The story:

U.S. Push for Democracy Could Backfire Inside Iran

By Karl Vick and David Finkel

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, March 14, 2006; Page A01

TEHRAN -- Prominent activists inside Iran say President Bush's plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote democracy here is the kind of help they don't need, warning that mere announcement of the U.S. program endangers human rights advocates by tainting them as American agents.

In a case that advocates fear is directly linked to Bush's announcement, the government has jailed two Iranians who traveled outside the country to attend what was billed as a series of workshops on human rights. Two others who attended were interrogated for three days ...

We need a different relationship with Iran that allows the floodgates of economic connectivity to tap into all that unmet ambition trapped within.

I don't see this as the way. Look at how pissed we get whenever foreign governments spend money or seek any sort of influence in our elections. Why do we think it works overseas?

We should be dangling investments, not getting local reformers in trouble by tainting them.