In its effort to spur “regime change” in Iran, the Bush administration is dumping millions of dollars into exile groups. But the pickings are slim for groups that could actually stage a coup. How slim? The administration may be casting a wayward glance at a terrorist group formerly allied with Saddam Hussein.
In a recent analysis in The New York Review of Books, Christopher de Bellaigue, who lives in Iran, writes that there are hardly any formidable opponents to the current regime. He selects two of the best possible recipients for our millions, and shows that they would be dubious investments, at best.
One, Reza Pahlavi, is the exiled son of the former Iranian shah, and currently on the U.S. payroll. He has not returned to his home country for 27 years. De Bellaigue calls his understanding of the country “occasionally delusional.” Pahlavi’s reliance to date on U.S. funds “ha[s] not enhanced his reputation” within Iran.
The other, the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran, is currently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. It’s based in Iraq, and was allied with Saddam Hussein. That fact has “turned most Iranians against it,” according to de Bellaigue. Not a first choice for a grant recipient, to be sure.
For now, the administration has pledged $75 million in funds for such groups. That’s about double what Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress got from State and the Defense Intelligence Agency combined, in the leadup to the Iraq war. Peanuts, really — what kind of trouble can a country buy for that kind of money?
