TEHRAN, Iran: Two Iranian-Americans detained here on national security charges appeared on state television Wednesday in a documentary contending they tried to foment regime change in Iran with the support of the U.S. government.
The TV images followed Iran's announcement this month that fresh evidence had pushed its judiciary to launch more investigations into the cases of Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, accusing them of endangering national security.
Esfandiari described what appeared to be her activities as director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
"The aim of the Iran program was to plan sessions of lectures," she said in the 50-minute prime-time documentary, entitled "Under the Name of Democracy."
She said the lectures were in part geared at forming "networks" of "key figures" within Iran's civil society, and linking them to U.S government officials.
In what appeared to be a montage of quotes to form an incriminating confession, Esfandiari also said she had attended university meetings where U.S. and Israeli officials were present. "Some of them were former intelligence officers," she said.
The scholar said the U.S. government has two interests in these conference: linking up with Iranian lecturers, and creating the conditions for regime change in Iran.
The U.S. has "allocated a budget to create a change in decision-making bodies in Iran," she said. "It means change from the inside."
Ramin Jahanbegloo, a liberal intellectual who was detained last year on similar national security charges, appeared in the program to say that "some intelligence officers were present" at a conference where Esfandiari had invited him.
In previous clips aired Monday, Esfandiari, 67, was seen wearing what appeared to be the traditional black cloak called chador. "I was an element in the velvet revolution in Georgia," she said.
Esfandiari said the Soros Foundation had in the past allocated funds to Georgia to improve various institutions, "including opposition media."
Wednesday's documentary featured video of what was described as pictures of the so-called orange and velvet revolutions that toppled autocratic regimes in Ukraine and Georgia.
Tajbakhsh, who is an urban planning consultant with the New York-based George Soros Open Society Institute, said the foundation's strategy aimed at "network-making" through the funding of Iranian university libraries.
He said there were two conditions for the funds: "the formation of a non-governmental organization, and its participation in the international networks formed by the Soros Foundation."
"The role of the Soros foundation might have been targeting the world of Islam," Tajbakhsh, 45, also said in another video clip aired Monday, reading from a piece of paper.
On Wednesday's program, he said the "long-run aim" of the Soros foundation was to "implement a philosophy of open society" in the countries where it operated.
Both detainees were also seen describing their families' ties to the Shah ruling dynasty, which was toppled in the 1979 revolution that brought Iran's hardline clerics to power.
The documentary went on to show footage subtitled in Farsi of U.S. President George W. Bush saying that "the flame of freedom will one day affect the darkest points of their world."
The two Iranian Americans have been held in near total isolation in Iran's notorious Evin prison since being arrested earlier this year on charges of endangering national security. Two other Iranian-Americans face similar charges.
Family members, colleagues and employers of the four Iranian-Americans deny the allegations. The U.S. government has demanded that they be released.
The Woodrow Wilson Center and the Soros Foundation said Monday that that any "confessions" made by Esfandiari have no legitimacy.
Iran in the past has allegedly forced detainees to incriminate themselves on television.
Most recently in March, British sailors detained by Tehran for allegedly entering Iranian territory, repeatedly appeared in videos during their captivity.
Britain accused Tehran of using the sailors for propaganda by putting them on TV for appearances in which they "admitted" trespassing in Iran's waters. The crew was freed after two weeks in captivity.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack lashed out Wednesday at Tehran for broadcasting the detainees' alleged confessions, which are due to continue in a second episode scheduled Thursday.
Iran's state radio said these reactions showed there was a western plot to overthrow the regime.
"A wide reaction, by the Western media and governments, to expressions of some citizens with dual nationality indicates a calculated conspiracy to topple the system in Iran," state radio said in a commentary after the documentary was aired.