ONE WAY or another, Sunday’s Ashura holiday in Iran probably will be a turning point in the struggle between an extremist regime and an increasingly radical opposition.…There is, however, more that could be done to help the Green Movement. Russia and non-Western nations should be pressed to join in condemning the regime’s violence. Sanctions aimed at the Revolutionary Guard and its extensive business and financial network should be accelerated; action must not be delayed by months of haggling at the U.N. Security Council. More should be done, now, to facilitate Iranian use of the Internet for uncensored communication. The State Department continues to drag its feet on using money appropriated by Congress to fund firewall-busting operations and to deny support to groups with a proven record of success, like the Global Internet Freedom Consortium.
The administration has worried excessively that open U.S. support might damage the Green Movement. Now President Obama has publicly taken sides, and the battle inside Iran has reached a critical juncture. It’s time for the United States to do whatever it can, in public and covertly, to help those Iranians fighting for freedom.
This is a good editorial – worth reading entirely. But I disagree with one word in it – "It’s time for the United States to do whatever it can, in public and covertly, to help those Iranians fighting for freedom." I think our covert karma hasn’t been working so well. Let’s keep our cards on the table this time. All our covert efforts do is make other people [justifiably] paranoid and feed their propaganda machine…
Iran is accusing Western countries of fomenting this week’s violent protests in the capital and says it is summoning Britain’s ambassador to file a complaint. In Teheran on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the deadly clashes were the work of a tiny minority.
He accused outside countries, including the US and Britain, of "miscalculating" by siding with anti-government protesters. He did not directly address US President Barack Obama‘s praise of the reformist movement.
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