Everything You Need to Know about Iran But the Mass Media, the Republicans and Hillary Clinton Wouldn't Tell You

By Col. Ann Wright, TruthOut.org. Posted January 1, 2009.

In another remarkable relationship known as the Iran-Contra affair, funds from Israel's sale to Iran of U.S. weapons in 1985-1986 were used by U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, National Security Adviser Adm. John Poindexter, National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane (Reagan's first national security adviser) and National Security Council staffer Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North to fund the Contras' war against the revolutionary government in Nicaragua. This was in violation of a congressional ban on funding the Contras and took place during the Iraq-Iran war when the United States was also providing military equipment to Iraq. Iranians remember that those convicted for their actions, including Weinberger, Poindexter, McFarlane and North were pardoned by President George H.W. Bush, who was vice president during this period of criminal actions.

Iranian Support for Hamas and Hezbollah

When asked about one of the most contentious points in U.S.-Israeli-Iranian relationships -- the Iranian government's support for Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon -- Iranians pointed out that the United States has consistently and heavily funded Israel during its 62-year existence (the United States provides about $4 billion per year to the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces). Many Iranians suggested that Palestinians who have lived in refugee camps during those 62 years must be provided assistance. Hezbollah began in 1982 as a small militia fighting the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and is now not only a military group but a political organization that won seats in the Lebanese government, has a radio and satellite television station and provides social development and humanitarian assistance for much of southern Lebanon. Iranians strongly felt that Hamas, the elected (and they emphasize elected) government of Gaza, needs financial support, particularly now in current extraordinary humanitarian crisis due to the lengthy Israeli blockade of foods and services into Gaza.

Iraq

On the question of Iraq, many Iranians who lived in the border regions with Iraq during the eight-year war said they personally knew the agony of deaths, injuries, destruction and other costs of war and do not wish that on their former enemies. They talked of the irony of the political outcome of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, in which many Shiite Iraqis, who lived in exile in Iran during President Saddam Hussein's regime and have longstanding ties to the Iranian government, are now in leadership positions in the new U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Afghanistan

Other Iranians reminded us of Iran's help to the United States in 2001 and 2002 in the early days of the U.S. military action in Afghanistan. When we asked about recent U.S. intelligence analysis that indicated Iranian support for the Taliban, we were met with laughs. The Taliban are Sunni Muslims, while Iranians are Shiites. They reminded us that in 1998, the Taliban killed 11 Iranian diplomats and one Iranian journalist at the Iranian consulate in Afghan northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, an incident Iranians have not forgotten. The Iranians consider the Taliban their adversaries and feel that a Taliban government in Afghanistan would make the region more unstable.

Sanctions Are Drying Up Lines of Credit for Businesses

We found that Iranians are proud of their creativity to outwit the 29 years of various sanctions the United States has placed on their country. They say the United States has only isolated itself commercially by its sanctions, as Iran trades with many other nations. Europeans, Chinese, Russians and Indians have had flourishing businesses with Iran. However, the recent international sanctions' clampdown on lines of credit for Iranian banks has had a rippling effect into the business community, where money for loans to Iranian businesses for purchase of materials is drying up. Oil dollars that paid for an incredible amount of imports are drying up with the downturn in oil prices, and the government is beginning to re-evaluate the large subsidies given to the population for food, gasoline and services.

We spoke with four businesswomen (an architect, a chemist, a business consultant and an agricultural professional), who each said of their businesses had been affected negatively with the shrinking of money available for purchase of materials from outside the country and for continuation of current levels of operation or expansion of their businesses.

One of the most incredible stories we heard about the effect of the sanctions was on the alternative-energy sector. Since there is so much rhetoric in the United States about the dangers of the Iranian nuclear program, we decided to see if there were alternative-energy companies in the country. On the aircraft flying into Iran, we met a European businessman who said he would put us in touch with the director of a wind-energy company. He introduced us by telephone to the director of Saba Niroo Co., an Iranian company that makes wind turbines and is the largest regional wind power manufacturer. We met with the director and staff at the state-of-the-art factory in south Tehran. Saba Niroo has installed some of the 143 wind turbines planned for the wind farm in Manjil, Guillan Province, and the 43 wind turbines planned for the Binalood wind farm in Khorasan Razavi Province. They have installed four wind turbines in the Pushkin Pass wind farm in Armenia.

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Ann Wright is a 29-year Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a colonel, and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December 2001, she was on the small team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book Dissent: Voices of Conscience.

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