The following are excerpts from interviews with two U.S. citizens of Iranian origin, academics Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, Dr. Kian Tajbaksh, who were arrested in May 2007 in Iran, and Iranian-Canadian academic Ramin Jahanbaglou, who was arrested in May 2006 in Iran. The interviews were aired on Iranian Channel 1 on July 18 and 19, 2007.
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Haleh Esfandiari: "My name is Haleh Esfandiari. I was born in Iran, and I am 67 years old. I live in America, in Washington D.C. I studied in Austria, and I received my degree in journalism and art history 44 years ago, from the University of Vienna. Two months before the Revolution, I left Iran for London. I stayed there for a year and a half, but did not work. In 1980, I went to America, to Princeton, New Jersey, and I taught Farsi at Princeton University for 14 years. In 1996, I received a research scholarship from the Wilson Center in Washington, in order to complete a book about women in Iran – a book I had begun writing earlier.
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"Towards the end of 1997, the director of the international program at the Wilson Center contacted me, and offered me a part-time position in order to found a Middle East program.
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"What was the purpose of founding an Iranian program in addition to the Middle East program? Whenever a speaker from Iran comes and delivers a speech in a center as important as the Wilson Center, many people come to listen. Who comes to these meetings? Policy shapers. Who are the policy shapers in America? The policy shapers in Washington are people who are active in governmental organizations, people who work in the U.S. Congress, people who are part of the intelligence agencies, people who work for news agencies, and people who are active in foundations and universities as well as in research centers. In other words, there is quite a wide spectrum of policy shapers.
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"What was my role in all of this? My role was to provide information about the [Iranian] speakers. Since I had been out of Iran for so many years, at first, I would consult Iranian experts in Washington, and ask them about the [speakers], or I would ask other Iranian experts throughout the U.S., who work in universities or research centers. There was another method. If, when I was going to Iran, I had a name to check, I would contact the person, and we would become acquainted.
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"For several years, UCLA has been holding a Middle East conference. In recent years, it was held in Athens, in cooperation with the Greek Ministry of Defense. They always insist that anything mentioned in these conferences should not be publicized outside.
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"I participated in this conference twice, because they asked me to form a group on women's issues. From the U.S., there were Mr. Spiegel, the organizer of the conference, and Judith Yaphe, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, who I think used to be a CIA analyst. Other participants in the conference included a senior official from the Greek Ministry of Defense, the former Canadian ambassador to Egypt, somebody from the Swedish Foreign Ministry, and an E.U. representative. From Israel came Mr. David Menashri, who is a professor of Iranian studies at one of their universities, as well as Mr. Yossi Alpher, who was, I believe, an intelligence officer for 10 years, and who is now the editor of the e-zine 'Bitterlemons.'
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"There is a connection between the government, the government officials, and the heads of these research centers. It is like a revolving door. You know these doors which you enter from one side and leave from the other... For instance, the president of the Brookings Institution was deputy secretary of state in the administration of President Clinton. The president of the American Council on Foreign Relations – an extremely important organization – was director of policy planning in the State Department, during the first term of the Bush administration. He is now president of the American Council on Foreign Relations.
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"I have been in Iran for nearly five months now. I have had an opportunity to think about the issues I have discussed with you. I have come to the conclusion that these people – myself included – have become links in a chain created by foundations, research institutes, and universities, that have, in the name of democracy, in the name of the empowerment of women, and in the name of dialogue, created networks in Iran, which should eventually bring about fundamental changes in the Iranian regime. In fact, they should shake the system."
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Yahya Kian Tajbaksh: "My name is Yahya Kian Tajbaksh. I was born in 1961 in Tehran. At the age of seven or eight, I was sent to a boarding school in England.
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"I continued my studies in England until I completed my M.A. In 1984, with my degree in urban planning, I moved to New York, where my mother lived. Until 1996 or 1997, I didn't take any interest in Iranian affairs. I didn't know Farsi. I didn't know how to read or write in Farsi.
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"In my capacity as an advisor, I had to coordinate – especially in projects not within my field of expertise... My job was to coordinate between organizations and individuals in Iran and the offices of the Soros Foundation. I had to translate documents, liaison between people, respond to administrative questions, and so on. In general, I advised the Soros Foundation on political, cultural, and social issues concerning Iran.
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"The fact that the American government allowed the Soros Foundation to have this project on Iran indicates that despite the differences in policy that Mr. Soros and his foundation have with Mr. Bush's Republican Party, they are in agreement with regard to their plans concerning Iran.
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"The long-term goal of the Soros Foundation is to achieve an open society [in Iran]. The way to achieve this is to create a rift between the rulers and the people. Through this rift, those parts of civil society which were formed and strengthened according to the concept of open society will exert pressure on the rulers to change their conduct. This rift can be created like what happened in Georgia, or else this conduct can be altered gradually, through elections and other 'soft' methods. In order to create this rift, either you weaken the central government, or else you strengthen that part of civil society which opposes the government.
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"The investment of the Soros Foundation, after the collapse of the Communist regime in Russia, should be directed towards the Islamic world. This is another indication of the utopian concept and of the long-term strategy of this foundation. Up until now, all the plans and investments of the Soros Foundation were directed at Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, and the republics of the former U.S.S.R. Now, the foundation feels that its work there is almost done, and all its plans have shifted to Islamic countries, like Turkey, the Arabs countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and so on."
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Ramin Jahanbaglou: "My name is Ramin Jahanbaglou, and I am the son of Amir Hossein Jahanbaglou and Khojasteh Kia. I was born in Tehran on 28 December, 1956.
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"Mrs. Esfandiari is the director of the Middle East program of the Woodrow Wilson Center. She is married to Shaul Bakhash, who is of Jewish origin. In Iran before the revolution, he was the editor of the Tehran Times, I think, or Kayhan International. Today, he teaches at George Mason University. Mrs. Esfandiari knew many people in various organizations in America, and consequently, contacts were formed with these people. These people are from the Carnegie Foundation, from the Brookings Institution, and from Congress. The Woodrow Wilson Center receives most of its funding from the U.S. Congress, and therefore, it had connections there.
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"Now, when I look back on all my activities during the years I spent in America until I reached Iran, I realize that my activities served the interests of Iran's enemies, and not the interests of the Iranian people. I regret this very much, and I think I should make amends for this."
