Radio Free Iraq (or Iza'at al Iraq al Hur) airs from the building of Radio Free Europe in Prague, a public media fully funded by the United States Congress with U.S. taxpayer dollars. How could an Iranian lobby manipulate bureaucracies and legislative bureaus to shut down such a valuable tool, known also as Radio Liberty? How can this be happening precisely as the Islamic State is sweeping through parts of Iraq while the Iranian revolutionary guards are controlling the rest of the country? This never before seen reckless decision to shut down the most relevant weapon in the war of ideas, during the peak of the confrontation with terror-precisely in Iraq, is not just a failure in judgment. It is a national security threat, read as treason on the part of anyone who is part of this conspiracy. Here is why.
The station was launched by the U.S. Congress in agreement with the Clinton administration in 1997 in order to reach out to the oppressed populations of Iraq under Saddam's regime. Its aim was to air a narrative of freedom and democracy towards Iraqi cities and towns across Mesopotamia. It gradually became, as Radio London did during WWII, a beacon of freedom for civil society across the various communities in Iraq, exiled or underground.
After the invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003, Radio Free Iraq (RFI) doubled its efforts and broadcast to stand by the sectors of Iraqi society seeking a pluralistic country with a federal constitution. Hundreds of interviews with human rights activists, women's movements, liberal politicians and youth were conducted, all while backed by a small budget. The team operating in Prague reflected Iraq's multiple communities with Kurds, Sunnis, Shia and Christians working side by side in the small newsroom. RFI is the oldest US-funded broadcast in Arabic language, a vital means to communicate a message counter to that of the Jihadi radicalizing narrative and the Iranian militant discourse. In 2004, the United States launched another audiovisual program for the entire region that included al Hurra TV and radio SAWA. Though handsomely budgeted, these two institutions rapidly adhered to an "apologist" position regarding the confrontation with the radicals. Its first CEO, Muafaq Harb, told al Jazeera that his own taxpayer funded TV station "won't carry any message representing the views of the U.S. government. We will be another news outlet." Al Hurra's standing went against the guidelines of the 9/11 Commission to engage in a war of ideas, and worse, with time, it started to carry the positions of the radicals, airing Hamas' statements and airing live Hassan Nasrallah's Hezbollah messages. The multimillion dollar project, legally under the auspices of the BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governors)-an agency under the U.S. Congress, was indirectly hijacked by the combined efforts of the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood, as argued by several former workers at the outlet and many Middle East democracy NGOs. Radio SAWA, initially dedicated to airing music for the youth, was likewise brought under an Islamist umbrella by its appointed directors. Only Radio Free Iraq remained in line with the guidelines of the U.S. Congress and the desires of the American public.
More particularly, RFI aired the significant debates taking place in the U.S. Congress and defended its positions, especially regarding the fight against extremism, translating the material into Arabic. The broadcast, though small in size, gradually became a leading force of ideas against Jihadism and terrorist ideologies. For years, dissidents, democracy groups and intellectuals were interviewed by RFI, even while shunned by the rest of the US-funded media. The web of authors and NGOs given visibility by this small radio station spread the anti-Jihadist ideas into other Arab social media, becoming one of the sources for what would become a river of aspirations rising in the region. Arabic speakers in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt started to listen to RFI, widening its audience.
More importantly, RFI became the only US-backed-and certainly the only Arabic language-media to focus on the fate of minorities, including Kurds, Assyrians, Yazidis, Copts, Syriacs, Berbers and Sudanese, across the region. A simple review of the extensive archives of RFI would clearly show that this Prague based broadcast delivered, on its own, the single largest battle in defense of minorities in the Middle East.
However, for half a decade both Islamist Salafists and pro-Iranian regime interest groups in Washington waged a relentless campaign to shut down the broadcast. The BBG, heavily lobbied by bureaucrats in the administration, themselves supporters of "normalization" with the Iranian regime, this year issued a decision to eliminate the only radio station still making a difference in the ideological fight against ISIS. The real force behind this decision is the Iranian regime, bothered by RFI's backing of the moderates in Iraq and of the Iranian opposition. This last week, the undersecretary of State Dan Streenbny met with the editors and anchors of RFI in Prague and "ordered" them to stop the broadcast in August. The order came within an agenda developed by the U.S. State Department to stop any attack against the Iranian regime and to prepare the American public and public opinion in the region to accept the forthcoming treaty with Iran's Islamic Republic. During the Cold War, this would have been treason.
The executive branch has no real chain of command authority over the radio station, which is under the auspices of Congress. We call on Congress to maintain a functioning Radio Free Iraq and to summon the bureaucrats who demonstrated overreach to hearings so that the forces behind the decision to shut down RFI can be exposed. Congress has a mandate to support liberty-minded media funded by taxpayers. Beyond the legislative branch, there should be legal action taken to stop this illegal assault by the bureaucracy on behalf of a foreign power against a public service paid for by the American public.
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Atef Harb is the Chairman of the American-Middle East Coalition for Democracyhttp://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/irans-lobby-is-