Iran: The Blogosphere Option?

The Adventures of Chester suggests the possibility that we could see the first digital coup in Iran. Here is an excerpt:

What role might we bloggers here in the US play? How can we help?

Putting my old staff officer thinking cap back on, here's some thoughts:

1. If a popular protest of large proportions begins in Iran, the we sympathetic bloggers must do all we can to draw attention to it. Experience shows that when we concentrate our energies, we can either get the mainstream press to look closely at something they otherwise would have skipped, or can alert US readers to the size and scope of major events abroad. We can do some pretty impressive things if we focus our collective attention somewhere.

2. The government of Iran seems to me to be in a much stronger position than that of Syria in Lebanon, or even the outgoing regime in Ukraine. Iran seems much more likely to crush any incipient rebellion -- even a popular, peaceful movement. This week alone, Iran has cut off internet service in areas with protests.

3. The clock is ticking: seems like the upcoming elections on June 17th could be the big moment.

Conclusion: If we, being the blogosphere, are going to have any blogging role in supporting dissidents, protests, and rebellion in Iran, then we need to lay some groundwork now to build some communication channels that will come in handy later. Some ideas:

US-Iranian partner bloggers: Sort of a pen-pal program for bloggers in the US and in Iran. Establishes a communication link. Casual interaction like this could be very useful at building speedy communications over a period of time.

Redundancy in communications links: if the government is going to shut down ISPs, we need some workarounds to get the stories out. Otherwise, the lights will be out here in the blogosphere, and we'll all be prisoners to whatever the networks and NPR toss up there. What about:
-phone cards so folks can call in stories from land lines in Iran? Would the government shut all of those down too?
-setting up networks of bloggers in neighboring countries (Iraq? Afghanistan? the Gulf States? who could receive phone calls from Iranians, then turn their reports into blog posts?
-old school: HAM radio operators?
-if we really want to get a little crazy, sat phones? this is not only expensive, but hard to choose who to get them to, and probably risky for the Iranians to have them . . .

I'm trying to be creative. There's always the old standbys: raising money, and writing letters/emails.

Of course, I'm ignoring language barriers for the moment. And we certainly wouldn't want to do anything that would cause Iranian bloggers to get into hot water. Iran already likes to imprison its bloggers.

I'm spitballing here, folks. What do you think?

This topic deserves much more serious thought. Still I would like to give a few of my initial thoughts, here goes.

I do believe that we could see the "first digital coup" in Iran and the blogosphere could play a major role.

The blogosphere can ensure that the Iranian people get the news they need about what is going on inside of Iran and the international response. Most Iranians don't have much access to news other than that which the regime wants reported. Iran does not have a free press and the internet is filtered to block most news sites that the regime disapproves. This blog is blocked. Still it is nearly impossible for the regime to block all blogs and many inside of Iran make use of proxy servers such as Anonymizer.com to circumvent the filtering of news. Thus, if the blogosphere were to aggressively republish the posts from Iran news blogs, many Iranians would be able to keep up on the events inside of Iran, see the corruption of their leaders, learn about and join in anti-regime demonstrations, and receive encouragement from international support for their efforts.

Just as important, the blogosphere can help awaken the mainstream media about the struggle of Iranians for a new government. The main stream media in Iran suffers from the similar restrictions they experienced in Iraq under Saddam. We will need to encourage them to risk being thrown out of the country by reporting accurately the coming unrest.

Just as in the Ukraine, once the media decided to support the Ukrainian people in opposition to their government, the political leadership came in line with their media. The growing international support emboldened the Ukrainian people to stay the course and eventually led to a new government. Iranians have long pleaded for this support. The blogosphere can demand it.

Another digital source of news is the Iranian expatriate satellite broadcasters. Again, most Iranians don't have access to satellite broadcasts, as they are illegal, but they can provide critical assistance in preparing the Iranian people. Enough people have access to the satellite broadcasts to spread the word and encourage people to maintain discipline until a united "call to the streets." This is important because in the past the regime has taken advantage of the fact that most people don't hear about unrest until it has already been crushed. An advantage of the satellite broadcasters is that they can provide real-time communication with the masses of Iranians as to what is happening and how to respond.

Regarding the need for redundancy in communications links, this will be critical once the unrest begins. The regime is likely to shut down virtually all communications systems other than its own. In the past the regime has shut down phones, the internet and even resorted to shutting off power. Here we will need to find communication means that do not rely on the governments communication infrastructure. We would also need to identify which people inside that should receive these communication tools. This is not an easy task, but can likely be done.

Finally, this will require money and the support of the U.S. government. To that end we will need Congress to hold hearings on (HR.282 and S.333) and send the legislation to the President now! We need the blogosphere to encourage the their readers to write their representatives now! The best chance for a popular uprising in Iran will be in the next few months. Much has to be done immediately, if we want to help. Time is of the essence.

I am prepared to launch a major blogosphere campaign in support of real democracy in Iran. We need to work together on this.