(Posted by John.)
A few days ago as TAPPED, GaranceFranke-Ruta quoteda TNR report from Iran:
The reform era, Amir explained to me,may not have accomplished all Iranians had hoped it would in terms ofstructural political change. But it had opened a space that had notexisted before. Khatami had made it possible for some 37,000nongovernmental organizations to take root, addressing a panoply ofsocial issues and human rights concerns at a granular level....
But there was a problem. Thegovernment had become convinced that the United States planned tofinance and train these activists to overthrow the Islamic Republic,much as it had done in Serbia and elsewhere. In leaked intelligencereports Amir had seen, the regime had meticulously documented itscase: "They quote the American Enterprise Institute and MichaelLedeen, as well as the statements of President Bush about civilsociety," he told me.
