In 2006, the United States congress passed the Iran Freedom and Support Act which directed $10 million towards groups opposed to the Iranian Government.
In 2007, ABC news reported that U.S. president George W. Bush had authorized a $400 million CIA covert operation to destabilize Iran.[131] George W. Bush signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.
In 2008, journalist Seymour M. Hersh reported in The New Yorker that " Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran" and "the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership."[132]
In an article in the U.S. Foreign Policy Journal, the question of whether there was U.S. involvement in fomenting unrest during the election was: "given the record of U.S. interference in the state affairs of Iran and clear policy of regime change, it certainly seems possible, even likely, that the U.S. had a significant role to play in helping to bring about the recent turmoil in an effort to undermine the government of the Islamic Republic." The article also quoted evidence concerning interference by the U.S. based Twitter, asserting that “in terms of involving the huge Iranian diaspora and everyone else with a grudge against Ahmadinejad, it has been very successful.”[133][verification needed][page needed]
