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US Policy on Iran: Where is the Missing Link?

Ghazal Omid - 3/4/2008

A new set of sanctions against Iran has again been recommended to the UN Council. The IRI reacted with an unenforceable threat to the UN. The threat is impotent because Iran’s economy is not thriving but IRI uses media cleverly to portray Iran as otherwise. Article 44 of IRI Assembly allows the IRI to cleverly work around sanctions. The IRI relationship with Arab countries of the Persian Gulf suggests that, behind the scenes, there is “blinking” at the sanctions.

IRI uses the nuclear threat to stay in power. Even though it does not have nuclear capability, the threat is adequate to enable Press TV to cover Barak Obama’s presidential campaign and induce him to declare he will negotiate with Iran. He can use beautiful words to justify Press TV presence but he can’t fool Iranians. We have been fooled for many years. Nothing surprises us anymore.

To understand IRI’s lengthy survival, look at how this regime successfully portrays itself as strong in the eyes of Middle Easterners. To maximize the effect of the money it gives Hamas and Hezbollah, IRI makes sure the people know from where their support comes.

With all the media hype about IRI’s nuclear ambitions, nothing must hurt Ahmandinejad’s pride more than IRI’s failure to build a nuclear plant and reactor capable of manufacturing a nuclear bomb in the near term. Nevertheless, his inflammatory rhetoric has kept the entire world on its toes for the past two years.

Credit must be accorded the IRI which was created from the dreams of Iranian students living and studying in America in the early 1970s. The revolution was a gamble akin to that of young entrepreneurs brainstorming around the kitchen table. Except, those who dreamt the revolution had been watching the US and UK media all their lives and accurately predicted the outcome.

Iranians know that when Khomeini became the face of the IRI, it wasn’t him or his so-called Prophecy that made him Time’s 1979 Man of the Year. It was his follower’s media strategy.

The chaotic IRI has survived American, European and Russian policy makers because it knows how to exploit foreign lack of intelligence and creates propaganda through its own media. Ahmadinejad is not as ignorant about “gays and AIDS” in Iran as he claims. He is well aware that outrage drives the American media and makes shocking comments to keep their attention. If he were not repeatedly putting his foot in his mouth, he wouldn’t be the darling of Associated Press and Google. IRI defies logic by presenting politicians who, in the eyes of America, are uneducated, inexperienced and uncultured. The Western media craves information about Iran, however, attention that should be given to the Iranian people always seems focused on who in the IRI said what. Five minutes air time is simply no match for billions of dollars invested by IRI media inside and outside Iran.

IRI and people like Ahmadinejad personify the image of strength in the eyes of teenagers looking for an idol. Iran makes a mockery of the US and its politicians on Press TV and Al Jazeera by having operating studios in Washington, DC. In a love-hate relationship, experts and journalists, even those who hate anything combined with the word Islam, line up to go on their programs to get attention.

The government of Iran finances thousands of anonymous weblogs and bloggers to preach hatred of the United States and attack the Iranian opposition. From web servers in the US, they impudently bash America right under the noses of US federal agents, evidence that the extra undesignated billion dollars in the Iranian budget doesn’t go only to Hamas and their families.

Credit for IRI longevity in power is owed to its media strategies. Its operation in the United States is possible because a beautifully written 18th century Constitution did not anticipate 21st century terrorism and piracy. Consequently, US laws allow private Iranian entities it to deal with private US entities. Where, in the fight against terrorism, is the logic in permitting these companies to operate in the US and then trying to shut them down in the Persian Gulf? This practice is an affront to America’s dignity, abets terrorists and damages the US welfare and reputation as much as so those that carry a bombs and guns.

Ironically, the friendly cooperation of a Persian Gulf country, Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera while being a major client of former Republican nominee candidate, Rudi Giuliani. Al Jazeera’s public battle with Ayatollah Sistani seems to have been resolved by Ahmadinejad’s visit to Qatar. Al Jazeera programming is not only the model for Iranian media but follows the same path of whom to promote and how.

In the UN, Iran finds the time and energy to repeatedly condemn and threaten Israel. Curiously, it seems incapable of objecting to the Persian Gulf media’s persistence in referring to it as the “Arabian Gulf.” This body of water has been known as the Persian Gulf since the Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 B.C), and is so recognized by the United Nations. Although it is financially beneficial for Arab nations bordering the Persian Gulf to be perceived as being located on the “Arabian Gulf”, it is not necessary for them to re-christen the Persian Gulf. According to United Nations Group of Experts, 23 Session, Vienna, 28 March-4 April 2006, Working Paper 61, page 7, the body of water now universally recognized as the Red Sea was, in ancient documents, referred to as the Arab Sea. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/gegn23wp61.pdf

The government of Iran may well owe its continued existence to friendly help in the time of sanctions from countries such as UAE and Qatar. The IRI needs foreign investors and the Islamic bank but the Iranian people don’t.

Our government is a bully that uses media to demonize Israelis in the eyes of Iranian children by programming such as ‘Palestine: Zahra's Blue Eyes’, a fictional story presented as real on Sahar TV. Iranian children were made to believe it was a real story and mourn for the fictional characters loss of eyesight. Iranians are not ignorant about the IRI record of terror record and have not forgotten their sovereignty. They may tolerate the first amendment when it comes to personal attack but they won’t tolerate a name change to an inch of Iran by any search engine, media or programming ‘typo policy.’

It is important to remember Iranian people are not the IRI. Because of their love for their country, revenge that harms the Iranian people would be a monumental mistake playing right into the hands of the IRI.

Iranians understand freedom of speech and press. They understand that everyone has to make money and that even in a recession the show must go on. But the question is: Where do you draw a line between a network making money bashing US soldiers and attacking US government policies, on US soil, and yet they are protected through freedom of speech and American laws.

Having a serious, savvy media policy is how the IRI has become strong. The appetite of American media and its desire for freedom of news, although perhaps well-intentioned, has created a niche in the US homeland for the IRI to fit right in. Through manipulation of the Voice of America they are beating the US at its own game abroad. When America shows weakness on its own soil, making it look weak elsewhere is child’s play for the IRI.

When Khomeni came to power, the first step the regime took was to take overnight control of Iranian TV stations. Avoiding the mistake of its opposition that the IRI exploited to win, the government of Iran has been vigilant in closing loop holes and insuring that if the major IRIB network is captured or shut down, there will be a reserve of electricity and facilities to maintain back up programming elsewhere for three months. http://www.iribnews.ir

Next, the IRI set up a network of English channels, widespread web logs and complete stations in the United States under NGO(s) names. To make sure that if one outlet goes down, there is always a back up outside the country.

In the summer of 2007, the IRI matched CNN and BBC with their PressTV. http://www.presstv.ir/ The IRI home page lists its address in Tehran. In reality, its studio is in the UK and it rents satellite studios elsewhere, including Washington DC.

Since its launch, the programming of Press TV has been cleverly matched with PBS and C-Span. For example, The American Dream program is a match of the PBS series, “America at a Cross Road.”

Cleverly putting negative material into American journalist’s words has made Press TV a household name among journalists seeking information or ex-experts eager to express their views. Its webpage is much larger than expected of a small network playing with big media names.

If America does not wake up soon to the capabilities of the IRI network in the US, there will be a day when a new generation looks at US history and wonders how we could have been so oblivious.

It is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s vision, its own media and manipulation of foreign media, not its Soviet Union nuclear facilities, that is the secret to IRI strength and lasting grip. In 2008, IRI media and strategies are the real bomb threat.

A powerful foreign media is the missing link in the fight against the IRI.