21
Jun

Obama Cut Funding for Iranian Democracy Program

Posted by: Mike's America @ 4:43 pm in Uncategorized  | 28 views

Whose side is he on?

Obama Erases Pro-Democracy Money for Iran
By: Kenneth R. Timmerman
Newsmax
Friday, June 19, 2009

Newsmax has learned that the 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.

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. Congressional sources told Newsmax they doubted that a Democrat-controlled Congress would add it when the budget comes before a committee next week.

Need I remind readers that Obama recently pledged $900 million in assistance to Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip?

It would be as if President Reagan had terminated support to democracy activists behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980’s and handed it over to the secret police who were enslaving the nations of Eastern Europe.

“I feel terrible and that is why I will go back to the streets”
Iranian student via Twitter

Meanwhile, the violence and bloodshed in Iran continues.

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO

A young woman named Neda, “voice” in Farsi, shot and killed by Iranian government squad.

PhotobucketNeda looks directly into the camera moments before blood gushes from her mouth and nose as she lays dying on the street in Tehran. The eyes seem to ask: “What are you doing?”

What was Obama doing while all this was going on? Wordsmith has the story. He was taking his girls out to the Dairy Godmother ice cream store in Virginia.

Patterico at Hot Air arranged this contrast between what was happening on the streets of Iran with what one member of the White House press corps was reporting on Saturday:

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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11 comments so far

EdGi
 1Reply to this comment  

Good point, Mike – $900 m for Hamas thugs, zip/nada for freedom. Note the $900m actually goes to UN/NGO corruption, with a “fair-share” contribution to the terrorists, while the Iranians dying on the street have no ACORN/foundation/university/party NGO to represent them. In WH chicago-machine land, Hamas can answer the question “Who sent you?” while the freedom Iranians cannot.
The sound of silence from Obi Iwon is deafining. We need Churchill or Reagan and got Chamberlain and Carter.

June 21st, 2009 at 5:40 pm
SiD
 2Reply to this comment  

There’s a saying: when your enemy is killing themselves, DON’T GET IN THE WAY.

The less Obama says about this, the better. The instant he goes public with his support for the protesters is the instant the Iranian government unleashes a bloodbath against the “American Agents” in their midst.

June 21st, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Mike's America
 3Reply to this comment  

@SiD: Why do you people keep repeating the same lines over and over and over? That doesn’t make it so.

How many times do we have to remind you folks that Reagan didn’t shy away from pointing out what a monstrous system the Soviet Union had and how he personally encouraged those who opposed it?

Why is it that leftie simply refuse to learn from history? You don’t defeat tyranny by staying silent.

@adagioforstrings: Thanks Adagio. That has been the other straw man in this crisis. Somehow all those of us who support a more vigorous U.S. response in favor of the freedom activists want to invade or attack Iran. What rubbish.

Did the lefties who push that line also criticize Democrats in the U.S. House who voted unanimously to “condemn” the Iranian government? Why can’t Obama use that word?

June 21st, 2009 at 7:46 pm
jainphx
 4Reply to this comment  

When you start adding up the moves that Obama has made it= Anti Israel, can it be made any plainer his real agenda. I wonder if he learned the hate at the Madrassa he attended.

June 21st, 2009 at 8:13 pm
thebronze
 5Reply to this comment  

Whose side is he on?

We all know the answer to that question.

And it doesn’t begin with Neda Soltan.

June 21st, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Aleric
 6Reply to this comment  

How many more patriotic Iranians will die before the people of Iran take back their government? How many less will die with help from the US or pro democracy organizations? My guess is that the moment they are successful PEBO will step forward and claim it was due to his efforts.

June 22nd, 2009 at 8:53 am
Hard Right
 7Reply to this comment  

Here is a real chance to effect change in Iran and where is the left? Hoping that no one will notice how they REFUSE to support those wanting freedom while they try to twist Conservative support into hate against Muslims.
The left is anti-freedom to their rotten core.

June 22nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
adagioforstrings
 8Reply to this comment  

What did I do to offend the flopping aces gods? Why was my post deleted? I linked to the Weekly Standard. Is that a forbidden publication?

June 22nd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Aye Chihuahua
 9Reply to this comment  

@adagioforstrings:

I checked the SPAM filter for a post from you and didn’t find one.

If you would like to repost it you can.

June 22nd, 2009 at 12:49 pm
adagioforstrings
 10Reply to this comment  

The straw man to which Mike’s America’s above post refers is the logical fallacy false choice presented by sycophant US “reporters” :

“When some twitterers complained that maybe President Obama’s time could be better spent given the crisis in Iran, Knoller responded, “Surprised by the outrage at the ice cream outing. What is it you expect or want the US to do about Iran? Attack? War?”"

Except that my original post was perhaps more emotional & spontaneous & whatnot. I pointed out that Dems, who pride themselves on alleged nuance & subtelty, seem to be reacting in the Manichean manner they imagine Republicans behave:

1) Ignore problem

or

2) Kill problem

with no other possible options in between.

June 22nd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
MataHarley
 11Reply to this comment  

Yo bozo SiD… little time and even less patience with the drug ridden like you.

The “follower of the free world” remains diplomatically silent and castrated… just as it pleases you. The bloodbath in the streets is already going one. Haven’t noticed yet, eh? And oh, BTW… they’ve already been blaming this on the US, despite the big Zero’s dodging of American values.

The enemy is not “killing themselves”. The enemy is the oppressive regime. The victims – those shouting for free and fair elections with oversight, and freedom of speech – are not the enemy. They are the pro-western and pro-democracy youth that is slowly becoming the country’s majority. You stand by and watch a political genocide by a desperate and brutal regime on their population, and call it the enemy “killing themselves”.

You disgust me.

The enemy is slaying the voices calling for basic freedoms. And you…bozo… think our eunuch in chief is marvelous, striking “just the right note” as he is “touched” by their efforts.

“For the first time in my adult life, I’m proud ashamed of my country” under this President.

June 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 pm

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