"I think you can buy yourself a free Iran now for $20 million"

[Emit]

"I think you can buy yourself a free Iran now for $20 million," Ledeen added. He also advised the audience on tactics to increase their lobbying influence in Washington.

Some Iranian Americans in the audience were dismayed by Ledeen's talk of the ease with which the oppressive Iranian regime that had driven most of them from their homeland could be overthrown. "It was insulting to every person sitting in that room," said one Iranian American journalist in attendance, who asked that his name not be used. "If it's such an easy thing to overthrow a government, then why have the Iranian millionaires not done it themselves?" Among Iranian Americans, there's both a fascination and a wariness about neoconservatives such as Ledeen - as well as considerable uncertainty about what, if any, role the diaspora itself should play in any democratic revolution in Iran.

~snip~

The Ledeen initiative shows the contradiction of the neoconservative worldview: While seeking to liberate and empower the peoples of the Middle East it also makes them pawns in a historical drama in which they have little voice. The execution of this sort of radical foreign policy vision has often run roughshod over the details, as the aftermath in Iraq has shown. No one is advocating a U.S. invasion of Iran at the moment, although clandestine support to Iranian opposition groups is on the table. For Iranian Americans, the present question is whether their home country should become a sequel to Iraq or if there is a way to democratize Iran without Washington's heavy hand.

Quoted previously in this thread, "Regime Change in Iran": http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=233209#242462


********************************************

Here's what Ledeen is up to these days: http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/09/the_iranian_time_bomb.php

Excerpts:

Topic 1: http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/02/blog_week_in_review_michael_le.php

Ledeen describes evidence of Tehran's financing of involvement in Iraq - al Al-Qaeda in Iran, etc. Bin Laden went to Iran, and his son is there now. Ledeen thinks bin Laden is dead now. Al-Zawahiri in and operating out of Iran -- all top leadership operating out of Iran. He is asked by the interviewer, "As the Czar for American Foreign Policy for Western Civilization..." what would you do? Ledeen details his ideas for regime change, including regime change, funding radio/tv stations in Iran, etc.

Topic 2: (Can't find link yet) Asked again about what he'd do to address Iran. Ledeen's solution? First, threaten regime change in Iran -- have Bush and Rice "publicly announce US support of regime change in Iran..." Second, "...exercise legitimate self defense..." -- target bases.

Topic 3: http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/09/the_iranian_time_bomb.php
Discussion about Iranian Labor leaders who were recently jailed. Advocate that trade unions in the west should help Iranians build up a strike fund.

Here's the link to all: http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/09/the_iranian_time_bomb.php

[annabanana]

1. Ledeen should be. .

gagged. This is one dangerous creep.

[aquart]

2. "Gagged."

You are so much more generous than I.

[enid602]

3. nota bene

$20 million is republican codespreak for $2 trillion. See Iraq war.

[AndyTiedye]

7. The $20 Million is What They Are Trying to Hit Up the Iranian-Americans For

[txaslftist]

4. Liberation? It would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

The only things these neocons want to liberate are a billion barrels of oil and seventy million lives from this mortal coil.

Liberation is such a nice way to say murder, isn't it? It doesn't sound half bad that way.

"We didn't bomb that village and kill children, we liberated it and inflicted collateral damage."

If you think we should bomb Iran, you are a fool or a sadist.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Iran on the cheap. I hear the oil sales can pay for the war, too!

:rofl:

We're a stupid, stupid country.

[DefenseLawyer]

6. Twenty million buys a lot of candy and flowers

to give to their liberators.

[Emit]

8. Ledeen gave testimony @ Sen Comm.'s "Iran's Nuclear Impasse: Next Steps"

U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security

Title: Iran's Nuclear Impasse: Next Steps
Date: 7/20/06
Time (EST): 1:30 PM
Place: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rm. 342
********
The purpose of the hearing is look at the status on Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, European negotiations and the UN Security Council, and the feasibility of further negotiations, democracy promotion, sanctions, and/or military options.

Witnesses Testimony

Panel 1
Amir Abbas Fakhravar , Independent Student Movement
Ilan Berman , American Foreign Policy Council
Michael Ledeen , American Enterprise Institute
Ray Takehy , Council on Foreign Relations
Jim Walsh , Massachusetts Institute of Technology

http://hsgac.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=378

PREPARED TESTIMONY OF DR. MICHAEL A. LEDEEN TO THE SENATE
HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT,
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION, AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

I am most grateful for your kind invitation to discuss American policy toward Iran.
Sadly, recent events, most notably the Iranian-sponsored attacks against Israel from
Lebanon and Gaza--have made this discussion more urgent than ever. But that is what
often happens when successive administrations, of both political parties and of various
political convictions, avoid dealing with a serious problem. It doesn’t go away. Instead,
the problem gets worse and the cost of dealing with it becomes more and more
burdensome. The theocratic tyranny in Tehran is a very serious problem, and it is
becoming graver. It has already cost a great number of American lives, and an even
greater number of innocent Iranians, Iraqis, Israelis, Lebanese, Argentinians and others
around the world have fallen prey to the mullahs. And now they are hell-bent to become
a nuclear power.

The bottom line is that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at war with us for twentyseven
years, and we have yet to respond.

~snip~

They have waged an unholy proxy war against us ever since. They created Hizbollah and
Islamic Jihad, and they support most all the others, from Hamas and al Qaeda to the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine–General Command. Iran’s proxies range
from Shi’ites to Sunnis to Marxists, all cannon fodder for the overriding objective to
dominate or destroy us.

~snip~

The nuclear threat is inseparable from the nature of the regime. If there were a freely
elected, democratic government in Tehran, instead of the self-selecting tyranny of the
mullahs, we would in all likelihood be dealing with a pro-Western country that would be
more interested in good trade and cultural relations than in nuclear warheads.
In other words, it’s all about the regime. Change the regime, and the nuclear question
becomes manageable. Leave the mullahs in place, and the nuclear weapons directly
threaten us and our friends and allies, raising the ante of the terror war they started
twenty-seven years ago.
And still no Western leader at any time in all these years has advocated regime change in
Iran.

~snip~

That leaves us with three courses of action, none of which is automatically exclusive of
the others: sanctions, military strikes, and support for democratic revolution.

~snip~

http://hsgac.senate.gov/_files/072006Ledeen.pdf