An Asia Times article details what the writer says Swiftboat hackster, and Free Republic contribtor, Jerome Corsi has been up to lately:
Citing a "mission accomplished" in Iraq, President George W Bush told 25,000 soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas: "The establishment of a free Iraq is a watershed event in the global democratic revolution. That success is sending a message from Beirut to Tehran." Tasked by the Bush administration with sending that message from America to Tehran, and "winning hearts and minds" is author and "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" member Jerome Corsi. On May 16, Corsi's NGO, the Iran Freedom Foundation (IFF), inaugurated a 12-day "Iran Freedom Walk" from
Philadelphia's Liberty Bell to Washington, DC.
... This writer asked Corsi about the Iran Freedom Foundation's funding. He said the money came from sales of his book Atomic Iran and from private donations, adding that the IFF would apply for government funding when it became available. That funding may be on the way. On February 11, a promoter of the IFF, Worldnetdaily.com, announced that Corsi had helped Republican Senator Paul [sic]Santorum write the Iran Freedom and Support Act of 2005. The legislation was to authorize $10 million in assistance to pro-democracy NGOs that challenge the Iranian regime. Corsi called that figure a "starting point".
... Such "soft power" opposition activities are escalating. The May 29 New York Times quoted Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, as saying the Bush team was "taking a page from the playbook" of colored revolutions where US-funded pro-democracy NGOs helped nonviolently overthrow noncompliant governments.
...The IFF is also filming a documentary and has begun running TV ads entitled; "An Atomic 9-11: When Evil is Appeased", accusing Iran of plans to detonate a 150 kiloton nuclear bomb in New York City. (When Corsi was reminded that it was the US that began Iran's nuclear program in the 1970s, and that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sat on the board of ABB, which sold North Korea its nuclear reactors in the 1990s, he refused to address the issue.)
The article also highlights some of Corsi's less than kind statements about Islam -- which are all the more ironic if he is indeed involved in this organization, as well as accusations that the IFF's activities were designed in part to disrupt the June elections. Interesting... here's a link to the IFF web site. More follow up on this would be good... |
