The World from The Hill: New ‘Iranium’ film gets lawmakers’ attention

Lawmakers participated in a new film on Tehran’s pursuit of
nuclear weapons intended to get the attention of the White House and
Congress.

The Iranian government, which claims it is expanding its nuclear program for
peaceful energy purposes, has condemned “Iranium” and successfully lobbied
Canada to postpone a showing of it. The Canadian government subsequently
reversed course and showed the 60-minute documentary.

{mosads}Iran declared last week, on the eve of the 32nd anniversary of the
Islamic Revolution, that it had “mastered” nuclear fusion. The film
explicitly ties nuclear dominance to the goals of the 1979 revolution, and points out how the nuclear progression has coincided with threats against Israel and the West.

“Iranium,” which is narrated by Oscar winner Shohreh Aghdashloo, was
screened in the Rayburn House Office Building on Tuesday. Reps. Eliot
Engel (D-N.Y.), Allen West (R-Fla.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) were
in attendance.

Three
legislators participated in the filming of “Iranium”: Senate Minority
Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Reps. Engel and Shelley
Berkley (D-Nev.), both members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“It was really kind of like word of mouth,” first-time director
Alex Traiman told The Hill of how the lawmakers came to be involved in
“Iranium.”

Many lawmakers were invited to participate in the
10-day shoot that included 25 interviews across Washington, but “really
most of it had to do with scheduling” and not a lack of interest,
Traiman said.

The two Democrats and Republican who are featured onscreen are known for drawing attention to the Islamic regime.

“We know that Iran is the leading sponsor and supporter of
terrorism around the world,” Engel says in the film. “We have to
succeed. You know that old, tired adage ‘failure is not an option’?
Failure’s not an option.”

Of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Berkley says, “We talked
for many years that he was just a front and the real power was the
mullahs.

“The reality is this: Whether it’s the mullahs that are
calling the shots or the president of Iran that is calling the shots
their remarks are the same.”

The film comes as the latest refrain on Iran is steered more toward human rights and democracy than nuclear development.

Tehran
praised Egyptians for rising up against Hosni Mubarak’s secular
government, calling it an Islamic awakening and stinging rebuke of the
West.

But whereas some trace the roots of the grass-roots,
social-media-driven revolt in Egypt to the Green Revolution protests
against Ahmadinejad’s 2009 election, Iran quickly made clear this
weekend that no opposition rallies — “riots by seditionists” — would
be permitted, sparking a rebuke from the White House and vows by the
opposition to press forward and protest anyway.

The desire to topple the regime is certainly shared by many on
Capitol Hill as shown through bipartisan efforts in the last Congress.
Yet even with a Republican House majority, legislation dealing with
Iran’s nuclear program has been slow to emerge from the 112th Congress.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced the
Tough and Smart National Security Act last month, which includes the
sense of the Senate that Congress should “confront the nuclear threat
from Iran.” His office didn’t respond to a request to expound upon this.

In the film’s bonus footage posted online, Kyl said Iran has been
facing “relatively low-grade sanctions” from the West in the financial,
trade and banking sectors, but said they should be expanded to the
energy and technology sectors.

“Those kinds of sanctions can directly affect the ability of the
regime to survive and we need to make those even stronger,” he said.

On
Sunday, the head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce said that the
international business community had lent a valuable hand in rendering
sanctions ineffective.

“We could be, I think, much more effective at putting pressure on
the Iranian regime if we had an effective sanction to cut off their
import of refined gas,” Kyl said.

“Iranium” is produced by the nonprofit Clarion Fund, a group that drew headlines shortly before the 2008
presidential election.

The group at the time sent 28 million DVDs of the film
“Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” to swing states to be
tucked into newspapers. A handful of of media outlets refused to carry the insert,
echoing the concerns of some groups that branded the film
“fear-mongering” and “divisive.” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
hosted a screening of “Obsession” on Capitol Hill in 2006 after Cantor’s cousin was killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv.

The Clarion Fund counts former Assistant Secretary of
Defense Frank Gaffney and Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes among
its board members.