[T]he Obama administration also has zeroed out funding for pro-democracy programs inside Iran from the State Department budget for fiscal 2010, just as protests in Iran are ramping up.You wouldn't want to offend the present regime by broadcasting radio programs into Iran so Iranians could listen to news that wasn't filtered through the Supreme Leader? I guess that such "meddling" might interfere with the chances for a meaningful dialog with Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.
Funding for pro-democracy programs began in 2004, when Congress earmarked $1.5 million of the State Department budget for “educational, humanitarian, and non-governmental organizations and individuals inside Iran to support the advancement of democracy and human rights in Iran.”
The funding ramped up dramatically two years later, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested $75 million for pro-democracy programs. More than half of the $66.1 million Congress finally appropriated went to expand U.S. government-funded Persian language broadcasting services at Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
But no money has been earmarked for such programs in the administration’s fiscal 2010 foreign operations budget request.
Well, at least individuals and the private sector are stepping in.
Google and Facebook have rushed out services in Farsi. Twitter users have changed their home cities to Tehran to provide cover for Internet users there. Others have configured their computers to serve as relay points to bypass Iranian censorship.
In the aftermath of the disputed Iranian election, Internet companies and individuals around the world have stepped in to help Iranians communicate and organize....
"Even if we can't help directly, this is a way of helping indirectly," said Ian Souter, 24, an unemployed computer animator in Lafayette, Ind.
He and other U.S. Web users set up ways for Iranians to access the Internet using Tor, a service that allows people use the Internet anonymously.
Even the file-sharing site Pirate Bay, best known for its run-ins with the law over copyright infringement, has jumped in with the launch of a network that helps Iranians surf anonymously.
Still, it was difficult to tell just how much of this information was accessible to people inside Iran. The government has restricted communications channels, and cell phone service has been spotty. Many sites were blocked and service has been much slower than normal. Even the use of proxies has grown more difficult as the government finds them, and the country's Revolutionary Guard has sternly warned people against posting objectionable content on Web sites.
Craig Labovitz, chief scientist at Chelmsford, Mass.-based Arbor Networks Inc., said Iran's telecommunications monopoly has cut back the speed of its Internet connections to the outside world, presumably to increase its ability to filter the data.
The filters appear to target some common ways of evading censorship, including the use of proxies, which allow Iranians to mask sites they are trying to view by having traffic relayed through an innocuous-looking server outside the country. Flash-based video, the kind used by YouTube, is also being stifled, Labovitz said.
One Tehran resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation, said in an e-mail Friday the government has "filtered Facebook but we use proxy."
"We will protest until they change the results. We hope hope hope," the resident wrote.
5 comments:
Obama: Hope for me, but not for thee.
How nice of Obama to help out the Islamic dictators that way.
If you know his past it is not surprising.
Do you suppose Obama and Axlerod are taking some notes from the regime for our 2010 and 2012 elections?
Current circumstances in Iran could be our best HOPE® for a peaceful regime CHANGE® in Tehran. I HOPE® that the Obama Administration has the foresight to act in support of the Iranians that are trying to reclaim their election.
Maybe Rahm Emanuel, one who would "never let a serious crisis go to waste", can impress upon the President that this could be a once in a lifetime chance to clear the way for peaceful reform for the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
This is not a time to sit on the fence!
Congress could put the money back in the budget or simply make an emergency appropriation. I doubt that under the present circumstances that Pres Obama would sequester the funds.
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