Reply #7: A Neo-Conservative International Targets Iran "Joe Lieberman [View All]

...keynoted the opening session. In other words, the conference constituted a kind of “Neo-Conservative International” designed to rally support for “dissidents,” primarily from the Islamic world, and give them hope that “regime change” in their countries is possible much as it was in the former Soviet bloc almost 20 years ago...

In addition to Bush himself, other U.S. government officials who participated in the conference included Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes; the new president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and AEI alumnus, Jeffrey Gedmin; Harold Rhode, a Pentagon official and close associate of AEI’s Michael Ledeen who was involved in back-channel talks with Manucher Ghorbanifar about encouraging “regime change” in Iran in 2003; and Joe Wood, identified in the participants’ list as the deputy assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President at the White House...

Other participating dissidents may not have suffered for their beliefs quite as much. Besides Sazegara, who was profiled by Laura Rozen and Jeet Heer in The American Prospect two years ago, the two Iranian representatives were Reza Pahlavi, the Shah’s son and heir, and Amir Abbas Fakhravar, a Perle favourite whose bona fides was questioned in an important article, also by Laura, in Mother Jones last year. On the Syrian front, Homsy was joined by Farid Ghadry, the Washington-based businessman who emigrated from Syria with his family to Lebanon at the age of eight. Long promoted by neo-conservatives, Ghadry is the founder-president of the Reform Party of Syria, and a member of both CPD and the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).


http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=27