The Iranian uprising was the only anti-Islamist uprising. It was also the only one the Obama administration did not support.
From Washington Examiner:
Documents obtained by The Washington Examiner suggest the Obama administration missed at least one major opportunity to help opposition groups in Iran that has not previously been reported. In November 2009, leaders of the Green party, which had staged a revolt on the streets of Tehran in June of that year, sent a long memo through channels to the Obama administration that some analysts said was a clear call for help.
"So now, at this pivotal point in time, it is up to the countries of the free world to make up their mind," states the opposition memo dated Nov. 30, 2009. "Will they continue on the track of wishful thinking and push every decision to the future until it is too late, or will they reward the brave people of Iran and simultaneously advance the Western interests and world peace."
The eight-page memo describes the current regime under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a "brutal, apocalyptic theocratic dictatorship."
The memo warns that Iran "with its apocalyptic constitution will never give up the atomic bomb, nor will it give up its terror network, because it needs these instruments to maintain its power and enhance its own economic and financial wealth."
The administration claimed in 2009 that the Green party in Iran did not want American help. And the State Department repeated that this week. "Most leaders in the Green movement made clear they did not desire financial or other support from the United States," a State Department senior official said. "As an organic movement, it was concerned that taking outside support would discredit it in the eyes of the Iranian people. We respect that and do not provide financial assistance to any political movement, party or faction in Iran."
But the memo tells a different story, some critics said.
"It's clear that the administration was not being asked to stay away," said Michael Ledeen, a scholar with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies who worked as a senior official for Republican administrations. "The opposition represented the best option for the West."
The Obama administration did not respond to the secret memo, officials said.
But during the same period, the administration was conducting nonofficial discussions with the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that have never been reported. One of those discussions occurred in February 2011, when U.S. and Iranian representatives met just outside Stockholm, Sweden. "Discussions centered on everything from nuclear proliferation to Afghanistan, but the meetings didn't accomplish much," said a former U.S. official with knowledge of the meetings. That ex-official said there were other private meetings with Iranian representatives later in 2011 that were never reported by U.S. media. [...]
