a restaurant manager-turned-TV firebrand named Behrooz Souresrafil, called for strikes at gasoline refineries and in the Tehran bazaar.
Such open political incitement is banned at U.S.-funded stations, such as Radio Farda, a 24-hour news and music Persian language station, which went on the air last December. Like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, the Washington-based Radio Farda is obliged by charter to be factual in its reporting....
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
This is an excerpt of the article for the full text go to..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33643-2003Jun25.html?nav=hptop_tb "If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me”
Less than two weeks to July 9th. Looks like things are bubbling over there. All we can do is pray for their safety and pray that the Persian military remembers their obligation to protect the people.
A lot of breaking news...
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DoctorZin